Reporting on each other: the Covington boys, the Native American, and the smart phone vs. the telescreen – The New Neo

Reporting on each other: the Covington boys, the Native American, and the smart phone vs. the telescreen – The New Neo
"Reporting on each other: the Covington boys, the Native American, and the smart phone vs. the telescreen

The news story of the Catholic high school students in MAGA hats who were captured on video supposedly harassing a Native American Vietnam vet was a tale I ignored till now. 
As presented, it seemed relatively trivial to me—a group of teens acting like jerks. 
What’s more, I tend to follow the 48-hour rule on stories like that, because so many turn out to be fake or exaggerated.
Since then, it’s come out that the story was an excellent example of Fake News Tweaked to Advance the Narrative.
I’m not going to go into all the Byzantine details, but you can read them (and watch videos) here, here, here, here, here, and at plenty of other sites...

...Here are a few of the details (follow any or all of those previous links to find plenty more):

The teen is not smirking in this clip, and Phillips [the Native American who was supposedly harassed] has an entourage with cameras. One of the Native activists argues with a Covington teen, who argues back. This and other clips have shown the Indian activists racially taunting the teens, saying things like ‘go back to Europe.’ Phillips has claimed that the teens were chanting ‘build the wall!,’ but that isn’t in any of the videos that circulated Saturday. Based on what can actually be seen and heard, it’s looks as if Phillips and his crew sought out Catholic teenagers and tried to make them uncomfortable. And of course, they recorded it…

…[S]o far, there’s no evidence to support that scenario [that the teen students were the racists], only the words of Phillips and his associates. That hasn’t stopped blue-checkmark media figures like former CNN blatherskite Reza Aslan from not only branding the teens as racists but in Aslan’s case musing about inflicting violence on them:

View image on Twitter

Reza Aslan

✔@rezaaslan

Honest question. Have you ever seen a more punchable face than this kid’s?

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A great deal of hatred has been directed at these kids.."
Read all!