sandmann covington
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font><div><a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://click1.e.alternet.org/jsqfmzncndswsmkkwtjnnwnkktwkcvqpfdnsjbzbtbvn_amdkmlslnmhpydkskpp.html?a=&b=913&c=21989&d=2" style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Covington Catholic High School teen’s $250 million lawsuit against Washington Post dismissed</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Covington Catholic High School teen’s $250 million lawsuit against Washington Post dismissed</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Marissa Higgins / Daily Kos<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>July 28, 2019</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Remember the viral video of Nick Sandmann, a student at Covington Catholic High School wearing a MAGA hat, staring down Nathan Phillips, an Omaha Nation elder who was attending the Indigenous Peoples March, while Sandmann’s peers seemingly cheered and jeered? After coverage of the interaction, which occurred on January 18 of this year, picked up in the media, Sandmann sued the Washington Post for $250 million in a defamation suit. As of Friday, a federal judge dismissed it.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">His lawsuit alleged that the Post had “wrongfully targeted and bullied Nicholas because he was a white, Catholic student wearing a red ‘Make America Great Again’ souvenir cap” and that the<b> paper defamed him by suggesting that he“assaulted and/or physically intimidated” the older man or “engaged in racist conduct.”</b> In an interview with NBC, by the way, Sandmann has affirmed that he “can’t say I’m sorry” for his behavior. He also gave a statement saying he hoped to defuse the situation.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>U.S. District Court Judge William Bertelsen ruled that his suit claims were “not supported by the plain language in the article, which states none of these things.”</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“He [Phillips] concluded that he was being blocked and not allowed to retreat,” Bertelsman wrote in his ruling. “He passed these conclusions on to The Post. They may have been erroneous, but, as discussed above, they are opinion protected by the First Amendment.” Basically: Phillips felt threatened and the media is allowed to report that he expressed as much. The judge didn’t find that the Post exposed Sandmann to public hatred, contempt, or ridicule.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">He also noted that Sandmann being “scorned” on social media was irrelevant.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Post’s spokesperson released a statement including: “From our first story on this incident to our last, we sought to report fairly and accurately the facts that could be established from available evidence, the perspectives of all of the participants, and the comments of the responsible church and school officials.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In this case, the judge considered seven articles and three tweets from the Post. In total, Sandmann alleged that 33 defamatory statements could be found there.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">For what it’s worth, Sandmann—who had originally come to Washington, DC from Kentucky for the anti-abortion March for Life rally— still has pending lawsuits against CNN and NBC.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">As reported by Buzzfeed News, Todd McMurty, one of the lawyers representing Sandmann, said, “The law must protect innocent minors targeted by journalists publishing clickbait sensationalized news.” The Sandmann family is planning to appeal the decision.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Here’s the main video, though various versions and angles have since been uploaded to social media:</font></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><a href="https://www.wcpo.com/news/local-news/kenton-county/park-hills/nicholas-sandmanns-family-hires-attorney-for-the-damned-specializing-in-libel-slander"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.wcpo.com/news/local-news/kenton-county/park-hills/nicholas-sandmanns-family-hires-attorney-for-the-damned-specializing-in-libel-slander</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">T<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">he family of 16-year-old Covington Catholic High School student Nicholas Sandmann, having already</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><span class="Enhancement" style=""><span class="Enhancement-item"><a class="Link" href="https://www.thisisinsider.com/nick-sandmann-hired-kentucky-pr-firm-to-respond-to-viral-incident-2019-1" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.4s ease 0s;">contracted Kentucky’s largest public relations firm</a></span> </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">to help repair his image after a viral incident outside the Lincoln Memorial, on Thursday hired a Georgia attorney known for aggressive libel and slander suits against media organizations.</span></font></div><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">L. Lin Wood, nicknamed “attorney for the damned” by former CBS anchor Dan Rather, </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">visited the Sandmann family earlier in the day, according to a news release from <b>Sandmann family attorney Todd McMurtry.</b></span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“He is committed to bringing justice to 16-year-old Nick Sandmann and his family,” McMurtry wrote.</font></p><p style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Wood “often (seeks) eye-popping damages for those he believes have been libeled or slandered in the press,” <span class="Enhancement" style=""><span class="Enhancement-item"><a class="Link" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/election-2012/post/herman-cains-powerful-attorney-l-lin-wood/2011/11/08/gIQASVqS3M_blog.html?utm_term=.0bf38f189d00" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.4s ease 0s;">according to a 2011 Washington Post article</a></span> </span>about his defense of Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain. (Cain had been facing accusations of sexual harassment that derailed his campaign.)</font></span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Other notable clients include the family of JonBenet Ramsey, who were suspects in the child pageant queen’s murder, and Richard Jewell, a Centennial Olympic Park guard misidentified as having bombed his workplace in 1996.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sandmann traveled with classmates to Washington, D.C., to participate in Saturday's March for Life. The group was filmed later that day outside the Lincoln Memorial, where bellicose members of a fringe religious movement called the Black Hebrew Israelites began insulting them as well as nearby Native American activists participating in the Indigenous Peoples March for the rights of native communities.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The students and the Black Hebrew Israelites exchanged chants. The Native American activists, among them Omaha tribe elder Nathan Phillips, entered the crowd in what Phillips described as an effort to defuse the mounting confrontation. He played a traditional drum and sang as he walked through the Covington group.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It was at this point Sandmann, wearing a "Make America Great Again" cap, was recorded smiling and standing less than a foot from Phillips' face while he continued to sing.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sandmann wrote in <span class="Enhancement"><span class="Enhancement-item"><a class="Link" href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/20/us/covington-kentucky-student-statement/index.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.4s ease 0s;">a later statement</a></span> </span>that he "believed that by remaining motionless and calm, I was helping to diffuse (sic) the situation."</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Phillips said he felt blocked and intimidated.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Both described the other party as seeming confrontational and the situation as frightening.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Then it was over. The two groups left. The Black Hebrew Israelites, who would later post <span class="Enhancement"><span class="Enhancement-item"><a class="Link" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQyBHTTqb38" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.4s ease 0s;">a two-hour video of the lead-up to the encounter,</a></span></span>remained in the space outside the memorial.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The short video clip of Sandmann and Phillips, however, had been posted to Twitter and begun a long, strange journey of viral transformation.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">An apparent confrontation between a 64-year-old Native American and a smiling white boy in a red cap was an image rich with political symbolism for the <b>Twitterati</b>, thousands of whom quote-retweeted it with outraged messages. National news outlets <span class="Enhancement"><span class="Enhancement-item"><a class="Link" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/01/20/it-was-getting-ugly-native-american-drummer-speaks-maga-hat-wearing-teens-who-surrounded-him/" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.4s ease 0s;">picked up the story</a></span> </span>and <span class="Enhancement"><span class="Enhancement-item"><a class="Link" href="https://twitter.com/CREDOMobile/status/1086708927574626304" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.4s ease 0s;">a tearful interview with Phillips.</a></span></span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">By Friday, a more complex understanding of the incident had emerged, aided by the Black Hebrew Israelites' long video and subsequent interviews with both Sandmann and Phillips.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Calls for some punishment of the celebrities and news organizations involved in spreading an incomplete story, which resulted in <span class="Enhancement"><span class="Enhancement-item"><a class="Link" href="https://www.wcpo.com/news/local-news/kenton-county/park-hills/commonwealths-attorney-investigating-numerous-threats-against-covington-catholic" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.4s ease 0s;">threats to Covington Catholic,</a></span> </span>to Phillips and to Sandmann personally, persisted in some corners. The White House <span class="Enhancement"><span class="Enhancement-item"><a class="Link" href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1087689415814795264" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.4s ease 0s;">was one of them.</a></span></span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">If the Thursday news release was any indication, the Sandmann family may have been another.</font></p><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>ucian Lincoln "Lin" Wood Jr.</b> (born October 19, 1952 in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raleigh,North_Carolina" title="Raleigh, North Carolina" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Raleigh, North Carolina</a>) is an American attorney based in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlanta,Georgia" class="mw-redirect" title="Atlanta, Georgia" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Atlanta, Georgia</a>. He represented <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Jewell" title="Richard Jewell" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Richard Jewell</a>,<sup id="cite_ref-highbeam.com_1-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L.Lin_Wood#cite_note-highbeam.com-1" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[1]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-washingtonpost.com_2-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L.Lin_Wood#cite_note-washingtonpost.com-2" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[2]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-articles.cnn.com_3-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L.Lin_Wood#cite_note-articles.cnn.com-3" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[3]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-60_Minutes_II:Falsely_Accused,4-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L.Lin_Wood#cite_note-60_Minutes_II:Falsely_Accused,-4" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[4]</a></sup> the security guard falsely accused in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centennial_Olympic_Park_bombing" title="Centennial Olympic Park bombing" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Centennial Olympic Park bombing</a> in Atlanta in 1996. Wood's representation of Richard Jewell inspired <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Rather" title="Dan Rather" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Dan Rather</a>to call him the "attorney for the damned",<sup id="cite_ref-Rachel_5-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L.Lin_Wood#cite_note-Rachel-5" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[5]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-Patrick_6-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L.Lin_Wood#cite_note-Patrick-6" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[6]</a></sup> and helped transform Wood from a personal injury lawyer to a nationally known defamation lawyer.<sup id="cite_ref-7" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L.Lin_Wood#cite_note-7" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[7]</a></sup></font></p><div id="toc" class="toc" style="border: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); background-color: rgb(248, 249, 250); padding: 7px; display: table; zoom: 1;"><input type="checkbox" role="button" id="toctogglecheckbox" class="toctogglecheckbox" style="direction: ltr; position: absolute; opacity: 0; z-index: -1; display: none;" /><div class="toctitle" lang="en" dir="ltr" style="direction: ltr; text-align: center;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><h2 style="background: none; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border: 0px; display: inline; line-height: 1.3;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Contents</font></h2><span class="toctogglespan" style=""><label class="toctogglelabel" for="toctogglecheckbox" style="cursor: pointer;" /></span></div><ul style="margin: 0.3em 0px; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none; list-style-type: none;"><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-1" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L.Lin_Wood#Biography" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">1</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Biography</span></font></a><ul style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none; list-style-type: none;"><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-2" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L.Lin_Wood#Defamation_and_libel_lawsuits" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">1.1</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Defamation and libel lawsuits</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-3" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L.Lin_Wood#Other_Significant_lawsuits" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">1.2</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Other Significant lawsuits</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-4" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L.Lin_Wood#Personal_life" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">1.3</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Personal life</span></font></a></li></ul></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-5" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L.Lin_Wood#Coverage_in_newspapers_and_books" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">2</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Coverage in newspapers and books</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-6" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L.Lin_Wood#References" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">3</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">References</span></font></a></li></ul></div><h2 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); line-height: 1.3;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="mw-headline" id="Biography">Biography</span><span class="mw-editsection" style="user-select: none; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: isolate;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-right: 0.25em;">[</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=L.Lin_Wood&action=edit§ion=1&editintro=Template:BLP_editintro" title="Edit section: Biography" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-left: 0.25em;">]</span></span></font></h2><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Wood graduated from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercer_University" title="Mercer University" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Mercer University</a> <i>cum laude</i> in 1974 and graduated from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_F.George_School_of_Law" title="Walter F. George School of Law" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Walter F. George School of Law</a> <i>cum laude</i> in 1977. From 1977 to 1996 Wood litigated personal injury cases and medical malpractice cases in the State of Georgia.<sup id="cite_ref-Krista_8-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L.Lin_Wood#cite_note-Krista-8" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[8]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-Carlton_9-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L.Lin_Wood#cite_note-Carlton-9" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[9]</a></sup></font></p><h3 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.6;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="mw-headline" id="Defamation_and_libel_lawsuits">Defamation and libel lawsuits</span><span class="mw-editsection" style="user-select: none; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: isolate;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-right: 0.25em;">[</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=L.Lin_Wood&action=edit§ion=2&editintro=Template:BLP_editintro" title="Edit section: Defamation and libel lawsuits" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-left: 0.25em;">]</span></span></font></h3><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Wood's first libel and defamation client was <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Jewell" title="Richard Jewell" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Richard Jewell</a>,<sup id="cite_ref-highbeam.com_1-1" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L.Lin_Wood#cite_note-highbeam.com-1" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[1]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-washingtonpost.com_2-1" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L.Lin_Wood#cite_note-washingtonpost.com-2" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[2]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-articles.cnn.com_3-1" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L.Lin_Wood#cite_note-articles.cnn.com-3" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[3]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-60_Minutes_II:Falsely_Accused,4-1" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L.Lin_Wood#cite_note-60_Minutes_II:Falsely_Accused,-4" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[4]</a></sup> the security guard falsely accused in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centennial_Olympic_Park_bombing" title="Centennial Olympic Park bombing" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Centennial Olympic Park bombing</a> in Atlanta in 1996.