Liberal media fabricated story to destroy teenage boys
By Jeffrey T. Kuhner
One of the most reprehensible scandals is now roiling the liberal media. And hopefully, it is a turning point in how America views our corrupt and dishonest press.
A four-minute video went viral over the weekend, purporting to show Covington Catholic High School students taunting and mocking a Native American activist and Vietnam War veteran. The students, some of them wearing MAGA hats, had come from Kentucky to participate in the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C. They were waiting for their bus at the Lincoln Memorial. The video footage seemed to depict Nick Sandmann arrogantly smirking at Nathan Phillips, who was beating his war drum an inch from the Covington junior’s face. For the left, the confrontation embodied the supposed racism and cultural rot at the heart of Trump’s America.
The reaction on social media was fast and furious. On Twitter, a liberal lynch mob formed attacking the Covington students as vile racists who reeked of “white privilege” and “fascist,” “colonialist” impulses. The students, especially Sandmann, became the victims of countless death threats and Doxxing—the pernicious practice of making their personal information (including their full names and home addresses) public on the Internet. A Hollywood producer urged supporters to murder the kids by stuffing them down a wood chipper (MAGA hats first); a Los Angeles DJ called for people to burn the students alive inside their school; another liberal activist offered a $1,000 for anyone who would shoot them “on site”; best-selling leftist author Reza Aslan tweeted that Sandmann had a “punchable face”; and numerous other liberals demanded that activists contact every university or college Covington students had applied to and urge those institutions to reject them. The result is that Covington High School—out of fear for student safety—had to cancel classes on Tuesday.
Moreover, even those who should’ve supported the students or at least wait until all the evidence had been examined decided to throw the boys under the bus. The school in a joint statement with the Covington Diocese “condemned” their alleged “racist” behavior, calling for the teenagers to be severely punished—including expulsion.
There is only one problem: The entire incident was fabricated. It was based on a pack of lies; a classic example of media malpractice and manipulation. Spearheaded by the Washington Post, the New York Times and CNN, the story/video were deceptively (and deliberately) edited to make Phillips and his band of Native American activists seem the victim, while the Covington students—white, male, Catholic and pro-Trump—played the evil villain. The very opposite was true. After looking at the much longer two-hour video, the media’s lies and propaganda were exposed.
What the longer video footage revealed was shocking and damning—black nationalist activists had hurled despicable racist and homophobic slurs at the students, not the other way around; the Covington boys never—not once—chanted “build that wall” (as the media repeatedly claimed); Nathan Phillips approached and harassed them, beating his drum in a provocative, bellicose manner; and it was Phillips and his Native American radical left-wing activists, who repeatedly insulted the Covington teens, telling them to “go back to Europe” and that they should be ashamed to be “white.” The adults were the bullies and the racist thugs, not the students. In fact, the Covington boys—and Sandmann in particular—were completely innocent. The footage was indisputable: They were the victims, Phillips the aggressor.
Moreover, the media also lied about Phillips’ military status. He never served in Vietnam. And the media knew it. Phillips told them he was deployed to Vietnam in 1976. The war ended in 1975; U.S. forces had been pulled out in 1973. It was impossible for him to have been in Vietnam. Yet, CNN and the Post perpetuated the lie in order to make Phillips appear more sympathetic and the students more vile. The media’s propaganda was not simply odious, but Orwellian. It is the kind of media mendacity reminiscent of totalitarian regimes, such as Soviet Russia or Nazi Germany. White is black, and black is white.
The damage has already been done. The students’ lives have been permanently upended. They are in mortal fear. Many will likely face depression or psychological issues because of the immense pressure and physical threats they have had to endure. They are the victims of liberal cyber-bullying. Many will always wonder if they are denied a job or acceptance at a university whether it was due to a Google search by an employer or administrator who only read the initial false stories. Their names will live on in infamy on the Internet.
Enough is enough. The students (and their parents) should sue the liberal media outlets that manufactured and pushed this character assassination attempt, as well as the diocese and the school. Our media and cultural elites must be taught a lesson that there will be a big price to be paid for libel and defamation. The only way the Fake News media will be brought to heel is if their abuse of power comes at a high cost. Sue them into financial oblivion.
-Jeffrey T. Kuhner is host of “The Kuhner Report” on WRKO AM-680 in Boston. His daily show airs 6:00-10:00 am EST. He can be reached at: jeffreykuhner@iheartmedia.com