Leading media figures from CNN on Sunday criticized a protester from the left-wing anti-fascist group antifa who cursed at a reporter and swatted away his camera at a rally in Charlottesville, Va.
Cal Perry, an NBC News reporter, captured on video a antifa protester shouting at him “Fuck you, snitch ass news bitch. Fuck you,” before swatting away Perry’s camera.
“Fu** you, snitch ass news bitch. Fu** you”. #Charlotsville pic.twitter.com/JPl3480FUG
— Cal Perry (@CalNBC) August 12, 2018
The incident occurred during a protest Saturday night to recognize the one-year anniversary of the deadly white nationalist “Unite the Right” rally in the city of Charlottesville.
“Unacceptable behavior by a protester in C’Ville last night — violently swatting away a journalist’s camera — I asked @CalNBC for more info, and he deferred to his tweets, which described the protest as ‘almost exclusively Antifa at that point,'” Brian Stelter, senior media correspondent at CNN, wrote in a tweet Sunday.
Unacceptable behavior by a protester in C’Ville last night — violently swatting away a journalist’s camera — I asked @CalNBC for more info, and he deferred to his tweets, which described the protest as “almost exclusively Antifa at that point.” https://t.co/BJ2t5HGceZ
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) August 12, 2018
Jake Tapper, host of CNN’s “State of the Union,” also condemned the actions of the antifa protester, and criticized the group at-large. “Totally unacceptable and not at all out of the norm for antifa,” Tapper wrote on Twitter.
Totally unacceptable and not at all out of the norm for antifa https://t.co/LvqyZByugX
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) August 12, 2018
Both tweets from Stelter and Tapper were retweeted by Perry.
Last year in Charlottesville, members of white supremacy hate groups marched across the University of Virginia campus, shouting anti-Semitic and racist slogans, and fighting with counterprotesters, some from antifa, leaving dozens injured and killing one counter protester.
Antifa members are also expected to appear in Washington, D.C., on Sunday as part of a counter-protest against the “Unite the Right 2” white supremacist rally planned in Lafayette Park.
