Steven Lee Myers, the aptly titled “misinformation and disinformation” writer for The New York Times, published a piece on Tuesday blaming conservatives for the anarchy in Los Angeles. He warns readers not to believe their eyes because, he claims, many social media posts about the rioting have “misleading” photos “rehashing old conspiracy theories and expressing support for President Trump’s actions.”
To bolster his point, he found a so-called expert, Darren L. Linvill, a researcher at the Clemson University Media Forensics Hub, which receives funding from the left-leaning John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
Linvill told Myers that “conservatives online were ‘building up the riots in a performative way’ to help bolster Mr. Trump’s claims that Los Angeles had been taken over by ‘violent, insurrectionist mobs.’” Linvill argued that as conservatives call attention to the rioting with social media posts, more protesters will show up, making the posts “a bit self-fulfilling.”
In Myers’ misinformation world, social media posts depicting lawless looting, flaming vehicles, and violence against law enforcement are “intended to stoke outrage toward immigrants and political leaders, principally Democrats.”
After all, he reports, the multiple nights of violence in sprawling Los Angeles, with its 503 square miles of city, only happened in a teeny-weeny portion of the city.
“Many [social media] posts created the false impression that the entire city was engulfed in violence,” Myers wrote, “when the clashes were limited to only a small part.”
Apparently, unless the entire city is ablaze, the violence is not worth mentioning. This minimizes the severity of the crimes.
Like many propaganda outlets, Myers repeated the misinformation that the riots are a response to “immigrant raids” in Los Angeles. The phrase “immigrant raids” evokes visions of ICE agents going neighborhood by neighborhood searching for every illegal alien. That is not what happened.
ICE Deputy Director Tom Homan said the agency was serving three criminal warrants “based on a large criminal conspiracy ICE had been investigating,” related to a company that allegedly “underdeclared over $80 million in goods” as part of a large international money laundering operation.
The propaganda press intentionally uses the incorrect language, “immigrant raids.” It is a scare tactic that brings people to the streets.
Myers claimed that fake posts of pallets of bricks “[fit] into the narrative that protests against government policies are somehow inauthentic,” as if this somehow proved that the riots were grassroots initiatives.
Just like a seedy election campaign, the left is trying to convince the public that its minority view is actually what the majority of people support. That is why it is important to them to have the public believe individuals organically gathered to reject Trump’s agenda and that the rioters are definitely not paid to be there.
But rioters came too prepared — some beating drums, some with preprinted signs, some with safety masks — to believe they arrived without organization.
Meyers blamed everyone but the rioters for their actions. He blamed Trump for sending in federal forces to restore peace. He blamed social media accounts connected to Russia. He blamed actor James Woods, claiming that Woods “has become known for spreading conspiracy theories.” Myers bemoaned Woods using “his account on X to rail against the state’s elected officials, especially Mr. Newsom, a Democrat.”
So what? Woods had the right to say what he thinks. It’s not like he sets expectations by calling himself a misinformation reporter.
Myers conceded that there are many photos of protesters throwing rocks and other items, but some of the photos were fake, he said, again attempting to minimize the violence.
Anyone with social media savvy knows old photos — and now, AI images — circulate on social media. That does not negate the real riot harm. Who cares about fake photos? What about the rocks being thrown at people and property?
Yet Meyers is not alone; the press is spinning misinformation faster than a rioter spinning donuts in the streets.
If Covid shutdowns, years of lawfare, and out-of-control border crossings have taught us anything, it is that it’s time to turn firmly away from propaganda. Trust your gut, believe your own eyes, and understand we are already in a struggle with invaders intentionally allowed into the United States to destabilize this great nation. The propaganda press has been greasing the wheels of this invasion for years.
Beth Brelje is an elections correspondent for The Federalist. She is an award-winning investigative journalist with decades of media experience.
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