GOOD, BAD & UGLY: How the Media Covered False Smear of Covington Kids. Narrator voice: So Far, Mostly Ugly.

via newsbusters:

Before all the facts were known, the media ran with a story accusing pro-life activists from Covington Catholic High School of racism during an altercation with left-wing demonstrators at the Lincoln Memorial after the March for Life on Friday. That false narrative began to fall apart almost immediately, once additional video surfaced proving how the original, social media version of the story, was false. NewsBusters has analyzed the coverage and assigned a grade to various prominent media outlets in their handling of the fake news.

Here’s how the broadcast and cable networks, plus key newspapers, covered the story:

 

■ CBS: The broadcast network held off on airing a full report on the story until Monday’s CBS This Morning, when correspondent Jan Crawford acknowledged that new facts had come to light undermining initial descriptions of the incident: “Now that first video which took off online appeared to show what people thought was the group of students instigating some kind of threatening encounter. But new video tells a different story.” Following the report, co-host Bianna Golodryga even warned against “people jumping to conclusions without knowing the full story.”

NewsBusters Grade: Good

■ ABC: The network first covered the story on Sunday’s Good Morning America, and was already casting doubt on the account from liberals on social media. “Overnight, new video calling into question just how this encounter began. Appearing to show [Native American activist Nathan] Phillips approaching the crowd of boys as they chant their school letters,” noted reporter Erielle Reshef. Wrapping up another report on Monday’s GMA, Reshef declared: “There was definitely a rush to judgment by a lot of people.”

NewsBusters Grade: Good

■ NBC: It was the first of the broadcast networks to jump on the story, without having all the facts. On Saturday’s NBC Nightly News, anchor Jose Diaz-Balart immediately accepted leftist viral online reaction as the truth, proclaiming: “A troubling scene many are calling racist, played out in Washington yesterday, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Some students harassing an older Native American, of yet a Vietnam vet in the midst of a special ceremony.” Not only did NBC fail to retract the story the next day, but on Monday’s Nightly News, reporter Ron Allen continued touting claims of “racism” against the teens. It wasn’t until Tuesday’s Today show that the network started to acknowledge that “these videos should be a lesson in not rushing to judgment.”

NewsBusters Grade: Bad

■ MSNBC: The cable arm of NBC News was even worse. Not only did MSNBC devote significant air time to the story over the weekend, but the tone of the coverage was nasty. On Sunday’s Kasie DC, a one-sided panel discussion devolved into pundits comparing the Covington students to neo-Nazis and segregationists.

NewsBusters Grade: Ugly

■ CNN: The cable channel spent even more air time on the dubious story than MSNBC. On Saturday, Unfiltered host S.E. Cupp attacked the “mob of MAGA hat-wearing high school students” and claimed they were “clearly…not getting a good education.” After the full facts came out, Cupp took to Twitter Monday morning to apologize for “reacting too quickly to the Covington story.” On Sunday, CNN’s coverage started to admit that there was more to the story as correspondent Sarah Sider revealed: “You know, when a video from a moment in time goes viral, there is often more to tell. And as we reported this story out, we found video that started a full hour before the Native American elder and a Catholic school student came face to face.”

NewsBusters Grade: Started Bad, Ended Better
■ USA Today: Even after the incident had been debunked, the paper still insisted on publishing a smear against the Covington students, featuring a softball interview with Phillips, who trashed the kids as “beastly” and having a “mob mentality.”

NewsBusters Grade: Ugly

■ New York Times: On Monday, the liberal paper was eager to blast the “racist” teenagers for having “mocked a Native American veteran.”

NewsBusters Grade: Ugly

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■ The Washington Post: On Sunday, the paper published a very one-sided article on the front of the Metro section based only on the Native American activist’s lies about being “surrounded” by the Covington kids. The headline was “Marcher’s accost [sic] by boys in MAGA caps draws ire.” On Sunday, the paper also published a nasty blog post on “The Catholic Church’s shameful history of Native American abuses.”

By Monday, the paper’s article on the top left of the front page was headlined “Fuller view emerges of conflict on Mall.” But a few paragraphs of testimony of “smirking” Covington student Nick Sandmann (beginning inside the paper on page A-15) was vastly outnumbered by Phillips, the Black Hebrew Israelites, and left-wing activists, including Women’s March participant Jessica Travis (who claimed “The kids really went into a mob mentality”) and Nathaniel Dimof, who launched a parody page on Facebook called “Covington Catholic White Male Entitlement High School.”

NewsBusters Grade: Ugly

 

 

FEEL-GOOD ITEM OF THE DAY: Lawyer For Covington Kids Threatens To Sue NYT For ‘Obvious Libel’; People Line Up To Help.

The blowback from the egregiously irresponsible reporting of most mainstream media outlets about the context-less viral video of the boys from Kentucky’s Covington Catholic High School “harassing” and “threatening” a Native American protester could include some legal headaches for some of the reporters and outlets.

In a tweet that’s made headlines, Robert Barnes, a trial lawyer based in Los Angeles, issued an unequivocal warning to the New York Times’ Maggie Haberman about her report on the Covington kids: “I will represent the kids for free if they want to sue @maggieNYT for obvious libel.”

Barnes’ tweeted threat to Haberman instantly inspired support online, including many who offered their services and financial support to help with the libel lawsuit.

“I’ll happily help work the case for free as well. Evil needs to be stopped,” wrote one supporter. “Whatever I can do in PR, I am all-in,” added another. “I think it is time to get a group together that does pro bono work PR work etc. when media slander somebody innocent. We must stop this madness,” added yet another.

“Someone set up a GoFundme page and I’ll be the first check in,” wrote another follower. “This is, without hyperbole, evil. Time for us patriots to take back the narrative from the MSM/Dem liars and present truth. Thank you to the lawyers and such offering services.”

 

LOVE TRUMPS HATE OR WHATEVS: Fake News Media Doubles Down with Another Covington Catholic MAGA Teen Smear.

The stunning media bias directed against a group of Trump-supporting Catholic kids who were confronted by a black separatist hate group and a Native American group led by a mendacious, drum-beating elder in Washington, D.C., last Friday has abated but not gone away.

Some media outlets have backed away from their erroneous takes, while others are still stubbornly clinging to the idea that the kids were in the wrong and the Native Americans who were harassing them were somehow their victims.

As bad as that is, a few others have actually doubled down with more smears aimed at defaming the kids’ school, Covington Catholic High, in an effort to feed their confirmation bias that the kids are a bunch of racist redneck hillbillies.

The New York Daily News and the Daily Mail stepped up to the plate in a big way.

 

 

TUCKER WEIGHS IN ON FAKE NEWS ABOUT CATHOLIC SCHOOL KIDS

 

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