“More than 30 instances of violence and threats of violence against Afghan journalists were recorded in the last two months, with nearly 90 percent committed by the Taliban, says a media watchdog. More than 40 percent of the cases recorded by the Afghanistan National Journalists Union (ANJU) were physical beatings and another 40 percent were verbal threats of violence, Masorro Lutfi, the group’s head, said on Wednesday,” reports Al Jazeera.
This turn of events means that the Taliban are apparently less violent, and the country of Afghanistan is more transparent about attacks on journalists than the united States. There were numerous threats and physical attacks on journalists during the January 6th riots, including scrawling the phrase “Murder the Media” on a Capitol building door. Threats against journalists in the US have been occurring on an on-going basis.
“The report [on conditions in Afghanistan] comes as Taliban rulers attempt to open diplomatic channels with an international community largely reluctant to formally recognise their rule. They are trying to position themselves as responsible rulers, who promise security for all.”
These kinds of reports may explain why Republicans in the United States are so eager to focus only on the first few chaotic days of withdrawal, and ignore all more recent news from Afghanistan, as the headlines may invite unflattering comparisons with Republican politicians and voters in the US. Republicans in the United States frequently mimic the language of Putin’s government and the Taliban when describing the media, such as when Republican House Rep Mo Brooks attempted to deflect from his role in the January 6th insurrection by accusing the media of “Socialist Democrats Politics of Personal Destruction…” and making a ridiculous claim that: “this entire smear campaign is about intimidating, censoring and suppressing the ability of American citizens to fight at the ballot box the efforts of Socialist Democrats to seize control of the United States of America.” Death threats against journalists who publish editorials that are unflattering to former President Trump have been an on-going issue in the US since Trump was still in office.
Republicans may also want to avoid discussion of death threats as it makes them look like cowards and weaklings. Matt Gaetz appeared deeply shaken after receiving a death threat last week, By comparison, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez seems surprisingly calm while describing going into her office each day and reviewing the numerous death threats made against her by Trump supporters that day. Gaetz clearly looks like the bully who “can dish it out but can’t take it”, and compared to the calm displayed by AOC, he comes across as an extremely weak and pathetic little man, who is playing in a sand-box that he’s not tough enough to occupy.