Sarah Sanders Scorches Media over Covington Debacle: 'Quit Trying To Be First'
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders had harsh words for the news outlets that were quick to criticize the students of Covington Catholic High School who were assumed to have approached a Native American activist to harass him.
Sanders made her remarks to Fox News’ Sean Hannity, where she mentioned not only the Covington students’ viral video but also a BuzzFeed article that has since been contradicted by special counsel Robert Mueller.
On Tuesday’s edition of his show, Hannity cited a list compiled by Sharyl Attkisson of Sinclair Broadcast Group
The list contained 67 media mistakes that have been made in the Trump era, and Hannity called it “the definitive list.”
“I printed out, literally, 47 small print pages of the Washington Examiner of mistakes the media has made in the reporting about the president in one year alone and that would be 2017,” the Fox host began.
“His reaction to it, and does now the president’s branding of ‘fake news’ — is that forever etched into the minds of the American people when they see events like this on Friday and then followed by Covington and what happened to those students?” Hannity asked Sanders
Earlier in his show, Hannity spoke about the Catholic school closing Tuesday, and the threats that had been received by the students who attend.
“Honestly, Sean, we hope not,” Sander said. “We hope ‘fake news’ does not become the forever brand of the news media, because it is not good for the country, as the president said.
“He would love for people to report things accurately. I think what happened with BuzzFeed is a great lesson for the media. Quit trying to be first and start trying to be right,” Sanders said.
“We have seen time and time again where they run out here with these outrageous ridiculous stories. One person reports it to begin with and they all jump on it. We saw it again with the Covington students. I’ve never seen people so happy to destroy a kid’s life,” she continued.
“When that becomes the norm in the media in America simply because they are associated with this president, that is disgraceful and that should never happen. Let’s hope that this is a lesson to all of the media, to everyone. Let’s focus on getting things right, not getting them first.”
https://youtu.be/L9C2Rbyhv-4?t=939
The viral video that caused a problem for not only the students but the media outlets who reported incomplete information, was taken at the Lincoln Memorial over the weekend.
The initial video appeared to show high school students, wearing the iconic Trump “Make America Great Again” caps in the face of Native American activist Nathaniel Phillips, who was beating a drum.
A later video that was released showed that the boys were standing their ground, and were approached by the activist, but refused to give in to his invasion of their space.
Some media outlets were quick to retract their incomplete reporting, but others appeared willing to make the students out to be the villains in the drama.
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