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Covington, Buzzfeed, and the End of Patience as a Virtue in America
The ability of social media to elevate the smallest of issues into national controversies has been well documented. But the past few days has done more to show the ability of social media in mutating stories into false narratives that do damage to the nation as a whole.
On Saturday, a group of students from Covington Catholic High School in Kentucky was on the National Mall in front of the Lincoln Memorial, part of their trip to the nation’s capital to participate in the March for Life. They were met by numerous Progressive activists, including a number of African American Black Hebrew Israelite protesters, and several Native American activists. Among those activists were Omaha elder Nathan Phillips, who confronted the students while banging on his drum. The students then stood their ground and were later accused of taunting him and other participants. Philips later recounted that he became upset while watching the Black Hebrew Israelites make speeches. He stated that more and more Covington students arrived and were then “in the process of attacking these four black individuals,” according to Philips.
The story was quickly latched on to by mainstream media accounts on Twitter and elsewhere, and the story exploded from there.
If only that had been the full story.
As is the norm these days, more and more videos of the incident trickled out in the hours following the initial mob fury on Twitter. Slowly, one thing became more and more apparent: the story that the media had latched on, as told by Nathan Phillips, was at the very least inaccurate, and at worst, grossly disingenuous.
In an update on Reason.com Sunday, Robby Soave describes the different picture the new evidence, in totality, paints of what actually occurred:
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.
Phillips put himself between the teens and the black nationalists, chanting and drumming as he marched straight into the middle of the group of young people. What followed was several minutes of confusion: The teens couldn’t quite decide whether Phillips was on their side or not, but tentatively joined in his chanting. It’s not at all clear this was intended as an act of mockery rather than solidarity.
One student did not get out of Phillips way as he marched, and gave the man a hard stare and a smile that many have described as creepy. This moment received the most media coverage: The teen has been called the product of a “hate factory” and likened to a school shooter, segregation-era racist, and member of the Ku Klux Klan. I have no idea what he was thinking, but portraying this as an example of obvious, racially-motivated hate is a stretch. Maybe he simply had no idea why this man was drumming in his face, and couldn’t quite figure out the best response? It bears repeating that Phillips approached him, not the other way around.
And that’s all there is to it. Phillips walked away after several minutes, the Black Hebrew Israelites continued to insult the crowd, and nothing else happened.
This is another example in a long line of embarrassing examples in recent years where journalists, whose primary job is to verify and prove the facts and truths of the situation, failed totally in their mission. CNN, the Washington Post, and other mainstream outlets led with the story, without ever truly verifying it. They quickly accepted a narrative they were biased into believing (that MAGA hat wearing white teenagers clearly were racists and the instigators) instead of spending even a few moments interviewing those same teenagers and getting a second viewpoint on what was clearly a contentious interaction on the National Mall.
And before I go too far out on a limb, I want to quickly admit I fully admit I don’t know if this is the full story as well. We could absolutely wake up 24 hours from now, and have a new narrative for the story.
But the inability of the mainstream press to do their due diligence in stories like this has become a cultural epidemic. In the 12 hours between the beginning of this controversy to the point where a factual push back started (started not by journalists, but average Twitter users who saw flaws in the initial story), people on Twitter, mostly from the political Left, started doxxing the students involved, started calling for violence against these kids, and were voicing the intention of activists to protest at their school, hopes that the students would be expelled. The intensity of the anger even caused the Covington local Catholic diocese to put out a statement denouncing the events, apologizing to Philips, and promising swift punishment to their students…punishment now that seems to be either unnecessary or in need of severe tempering.
If this had been the only episode this week where the media had rushed to judgment and fallen flat on its face, that would be bad enough. But this was at the very least the second episode of such incompetence in the last 24 hours.
The previous story had to do with Buzzfeed’s apparent blockbuster report this week, stating that they had rock solid, documented proof that President Donald Trump told his then lawyer Michael Cohen to lie in testimony to Congress, regarding his investments in Russia.
If true, this would be the first clear evidence that Trump had committed impeachable offenses; offenses that even his allies in the GOP would be hard-pressed to ignore.
For 24 hours, the liberal news networks poured over the various possibilities. Would Trump resign? Would Democrats impeach him in the next few weeks? Who were the Republican Senators who would cross party lines to convict Trump in the Senate, and oust him from office? The possibilities were endless.
