Covington Catholic Students, Black Hebrew Israelites, Nathan Phillips -- and Lawsuits??

THE COVINGTON CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL STORY CONTINUES. This messy media creation wanted to tell a story about rabidly racist Trump-supporter MAGA-cap-wearing Catholic high school students attacking a Native American "elder." It hasn't panned out quite that way. • • • THE BISHOP APOLOGIZES. Fox News told the tale last Friday : "The bishop overseeing Covington Catholic High School apologized Thursday for his and the Diocese’s rush to judgment of the students in the viral incident at the Lincoln Memorial. The Most Reverend Roger Foys initially condemned the students for the supposed actions towards Native American elder Nathan Phillips and said their 'behavior is opposed to the Church’s teachings on the dignity and respect of the human person.' He added in a January 19 statement that they were investigating the matter and would 'take appropriate action, up to and including expulsion.' But after video evidence emerged showing the full picture of the confrontation, the bishop backtracked an issued an apology. 'We apologize to anyone who has been offended in any way by either of our statements which were made with good will based on the information we had,' wrote Foys, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported. 'We should not have allowed ourselves to be bullied and pressured into making a statement prematurely, and we take full responsibility for it.' The bishop in particular apologized to Nicholas Sandmann, the student at the center of the controversy, and his family 'as well as to all CovCath families who have felt abandoned during this ordeal. We apologize to anyone who has been offended in any way by either of our statements which were made with good will based on the information we had. We should not have allowed ourselves to be bullied and pressured into making a statement prematurely, and we take full responsibility for it.' ” • Bishop Foys justified his initial condemnation of the students by saying that "the videos initially 'purportedly' showed the students being rude to the Native American man and he was pressured to make a statement. 'Based on what the video clip showed, we condemned the actions of students who engaged in the alleged disrespect and promised to investigate the matter,' he wrote, adding that after the new footage came to light, the same people who asked to condemn now asked him to issue a retraction." • The Bishop also denounced the death threats made to the students and their families, and he expressed his support for the school’s Principal Robert Rowe, who has been facing calls to resign due to controversy. • However, Bishop Foys is not backing down on his promise to investigate : "These last four days have been a living hell for many of you, for your parents, for your relatives, for your friends and it certainly has been for me. This is a no-win situation. We are not going to win. No matter what we say, one way or another, there are going to be people who are going to argue about it. The best we can do is, first of all, to find out the truth, to find out what really went on, what really happened. So we do have investigators who are here today, a third-party who is not associated with our diocese.” • Of course, Bishop Foys has every right, and even a duty, to "investigate" what happened at the Lincoln Memorial. BUT... • • • COVINGTON CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL IS NOT THE STORY -- THE STORY IS THE BLACK HEBREW ISRAELITES AND NATHAN PHILLIPS. Let's examine the facts as we know them. • • • COVINGTON STUDENT SANDMANN AND SCHOOL PARENTS ARE PUSHING BACK. Nick Sandmann, the Covington Catholic High School junior at the center of the videotaped encounter, told NBC's 'Today' show that he did nothing to provoke anyone and sought to calm the situation. "As far as standing there, I had every right to do so," he said in the interview. "My position is that I was not disrespectful to Mr. Phillips. I respect him. I’d like to talk to him. I mean, in hindsight, I wish we could’ve walked away and avoided the whole thing." And, some parental chaperones who witnessed the encounter say the Covington students were targeted because they were Catholics at a March for Life rally who were wearing Trump 'Make American Great Again' hats. "I think they were targeted for what they stood for...which is Christianity, the right for life," parental chaperone Jill Hamlin told Fox News. "And they were singled out, and I believe, partially because of the color of their skin they were targeted." • Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin, in an interview with Fox News' Tucker Carlson, blasted the media for an "incredible amount of bigotry" against President Trump and his supporters. "This fit the narrative of the stereotype of bigotry that they would be able to run with," Bevin said. • • • WHAT HAPPENED AT THE LINCOLN MEMORIAL? The Washington Free Beacon reported about what happened to the high school boys : "During the 46th annual March for Life Friday, students from Covington Catholic High School, many of them wearing 'MAGA' hats, came face to face with protesters. One protestor was a Native American with a drum. Others were Black Hebrew Israelites, a religious organization listed by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a 'militant' hate group. The Free Beacon stated : "Initial media and activist reports relied on viral video footage and the drummer's account to blame the students for 'surrounding' him, falsely claim they chanted 'build the wall,' and slimed them as racist. The New York Times described the students as a 'mob' before later modifying the story's title and body to reflect the facts. The initial video received millions of views and tens of thousands of retweets. In a tweet, CNN accused the students of 'taunting' the man. The tweet remained up as of Tuesday afternoon. A recent CNN marketing campaign and its banner photograph on Twitter promotes the idea the organization puts 'facts first.'