
Andy Ngo

Andy Cuong Ngô ( ; born ) is an American conservative journalist and social media personality known for covering and video-recording demonstrators. He is the editor-at-large of "The Post Millennial", a Canadian conservative news website. Ngô is a regular guest on Fox News and has published columns in outlets such as the "Wall Street Journal" and "The Spectator". 
Ngô's coverage of anti-fascist groups and Muslims has been controversial, and the accuracy and credibility of his reporting have been disputed. He has been widely accused of sharing misleading and selectively edited videos, described as a provocateur, and accused of having links with militant right-wing groups in Portland.
Early life and education.
Ngô was born and raised in Portland, Oregon. His parents fled Vietnam in 1978 as Vietnamese boat people after they had been forced into labor and reeducation camps by the communist government. His mother came from an educated middle-class family that ran a jewelry business. His father had been a police officer in a small coastal town in Vietnam. His parents first met amid a six-month stay at a UNHCR refugee camp near Tanjung Pinang, Indonesia, prior to their arrival in the United States in 1979. 
Raised in a Buddhist family, Ngô converted to Christianity in high school. After a period of time as an evangelical Christian, he became disillusioned and took an interest in skepticism. He subsequently became an atheist and was strongly against organized religion, which was reflected in his social media activity in the form of "inflammatory language". 
While attending the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Ngô volunteered with AmeriCorps. He graduated from UCLA in 2009 with a graphic design degree. After graduation, he experienced a period of unemployment and worked as a photographer at a used car dealership. In the mid 2010s, Ngo came out as gay while visiting relatives in rural Vietnam. He began volunteering as a photographer at the Center for Inquiry in Portland in 2013.
In 2015, Ngô enrolled in a master's program at Portland State University for political science, with a focus on international relations and comparative politics. While attending the school, he joined the Freethinkers of Portland State University, a student organization that worked closely with professor Peter Boghossian.
Ngô has been described as a disciple of James O'Keefe, the founder of Project Veritas, a right-wing activist group.
Career.
"The Vanguard" (2016-2017).
While enrolled at Portland State University (PSU), Ngô worked as a multimedia editor at "The Vanguard", a student newspaper. In 2017, Ngo drew national attention after he was let go from "The Vanguard" and accused the newspaper of firing him over his conservative political beliefs. After Ngo attended an April 26 interfaith panel at the university and used his personal account to tweet a video clip of the Muslim student's remarks, "Breitbart News" picked up and circulated his video within 24 hours which led to a "social media firestorm." Four days later, "The Vanguard"s editor, Colleen Leary, fired Ngô and stated that he was dismissed because his tweet was unethical, reflecting a reckless oversimplification and violation of journalistic ethics. According to Ngo, he was fired from the paper for political incorrectness, although he was not reporting for "The Vanguard" at the time. Leary considered his paraphrasing of the Muslim student's remarks be "a half-truth", meant to incite a reaction, and stated that the dismissal was "not partisan".
In May 2017, Ngô wrote an op-ed for the "National Review" titled "Fired for Reporting the Truth". He also engaged in online discussions about the incident and on the pro-Donald Trump subreddit /r/The Donald where he called the firing part of a "trend towards self-censorship in the name of political correctness". Leary reported that since the incident did not receive much attention on campus, it left her with questions about the relationship between "Breitbart" and Ngô. The Muslim student, whose comments Ngo shared by tweet, later said: "I thought I would feel proud after putting something like this [interfaith panel] together. Not feel like this."
Campus event coverage (2017–2018).
With his student group the Freethinkers of PSU, Ngo helped organize a January 2017 campus event with Dave Rubin, Peter Boghossian, and Christina Hoff Sommers. According to Ngo, Rose City Antifa used social media to launch a phone campaign aimed at administrators in an unsuccessful effort to shut down the event.
Ngo and the Freethinkers of PSU invited former Google engineer James Damore, author of a Google diversity memo, to speak on campus on February 17, 2018. Ngo published an op-ed in "the Wall Street Journal" on February 16, 2018, just before the event. "The Guardian" reported that no antifascist counter protest had been planned by Rose City Antifa and none had materialized. During the event, a portion of the audience walked out in protest. Afterwards, Ngo wrote an article about the incident for "Quillette", and the story was covered by YouTuber and political commentator Tim Pool.
As a PSU graduate student, Ngo filmed protests and a disruptive audience on March 5, 2018 when Christina Hoff Sommers, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute known for her criticism of the women's movement, spoke at an event at the Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland that was not open to the public. Ngo shared a video clip of students engaging in no-platforming tactics during Sommers talk. Ngo, who had covered protests at several talks given by Sommers, expressed interest in what he called "illiberal reactions" which he said restrict freedom of thought or behavior. 
