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.
We need to start with the media coverage that framed this case in the public mind.
To the press, Rittenhouse was as good as guilty when the news broke. So naturally, to @CNN, the people he shot in self defense were heroes & those defending him had “justified murder.” pic.twitter.com/jsMxd4547N
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) November 19, 2021
Never to be outdone, @MSNBC said the shooting was white supremacy and then went on to blame – who else – President Trump for “fueling violence,” sowing “chaos and disorder” and “encouraging vigilante justice” (peep that last guest) pic.twitter.com/vrBT4IGPai
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) November 19, 2021
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:
@NPR picked up on a similar sentiment, knocking Trump for “claiming, without evidence, that it appeared the gunman was acting in self-defense.”
Now we’ve had a court of law confirm it was using videos and context many of which were available at the time. pic.twitter.com/nFERWhOrvv
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) November 19, 2021
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:
I don’t know that one could even call this commentary from @NYMag journalism. pic.twitter.com/jRPsdSex9f
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) November 19, 2021
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 hard to keep track of all the Democratic elected officials who baselessly accused Rittenhouse of being some variety of evil.
Here @RepSwalwell and @JamaalBowmanNY both call Rittenhouse a terrorist while @ChrisMurphyCT calls him a “deranged white nationalist” pic.twitter.com/hVrITb6xFj
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) November 19, 2021
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:
You had to know @JRubinBlogger would be here. pic.twitter.com/qddCRMxVwa
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) November 19, 2021
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:
INBOX: DCCC chairman Sean Patrick Maloney taking a far different approach than President Biden in responding to the Rittenhouse verdict. pic.twitter.com/JKYgzjHuGw
— Josh Kraushaar (@JoshKraushaar) November 19, 2021
And again:
Hey @JalenRose Jacob Blake is still alive, not dead. And he was shot by police because he had a knife, refused to drop it, and a woman he’d sexually assaulted called police asking for protection. This is embarrassing @espn. pic.twitter.com/9ykTEq88tn
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) November 20, 2021
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:
.@TerryMoran of @ABC lies in this report. Jacob Blake isn’t dead. Their hole is getting deeper. #KyleRittenhouse is going to own every corporate and social media company, reporter & politician who fabricated stories about him when this is all said & done.pic.twitter.com/BhTWL3vSUa
— Gramma Smith (@gramma_smith) November 19, 2021
This stuff is still circulating by so-called legitimate news outlets that should do some basic companywide fact checks and send out a memo:
At 5:20 in this video @mayawiley states that the police killed Jacob Blake. That must be news to the very much alive Jacob Blake
pic.twitter.com/gToBHSPV0A— Nuance Bro (@NuanceBro) November 16, 2021
The non-journalist side of Twitter remains a cesspool of lies and hatred based on more lies:
Dear Black people Kyle Rittenhouse killed two white men, including a pedophile, this case has nothing to do with Black People. Stop allowing the liberal media to emotionally manipulate you. pic.twitter.com/w7u4dkAPUr
— Jada Powers (@JadePowers100) November 15, 2021
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.