Only one problem: the story seems untrue; or at the very least, flawed.
24 hours into the liberal political orgy, no less than our liberal hero of the moment, special counsel Robert Mueller, poured the largest bucket of ice water in recent political memory over the entire story.
Mueller’s office, in an unprecedented move, publicly rebuked the Buzzfeed story:
“BuzzFeed’s description of specific statements to the special counsel’s office, and characterization of documents and testimony obtained by this office, regarding Michael Cohen’s congressional testimony are not accurate.”
From the normally tight-lipped Mueller probe, who has been reticent to leak any detail of their investigation whatsoever, such a statement is profound, and had to be taken with a great amount of seriousness.
Moving past the facts of this case, the reality once again was journalists marching far out on a limb to promote a story that they themselves had not verified.
Both the Covington story above and the Buzzfeed story below illustrate this point; a point that time and again gets our media into trouble. The failure of journalists to rely on their own reporting skills, and their own ability to verify facts and details of stories, undermines their credibility.
The Buzzfeed story, because of its specifics, would be far harder for most journalists to verify; but even in that case, a little bit of patience before latching on to a story accusing the President of the United States of lying to obstruct justice might be well founded. In fact, a wise man would argue that the larger the accusation, the more reticent journalists should be in blindly accepting the basic underlying facts of the story.
The story about the Covington students, on the other hand, just simply shows the gross incompetence of our media personalities these days. Multiple outlets rushed to interview Mr. Phillips, in their absolute certainty that he was the victim. The possibility that a bunch of white teenagers bearing MAGA hats may not have been the culprits never dawned on them. And their blindness to that possibility prevented them from taking the simple step of calling these students and asking for their version of events. A short call would have allowed them to receive the videos that we now all have, that undermine the story Mr. Phillips initially told.
Of course, much of the blame for all this is the influence social media has not only on our journalistic class but on all of us as individuals. I fully admit that I sometimes react to stories far quicker than I would have if I never spent time on Twitter. We all must bear responsibility for those actions, which do a lot to undermine the fact-checking process in our society.
But journalists must also carry the majority of the blame. Their very raison d’etre is to be the professional class that verifies truth and facts objectively, with a calm, rational approach that puts aside emotional and personal interests in the cause for truth. They keep failing in this regard, and thus, continue to undermine the very profession they are trying to defend.
In this sense, our ancestors understood the reality better than we do. Patience used to be a commonly accepted virtue. Leo Tolstoy stated, “The two most powerful warriors are patience and time.” In our modern society, we have given up both in lieu of speed and publicity. The rapid turnabout on social media undermines the wisdom garnered by being patient. Maybe all of us, especially journalists, should start to learn a little humbleness, and once again claim that virtue for our own benefit.
Published in General
What are the odds that a bunch of high school kids are gonna have the financial resources to mount such a lawsuit?
What are the odds a bunch of private school kids have families who can mount such a lawsuit?
And lawyers are doing it pro bono.
Funny how, when anyone tried to point out some of the things about David Hogg that didn’t add up, they were berated for it because “he’s only 17.”
Michael Mann has wealthy friends.
What she said. The legal filings are going to epic too. I can’t wait for the YouTube lawsplainers.
Sorry. I don’t buy it that the journalists didn’t see the flaws in the Covington story. What they didn’t see , as they reported what they wanted us to believe, is that average twitter users would see the flaws in the story.
I agree. It’s too much like that doctored video that made Trump look like he refused to shake the little boy’s hand How do they think they’ll get away with this stuff in the digital age when the average middle school kid can spot it?
Arrogance. It sometimes so controls them that it makes them stupidly oveconfident.
Evita Yuri que dinosaurio entre a su baño
Couldn’t agree more.
The magazine and website is not the same as the author of a post, anymore than Ricochet is Clifford A. Brown or me.
I’ve got something the media can do:
-Has Nathan Phillips’ affiliation with any tribe been verified? Okay, he looks Indian, is that all you need, you racists?
-Has anyone seen this cat’s DD 214? He could be a Vietnam vet, or he could he be (more likely, given the integrity violations he is now documented to have committed in the past) the Richard Blumenthal of the Tribes?
I’m not sure, but it might be that they gain caste from finding ways to hate Trump and his followers, which makes it worth any risk.
