Apologies in advance for the use of so many tweets in this diary but this is a story about how Twitter is being used to spread unverified ‘reports’ generated by right-wing agitators like Breitbart News.

Yesterday, Beto O’Rourke held an event with roughly 200 students and staff at Benedict College, an HBCU in South Carolina. Joel Pollak of Breitbart News has been following Beto throughout his trip in South Carolina, and it would seem that right-wing activists have been planted to ask questions that they believe would embarrass the candidate, as attested to in this diary and this diary. In every case the attempt has failed.

Pollak immediately posted a story at 4 pm yesterday (Aug 27) entitled “Beto O’Rourke Ejects Breitbart News Reporter From Event at Historically Black College” on Breitbart’s website in which he had the following to say:

Several minutes after the 3:00 p.m. event had been scheduled to begin, a staff member in a Beto O’Rourke t-shirt approached this reporter and asked what outlet I represented. Upon reading the press credential on my chest, he put a hand on my shoulder and said, cheerfully, “Oh, hey. All right.” A few minutes later, before the event began, a campus police officer approached this reporter and motioned for me to accompany him to the back of the room, adding that I should bring any property I had with me. In the hallway outside, he informed me that I was to leave.

What we know thus far is that the event at Benedict College was not listed on the campaign’s website, as this account on Twitter shows:

x It was an HBCU event for students. I donÃ¢ÂÂt think it was public, because it was not listed on the website in the same way that the rallies and town halls are. pic.twitter.com/VH19ac8vcJ Ã¢ÂÂ TeaWaldÃ°ÂÂÂ¸ (@TeaWald) August 28, 2019

It was not, in other words, a public event, as some of the other stops in South Carolina were.

We also know from an eyewitness that the press was granted access to the candidate and his staff BEFORE and AFTER the forum but the actual talk seems to have been restricted to students and staff at the college.

What followed, though, can only be described as a SHITSTORM in which members of the press retweeted the claim of a known agitator like Pollak of Breitbart News without bothering to verify it or ask the campaign for a comment.

First came the Washington Post’s Josh Dawsey with a retweet of the Breitbart story at 7:05 pm yesterday (Aug 27):

x Beto O'Rourke Ejects Breitbart News Reporter from Event https://t.co/BloqALsmXR Ã¢ÂÂ Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) August 28, 2019

Then came Jonathan Swan of Axios with an identical retweet at 7:06.

x Beto OÃ¢ÂÂRourke Ejects Breitbart News Reporter from Event at Historically Black College https://t.co/uwQVPNBMZo via @BreitbartNews Ã¢ÂÂ Jonathan Swan (@jonathanvswan) August 27, 2019

Meanwhile Noah Shachtman of Daily Beast got in on the act with a tweet chastising the O’Rourke campaign, also at 7:05 pm:

x If this account is accurate, it's a pretty weak move by Team Beto. https://t.co/zdjtvLcLvN Ã¢ÂÂ Noah Shachtman (@NoahShachtman) August 27, 2019

Elizabeth William and Matthew Rosenberg came on board this morning with angry tweets DENOUNCING the campaign:

x This is WRONG and hypocritical for any candidate, or come

to think of it, any American https://t.co/leXWobEiZe Ã¢ÂÂ Elizabeth Williamson (@NYTLiz) August 28, 2019

x No matter what you think of Breitbart, this is wrong. No campaign should be deciding who gets to cover its events. An event is either open to the press, or it is not. Freedom of the press is not a conditional right Ã¢ÂÂ it applies to every American regardless of their views. https://t.co/BHFxslRxjL Ã¢ÂÂ Matthew Rosenberg (@AllMattNYT) August 28, 2019

For good measure Sopan Deb joined the party because no one should miss an opportunity for group-think:

x I really don't get why campaigns do this. There's no benefit to it. A. you shouldn't. B. You have to deal with the inevitable headlines that come out of it. https://t.co/kZtLwEa2L2 Ã¢ÂÂ Sopan Deb (@SopanDeb) August 28, 2019

As of the posting of this diary, not one reporter has investigated the truth of Pollak’s claims and none has, as far as I know, reached out to the O’Rourke campaign for comment.

What we are witnessing is nothing short of a PROJECT VERITAS operation in progress. A story is introduced into the media bloodstream and in lieu of investigating or verifying the report of a known propaganda outfit like Breitbart News The Washington Post and The New York Times, among other outlets, casually repeat it to flog a campaign.

Whether you support Beto O’Rourke or another campaign is immaterial at the moment. This is a fight against operatives using the press to generate controvery and tear down democracy.

Leah McElrath summarizes what’s at stake:

x IF YOU ALL KEEP PRETENDING PROPAGANDISTS AND PROVOCATEURS ARE ACTUAL JOURNALISTS, YOU ARE LEADING US DOWN THE ROAD TO LOSING OF OUR FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS ALTOGETHER.



You are KILLING our democracy.

STOP it. https://t.co/TDyk2IO0LW Ã¢ÂÂ Leah McElrath Ã°ÂÂÂ³Ã¯Â¸ÂÃ¢ÂÂÃ°ÂÂÂ (@leahmcelrath) August 28, 2019

Donate or attend one of Beto’s events.

***IMPORTANT UPDATE***

Since I wrote this post, the campaign has confirmed that they asked Pollak to leave on the grounds that Breitbart News’ history of posting racist and homophobic stories was a problem at a historically black college.

x In response to @BreitbartNews ejection, @BetoORourke spox @aleighacavalier says campaign 'believes in the right to a free press and works hard to ensure the campaign reflects that,' while 'Breitbart News walks the line between being news and a perpetrator of hate speech' ... pic.twitter.com/kjWGmv0Edb Ã¢ÂÂ David Siders (@davidsiders) August 28, 2019

It should also be noted that although Breitbart has “News” in its name, it’s a propaganda and agit-prop outfit whose sole raison d’etre seems to be trying to take down liberals. Breitbart lackeys were present at O’Rourke’s College of Charleston and Florence, SC events and tried to hog the mike.

Aliza Worthington had this to say about Breitbart at Crooks and Liars:

It is a propaganda outlet. It promotes white supremacy and white nationalism. It spews racist hate. And one of its leading ministers of propaganda showed up to "cover" an event at an Historically Black College, wherein most people in the audience were young Black students. Pollak is a white guy from South Africa who loves Apartheid. He's a fierce defender of child rapist, Roy Moore. Pollack is still running around calling the truth a hoax surrounding Trump knob-sucking the Charlottesville Nazis with his "very fine people" comment. In fact, he did this to O'Rourke pretty recently. O'Rourke did the right thing. Black students have enough to navigate. They have enough trauma. They are entitled to hear from a candidate without being subjected to questioning from an outlet that spews racist, misogynistic, xenophobic, dangerous, insidious hate that would no doubt come out of this @sshole's mouth.

Last — but not least — the event at Benedict College was a private event, closed to the public. Here’s how it was announced in SCNow online:

The Florence stop will be the last one in a two-day trip for O’Rourke. He’s also scheduled to hold a town hall in Charleston. There also are two events, one in Johns Island and one at Columbia’s Benedict College, that are not open to the general public on his itinerary.

The last I checked, a campaign has a right to invite whomever it wants to an event that is “not open to the general public.” The events in Charleston and Florence, SC were open to the press and Breitbart was in attendance at both.