Ray Epps, an Arizona man who was at the center of right-wing conspiracy theories about the Jan. 6 insurrection, is suing Fox News and former Fox anchor Tucker Carlson for defamation. Meanwhile, incidents of anti-LGTBQ hate spiked during Pride 2023, according to a new report. And another study warns extremist mass killings are on the rise.
It’s the week in extremism.
Ray Epps suing Fox
Marine Corps veteran Ray Epps, who became a central focus of right-wing conspiracy theories about the Jan. 6 insurrection, is suing Fox News for defamation, claiming they helped push the conspiracy theory that he incited rioters to attack the Capitol.
- Epps, who has never been arrested in connection with the insurrection, was subject of repeated speculation by Carlson and other news anchors, who suggested Epps could have been an undercover federal agent working to foment the Jan. 6 riot.
- The lawsuit says Fox refused to retract its claims “well after Fox knew definitively that they were false,” and says this evidence of what is legally known as “actual malice” means Epps deserves punitive damages.
- Carlson was fired from Fox News shortly after the network lost a different defamation lawsuit by Dominion Voting systems, for which the network reportedly paid more than $787 million in damages.
Anti-LGBTQ hate spikes in Pride Month
The nonprofit organization GLAAD and the Anti-defamation League counted at least 145 incidents of anti-LGBTQ hate during June, known as Pride month, according to a report released this week.
- While Pride 2023 was free of any mass shootings or other mass casualty events, a woman was murdered in a Texas gas station by a stranger who allegedly shouted anti-gay slurs, according to the report.
- Researchers tallied more than three times as many incidents in Pride 2023 compared with Pride 2022.
- The numbers include 102 incidents of harassment, 37 incidents of vandalism and six incidents of assault.
Extremist mass killings on the rise
The proportion of mass killings committed by extremists has increased five-fold in the last five years compared to last decade, a new analysis of mass casualty incidents by FiveThirtyEight found this week.
Statistic of the week: “More”
Moms for Liberty labeled extremistMoms for Lberty
The conservative “parents rights” group Moms for Liberty complained this week that it has received “more” death threats and political attacks since it was labeled as an extremist group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, as we reported last month. One threat described the group as “Taliban in Minivan,” according to a report in a far-right website.
