East Texas newspaper issues response for identifying Capitol rioters as ‘antifa’

The Tyler Morning Telegraph issued a correction to a photo cutline published in print last week which identified people who stormed the U.S. Capitol as members of antifa.

A number of Republican politicians have blamed antifa, an umbrella term for far left-leaning militant groups that resist Neo-Nazis and white supremacist groups, for Wednesday’s riot against the federal building by pro-Trump extremists that killed five. On Friday, the East Texas newspaper ran an Associated Press photo showing rioters scaling an exterior wall of the Capitol with a caption echoing the belief.

“Members of antifa dressed as supporters of President Donald Trump climb the west wall of the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday in Washington,” the edited caption says, according to a social media call out. The original AP headline read: “Supporters of President Donald Trump climb the West wall of the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington.”

Readers and online onlookers were quick to blast the newspaper for the cutline.

Hours later, the publication issued an online correction with a promise to have one in the print product as well.

“This was inserted by one person and does not represent the views or opinions of the Tyler Morning Telegraph,” the correction reads. “The error has been corrected in every place that we can correct it and we will run a correction in print.”

Neither Publisher Justin Wilcox nor Editor John Anderson could be immediately reached for comment, but Wilcox did tell NBC News that the edit was not made by a member of the paper’s editorial staff.

On Friday, Steven D’Antuono, the assistant director of the FBI’s Washington field office, said there is “no indication” that members of antifa were part of the group who breached the Capitol to stop the certification of the U.S. presidential election, according to the Associated Press.

Madalyn Mendoza covers news and puro pop culture for MySA.com | [email protected] | @maddyskye