....Soon after the initial reports, eyewitness accounts and longer footage became available, which contradicted the conclusions many had drawn about the incident. A full account showed the Native American elder approach the students, who chanted along with the elder. In the video, Black Hebrew Israelites throw slurs at the students, who do not respond in kind. Gradually, media organizations began correcting their false reports. Some did not. As of press time, the New York Times had not deleted its false tweet : '@nytimes Boys in ‘Make America Great Again’ Hats Mob Native Elder at Indigenous Peoples March https://nyti.ms/2FMGTGo" 5:35 AM - Jan 20, 2019." • • • THE DAILY CALLER WAS FIRST TO TRY TO PRESENT FACTS. A full video that you can watch at < https://youtu.be/t3EC1_gcr34 >, begins nearly an hour prior to the confrontation between Phillips and the boys, and was shared on Facebook by Shar Yaqataz Banyamyan. A mirror of that video was posted to YouTube. • Here is the Daily Caller report : "That video begins with coverage of about five African-American men identified as “Black Hebrew Israelites” -- with which the person recording the video appeared to be involved -- interacting first with the Native American protesters, calling them just 'like the white man' and calling one female protester a 'culture vulture' and a 'damn blue-eyed demon' (10:20). After an hour or so of the Black Israelites yelling at the Native American group -- calling them '$5 Indians' and 'rented Natives' -- they turned their attention on the gathered group of young boys. They called the group 'dusty-ass crackers' and claimed that their MAGA gear was racist. 'Babies made out of incest!' they yelled at the boys. 'This is what Make America Great looks like. When was it great? I dare you to say it.' (1:07:55). The boys began chanting school spirit slogans, but the Black Israelites continued to taunt them, saying, 'You sound like a bunch of dogs. Hyenas.' They also claimed that the boys wouldn’t dare come any closer because 'you can’t see the angels around us. You worship blasphemy and we got angels.” (1:09:00). At that point, one of the boys ran down the steps, stripped down to a pair of athletic shorts, and led the group in a raucous cheer (1:09:45). The boys continued to cheer and chant, and only then did Phillips and the others in his group approach. 'Here come Gad,' the Black Israelites commented as he got closer (1:12:22). The video then shows Phillips walking right into the crowd, pushing into the group and stopping only when he was nose to nose with one of the students. From behind him, one of the Black Israelites yelled, 'Y’all better not touch him. Y’all better not touch him,' and claimed that 'Gad' had 'calmed the demonic spirits' as the boys continued to chant along with the beating drums (1:13:25). 'Serious mockery,' the Black Israelites continued. 'With their Make America Great Again hats. America will be destroyed by nuclear thermal destruction. Thus saith the Lord.' They added, 'This is what Donald Trump produces. This is a bunch of future school shooters. That’s right. School shooters. That’s your future.' (1:14:28). Shortly after Phillips left the scene, the Black Israelites once again turned their attacks on the students. Upon realizing that there were a couple of African American students in the group, they yelled, 'They got one black man. Y’all got one n***er in the crowd, huh? One n***er, huh? OHHHH, you got two n***ers in the crowd. Two n***ers in the crowd.' The Covington boys quickly surrounded the black students, helping them disappear into the crowd (1:18:25). They went on to tell the boys that 'your President' and his attorney Rudy Giuliani were 'homosexuals,' citing a charity dinner in 2000 where Giuliani dressed in drag and Trump pretended to harass him in a comedy skit (1:22:30). The boys fired back simply by pointing out, 'Most of us aren’t even old enough to vote.' " • The Daily Caller reported the attacks on the students following the spread of the video by celebrities and pundits who picked up the narrative -- and began comparing the boys in the video to the KKK and even to those who crucified Jesus -- "The red MAGA hat is the new white hood. Without white boys being able to empathize with other people, humanity will continue to destroy itself. #FirstThoughtsWhenIWakeUp" — Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) January 20, 2019 /// "This #maga boy attends Covington Catholic, a Christian school? Oh, the irony. pic.twitter.com/t02SGzVCCG" — Daniel Dae Kim (@danieldaekim) January 19, 2019. AND, of course, they blamed President Donald Trump -- "An