On the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on January 18, 2019, a Covington Catholic High School student Nicholas Sandmann was swept up in a controversy after a video clip depicted the "MAGA" hat-wearing student smiling at Nathan Phillips beating a drum and singing a chant as he was surrounded by Sandmann's peers, who all had joined in on the chant in front of the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C.
However, several mainstream media outlets, including CNN and The Washington Post, portrayed the incident with Sandmann and the other teens as being racially charged before additional footage later showed that a group of Black Hebrew Israelites had provoked the confrontation, slinging racial slurs at the students as they were waiting for their bus following the March For Life event.
Footage then showed Phillips, who was in town for the Indigenous Peoples March, approaching the students amid the rising tension between the two groups.
Videos documenting Sandmann's encounter with Phillips went viral -- including some clips that did not show the full incident. "For Nick Sandmann, he's going to be tarnished with this stigma forever -- that he is some arrogant, racist kid." Incomplete video clips posted online and initial media coverage prompted widespread accusations that Sandmann and his classmates had approached Phillips and threatened and mocked him. The students said they were dancing and singing along with the Native American music, not mocking it. "He was accused of blocking the path of an elderly Native American and really all the history of the injustice that the Native American people have suffered was laid at Nick Sandmann's door, and he's just a 16-year-old kid." "It was first reported that Nathan Phillips was trying to get past him," she continued, "No one ever tried to get past him. I mean there is just one lie after another." "Our children were used as pawns for an ulterior leftist agenda."
Covington Catholic High School student Nick Sandmann said that he has lived under a "constant" and "terrible" threat -- ever since his image was splashed across television screens and posted on websites and social media platforms worldwide. Death threats had shut down Covington Catholic High School.
The investigation into alleged death threats against students and the school started in earnest in January 2019. There is no precise count yet, but Kenton County Commonwealth Attorney Rob Sanders estimated this week there could be hundreds of such threats. Students returned back to school amid allegations of anonymous threats of putting them through wood chippers, shooting up their school or locking them inside and burning the building down.
Erik Abriss, a freelance reporter for INE Entertainment and also contributes to New York Media's entertainment site Vulture tweeted, "I don't know what it says about me but I've truly lost the ability to articulate the hysterical rage, nausea, and heartache this makes me feel. I just want these people to die. Simple as that. Every single one of them. And their parents". "Look at the shit-eating grins on all those young white slugs' faces. Just perverse pleasure at wielding a false dominion they've been taught their whole life was their divine right. f*****g die."
"The media's role in it has never been fully addressed. Most outlets didn't retract their stories," Logan said. "CNN settled in a massive lawsuit -- the sum was undisclosed -- but that was evidence. And it was just the beginning in a series of lawsuits that are to come."
Sandmann filed a $250M defamation lawsuit against Washington Post. So in the news today, the Washington Post has settled the lawsuit. Attorney Todd McMurtry said that lawsuits against “as many as 13 other defendants" would be filed. Among them: ABC, CBS, NBCV, The Guardian, The Huffington Post, NPR, Slate, The Hill, and Gannett which owns the Cincinnati Enquirer, as well as miscellaneous other small outfits, according to McMurtry.
Sources:
Washington Post settles Nicholas Sandmann defamation lawsuit in Covington Catholic High School controversy
'Covington kid' Nick Sandmann says he's lived under 'constant threat' for over a year
Journalist Who Wished Death on Covington Catholic High School Students Has Reportedly Lost His Job
Prosecutor: Hundreds of threats made against Covington Catholic after DC march firestorm
08 Jan 2020, 1:31 am
