Covington Catholic student set to sue CNN
Reaction from media reporter for The Hill, Joe Concha.
Being part of the $250-million club should be good news. Except when you’re CNN and you join The Washington Post as another news outlet being sued over its coverage of the phony hate incident involving Covington Catholic High School students.
Lawyer L. Lin Wood is representing student Nicholas Sandmann and said CNN was “probably more vicious in its direct attacks on Nicholas than The Washington Post.” Wood said the lawsuit will be filed this week and it will likely be higher than the $250 million lawsuit against the Post.
CNN has a lot to answer for its smears against Sandmann, starting near the beginning for the Jan. 18 incident. Recall, the media feeding frenzy was based off of a short video. Longer videos were soon available.
COVINGTON LAWSUIT IS NECESSARY AS CHRISTIAN STUDENTS ACROSS U.S. ARE PERSECUTED FOR THEIR BELIEFS
An official CNN tweet from two days later, still up at this writing, blamed Sandmann and his classmates. “Video shows a crowd of teenagers wearing ‘Make America Great Again’ hats taunting a Native American elder after Friday’s Indigenous Peoples March at the Lincoln Memorial,” it reads. The current image at the top of the CNN Twitter feed is its now-infamous apple with the hashtag “#FactsFirst.”
The Jan. 23 story that the tweet linked to went on to misreport events, even though it has “been updated several times.” Later video made it clear the events were far different from the initial reporting. Still, here’s CNN: “A crowd of teenagers surrounded a Native American elder and other activists and appeared to mock them after Friday'sIndigenous Peoples March at the Lincoln Memorial.” That’s five days after the event.
There was a lot more. CNN gave 18 minutes and 16 seconds to the first narrative of the event Saturday into Sunday that targeted the Covington students. That afternoon correspondent Sarah Sidner was already pulling back from the initial feeding frenzy. She redirected the blame, noting, “it is clear what started the tension were the black men who call themselves Hebrew Israelites.”
CNN contributor Bakari Sellers tweeted out about Sandman on January 19, “He is deplorable. Some ppl can also be punched in the face.” On Feb. 1 Sellers was still blasting the students, this time on air, tying them by example to the racism of Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam. Sellers explained of the students that, “their behavior being appalling and unacceptable and the way they interacted with the Native American at the Lincoln Memorial.”
Anchor Chris Cuomoblatantly took sides on Jan. 22 again four days after the initial incident. He said the Native American man who drummed right in front of Sandman, “apparently wanted to diffuse the tension and walked up to do exactly that.”
He went on to blame the kids, though he said he didn’t. He read a tweet from the president supporting the students, then took the other side after ranting against Trump: “You neglect that they were victims of their own choices and actions!” He also blamed Sandman for making the incident into a “standoff.” Apparently, Sandman was supposed to flee rather than face media criticism for something he didn’t do.
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To her credit, CNN Host S.E. Cupp joined pundits from several outlets recanting her initial criticism of the students. “Hey guys. Seeing all the additional videos now, and I 100 percent regret reacting too quickly to the Covington story. I wish I’d had the fuller picture before weighing in, and I’m truly sorry.”
Wood told Fox News Channel’s “Life, Liberty & Levin” that the attack was part of CNN’s agenda against the president. He explained that the goal was, “to smear a young boy who was, in its view, an acceptable casualty in their war against the president.” Cuomo’s remarks made that obvious.
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