entire generation of young white boys and men are being radicalized by Trump in front of our very eyes. Impeachment or no impeachment, defeat in 2020 or no defeat in 2020, I suspect it’s too late to put this particular #MAGA genie back in the bigoted bottle." — Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) January 19, 2019. AND, they advocated violence -- "They like to say & believe that violence isn’t the answer....but for this little smug, entitled, privileged, MY DADDY WILL SUE YOU fuck boy in the MAGA hat....I don’t see another option. Crack his shit one good time, bet he won’t be bout this life no more. pic.twitter.com/gBhzwKGLU8" — Khleo Thomas (@KhleoThomas) January 19, 2019. • The Daily Caller also provided a sampling of the media's first frenzied attack on the students : "BuzzFeed News Reporter, Anne Helen Petersen, made her colleagues proud by smearing one of the kids in the video and implied he had a future in sexually assaulting women. Petersen even acknowledged that other videos showed a completely different story, but that didn’t stop her diatribe about why a teenage boy’s face “caused a visceral reaction.” "Anne Helen Petersen @annehelen One theme of the conversations over the past 24 hours = how deeply familiar this look is. It's the look of white patriarchy, of course, but that familiarity -- that banality -- is part of what prompts the visceral reaction. This isn't spectacular. It's life in America." 1:12 AM - Jan 21, 2019. Three Washington Post reporters, as National Review’s Michael Brendan Dougherty neatly explained, framed their story on how “a throng of young, mostly white teenage boys, several wearing “Make America Great Again” caps,” surrounded the Native American protestor Nathan Phillips and reported that he “felt threatened.”....The Atlantic’s James Fallows, just hours after the first video was released, wrote a bizarre column comparing the young boys to pro-segregation activists. Fallows seemed to even recognize that other footage might give a more complete picture of the incident, but he chose to brush this off as just “whatever happened.” Even by Monday morning, MSNBC was still tweeting out clips from shows expressing sympathy for Fallows...."MSNBC @MSNBC Tara Houska, tribal rights attorney, on video from Indigenous Peoples March : 'I was there, and I witnessed something that was very aggressive and something that was very frightening.' 5:05 PM - Jan 21, 2019. • Here is how one anonymous student provided Local 12 reporter Adam Clements with a written statement regarding the confrontation. He said that the boys were waiting for their bus and had decided to do some school cheers to pass the time : "We initially thought this was a cultural display since he was beating along to our cheers so we clapped to the beat. He came to stand in front of one of my classmates who stood where he was, smiling and enjoying the experience.…we did not partake in any physical or verbal abuse, did not chant 'build the wall' or mock or anything of the like, and did not seek to incite violence. After that initial occurrence, we were then verbally assaulted by four or five African-American men who called us 'faggots' and berated one of our African American friends for being friends with us." • • • WHO ARE THE BLACK HEBREW ISRAELITES? Fox News wrote about them : "The Black Hebrew Israelites, members of which identify themselves as a historic religious group, has taken center stage after some of its members appeared to be part of a controversial confrontation at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC over the weekend....Following the confrontation, the religious group has been thrust into the spotlight for some of the members’ alleged behavior at the rally. Here’s what to know about the Black Hebrew Israelites. Who are they? The Black Hebrew Israelites -- sometimes called 'Black Jews,' 'Black Hebrews,' and 'Hebrew Israelites,' according to Vox -- are a controversial offshoot of an American religious movement known as Black Israelism, the Washington Post reported. The movement dates back to the 18th century, if not before. More specifically, the movement is 'rooted in Black Judaism,' according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which noted the Black Judaism doctrine states 'when the Kingdom of Israel was destroyed, the Israelites were first scattered across the African continent and then selectively targeted by enemy African tribes who captured and sold them to European slave traders for bondage in the New World.' The principles of the Black Hebrew Israelites vary : the group does not appear to have an official creed. In fact, Lewis Gordon, a professor of Africana philosophy at the University of Connecticut, told the Philadelphia Inquirer some sects within the movement 'identify as Jews, as Christians, and as neither.' Some who identify with the group read the Christian bible, while others read the Hebrew Bible. Some believe Jesus was the Messiah while others do not, according to the Post. Overall, there are dozens of Black Hebrew organizations. Many members continue to follow the teachings of a rabbi who founded a congregation in Harlem, New York, in 1919, according to a 2000 report in the New York Times. However, one belief appears to hold true for the majority of those who identify as Black Hebrew Israelites : African Americans 