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Trump-loving news network sets off alarm bells with Soviet-style reporting from Arizona election audit
June 18, 2021
The rabidly pro-Donald Trump One America News Network has been getting special access at the Arizona "audit" of last year's election, and one of its reporters is helping to fund the effort, much to the astonishment of other journalists and media ethics experts.
OAN correspondent and former Trump administration official Christina Bobb had no background in journalism before joining the right-wing network, where she has pushed election conspiracies and is raising money for out-of-state Republicans to check out the audit, reported the Washington Post.
"The entire country knows it will unravel the Democrats' schemes from 2020," Bobb told viewers on her OAN opinion show shortly after the audit began in April. "Joe Biden is not a legitimate president."
Bobb is reportedly in contact with Trump about the operation, which Arizona's secretary of state says has been riddled with irregularities, and the OAN correspondent's role there is puzzling to other journalists.
"[It] is more reflective of the old Soviet state and autocratic regimes than it is a functioning democracy," David Bodney, a media attorney who helped news outlets sue to gain more access there. "If state government engages in an activity so central to the functioning of democracy as an election recount, then the public has a right to know how that recount is happening, what it involves and who is doing it, as seen not through state media but a wide range of news organizations."
Bobb, who has enjoyed greater access at the ballot site than other reporters, serves as CEO of the Voices and Votes group that has raised at least $150,000 for the audit, which helped pay for Republicans from other states observe the process so they might do the same back home.
"We were hearing a lot of reports about OAN getting more access than others," said Chris Kline, president of the Arizona Broadcasters Association. "We would see their reporter on the convention floor when we were told we weren't allowed there, or they would have live access."
Local journalists were required to volunteer for six-house shifts, which newsrooms prohibit as a conflict of interest, in exchange for access, and reporters were required to turn over their cameras, phones, pens and notepads before entering, although organizers eventually relented and allowed a "pool" of three outside journalists to sit 10 rows above the audit floor.
"The purpose of getting access is to help ensure public trust," Kline said. "If there's not an independent group of people observing what's happening, how can anybody, regardless of political affiliation, expect to have confidence in those results?"
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Anti-mask Atlanta nurse out of a job after TikTok supercut exposes his racist and homophobic rants
June 18, 2021
A nurse who formerly worked at Baptist Health in Montgomery, Alabama has been fired after a critic of his compiled a supercut of his racist and homophobic TikTok videos where he also questioned whether masks slowed the transmission of COVID-19.
According to AL.com, Nathan Coy Thompson, who posted videos as @conservativecoy1776, on TikTok is no longer employed by Baptist Health and his account shut down after a woman who goes by @rxOrcist collected a smattering of his ugly comments that questioned COVID-19 protocols, made ugly comments about using the n-word and made fun of people who are financially struggling.
In her prelude to the clips of Thompson, @rxOrcist -- who also goes by Savannah -- explained, "I warned you that we were going to hold you accountable," Savannah said, "You see, while you've gotten super comfortable spreading COVID disinformation, racism, homophobia, transphobia, Islamophobia, literally all the phobias you've hit in your videos, you forgot the part where freedom of speech does not mean freedom from consequences."
The report goes on to note that a spokesperson for Baptist Health states Thompson -- who was wearing scrubs and his badge in some of the videos -- is no longer employed by them and has been gone since April.
AL.com, also noted that, "At the time of writing, Thompson's name and license number could not be found in the Alabama Board of Nursing's license database. All of his social media accounts appear to have been taken down."
You can see the video below:
@rx0rcist Good job, mom.❤️ #accountability #healthcare #science #MACscaraface #fyp #covid #vaccinate
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The U.S. Dept. of Justice has released another video of insurrectionist activity at the U.S. Capitol on January 6. This one appears to show a man in a camouflage jacket shoving and then punching a federal officer in the face, hitting his face-shield.
"Prosecutors say this is NJ gym owner Scott Fairlamb (in the camo jacket) shoving a cop (at 0:28), and then punching him in the face (at 0:31). Fairlamb pleaded not guilty," CNN's Marshall Cohen reports (tweet and video below.)
There is a DOJ Criminal Complaint for Fairlamb filed January 21 that lists offenses including "Certain Acts During Civil Disorder," "Assaulting a Federal Officer," "Carrying a Dangerous Weapon," and "Violent Entry and Disorderly Conduct on Capitol Grounds."
As the video shows, a handful of D.C. Metropolitan Police officers waded into a veritable sea of agitated Trump supporters.
The man, allegedly Fairlamb, seems to pick a fight with one of the cops, then another, leading very quickly to him grabbing an officer, shoving him, then punching him "in the head," as the Complaint asserts.
The complaint also says there is video of him saying, "What Patriots do? We fuckin' disarm them and then we storm fuckin' the Capitol."
The Washington Post has a "detention decision" online that says "he must be detained," meaning kept in jail before trial.
Watch:
NEW: The DOJ just released more videos from 1/6 after CNN and other outlets sued for their release. Prosecutors say this is NJ gym owner Scott Fairlamb (in the camo jacket) shoving a cop (at 0:28), and then punching him in the face (at 0:31). Fairlamb pleaded not guilty. pic.twitter.com/VqrLSEBjvH
— Marshall Cohen (@MarshallCohen) June 18, 2021
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