Disparate impact. Other than VDH or Conrad Black (maybe Andy McCarthy), who hasn’t infected NR with TDS ?
Gosh dang, Boss, the Washington Post could sure use you!
You’re wrong, of course.
History shows that to achieve a reform like this – or one of even greater magnitude – only takes five people.
Because they always get away with it, that’s how.
There will be no consequences for their bad behavior.
If your children or business partners act badly and you catch them in the act, what will happen if you take no corrective action, if all you do is complain?
I wager they’ll do it again.
And again.
“Democrats are always the party of the mob. The only thing that changes is which mob they’re supporting.”
Ann Coulter in “Demonic.”
Me? My next column is all about the media jumping on a patently absurd allegation against Trump. Honest to God, there are no top-down editorial directives. I say this until I am blue-faced.
Far as I know, you are not the editor in chief or deputy managing editor of Ricochet.
Are you insulting @matede’s favorite senator?
Paging @bossmongo
Good post. On a side note, I’m astonished at the amount of time and energy this has consumed over the past few days. It seems to be 90% of Twitter this morning, still. What it boils down to is: Some protestors may or may not have gotten into a verbal altercation. Sometimes I think the biggest problem we have in the US is that we have no real problems, so we have to invent some. Especially when we have to sell ad time on our programs.
Except… this does lead to real, life altering, and destructive problems for people involved in it.
If these boys were Jews, we’d be pointing out the preceding years to the holocaust, but because they are white, we think nothings going to get worse.
I don’t know where this attitude towards white boys and men is going to go, but to deny it is a problem with long term consequences shows you really aren’t paying very close attention to the patterns.
And no, this wasn’t about Trump and his supporters. Its about white boys and men.
We are moving out of dehumanization into open harassment and social castigating that results in loss of access to education and work. That is long term consequences, not just for those boys, but society as a whole.
As I say here, the Conservatives who jumped on the media bandwagon to railroad that smiling kid are a disgrace. This was not just Liberal media. Actually both issues were wrongly taken up by some in conservative circles.
Huh?
Get on board the hierarchy. The new left is all in favor of completing the work of the Holocaust. Note the main instigators were “Black Hebrew Israelites”. Depending on what sect, their attitude toward people you regard as Jews ranges between “thank you for preserving the culture you stole from us, now go away” to “we’ll kill you”.
“We” is the right (mostly pundits, but largely the commentariat still). But they aren’t Jews being attacked. They are white. And the right has a problem acknowledging that white boys and men are under attack (see, that word is going to be pedantically argued because no one physically assaulted the boys).
Outside of the dissident right, people are largely uncaring about the treatment of white men in this country even though we tolerate far less when it comes to other groups.
But the article was not in the comment section of National Review. It was done by one of the editors who represents National Review. National Review is legally liable for those words.
I think there’s a non-trivial possibility that a lawyer would be willing to consider this for a portion of the potentially large damages payout (contingency fee is not just for personal injury auto accidents).
These kids were not “public figures” and the New York Times and other “news” outlets exhibited a flagrant disregard for actual truth, so the First Amendment defense is not going to do the “news” organizations a lot of good.
The legal challenge would be establishing the causation connection between what the major (i.e., moneyed) news organizations said and the harm suffered by the students and their families. Was it just a social media pile-on by a bunch of unconnected individuals, or was the social media pile-on and future problems (students’ future inability to get jobs, families’ having to hire security, family members losing jobs, etc.) caused by the promulgation of the story by the New York Times, the Washington Post, etc.?
It would not be difficult to develop a potential for very significant dollar compensation damages for the families of the affected students (not just the ones involved, but the ones erroneously identified as involved). A portion of those dollars may be enough to attract some decent legal involvement.
I gotta agree with @drewinwisconsin. This was about the hats. No MAGA hats, no story. If these white boys had been wearing balaclavas with anarchist symbols on their jackets, do you think either the black or Indian agitators would have approached them? Doubtful.
America, honey. Wake up! We’re at war, we just haven’t sustained fatalities yet — although we’ve come close (Steve Scalise). When my friend and I spoke after Mass one Sunday ten or fifteen years ago about our kids potentially being of the generation of modern American martyrs, we didn’t know we were being prophetic. But, it seems more likely every day.