I have written about the rank dishonesty of Vox.com “journalist” Aaron Rupar so many times that I’ve lost count.
Rupar has been caught so often tweeting out deceptive video clips of Republicans and Fox News media figures where he purposely takes them out of context to make it sound like they said something stupid or troubling, that it almost seems redundant to keep writing about it. But this time a law enforcement officer landed in Rupar’s crosshairs, and the result was a viral smear and a wave of media “reports” about something the officer said that was taken out of context – by Rupar, most prominently, but also others.
The official Rupar targeted was Cherokee County Sheriff’s Captain Jay Baker, who spoke to reporters Wednesday and answered questions surrounding the horrific mass shootings that happened at Atlanta-area massage parlors earlier this week. Eight people were murdered and one was injured, after 21-year-old Robert Aaron Long opened fire in three separate incidents late Tuesday afternoon.
Six of the 8 murder victims were of Asian descent, which has led to rampant speculation on the left and in the media that the killings were racially motivated. Investigators say Long told them what motivated him was an alleged sex addiction.
During the presser, Baker was asked if Long “understood the gravity” of what he had done. Baker said he had spoken to investigators, and they told him that they “got the impression” that Long understood the gravity of what he’d done and that he was “pretty much fed up and had kinda been at the end of his rope, and yesterday was a really bad day for him and this is what he did what he did.”
Baker’s comments start at around the 15:30 mark of this clip. Watch:
Full video, btw (h/t @deplorable_diva)https://t.co/8E7lGqZlD0
— Cathy Young (@CathyYoung63) March 18, 2021
Looking at it contextually, it was clear Baker was summarizing what he’d been told by the investigators about what the suspect told them. But what Rupar did was boil Baker’s comments down to a 20-second clip, and in his summary of what Baker said he made it sound like Baker was making excuses for what Long did, instead of noting Baker was recapping what he’d been told by investigators:
“Yesterday was a really bad day for him and this is what he did” — a law enforcement official explains Robert Aaron Long’s decision to kill 8 people in a strange manner pic.twitter.com/u0zFcqjbNK
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 17, 2021
Rupar’s dishonest characterization of what Baker said went viral. As of this writing, it has close to 50,000 RTs, with nearly 40,000 of them being quote RTs where people added comments. The story of Baker’s comments – which are out of context – went so viral that between that and an alleged “racist” Facebook post of his where he supposedly talked about the coronavirus being “imported from China,” he’s now off the case and his bosses are reevaluating his employment.
As per the norm when he’s been caught, Rupar had the nerve to pretend he did nothing wrong when he was called out:
huh? how is the summary misrepresented? all the context needed to understand what he’s saying is in the clip
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 18, 2021
Twitter users who caught his smear and contrasted it with the actual video were understandably outraged that he was allowed to get away with it, on a social media platform that purports to want to curb the spread of fake news:
Wow. If you watch the full video, it’s clear the police spokesperson is summarizing the suspect’s explanation of his own actions to investigators. Vox journalist Aaron Rupar framed this to make it sound like the cop was making excuses for him. Remarkable dishonesty. https://t.co/fxHaEWoMnp
— Robby Soave (@robbysoave) March 19, 2021
One of the most viral videos in the country on the day of the Atlanta shootings was one completely doctored in meaning through dishonest editing by @atrupar — something he has been caught doing so many times. See for yourself. How many did this deceive? https://t.co/vg5IQwz3I7
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) March 19, 2021
No liberal journalist in corporate media will object to the serial distortions and disinformation from @atrupar‘s doctored videos because he has the right ideology.
He routinely deceives millions, but they’ll only denounce 4Chan teenagers & Facebook boomers who spread memes.
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) March 19, 2021
Aaron Rupar posted a 20 second clip of an Atlanta police captain, claiming he was making excuses for the shooter.
It went viral with 10.4 million views.
Full context of the video shows that the officer was explaining what the shooter was telling investigators, not excusing him pic.twitter.com/nx5ouCF6Gs
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) March 19, 2021
Millions of people saw that clip from the Vox dunce and assumed what he was saying was accurate. None of them bothered to watch the full version and understand that he was lying.
He does this every single day with absolutely no repercussions.
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) March 19, 2021
Also, as I’ve previously reported, what makes all of this especially troubling is that Rupar is frequently retweeted by supposedly “objective” journalists like the WaPo’s Glenn Kessler and others who don’t bother to take a closer look at his clips and his characterizations of them before they share his work. As a result, countless instances of “stories” that were literally fake news spread like wildfire across the Internet, as happened with his tweet about Baker.
I have seen numerous accounts that were either suspended or banned for much less than what Rupar did here. If this doesn’t meet Twitter’s criteria for spreading harmful and inaccurate information, what does??
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