A pair of CNN journalists have been attacked online by a “troll army” after the neo-Nazi site DailyStormer re-published their story, titled, “An avalanche of hate: How a Montana mom became the target of a neo-Nazi troll storm.”
Correspondent Sara Sidner and producer Mallory Simon reported earlier this week about a Jewish woman who confronted the mother of white supremacist leader Richard Spencer. They story detailed a woman who fears for her life because the DailyStormer launched a campaign of terror against her — and now the CNN reporters are receiving similar messages.
Andrew Anglin, who founded the DailyStormer, refers to his followers as a “troll army,” according to Sidner. He posted the CNN story on his site and didn’t specifically tell his followers to attack the journalists behind it — but he didn’t exactly discourage them, either.
Sadly, the incident has quickly made experts out of the CNN journalists in the world of online harassment.
“We’ve gotten a couple of things but they never go as far as a death threat. For example, they will not say, ‘I am going to kill you,'” Sidner told TheWrap. “They will say, ‘I hope you kill yourself.'”
Sidner said other messages have been similar, but they never use rhetoric that can be reported to the FBI.
“We know that they discuss what would get, for example, the FBI involved. Where there is an actual death threat that is illegal,” Sidner said. “I hope you die, I hope you crawl into an oven… those are things that both Mallory and I have read that were directed to us.”
Sidner said they “know where the line is” and typically don’t cross it.
Anglin did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.
The story that has caused the backlash was about Tanya Gersh, who is Jewish, and has been regularly attacked online since she contacted tenants of a building owned Richard Spencer’s mother, Sherry. Gersh initially said she wanted Sherry Spencer to distance herself from the views of her son to calm tensions in their small town — but that didn’t go over so well.
Gersh is now suing Anglin for “inflicting emotional distress,” “invasion of privacy” and “intimidation” because he published her contact information after Spencer’s mother accused her of making a threat in an online blog post, according to CNN.
Sherry Spencer wouldn’t speak to CNN for their report but Simon and Sidner were fascinated by the situation when they discovered it while researching hate crimes and decided to dig deeper.
“She was in fear of almost anyone she met. Her old way of life had been washed away. She was now in an America full of hate. It was an America where racism and bigotry have powerful online platforms,” Sidner wrote of Gersh in the CNN piece that was shared by DailyStormer.
“There was this sense from Tanya Gersh, through tears, who talked about having bags packed and sitting in the dark, wanting to run away,” Sidner told TheWrap. “The thing that struck me, on the phone with her, was when she said, ‘I thought 1930s Germany was a thing of the past.'”
Sidner made it clear that she doesn’t blame President Trump for the hatred, despite the fact that DailyStormer endorses Trump and the president has an ongoing feud with CNN.
“It is unfair to pin it all on one thing. We have a combination of tings happening and social media is a huge component. What we’re seeing is kind of the dark side of humanity come out in some of these posts,” Sidner said. “I have no idea how you stop something like this because people like being anonymous and nasty.”
16 'Morning Joe' Trump Insults That Got Personal, From 'Schmuck' to 'Jackass' (Photos)
President Trump recently received a ton of criticism for sending out a pair of tweets about MSNBC's "Morning Joe" hosts “Psycho” Joe Scarborough and “low I.Q. Crazy” Mika Brzezinski.
“She was bleeding badly from a face-lift,” he wrote of an encounter with Brzezinski he claims he had in Florida weeks before his inauguration.
TheWrap
While nothing can justify the president mocking a woman's appearance, the "Morning Joe" duo have been attacking Trump for months.
Check out 16 recent times the MSNBC stars said something that Trump could have taken personally.
MSNBC
They compared him to Kim Jong-un
“This is unprecedented, to have a president who behaves this way,” Brzezinski said on June 23. “It does feel like a developing dictatorship."
Guest Donny Deutsch unloaded on Trump's appearance
Deutsch defended Brzezinski on June 30 following Donald Trump’s attacks on her, calling the president “physically disgusting to look at.”
Deutsch continued: “Enough is enough with this disgusting vulgar man and to talk about women that way, and the irony is you physically look like you do, beyond the stupidity of it. You are a pig."
Brzezinski said what Bill Clinton was to sex, Trump is to "decency"
"What Bill Clinton did to the issue of sex to an entire generation, I believe this president is doing on issues of decency, on issues of conspiracy theories, on issues of fake news," Brzezinski said in June 15. "I think it's that simple and we're desensitized if we even argue it."
"If the president seems delusional about his accomplishments, you can point no further than that room," Brzezinski said in June 14. "There are no real men in the inner circle of the White House... none at all."
After Trump staffers praised the president during a cabinet meeting, Scarborough said on June 13 it “was the most sick, shameful, pathetic, un-American, autocratic display.”
He continued: “I will tell you if I were ever in meeting and people did that to me, I would say shut up and I would fire you.”
Brzezinski called President Trump a “narcissist” and said it’s possible that he’s “mentally ill in a way” on June 8.
She continued: “I said it months ago… he’s not well. At the very least he’s not well and he’s so narcissistic that he does not believe the rules apply to him."
“Donald Trump, again, being a schmuck, thinking he can buy people’s integrity by inviting them over to the White House and wowing them,” Scarborough said on June 7 when discussing a dinner party at the White House. “That’s how he thinks. I know that first hand.”
Scarborough said Trump “is not a sane, rational human being”
“If any CEO, in a Fortune 500 company, was behaving this way, he or she would be removed immediately… they would take him out, he would have psychiatric evaluation and he would no longer be the CEO,” Scarborough said on June 6.
Scarborough blasted “President Bannon” on June 2 for the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Accord on climate change — using the trolling phrase seven times in half a minute.
“Time magazine was right: Steve Bannon is the president of the United States,” the MSNBC host said, before launching into a 30-second monologue referencing “President Bannon” repeatedly.
The morning show played audio of Press Secretary Sean Spicer telling reporters during an off-camera gaggle that Trump’s “covfefe” tweet wasn’t a typo and Americans shouldn’t be concerned.
Brzezinski set up her fiancé, “You said… it’s like a kid pooping their pants and then saying, ‘I meant to do that.”
“Well yes. It would be like somebody pooping their pants and then people looking at it and saying ‘oh that’s modern art don’t you understand,'” Scarborough said on June 1.
Scarborough called Trump a “bumbling dope” on May 11 because of the way a meeting with Russia’s Foreign Minister was handled.
“Looking at the front pages of the newspapers here… The Wall Street Journal also, you look, of course, at pictures. The shameful picture where the United States press corps was kept out but the Russians were allowed in,” Scarborough said while holding up the paper.
Scarborough slammed Trump on March 31, saying that Russians are lucky that POTUS is “stupid enough” to pick up their fake news.
“We’re obsessed on how the Russians have hacked, how the Russians have tried to impact this, how the Russians have tried to impact the White House,” Scarborough said. “We’re really just playing into their hands.”
MSNBC stars Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski attack the president on a daily basis
President Trump recently received a ton of criticism for sending out a pair of tweets about MSNBC's "Morning Joe" hosts “Psycho” Joe Scarborough and “low I.Q. Crazy” Mika Brzezinski.
“She was bleeding badly from a face-lift,” he wrote of an encounter with Brzezinski he claims he had in Florida weeks before his inauguration.