One Story – FBI Director Wray's Testimony on Antifa – But Three Different Takes By Media

FBI Director Christopher Wray appeared Thursday before the House Homeland Security Committee, where he testified on the biggest domestic threats facing the U.S. The analysis of his responses by the media highlights the division and agendas driving major outlets in today’s political climate.

One point in particular from Wray’s hearing emphasizing this division is the media reaction to his testimony about the possible domestic threat posed by Antifa, or the anti-fascist movement.

Among more conservative outlets, Antifa has been one of the usual suspect for violence when Black Lives Matter protests over the summer turned chaotic. President Donald Trump often points to Antifa as one of the nation's biggest threats and regularly goes after the movement during interviews, at rallies, or on Twitter.

Fox News is one of the biggest media proponents of that point of view, often linking Antifa to the ongoing protests in Portland. Fox continued to push this narrative with its own analysis of Wray’s testimony, headlined: “FBI Director Wray: 'Antifa is a real thing,' FBI has cases against people identifying with movement.”

The story advocated how Antifa is a true threat and not a fictional threat promoted by conservative media outlets and prominent Republicans in Washington D.C.

“FBI Director Chris Wray made clear that Antifa is not a made-up, right-wing conspiracy theory and that the FBI has cases involving those connected to it,” Fox News’ article said.

By contrast, liberal outlet Mediate appeared to take a more dismissive stance toward Antifa and the threat it poses. Mediate echoed arguments by other left-leaning outlikes like MSNBC, which typically try to brush-off Antifa as either a conspiracy by conservatives and vocal Trump supporters or as a unorganized movement that doesn’t pose the same threat as right-wing groups like the Proud Boys or Portland Prayer.

The headline of Mediate’s piece highlights its point of view view: “FBI Director Chris Wray Rejects Antifa as ‘Biggest Threat’ to US, Labels It as ‘Ideology’ Not an Organization.”

Mediate's analysis went on to say: “FBI Director Christopher Wray rejected the notion that Antifa is the 'biggest threat' to the United States when he testified before the House Homeland Security Committee — instead describing it as “more of an ideology or a movement than an organization.”

Some outlets still try to take a more unbiased approach, such as NPR, which focused on the core of what Wray was saying during his Thursday testimony.

Its headline: “Greatest Domestic Threat Is Lone Actors Self-Radicalizing Online, Wray Says." That's a short and succinct outline of Wray’s testimony.

Wray’s actual thoughts on Antifa and the threat radicalized Americans pose are not as simple as either the Fox or Mediate articles presented. The FBI director explained the FBI’s process when asked by Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss, whether left- or right-wing groups posed the greatest domestic threat.

“We assess that the greatest threat to the homeland, to us here domestically, is not one organization, certainly not one ideology, but rather lone actors largely self-radicalized online who pursue soft targets using readily accessible weapons,” Wray said. “Those include both domestic violent extremists of a variety of sorts, as well as homegrown violent extremists who are motivated by foreign jihadist type sources.”

“These people — both categories, the domestic violent extremists and the homegrown violent extremists — they don’t have a lot of people they’re working with. They don’t take a lot of planning and preparation, they can go from radicalization to mobilization in weeks if not days.”

Thompson then asked about the potential threat of Antifa.

“We don’t really think of threats in terms of left and right at the FBI. We’re focused on the violence, not the ideology,” Wray said in response. “Our domestic violent extremists include everything from racially motivated violent extremists – all the way to anti-government, anti-authority violent extremists.”

“We look at Antifa as more of an ideology or a movement than an organization.”

He clarified there have been “small nodes” the FBI has identified as potential threats and are currently investigating, but otherwise there is no mass network of communication.

“To be clear we do have quite a number of properly predicated domestic terrorism investigations into violent anarchists, extremists, any number of whom self-identify with the Antifa movement, and that’s part of this broader group of domestic violence extremists I’m talking about, but it’s just one part of it.”

Wray ended by saying “when ideology leads someone to commit criminal acts, the FBI will not hesitate to take appropriate action.”