The ADL released it’s report titled “Antisemitic Targeting of Journalists During the 2016 Presidential Campaign” which essentially defuses the exaggerated rhetoric from explicitly anti-Trump operatives like Ben Shapiro, Bethany Mandel and other Jewish conservative political pundits. Here’s what you need to know about the report. I’ll focus quite a bit on Ben Shapiro, who the report lists as the #1 target. I’ll also mention Bethany Mandel, who made the top 10 list despite her minuscule social media footprint, and explain why she received so many tweeted attacks.
1. Most damning: The incredibly small number of accounts actually sending antisemitic tweets.
One of the more damning of the report’s findings is that only “1,600 Twitter accounts generated 68% of the anti-Semitic tweets targeting journalists … confirming that these were persistent attacks on journalists by a relatively small cohort of Twitter users.” (Twitter allows unlimited multiple accounts, so it’s possible that the number of actual persons responsible is an even smaller number.) I’m not surprised, because pundits claiming harassment suspiciously never proffer statistics describing the tweets they receive (the sole exception was Bethany Mandel, who described “thousands” of source accounts). Their unwillingness to gather or share data with their audiences is sure sign that they’re hiding something. The ADL report confirms that conservative pundits know they’re exaggerating the scope of antisemitism among Trump supporters.
Specific examples of conservative pundits’ over-the-top rhetoric the report undermines are easy to find. For example, consider the rhetoric Ben Shapiro advanced in a National Review piece, “Trump’s Anti-Semitic Supporters” wherein Shapiro cries, “This isn’t a majority of Trump supporters, obviously. It’s not even a large minority. But there is a significant core of Trump support that not only traffics in anti-Semitism but celebrates it — and god-worships Trump as the leader of an anti-Jewish movement.” And yet, the ADL report suggests this “significant core” is actually profoundly insignificant. The inference is that Shapiro was making allegations without any data whatsoever backing his claim of a “significant core.” He was either guessing, or lying — his readers can decide for themselves. In any case, it’s clear that Shapiro’s views and opinions simply can’t be trusted on the issue of Trump supporters’ demographics, views and beliefs.
Bethany Mandel also repeatedly smeared Trump supporters generally based on only relatively few tweets, for example:
“This is what Trump supporters look like,” she says. Never mind that photos and videos from Trump’s rallies reveal that among his millions of supporters there are many Jews, Blacks, Hispanics and other minorities. The ADL report clearly proves that Mandel was wrong and reckless to use the tweets she received as a proxy for Trump supporters.
Indeed, the report explicitly states: “We cannot conclude that Mr. Trump’s extensive use of Twitter ‘encouraged‘”’ these attacks. Mr. Trump’s use of
Twitter as a key communications tool is notable, but the platform is used extensively by all candidates. … As stated, there is no known causal relationship between Mr. Trump or his campaign and the wave of anti-Semitic attacks against journalists.” This last admonishment against blaming Trump supporters generally for the actions of an extreme minority is what millennials like to call a “mic drop.”
2. ADL’s report fails to mention despicable “chumming the waters” by Shapiro and others.
Fishermen “chum the waters” by dumping bloodied, wounded fish into waters hoping to attract large fish to catch. Shapiro and Mandel extensively engaged in this practice on Twitter. For example, one of Shapiro’s more infamous tweets:
Is it any surprise then that Shapiro ranked highest in the ADL’s ranking of Jewish journalists receiving antisemitic tweets? Through this tweet and others, and especially through his practice of awarding “trophies” to his attackers by retweeting the most despicable, Shapiro was literally begging to be attacked.
Bethany Mandel engaged in similar aggressive retweeting campaigns, essentially amplifying her attackers’ messages to thousands of her followers (many Jewish), i.e. doing her attackers’ bidding for them! The impact of this is clear when one considers that Mandel made the ADL’s top ten list of Jewish pundits receiving antisemitic tweets, yet she has roughly only 5% of the number of followers on Twitter as Shapiro. Mandel made up for her relatively small social networking footprint by aggressively retweeting and literally inviting her attackers:
In today’s day and age, readers understand how social media metrics drive the incomes of political pundits. Readers can draw their own conclusions as to why Shapiro and Mandel so fervently invited antisemitic attacks upon themselves on social media.
3. Why did conservative pundits embrace and promote this wildly exaggerated narrative, conflating the scope of the antisemitic tweet issue?
Why, you ask, would conservative pundits want to conflate the antisemitic tweet issue? Isn’t Trump the Republican candidate? What gives?
To understand, you need to know two things. First, that most of the targeted pundits are opposed to Trump’s candidacy and circumstantial evidence suggests that some are even indirectly compensated for opposing Trump. Many proudly stamp themselves with the #NeverTrump hashtag, suggesting they will actually vote for Hillary or stay home on Election Day. In a piece titled “The Campaign to Toxify Donald Trump Among Jews” Joel Pollack insightful calls the game what it is: a political ruse. Second, that millennial conservative pundits like Shapiro and Mandel adhere to so-called “Social Justice Warrior” (SJW) tactics, successfully developed by the progressive left, which emphasize sensational emotional appeals over facts, logic and reason. Shapiro once laid out the game plan: “This is what the left does: they pick a target, freeze it, personalize it and polarize it. They use individual cases as a baton to wield against groups they hate.” Shapiro exhibits this blunt instrument tactic in a post to his own Daily Wire titled, “The Anti-Semites Are Out In Force For Trump,” wherein he “proves” his point by revealing a handful of cherry-picked antisemitic tweets.
Shapiro and other conservative pundits so gleefully re-tweeted cherry-picked antisemitic tweets because they learned that tactic from the left and have no ethical restraints against using the same tactics to smear and shame millions of innocent Trump supporters. All’s fair in the world of modern conservative punditry, which at its core is driven by social media metrics, not “conservative principles.” Shame on them.
4. Jewish conservatives’ behavior is inconsistent with their typical reaction to antisemitism from the right. Why?
I wrote about this hypocrisy before(here), my summarized observation generally being that, for example, pundits like Shapiro and Mandel openly support the NRA, and are nowhere to be found when Jews supporting gun control are threatened by antisemites within the NRA (likely the same people threatening Jewish Trump-opposition), or how they’ve passively acquiesced to Ted Nugent’s membership on the Board of Directors. Why isn’t the same level of hysteria warranted?