</font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jewell was quickly followed by other high-profile cases, including <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bennett_Ramsey" title="John Bennett Ramsey" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">John</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patsy_Ramsey" title="Patsy Ramsey" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Patsy Ramsey</a>, the parents of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JonBen%C3%A9t_Ramsey" class="mw-redirect" title="JonBenét Ramsey" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">JonBenét Ramsey</a>. <sup id="cite_ref-10" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L.Lin_Wood#cite_note-10" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[10]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-11" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L.Lin_Wood#cite_note-11" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[11]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-12" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L.Lin_Wood#cite_note-12" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[12]</a></sup> Wood was the plaintiff's lead attorney for John and Patsy Ramsey and their son Burke, prosecuting defamation claims on their behalf against <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St.Martin%27s_Press" title="St. Martin's Press" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">St. Martin's Press</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Inc." title="Time Inc." style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Time Inc.</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fox_News" title="Fox News" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">The Fox News Channel</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Media,Inc." title="American Media, Inc." style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">American Media, Inc.</a>, <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star(magazine)" title="Star (magazine)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Star</a></i>, <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Globe(tabloid)" class="mw-redirect" title="The Globe (tabloid)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">The Globe</a></i>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Court_TV" title="Court TV" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Court TV</a> and <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_York_Post" class="mw-redirect" title="The New York Post" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">The New York Post</a></i>. John and Patsy Ramsey were also sued in two separate defamation lawsuits arising from the publication of their book, <i>The Death of Innocence</i>. The suit was brought by two individuals named in the book as having been investigated by Boulder police as suspects in JonBenét's murder. The Ramseys were defended in those lawsuits by Lin Wood and three other Atlanta attorneys, James C. Rawls, Eric P. Schroeder, and S. Derek Bauer. The lawsuits against the Ramseys were dismissed. The ruling was partially based on an in-depth decision by U.S. District Court Judge Julie Carnes that "abundant evidence" in the murder case pointed to an intruder having committed the crime.<sup id="cite_ref-13" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L.Lin_Wood#cite_note-13" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[13]</a></sup></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In November 2006, Wood, on behalf of Rod Westmoreland, a friend of JonBenét Ramsey's father, filed a defamation suit<sup id="cite_ref-14" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L.Lin_Wood#cite_note-14" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[14]</a></sup> against Keith Greer, who had posted a message on an Internet forum using the pseudonym "undertheradar". Greer had accused Westmoreland of participating in the kidnapping and murder.<sup id="cite_ref-15" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L.Lin_Wood#cite_note-15" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[15]</a></sup> Greer has defended his statement.<sup id="cite_ref-16" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L.Lin_Wood#cite_note-16" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[16]</a></sup></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Wood went on to represent former U.S. Congressman <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Condit" title="Gary Condit" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Gary Condit</a>, and the alleged victim in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kobe_Bryant_sexual_assault_case" title="Kobe Bryant sexual assault case" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Kobe Bryant case</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-Patrick_6-1" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L.Lin_Wood#cite_note-Patrick-6" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[6]</a></sup> He has also represented fellow attorney <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_K.Stern" title="Howard K. Stern" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Howard K. Stern</a> in defamation lawsuits against <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_O%27Quinn" title="John O'Quinn" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">John O'Quinn</a>, lawyer for Virgie Arthur, the mother of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Nicole_Smith" title="Anna Nicole Smith" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Anna Nicole Smith</a> and against <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rita_Cosby" title="Rita Cosby" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Rita Cosby</a>, the author of <i>Blonde Ambition, The Untold Story of Anna Nicole Smith</i>.</font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In November, 2011, Wood was hired by then-presidential candidate <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herman_Cain" title="Herman Cain" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Herman Cain</a>, in his efforts to fight off sexual harassment accusations.<sup id="cite_ref-Rachel_5-1" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L.Lin_Wood#cite_note-Rachel-5" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[5]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-17" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L.Lin_Wood#cite_note-17" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[17]</a></sup></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Wood represented Burke Ramsey, older brother of murder victim JonBenet Ramsey, in a pair of related lawsuits stemming from the CBS network docuseries <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Case_of:JonBen%C3%A9t_Ramsey" title="The Case of: JonBenét Ramsey" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">The Case of: JonBenét Ramsey</a></i>. They included a $150 Million suit against <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werner_Spitz" title="Werner Spitz" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Dr. Werner Spitz</a>, a Michigan-based forensic pathologist, over his assertion in a promotional CBS Detroit radio interview that Burke killed his sister when a young child. <sup id="cite_ref-18" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L.Lin_Wood#cite_note-18" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[18]</a></sup> The other suit was a $750 Million suit against CBS and other parties involved in the docuseries, where the same allegations were made. Both lawsuits were settled out of court.</font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Wood is the lead attorney in Nicholas Sandmann's defamation suit against <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Washington_Post" title="The Washington Post" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">The Washington Post</a></i>. Sandmann, a student at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covington_Catholic_High_School" title="Covington Catholic High School" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Covington Catholic High School</a>, was a party to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_2019_Lincoln_Memorial_confrontation" title="January 2019 Lincoln Memorial confrontation" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">January 2019 Lincoln Memorial confrontation</a>.</font></p><h3 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.6;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="mw-headline" id="Other_Significant_lawsuits">Other Significant lawsuits</span><span class="mw-editsection" style="user-select: none; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: isolate;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-right: 0.25em;">[</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=L.Lin_Wood&action=edit§ion=3&editintro=Template:BLP_editintro" title="Edit section: Other Significant lawsuits" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-left: 0.25em;">]</span></span></font></h3><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On November 30, 2012, CNN covered the DaVita Inc. Medicare and Medicaid Fraud Lawsuit pending in which Wood is a lead attorney for the plaintiffs.<sup id="cite_ref-19" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L.Lin_Wood#cite_note-19" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[19]</a></sup> That lawsuit settlement in 2015 was nearly $500 Million plus attorneys fees.<sup id="cite_ref-20" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L._Lin_Wood#cite_note-20" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[20]</a></sup></font></p></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/viral-video-showing-covington-catholic-high-school-students-prompts-propaganda-warfare-2">http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/viral-video-showing-covington-catholic-high-school-students-prompts-propaganda-warfare-2</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" /><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div> many lnx images (vid?)</div><div>
</div><div><b>Viral Video Showing Covington Catholic High School Students Prompts Propaganda Warfare</b></div><div>
</div><div>By Jared Holt | January 22, 2019 2:33 pm</div><div>
</div><div>(Screenshot / Fox News Channel)[tucker]</div><div>
</div><div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In a video that went viral, a group of students from Covington Catholic High School in Kentucky appeared to mock indigenous activist Nathan Phillips, who encountered the teens at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., after participating in last weekend’s Indigenous Peoples March. The teens had just taken part in the annual March for Life, a parade of Catholic high schools and right-wing groups who oppose reproductive rights and hope to overturn <em style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear;">Roe v. Wade</em>, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that made abortion legal in all 50 states. After the video spread on Twitter over the weekend, the teens’ families hired a communications firm to launch <a id="LPlnk510984" href="https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/local/2019/01/21/covington-catholic-runswitch-pr-helped-student-in-controversial-video/2638400002/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">multi-level public relations campaign</a> to wage war against the press.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The viral video <a id="LPlnk39448" href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/new-video-details-emerge-of-kentucky-high-school-students-viral-encounter-in-dc" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">shows a young man</a> who has publicly identified himself as Nicholas Sandmann, grinning and standing silently, facing Phillips, just inches from the Omaha tribe elder’s face, while Phillips plays a drum and sings. Sandmann’s classmates parody Phillips as he plays.<b> Twitter has <a id="LPlnk819085" href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/21/tech/twitter-suspends-account-native-american-maga-teens/index.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">suspended</a> the account </b>that first sent video of the incident viral. Since that video achieved virality, more video clips of the events that day have emerged.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">With each new video clip, right-wing hucksters alleged there was additional proof that the Covington Catholic boys should be exonerated for their display, despite the fact that none of the subsequent video clips prove that the boys did not demonstrate disrespectful behavior toward Phillips—rather, all video evidence reaffirmed that interpretation. What the clips did do, however, is provide documentation of verbal harassment of the boys by demonstrators from a Black Hebrew Israelite group prior to their encounter with indigenous activists. Despite the fact that additional footage showed the kids had been riled up before encountering Phillips, the clips do not change the facts of what happened after they did.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">ESCALATOR: ]A response to the viral video first launched in a part of right-wing internet that could be aptly likened to a landfill and ascended into the stratosphere. The pushback campaign first took off with fame-hungry media personalities like YouTube hoaxer Joey Salads, climbed through a mill of pro-Trump propagandists, thrust itself into “respectable” conservative outlets, and eventually reached its cruising altitude at Fox News—an elevation where President Donald Trump encountered the narrative and tweeted out its message to the nation</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">[djt tweet]</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Right-wing activists created and spread hashtags like <a id="LPlnk656689" href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23VerifiedBullies" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">#VerifiedBullies</a> and <a id="LPlnk512382" href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/StandWithConvington?src=hash" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">#StandWithCovington</a>. <b>Others began <a id="LPlnk117484" href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe4GpGHHeX0iGJpMYR3yjrxfRT8m-jdwXF6zcrQqu59qtuSzg/viewform" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">building a database</a> of verified Twitter users who had criticized the teens—and in extreme cases provoked harassment and violent rhetoric against the students—and demanded that those users be <a id="LPlnk724662" href="https://twitter.com/ali/status/1087397806019510275" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">suspended</a> and, if they were media professionals, to be fired. So far, that campaign <a id="LPlnk982430" href="https://www.thewrap.com/vulture-writer-on-covington-students-i-just-want-these-people-to-die-simple-as-that/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">has cost</a> at least one media professional their job</b>. All the while, right-wing personalities siphoned off the outrage campaign to <a id="LPlnk687466" href="https://twitter.com/ali/status/1087521467590299653" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">promote</a> their own personally branded media efforts.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Charlie Kirk, president of Turning Point USA, asked how “anyone still trust the media after this weekend” and declared that journalism “is dead.”</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">---</p></div><div>In a video that went viral, a group of students from Covington Catholic High School in Kentucky appeared to mock indigenous activist Nathan Phillips, who encountered the teens at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., after participating in last weekend’s Indigenous Peoples March. The teens had just taken part in the annual March for Life, a parade of Catholic high schools and right-wing groups who oppose reproductive rights and hope to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that made abortion legal in all 50 states. After the video spread on Twitter over the weekend, the teens’ families hired a communications firm to launch multi-level public relations campaign to wage war against the press.</div><div>
</div><div>The viral video shows a young man who has publicly identified himself as Nicholas Sandmann, grinning and standing silently, facing Phillips, just inches from the Omaha tribe elder’s face, while Phillips plays a drum and sings. Sandmann’s classmates parody Phillips as he plays. Twitter has suspended the account that first sent video of the incident viral. Since that video achieved virality, more video clips of the events that day have emerged.</div><div>
</div><div>With each new video clip, right-wing hucksters alleged there was additional proof that the Covington Catholic boys should be exonerated for their display, despite the fact that none of the subsequent video clips prove that the boys did not demonstrate disrespectful behavior toward Phillips—rather, all video evidence reaffirmed that interpretation. What the clips did do, however, is provide documentation of verbal harassment of the boys by demonstrators from a Black Hebrew Israelite group prior to their encounter with indigenous activists. Despite the fact that additional footage showed the kids had been riled up before encountering Phillips, the clips do not change the facts of what happened after they did.</div><div>
</div><div>A response to the viral video first launched in a part of right-wing internet that could be aptly likened to a landfill and ascended into the stratosphere. The pushback campaign first took off with fame-hungry media personalities like YouTube hoaxer Joey Salads, climbed through a mill of pro-Trump propagandists, thrust itself into “respectable” conservative outlets, and eventually reached its cruising altitude at Fox News—an elevation where President Donald Trump encountered the narrative and tweeted out its message to the nation.</div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div>Donald J. Trump</div><div>?</div><div>@realDonaldTrump</div><div>
</div><div> Nick Sandmann and the students of Covington have become symbols of Fake News and how evil it can be. They have captivated the attention of the world, and I know they will use it for the good - maybe even to bring people together. It started off unpleasant, but can end in a dream!</div><div>
</div><div>161K</div><div>4:32 AM - Jan 22, 2019</div><div>Twitter Ads info and privacy</div><div>62.9K people are talking about this</div><div>
</div><div>Right-wing activists created and spread hashtags like #VerifiedBullies and #StandWithCovington. Others began building a database of verified Twitter users who had criticized the teens—and in extreme cases provoked harassment and violent rhetoric against the students—and demanded that those users be suspended and, if they were media professionals, to be fired. So far, that campaign has cost at least one media professional their job. All the while, right-wing personalities siphoned off the outrage campaign to promote their own personally branded media efforts.</div><div>
