‘You Don’t Air That Shit in First Place’
Jason Kessler is a leader of the “alt-right,” and one of the organizers of last year’s deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville (photo above). Despite his protestations, he is at least a white nationalist. And he has been called a “white supremacist.” And worse.
Kessler successfully managed to organize a second Unite the Right rally, which will be held in Washington, D.C. this weekend.
For reasons unknown National Public Radio, NPR, decided to interview Kessler, and aired that interview Friday morning, just 24 hours before the start of Unite the Right 2. That rally is expected to attract countless white supremacists, white nationalists, anti-gay activists and homophobes, anti-immigrant activists, anti-Muslim activists, Holocaust deniers, misogynists, conspiracy theorists, and many other members of the right and far right, including, possibly, neo-Nazis.
On his National Park Service application, which was approved, and issued Thursday, Kessler notes that former KKK grand wizard and noted white supremacist David Duke will be among the speakers.
NCRM will not link to the NPR interview, nor will we amplify most of what Kessler said. He deserves as little coverage as possible. But NPR’s decision to normalize a key figure in the white nationalist and white supremacist movement is indefensible, and deserves to be criticized.
NPR interviewed Kessler one-on-one. There was no anti-extremism expert involved, no one to counter his claims. And by conducting the interview as if Kessler’s views are just as valid and acceptable as any other, NPR has contributed to normalizing his unacceptable extremism.
One comment Kessler made that we will publish: his defense as to why he claims to not be a white supremacist or white nationalist: “I consider myself a civil and human rights advocate focusing on the underrepresented Caucasian demographic.”
Poison by any other name is still poison.
NPR also allowed him to “literally rank the races,” as Splinter reported.
Understandably, many on social media are furious that NPR would hand its platform, one that is highly-respected by most, to a white nationalist.
Image by Anthony Crider via Flickr and a CC license