Republican congressional candidate Karen Handel complained about the state of journalism in an interview Monday with Ben Jacobs, the Guardian reporter who was assaulted last month by a GOP candidate in Montana.
“The lack of civility in society as a whole, some of it, I believe, is very much fueled by social media and frankly, it’s fueled by the fact that journalism is not journalism any more,” Handel told Jacobs on the eve of the special U.S. House election in Georgia. “It’s tabloid. It’s 24/7 news – people get in the middle of a news cycle for 24 hours off of things that previously would never have gotten the kind of coverage that is happening.”
Asked if she was pointing “fingers at the journalism,” Handel replied, “No, don’t put words in my mouth, Ben.”
“I had a very broad sentence. See, this is exactly what happens and why things are really broken. You don’t listen and you put words in people’s mouth,” Handel told the reporter.
She added that both social media and journalism have fueled what she called a “lack of civility.” Handel then zeroed in on trackers from liberal groups (political organizations frequently send staffers to track the opposing candidate).
“The anger has been from the left with groups of trackers showing up and literally adopting a gang-like posture and virtually stalking individuals,” she said.
During a debate in early June, Handel distanced herself from the Montana congressman-elect, Greg Gianforte, after he promoted her campaign in a fundraising email for the House Republicans’ campaign arm. But she also lamented that people “on both sides of the aisle” have become aggressive toward politicians.
Gianforte was charged with misdemeanor assault the night before he was elected to the U.S. House after he grabbed Jacobs by the neck, slammed him to the ground, and punched him. Gianforte eventually acknowledged that he assaulted Jacobs and apologized to the reporter.
