The ConWeb's Hypocrisy On Threats
The Media Research Center, Newsmax and WorldNetDaily all freaked out over James Comey's "86 47" picture -- but were silent when right-wingers targeted "86" at their enemies.
For a while in May, the right-wing controversy du jour was former FBI direcctor James Comey sending on Instagram a picture of seashells arranged to read “86 47,” which he claimed to hame come across on a beach — and the Trump Regime media was all over it. The Media Research Center’s Curtis Houck devoted a May 16 post to complaining that non-right-wing media wasn’t obsessing like he was over it:
Late Thursday, former FBI Director and cringe, lefty D.C. Boomer James Comey posted and deleted seashells shaped into “8647” while walking on the beach that he claimed to have found interesting while not aware until later it translated to call for President Donald Trump’s assassination.
But on the Friday morning network news shows, ABC’s Good Morning America was nowhere to be seen and saw no reason to cover this act of dangerous political rhetoric.
Instead, they spent nearly ten minutes (9:37) treating Bill Belichick to a softball-filled interview that barely touched on the ongoing soap opera that is his relationship with girlfriend Jordon Hudson and just over four minutes (4:02) celebrating the 70th anniversary of Disneyland in Anaheim, California.
NBC’s Today only tacked 48 seconds onto the end of a segment about President Trump’s trip to the Middle East.
[…]
Here was how [NBC’s Garrett Haake] wrapped: “Comey, after taking the post down, said he didn’t understand what the numbers meant and that he doesn’t support violence against anyone. Meanwhile, the Secret Service says they take posts like this seriously and they’re investigating.”
Isn’t it nice being a D.C. liberal in which your kindred spirits in the so-called news business take you at your word?
Of course, Houck and his fellow MRCers always take Trump and other right-wingers at their word whenever a controversy pops up.
Houck joined Nicholas Fondacaro on the MRC’s podcast later that day to rehash all of this: “Comey might be trying to sell seashells down by the seashore, but we weren’t buying his pathetic excuse that he didn’t know what “86 47” meant. Curtis walks us through his coverage and analysis of the broadcast networks’ Friday morning reporting of the dust up.”
Mark Finkelstein ranted further about this in a May 17 post:
Snorting “seriously, come on,” on Saturday’s edition of MSNBC’S The Weekend, co-host Jonathan Capehart dismissed former FBI Director James Comey’s posting of a photo of “8647” as a “pseudo controversy.”
Right! After all, in taking down the post, Comey claimed “I didn’t realize some folks associate those numbers with violence. It never occurred to me.”
Of course he didn’t realize it! After all, who would expect the former top federal crime fighter to be familiar with . . . criminal code?
[…]
The New York Times published an article yesterday citing Columbia professor Jesse Sheidlower [see photo], a slang specialist, on the meaning of “86.” While acknowledging that “it can mean murder,” Sheidlower claimed:
“Without any very specific indication that that’s the intended meaning, you’d never assume that. The notion that Comey was suggesting this is completely preposterous.”
“Completely preposterous” — great point, professor. Because in posting “8647,” Comey didn’t specify, “I mean that to say, murder the president.”
Case closed!
None of these MRC writers mentioned that the “86” threat has been used by right-wingers as well. For instance, a 2022 post by Jack Posobiec, senior editor for the right-wing journal Human Events, states “86 46,” and then-Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz declared in a 2024 tweet that “We’ve now 86’d: McCarthy McDaniel McConnell Better days are ahead for the Republican Party.” WND never demanded a federal investigation of either of them (Gaetz later insisted his use of “86” was “distinct” from Comey’s). No MRC writer called these out as the death threats they apparently were.
Alex Christy spent a May 21 post complaining that Comey was given a platform to defend himself:
Former FBI Director James Comey took his book tour to CBS and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, where he promoted his new novel about a violent right-wing podcaster while the eponymous host absolved him of any wrongdoing over his recent 8647 Instagram post that some interpreted as a call to kill President Trump.
Colbert began by begrudgingly bringing up the Instagram post, “You stirred up a little controversy recently. I was going to say that you landed in some hot water, but it’s not hot water. It’s just water because I don’t know if you do this on purpose just to get attention, but you—is this Instagram? You gram-ed this. You are walking down the beach. What happened? You’re walking down the beach, and you saw this on the beach?”
Comey recalled strolling down the beach with his wife and “She looked at it and said, ‘Why’d someone put their address in the sand?’ And then we stood at it, looked at it trying to figure out what it was, and she’d long been a server in restaurants, and she said, “You know, I think it is, I think it’s a reference to restaurants when you’d 86 something at a restaurant.’”
Even if one grants Comey the benefit of the doubt that he was not seriously calling for Trump’s assassination, he did just admit to posting something on Instagram despite not knowing what it means.
Like his co-workers, Christy failed to mention the right-wingers caught sending “86” threats to their enemies. It’s as if that sort of behavior is OK if you’re a Republican.
WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily’s obsession with Comey’s Instagram message began with an article from the discredited Gateway Pundit, which hyperbolically asked, “Did former FBI Director James Comey call for the assassination of President Trump?” The article was then filled with embedded tweets from writer Cristina Laila’s fellow right-wingers insisting that, yes, Comey’s picture of shells arranged to form “86 47” was indeed a death threat to Trump. That was followed by a May 16 article by Bob Unruh expressing approval that the Trump administration will throw the book at Comey:
He’s a “dirty cop,” but it will be up to Attorney General Pam Bondi whether to pursue charges against ex-FBI head James Comey.
That’s the verdict from President Donald Trump after Comey was found to have posted what many saw as a direct threat to the life of Trump online.
Comey’s message was “86 47,” where “86” is considered an order to remove someone or something, and Trump is the 47th president in his second term.
A report in the Washington Examiner noted Trump, in an interview, dismissed Comey’s “apology” and claim that he didn’t know what the numbers meant.
“He knew exactly what that meant. A child knows what that meant. If you’re the FBI director and you don’t know what that meant, that meant assassination, and it says it loud and clear,” Trump said.
“Now, he wasn’t very competent, but he was competent enough to know what that meant. And he did it for a reason, and he was hit so hard because people like me, they like what’s happening with our country. Our country has become respected again, and all this, and he’s calling for the assassination of the president.”
Unruh cranked out another article that day:
The Federal Bureau of Investigation knows all about the apparent threat to the life of President Donald Trump and ex-FBI head James Comey posted, then canceled, on social media.
And it will offer all the needed help to the Secret Service, which is the main investigative team for such cases.
[…]
A former Secret Service agent explained in a report that was posted online that Comey was in for a “very, very, very long night.”
WND also published an article from the right-wing Daily Caller quoting director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard insisting that Coney “knew exactly what he was doing when he used language that echoed mob-style threats,” as well as another Gateway Pundit article claiming that “Associate Deputy Attorney General Ed Martin said former FBI Director James Comey is going to prison after he posted an assassination threat against President Trump.”
As with the MRC, none of these articles mentioned that the “86” threat has been used by right-wingers like Posobiec and Gaetz. That silence tells us that WND is apparently good with threats against the lives of non-right-wing politicians. Remember that WND managing editor David Kupelian effectively admitted that his publication was issuing a de facto call for Barack Obama’s assassination by repeatedly likening him to Nazis and even the Antichrist.
That’s hypocrisy. That’s WND.
Newsmax
Newsmax also manufactured a meltdown over Comey’s “86 47” message:
Noem: Feds Investigating Comey’s ’86 47′ Instagram Post (wire article)
Sen. Cruz to Newsmax: Comey Part of Deep State Undermining Trump
Harrison Fields to Newsmax: Comey ’86’ Post ‘Reckless,’ ‘Abhorrent’
Steve Hilton to Newsmax: ‘Not Buying’ Comey’s ’86 47′ Claims
By contrast, Newsmax devoted only a single article to Comey defending himself, a May 19 piecevby Mark Swanson. And like WND and the MRC, Newsmax was silent on apparent threats issued by conservatives, such as Posobiec.
Newsmax columnists joined the Comey-bashing bandwagon as well. James Hirsen huffed in a May 23 column:
To say that Comey’s comments regarding the number 86 stretch the boundaries of credibility is an understatement, especially when you consider who Comey is, the position in government he previously held, and the individual with whom the number 47 is associated.
As a high-ranking law enforcement official Comey’s prior duties included the prosecution of participants in organized crime.
Such participants routinely use the number 86 as a code word for “assassination.”
According to “Cassell’s Dictionary of Slang,” the number 86 means “to kill, to murder; to execute judicially.”
Perhaps surprisingly for Comey, the seriousness of his wholly ill-advised post appears to be increasing with the passage of time.
[…]
If a prosecution against Comey is sought, it’s likely to be a difficult one, considering free speech and intent arguments.
However, time will tell whether other significant facts will emerge that justify legal action against the former FBI director.
In the meantime, many like me are still hoping that the haters’ hardened hearts are transformed.
Still sending up prayers, too, for the one who despite the hate, fights on anyway.
Oh, Hirsen’s very much a hater, and his heart is quite hardened against anyone who’s not as right-wing and pro-Trump as he is.
Clarence V. McKee weighed in in his June 5 column:
In this writer’s opinion, Comey’s threat reflects the views and mindset of many in the left-wing progressive movement, mainstream media, including left-wing cable television pundits, and their silent Democratic Party leadership allies.
If you want proof, see how many Democratic leaders in the House and Senate and their liberal media partners and pundits have condemned Comey’s alleged threat.
As far as I know, there have been none.
In this writer’s opinion, they’re privately sympathetic to Comey’s post.
I believe that many of the same progressives and media Trump haters who rightly condemn the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy (Nov. 22, 1963), and his brother Robert F. Kennedy (June 5, 1968) — sadly and unfortunately — in private would not be upset if President Trump met the same fate.
They loved the Kennedys but hate Trump that much.
[…]
Hopefully, the DOJ will make Comey another example of “No one is above the law.”
Neither Hirsen nor McKee referenced Posobiec’s “86 46” threat, which means that, by McKee’s logic, they would not be upset to have seen Biden meet the same fate as the Kennedys and that they believe Posobiec is above the law.