</div><div>Charlie Kirk, president of Turning Point USA, asked how “anyone still trust the media after this weekend” and declared that journalism “is dead.”</div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Charlie Kirk</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">?</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">@charliekirk11</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> How could anyone still trust the media after this weekend?</span></div><div>
</div><div>Fake “bombshell” built on lies with anonymous sources that was debunked by the special counsel [buzzfeed?]</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The attempted public lynching of high school kids on lies just because they wrote Trump hats</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Journalism is dead.</span></div><div>
</div><div>43.9K</div><div>7:07 PM - Jan 21, 2019</div><div>Twitter Ads info and privacy</div><div>16.9K people are talking about this</div><div>
</div><div><b>The president’s adult son, Donald Trump Jr., leaned into the campaign on Twitter, citing Posobiec, Kirk and others to question why major accounts had not been banned:</b></div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div>Donald Trump Jr.</div><div>?</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">@DonaldJTrumpJr</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Waiting for you to do the right thing and retract this... oh who am I kidding? You couldn’t care less about what’s right or true, just your leftist narrative.</span></div><div>
</div><div>Andrea Mitchell</div><div>?</div><div>@mitchellreports</div><div>This is heartbreaking. Such disrespect and racism https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1086752687289438210 …</div><div>
</div><div>46.7K</div><div>7:58 PM - Jan 21, 2019</div><div>Twitter Ads info and privacy</div><div>16.4K people are talking about this</div><div>Mike Cernovich used the counter-narrative about the teens to assert: “This is why you must never believe any story you read about Trump or his supporters. Period.”</div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div>Mike Cernovich ??????</div><div>?</div><div>@Cernovich</div><div> The media targeted high school kids, they laid down the full power of the press to crush them.</div><div>
</div><div>And the stories were fake. </div><div>
</div><div>This is why you must never believe any story you read about Trump or his supporters. Period.</div><div>
</div><div>7,549</div><div>8:52 PM - Jan 19, 2019</div><div>Twitter Ads info and privacy</div><div>3,474 people are talking about this</div><div>Tim Pool, an indie journalist, declared that it “has never been more apparent who the real fascists are.”</div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div>Tim Pool</div><div>?</div><div>@Timcast</div><div> It has never been more apparent who the real fascists are</div><div>
</div><div>11K</div><div>12:53 PM - Jan 21, 2019</div><div>Twitter Ads info and privacy</div><div>3,029 people are talking about this</div><div>Even Ben Shapiro of The Daily Wire eventually came around to pushing back on behalf of the Covington Catholic teens, despite having condemned their actions prior.</div><div>
</div><div>The activists have enlisted the help of Robert Barnes, an attorney who assisted Gateway Pundit writer Cassandra Fairbanks in filing a defamation lawsuit against a reporter who posted on Twitter that Fairbanks made a “white power hand gesture” in a photo. That lawsuit was dismissed.</div><div>
</div><div>At the time of publication, Fairbanks is a prominent voice pushing in defense of the Covington Catholic teens, publishing 15 articles about the incident at The Gateway Pundit over the weekend. In those articles, she defends the teens against their liberal critics.</div><div>
</div><div>Pardes Seleh, a former producer for Laura Ingraham that now spins for MAGA world as a writer at Mediaite, penned a piece about Twitter accounts that removed posts about the Covington Catholic students. Robby Soave at Reason wrote that additional video footage of the encounter “adds important context that strongly contradicts the media’s narrative,” and he cast the blame for the students’ behavior on the nearby Black Hebrew Israelites who were accosting the teens before Phillips entered the scene. Soave writes that there was “shockingly little evidence of wrongdoing unless donning a Trump hat and standing in a group of other people doing the same is now an act of harassment or violence.”</div><div>
</div><div>Soave’s article was picked up by Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, who shared it on Twitter:</div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div>Senator Rand Paul</div><div>?</div><div>@RandPaul</div><div> Unfortunately there is too often a rush to judgement from our media and social media these days. We should stop and look at the facts first. </div><div>
</div><div>The Media Wildly Mischaracterized That Video of Covington Catholic Students. https://reason.com/blog/2019/01/20/covington-catholic-nathan-phillips-video …</div><div>
</div><div>39.1K</div><div>6:00 AM - Jan 21, 2019</div><div>Twitter Ads info and privacy</div><div>
</div><div>The Media Wildly Mischaracterized That Video of Covington Catholic Students Confronting a Native...</div><div>Journalists who uncritically accepted Nathan Phillips' story got this completely wrong.</div><div>
</div><div>reason.com</div><div>15.3K people are talking about this</div><div>Joe Simonson, a media reporter at The Daily Caller, wrote that media figures dogpiled on the high schoolers while “still reeling from the wave of criticism” surrounding a BuzzFeed News report and accused them of focusing on the student’s smirk because it “triggered painful memories of lonely prom nights and failed junior varsity sport tryouts.” At the time of this post, The Daily Caller featured seven unique stories on its homepage about the Covington Catholic teens.</div><div>
</div><div>And it probably goes without saying that the group of teenagers was also defended by unabashed white nationalists and racists.</div><div>
</div><div>As Laura Wagner pointed out at Deadspin, the artificially created outrage campaign grew so overpowering that it prompted sympathies from reporters at The New York Times, CNN, The Atlantic, and HuffPost. Wagner wrote:</div><div>
</div><div>These people are willing to give the screaming mob of white teens the benefit of the doubt because it distinguishes them from the emotion-driven hordes. It’s something like virtue signaling, but instead of attempting to signal that they hold any type of moral or ethical principles, these people are attempting to show that they are willing to be chastened, and so are thoughtful. I can admit when I’m wrong, they say, so you can always trust me.</div><div>
</div><div>As the story has dragged on and additional reporting has been done, the disinformation campaign has become more apparent. Charlie Warzel noted: “it’s an information war all the way down.”</div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div>Charlie Warzel</div><div>?</div><div>@cwarzel</div><div> · Jan 21, 2019</div><div> just a quick note of who is keeping track of media retractions/corrections firings/suspensions for the Covington video(s). just a quick note that it’s a coordinated hashtag “campaign”</div><div>
</div><div>View image on Twitter</div><div>
</div><div>Charlie Warzel</div><div>?</div><div>@cwarzel</div><div>it’s an information war all the way down</div><div>
</div><div>410</div><div>6:24 PM - Jan 21, 2019</div><div>Twitter Ads info and privacy</div><div>123 people are talking about this</div><div>NBC reporter Ben Collins noted that mainstream media voices attempted to find a false center between a mostly true account of what happened and a dishonest counter-narrative.</div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div>Ben Collins</div><div>?</div><div>@oneunderscore</div><div> · Jan 21, 2019</div><div> The most concerning part of this weekend was, in two instances, some mainstream commentators and outlets' desperate appeals to appear moderate by taking bad faith reactionaries' words at face value, then trying to find a center between that and the truth.</div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div>Ben Collins</div><div>?</div><div>@oneunderscore</div><div>Thing 1 came out, was eventually largely supported and true.</div><div>Thing 2 came out, was wildly, intentionally misconstrued by professional provocateurs to say that Thing 1 was a lie.</div><div>Mainstream voices moved to center of Thing 1&2.</div><div>More reporting showed Thing 1 was closer to the truth.</div><div>
</div><div>1,169</div><div>8:40 PM - Jan 21, 2019</div><div>Twitter Ads info and privacy</div><div>313 people are talking about this</div><div>MSNBC host Chris Hayes remarked, “I haven’t seen the broad conservative coalition as fired up about a story since Kavanaugh”:</div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div>Chris Hayes</div><div>?</div><div>@chrislhayes</div><div> I haven’t seen the broad conservative coalition as fired up about a story since Kavanaugh. Pretty interesting.</div><div>
</div><div>12.7K</div><div>6:17 AM - Jan 22, 2019</div><div>Twitter Ads info and privacy</div><div>5,342 people are talking about this</div><div>Tags: Ben Shapiro Cassandra Fairbanks Donald Trump Donald Trump Jr. Jack Posobiec Joe Simonson Mike Cernovich Pardes Seleh Robby Soave Tim Pool Tucker Carlson Media Gateway Pundit The Daily Caller The Daily Wire Turning Point USA</div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">===</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">ref</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/local/2019/01/21/covington-catholic-runswitch-pr-helped-student-in-controversial-video/2638400002/</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><div id="module-position-RgftZyv9vHE" class="story-asset video-asset" style="background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);"><div class="ui-video-wrapper " itemprop="video" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/VideoObject"><div class="ui-video-controls story-video inline-story-video priority" style="display: inline-block; margin: 0px 0px 10px 60px; position: relative; height: 60px; width: 540px;"><p class="video-desc" itemprop="description" style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 20px; padding-top: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">hey've had some some questionable losses, but Western Kentucky looked like a tough team Monday night against Marshall.<span class="credit">Dominique Yates</span></font></p></div></div></div><div id="module-position-RgftZyxJ5fA" class="story-asset story-metadata-asset" style=""><div id="module-position-RgftZywMCjs" class="story-asset inline-share-tools-asset" style=""><div class="inline-share-tools asset-inline-share-tools asset-inline-share-tools-top" style="margin: 0px 0px 15px 50px;"><p class="speakable-p-1 p-text" style="background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250); white-space: nowrap; margin: 0px 0px 15px 60px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In the hours after video clips showed Covington Catholic student Nick Sandmann standing face-to-face with a Native American man during a rally in Washington, D.C., the incident went viral and drew a huge backlash against the teen and the Northern Kentucky school.</font></p><p class="speakable-p-2 p-text" style="background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250); white-space: nowrap; margin: 0px 0px 15px 60px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But by Sunday evening, the coverage of what happened provided a more detailed account of events, along with a statement from Sandmann that seemed to tamp down the explosion of anger against the teen — thanks in part to <a data-track-label="inline|intext|n/a" href="https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/2019/01/20/covington-catholic-incident-indigenous-peoples-march-longer-video/2631381002/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">extended video from the rally </a>and the involvement of Louisville public relations firm RunSwitch PR. </font></p><p class="p-text" style="background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250); white-space: nowrap; margin: 0px 0px 15px 60px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On Sunday night, Sandmann released<a data-track-label="inline|intext|n/a" href="https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/2019/01/20/covington-catholic-student-viral-video-issues-statement/2634180002/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"> a three-page statement</a> in which Nick defended his actions and offered his version of events. Describing himself as a Christian and practicing Catholic, he wrote that the Native American man, Nathan Phillips, had approached him, not the other way around. Phillips supported that in separate interviews later in the weekend.</font></p><p class="p-text" style="background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250); white-space: nowrap; margin: 0px 0px 15px 60px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px;"><span class="exclude-from-newsgate"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-weight: 700; margin-right: 3px;">Read this: </span><a data-track-label="inline|intext|n/a" href="https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/politics/2019/01/20/covington-catholic-video-thomas-massie-defends-kentucky-students/2634130002/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Massie defends Covington students: 'It is my honor to represent them'</a></font></span></p><p class="p-text" style="background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250); white-space: nowrap; margin: 0px 0px 15px 60px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Asked about its role, RunSwitch released a statement saying that the firm "has been retained by the Sandmann family to offer professional counsel with what has become a national media story. We are working with the family to ensure an accurate recounting of events which occurred this past weekend.”</font></p><p class="p-text" style="background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250); white-space: nowrap; margin: 0px 0px 15px 60px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">RunSwitch partners Steve Bryant and Gary Gerdemann said that Sandmann family asked people they knew over the weekend about getting help with handling the media.</font></p><p class="p-text" style="background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250); white-space: nowrap; margin: 0px 0px 15px 60px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"They reached out to our firm, and we responded," said Bryant, adding that the business specializes in crisis management "all over the country."</font></p><p class="p-text" style="background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250); white-space: nowrap; margin: 0px 0px 15px 60px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Scott Jennings, a conservative political commentator and a columnist for the Courier Journal, is the third partner in RunSwitch. </font></p><p class="p-text" style="background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250); white-space: nowrap; margin: 0px 0px 15px 60px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The original short video showed Sandmann, wearing a bright red "Make America Great Again" hat, facing Phillips as the man pounded an indigenous drum and chanted. A larger group of students jumped and clapped to the beat while Sandmann appeared to smirk at the man. He and Phillips were nearly touching in the video.</font></p><div class="partner-outstream" style="background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250); white-space: nowrap;"><p class="p-text" style="margin: 0px 0px 15px 60px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The impression was that the teen was being disrespectful and fellow students were glad to egg on a confrontation. Covington Catholic High and the Diocese of Covington condemned the behavior of the students, with the diocese vowing to open an investigation. </font></p><p class="p-text" style="margin: 0px 0px 15px 60px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);"><span class="exclude-from-newsgate"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-weight: 700; margin-right: 3px;">More: </span><a data-track-label="inline|intext|n/a" href="https://www.courier-journal.com/story/opinion/2019/01/21/government-shutdown-mitcht-mcconnell-gives-trump-his-power/2636162002/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">McConnell has ceded all power to Trump in government shutdown, Yarmuth says</a></font></span></p><p class="p-text" style="margin: 0px 0px 15px 60px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sandmann and his family's statement said in part that the teen wasn't trying to inflame tensions.</font></p><p class="p-text" style="margin: 0px 0px 15px 60px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"I believed that by remaining motionless and calm, I was helping to diffuse the situation. I realized everyone had cameras and that perhaps a group of adults was trying to provoke a group of teenagers into a larger conflict. I said a silent prayer that the situation would not get out of hand," he said in the statement. </font></p><p class="p-text" style="margin: 0px 0px 15px 60px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"... I did smile at one point because I wanted him to know that I was not going to become angry, intimidated or be provoked into a larger confrontation." </font></p><p class="p-text" style="margin: 0px 0px 15px 60px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The statement came amid a pivot on coverage of the story on Sunday, after more video <a data-track-label="inline|intext|n/a" href="https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/2019/01/20/covington-catholic-incident-analyzing-full-video-from-march/2633503002/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">emerged showing other protesters</a> at the scene yelling at and taunting the Covington students. Phillips <a data-track-label="inline|intext|n/a" href="https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/2019/01/20/native-american-leader-nathan-phillips-recounts-covington-catholic-video/2630955002/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">told the Detroit Free Press</a> that he stepped in to diffuse the crowd of students who were interacting with a group identified as the Black Hebrew Israelites.</font></p><p class="p-text" style="margin: 0px 0px 15px 60px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The students started to get upset by the taunts. Sandmann said the group of African-American protesters called the students racists, bigots and incest kids, among other derogatory names.