How the Rush to Condemn the Covington Kids Was Spurred By a New Type of Media Currency on the Right

[Machiavelli]

Kira Davis
Townhall
January 22, 2019

By now we’ve all been subjected to the pathetic media malfunction surrounding the children from Covington Catholic School and their verbal abuse at the hands of grown adults. I was on vacation out of the country at the time and could only follow on social media. Having seen the initial video and the ensuing outrage, I felt concern but not much else. I’ve been at this long enough to know that the whole story is typically much different from the clipped version.

Admittedly I was a bit nervous that it might be true, but I’ve witnessed the media chaos in the wake of lots of tragedies. I’ve learned to hold my piece until the facts are in. The sad case of little Jazmine Barnes was only the latest example of a very sad story that turned into a national race battle because so many so-called journalists jumped to conclusions before they had the whole story. The media couldn’t wait to pin the Pulse shootings on a homophobic tea-partier. Of course the perpetrator turned out to be a radicalized Jihadist.

And so on and so on. It’s at the same thing, tragedy after tragedy.

Of course I expected the immediate outrage and blame to come from the left. After all, it’s what they do - speculate first and ask questions later. What dismayed me more was the reactions of conservatives. I saw many journalists and commentators rushing to condemn the child from Covington Catholic, chastising conservatives in the process. Some decided to tread lightly and only briefly addressed it. Many others put on the full mantle of rage, railing against those “problematic” #MAGA conservatives and scolding the right for not immediately condemning the behavior.

It disheartened me. If anyone should know better it’s conservatives. I guess I was wrong.

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