Robert Evans (journalist)

Robert Evans is an American journalist who has reported on global conflicts and online extremism. A former editor at the humor website Cracked.com, Evans now writes for the investigative journalism outlet Bellingcat while working on several podcasts, including Behind the Bastards, Behind the Police, Behind the Insurrection, It Could Happen Here, The Women's War, and Worst Year Ever.

Robert Evans
NationalityUnited States
OccupationJournalist, podcast host

Career

Evans worked at the humour website Cracked as an editorial manager. In that position, Evans led a team that published "personal experience" articles. These articles fell into two main categories: journalistic pieces involving a variety of sources and personal narratives.[1]

In 2016 Evans published his book A Brief History of Vice about the formative effects of narcotics of the development and history of civilization.[2]

Evans has reported on conflicts in Iraq, Ukraine and Rojava, as well as on far-right extremists in the United States,[3] some of this reporting conducted for the investigative reporting site Bellingcat.[4][5][6] Evans is the host of the podcasts Behind the Bastards and Worst Year Ever.[4]

In 2019, Evans completed the podcast series The War on Everyone, a podcast about how white supremacy and fascism have developed and spread into American consciousness in the modern age, as well as It Could Happen Here, a podcast about the possibility of a Second American Civil War.[7][8][9] Evans published a new podcast series titled The Women's War in March and April 2020 about the primarily Kurdish autonomous region in Syria known as Rojava.[9][10] Evans also published a podcast series titled Behind the Police in June and July 2020, covering the history of policing in the United States to inform the present time of civil unrest.[11] Most recently, in November 2020 through early 2021, Evans published Uprising: A Guide From Portland, a podcast detailing first-hand accounts of the 2020 George Floyd protests in Portland, Oregon.[12]

Significant reportage

Evans has produced a variety of content about facets of internet culture, including reporting on 8chan, an anonymous message board, as well as the Gamergate controversy movement, a movement he describes as largely organically generated, with some direction given by white supremacists and extremists with long experience in radicalizing people on internet forums.[13]

Following the March 2019 Christchurch mosque shootings, news outlets including Rolling Stone, Vox, and The Atlantic referenced Evans' warning about the nature of the shooter's manifesto. Evans argued that the manifesto was merely a red herring full of references and memes meant to distract observers.[14][15][16] Following the 2019 Poway synagogue shooting, Vox relied on Evans' work to explain how the shooter's manifesto again constituted a 74 page in-joke meant to further radicalize other 4chan /pol/ users.[17]

In a Bellingcat article, Evans discussed the emergence and qualities of the boogaloo movement, a loose-knit group of individuals who express interest in fomenting American civil unrest.[18] Evans says that he became aware of the boogaloo movement when he observed members at 2020 Virginia Citizens Defence League Lobby Day.[19][20]

Portland George Floyd protests

In early to mid 2020, Evans covered the George Floyd protests in Portland, Oregon, beginning in the first days of the protests by taking footage of protesters, counter-protesters, and police and reporting via Bellingcat and other mediums.[21][22] His reporting on these events has been highlighted by the New York Times, which interviewed Evans after the 50th day of protests about the experience of covering the events.[4]

In July, Evans joined a class-action lawsuit against the City of Portland for police use of force at the protests. The suit is non-monetary, seeking instead "declaratory and injunctive relief — asking the court to find the plaintiffs within their rights and to order police to stop brutalizing and unlawfully arresting protesters." Evans joined freelance journalist Bea Lake and housing services specialist Sadie Oliver-Grey as a plaintiff. The suit alleges that police officers were unlawfully violent, stopped journalists from reporting, and interfered with the right to free speech. The suit describes incidents that occurred to Evans including the "police allegedly threatening him with arrest if he did not leave the area, shooting him in the foot with a tear gas grenade and spraying him, and repeatedly shoving him".[23]

On Saturday, August 22, a right-wing protester wielding a baton broke Evans' hand while he was filming.[22] In a conversation with The Guardian, Evans said the right-wing counter-protesters "absolutely came prepared to fight", were "very aggressive from the jump", and were equipped with "knives, guns, paintball guns with frozen pellets, batons".[22]

In August, the song "No Cock Like Horse Cock" became a popular protest song in the Pacific Northwest. It was unclear exactly how it became popularized, but Pepper Coyote, the artist who produced the song, surmised that protesters became aware of his work through a cover song that appeared on Evans' Behind the Bastards.[24]

Bibliography
  • Evans, Robert (2016). A Brief History of Vice: How Bad Behavior Built Civilization. Penguin Random House. ISBN 9780147517609.