</font></p><p class="p-text" style="margin: 0px 0px 15px 60px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);"><span class="exclude-from-newsgate"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-weight: 700; margin-right: 3px;">Read this: </span><a data-track-label="inline|intext|n/a" href="https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/politics/2019/01/14/rand-paul-neighbor-attack-senator-have-surgery-canada/2568200002/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul is going to Canada for surgery</a></font></span></p><p class="p-text" style="margin: 0px 0px 15px 60px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A few faith leaders in Louisville weighed in Monday, when many appeared at events to celebrate the life and legacy of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, said in his daily podcast Monday that the incidents involving the Covington students show how easily social media and subsequent coverage can spiral into mischaracterizations.</font></p><p class="p-text" style="margin: 0px 0px 15px 60px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mohler also sympathized with the students, who may not have understood how to respond to such a volatile situation. He asked: "Where were the chaperones and why didn't they assert themselves?"</font></p><p class="p-text" style="margin: 0px 0px 15px 60px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Rick Blackwell, president of DeSales High School in south Louisville, said his school sent 15 boys and two chaperones. None of the Louisville group was near where the Covington Catholic students were that afternoon.</font></p><p class="p-text" style="margin: 0px 0px 15px 60px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But he said the incident will be the focus of a school-wide discussion Tuesday about how to respect other people and "ways to be a witness to your values."</font></p><p class="p-text" style="margin: 0px 0px 15px 60px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The point won't be to criticize the Covington Catholic teens, but to remind the DeSales students how to respond and respect the views of others, "even if you disagree," Blackwell said.</font></p><p class="p-text" style="margin: 0px 0px 15px 60px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Grace Schneider: 502-582-4082; gschneider@courierjournal.com; Twitter: <a data-track-label="inline|intext|n/a" href="https://www.twitter.com/gesinfk" style="text-decoration-line: none;">@gesinfk</a>. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: <a data-track-label="inline|intext|n/a" href="https://www.courier-journal.com/graces" style="text-decoration-line: none;">www.courier-journal.com/graces</a>.</font></p><p class="p-text" style="margin: 0px 0px 15px 60px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);"><span class="exclude-from-newsgate"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-weight: 700; margin-right: 3px;">Monday night: </span><a data-track-label="inline|intext|n/a" href="https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/local/2019/01/21/president-donald-trump-weighs-in-covington-catholic-nathan-phillips-controversy/2641539002/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Trump tweets that Covington Catholic students were 'treated unfairly'</a></font></span></p><p class="p-text" style="margin: 0px 0px 15px 60px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);"><span class="exclude-from-newsgate"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-weight: 700; margin-right: 3px;">Covington Catholic parent: </span><a data-track-label="inline|intext|n/a" href="https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/politics/2019/01/21/where-were-covington-catholic-students-chaperones/2637118002/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">'Nothing the chaperones could have done differently'</a></font></span></p><p class="p-text" style="margin: 0px 0px 15px 60px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);"><span class="exclude-from-newsgate"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-weight: 700; margin-right: 3px;">More: </span><a data-track-label="inline|intext|n/a" href="https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/2019/01/21/jeff-ruby-invites-nathan-phillips-dinner-with-covington-catholic-studentes/2637508002/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Jeff Ruby invites Nathan Phillips to 'break bread' with CovCath kids</a></font></span></p><div class="story-line-singleton" style="display: flex; margin-bottom: 12px; background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);"><div class="story-line-link-wrapper" style="margin-right: 33px;"><a class="story-line-story story-line-story-text" href="http://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/2019/01/23/covington-catholic-today-show-nicholas-sandmann/2655471002/?utm_source=oembed&utm_medium=news&utm_campaign=storylines" style="text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: none !important; display: inline !important; line-height: 1.2 !important; text-shadow: none !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">ovington student Nick Sandmann: I was judged 'based off one expression'</font></a></div></div><div class="story-line-singleton" style="display: flex; margin-bottom: 12px; background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);"><svg class="story-line-text-icon" version="1.1" id="Layer_3" x="0px" y="0px" viewbox="0 0 16 16" xml:space="preserve" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xmlns:xml="xml" /><font size="4"><font face="Times New Roman"><g><path d="M-13.4,3.7H-16c0-0.8-0.6-1.6-1.4-1.6h-3.2c-0.8,0-1.4,0.8-1.4,1.6h-2.6c-0.8,0-1.4,0.6-1.4,1.5v6.1c0,0.8,0.6,1.5,1.4,1.5
h11.2c0.8,0,1.4-0.7,1.4-1.5V5.2C-12,4.3-12.7,3.7-13.4,3.7z M-19,10.8c-1.4,0-2.5-1.1-2.5-2.5c0-1.4,1.1-2.5,2.5-2.5
s2.5,1.1,2.5,2.5C-16.5,9.6-17.6,10.8-19,10.8z" /></g><g><polygon points="-41,8 -51,14 -51,2 " /></g><g><polygon points="9.3,9 3,9 3,7 9.3,7 7.7,5.2 9.3,3.8 12.8,8 9.3,12.2 7.7,10.8 " /></g></font></font><div class="story-line-link-wrapper" style="margin-right: 33px;"><a class="story-line-story story-line-story-text" href="http://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/politics/2019/01/23/matt-bevin-defends-covington-catholic-students-fox-news-tucker-carlson/2655273002/?utm_source=oembed&utm_medium=news&utm_campaign=storylines" style="text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: none !important; display: inline !important; line-height: 1.2 !important; text-shadow: none !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Bevin: Covington Catholic kids more responsible than adults in video</font></a></div></div><div class="story-line-singleton" style="display: flex; margin-bottom: 12px; background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);"><svg class="story-line-text-icon" version="1.1" id="Layer_3" x="0px" y="0px" viewbox="0 0 16 16" xml:space="preserve" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xmlns:xml="xml" /><font size="4"><font face="Times New Roman"><g><path d="M-13.4,3.7H-16c0-0.8-0.6-1.6-1.4-1.6h-3.2c-0.8,0-1.4,0.8-1.4,1.6h-2.6c-0.8,0-1.4,0.6-1.4,1.5v6.1c0,0.8,0.6,1.5,1.4,1.5
h11.2c0.8,0,1.4-0.7,1.4-1.5V5.2C-12,4.3-12.7,3.7-13.4,3.7z M-19,10.8c-1.4,0-2.5-1.1-2.5-2.5c0-1.4,1.1-2.5,2.5-2.5
s2.5,1.1,2.5,2.5C-16.5,9.6-17.6,10.8-19,10.8z" /></g><g><polygon points="-41,8 -51,14 -51,2 " /></g><g><polygon points="9.3,9 3,9 3,7 9.3,7 7.7,5.2 9.3,3.8 12.8,8 9.3,12.2 7.7,10.8 " /></g></font></font><div class="story-line-link-wrapper" style="margin-right: 33px;"><a class="story-line-story story-line-story-text" href="http://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/2019/01/22/trump-reportedly-invites-covington-catholic-students-to-white-house/2650406002/?utm_source=oembed&utm_medium=news&utm_campaign=storylines" style="text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: none !important; display: inline !important; line-height: 1.2 !important; text-shadow: none !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Trump reportedly may meet with Covington Catholic students at White House</font></a></div></div><div class="story-line-singleton" style="display: flex; margin-bottom: 12px; background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);"><svg class="story-line-text-icon" version="1.1" id="Layer_3" x="0px" y="0px" viewbox="0 0 16 16" xml:space="preserve" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xmlns:xml="xml" /><font size="4"><font face="Times New Roman"><g><path d="M-13.4,3.7H-16c0-0.8-0.6-1.6-1.4-1.6h-3.2c-0.8,0-1.4,0.8-1.4,1.6h-2.6c-0.8,0-1.4,0.6-1.4,1.5v6.1c0,0.8,0.6,1.5,1.4,1.5
h11.2c0.8,0,1.4-0.7,1.4-1.5V5.2C-12,4.3-12.7,3.7-13.4,3.7z M-19,10.8c-1.4,0-2.5-1.1-2.5-2.5c0-1.4,1.1-2.5,2.5-2.5
s2.5,1.1,2.5,2.5C-16.5,9.6-17.6,10.8-19,10.8z" /></g><g><polygon points="-41,8 -51,14 -51,2 " /></g><g><polygon points="9.3,9 3,9 3,7 9.3,7 7.7,5.2 9.3,3.8 12.8,8 9.3,12.2 7.7,10.8 " /></g></font></font><div class="story-line-link-wrapper" style="margin-right: 33px;"><a class="story-line-story story-line-story-text" href="http://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/nation/2019/01/23/covington-catholic-why-march-life-isnt-like-most-field-trips/2656202002/?utm_source=oembed&utm_medium=news&utm_campaign=storylines" style="text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: none !important; display: inline !important; line-height: 1.2 !important; text-shadow: none !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">The March for Life is a different kind of field trip for schools like Covington Catholic</font></a></div></div><div class="story-line-singleton" style="display: flex; margin-bottom: 12px; background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);"><svg class="story-line-text-icon" version="1.1" id="Layer_3" x="0px" y="0px" viewbox="0 0 16 16" xml:space="preserve" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xmlns:xml="xml" /><font size="4"><font face="Times New Roman"><g><path d="M-13.4,3.7H-16c0-0.8-0.6-1.6-1.4-1.6h-3.2c-0.8,0-1.4,0.8-1.4,1.6h-2.6c-0.8,0-1.4,0.6-1.4,1.5v6.1c0,0.8,0.6,1.5,1.4,1.5
h11.2c0.8,0,1.4-0.7,1.4-1.5V5.2C-12,4.3-12.7,3.7-13.4,3.7z M-19,10.8c-1.4,0-2.5-1.1-2.5-2.5c0-1.4,1.1-2.5,2.5-2.5
s2.5,1.1,2.5,2.5C-16.5,9.6-17.6,10.8-19,10.8z" /></g><g><polygon points="-41,8 -51,14 -51,2 " /></g><g><polygon points="9.3,9 3,9 3,7 9.3,7 7.7,5.2 9.3,3.8 12.8,8 9.3,12.2 7.7,10.8 " /></g></font></font><div class="story-line-link-wrapper" style="margin-right: 33px;"><a class="story-line-story story-line-story-text" href="http://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/2019/01/20/covington-catholic-incident-indigenous-peoples-march-longer-video/2631381002/?utm_source=oembed&utm_medium=news&utm_campaign=storylines" style="text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: none !important; display: inline !important; line-height: 1.2 !important; text-shadow: none !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Longer video shows start of the Covington Catholic confrontation</font></a></div></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250); white-space: nowrap;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">----</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250); white-space: nowrap;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><br /></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250); white-space: nowrap;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">no lnx pix?</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250); white-space: nowrap;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><br /></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250); white-space: nowrap;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" /><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The Courier-Journal</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div><br /></div><div>Louisville PR firm played a key role in Covington Catholic controversy</div><div>Grace Schneider, Louisville Courier Journal Published 6:56 p.m. ET Jan. 21, 2019 | Updated 12:14 p.m. ET Jan. 23, 2019</div><div><br /></div><div>This video clip went viral, throwing Covington Catholic into the national spotlight. Longer video has since emerged showing how the incident started. Louisville Courier Journal</div><div><br /></div><div>In the hours after video clips showed Covington Catholic student Nick Sandmann standing face-to-face with a Native American man during a rally in Washington, D.C., the incident went viral and drew a huge backlash against the teen and the Northern Kentucky school.</div><div><br /></div><div>But by Sunday evening, the coverage of what happened provided a more detailed account of events, along with a statement from Sandmann that seemed to tamp down the explosion of anger against the teen — thanks in part to extended video from the rally and the involvement of Louisville public relations firm RunSwitch PR. </div><div><br /></div><div>On Sunday night, Sandmann released a three-page statement in which Nick defended his actions and offered his version of events. Describing himself as a Christian and practicing Catholic, he wrote that the Native American man, Nathan Phillips, had approached him, not the other way around. Phillips supported that in separate interviews later in the weekend.</div><div><br /></div><div>Read this: Massie defends Covington students: 'It is my honor to represent them'</div><div><br /></div><div>Asked about its role, RunSwitch released a statement saying that the firm "has been retained by the Sandmann family to offer professional counsel with what has become a national media story. We are working with the family to ensure an accurate recounting of events which occurred this past weekend.”</div><div><br /></div><div>RunSwitch partners Steve Bryant and Gary Gerdemann said that Sandmann family asked people they knew over the weekend about getting help with handling the media.</div><div><br /></div><div>"They reached out to our firm, and we responded," said Bryant, adding that the business specializes in crisis management "all over the country."</div><div><br /></div><div>Scott Jennings, a conservative political commentator and a columnist for the Courier Journal, is the third partner in RunSwitch. </div><div><br /></div><div>The original short video showed Sandmann, wearing a bright red "Make America Great Again" hat, facing Phillips as the man pounded an indigenous drum and chanted. A larger group of students jumped and clapped to the beat while Sandmann appeared to smirk at the man. He and Phillips were nearly touching in the video.</div><div><br /></div><div>The impression was that the teen was being disrespectful and fellow students were glad to egg on a confrontation. Covington Catholic High and the Diocese of Covington condemned the behavior of the students, with the diocese vowing to open an investigation. </div><div><br /></div><div>More: McConnell has ceded all power to Trump in government shutdown, Yarmuth says</div><div><br /></div><div>Sandmann and his family's statement said in part that the teen wasn't trying to inflame tensions.</div><div><br /></div><div>"I believed that by remaining motionless and calm, I was helping to diffuse the situation. I realized everyone had cameras and that perhaps a group of adults was trying to provoke a group of teenagers into a larger conflict. I said a silent prayer that the situation would not get out of hand," he said in the statement. </div><div><br /></div><div>"... I did smile at one point because I wanted him to know that I was not going to become angry, intimidated or be provoked into a larger confrontation." </div><div><br /></div><div>The statement came amid a pivot on coverage of the story on Sunday, after more video emerged showing other protesters at the scene yelling at and taunting the Covington students. Phillips told the Detroit Free Press that he stepped in to diffuse the crowd of students who were interacting with a group identified as the Black Hebrew Israelites.</div><div><br /></div><div>The students started to get upset by the taunts. Sandmann said the group of African-American protesters called the students racists, bigots and incest kids, among other derogatory names.</div><div><br /></div><div>Read this: Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul is going to Canada for surgery</div><div><br /></div><div>A few faith leaders in Louisville weighed in Monday, when many appeared at events to celebrate the life and legacy of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, said in his daily podcast Monday that the incidents involving the Covington students show how easily social media and subsequent coverage can spiral into mischaracterizations.</div><div><br /></div><div>Mohler also sympathized with the students, who may not have understood how to respond to such a volatile situation. He asked: "Where were the chaperones and why didn't they assert themselves?"</div><div><br /></div><div>Rick Blackwell, president of DeSales High School in south Louisville, said his school sent 15 boys and two chaperones. None of the Louisville group was near where the Covington Catholic students were that afternoon.</div><div><br /></div><div>But he said the incident will be the focus of a school-wide discussion Tuesday about how to respect other people and "ways to be a witness to your values."</div><div><br /></div><div>The point won't be to criticize the Covington Catholic teens, but to remind the DeSales students how to respond and respect the views of others, "even if you disagree," Blackwell said.</div><div><br /></div><div>Grace Schneider: 502-582-4082; gschneider@courierjournal.com; Twitter: @gesinfk. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: www.courier-journal.com/graces.</div><div><br /></div><div>Monday night: Trump tweets that Covington Catholic students were 'treated unfairly'</div><div><br /></div><div>Covington Catholic parent: 'Nothing the chaperones could have done differently'</div><div><br /></div><div>More: Jeff Ruby invites Nathan Phillips to 'break bread' with CovCath kids</div><div><br /></div><div>DIG DEEPER</div><div>Covington Catholic incident</div><div>Covington student Nick Sandmann: I was judged 'based off one expression'</div><div>Bevin: Covington Catholic kids more responsible than adults in video</div><div>Trump reportedly may meet with Covington Catholic students at White House</div><div>The March for Life is a different kind of field trip for schools like Covington Catholic</div><div>Longer video shows start of the Covington Catholic confrontation</div><div><br /></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250); white-space: nowrap;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">==</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/2019/01/20/covington-catholic-student-viral-video-issues-statement/2634180002/">https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/2019/01/20/covington-catholic-student-viral-video-issues-statement/2634180002/</a></span></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><br /></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">update 1/23</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><br /></font></div><div style=""><p class="speakable-p-1 p-text" style="background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250); margin: 0px 0px 15px 60px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Covington Catholic student seen facing off with a Native American protester in viral videos spread online has issued a statement through a lawyer and spokesman to the USA TODAY Network.</font></p><p class="speakable-p-2 p-text" style="background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250); margin: 0px 0px 15px 60px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The family, through the spokesman, declined any further interviews.