Just How Bad Was Media Coverage of the Rittenhouse Case? Judge For Yourself

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The trial of Kyle Rittenhouse ended last week with a full acquittal on all charges. The jury bought Rittenhouse’s claim that he was acting in self-defense when he shot and killed Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber, and wounded Gaige Grosskreutz. All three men were distinctly white. The events transpired during riots and protests to the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a black man with a knife who resisted arrest while threatening officers. Blake survived the police shooting, but you wouldn’t know that based on some of the most ridiculous media narratives still circulating the globe that have pronounced him dead at the hands of Rittenhouse.

If you understand the basic facts in that above paragraph, you are more educated and informed than 95 percent of the reporting that has come out from most major media outlets leading up to and after the Rittenhouse trial concluded. The level of misinformation is staggering, and the repeating of lies and false statements by so-called journalists that should know better is embarrassing and dangerous.

Drew Holden, a freelance commentary writer for many major media outlets, put together perhaps the most complete and thorough record of media misinformation surrounding the Rittenhouse case starting last summer. Holden’s Twitter threads have captured the bulk of the most outrageous and incorrect assertion about the case. Here is a sampling of Holden’s work.

There is and never has been any information or indication that Rittenhouse was linked to any known white supremacist groups, or espoused any beliefs or views sympathetic to their cause. There was never any reason to believe this or evidence of such, yet it persisted in so-called respected media outlets for months and continues.

Many media outlets attacked President Trump last summer, though he has since been completely vindicated for not rushing to judgment:

Many publications have tried to frame the story in terms that were unfavorable to Rittenhouse. Don’t like the facts of the case? Ignore them, and write it up a different way with a better headline your foolish readers will enjoy:

Aside from media outlets, politicians got in on the act. Democrats embarrassed themselves falling over each other to condemn Rittenhouse with all manner of slander and defamatory labels, especially President Biden as a candidate last year:

It’s not just embarrassing, it’s dangerous, as this type of rhetoric fuels more unrest, enrages more people, and will end up causing violence based on lies:

Beyond Holden’s tremendous Twitter thread, there are other examples of straight-up lies and misstatements that have spread far and wide at the hands of dumb celebrities and commentators spouting off like imbeciles.

For some reason, without a basic Google search, many left-wing journalists and political staffers believe Jacob Blake is dead, a false assertion:

And again:

This should help clear things up, celebrities are great at helping calm our overheated political divisiveness. Noah Cyrus is the sister of Miley Cyrus, and also a moron:

https://twitter.com/SOLIDSTATEHATE/status/1461890813386919937

It’s not just celebrities getting this basic fact wrong, journalists have repeated it on air, spreading the misinformation further and wider:

 

This stuff is still circulating by so-called legitimate news outlets that should do some basic companywide fact checks and send out a memo:

The non-journalist side of Twitter remains a cesspool of lies and hatred based on more lies:

In a free society, people are free to be wrong and misinformed. They’re also free to spout off and rage about the lies they think are true. This is fine if it stays on Twitter, but it causes other individuals to feel rage and distrust the justice system when they’re being lied to about the basic facts of a highly politicized major court case.

Sadly, most of these individuals will never admit or correct their lies, meaning others will consume them and accept them as their own.

America doesn’t have a functioning objective media any longer. We have partisan hacks masquerading as journalists, more eager to push an agenda that deliver the facts.

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Nate Ashworth

The Founder and Editor-In-Chief of Election Central. He's been blogging elections and politics for over a decade. He started covering the 2008 Presidential Election which turned into a full-time political blog in 2012 and 2016 that continues today.

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