The claim that four sitting Republican senators are also secret Klansmen originated with data dump from a person who goes by the name "Amped Attacks." (AP Photo/Danny Johnston)
Media buys into claim that senators are Klansmen
By T. Becket Adams (@becketadams) • 11/8/15 1:00 PM
Several reporters and media groups displayed questionable news judgment this week when they gave credence to a person on the Internet who claimed to have discovered that there are four card-carrying members of the Ku Klux Klan currently serving in the United States Senate.
"Ku Klux Klan: Data revealing alleged members of the KKK, including mayors and senators, released," the Huffington Post said in a headline this week.
The claim that a handful of lawmakers nationwide, including a Democratic Kentucky mayor and four sitting Republican senators, are also secret Klansmen originated with data dump from a person who goes by the name "Amped Attacks."
The anonymous Internet person told TechCrunch he "worked for nine days to gather and verify all the information that was gathered [from KKK websites and databases] before its release."
"I went through many emails that [were] signed up with these sites and a few of the emails that sparked my interest was the ones of the politicians in question there would be no reason for them to be signed up on any KKK website unless they supported it or was involved in it," he added.
At the same time that he supposedly outed four GOP senators, the infamous hacking group Anonymous was also preparing to release its own data on the personal identities of more than 1,000 Klansmen.
But while "Amped Attacks" never claimed to be associated with the hacking group, and there is nothing to corroborate his claim that there are secret KKK members in Congress, reporters apparently assumed that the two were connected and they ran with the story.
International Business Times reported this week that, "Anonymous #OpKKK: Four U.S. senators 'associated with Ku Klux Klan' revealed by hacktivists."
"'HoodsOff 2015' in full effect as Anonymous publishes the names of KKK members — including four sitting U.S. senators," Salon declared in one headline.
The Root reported elsewhere that the, "hacktivist group Anonymous has published the email addresses and phone numbers of supposed Ku Klux Klan members, including the names of four senators and five city mayors."
Several journalists shared a U.S. Uncut article on social media titled, "Prominent U.S. senators and mayors outed as members of the KKK by Anonymous."
As it turns out, none of these reports are accurate. Anonymous had nothing to do with listing the four senators as members of the Klan, and there's nothing to prove that "Amped Attacks" list of Klansmen lawmakers, which includes a Roman Catholic and an openly gay person, is in any way legitimate.
Anonymous distanced itself this week from the supposed KKK senate data dump, announcing on social media that it was in no way involved in publishing that information. And when the hacking group eventually did put its KKK information online, there was nothing in there regarding U.S. senators.
"A quick search of [the official Anonymous] data dump included no shocking public officials, unlike a list released last weekend that named a number of politicians," Vice reported, adding that several experts confirmed that "Amped Attacks" release was a fake.
In short, an unverified, random person on the Internet took several journalists for a ride.
Not everyone in the press reacted the same to "Amped Attacks" data dump, though, as a few reporters harshly criticized newsrooms that fell for the story.
"[L]ess savory [outlets] seemed honestly sold on the notion that four Republican senators are members of the KKK," Mediaite's Alex Griswold wrote this week.
"[T]here's been literally no evidence presented to suggest that any of the men are actually Klanmen. But just thinking about what was being suggested for more than two seconds should have been enough to kill these rumors immediately," he added.
He argued that even if Anonymous hadn't distanced itself from the "Amped Attacks" dump, several obvious red flags should've caught reporters' attention.
"To begin with, the Ku Klux Klan is pathetically small compared to the overall white male population of the South and Midwest. Membership estimates range from 3,000 to 5,000. The likelihood that four separate members of the Klan could find their way into the ranks of the Senate are astronomically low, even if you assume that your average Klansman is coherent enough to manage it (spoilers: they aren't)," Griswold wrote.
"Or to put another way, you'd have to believe that a Klansman is roughly 10,000 times more likely to become a senator than the average American. Or, put even another way, there are supposedly twice as many Klansmen as Princeton grads in the Senate. Now that's an alumni network," he added.
He concluded by arguing that there were only two possibilities to this story.
Either four "separate individuals managed to conceal their membership in a white supremacist organization for decades from watchdog groups and the government alike, surviving dozens of primary and general elections alike without even a whiff of their extremely radical views ever being raised by anyone," he wrote.
"Every one of these individuals lead extremely productive lives, attend elite universities, and two even [became] a U.S. attorney and an ambassador to a major U.S. ally. But in an extremely sloppy move, they all sign up for KKK websites using emails that can easily be traced back to them," he added.
The only other possible option, he wrote, is that "Some kid on the Internet lied."
Judging by the above news clippings, it appears many reporters this week found the former more believable than the latter.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/media-buys-into-claim-that-senators-are-klansmen/article/2575907