Reporting in 2018.
On August 29, 2018, Ngo wrote an op-ed titled "A Visit to Islamic England" for "the Wall Street Journal". In the article, Ngo wrote of his experiences in two neighborhoods in East London, including visits to a mosque and an Islamic center. From these experiences, he concluded that London was afflicted with "failed multiculturalism". He mistakenly connected alcohol-free zones in parts of London to the Muslim-majority populations. Ngo was accused of Islamophobia and subsequently issued a correction. Alex Lockie from "Business Insider" criticized Ngo's article for "fear monger[ing] around England's Muslim population" and cherry-picking evidence, and for mischaracterizing the neighborhood near the East London Mosque. Steve Hopkins from "HuffPost" stated that "some of his [Ngo's] assertions have already been disproved".
In October 2018, Ngo started a podcast entitled "Things You Should Ngo". His interviewees included Jordan Peterson, Dave Rubin and Carl Benjamin (who uses the pen name "Sargon of Akkad" online).
Livestreaming Patriot Prayer rallies (2017–2019).
In 2017, Ngo began filming rallies held by Patriot Prayer, a Portland-area far-right group known for holding pro-gun, pro-Trump rallies that have devolved into violence and street fighting. The Patriot Prayer gatherings (whose early rallies were used by white nationalists as recruitment events) were met by Portland's anti-fascists and anarchists known to support direct action including violence. November 2018, Ngo live-streamed video coverage of the Him Too rally organized by a Patriot Prayer member in downtown Portland, and was sprayed with silly string and harassed by antifascist protesters. By 2019, Ngo was known to routinely attend and live-stream the events at Portland protests. 
May Day (2019).
On May 1, 2019, Ngo attended demonstrations and counter protests in Portland associated with International Workers Day or May Day. He reported being punched and blasted with bear spray while filming two separate May Day events, including a brawl between left-wing activists and members of Patriot Prayer, outside the Cider Riot pub. Bellingcat stated that Ngo's tweets framed the brawl as an unprovoked assault by anti-fascists. 
In August 2019, a video surfaced where Ngo was seen smiling and laughing at certain points while standing in the presence of members of Patriot Prayer on May 1, as they planned an attack on antifascists following the protests. He later followed the group on foot a few blocks to the Cider Riot bar, where Patriot Prayer members attacked the patrons. The video became part of court documents in a lawsuit against Patriot Prayer members for causing the riot. One of the victims of the attack was knocked unconscious with a baton and suffered a broken vertebra—Ngo later posted a video of her being attacked and identified her online. "Portland Mercury" quoted an undercover antifascist embedded in Patriot Prayer saying that Ngo had an "understanding" with the far-right group that the group "protects him and he protects them". Five members of Patriot Prayer, including the group's leader Joey Gibson, were indicted for felony riot for their actions on May Day.
Assault during coverage of the Proud Boys rally and counter protest (2019).
On June 29, 2019, Ngo covered protests at a rally organized by the far-right group Proud Boys in Portland. A group of counter-protesters also organized, some of whom physically attacked Ngo, who was present filming. Ngo was punched in the head, kicked and hit with at least one milkshake. He blamed his injuries on antifa counter-protesters. No individual attackers were identified. He walked away and reported what happened in a livestream, during which a medic arrived to check on him. The video of the June 29 incident where Ngo was assaulted by masked demonstrators went viral and led the Proud Boys, a group designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, to organize a follow up event in Portland known as the End Domestic Terrorism rally for August 17, 2019.
As a result of the attack, medical examiners determined that Ngo suffered a subarachnoid hemorrhage. He retained attorney Harmeet Dhillon to investigate the response of the Portland Police Bureau.
Following Ngo's attack, Texas Senator Ted Cruz called on federal authorities to investigate Ted Wheeler, Portland's mayor and police commissioner. Democratic Party presidential candidate Andrew Yang wished Ngo a speedy recovery. Relying on an unnamed Proud Boys member, the Portland-based newspaper "Willamette Week" said the attack on Ngo "happened because he ignored Proud Boys' offer of protection". "BuzzFeed News" reported that "[Ngo]'s literal brand is that anti-fascists are violent and loathe him", adding that he "has been building to a dramatic confrontation with the Portland far left for months, his star rising along with the severity of the encounters...[Ngo] is willing to make himself the story and to stream himself doing it. He proceeds from a worldview and seeks to confirm it, without asking to what degree his coverage becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy". Broader analysis of media coverage following Ngo's attack (including essays by "Commentary" and "the Atlantic"")" each expressed criticism of the opposing political viewpoint.
Patriot Prayer video and departure from "Quillette" (2019).
