The “Today” is facing pushback after dedicating time Wednesday to an interview with Patrick Casey, executive director of the white “identitarian” group Identity Evropa.
“We are telling this story to pull back the curtain so parents and college students are aware that these groups are out there,” said NBC correspondent Peter Alexander. “The Southern Poverty Law Center calls Identity Evropa one of the most active new hate groups in America. There members are clean cut, they are conservatively dressed and they’re recruiting on a campus near you.”
In the interview, Casey, whose organization only accepts white members and marched in the deadly Unite The Right rally in Charlottesville, laid out his case matter of factly.
“Ethnic diversity has been proven time and time again, it’s not a good model for society,” he said. “We do want to return our immigration laws to what have historically been America’s immigration laws — which are laws that favor European immigrants.
“I do think that we need to maintain a supermajority in this country,” he added.
Reps for “Today” did not immediately respond to request for comment from TheWrap.
Despite Alexander’s assertion that his intent was service journalism, many people on Twitter slammed “Today” for giving Casey a “platform,” arguing that by doing so he would help the group gain attention and recruit members.
This is bizarre. NBC gave a white nationalist group a huge platform for recruiting with this interview. https://t.co/VRPxO0lEMT
— Will Sommer (@willsommer) October 17, 2018
https://twitter.com/jaredlholt/status/1052539490034733056
holy fucking shit this is a straight up nazi recruitment video on the dang Today show. fuck this. https://t.co/7VrQ1iXsaB
— Nathan Mc (@NathanMc) October 17, 2018
Problem with these interviews is, partly because journalism continues to treat questions of race as a competing set of feelings, so many assertions that are blatantly false here are allowed to go unchallenged. https://t.co/oPlScif6H1
— Astead (@AsteadWH) October 17, 2018
What the hell is wrong with you @TODAYshow? Reporting on white nationalism is one thing, but giving them a platform for their racism is irresponsible. https://t.co/sGZygWS7I4
— Christian Picciolini (@cpicciolini) October 17, 2018
When you are so accustomed to doing 'objective' both-sides journalism, this is the kind of puff piece you churn out when covering white nationalism. https://t.co/DjtsLzKO85
— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) October 17, 2018