</font></p><p class="speakable-p-2 p-text" style="background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250); margin: 0px 0px 15px 60px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></p><p class="p-text" style="background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250); margin: 0px 0px 15px 60px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px;"><span style="font-weight: 700;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="">Read more about the incident</font></span></p><p class="p-text" style="background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250); margin: 0px 0px 15px 60px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px;"><span class="exclude-from-newsgate"><a data-track-label="inline|intext|n/a" href="https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/local/2019/01/21/covington-catholic-runswitch-pr-helped-student-in-controversial-video/2638400002/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Louisville PR firm played a key role in Covington Catholic controversy</font></a></span></p><p class="p-text" style="background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250); margin: 0px 0px 15px 60px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px;"><span class="exclude-from-newsgate"><a data-track-label="inline|intext|n/a" href="https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/politics/2019/01/20/covington-catholic-video-thomas-massie-defends-kentucky-students/2634130002/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Rep. Massie defends Covington students: 'It is my honor to represent them'</font></a></span></p><p class="p-text" style="background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250); margin: 0px 0px 15px 60px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px;"><span class="exclude-from-newsgate"><a data-track-label="inline|intext|n/a" href="https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/2019/01/20/covington-catholic-incident-analyzing-full-video-from-march/2633503002/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">What video from Covington Catholic incident tell us about what happened</font></a></span></p><p class="p-text" style="background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250); margin: 0px 0px 15px 60px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px;"><span class="exclude-from-newsgate"><a data-track-label="inline|intext|n/a" href="https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/2019/01/19/covington-catholic-apologizes-students-indigenous-peoples-march-video/2628933002/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Covington Catholic could expel students seen in confrontation</font></a></span></p><p class="p-text" style="background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250); margin: 0px 0px 15px 60px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px;"><span class="exclude-from-newsgate"><a data-track-label="inline|intext|n/a" href="https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/2019/01/20/covington-catholic-incident-indigenous-peoples-march-longer-video/2631381002/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Longer video shows start of the Covington Catholic confrontation</font></a></span></p><p class="p-text" style="background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250); margin: 0px 0px 15px 60px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px;"><span class="exclude-from-newsgate"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><a data-track-label="inline|intext|n/a" href="https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/2019/01/20/native-american-leader-nathan-phillips-recounts-covington-catholic-video/2630955002/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Native American leader says CovCath students' 'mob mentality' was scary</a></font></span></p><p class="p-text" style="background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250); margin: 0px 0px 15px 60px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px;"><span class="exclude-from-newsgate"><br /></span></p><p class="p-text" style="background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250); margin: 0px 0px 15px 60px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px;"><span style="font-weight: 700;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Here's the statement from Nick Sandmann, a junior at Covington Catholic High School, regarding the incident at the Lincoln Memorial:</font></span></p><blockquote style="margin: 0px 0px 15px 60px; border-left: 2px solid rgb(201, 201, 201); font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px; overflow: auto; padding-left: 20px;"><p class="p-text" style="background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250); margin: 0px 0px 15px 60px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">I am providing this factual account of what happened on Friday afternoon at the Lincoln Memorial to correct misinformation and outright lies being spread about my family and me</font></p><p class="p-text" style="background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250); margin: 0px 0px 15px 60px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">I am the student in the video who was confronted by the Native American protestor. I arrived at the Lincoln Memorial at 4:30 p.m. I was told to be there by 5:30 p.m., when our busses were due to leave Washington for the trip back to Kentucky. We had been attending the March for Life rally, and then had split up into small groups to do sightseeing.<br /><br />When we arrived, we noticed four African American protestors who were also on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. I am not sure what they were protesting, and I did not interact with them. I did hear them direct derogatory insults at our school group.<br /><br />The protestors said hateful things. They called us “racists,” “bigots,” “white crackers,” “faggots,” and “incest kids.” They also taunted an African American student from my school by telling him that we would “harvest his organs.” I have no idea what that insult means, but it was startling to hear.</font></p><p class="p-text" style="background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250); margin: 0px 0px 15px 60px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Because we were being loudly attacked and taunted in public, a student in our group asked one of our teacher chaperones for permission to begin our school spirit chants to counter the hateful things that were being shouted at our group. The chants are commonly used at sporting events.</font></p><p class="p-text" style="background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250); margin: 0px 0px 15px 60px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">They are all positive in nature and sound like what you would hear at any high school. Our chaperone gave us permission to use our school chants. We would not have done that without obtaining permission from the adults in charge of our group.</font></p><p class="p-text" style="background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250); margin: 0px 0px 15px 60px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">At no time did I hear any student chant anything other than the school spirit chants. I did not witness or hear any students chant “build that wall” or anything hateful or racist at any time. Assertions to the contrary are simply false. Our chants were loud because we wanted to drown out the hateful comments that were being shouted at us by the protestors.<br /><br />After a few minutes of chanting, the Native American protestors, who I hadn’t previously noticed, approached our group. The Native American protestors had drums and were accompanied by at least one person with a camera.</font></p><p class="p-text" style="margin: 0px 0px 15px 60px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The protestor everyone has seen in the video began playing his drum as he waded into the crowd, which parted for him. I did not see anyone try to block his path. He locked eyes with me and approached me, coming within inches of my face. He played his drum the entire time he was in my face.</font></p><p class="p-text" style="margin: 0px 0px 15px 60px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);">I never interacted with this protestor. I did not speak to him. I did not make any hand gestures or other aggressive moves. To be honest, I was startled and confused as to why he had approached me. We had already been yelled at by another group of protestors, and when the second group approached I was worried that a situation was getting out of control where adults were attempting to provoke teenagers.</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">I believed that by remaining motionless and calm, I was helping to diffuse the situation. I realized everyone had cameras and that perhaps a group of adults was trying to provoke a group of teenagers into a larger conflict. I said a silent prayer that the situation would not get out of hand.</span></font></p><p class="p-text" style="margin: 0px 0px 15px 60px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">During the period of the drumming, a member of the protestor’s entourage began yelling at a fellow student that we “stole our land” and that we should “go back to Europe.” I heard one of my fellow students begin to respond. I motioned to my classmate and tried to get him to stop engaging with the protestor, as I was still in the mindset that we needed to calm down tensions.</font></p><p class="p-text" style="margin: 0px 0px 15px 60px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">I never felt like I was blocking the Native American protestor. He did not make any attempt to go around me. It was clear to me that he had singled me out for a confrontation, although I am not sure why.</font></p><p class="p-text" style="background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250); margin: 0px 0px 15px 60px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The engagement ended when one of our teachers told me the busses had arrived and it was time to go</b>. I obeyed my teacher and simply walked to the busses. At that moment, I thought I had diffused the situation by remaining calm, and I was thankful nothing physical had occurred.</font></p><p class="p-text" style="background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250); margin: 0px 0px 15px 60px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">I never understood why either of the two groups of protestors were engaging with us, or exactly what they were protesting at the Lincoln Memorial. We were simply there to meet a bus, not become central players in a media spectacle. This is the first time in my life I’ve ever encountered any sort of public protest, let alone this kind of confrontation or demonstration.</font></p><p class="p-text" style="background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250); margin: 0px 0px 15px 60px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">I was not intentionally making faces at the protestor. I did smile at one point because I wanted him to know that I was not going to become angry, intimidated or be provoked into a larger confrontation. I am a faithful Christian and practicing Catholic, and I always try to live up to the ideals my faith teaches me – to remain respectful of others, and to take no action that would lead to conflict or violence.</font></p><p class="p-text" style="margin: 0px 0px 15px 60px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);">I harbor no ill will for this person. I respect this person’s right to protest and engage in free speech activities, and I support his chanting on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial any day of the week. I believe he should re-think his tactics of invading the personal space of others, but that is his choice to make.</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">I am being called every name in the book, including a racist, and I will not stand for this mob-like character assassination of my family’s name.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);"> My parents were not on the trip, and I strive to represent my family in a respectful way in all public settings.</span></font></p><p class="p-text" style="margin: 0px 0px 15px 60px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">I have received physical and death threats via social media, as well as hateful insults. One person threatened to harm me at school, and one person claims to live in my neighborhood. My parents are receiving death and professional threats because of the social media mob that has formed over this issue.</font></p><p class="p-text" style="margin: 0px 0px 15px 60px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">I love my school, my teachers and my classmates. I work hard to achieve good grades and to participate in several extracurricular activities</span><span style="background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);">. I am mortified that so many people have come to believe something that did not happen – that students from my school were chanting or acting in a racist fashion toward African Americans or Native Americans. I did not do that, do not have hateful feelings in my heart, and did not witness any of my classmates doing that.</span></font></p><p class="p-text" style="background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250); margin: 0px 0px 15px 60px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">I cannot speak for everyone, only for myself. But I can tell you my experience with Covington Catholic is that students are respectful of all races and cultures. We also support everyone’s right to free speech.</font></p><p class="p-text" style="background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250); margin: 0px 0px 15px 60px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">I am not going to comment on the words or account of Mr. Phillips, as I don’t know him and would not presume to know what is in his heart or mind. Nor am I going to comment further on the other protestors, as I don’t know their hearts or minds, either. I have read that Mr. Phillips is a veteran of the United States <b>Marines.</b> I thank him for his service and am grateful to anyone who puts on the uniform to defend our nation. If anyone has earned the right to speak freely, it is a U.S. Marine veteran.</font></p><p class="p-text" style="background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250); margin: 0px 0px 15px 60px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">I can only speak for myself and what I observed and felt at the time. But I would caution everyone passing judgement based on a few seconds of video to watch the longer video clips that are on the internet, as they show a much different story than is being <b>portrayed by people with agendas.</b></font></p><p class="p-text" style="margin: 0px 0px 15px 60px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">I provided this account of events to the Diocese of Covington so they may know exactly what happened, and I stand ready and willing to cooperate with any investigation they are conducting.</font></p><p class="p-text" style="margin: 0px 0px 15px 60px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">This is the only statement that has been made by the Sandmann family. Any comments attributed to any member of the family that is not contained in this document are fabricated. The family will not be answering individual media inquiries.</font></p></blockquote><div id="module-position-RjXeh6iBkCE" class="story-asset oembed-asset" style="background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);"><div class="story-oembed-wrap " style="margin: 0px 0px 15px 50px;"><div class="js-oembed story-oembed story-oembed-gannett story-oembed-type-rich" data-oembed-type="rich" data-oembed-provider="gannett" style="display: inline-block; max-width: 100%; clear: both; text-align: center; width: 540px;"><div gidgit-contentpackage="" data-asset-id="2657151002" data-sitecode="PLOU" gidgit-status="loaded"><div class="content-package-wrap"><div class="story-line-container" style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div class="story-line-title-bar" style="background-color: rgb(238, 238, 238); border-left: 4px solid rgb(0, 155, 255); font-weight: bold; padding: 6px 12px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font><div class="story-line-list-decorator" style="text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">DIG DEEPER</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div class="story-line-list-title" style="">Covington Catholic incident</div></div><div class="story-line-content" style="border: 1px solid rgb(230, 230, 230); display: flex; flex-flow: row nowrap; padding: 12px;"><div class="story-line-links" style="flex-basis: auto; order: 1; width: 339.234px;"><div class="story-line-singleton" style="display: flex; margin-bottom: 12px;"><svg class="story-line-text-icon" version="1.1" id="Layer_3" x="0px" y="0px" viewbox="0 0 16 16" xml:space="preserve" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xmlns:xml="xml"><g><path d="M-13.4,3.7H-16c0-0.8-0.6-1.6-1.4-1.6h-3.2c-0.8,0-1.4,0.8-1.4,1.6h-2.6c-0.8,0-1.4,0.6-1.4,1.5v6.1c0,0.8,0.6,1.5,1.4,1.5
h11.2c0.8,0,1.4-0.7,1.4-1.5V5.2C-12,4.3-12.7,3.7-13.4,3.7z M-19,10.8c-1.4,0-2.5-1.1-2.5-2.5c0-1.4,1.1-2.5,2.5-2.5
s2.5,1.1,2.5,2.5C-16.5,9.6-17.6,10.8-19,10.8z" /></g><g><polygon points="-41,8 -51,14 -51,2 " /></g><g><polygon points="9.3,9 3,9 3,7 9.3,7 7.7,5.2 9.3,3.8 12.8,8 9.3,12.2 7.7,10.8 " /></g></svg><div class="story-line-link-wrapper" style="margin-right: 33px;"><a class="story-line-story story-line-story-text" href="http://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/2019/01/23/covington-catholic-today-show-nicholas-sandmann/2655471002/?utm_source=oembed&utm_medium=news&utm_campaign=storylines" style="text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: none !important; display: inline !important; line-height: 1.2 !important; text-shadow: none !important;">Covington student Nick Sandmann: I was judged 'based off one expression'</a></div></div><div class="story-line-singleton" style="display: flex; margin-bottom: 12px;"><svg class="story-line-text-icon" version="1.1" id="Layer_3" x="0px" y="0px" viewbox="0 0 16 16" xml:space="preserve" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xmlns:xml="xml"><g><path d="M-13.4,3.7H-16c0-0.8-0.6-1.6-1.4-1.6h-3.2c-0.8,0-1.4,0.8-1.4,1.6h-2.6c-0.8,0-1.4,0.6-1.4,1.5v6.1c0,0.8,0.6,1.5,1.4,1.5
h11.2c0.8,0,1.4-0.7,1.4-1.5V5.2C-12,4.3-12.7,3.7-13.4,3.7z M-19,10.8c-1.4,0-2.5-1.1-2.5-2.5c0-1.4,1.1-2.5,2.5-2.5
s2.5,1.1,2.5,2.5C-16.5,9.6-17.6,10.8-19,10.8z" /></g><g><polygon points="-41,8 -51,14 -51,2 " /></g><g><polygon points="9.3,9 3,9 3,7 9.3,7 7.7,5.2 9.3,3.8 12.8,8 9.3,12.2 7.7,10.8 " /></g></svg><div class="story-line-link-wrapper" style="margin-right: 33px;"><a class="story-line-story story-line-story-text" href="http://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/politics/2019/01/23/matt-bevin-defends-covington-catholic-students-fox-news-tucker-carlson/2655273002/?utm_source=oembed&utm_medium=news&utm_campaign=storylines" style="text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: none !important; display: inline !important; line-height: 1.2 !important; text-shadow: none !important;">Bevin: Covington Catholic kids more responsible than adults in video</a></div></div><div class="story-line-singleton" style="display: flex; margin-bottom: 12px;"><svg class="story-line-text-icon" version="1.1" id="Layer_3" x="0px" y="0px" viewbox="0 0 16 16" xml:space="preserve" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xmlns:xml="xml"><g><path d="M-13.4,3.7H-16c0-0.8-0.6-1.6-1.4-1.6h-3.2c-0.8,0-1.4,0.8-1.4,1.6h-2.6c-0.8,0-1.4,0.6-1.4,1.5v6.1c0,0.8,0.6,1.5,1.4,1.5
