John Hawkins: The Fake 'MAGA Kid Bullies Native American' Scandal Should Be a Wake-up Call for the Media
On Friday, the story DOMINATING Twitter was about a group of Covington High School Catholic kids that attended the March for Life wearing MAGA hats, then topped that off by screaming “Build the wall” at a bunch of Native American activists.
From there, they upped the aggression level and SURROUNDED the poor activists. Worst yet was a smiling kid who got right in the face of an old man chanting and playing his drums. What a horrible bunch of thugs!
We know all this because the media told us so.
Newsweek: “MAGA HAT WEARING PUPILS FROM COVINGTON CATHOLIC SCHOOL WHO TAUNTED NATIVE AMERICAN ELDER COULD FACE EXPULSION.”
The Associated Press via Snopes: “Students in ‘MAGA’ Hats Mock Native American After Rally.”
The Root: “The Next Generation of MAGA Hat-Wearing Bigots Besiege Indigenous Peoples March.”
CNN: “Teens in Make America Great Again hats mocked a Native American elder at the Lincoln Memorial.”
There are dozens and dozens of examples like this, but they did share some commonalities.
First of all, they were entirely based on a non-definitive video that showed a high school student standing there smiling while a Native American man beat a drum in his face, in addition to the comments of the liberal activists.
The media made no attempt whatsoever to find out what happened from the high school kids because, well, MAGA hats means they’re the bad guys, right?
Of course, liberal activists would never lie to make themselves look good or kids in MAGA hats look bad, right? They’re 100% trustworthy sources?
Apparently, the mainstream media thinks so.
Of course, some of us were a little skeptical from the get-go.
An elderly Native American walks up to a high school student & beats a drum and chants in his face. The high school student smiles, but because he’s wearing a MAGA hat, he’s the world’s biggest bad guy even though the video itself doesn’t definitively show anything more than that
— John Hawkins (@johnhawkinsrwn) January 19, 2019
Hey, didn’t the mainstream media used to do that? Actually wait to find out the facts and report them rather than just pushing a narrative? Maybe, but that’s certainly not what it does any more.
In less than 24 hours, this whole narrative has been annihilated by facts that mainstream media outlets could have easily found out if they had made any effort to be fair whatsoever.
For example, it was the Native American group which approached the students, not vice-versa.
Here is a video clearly showing that Nathan Phillips approached the students. On the basis of the evidence we now have, I believe that people who issued categorical and one-sided condemnations of the students should retract and apologize. pic.twitter.com/GxmXcMuQgC
— Matthew Schmitz (@matthewschmitz) January 20, 2019
Moreover, it was the Native American who was supposedly bullied, Nathan Phillips who walked quite aways to get into the student’s face, not vice-versa.
Additionally, there were claims that the students were yelling “Build the wall.” That has not been on any tape I have heard. However, this has.
“You white people go back to Europe, this is not your land”
AND PEOPLE ARE YELLING AT #CovingtonCatholic FOR THIS?
WHY? WHY? pic.twitter.com/3T1ONMrwBK— Nick Monroe (@nickmon1112) January 20, 2019
Also, this may come as a shock to the mainstream media, but there actually are two sides to the story — and the side told by the students actually has the benefit of being supported by the facts.
Response from Cov Cath student who says he was present at the event in question in Washington.@Local12 pic.twitter.com/nqLD1pJY2u
— Adam Clements (@AClementsWKRC) January 20, 2019
If you want to know how the mainstream media, which is supposedly non-partisan and overrun with fact checkers, ended up posting 100% fake news about a bunch of a high school students who have been doxed and threatened with expulsion by their school as a result, it’s easy to understand.
The mainstream media used to be about facts, but now it’s about the NARRATIVE. The NARRATIVE is what supports the liberal cause or hurts the conservative cause.
Oh, there is some kind of confrontation between white, MAGA hat-wearing Catholic kids and a Native American? The NARRATIVE says the kids are the bad guys, probably racist and that we should hate their guts. Hopefully, there are facts that support that, but the facts are secondary to the NARRATIVE.
This same script gets played out endlessly in the media. We see it in police shootings, politics and pretty much every conflict of any sort between a conservative and a liberal. The liberal side gets the assumption of innocence, the benefit of the doubt and the story slanted in its favor at every opportunity while the other side is treated as guilty until proven innocent.
We hear a lot of people in the mainstream media talking about being watchdogs, principles and “freedom of the press,” but that’s big talk for people who mostly peddle propaganda masquerading as news. When the mainstream media gives up the NARRATIVE and starts focusing on reporting facts first, then it will start to deserve some respect.
John Hawkins is the founder of Right Wing News, the author of “101 Things All Young Adults Should Know” and runs a men’s website called Brass Pills.
The views expressed in this opinion article are those of their author and are not necessarily either shared or endorsed by the owners of this website. If you are interested in contributing an Op-Ed to The Western Journal, you can learn about our submission guidelines and process here.
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