Global Courant 2023-05-19 21:57:56
A Maryland reporter was berated on social media Thursday for soft-pedaling his story about a local man who routinely carried an AR-15 rifle near a school bus stop in Severn.
“Tonight on @wbaltv11: A man with an AR-15 has been showing up for weeks at a school bus being dropped off for local elementary school students,” tweeted Tolly Taylor, a reporter for NBC affiliate WBAL-TV.
“Parents say their kids are scared, man says he’s protesting @GovWesMoore’s new gun law,” Taylor added, using the Twitter handle for Democratic Gov. Wes Moore. “You’ll hear from both sides at 5 and 6 p.m.”
Tolly Taylor’s tweet.
Tolly Taylor’s tweet.
It was his “both sides” framing that confused critics. The comment was reminiscent of former President Donald Trump’s comment about “very nice people on both sidesof a 2017 gathering of white supremacists in Virginia that was also attended by counter-demonstrators, one of whom was killed by a neo-Nazi.
It wasn’t the best choice of words, either, given the chilling sight of a mortified, armed man parading around a bus stop amid a spate of school shootings across the country.
“No… there are no two sides to bringing an assault weapon to an elementary school bus stop,” tweeted MSNBC’s Jen Psakithe former White House press secretary for President Joe Biden.
“‘Both sides’? Seriously?” her MSNBC colleague Mehdi Hasan wrote. “I feel like I’m losing my mind. STOP THE BOTHSIDES ISM!”
The man with the gun, J’den McAdory, told WBAL-TV that he was exercising his legal right. Police in Anne Arundel County, where Severn is based, said he is not breaking the law.
An understandably shaken parent told Taylor it could be “too late” if something isn’t done soon. And the school even changed the end time on Monday because of the problem.
Taylor reported that McAdory finally agreed not to protest during school drop off or pick up.
HuffPost reached out to Taylor for comment. Twitter users, meanwhile, continued to agree with his choice of words:
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