The Shame of Portland Media

An international columnist dares to use the word 'Antifa.'

Douglas Murray is one of the leading voices in international journalism—pieces running, sometimes back-to-back, in publications as varied as the London Telegraph, the New York Post, The Spectator; author of seven books (“War on the West,” “The Madness of Crowds,” etc.), a YouTube channel, writer on the Unherd website, multiple posts on X/Twitter…a veritable writing machine. And, as Malcolm Gladwell learned, not a guy you’d want to debate.

Recently, Mr. Murray had a few things to say about Portland. It ran as an op-ed in the New York Post (yah-yah-yah; it’s a Murdoch paper, but it’s also the reason we know anything about Hunter Biden) under the headline…

If you confine your reading to local media, you wouldn’t have seen cheers…or, for that matter, much of anything.

It was merely one of the most consequential civil trials in town: the lawsuit pitting formerly-local journalist Andy Ngo against two Antifa thugs.

Mr. Ngo, it should be remembered, was one of the few—perhaps the only—street-level journalists reporting on the thuggery that owned Portland’s streets for two years—and that still rears its balaclava-clad head.

As Murray reported…

Specifically he videoed Antifa’s violent activities and posted them online. He would also systematically gather the mug-shots of Antifa rioters who were actually arrested. Most looked like the Addams family on meth.

In return, Mr. Ngo was repeatedly attacked by the black shirts and, at one point, chased into a trendy downtown hotel by a mob that was out to kill him. In another instance, he suffered a brain hemorrhage and other injuries requiring hospitalization while reporting.

As Murray added…

Apart from the usual radical-left slogans, the most common piece of graffiti in Portland — often in huge red letters — was “Kill Andy Ngo.”

No Portland authorities made any move to protect Mr. Ngo; no Portland media spoke up in his defense; no arrests of his assailants were ever made and, as far as we can remember, no Portland pol has ever uttered the word, “Antifa.”

Mr. Ngo soldiered on—long past the point that most other journalists would have opted for self-preservation. He wrote a bestselling book about Antifa which, as he found, is far more organized and dangerous than kids having fun with anarchy...

Since no one in authority—most of all our gift from George Soros, DA Mike Schmidt—showed the slightest interest in hauling Antifa members into court, as Murray reports…

Ngo decided to try to take a civil case, with crowd-funding support. Applications to bring the Rose City Antifa itself to trial were denied by the judge, who only allowed Ngo to bring two of his attackers to trial. It was left to Ngo and a crowdfunding campaign to do what the authorities failed to do.

After a search of three different search engines, this was the only local story that mentioned the case. It ran on the Oregonian’s website, under a bizarre headline…

…and was written—with a delicate hand—by Tribune refugee Zane Sparling. Here’s his tippy-toe lede…

A conservative writer who was repeatedly beaten while covering Portland protests is betting that a jury will hold his ideological opponents accountable for the attacks as his civil trial opened Tuesday.

…and, aside from the typical Oregonian mini-smear—”conservative”—the word, Antifa isn’t mentioned until the tenth graf (and then not capitalized)…

Ngo rose to prominence in 2019 after he began livestreaming summertime protests that quickly devolved into street combat between dueling groups of politically opposed brawlers — typically pitting anti-fascists known as antifa against local elements of far-right groups.

Murray had a somewhat different take…

…the trial was a disgrace. The two activists, Elizabeth Renee Richter and John Hacker, were recognizable from evidence including their own social media boasts. Hacker even admitted part of one attack on Ngo.

But Antifa had a 10-person legal team to Ngo’s two. And thanks to the actions of the judge there was a near media blackout.

…none of which was deemed worthy of coverage in any local media—and since when can a lowly local judge tell the media what it can and can’t print? Dudgeon would have soared.

As far as the search engines reported, only the ultra-liberal (two can play that game) Mercury and the (well, what are they?) Oregonian bothered to note the conclusion of the trial.

Only another ‘stack, Theresa Griffin Kennedy’s Daily Blink bothered to fill in the blanks of the unreal occurrences in Circuit Judge Chanpone Sinlapasai’s chaotic courtroom…

Because of intimidation tactics coming from an immoral and corrupt militant “Antifa” attorney, Michelle Burrows and others working within secret “Antifa” cells in Portland, Oregon, a jury ruled against Ngo in a lawsuit against two known “Antifa” radicals with long criminal histories of violence, instability and unemployment.

Here’s how the O handled it under a speak-no-evil headline…

…penned by Mr. Sparling…

After a yearslong legal battle, the Multnomah County jury of six men and six women deliberated for about five hours before delivering a verdict Tuesday clearing activists John Hacker and Elizabeth Richter of all civil liability.

“Activists.”

And here was Mr. Sparling’s one and only use of the word that must not be uttered, topping his first (and only) coverage by dropping it into the 12th graf…

The lawsuit itself had been amended significantly since Ngo first filed it in 2020 — eventually mostly focusing on a May 28 protest that Ngo attended while dressed incognito in hopes of writing a new chapter for the paperback version of his book on Portland’s anti-fascist movement, often known as antifa.

And that was it.

Murray saw things differently…

…the evidence Ngo’s team were allowed to present was damning. But here’s a thing. The judge and jury were local. And you’d have to be a fairly brave local in Portland to sit on a jury that convicted two Antifa thugs. Antifa were roaming the halls of the courthouse, hoping to intimidate the claimant and others throughout.

In her closing statement, the attorney for the Antifa activists actually told the jury that she would now be wearing an “I am Antifa” shirt. And she told the jurors that she would remember all of their faces.

…which has never been mentioned, at least not within city limits.

Here’s Murray’s sign-off…

The whole thing is rotten. Portland is now a city that is not just lawless but one in which justice can’t take place. Even when private citizens do the job of the authorities and try to make it happen. I hope Ngo appeals. And I hope a massive crowdfunding appeal can help him. He hasn’t given up so far, and I hope he doesn’t now.

Meantime I hope that someday all the people who allowed this situation to arise in an American city hang their heads in shame.

Memo to Douglas Murray: Not a chance.