h11.2c0.8,0,1.4-0.7,1.4-1.5V5.2C-12,4.3-12.7,3.7-13.4,3.7z M-19,10.8c-1.4,0-2.5-1.1-2.5-2.5c0-1.4,1.1-2.5,2.5-2.5
s2.5,1.1,2.5,2.5C-16.5,9.6-17.6,10.8-19,10.8z" /></g><g><polygon points="-41,8 -51,14 -51,2 " /></g><g><polygon points="9.3,9 3,9 3,7 9.3,7 7.7,5.2 9.3,3.8 12.8,8 9.3,12.2 7.7,10.8 " /></g></svg><div class="story-line-link-wrapper" style="margin-right: 33px;"><a class="story-line-story story-line-story-text" href="http://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/2019/01/22/trump-reportedly-invites-covington-catholic-students-to-white-house/2650406002/?utm_source=oembed&utm_medium=news&utm_campaign=storylines" style="text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: none !important; display: inline !important; line-height: 1.2 !important; text-shadow: none !important;">Trump reportedly may meet with Covington Catholic students at White House</a></div></div><div class="story-line-singleton" style="display: flex; margin-bottom: 12px;"><svg class="story-line-text-icon" version="1.1" id="Layer_3" x="0px" y="0px" viewbox="0 0 16 16" xml:space="preserve" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xmlns:xml="xml"><g><path d="M-13.4,3.7H-16c0-0.8-0.6-1.6-1.4-1.6h-3.2c-0.8,0-1.4,0.8-1.4,1.6h-2.6c-0.8,0-1.4,0.6-1.4,1.5v6.1c0,0.8,0.6,1.5,1.4,1.5
h11.2c0.8,0,1.4-0.7,1.4-1.5V5.2C-12,4.3-12.7,3.7-13.4,3.7z M-19,10.8c-1.4,0-2.5-1.1-2.5-2.5c0-1.4,1.1-2.5,2.5-2.5
s2.5,1.1,2.5,2.5C-16.5,9.6-17.6,10.8-19,10.8z" /></g><g><polygon points="-41,8 -51,14 -51,2 " /></g><g><polygon points="9.3,9 3,9 3,7 9.3,7 7.7,5.2 9.3,3.8 12.8,8 9.3,12.2 7.7,10.8 " /></g></svg><div class="story-line-link-wrapper" style="margin-right: 33px;"><a class="story-line-story story-line-story-text" href="http://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/nation/2019/01/23/covington-catholic-why-march-life-isnt-like-most-field-trips/2656202002/?utm_source=oembed&utm_medium=news&utm_campaign=storylines" style="text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: none !important; display: inline !important; line-height: 1.2 !important; text-shadow: none !important;">The March for Life is a different kind of field trip for schools like Covington Catholic</a></div></div><div class="story-line-singleton" style="display: flex; margin-bottom: 12px;"><svg class="story-line-text-icon" version="1.1" id="Layer_3" x="0px" y="0px" viewbox="0 0 16 16" xml:space="preserve" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xmlns:xml="xml"><g><path d="M-13.4,3.7H-16c0-0.8-0.6-1.6-1.4-1.6h-3.2c-0.8,0-1.4,0.8-1.4,1.6h-2.6c-0.8,0-1.4,0.6-1.4,1.5v6.1c0,0.8,0.6,1.5,1.4,1.5
h11.2c0.8,0,1.4-0.7,1.4-1.5V5.2C-12,4.3-12.7,3.7-13.4,3.7z M-19,10.8c-1.4,0-2.5-1.1-2.5-2.5c0-1.4,1.1-2.5,2.5-2.5
s2.5,1.1,2.5,2.5C-16.5,9.6-17.6,10.8-19,10.8z" /></g><g><polygon points="-41,8 -51,14 -51,2 " /></g><g><polygon points="9.3,9 3,9 3,7 9.3,7 7.7,5.2 9.3,3.8 12.8,8 9.3,12.2 7.7,10.8 " /></g></svg><div class="story-line-link-wrapper" style="margin-right: 33px;"><a class="story-line-story story-line-story-text" href="http://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/2019/01/20/covington-catholic-incident-indigenous-peoples-march-longer-video/2631381002/?utm_source=oembed&utm_medium=news&utm_campaign=storylines" style="text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: none !important; display: inline !important; line-height: 1.2 !important; text-shadow: none !important;">Longer video shows start of the Covington Catholic confrontation</a></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="white-space: nowrap;"><br /></span></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="white-space: nowrap;"><br /></span></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250); white-space: nowrap;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">==<br /></font><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/01/how-the-media-centers-whiteness-savannah-guthries-interview-with-the-covington-catholic-teen-shows-an-ongoing-flaw-in-how-the-news-covers-race/">https://www.alternet.org/2019/01/how-the-media-centers-whiteness-savannah-guthries-interview-with-the-covington-catholic-teen-shows-an-ongoing-flaw-in-how-the-news-covers-race/</a></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><br /></font></div><div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Kudos to<a href="https://www.salon.com/topic/savannah_guthrie" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;"> NBC’s Savannah Guthrie</a> for clarifying the core context of heated conversation regarding what happened over the weekend outside the Lincoln Memorial crystal clear: See, this is about white people and “others.”</font></p><div class="p1_47" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">How are innocent children expected to react to “others”?</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In turn, what responsibility do adult “others” have to making sure young men like 16-year-old <a href="https://www.salon.com/2019/01/22/nathan-phillips-and-the-boys-from-covington-what-does-this-ugly-encounter-say-about-america/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Covington Catholic High School student Nick Sandmann</a> feel safe, regardless of what they’re doing and where they’re doing it?</font></p><div class="p3_47" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Shouldn’t we all understand and take into account that, when confronted by five black cult members hurling racist vulgarities at them, a group of young white men at least four times as large in number, many wearing red MAGA hats, has a right to take a stand against any and all people of color in their orbit with, as Sandman describes is, a <b>“peaceful response of school spirit”?</b></font></p><div class="p4_47" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This may not have been <a href="https://www.today.com/news/nick-sandmann-interview-today-show-s-savannah-guthrie-encounter-native-t147242" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">the paradigm Guthrie intended to take</a> in her <a href="https://www.salon.com/2019/01/23/catholic-student-wearing-maga-hat-in-viral-photo-as-far-as-standing-there-i-had-every-right/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">sit down with Sandmann that aired on Tuesday’s episode of NBC’s “Today,”</a> but it was present in her line of questioning.</font></p><div class="p5_47" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Following a voiceover describing the high school junior as “the face of this Lincoln Memorial confrontation,” Guthrie launched into the usual queries. “What’s it like to be at the center of this storm?”</font></p><div class="p6_47" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div class="teadsNative" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And, “What’s this been like for you and for your family?”</font></p><div class="p7_47" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Shuffled within this line of questioning, though, are queries that have a bit of historical and cultural weight to them.</font></p><div class="p8_47" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Did you feel threatened at all?. . . There were more of you than them, but you felt like, they were stronger?”</font></p><div class="p9_47" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Then comes the moment that made me audibly groan: “Have you looked at that video and thought about how it felt from the <em style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">others’</em> perspective? In other words, there were a lot of you, a handful of the <em style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">others.</em> Do you think they might have felt threatened by a bunch of young men kind of beating their chests?”</font></p><div class="p10_47" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And, “What’s this been like for you and for your family?”</font></p><div class="p11_47" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Shuffled within this line of questioning, though, are queries that have a bit of historical and cultural weight to them.</font></p><div class="p12_47" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Did you feel threatened at all?. . . There were more of you than them, but you felt like, they were stronger?”</font></p><div class="p13_47" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Then comes the moment that made me audibly groan: “Have you looked at that video and thought about how it felt from the <em style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">others’</em> perspective? In other words, there were a lot of you, a handful of the <em style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">others.</em> Do you think they might have felt threatened by a bunch of young men kind of beating their chests?”</font></p><div class="p14_47" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Yet as Guthrie questioned Sandmann, she kept using the term “others” in reference to anyone present who wasn’t a Covington kid. To the casual viewer, that might not mean much. One suspects Guthrie was simply attempting to handle a difficult line of questioning to a minor as gently as possible.</font></p><div class="p15_47" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">But in a conversation about members of three groups from disparate cultural backgrounds coming into conflict, including one that’s been consistently attacked and exploited by dominant powers and frequently dismissed by the media, referring to the two who aren’t white as “others” has thorny connotations.</font></p><div class="p16_47" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The concept of “other,” in this context, has long been explored in phenomenology. Within the last three decades it’s also been defined as viewing or treating people who are differ from a dominant group as alien.</font></p><div class="p17_47" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That sounds a lot like what happened, on a very basic level, at the Lincoln Memorial last Friday. It also played out in Guthrie’s treatment of the story. The indigenous people present on the Mall that day acted with a very different intent than the Hebrew Israelites, the kind of group any resident of a large city would walk by and ignore as they go about their business.</font></p><div class="p18_47" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But in that interview eventually everyone who wasn’t among the Covington contingent became “othered” in order to place the distress of Sandmann and the young men screaming and performing tomahawk chops at Native American demonstrators at the center of the story as the main misunderstood and aggrieved party.</font></p><div class="p19_47" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Phillips says he and companions in his group placed themselves between the Hebrew Israelites and the kids in order to prevent what appeared to be an escalating situation from transforming into something worse. He did so after, according to Sandmann, the young men responded to the antagonistic fringe group with what the student calls a positive, peaceful response of school spirit.</font></p><div class="p20_47" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“Others” recognize the teens’ reaction as an intimidating chant — appropriate for high school sporting matches, maybe not so much when facing down people you’ve never met who are participating in the Indigenous Peoples March taking place on the Mall.</font></p><div class="p21_47" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">When part of that response also <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/religion/students-in-maga-hats-mock-native-american-after-rally/2019/01/19/ff2a779a-1c49-11e9-b8e6-567190c2fd08_story.html?utm_term=.c59dbaa96bd2" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">appears to be an appropriation of a haka, a Maori war dance</a>, the argument over it being peaceful and positive becomes less convincing. That is, unless it is presented before a sympathetic interviewer who doesn’t even point out that their “school spirit” effort is usually employed to intimidate opposing teams at sporting events. Nor does she even mention the term “haka.”</font></p><div class="p22_47" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Instead she asks, “Do you think it was a good idea to start chanting back at the protesters?”</font></p><div class="p23_47" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“In hindsight, I wish we had just found another spot to wait for our buses, but at the time, being positive seemed better than letting them slander us with all these things. So I wish we could have walked away,” he said.</font></p><div class="p24_47" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Later, Guthrie brings up Sandmann’s choice to wear his Make America Great Again hat in the context of the fallout the image has produced, not in the context of what that hat might symbolize to, you know, “others.”</font></p><div class="p25_47" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Do you think if you weren’t wearing that hat, this might not have happened or it might have been different?” she asks.</font></p><div class="p26_47" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“That’s possible, but I would have to assume what Mr. Phillips was thinking and I’d rather let him speak for why he came up to us.”</font></p><div class="p27_47" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Separate conversations can and should be had over what this entire moment indicates about the responsibility the Covington Catholic parents bear to educate their kids about basic rules of interaction with strangers in unfamiliar public spaces, let alone in one popularly thought to be one of our nation’s most hallowed.</font></p><div class="p28_47" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">There’s also much to be written about what Friday’s interaction tells us about the ways that schools are failing to adequately educate the next generation about our history and, in a bleaker context, how adults are complicit in sowing such seeds of ignorance. If these kids knew anything about Native American culture or history, they might have some inkling that what was being captured on camera was, at the very least, not a good look to show the world.</font></p><div class="p29_47" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">For the moment, though, let’s mull over NBC’s role in this, along with other media outlets, and how Guthrie’s softball approach demonstrates a few flaws in the media’s coverage of events where race and racism are central to the narrative.</font></p><div class="p30_47" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This is a tough story, but one also rich with opportunities to reveal unpleasant truths about class, race and the ways that systemic stratification is being passed along to the next generation. These are the quintessential “nice” young men from good homes, students at a college preparatory institution. The kinds of kids whose mistakes are quickly qualified and smoothed over. Given enough opportunities to explain themselves and inroads to success, the Nick Sandmanns of the world are allowed to be kids who make mistakes until they are well into their 30s.</font></p><div class="p31_47" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One of the main stumbling blocks to addressing these complexities is the media’s rush to center a <a href="https://www.salon.com/2019/01/22/defenders-of-the-maga-hat-youth-spare-us-your-concern-for-children-please/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">conscientiously-polished white perspective</a> in order to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jan/16/racial-inequality-niceness-white-people" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">soothe white nervousness about charges of racism</a>. I would be very surprised if any stories emerge in the coming days and weeks that <a href="https://www.salon.com/2014/08/25/new_york_times_piece_about_michael_browns_final_days_unwittingly_demonstrates_unconscious_bias/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">paint Sandmann or any of his Covington classmates as “no angel.”</a></font></p><div class="p32_47" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">If that widespread image of Sandmann and Phillips facing each other tells us anything, it is that blunt conversations about race relations desperately need to be had, in public and in a thoughtfully moderated context, on a regular basis.</font></p><div class="p33_47" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This was not one of them. This was about making sure the public did not misunderstand a nice and perhaps naïve young man who simply got in over his head and didn’t ask to be the face of this Lincoln Memorial confrontation — even though another face, that of Phillips, takes up half of the photo, with many other faces behind them.</font></p><div class="p34_47" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Guthrie, it must be said, was in a tough position from the start. Negative reaction to the interview erupted from the moment a photo showing her sitting down with Sandmann made the rounds on social media. She’s also interviewing a teenager in front of millions of viewers, and that demands a delicate approach.</font></p><div class="p35_47" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">But Sandmann’s family hired Louisville-based public relations team, RunSwitch PR, to shine up his image and coach him. In fact, CNN posted a statement in Sandmann’s name that appears to be the work of a professional. CNN, however, did not mention that RunSwitch’s crisis management role here (nor did they mention that CNN contributor Scott Jennings, a conservative columnist and commentator, <a href="https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/local/2019/01/21/covington-catholic-runswitch-pr-helped-student-in-controversial-video/2638400002/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">is a partner in the firm)</a>.</font></p><div class="p36_47" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Therefore NBC and Guthrie knew Sandmann’s answers were likely to be the result of ample coaching and delivered with mechanical precision, containing all the right verbiage to quell any questions about his actions . She also had plenty of opportunities to respond with points that question the veracity of what he was saying, but took advantage of few of them.</font></p><div class="p37_47" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In fact, the most honest moment within the conversation came when Guthrie asked Sandmann to explain the meaning of his smirk.</font></p><div class="p38_47" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“What do you think that looks like?” she asks him.</font></p><div class="p39_47" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“I see it as a smile saying that, this is the best you’re going to get out of me. You get any further reaction of aggression. And I’m willing to stand here as long as you want to hit this drum in my face,” he said.</font></p><div class="p40_47" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Instead of pushing back against his stylized replies, the “Today” host let video to the talking, including a clip of his classmates performing a racist tomahawk chop which contradicts what Sandmann insists he witnessed.</font></p><div class="p41_47" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Returning to the curiosity about how those non-specific “others” near him may have interpreted his actions, Guthrie asks Sandmann if “they might have felt threatened by a bunch of young men kind of beating their chests.”