Yesterday, I noticed how across 24 hours, a smear operation targetting students who participated in the 46th MfL played out. I commented in the MfL thread and think it is worth headlining with added media features:
Let me embed some clips from Social Media, by fairly prominent personalities, these are HT Gateway Pundit, and give an idea of the sort of way piling on happens:
Let me insert (Sat Jan 26) — again without specific or wider endorsement — Ben Shapiro pointing out on the narrative and its implications:
Jan 26, 2019, Bishop’s letter of apology:
Student’s lawyer statement:
By Attorneys L. Lin Wood And Todd McMurtryATLANTA, Jan. 25, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — On January 18, in the span of a few hours, Nick Sandmann’s peaceful attendance with his Covington Catholic classmates at the March for Life in Washington, D.C. was turned into a personal nightmare when Nick became the focus of false and defamatory accusations published and broadcast across the nation and the world. A mob comprised of activists, church and school officials, members of the mainstream print and broadcast media, and individuals on social media, including elected public officials and celebrities, rushed to condemn and vilify this young man by burying him in an avalanche of false accusations, false portrayals, and cyberbullying that have threatened his reputation and his physical safety. Nick Sandmann is 16 years old. He is an eleventh-grade high school student. He is not the face of evil and he did absolutely nothing wrong or inappropriate in connection with the incident to deserve the heinous accusations made against him by uninformed or agenda-driven individuals and media entities.
Nick and his family have experienced one of the worst sides of our present society. As their lawyers, we intend to exercise our best efforts as advocates to show Nick and his family another side of our society – that we are a society that survives and flourishes from the fact that it is based on the rule of law. A system of justice that demands that truth prevail and the wrongdoers be held accountable for the harm they have inflicted on Nick and his family.
In the coming weeks, we will be carefully reviewing all of the false accusations and threats made against Nick. We fully expect that a multitude of civil lawsuits will be filed and aggressively pursued. We recognize that justice for Nick will not be achieved quickly, but we are dedicated to achieving it for this young man regardless of time or expense.
At this time, Nick, his family and their lawyers will not be engaging in media interviews. There is work to be done. If any member of the public has information, they believe is helpful to Nick, that information can be communicated to us by email to supportnick@linwoodlaw.com.
Nick and his family sincerely appreciate the fair-minded individuals who respect our system of justice and refused to rush to judgment before the truth was revealed. Our efforts are not about politics, race or religion. Our efforts are only about justice for Nick.
Note a few of the relevant “blue check mark” tweets:
U/D, Jan 24: Criminal investigations are moving ahead, vid:
[KF, MfL 19, no 35:] Notice the upstaging and tainting agit prop game where students of Covington Catholic High School who had participated in the MfL and were waiting for transport, were widely portrayed as politically and/or racially motivated harassers of a Native American Vietnam veteran, when it is emerging (see the linked) that almost the reverse is more credibly true.
I link a letter of plea for correction: https://twitter.com/AClementsWKRC/status/1086822521012473858/photo/1
The letter is backed by video evidence (see the first linked [I cannot embed a vid within a quote]).
On fair comment, it seems they were set up for a media, visual ambush — someone comes up pounding a drum in faces and pictures are taken which are evidently set in an inaccurate, loaded context — and were then in effect abandoned by School leadership, under threat of expulsion and facing threats set up by media amplification of what seems to be an agit prop stunt.
Notice, a second GP article on how this sort of Agit Prop works:
After 24 hours of savaging a group of teenage boys in MAGA hats at the March for Life rally for “harassing and abusing” a Native American veteran — the anti-Trump and far left media is backing off from their deadly assault on a group of Catholic teenage boys.
But after 24 hours of media lies and hit pieces the Catholic families are now in hiding and their children fear for their lives.
The Associated Press backed off their initial reporting this afternoon that the boys were chanting against the Native American activists.
Marcus Frejo, a member of the Pawnee and Seminole tribe says the children were singing with them.
The Latest: Marcus Frejo, a member of the Pawnee and Seminole tribes says students wound up singing with him. https://t.co/oLaLtstkPZ
— The Associated Press (@AP) January 20, 2019
CNN’s Jake Tapper retweeted Reason Mag’s claims that Nathan Phillips’s claims were trash.
.@reason: “Video footage strongly contradicts Native American veteran Nathan Phillips’ claim that Covington Catholic High School boys harassed him. The media got this one completely wrong,” writes @robbysoave https://t.co/9Ki4iiTkQ9
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) January 20, 2019
Note, too, a third GP piece pointing out the media amplification and piling on, apparently complete with prominent social media personalities making comparisons to Nazi stormtroopers and lynch mobs of the past:
Social media erupted Saturday after selectively edited videos of Covington Catholic students were posted on Twitter accusing the boys of harassing and mocking an elderly Native American man.
