PJMedia had a good article on the left’s pattern of trying to destroy young men by creating false media narratives about them. They mention Kyle Rittenhouse, Nick Sandmann, George Zimmerman, The Duke LaCrosse Team, Richard Jewell, victims of the Tawana Brawley hoax, and Bernhardt Goetz. In a couple of cases, these have been memorialized in films.
The documentary Rush to Judgment offers a detailed examination of the encounter at the Lincoln Memorial between students from the Covington Catholic High School and left-wing protestors — and how a vacuous press got it completely backwards.
And the film Richard Jewell tells the story of security guard Richard Jewell who saved hundreds of lives from an exploding pipe bomb at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, only to be railroaded as the prime suspect by an incompetent FBI and cynical press.
I would add to this list of press victims the Branch Davidians, who were vilified by the press as pedophiles and right-wing religious nuts, until the rather inconvenient Academy-Award nominated documentary Waco: Rules of Engagement came out and unwound the media narratives.
In each case, the media began with a narrative it liked, selected facts to fit the narrative, and then broadcast what they perhaps too candidly call their “story.” This isn’t a process of truth-telling but one of narrative marketing. How is it possible that seemingly reasonable journalists could do this? Because they believe they already know the Truth — that is what is true, and the world is seen through that prism. Orwell, as always, understood:
