Anti-Trump Media Touts Fake News to Whip Up Mob against Pro-Life Kids: Now They're Backtracking, but Damage Already Done

Jonathan van Maren : Jan 21, 2019
Lifesitenews.com

"The media, I hope, can take a long, hard look in the mirror and realize that real people paid real consequences for their irresponsible reporting this weekend. Kids got death threats. Families had their addresses posted online. High school students saw strangers try to destroy their future plans. And it isn't over yet. That is what happens when the media gets a story wrong. There should be consequences." -Jonathan van Maren

(Washington, DC)—[Lifesitenews.com] There's a reason I wait a day or two when the media decides to bash pro-lifers: They are not good faith actors, and they desperately want to believe the sorts of stories that suit their narrative about the pro-life movement. I've seen abortion activists fake hate crimes on themselves to a breathless media frenzy, with the ensuing quiet correction weeks later scarcely making a ripple. I've seen stories about peaceful pro-lifers getting physically assaulted by abortion supporters cast by the media as a "scuffle at an anti-abortion protest." And over and over again, I've seen media reports on events that I personally attended bear little resemblance to what actually took place. (Photo: Instagram/via LifeSiteNews)

And so, when CNN, followed by the rest of the media lynch mob, reported that a bunch of MAGA-hat wearing kids from Covington Catholic School had swarmed an elderly Native American man at the Lincoln Memorial following the March for Life chanting slogans like "build the wall," I was suspicious. Social media promptly exploded, with commentators of every stripe condemning the kids for being jackasses (which, if the short video clip released by the media was the entire story, would be the case.) A number of pro-lifers followed suit, ostensibly in order to shield the movement from criticism and ensure that the entire March for Life was not tarred by the incident.

Things got ugly quickly. Journalists and pundits began to release photos of the high school boys next to images of white racists mobbing black civil rights activists at lunch counters in the 1960s. Some even compared the boys to the fresh-faced thugs of the Hitler Youth. One writer at Slate.com noted somberly that the facial expression of Nick Sandmann, the now unfortunately famous young man facing off with indigenous activist Nathan Phillips, was familiar because we'd seen his type before: Young, cocksure, powerful--and evil. Nobody, apparently, considered the fact that the image was simply one freeze-frame shot of an uneasy and awkward teenage boy thrust into a situation he didn't know how to deal with. The media and the rest of the progressive pack badly wanted this story to be true: A pack of racist young white Catholic school boys sporting Trump hats following an anti-abortion march mobbing a Native American man? It was just perfect.

Too perfect, as it predictably turned out. Reason was the first publication to release a detailed rebuttal of the narrative, noting that when the nearly two hours of video footage of the incident was viewed—something the media presumably should have done before setting out to destroy the lives of some high school boys—a notably different story emerged. Soon thereafter, Nick Sandmann released a statement begging people to hear he and his classmates out. Here it is in part:

I am providing this factual account of what happened on Friday afternoon at the Lincoln Memorial to correct misinformation and outright lies being spread about my family and me.

I am the student in the video who was confronted by the Native American protestor. I arrived at the Lincoln Memorial at 4:30 p.m. I was told to be there by 5:30 p.m., when our busses were due to leave Washington for the trip back to Kentucky. We had been attending the March for Life rally, and then had split up into small groups to do sightseeing.

When we arrived, we noticed four African American protestors who were also on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. I am not sure what they were protesting, and I did not interact with them. I did hear them direct derogatory insults at our school group.

The protestors said hateful things. They called us "racists," "bigots," "white crackers," "faggots," and "incest kids." They also taunted an African American student from my school by telling him that we would "harvest his organs." I have no idea what that insult means, but it was startling to hear.

Because we were being loudly attacked and taunted in public, a student in our group asked one of our teacher chaperones for permission to begin our school spirit chants to counter the hateful things that were being shouted at our group. The chants are commonly used at sporting events. They are all positive in nature and sound like what you would hear at any high school. Our chaperone gave us permission to use our school chants. We would not have done that without obtaining permission from the adults in charge of our group.

At no time did I hear any student chant anything other than the school spirit chants. I did not witness or hear any students chant "build that wall" or anything hateful or racist at any time. Assertions to the contrary are simply false. Our chants were loud because we wanted to drown out the hateful comments that were being shouted at us by the protestors.

After a few minutes of chanting, the Native American protestors, who I hadn't previously noticed, approached our group. The Native American protestors had drums and were accompanied by at least one person with a camera.

The protestor everyone has seen in the video began playing his drum as he waded into the crowd, which parted for him. I did not see anyone try to block his path. He locked eyes with me and approached me, coming within inches of my face. He played his drum the entire time he was in my face... Subscribe for free to Breaking Christian News here

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