On August 26, 2019, the "Portland Mercury" reported on a video where Ngo was seen laughing at certain points while walking with members of Patriot Prayer as they planned an attack on antifascists. The "Portland Mercury"'s Alex Zilenski stated "there's no way [Ngo] couldn't know the group was planning on instigating violence." Later during the day on August 26, Ngo's name was deleted from "Quillette"s masthead, and the site from Ngo's Twitter feed. The editor of "Quillette", Claire Lehmann, told "The Daily Beast" that the two developments were not linked and that Ngo had left the website several weeks earlier. After publication of its story, the "Portland Mercury" published a letter from Ngo's lawyer seeking retraction of the newspaper's "false and inherently defamatory statements." The "Mercury" stood by its reporting. On August 30, "Spectator USA" published an article by Ngo in which he stated he did not know about the far-right group planning the attack, that he "[only] caught snippets of various conversations" and "was preoccupied on [his] phone", describing the accusations as "lies".
Later work (2019-2021).
In 2019, Ngo published a series in the "New York Post" alleging numerous hate crimes reported to police in Portland, Oregon had been faked. He contributed articles to the online magazine "Quillette" where he was described as a sub-editor and photojournalist for the publication at the time of his departure in August 2019.
In June 2020 it was reported that Ngo was with "The Post Millennial", a conservative Canadian news website. Ngo describes himself as the editor-at-large for "The Post Millennial". He has been a regular guest on Fox News where he has expressed his concerns about the dangers posed by the left on at least two dozen occasions as of February 2021.
Ngo has written several opinion articles for "The Wall Street Journal". In July 2020, Ngo's reporting was among the concerns listed in a letter, penned by nearly 300 of "The Journal’s" newsroom staff members to the paper’s publisher, that condemned the opinion desk’s “lack of fact-checking and transparency.”
Several media outlets, including "The Oregonian" and "Rolling Stone" have been critical of Ngo and described him as a "right-wing provocateur". "BuzzFeed News" said that "Ngo's work is probably best described as media activism" and that he engages in "participant reporting". "New York" magazine cites Ngo as an example of "busybody journalism." In April 2019, the conservative news and opinion website "The Bulwark" stated that some of Ngo's tweets "were so obscure they smacked of outrage mining" following the fires at the Notre-Dame cathedral.
"Unmasked".
During the week of January 10, 2021, the online pre-sale of Ngo's first book, "Unmasked: Inside Antifa's Radical Plan to Destroy Democracy", was met with a small group of protestors who demonstrated outside the flagship Powell's Books in Portland, Oregon. The bookseller, which offered the book for sale online, chose not to promote "Unmasked" or physically stock it in their stores. Although the book was panned by critics for containing misleading claims and factual inaccuracies, it rose to become "one of the most popular political titles on Amazon before its release." 
In the "Los Angeles Times", Alexander Nazaryan reviewed "Unmasked" as a "supremely dishonest new book on the left-wing anti-fascist movement known as antifa". According to Nazaryan, Ngo wrote that his parents' immigration from Vietnam led him to describe his book as "a letter of gratitude to the nation" that made them welcome, as against the leftists who, he claims, wish to destroy it. "As an immigrant from a communist country", Nazaryan wrote, "I understand the sentiment. As a journalist, however, I must point out that he is churning out the very kind [of] propaganda that keeps authoritarians in power."
Upon release, "Unmasked" became an Amazon bestseller. For the week of February 14, 2021 "Unmasked" was listed as the top national bestseller in hardcover nonfiction by "Publishers Weekly" and appeared as number three on "The New York Times" Best Seller list for nonfiction.
Social media influence.
Ngo's actions and role in covering issues (particularly civil unrest in Portland, Oregon following the murder of George Floyd) have received media attention. In December 2019, "The Oregonian" named Ngo one of 2019's Top 15 Newsmakers citing events that included his attack, his surge in prominence within conservative circles, and his circulation of "heavily edited videos of several altercations to his then-270,000 Twitter followers, racking up millions of views online while spreading inaccurate claims and limited context about what transpired." President Trump began to mention Ngo at his rallies in July 2019. 
In August 2020, The Southern Poverty Law Center said in an interview with philosopher and "How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them" author Jason Stanley that Ngo had been caught misrepresenting facts and that "what he says goes substantially viral after that." Stanley contended that Ngo promotes a "false equivalence [between left and right political violence in the U.S.], when there's no such equivalence at all", noting that hundreds of Americans had been killed in far-right violence since 1990 while Antifa had not been responsible for any lives lost (as of August 27, 2020 - the date the interview was published).
