Blaming 'wine moms' for ICE protests is an old tactic with a new target
CBC
There's a new threat to law and order roaming U.S. streets.
They're angry. They're organized. And, if you believe the narrative being pushed by a conservative pundit, they brought wine.
On Sunday, Fox News posted a column singling out "organized gangs of wine moms" in Renee Nicole Good's death at the hands of immigration officers in Minneapolis, saying "self-important White women" are harassing law enforcement officers and mistaking civil disobedience with breaking the law.
"This very confusion got 37-year-old Renee Good killed," wrote opinion columnist David Marcus.
Online reaction to the column has been swift, but beyond the mockery, it comes amid what many experts have said is a concerning narrative playing out in U.S. politics right now.
Because it's not just about one column in one media outlet, but what it shows about the overall response to Good's death and those who don't agree with the administration's tactics, says Shana MacDonald, the O'Donovan Chair in communication at the University of Waterloo who researches digital media and the rise of online hate.
"We're seeing is this shift within the way the U.S. administration communicates to produce public enemies through their language," said MacDonald. She cites the example of U.S. President Donald Trump calling protesters "professional agitators" and ICE agents "patriots" on Truth Social Thursday.
News outlets that support the administration's actions are using similar communication strategies, she added.
"The larger linguistic shift is really, really troubling," MacDonald told CBC News. "I think people should be taking notes of the way language is changing, and who becomes the enemy."
Good, 37, was killed after being shot in the face by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer in Minneapolis last week during a massive immigration crackdown that has seen thousands of officers sent into the Twin Cities.
The killing immediately drew duelling narratives. Trump and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the ICE officer acted in self-defence, while Democratic officials said the Trump administration was lying.
In the aftermath, Noem called Good's action's "domestic terrorism." Trump told the New York Times that Good "behaved horribly." Vice-President JD Vance described Good's death as "a tragedy of her own making," and further described her as a "deranged leftist."
The New York Post, in a headline, described Good as a "Warrior of the Left." A Fox News host, in a news story identifying Good as the victim, called her "a self-proclaimed poet from Colorado with pronouns in her bio."
On X, conservative talk radio host Erick Erickson called Good an "AWFUL (Affluent White Female Urban Liberal), adding "progressive whites are turning violent." And then, on Sunday, Fox's Marcus wrote about "deluded wine moms" committing "deadly crimes."
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