Prop vs. Copaganda: Georgia’s “Cop City" RICO Indictment Condemns One but Was Foreshadowed by the Other.
Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr’s indictment of 61 “Cop City” protestors includes a section on “Propaganda and Recruitment” and is filled with the language of media criticism.
Activists promote “false narratives,” and “sow disinformation.” Through Zines and other publications, they learn how to “manipulate the media to take up as much column space and television time as possible.”
The document accuses those named of being anarchists and devotes a large section to defining that ideology.
It highlights anarchist hostility towards corporate media including threats and intimidation.
Some of that has occurred, and the indictment came soon after Fulton County D.A. Fani Willis’s RICO charges of former President Trump, famous for his countless lies and attacks on the press.
Charges in the Trump indictment even include False Statements and Writings.
President Trump helped start his own social media platform after being barred from others and cultivates appearances on a growing number of conservative and MAGA-friendly outlets.
Throughout the aftermath of the 2020 election and again since the Trump RICO indictment this summer, MAGA outlets like Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast and radio show have encouraged listeners to call, text, or email Georgia legislators demanding a special session to defund Willis’ investigation.
Press conferences by MAGA legislators and activists are promoted along with regular disparagement of mainstream media and even conservative outlets who’ve turned against Trump.
Carr has allied himself with Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and survived his own Trump-backed primary challenger in 2022.
Carr’s RICO discrediting of alternative media could easily apply to the alt right.
The result would be a reassertion of the primacy of legacy outlets like those both Willis and Carr have developed access relationships with.
But that wouldn’t be great for democracy either.
In 2021 I reviewed local news coverage of “Cop City” and argued it made the case for alternative, even openly leftist outlets. My preference is still for fact-based, well-researched reporting, but the loss of trust over “Cop City” stems from a lack of transparency throughout the process and a suspicion corporate local media was being manipulated or was itself “creating a narrative.”
An example is Carr’s interview with WSB TV this past Jan. which first revealed a sweeping indictment was in the works.
The occasion was the aftermath of the death of an activist and wounding of an officer during a clearing operation at the forest site.
Carr granted the station an “exclusive” and received a friendly interview painting him as a man of action.
Reporter Mark Winne prefaces by saying “we got very big news out of that interview…”
“Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr tells us one thing that has been a constant for months is a major ongoing investigation into alleged domestic terrorism aimed at stopping a planned Atlanta public safety training center. And now he reveals a major indictment is close.”
The video package then begins with Carr condemning out-of-state activists for the actions, a framing of the opposition as mostly outside agitators continued in the eventual indictment.
“This is not Oregon. We’re not Washington or New York or California. We’re Georgia. Do not come to our state and engage in violence against our citizens, against our law enforcement officers or break our laws. It will not be tolerated, you can, and you will be charged, and we won’t stop until we make sure that everybody that’s been a part of this is held accountable.”
A lawyer for some of the suspects proclaiming their innocence is briefly quoted by Winne before Carr is given time to relate his presence at the operation and express his anger over the wounding of the officer.
“I was there.”
“It was infuriating. Absolutely infuriating. And when you’re there with individuals in law enforcement that you’re asking to do a job and then one of those individuals isn’t going to go home to their family because of this act of violence, it’s very, very difficult.”
The report had no one expressing regret over the activist’s death.
After the video package Winne discloses using pictures from the GBI in the story.
In its deference to law enforcement and granting a friendly interview to a prosecutor in return for an exclusive, it’s the kind of story criticized as Copaganda.
That term became more common in the media discourse in 2020 as part of the Black Lives Matter protests and following the death of George Floyd.
As activists have pointed out, Carr’s indictment includes the date of Floyd’s death as a beginning point for the overall conspiracy the document lays out.
That’s quite a place to start the narrative.
Floyd’s death was captured on video by a citizen journalist.
In the January shooting in the forest outside Atlanta, Georgia State Patrol officers weren’t wearing body cameras.
