Modern journalism is access journalism, in which reporters surrender their objectivity to get “scoops.” We’ve seen it with Trump-whisperer Maggie Haberman, RFK-enraptured Olivia Nuzzi and now with Lauren Ober and Hannah Rosin of The Atlantic with their podcast, “The Insurrectionists Next Door.”
I won’t link to it, because it’s fash-simp trash in which these two women sat down with Micki Witthoeft, leader of the Freedom Corner cult, to gently sob with her across the kitchen table and uncritically broadcast her perspective that the 2020 election was stolen, January 6th was justified, her daughter Ashli Babbitt was innocent and that Nancy Pelosi should hang from the neck until dead.
The podcast deliberately omits, well, everything, to paint Witthoeft and her cult as worthy of our sympathy.
A simple Google search or a glance at #freedomcorner on Twitter would reveal the truth. And I know that they looked – Ober and Rosin used video clips (unattributed) that are only available on Twitter.
Which means that they deliberately omitted:
- The Nazi Problem. Micki named her house “The Eagle’s Nest” like Hitler’s Alpine retreat, she supports violent J6er Brian Jackson (a white supremacist covered in swastikas) and receives funding from a Chinese-MAGA woman who thinks Hitler was right about the Jews.
- The Funding. How do three jobless women rent a house in pricey DC? Ober accepted Micki’s lie that it was thanks to small-donor donations. Which is absurd – how do you go to a landlord without a verified income? The truth, which easily findable online, is that Micki received $50k from Patrick Byrne, the Overstock guy who was part of “Team Crazy” that tried to stop the certification of the 2020 vote with Trump and Giuliani. And Micki has received much, much more, with the donations raised on behalf of J6 prisoners going straight into her pocket. Something that is very controversial among the insurrectionists. Follow the money is a basic tenet of journalism yet Ober was curiously incurious about this subject.
- The Violence. In the first episode, Ober included a brief snippet from when Micki attacked local activist Anarchy Princess. “I’ve watched a lot of bad clips about my neighbor.” Ober doesn’t bother to interview the victim or even mention her name. The DC residents who oppose Freedom Corner are treated as background figures, “harassing” Micki and her cultists. They don’t get names and we don’t hear how Micki has organized her cult to stalk, dox and attack opponents. Numerous members of her cult have been arrested for assault and even sexual violence. Do we hear their stories? No, instead we get a crycast with poor abused Micki.
This is just a short list of the problems with the first episode.
There’s a whole community of people who have been following, monitoring, reporting on and disrupting the fascists of Freedom Corner. We’ve interacted with the cultists online and in real life. We know their names, backstories – everything about them. You can find us all on #freedomcorner on Twitter.
It’s a fascinating story that touches every hot-button issue in America these days: social media fame, dangerous conspiracy theories, political violence, loneliness and a search for meaning.
It’s personal, too. I live in DC; I saw January 6th. When you see a red-clad mob march down your street, it changes you.
That’s why I’ve written so much about Freedom Corner. It’s a big part of my book, HOW I BECAME RED BIKE GUY. I never would’ve become the person who mocked the Patriot Front without the experience of seeing how protest and counterprotest worked at Freedom Corner.
And being doxxed by Micki’s cult made me angry and fearless.
For the podcast, I wasn’t interviewed; none of us were.
Ober called our work a “hobby.”
She, the professional journalist, who spent 20 hours with “Mama Micki,” knows best.
But the truth is that the “hobbyists” are clear-eyed and honest about the threat of fascism in the Nation’s Capital. Not seeking a podcast deal, we reported the truth about Freedom Corner – the Nazis, the money and the violence.
We didn’t trade our objectivity for an Oprah-style weepathon with a cult leader. We’re not sane-washing terrorists.
Freedom Corner is a pathetic, squalid little nest of traitors. The Atlantic should be embarrassed that they’ve uncritically given them a platform to spread lies and conspiracy theories.
