Thanks to the sloppy, one-sided reporting of the malicious, agenda-driven media, a group of Catholic high school teenagers and their families have become the subjects of threats and harassment from a hateful online outrage mob. Their only sins? Being white, Catholic, and supporters of the president.
The full story has emerged in the wake of the fake news blitzkrieg over the weekend, and the media outlets that spread defamatory smears against the kids are now being warned to correct and retract their stories or face a lawsuit. Contrary to the media’s malicious narrative, the kids were not racist rednecks mobbing a Native American elder with hateful slurs. It was quite the opposite.
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Video evidence and statements from multiple witnesses indicate that the boys were targeted by two groups of protesters who hurled hateful, racial, homophobic slurs at them while they waited on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial for their bus after participating in the March for Life.
It was while they were waiting for their bus that a black separatist fringe group known for making outrageous, racist, anti-gay statements went on a lengthy tirade against them.
Reason’s Robby Soave provided some background on the Black Hebrew Israelites in his report yesterday:
Far from engaging in racially motivated harassment, the group of mostly white, MAGA-hat-wearing male teenagers remained relatively calm and restrained despite being subjected to incessant racist, homophobic, and bigoted verbal abuse by members of the bizarre religious sect Black Hebrew Israelites, who were lurking nearby. The BHI has existed since the late 19th century, and is best describes as a black nationalist cult movement; its members believe they are descendants of the ancient Israelites, and often express condemnation of white people, Christians, and gays. DC-area Black Hebrews are known to spout particularly vile bigotry.
The BHI members shouted profanities at the boys, calling them names such as “cracker,” “faggot,” and “pedophile,” and singled out a black student for abuse, saying he was a “n*gger” who was going to be murdered and have his organs harvested by the white kids.
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Incredibly, virtually all the major media outlets got it wrong. Their own confirmation bias led them to tell a completely different story over the weekend, basing their reportage on the dubious claims of Nathan Phillips without bothering to verify his claims and without seeking to hear the Covington teens’ side of the story.
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Without video evidence, the media reported Phillips’ claim that the students subjected him to racist taunts and chanted “Build the Wall.” In all the hours of video available online, no footage has emerged of the kids doing any such thing.
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But the video footage taken by the black nationalists themselves does not show the white teenagers attacking them. It shows the BHI members targeting the Catholic kids with verbal abuse. Nevertheless, Phillips described the innocent kids as “beasts” and the black extremists who insulted him as “their prey.”
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Again, the video evidence shows the opposite to be true. The “beasts” were the BHI members and the Catholic teenagers were their “prey.”
How hard would it have been for the media to find the full video, which was already online, to verify Phillips’ assertions before running with them? Nothing Phillips was alleging could be corroborated in the viral video clip of Phillips and the smiling teenager, but they reported his claims as gospel anyway.
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Unfortunately, like practically everyone else, the boys’ own school threw them under the bus before all the facts were in, The Federalist noted:
No sooner had the boys gotten on their bus than they were thrown under it by their school and the Covington diocese, who issued a joint statement condemning the students’ actions and saying the matter was under investigation that appropriate action would be taken. Um, if the matter is under investigation, doesn’t that suggest it might be good to wait before condemning the behavior? Could it be that there’s more to the story than a short, viral video?
The school and the diocese owed these boys a full hearing before coming to any conclusion. They now owe them an apology.
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