The left, along with their mouthpieces in the media immediately called for these teens to be tarred and feathered — no judge, no jury.
Here are the cold hard facts about what really happened at the Lincoln Memorial this weekend:
According to one of the high school boys who was present, a group of black men were taunting the Trump supporters, calling them “shooters” and “crackers” and said the white kids “had everything given to them by their parents.”
At first, the Trump supporting teens ignored the black men who were harassing them, but after the blacks continued to taunt the white kids, the white kids began to chant back at them.
According to a witness, it was at this point that a Native American man showed up “out of no where” and began drumming in the high school kid’s face.
“We weren’t even chanting at him, we were chanting at the African American guy, but obviously social media made us look bad to get views and stuff,” a witness said . . . .
These Covington Catholic students showed incredible restraint after being ambushed and taunted. No crimes were committed and no one became violent yet the media is piling on the children and calling for them to be severely punished over lies!
Despite the liberal media narrative completely collapsing far left pundits are comparing the boys to Nazi storm troopers, rapists and race-based lynchings. [see article for telling Twitter clips]
It is obvious that MfL is being targetted for agit prop media ambushes designed to portray people connected to a movement against a holocaust in progress in the worst possible light. Let us not forget, this generation, globally, has seen the slaughter of 800+ millions of our living posterity in the womb in 40+ years, now advancing at the rate of about a million further victims per week. All, under false colour of law and with enabling by media, education, political leadership and much more.
Meanwhile, there is general suppression of the MfL and its anti-holocaust message.
An online video rebuttal to the media narrative, which is included just as documenting a different perspective, without endorsing the wider views or personality:
Another video report, under similar non-endorsement terms (this coming from someone who is manifestly African American):
See a full-length video here.
We need to realise just how dirty the ongoing civilisation-wide culture war is, especially on the media front.
Later, on concern trolls, victim card trolls and more on agit prop tactics.
Okay, let me add on return from ferrying duties.
Recently, we noted on so-called concern trolls.
These typically turn up with what Intel Agencies call a Legend, an outline backstory that portrays them as sympathetic to the target. However, they continually express “concerns” that serve mainly to discredit, undermine, burden and sow dissension or the like. Seldom, if ever will there be an actual supportive argument. Some such trolls serve as cheerleaders or support figures for objectors and other trolls, helping to derail serious discussion or debate on merits. A particularly pernicious trick is to create a side conversation that creates a false sense of the warrant for the objections being made. In many cases, clusters of concern trolls turn out to be sock-puppets of one actual person, or they may be an organised group arranging their strategy and tactics elsewhere.
If someone is fitting the profile and is not contributing to the substantial discussion, that is a strong tell. Another, is when there is stubborn, willful obtuseness or evasiveness regarding well warranted points on the case being attacked. That’s why I recently noted that when an actual demonstration on a material point is on the table, “I have another opinion” avails nothing. Similarly, attempts to dismiss relevance or declare that one has no interest in such well warranted points is a key tell. Let us not forget that only fools dispute or willfully dismiss, distract attention from or studiously ignore actually established facts. (It bears noting, that mislabelling something not actually demonstrated, observed, witnessed, credibly recorded etc as a “fact” is another tactic. This one is commonly seen with the notion that the model past presented under evolutionary materialistic scientism is a “fact.”)
The victim card, identity politics troll is a closely related and often far more destructive cousin. In this case, the Legend — never assume it is true without good warrant! — is that the objector is a member of a politically correct culturally victimised group, say X; bet your farm that Christians — currently the most viciously victimised and persecuted group in the world — will not be portrayed as sympathetic victims. On the strength of this, a Cultural Marxist shield-halo is created and one who objects is automatically deemed X-phobic, this denoting an irrational fear, and through the magic of loaded projection, is turned instantly into a villain. As a result, victim card trolls are routinely used as face-cards for agendas that cannot stand on their own merits. In some cases, the actual troll is a “spokesperson” rather than the actual claimed victim. Then, once the target has been sufficiently smeared, s/he is attacked to be demonised, stereotyped, scapegoated, pushed beyond the pale of the Overton Window, censored, deplatformed, silenced in social media, defamed etc. And of course, robbed of a livelihood. Especially if the target commits the thought-crime of trying to defend him-/her- self. Likewise, an apology is taken as further proof of guilt and anyone who comes to the defence of a target will become a secondary target.
The Overton Window:
By way of a corrective, let us note again on countering spin games:
We are now at the threshold of Orwell’s Animal Farm or 1984 dystopias: “welcome” to the gates of hell on earth. END