Writing for "MIT Technology Review" in September 2020, Harvard University faculty member Joan Donovan addressed the use of video in social media to encourage an outrage response, stating that Ngo was one of two right-wing adversarial media-makers promoting "riot porn" consisting of videos of conflict at public protests that are edited, decontextualized, and shared among online followers.
By October 2020, "Politico" reported Ngo had established approximately 800,000 social media followers and had become a mega influencer that was a "key source for rightwing audiences in search of news about the Black Lives Matter movement."
Ngo's viral video content was recirculated by President Trump following the Million MAGA March in November 2020.
Doxxing.
In 2019, Ngo labelled several journalists, including Shane Burley and Alexander Reid Ross, as "antifa ideologues". According to "Vox"s Zack Beauchamp, Ngo doxed a political activist in 2019 by publishing her full name. Ngo is known for publishing the mugshots of arrestees in Portland to his twitter account.
Credibility.
Ngo's credibility and objectivity as a journalist has been extensively criticized. Since 2019, he has been accused of using selectively edited videos and sharing misleading and inaccurate information to paint antifa activists as violent, and to underplay the violence of the far-right, with "Columbia Journalism Review" describing Ngo as a "discredited provocateur". Some of Ngo's contentions about antifa have been rated as "false" by fact-checker Politifact. Several sources have declined to refer to Ngo as a "journalist". Philosopher Jason Stanley contended in an interview with the Southern Poverty Law Center that Ngo promotes a false equivalence between left and right-wing political violence in the U.S.
Ngo has also attracted criticism for allegedly associating with the same far-right groups that he purports to report on. After Ngo was assaulted by left-wing protestors in Portland in 2019, the Portland-based newspaper "Willamette Week" quoted an unnamed Proud Boys member as saying that the attack on Ngo "happened because he ignored Proud Boys' offer of protection". The paper further asserted "it is increasingly clear [Ngo] is coordinating his movements and his message with right-wing groups".
Ngo's brand of journalism has been referred to as "busybody journalism", and it has been contended that Ngo seeks to provoke left-wing violence. "BuzzFeed News" reported that "[Ngo]'s literal brand is that anti-fascists are violent and loathe him", adding that he "has been building to a dramatic confrontation with the Portland far left for months, his star rising along with the severity of the encounters...[Ngo] is willing to make himself the story and to stream himself doing it. He proceeds from a worldview and seeks to confirm it, without asking to what degree his coverage becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy". Conversely, California State University extremism expert Brian Levin stated that Ngo was "a political pundit who certainly makes the most out of his conflicts, which sometimes turn violent on him...But to his credit, I’ve never seen him be the physical aggressor in the posts that he's made generally.”
Legal actions.
In June 2020, Ngo sued individuals allegedly associated with antifa, seeking $900,000 in damages for assault and emotional distress, and an injunction to prevent further harassment. The lawsuit, filed by Ngo's personal attorney Harmeet Dhillon, a national Republican operative who served as a legal adviser to Trump's re-election campaign, cites Rose City Antifa, five other named defendants, and additional unknown assailants. The suit stems from multiple alleged attacks on Ngo in Portland during 2019: at a demonstration on May 1; at his local gym on May 7; and during a protest on June 29. In particular, the suit accuses Rose City Antifa of a "pattern of racketeering activities". On December 15, 2020, a Multnomah County judge denied a special motion to strike down the suit.
Ngo has been invited by Republican lawmakers to testify before Congress on several occasions. On August 4, 2020, he provided testimony at a United States Senate Judiciary subcommittee titled "The Right of the People Peaceably to Assemble: Protecting Speech by Stopping Anarchist Violence." "Fox News" reported that Ngo disputed media coverage of protests and criticized Democrats for not condemning Antifa for violence in Portland. However, prosecutors focused only on criminal conduct and did not provide evidence that any of the people arrested in Portland were linked to Antifa. The Southern Poverty Law Center stated that Ngo has been a vocal proponent of listing antifa as a terrorist organization. 
On February 24, 2021 Ngo provided testimony at the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security following the January 6 attack on the U.S. capitol. During the congressional hearing which focused on the rise of domestic terrorism in the United States, lawmakers denounced the insurrection that left five dead but they diverged on how to address the problem. Democratic lawmakers condemned false equivalencies and raised concerns about white supremacist violence and homegrown extremism, whereas Ngo, the sole witness called by Republicans, suggested the media was at fault for failing to criticize the looting and rioting that occurred after the murder of George Floyd.
Personal life.
Ngo considers himself to be politically center-right. One source describes him as right-wing and conservative. "The Oregonian" reported in 2021 that Ngo relocated to London, citing concerns for his personal safety. A Portland Police Bureau spokesman confirmed that Ngo filed at least 10 police reports about threats made to him or his family since June 2020.