National Post “Journalist” Graeme Hamilton Defames Robert Spencer As “Alt-Right,” Refuses to Retract

Those who are working to defend free societies should not suffer the attacks of dishonest establishment media hacks in silence. These people need to be called out

Graeme Hamilton’s National Post story about supposed conspiracy theories cropping up in the wake of the Toronto van attack is so sloppily written that it refutes itself. Hamilton writes melodramatically that “in the darker corners of the web…alt-right voices cling to the flimsiest evidence to suggest Canadian authorities are covering up what was actually an Islamist attack.” One of those alleged “alt-right voices” is me: “Robert Spencer of the Jihad Watch web site drew on courtroom sketches to imply that the man who was charged Tuesday was not the same one arrested Monday.” I never said that: here is the original post, you can see for yourself. All I said was that he was bald in arrest photos and had a full head of hair in courtroom sketches, suggesting that Canadian authorities were covering something up. But did I say they were covering up what Hamilton calls an “Islamist attack”? No. In fact, I said that it was “likely that this was not a jihad attack,” and Hamilton even quotes me saying this.

So he quotes me saying this was not a jihad attack in an article in which he uses me as Exhibit A in a story about how the “alt-right” is claiming this was a jihad attack. That’s not just sloppy journalism. That’s malicious dishonesty.

And then there is the “alt-right” label. I find it odd to be termed “alt-right,” as I’ve been publishing articles and books since the 1990s, and I never heard the term “alt-right” until 2016. I guess I got grandfathered in to the “alt-right” movement. But since this term is usually used to refer to white supremacists and neo-Nazis, I wrote to Hamilton asking for a public retraction and apology.

Hamilton shot back an email dripping with condescension and contempt, in which he said:

I refer you to the Oxford Dictionaries definition of alt-right https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/alt-right. Oxford defines the alt-right as “an ideological grouping associated with extreme conservative or reactionary viewpoints, characterized by a rejection of mainstream politics and by the use of online media to disseminate deliberately controversial content.” That is the sense of the term that I had in mind in writing my story yesterday. And whatever you may think of “journalists,” I assure you that my goal in everything I write is to be as clear and concise as possible, not to adhere to some code discernible to select readers.

Now, aside from the fact that virtually everyone uses “alt-right” as shorthand for “white supremacist neo-Nazi,” and not in the way Oxford defines the term, I don’t fit into the Oxford definition of the term, either. “Extreme conservative or reactionary viewpoints” — which of my viewpoints are “extreme conservative or reactionary”? Is it my contention that societies should protect and defend the principles of the freedom of speech, the freedom of conscience, and the equality of rights of all people before the law? It is likely that Hamilton has in mind my observation that Islam is not a religion of peace: despite its obvious and demonstrable truth, this idea has been so stigmatized and demonized by the likes of Hamilton and his ilk that it is today the third rail in American politics — to touch it is death. But that doesn’t make it any less true, or any more “conservative or reactionary.”

Another part of the Oxford definition of “alt-right” is that it is “characterized by a rejection of mainstream politics.” When did I reject mainstream politics? Have I called for the overthrow of the U.S. government? Hostage-taking at embassies? In reality, I have repeatedly told people to vote, and to try to influence their elected representatives to take a more realistic approach to the jihad threat. That’s a rejection of mainstream politics? This is sheer fantasy, as well as defamation.

Finally, the “alt-right,” says Oxford, is characterized by “the use of online media to disseminate deliberately controversial content.”

“Deliberately” controversial? No, Mr. Hamilton. Nothing I’ve ever said or written should be remotely controversial, if the world were willing to face the uncomfortable truths that “journalists” such as Graeme Hamilton would prefer to ignore or obfuscate.

In the Toronto van attack case, I stand by what I said: it is odd that the attacker had hair the day after he was photographed as bald. I have no explanation. I wish Canadian authorities would have enough respect for their people to provide one. But to claim that I was thereby stating that this was a jihad attack while quoting me saying it wasn’t a jihad attack isn’t remotely journalism by any standard.

The National Post used to be a decent publication. I published some articles there myself, years ago. But more recently it has retreated from its former willingness to tell the truth about the jihad threat into the fictions and fantasies of the dominant Leftist media. If it had any journalistic integrity left, it would retract this article and fire Graeme Hamilton. But it will do neither, because it does not.

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Jihad is Jihad

5 years ago

The reality is the guy that murdered people with a van in Toronto is a Middle Eastern man from Armenia.

His target were women and most of the people killed were women.

His method to murder these women was Jihad like we see Middle Eastern men doing in France.

With influx of refugees into Canada who cannot speak English or find work they will turn to Jihad like the Muslims do in France.

Ethical people when upset or enduring personal problems do not rent big vans to ram people on sidewalks and murder them. They seek help – that’s the way we do it in Canada. In the Middle East when men can’t get sex they read the Quran and then kill women.

Thanks Trudeau next election you will be out.

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Raymond of Canada

5 years ago

If it quacks and walks like a duck, it’s a duck. Sorry, CBC et all, I’ve lost my trust in news sources in Canada since the media refused to publish the Danish Islamic cartoons. A media that couldn’t show us what was shaking the world cannot be trusted.

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Raymond of Canada

5 years ago

If it quacks and walks like a duck, it’s a duck. Sorry, CBC et all, I’ve lost my trust in news sources in Canada since the media refused to publish the Danish Islamic cartoons. A media that couldn’t show us what was shaking the world cannot be trusted.

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Bradley Lexvold

5 years ago

When you’re out in front you’re always going to have people nipping at your heels. Get used to it.

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Clear Sky

5 years ago

Being called “alt-right” these days is a badge of honor.

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Mahou Shoujo

5 years ago

Reply to  Clear Sky

Being called a national post reporter is a badge of shame and disgrace.

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D

Poptoy1949

5 years ago

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R. Arandas

5 years ago

Everything that makes the left the tiniest bit uncomfortable, they label as racist or pro-Nazi, it is unbelievable how they feel they have the right to judge everyone else so.

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Cai

5 years ago

Reply to  R. Arandas

The left are masters of projection.

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Mahou Shoujo

5 years ago

The national post is now a national disgrace, it has low life doggerel reporters who would make cheap literary prostitutes, if they could write.

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Achmed Mohandjob

5 years ago

Reply to  Mahou Shoujo

That comment … is downright mean. Unfair .. mean .. but accurate.

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Mahou Shoujo

5 years ago

Reply to  Achmed Mohandjob

At one time i subscribed to it, then switched to face book, taking a sharp turn to the left. Now, it is like every other toronto pulp fiction, a tool of the liberals at the provincial and federal level.

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Kikikins

5 years ago

Don’t believe anything written by the National Post.

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M. Marsares

5 years ago

Reply to  Kikikins

Old saying: ‘Believe none of what you read and only half of what you see.’ Question everything.

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