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Report Highlights Threats to Journalists During Election

The Anti-Defamation League said it’s concerned by the targeting of journalists on social media in the past year.

Tallahassee attorney Chuck Hobbs is a columnist for the political website “The Hill.” He said he was threatened online by a man offended by Hobbs’ criticism of President-elect Donald Trump.

“The level of vitriol going on in the public discourse – if we don’t get that under control, eventually it’s going to turn into sad situations where there’s some extreme violence takes place," he said. "I mean on an individual-type level. But I’m concerned about that, I am.”

The Anti-Defamation League report found shows that at least 800 reporters got discriminatory tweets between August 2015 and July 2016. The volume of harassing tweets increased in the first six months of 2016.

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Sarah Mueller is the first recipient of the WFSU Media Capitol Reporting Fellowship. She’ll be covering the 2017 Florida legislative session and recently earned her master’s degree in Public Affairs Reporting at the University of Illinois Springfield. Sarah was part of the Illinois Statehouse press corps as an intern for NPR Illinois in 2016. When not working, she enjoys playing her yellow lab, watching documentaries and reading memoirs.
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