Anti-Blackness, Islamophobia, and the Right-Wing Blogosphere
As we approach issues of surveillance, I think this is very interesting. Although it primarily focuses on FOX News, other news outlets contributed to the combined waves of Islamophobia and anti-Blackness that produced this planned attack by a White Tennessee politician through promoting the myth of "terrorist training camps". For instance, being from Georgia (South and Coastal), I recall much similar news coverage on a similar place located in South Carolina. Interestingly, I would argue that many of these rightwing conspiracy theories (Alex Jones, for instance, has perpetuated these images in RE to Islamberg) gained traction via the conservative blogosphere (folks who mirror Ryan Mauro, who is in this documentary). There are innumerable rightwing blogs that have visited private property and photographed people, their homes, etc. in an act of surveillance. This happened to Black Muslim families in a small town in Wayne County, GA (Odum and Jesup), as discussed in an article (December 2015, I believe) in the local newspaper The Press Sentinel.
Although this 30-minute documentary by The Guardian does not emphasize the huge role of right-wing bloggers (aside from Mauro), I like the fact that some of the narrators and interviewees approach the issue in a way that acknowledges the intersections of Black and Muslim identities in assessing the issues. Often times, coverage on Robert Doggart's attempted attack on Islamberg often avoids discussions of race.
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