</font></p><div class="p42_47" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And he replies politely, “I certainly hope they didn’t feel threatened by us. I would just say that the fact remains that they initiated their comments with us and, I mean, they provoked us into a peaceful response of school spirit.”</font></p><div class="p43_47" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Again: which “others”? Which “they”? Guthrie isn’t seen asking Sandmann to clarify that, at least not on camera. Nor does she make an effort to draw a line between Phillips and the indigenous demonstrators standing by him, and the small gathering representing an organization which the Southern Poverty Law Center lists as a black supremacist group.</font></p><div class="p44_47" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Value exists in seeing evidence as opposed to simply hearing or reading one interpretation of a many-sided confrontation, of course. But it has a limited amount of currency when interviewers don’t push back on performative replies, regardless of the age of the person giving them. It fails the audience, and only serves the subject.</font></p><div class="p45_47" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">When it comes to fraught situations such as this, which side is presented first matters greatly, particularly with regard to a platform as large as “Today.” Sandmann received a warm nine-minute feature on Tuesday. On Wednesday’s “Today,” we’re told, Phillips will have a chance to respond to Sandmann.</font></p><div class="p46_47" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Donald Trump, predictably, expressed support for Sandmann and his classmates.</b> Sandmann, for his part, does not apologize for his role in what happened, informing viewers that he hopes to come out of this with a deeper understanding of “others.” Coupled with that “Today” interview, the results of his encounter further ensure his shot at a bright future — which is, of course, the goal of every college preparatory experience. <b>What Sandmann did may not make America great again when all is said and done, but what terrific fodder for an application essay.</b></font></p></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">==</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/01/white-students-at-covington-catholic-kids-defend-wearing-blackface-because-they-were-just-showing-school-spirit/">https://www.alternet.org/2019/01/white-students-at-covington-catholic-kids-defend-wearing-blackface-because-they-were-just-showing-school-spirit/</a></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><br /></font></div><div style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="" /><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>White students at Covington Catholic kids defend wearing blackface because they were ‘just showing school spirit’</b></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b><br /></b></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> Students defend wearing blackface to show "school spirit." Fox News/Screengrab</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">written by Brad Reed / Raw Story<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>January 23, 2019</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Two students from Covington Catholic High School appeared on “Fox & Friends” on Wednesday to defend their school’s reputation — and even went so far as to say it was OK for past students to have worn blackface makeup at sporting events.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Two students from Covington Catholic High School appeared on “Fox & Friends” on Wednesday to defend their school’s reputation — and even went so far as to say it was OK for past students to have worn what appeared to be blackface makeup at sporting events.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">During the interview, host Steve Doocy asked the students about photographs showing some Covington students wearing black make-up during a basketball game against a rival team that included some black players. The students at the game were encouraged to dress in black as part of a “black-out” event.</span></div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><br /></span></div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“How do you explain that?” Doocy asked the students.</span></div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><br /></span></div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“I’d just explain it as showing our school spirit,” student Sam Schroder replied. “We had many themes, like nerd, business, white-out, blue-out, black-out, as you’ve seen in the video.”</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Schroeder admitted that ever since he started attending the school, students have since been barred from wearing blackface after video of the students in the makeup went public.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>“But I know the kids meant nothing by it,”</b> he insisted. “It’s just showing school spirit.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Watch the video below.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> Embedded video</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Bobby Lewis</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">@revrrlewis</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> Steve Doocy asks a CovCath kid about others wearing blackface at basketball games, and he says since he’s been there “we haven’t been able to wear black paint because of the video, but I know the kids meant nothing by it, it’s just showing school spirit.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">no lnx pix vid </div></div><div style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">==<br /></font><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://theslot.jezebel.com/covington-catholic-student-hired-pr-firm-co-founded-by-1831948833"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://theslot.jezebel.com/covington-catholic-student-hired-pr-firm-co-founded-by-1831948833</font></a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">On Saturday, students from Covington Catholic were widely criticized after video was posted that showed them in MAGA hats mocking and harassing Nathan Phillips, a Native American elder.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> By Monday, news outlets and public figures were <a href="https://theconcourse.deadspin.com/dont-doubt-what-you-saw-with-your-own-eyes-1831931203#_ga=2.111106242.693454037.1548166135-581352218.1547846184" target="_blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; line-height: inherit; box-shadow: rgb(246, 140, 159) 0px -2px 0px inset; transition: color 0.1s ease-out 0s;">stumbling over themselves</a> to claim that the initial videos were taken out of context (despite the fact that newer, longer videos showed the same thing) and that what happened with the Covington students was being misrepresented.</span></font></div><div style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></font><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; margin: 0px auto 1.25rem; word-break: break-word; padding: 0px; line-height: 32px; max-width: 636px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">If this sounds like a public relations miracle, it’s because the family of Covington Catholic student Nick Sandmann hired a Louisville-based public relations firm, RunSwitch PR, to help them handle the crisis, according to <a href="https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/local/2019/01/21/covington-catholic-runswitch-pr-helped-student-in-controversial-video/2638400002/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; line-height: inherit; box-shadow: rgb(246, 140, 159) 0px -2px 0px inset; transition: color 0.1s ease-out 0s;">reporting</a> by the <em style="box-sizing: inherit; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; line-height: inherit;">Courier-Journal</em>. Sandmann was the student in the <a href="https://jezebel.com/teenagers-in-maga-hats-mocked-an-omaha-elder-and-vietna-1831896034" target="_blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; line-height: inherit; box-shadow: rgb(246, 140, 159) 0px -2px 0px inset; transition: color 0.1s ease-out 0s;">original video</a> of the incident that showed him standing and smirking in the face of Phillips. He released a <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/20/us/covington-kentucky-student-statement/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; line-height: inherit; box-shadow: rgb(246, 140, 159) 0px -2px 0px inset; transition: color 0.1s ease-out 0s;">statement</a> on Sunday night, trying to spin the incident, claiming that he was actually the victim in the situation.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; margin: 0px auto 1.25rem; word-break: break-word; padding: 0px; line-height: 32px; max-width: 636px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">RunSwitch is run by three partners, Scott Jennings, Steve Bryant, and Gary Gerdemann. According to his <a href="https://www.runswitchpr.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; line-height: inherit; box-shadow: rgb(246, 140, 159) 0px -2px 0px inset; transition: color 0.1s ease-out 0s;">bio</a>, Jennings has served in senior positions in Mitch McConnell’s re-election campaigns, as well as a senior adviser to Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign. He also worked for Jeb Bush’s presidential campaign and as <a href="https://iop.harvard.edu/fellows/scott-jennings" target="_blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; line-height: inherit; box-shadow: rgb(246, 140, 159) 0px -2px 0px inset; transition: color 0.1s ease-out 0s;">special assistant</a> to former president George W. Bush.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; margin: 0px auto 1.25rem; word-break: break-word; padding: 0px; line-height: 32px; max-width: 636px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In a statement to the <em style="box-sizing: inherit; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; line-height: inherit;">Courier-Journal</em>, RunSwitch said that the firm “has been retained by the Sandmann family to offer professional counsel with what has become a national media story.<b> We are working with the family to ensure an accurate recounting of events which occurred this past weekend.”</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; margin: 0px auto; word-break: break-word; padding: 0px; line-height: 32px; max-width: 636px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That RunSwitch picked up Sandmann as a client is not particularly surprising. But it does make clear one thing—these students are the future of the Republican Party.</font></p><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">==</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/01/white-victimology-white-privilege-and-the-covington-catholic-rules-of-race/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2019/01/white-victimology-white-privilege-and-the-covington-catholic-rules-of-race/</font></a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">T<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">here are rules of race and the color line in post-civil rights American and the age of Donald Trump. Learn them. These rules were almost instantly deployed in defense of the dozens of white MAGA hat-wearing teenagers from Covington Catholic High School who, in a widely viewed video, harassed and mocked a Native American elder last Friday at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington.</span></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></span></font></div><div class="p1_33" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>These rules include the following.</b></font></p><div class="p2_33" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The mere accusation of racism against a white person is worse than the impact of racism on the safety, security, lives and literal existence of nonwhites.</font></p><div class="p3_33" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><a href="https://www.salon.com/2016/10/26/white-victims-unite-donald-trump-and-republicans-sing-the-white-male-victimology-blues/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">White people are the “real” “victims” of “racism” in America</a>. Donald Trump, with the help of Vladimir Putin and Russia, rode this lie to the White House.</font></p><div class="p4_33" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">White people are somehow “oppressed” by nonwhites, “political correctness”, and “civil rights.”</font></p><div class="p5_33" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Whiteness is benign. White people, regardless of the evidence of their bad behavior or ill intent, are always entitled to the benefit of the doubt.</font></p><div class="p6_33" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div class="teadsNative" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">White racial innocence and white racial fragility must always be honored.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> As such, no amount of evidence is sufficient to prove conclusively that racism exists and that a given individual or group of white people have acted in the service of racial animus and racial inequality.</span></font></p><div class="p7_33" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">When white people are accused of racist behavior, they are allowed to decide what evidence is acceptable, credible and true.</font></p><div class="p8_33" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Intentions, feelings, and the unanswerable question “What is in their heart?” trumps all empirical evidence and facts about the consequences of racist behavior and the context in which it occurred.</font></p><div class="p9_33" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><em style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Stand your ground</em><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. </span><a href="https://www.salon.com/2019/01/23/how-the-media-centers-whiteness-today-nicholas-sandmann-and-the-others/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">In his interview with NBC’s “Today” on Tuesday, </a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Nick Sandmann — the Covington teen seen face to face with Nathan Phillips in that widely-viewed video — used that language: “<b>As far as standing there, I had every right to do so.</b>” His words were in all likelihood very carefully chosen by the public relations firm hired by his parents — </span><a href="https://theslot.jezebel.com/covington-catholic-student-hired-pr-firm-co-founded-by-1831948833" target="_blank" rel="noopener" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">a PR firm with right-wing connections</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">.</span></font></p><div class="p10_33" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://broadly.vice.com/en_us/article/nz8pek/stand-your-ground-laws-are-racist-new-study-reveals" target="_blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">In America only white people are allowed to “stand their ground.”</a> It is expected that nonwhites, especially black people, will always be deferential and submissive to white people. This is true of black people walking down the street and being stalked by white street vigilantes, black people living their daily lives and being harassed by white people <a href="https://www.salon.com/2018/08/28/white-spaces-white-privilege-and-white-fear-negrophobia-still-contaminates-america/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">who have decided that they get to police public spaces</a>, and black people who are harassed and threatened by out of control law enforcement agents.</font></p><div class="p11_33" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><em style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“Personal responsibility”</em> does not apply to white conservatives.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> Contra Martin Luther King Jr., the long arc of history does not necessarily bend towards justice. In the age of Trump it is stuck on white victimology. For example: the white teen MAGA mob is somehow held to be not responsible for their foul behavior toward Native American elder Nathan Phillips because a small group of “Black Israelites” (essentially racial chauvinist black Power Ranger cosplay clowns) said mean things to them.</span></font></p><div class="p12_33" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This is the very definition of racism and white supremacy: the white teenage mob decided that black and Native American people are somehow interchangeable; anger at the Black Israelites can then be reasonably transferred to Nathan Phillips; racist taunts and harassment against Nathan Phillips are therefore justified.</font></p><div class="p13_33" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/01/covington-catholic-is-the-terrible-sequel-to-the-kavanaugh-case/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">In an essay published Tuesday in the National Review, David French signals</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> to</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> another very old and important rule of race that still operates in today’s America: Empathy and sympathy are demarcated by White America (especially white conservatives) along and against the color line:</span></font></p><div class="p14_33" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="background: rgb(245, 245, 245); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 10px 20px 10px 24px; position: relative; line-height: 1.7; overflow: hidden; border: none !important;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.7;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In the [Brett] Kavanaugh case, conservative men and women looked at decades-old, uncorroborated allegations, the unquestioning acceptance of those claims, and the furious effort to destroy a man’s reputation and career – even by passing along the wildest and most implausible claims – and thought, “That could be me’ or ‘that could be my husband.’</font></p><div class="p15_33" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.7;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Now, these same people look at the reaction to the Covington Catholic kids and think, “That could be my son.”</font></p><div class="p16_33" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.7;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">You can hold that fear in your heart without excusing or condoning sexual assault in any way. You can hold that fear in your heart without excusing or condoning racism or even thoughtless taunts. Because you’ll know that for all too many people, the truth doesn’t really matter. You’re a symbol, not a person. When angry people cook that social-justice omelet, they break eggs not with regret but with angry glee. …</font></p><div class="p17_33" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.7;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That’s the message that sent a shudder up the spine of husbands and wives during the Kavanaugh hearings. That’s the message that sends a shudder up the spine of moms and dads as we watch men and women try to ruin the Covington Catholic kids. This isn’t just a media scandal. When we see the hate, some of us see our sons, and we know that in America today, their futures, their reputations, and – given the prevalence of death threats – perhaps even their very lives are in the hands of an angry mob.