When Video Lies

The late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia never wanted cameras in his courtroom during oral arguments. His view, “what most of the American people would see would be 30 second, 15 second take outs from our arguments. I thought about these Covington kids and the clipped video with the Indian man. Scalia’s fear was that incomplete information and a rush to judgement would create an incomplete picture. More than that though, I think he assumed lawyers and judges would both play up to cameras for public spectacle. When the public is fed video segments in drips and drabs, it’s easy to tweak the messaging. He knew the media and how they operated. 

I’m sure everyone saw the video of the supposedly aggrieved Indian pounding a drum while a smiling kid with a MAGA hat stares him down. His friends can be seen in the background chanting something. The most I’d seen of the video is the clips from Fox and CNN while running at the gym. I didn’t have any context for the older Indian or the young kid (at first) but it did seem like the kid was taunting. Turns out No, not at all. The complete opposite of that. I don’t know why I’m surprised. These rush to judgement clips circulate so quickly and devastate everything in their path like a brush fire in a dry forest. The full video shows a black group (Black Hebrew Israelites) taunting the kids with epithets like “faggot!” and “cracker!”.

The Indian man who claims to be a Vietnam Veteran (Lie) goes on CNN and says the kids surrounded him (Lie). I guess these scary kids frightened him and he couldn’t find his way out (Lie). That people like this activist fake veteran exist is one thing. That supposedly respectable networks take his side of the story with no back story checking is dangerous. It’s journalistic malpractice! Lives are now destroyed because of a liar who was stamped ‘legitimate’ by CNN. It seems to me that he is taunting, trying to make this kid angry. Even if the story is the kids surrounding this man and mocking him, I don’t see it as a news item.

 High school kids (boys especially) can be particularly mean spirited and unaware of their surroundings. So even taking the original shots at face value, this is a big nothing. 

This whole thing comes down to soft targets. The kids were young and not likely to fight back so were fair game for cowards. It’s like those nature shows where the family of Lions hides behind some brush in wait for a pack of zebras to gallop by. They give chase. The young and weak ones that can’t run fast get eaten. Unlike predators though, groups that use class resentment and bullying tactics are villainous little turds full of malice.

 I’m pleased with the restraint and judgement of those boys to hold their ground. Their biggest crime is wearing the MAGA hat. Feminists wear pink pussy hats when they march, pro-choice women wear the white bonnet and red cloak from a ‘Handmaid’s Tale’, no one harasses them. Catholic school boys with red Trump hats, suddenly it’s a new age of oppression. It tells me if you’re put off by high schoolers with red hats, you have issues beyond their ‘offensive’ clothing. Showing red hats to SJWs is like waving a red cape in front of a bull. It’s pretty ridiculous.

The ugliest part of the story is the piling on from Twitter mobs. Some stories said the kids’ and their families were targeted by anonymous people on the internet. The school is closed because of the enormous numbers of threats. The entire town that houses the school is crawling with cops, and I assume feds, following up on terror threats. The media is complicit in this entire disgusting episode reminding us of how dangerous this social media age is. How many celebrities jumped on Twitter to encourage harassment of these kids? Kathy Griffin said she wanted names. You remember her right? She was “Actually” shamed for her magazine cover holding the severed Trump head. Why such aggressive posturing? She should know better.  

Video is immediate and tells the story the filmers want to share. Often it’s wrong, willfully and with malice. Scalia understood how video can skew, “I am sure it will mis-educate the American people.” It’s important for us, the consumer, to take a breath and wait. The traditional media is sadly beyond hope. They’ve traded journalism for activism while ordinary people get swept up and destroyed. A few bright spots persist where ethics and responsibility guide coverage but the profession needs a remake.