Valenti writes: "The worst kinds of threats and harassment no longer just come from strangers on the internet who mask their identity lest they be outed for abusive behavior. The more powerful perpetrators are doing so in plain sight, on cable TV, and with no shame."
Laura Ingraham. (photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Image)
25 March 19
ast week, Fox News host Laura Ingraham ran a segment about new hires at NYU’s journalism school, two adjuncts who will teach classes on feminist journalism and reporting on the far right, respectively. Ingraham called them “little journo terrorists,” and she described NYU’s decisions to hire them to teach a single course “terroristic tactics.”
One of the women targeted, Talia Lavin, told the Daily Beast that she had received death threats and thousands of harassing messages. She tweeted, “I am 29. I have no full-time job. I am teaching a single course, for $7k, as an adjunct. This is insane. And irresponsible. It is incitement. It is not okay.”
We cannot go on like this. As a feminist writer, I’ve been on the receiving end of serious harassment for more than a decade. I’ve left my house with a one-year-old in tow after a threat against my life. I have FBI agents in my contacts, and have taken dozens of security precautions that I can’t write about lest I make it easier for harassers to bypass them. And in perhaps the worst moment of my life, I’ve had to explain to the administrators at my daughter’s school that my then-five-year-old had a rape and death threat made against her.
Which is to say: None of this is new to me.
Still, I am more afraid than I ever have been—for all of us. Because the worst kinds of threats and harassment no longer just come from strangers on the internet who mask their identity lest they be outed for abusive behavior. The more powerful perpetrators are doing so in plain sight, on cable TV, and with no shame.
America has watched the conservative media harass and malign teenage victims of a mass shooting, for example, with little apparent regard for their safety or emotional well-being. (This week two student survivors died by suicide, with one family citing PTSD and “survivor’s guilt” among the causes.)
Fox News, a particular source of vitriol, has made targeted harassment a regular part of their programming—with a specific penchant for putting women in the crosshairs.
Host Jeanine Pirro suggested recently that Rep. Ilhan Omar, already a target of serious threats and harassment, may not be loyal to the Constitution because she wears a hijab—an act that resulted in Pirro’s suspension by Fox. A few days ago, Mike Huckabee said on the network that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was “recruited,” “like the Manchurian candidate.” And when Christine Blasey Ford testified about Brett Kavanaugh’s alleged attack, a network panelist called her a “very disturbed woman” who was “dumb as a post.” Blasey Ford has been unable to return to her job and has moved multiple times to avoid threats and harassment.
And if it sounds extreme to write that I fear conservative media rhetoric could result in serious physical harm—or worse—consider that it has happened before.
When a shooter murdered nine people in a Colorado Planned Parenthood in 2015, he yelled two words: “baby parts.” For months before the attack, which took the lives of a police officer and a stay-at-home mom of two, among others, conservative pundits and politicians had been claiming that Planned Parenthood was selling fetal remains. The term they used over and over again? Baby parts.
The people making false claims about Planned Parenthood and using other violent rhetoric knew their words had power. Three months before the shooting, in fact, the FBI warned in an intelligence assessment report that threats would continue to increase against abortion providers, clinic staff, and their centers.
Even in the wake of attacks like the one in Colorado, conservative media has shown no sign of caring that their violent rhetoric can incite violent action. For the last month, we’ve watched as the GOP tries to make “infanticide” a rallying cry on the right, falsely claiming that abortion providers are killing born babies or performing “post-birth abortions.”
When a shooter strikes again, this time yelling about infanticide, will Fox News or online conservative outlets finally think it’s time to stop?
Last week, Trump-supporter Cesar A. Sayoc Jr. plead guilty to mailing bombs to the president’s critics. The van Sayoc was driving when he was arrested was reportedly adorned with stickers touting right-wing media conspiracies and signs that railed against CNN and “dishonest media.” His crimes didn’t happen in a vacuum.
It’s not enough to criticize Fox News or conservative media for being too cozy with Donald Trump or a little lazy with the facts. They are putting real people—with real families and real lives—in danger every day. Young women should be able to teach classes. New congresswomen should be able to do their jobs. And feminist writers should be able to speak their opinions without fear of someone hurting them.