</font></p><div class="p18_33" style="font-style: italic; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /></div></div></div></blockquote><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Donald Trump’s mouthpiece, Sarah Sanders, <a href="https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/wh-bashes-media-never-seen-people-happy-destroy-life" target="_blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">channeled this rule of race even more directly on Fox News</a>:</font></p><div class="p19_33" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="background: rgb(245, 245, 245); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 10px 20px 10px 24px; position: relative; line-height: 1.7; overflow: hidden; border: none !important;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.7;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The idea anybody could take joy in the destruction of young kids is absolutely outrageous to me. That’s exactly what we saw members of the media and other leaders do. These are kids ― let’s not forget ― these are 15- and 16-year-old kids who were put in a very tough position and actually handled it very well.</font></p><div class="p20_33" style="font-style: italic; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Sanders sought to link the Lincoln Memorial episode to BuzzFeed’s publication of an uncorroborated story that Trump had told Michael Cohen to lie to Congress:</font></p><div class="p21_33" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 10px 20px 10px 24px; position: relative; line-height: 1.7; overflow: hidden; border: none !important;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.7;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">I think what happened with BuzzFeed is a great lesson for the media. Quit trying to be first and start trying to be right. We have seen time and time again where they run out here with outrageous, ridiculous stories. One person reports it to begin with and they all jump on it. We saw it again with the Covington students. I’ve never seen people so happy to destroy a kid’s life.</font></p><div class="p22_33" style="background-color: rgb(245, 245, 245); font-style: italic; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">On Twitter and elsewhere, Donald Trump, his son Donald Jr. and other spokespeople have said that the Covington Catholic MAGA mob are somehow the “real victims.” It is worth noting that Pat Cipollone, Trump’s White House counsel, is an alumnus Pat Cipollone is an alumnus of Covington Catholic.</font></p><div class="p23_33" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Unlike Nick Sandmann and his compatriots from Covington Catholic, the families and survivors of hate crimes inspired by Donald Trump and his movement have not been invited to the White House.</font></p><div class="p24_33" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Those who defend and protect the white teens from Covington feel no compassion for the thousands of brown and black migrant and refugee children who have been put in concentration camps by the Trump administration and “disappeared” into a system that has no intention of reuniting them with their families.</font></p><div class="p25_33" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Families and other members of communities where innocent black people have been brutalized and killed by America’s police have not been invited to the White House by Donald Trump. Trump did not host Tamir Rice’s family. Or Trayvon Martin’s family. Or Rekia Boyd’s family. Or Philando Castile’s family.</font></p><div class="p26_33" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">By contrast, black and brown Americans are not allowed to make such public demonstrations of sympathy and empathy with one another.</font></p><div class="p27_33" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">When President Barack Obama made the basic observation that “You know, if I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon [Martin],” Republicans and other members of the white right nearly combusted in an apoplectic fit. For Obama to say such a thing was “racist” and “beneath the presidency.” His real crime, of course, lay in daring to remind White America that he was actually a black person who happened to be president of the United States. To the white gaze, Obama’s blackness was by definition in poor taste, something to be ignored or overlooked. Black humanity is a revolutionary act and a threat to many white folks. It is offensive.</font></p><div class="p28_33" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Some have described the video of the Trump teen MAGA mob as being like “Rashomon” or a new Zapruder film — everyone sees it differently. Alternatively, the video has been called a Rorschach test for America: a reflection of our inner thoughts, biases, preconceptions and ideas. But matters are really not that complicated.</font></p><div class="p29_33" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">A group of white teenage boys donned their MAGA hats — which are overt and intentional symbols of bigotry, racism and ignorance — attended a right-wing Christian rally aimed at denying women their reproductive rights, then happened upon a group of “Black Israelite” cartoon bigots, and in retaliation decided to harass and insult a Native American. They did so because white privilege had trained them from birth that they would likely be able to act in such a way without consequences.</font></p><div class="p30_33" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Claims that the boys from Covington Catholic are innocent victims are undercut by evidence that this behavior is part of a larger pattern. Other video footage from that same day appears to show the Covington boys harassing teenage girls and <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6622957/Disturbing-new-video-shows-MAGA-hat-wearing-Covington-student-cracking-rape-joke-Lincoln-memorial.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">making comments such as, “It’s not rape if you enjoy it.”</a></font></p><div class="p31_33" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://nypost.com/2019/01/21/old-video-surfaces-of-covington-catholic-students-in-black-paint/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">The New York Post has also shared an image of white boys from Covington Catholic wearing blackface</a> as they mocked an African-American player at a 2012 basketball game.</font></p><div class="p32_33" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">What W.E.B. Du Bois described as the “psychological wages of whiteness” can take many forms. One of them is the ability of those deemed to be “white” to bend reality and distort plain and obvious facts in the service of white supremacy. Defending the behavior of the white teens of Covington Catholic is a prime example of an old and dangerous American problem.</font></p><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">==</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ref NB tabloid many image vids </font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">slideshow: blk guys accused Fr of child molest, cath boys rally to him; bl guy says white priv hist ory slavery gives mortgage basis of wealth --> basis of status; bl guy greets phillips as elder coming to rescue" you better not touch him; white boys dance primitively; one white guy runs in, pulls off shirt, does haka?!</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6622957/Disturbing-new-video-shows-MAGA-hat-wearing-Covington-student-cracking-rape-joke-Lincoln-memorial.html</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></div><div style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="" /><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">It's not rape if you enjoy it': Disturbing new video shows 'Covington student' cracking rape joke at the Lincoln memorial as his friends laugh</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><br /></font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Covington schoolboys caused outcry facing off with Native American protesters </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Further video has emerged of the incident on Friday at Lincoln Memorial </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">One student says 'It's not rape if you enjoy it' as those surrounding him laugh</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Another video shows the group sitting on a bench shouting at young women </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">By MIRANDA ALDERSLEY FOR DAILYMAIL.COM</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">PUBLISHED: 07:29 EST, 23 January 2019 | UPDATED: 06:02 EST, 25 January 2019</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> e-mail </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">7.2k</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">shares</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">456</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">View comments</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">A member of the Kentucky high school group that taunted a Native American man at the Lincoln Memorial cracked a joke about rape during the stand-off, new footage shows. </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The boys from Covington Catholic High School in Park Hills were at a March for Life event in Washington DC on Friday to protest against abortion, and were widely criticized after footage of them taunting a Native American man went viral. </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">But another clip, uploaded to Twitter yesterday by Amee Vanderpool, shows a teenage boy yelling: 'It's not rape if you enjoy it!', as those surrounding him laugh.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The boy on the left can be heard shouting 'It's not rape if you enjoy it!' in a short video taken during the altercation between Covington High School students and other demonstrators <span style="white-space:pre"> </span>+10</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The boy on the left can be heard shouting 'It's not rape if you enjoy it!' in a short video taken during the altercation between Covington High School students and other demonstrators </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Video playing bottom right...</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Click here to expand to full page</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">While it is unclear if the boy is a student at Covington, he is standing amidst those from the original viral video who have been confirmed as its students. </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">He is also wearing a sweatshirt and hat with the Cincinnati Bengals logo, a team based less than four miles from Covington school.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b><br /></b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>After having blurted out the comment, the boy turns his head from the camera in apparent shame, </b>while those surrounding him laugh and a girl's mouth opens in disbelief. </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">While the boy turns away in apparent embarrassment after making the rape comment, a group of girls nearby stand open-mouthed<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>+10</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">While the boy turns away in apparent embarrassment after making the rape comment, a group of girls nearby stand open-mouthed</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">It comes as Twitter user Linds yesterday uploaded a video that shows the group jeering at two young women walking by. </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Linds said she and a friend were walking past a group of Covington students on Friday when they began shouting 'MAGA' and 'build the wall' out of nowhere.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The footage stands at odds with claims by Nick Sandmann, the teen filmed going eye-to-eye with Vietnam war veteran Nathan Philips, who said the boys were minding their own business waiting for a bus home before being provoked into an altercation.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="white-space:pre"> </span>+10</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="white-space:pre"> </span>+10</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Twitter user 'Linds' was walking with a friend near the Lincoln Memorial on Friday when a group of boy who she says were from Covington Catholic High School shouted at her</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Alongside the footage, Linds wrote: 'The Covington Catholic boys harassed my friends and I before the incident with Nathan Philips even happened. </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">'I'm tired of reading things saying they were provoked by anyone else other than their own egos and ignorance.'</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The eight-second clip shows Linds and her friend walking along a path heading away from the Lincoln Memorial while shouting can be heard in the background.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">RELATED ARTICLES</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Previous</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">1</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Next</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Disgraced Trump campaign alumnus Sam Nunberg says Robert...</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Illegal immigrant, 39, is sentenced to 401 YEARS in prison...</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The short clip shows the boys bellowing through their hands as the girls pass them by, while a woman shakes her head and says 'I'm so tired already'. </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The boys have provoked fierce criticism online after a video of them intimidating and taunting indigenous people's marcher Nathan Phillips went viral. </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In the clip, Covington pupil Nick Sandmann faces down Vietnam veteran Phillips as he continues to play his drum, while other boys jeer and chant. </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Nick Sandmann from Covington Catholic High School stands in front of Native American Vietnam veteran Nathan Phillips in Washington DC <span style="white-space:pre"> </span>+10</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Nick Sandmann from Covington Catholic High School stands in front of Native American Vietnam veteran Nathan Phillips in Washington DC </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The group from Covington, many of whom are wearing Make America Great Again hats, appeared in a video taunting and chanting at the Native American elder Nathan Phillips <span style="white-space:pre"> </span>+10</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The group from Covington, many of whom are wearing Make America Great Again hats, appeared in a video taunting and chanting at the Native American elder Nathan Phillips </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">But many people, including the President, leapt to their defence, particularly after longer videos emerged that showed the boys themselves had been subjected to name-calling and insults by a different group of protesters on the steps of the monument.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">A longer video of the hour preceding their altercation with Philips, shows them facing down a group of controversial demonstrators who call themselves the Hebrew Israelites. </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">President Trump tweeted in defence of the school children, many of whom were wearing Make America Great Again baseball caps, and has offered to meet them at the White House. </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">'Nick Sandmann and the students of Covington have become symbols of Fake News and how evil it can be,' Trump wrote yesterday. </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Protesters from the black Hebrew Israelites first engaged the students from Covington Catholic High School at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial on Friday by calling them out for their MAGA gear<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>+10</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Protesters from the black Hebrew Israelites first engaged the students from Covington Catholic High School at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial on Friday by calling them out for their MAGA gear<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>+10</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Protesters from the black Hebrew Israelites first engaged the students from Covington Catholic High School at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial on Friday by calling them out for their MAGA gear</div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><br /></span></div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">'They have captivated the attention of the world, and I know they will use it for the good - maybe even to bring people together. It started off unpleasant, but can end in a dream!'</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>In a video posted online by one of them, it appears that the teenagers were trying to organize themselves to get back onto their buses when the Israelites turned on them. </b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">They called them a bunch of 'child molesting f****ts' because they were part of the Catholic church, and then said the kid all had the faces of 'school shooters' and were 'crackers' and 'pecker-woods' - two derogatory terms that historically have been used against poor, rural white people. </span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Israelites, among their musings, defended Bill Cosby, claiming he was judged unfairly by the white judicial system for drugging and sexually assaulting women. </span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b><br /></b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>The confrontation began when the Hebrew Israelites screamed at a priest nearby that he was a 'child molesting f****t'. The students appeared moments later and stood next to him. Some shook his hand and the protesters labeled them 'racist trash' because of their MAGA hats</b><span style="white-space:pre"> </span>+10</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Most of the students did not respond to their taunts aggressively. However, one screamed 'hell yeah!' when one of his opponents said that their education had been paid for by the bloodshed of slavery. </span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">One student also ran into the center of the group, removed his shirt and led his classmates in a Hakka-like dance. </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">What the video highlights is the simmering tension which had been brewing by the time Philips approached the group with his drum. </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">But Philips maintains that he was physically frightened, that he thought they were like a 'lynch mob'. </div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" style="" face="Times New Roman">===</font></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>