Media Recants After Report That Teen Attacked Over MAGA Hat Told Racist Jokes
When a video went viral showing a MAGA cap being forcibly taken from a 16-year-old boy in a Texas Whataburger, the media was quick to engage in victim-blaming.
According to WOAI-TV, Hunter Richard was allegedly attacked by a man unprovoked on the Fourth of July at the San Antonio restaurant for wearing the hat.
“I support my president and if you don’t let’s have a conversation about it instead of ripping my hat off,” Richard told the station.
“I just think a conversation about politics is more productive for the entire whole rather than taking my hat and yelling subjective words to me.”
Yet, outlets were quick to claim that Richard had precipitated the attack by telling racist jokes.
“A man who said he and his family witnessed an attack at the Whataburger at Thousand Oaks and Nacogdoches Wednesday evening claims that it may have been instigated by racist remarks,” KENS-TV reports.
The station claimed that “the witness, who has asked to remain anonymous, told KENS 5 they saw the three teens involved in the incident making disparaging comments about minorities.
“The man who spoke to KENS 5 requested anonymity after he said his family was receiving death threats for speaking out about what they reportedly witnessed. He said he did not see the attack, but he did see an altercation inside of the Whataburger before deciding to leave with his family as things got heated.
“He also claimed during the conversation another man in the restaurant asked the group of teens to stop making such comments. That’s when he said he cut dinner short and had his family leave the restaurant before things escalated.”
However, the station then noted that they were “not able to independently verify the witness statements. The account from this witness remains in contrast with the original post from the alleged victim’s mother, who claimed the attack was completely unprovoked.”
And, at the end of the story was a correction that should probably say it all: “Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story included quotes from the alleged witness. Those have been removed from this copy due to concerns about the legitimacy of the statements.”
Mind you, even though KENS openly admits they can’t verify the witness’ take and they’re concerned “about the legitimacy of the statements,” the story still remains up, albeit in heavily qualified form. Left-wing news website Raw Story went even further, completely pulling a post that was based on the KENS story. Given that Raw Story has a significantly lower ethical bar than a CBS affiliate — or at least is supposed to — this says a great deal.
Rawstory tweeted out earlier that an anonymous witness stated the two kids were making jokes about lynching black people. They have since deleted the tweet and replaced their story with an editor’s note. The “witness” lied, but the lie continues to be spread by the far-left. pic.twitter.com/oxVyFLfNxl
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) July 6, 2018
The incident has landed 30-year-old Kino Jimenez behind bars facing theft charges in the incident, which has even drawn the attention of the White House.
This is disgusting and a disgrace. No one should feel unsafe supporting their President @realDonaldTrump or #MAGA agenda. Imagine someone did this to an Obama supporter?!?! pic.twitter.com/ViFw0kNqKF
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) July 5, 2018
“I didn’t think it was going to generate the amount like what people are doing, I was looking at the comments by some people and ‘they are like this is uncalled for’ and other people are like mixed opinions but I didn’t think it would blow up to what it is now,” Richard said.
Yet, as always, the media is all too eager to blame the victim, at least when the victim is conservative.
Now they’re the ones looking the fools. What a surprise.
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