The story of ecoterrorists who are defacing art in order to bring attention to themselves has now taken a strange twist, and it now involves the Washington Post.

As readers to this blog will know, there have been a rash of “climate activists” deciding to vandalize famous and irreplaceable artworks in order to “protest” climate change. We’ve seen one of Van Gogh’s Sunflowers smeared with tomato soup, the glass in front of the Mona Lisa pelted with cake, and other morons gluing themselves to the frames of other famous art pieces in Great Britain and Europe. This last April, these vandals showed up to the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. and vandalized Edgar Degas’s “Little Dancer Aged Fourteen” sculpture.

The group that took responsibility is called “Declare Emergency,” and they had a camera on hand to film the whole thing, which then other media used in their coverage of the vandalism. Except the Washington Post. They had both a tweet (with video) and an article about the eco-vandals out in record time on the day it happened.

Well, the two eco-vandals were arrested and charged yesterday, but now the Washington Post has been implicated in the crime. According to the indictment from the grand jury, the “Declare Emergency” group alerted a member of the media that this vandalism was going to happen (noted on page two of the indictment), and somehow, there was a Washington Post camera RIGHT THERE filming the whole thing. And apparently a New York Times reporter called out a Washington Post reporter on the DAY this went down for being conveniently “present” at the National Gallery of Art.

The involvement of a Washington Post staffer was speculated at the time by a former NY Times climate reporter. Crimes?

Yikes! pic.twitter.com/pJaIQXVNWN

— Ryan Maue (@RyanMaue) May 27, 2023

The local news gets into more detail about the involvement of Post reporters.

Timothy Martin of North Carolina and Joanna Smith of New York, both 53, were charged with conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States and injury to a National Gallery of Art exhibit.”

According to the indictment, Martin and Smith had planned to injure the exhibit when they entered the National Gallery and brought plastic water bottles filled with paint. The indictment outlines how they handed their phones to co-conspirators before smearing paint on the case and base of the sculpture’s exhibit, at times smacking the glass case. Washington Post reporters alerted about the attack filmed and photographed the offense.”

Smith and Martin caused approximately $2,400 in damage, and the exhibit was removed from public display for 10 days for repairs, according to the indictment. The Washington Post reported that it’s staff reporters were initially subjected to a potential arrest but, after speaking with attorneys, they were not detained. District police have not commented on the report.”

*insert record scratch sound here*

WHOA WHOA WHOA, back up. “The Washington Post reported that it’s staff reporters were initially subjected to a potential arrest but, after speaking with attorneys, they were not detained.” EXCUSE ME? SOMEONE had been TIPPED OFF that this vandalism was going to happen, and apparently Washington Post ethics allow for their employees to show up with cameras in hand to cover the crime live and in person, but NOT to prevent it from happening in the first place??? Yes, this was “only” vandalism. But let’s look how far that ethical decision might stretch in order to get a news scoop and the video footage to go with it. Say that a group decides to attack a political rally, but tips off a media outlet beforehand to make sure it gets covered immediately. Is the media outlet ethically obligated to alert the authorities? Apparently, if you work for the Washington Post, NOPE. And HOW the hell did they manage to avoid arrest???

Now, will the “media member” who was tipped off be eventually indicted as part of a conspiracy? The investigation is not over, and it turns out this “Declare Emergency” group has some friends with deep pockets.

The Declare Emergency climate group was spawned and financed by the Climate Emergency Fund out of California. The outfit also funds the Last Generation in Europe and Just Stop Oil & who knows what else overseas. German authorities wrapped up the Last Generation on eco-terrorism…

— Ryan Maue (@RyanMaue) May 27, 2023

The “Just Stop Oil” group is the one responsible for the Van Gogh defacing, along with others, in London. So this is apparently a very connected movement, who are allegedly all getting funding from the same place.

The Washington Post has some explaining to do. First, WHO was the “media member” that got contacted by “Declare Emergency”? Was it the person that the NYT reporter called out on Twitter? Second, were the staff reporters actually arrested, or were they going to be until lawyers got involved? And whose lawyers got involved? Did the Washington Post provide lawyers to cover the butts of their staff reporters? And finally, are any of these reporters going to be fired for their ethical lapses? Or is this all just part of a day’s work to the WaPo?

Featured image via Michael Fleischhacker on Wikimedia Commons, cropped, public domain