Oops: PBS Story on Trump Supporters Didn't Notice White Supremacist Tattoos
PBS NewsHour on Wednesday night ran a story about a North Carolina family who has banded together to support Donald Trump’s campaign. There was just one tiny detail PBS overlooked in its portrayal of the family’s foray into politics – one member’s white supremacist tattoos.
In the feature Grace, one of the members of the Tilly family of Fayetteville, North Carolina, and a key character in the story, is shown phone banking for Trump. Plainly visible on her right hand is a large tattoo of a certain version of the Celtic Cross that the Anti-Defamation League describes as one of the most “commonly used white supremacist symbols.”
Mark Pitcavage, senior research fellow at the ADL, tells Gawker: “The Celtic Cross is an ancient and revered Christian symbol typically not associated with extremism at all. However, one particular version of the Celtic Cross – a squarish cross with a thick circle intersecting with it (also known as Odin’s Cross), has become one of the most popular white supremacist symbols around. In the past 20 years, its popularity has done little but grow, thanks to its use as the logo by Stormfront, the largest white supremacist website in the world.”
On Grace’s left hand is a tattoo of the number 88, which according to the Anti-Defamation League is a white supremacist numerical code for “Heil Hitler.”
This is not the first time Trump’s name has been linked to the gesture of obedience to Adolf Hitler – the GOP front-runner’s call for supporters to take a raised-arm loyalty pledge at rallies earlier this month was criticized as too similar to a Nazi salute.
PBS never acknowledges Grace’s tattoos or their connections to white supremacism in the story.
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