References
  1. Tushnet, Eve (July 31, 2014). "From Boob Jokes to Ukraine: A Talk With Robert Evans of Cracked.Com". The American Spectator. Retrieved June 5, 2020.
  2. Evans, Robert (August 9, 2016). "There's Science Behind Why Humans Love Drinking". Esquire.
  3. Harris, Bridgett (March 25, 2020). "Four Ways To Enjoy Spending Time At Home This Week". Colorado Springs Independent. Retrieved July 1, 2020.
  4. Warzel, Charlie (July 17, 2020). "Opinion | 50 Nights of Unrest In Portland". The New York Times. Retrieved August 1, 2020.
  5. Warzel, Charlie (April 3, 2020). "Opinion | What We Pretend To Know About the Coronavirus Could Kill Us". The New York Times. Retrieved July 1, 2020.
  6. Evans, Robert (April 29, 2019). "8chan's Ties To Shootings Renew Debate Over Internet's Role In Radicalizing Extremists". All Things Considered (Interview). Interviewed by Jasmine Garsd. NPR. Retrieved July 1, 2020.
  7. "Worst Year Ever". www.iheart.com. Retrieved July 17, 2020.
  8. "The War on Everyone".
  9. DeVega, Chauncey (April 3, 2020). "Investigative Reporter Robert Evans: "We're On the Edge Of an Authoritarian Nightmare"". Salon. Retrieved June 5, 2020.
  10. "Meet the Syrian Women Fighting For a Better, Fairer Future In iHeartRadio's New Original Podcast, "The Women's War"". iHeartRadio Blog. April 25, 2020.
  11. "How Did American Police Get So Violent? Find Out In iHeartRadio's New Original Podcast, "Behind the Police"". iHeartRadio. June 14, 2020.
  12. "Uprising: A Guide From Portland". iHeartRadio. November 23, 2020.
  13. Romano, Aja (January 20, 2020). "What We Still Haven't Learned From Gamergate". Vox.
  14. Dickson, E. J. (March 15, 2019). "Why Did the Christchurch Shooter Name-Drop YouTube Phenom PewDiePie?". Rolling Stone. Retrieved August 1, 2020.
  15. Coaston, Jane (March 15, 2019). "The New Zealand Shooter's Manifesto Shows How White Nationalist Rhetoric Spreads". Vox. Retrieved August 1, 2020.
  16. Lorenz, Taylor (March 15, 2019). "The Shooter's Manifesto Was Designed To Troll". The Atlantic. Retrieved August 1, 2020.
  17. Stewart, Emily (August 5, 2019). "8chan, a Nexus Of Radicalization, Explained". Vox Recode. Retrieved August 1, 2020.
  18. Bloom, Mia (May 30, 2020). "Far-Right Infiltrators And Agitators In George Floyd Protests: Indicators Of White Supremacists". Just Security. Retrieved August 1, 2020.
  19. Weissmueller, Zach (October 16, 2020). "The Complicated Truth About the Boogaloo Movement". Reason.com.
  20. Evans, Robert; Wilson, Jason (May 27, 2020). "The Boogaloo Movement Is Not What You Think". Bellingcat.
  21. Sykes, Tom (July 21, 2020). "Federal Agents 'Beaten Back' Into Courthouse In Portland By 2,000 Protesters". The Daily Beast. Retrieved August 29, 2020.
  22. Wilson, Jason (August 28, 2020). "Portland Suffers Serious Street Violence As Far Right Return 'Prepared To Fight'". The Guardian. Retrieved August 29, 2020.
  23. Ramakrishnan, Jayati (July 9, 2020). "City Of Portland Now Faces a 3rd Class-action Lawsuit Over Police Use Of Force At Protests". The Oregonian. Retrieved August 29, 2020.
  24. Baume, Matt (August 28, 2020). "Here's the Story Behind the Portland Protest Anthem "No Cock Like Horse Cock"". The Stranger. Retrieved August 29, 2020.
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