'are the literal descendants of the Israelites of the Bible and have been severed from their true heritage,' the Post reported. How many Black Hebrew Israelites are in the US? The non-profit organization Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry, or CARM, estimated there are 'approximately 200,000 among the dozens of offshoot branches.' In 2000, the New York Times reported a range of 40,000 to 500,000 across the US -- but noted 'an accurate counting [is] made impossible by the diversity of styles and beliefs.' ” • More important, Fox News discusses the sect known as “One West” : "The Post reported a branch known as One West began to form in the 1970s and 1980s, or in the years after the civil rights and Black Power movements. One Westers, according to the Post, 'saw themselves as radical reformers of earlier generations of Hebrew Israelites who had gone astray. They would troop out to street corners dressed in colorful and ornate capes and leather -- vivid imaginings of what ancient Israelites might look like transported into the urban culture of New York City. They were also early and eager adopters of new media, hosting local television slots and filming their often-confrontational street ministry.' Members of the One West group believe Native Americans and Hispanics, in addition to African Americans, are descendants of the Israelites or the original 12 Tribes of Israel. One prominent offshoot on One West is a group known as House of Israel (HOI). Vox reported this sect of Black Israelites are often seen as the 'fringe sect' and are known for their 'highly confrontational form of street ministry' commonly seen in large cities such as Washington, DC, and New York." • It was members of HOI who were reportedly present at the Lincoln Memorial confrontation over the weekend. Some Black Israelite groups, such as HOI, have been labeled as 'hate groups' by organizations like the Southern Poverty Law Center. The SPLC reported in 2008 that while most 'Hebrew Israelites are neither explicitly racist nor anti-Semitic and do not advocate violence, there is a rising extremist sector within the Hebrew Israelite movement whose adherents believe that Jews are devilish impostors and who openly condemn whites as evil personified, deserving only death or slavery.' " • Wikipedia states : "In late 2008, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) described as black supremacist what it called 'the extremist fringe of the Hebrew Israelite movement.' It wrote that the members of such groups 'believe that Jews are devilish impostors and...openly condemn whites as evil personified, deserving only death or slavery.' The SPLC also said that 'most Hebrew Israelites are neither explicitly racist nor anti-Semitic and do not advocate violence.' " • Thr key TAKEAWAY -- the Black Hebrew Israelites are not Jews and do not practice Judaism. • • • WHO IS NATHAN PHILLIPS? Phillips, 64, who has been involved in a number of past protests, including the Dakota and Keystone XL pipelines, was singing songs “urging participants to ‘be strong’ against the ravages of colonialism that include police brutality, poor access to health care and the ill effects of climate change on reservations,” when he claimed a group of schoolboys began to gather near him, according to the Washington Post. BUT, the Washington Post issued a correction on Tuesday about Phillips that reads : “Earlier versions of this story incorrectly said that Native American activist Nathan Phillips fought in the Vietnam War. Phillips served in the U.S. Marines from 1972 to 1976 but was never deployed to Vietnam.” Phillips told the Post that he felt threatened by the children. “It was getting ugly, and I was thinking : ‘I’ve got to find myself an exit out of this situation and finish my song at the Lincoln Memorial,’” he said. “I started going that way, and that guy in the hat [Sandmann] stood in my way, and we were at an impasse. He just blocked my way and wouldn’t allow me to retreat.” THAT IS A LIE. • Indian Country Today published an article on Wednesday written by the well-known retired Navy Seal, Don Shipley, who obtained the official military records of Nathan Phillips and posted a descriptive story to his YouTube account. The military records paperwork, known as a DD-214 were secured by Shipley because of his connections to the military and work in the area focusing on stolen valor. Shipley says a lot of the confusion in obtaining was largely due to Nathan Phillips' enlisting name, Nathan Stanard. Shipley opens his video beating a large bottle of vodka with a spoon and asks his viewers to guess who he is talking about. He shortly thereafter reveals that Nathan Phillips is the subject of the video, who joined the U.S. Marines in 1972 but did not serve in combat. Throughout the video, which Shipley admits “will probably offend someone” he makes other Native-themed comments including “I am Ten Bears” about the movie Outlaw Josey Wales. • Shipley then describes the DD-214 in which Phillips has served as a private and exited the service as a private and received one medal. He also shows that Phillips went AWOL and was stationed in Nebraska and California. He had also served as a ReferMech or Refrigerator Mechanic. In addition to Shipley’s remarks, syndicated columnist Phil Kerpen applauded Shipley’s ability to get the military paperwork, tweeting : “Don Shipley got the DD-214. Self-described 'recon ranger' Nathan Phillips was a rifleman for two days and a refrigerator mechanic in Lincoln, Nebraska and El Toro, California the rest of his service. Retired a private.” • Shipley quotes an article from Digital Underground, a site that extracted the article from Vogue. He recites Phillips’ comments in the article, “You know, I’m from Vietnam times. I’m what they call a recon ranger. That was my role.” Shipley responds, “I got you down as an electrician.” • Chase Iron Eyes, lead attorney for the Lakota People’s Law Project, says there has been a lot of backlash regarding Phillips’ response regarding comments at Standing Rock over the term ‘recon ranger.’ Iron Eyes told Indian Country Today : “The recon ranger quote was taken completely out of context. I’ve known Nathan a long time. He was speaking about his role at Standing Rock, he was not talking about his role in the military. He has always said Vietnam Times or Vietnam era when referring to his military service.” • A friend of Phillips, who will remain anonymous, also contacted Indian Country Today via phone and email to say he has known Phillips for over 20 years, Phillips has talked about his service extensively for years and has never said he was deployed or in combat. • In the YouTube video, Shipley also says : “I haven’t personally heard him use the words that I am a Vietnam Vet. What I’ve heard him say and what’s written is ‘I was in Vietnam Times.” Shipley then shows a clip of a CNN video in which Nathan Phillips does say ‘Vietnam Times,’ while CNN does show a graphic that writes 'I’m a Vietnam Veteran...' • Shipley describes Phillips as a Vietnam Times Veteran, who might not have corrected people for describing him as a Vietnam combat Veteran. • The comments were in the main directed at the Indian Country Today journalist who interviewed Don Shipley and wrote the article about Shipley's research. The criticism was not directed at Shipley. • One commenter wrote : "Well, what do you know, more fake news! Not only did Phillips specifically claim to be a Vietnam veteran in multiple interviews, including the one with CNN where he said : 'And it's because I'm a veteran -- I'm a Vietnam veteran -- that these two groups even have the right in this country to have protests' -- and also -- 'And I'm a Vietnam veteran and I know that mentality of 'There's enough of us. We can do this.' Not only do you pretend that Nathan never said this, you went to the lengths of going back and editing one of your OWN articles where you claimed him to be a Vietnam veteran. https://archive.is/EiR1I Have you no integrity? Does truth mean so little to you?" Another commenter wrote : "It's perfectly ok to be a mechanic, however, its not ok to go AWOL to the point where you are jailed...multiple times. Its not ok to receive a less than honorable discharge. Its also not ok to lead people on. Even though he said 'Vietnam Times' he should have been more forthcoming about his exact service versus letting them believe something different. He is not really a veteran nor did he serve the country by going awol and getting a dishonorable discharge. Frankly he should have never mentioned his 'service' at all." Another commenter wrote : "But Mr. Phillips/Stanard DID claim to be a Vietnam Veteran in this very publication. 'Phillips also described coming back to the US as a veteran from Vietnam. 'People called me a baby killer and a hippie girl spit on me.' That post has been edited, in just the past couple of days, but archived. See link. BTW, DD214s are public records, available to anyone through a FOIA request." • AND, Nathan Phillips was at it again after the Lincoln Memorial encounter with the Covington students, as reported by Gateway Pundit : "Native American activist Nathan Phillips was blocked by church security from entering the Catholic Church’s Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC, Saturday night as he and fellow activists tried to hold a drum protest during Mass, according to a report by the Catholic News Agency. The protesters had a list of demands of the Vatican that included a demand that Covington students be punished, and also demanded seniors be punished by the universites that have accepted them. Watch the video of Phillips reading his demands at the Basilica : ." • Here is an excerpt from the CNA report : "The group of 20 demonstrators was stopped by shrine security as it tried to enter the church during its 5:15 pm Vigil Mass, according to a shrine security guard on duty during the Mass. 'It was really upsetting,' the guard told CNA. 'There were about twenty people trying to get in, we had to lock the doors and everything.'....A source close to the shrine’s leadership corroborated the security guard’s account, telling CNA that during the Mass, Phillips and the group tried to enter the church while playing drums and chanting, and were prohibited from entering the building by security personnel, who locked the main basilica doors with the congregation still inside. The shrine’s spokeswoman would not confirm or deny that the group attempted to enter the Mass. She told CNA that 'a group did assemble on Saturday evening outside the the shrine' and that they 'left without incident.'....The security guard told CNA that the incident was especially distressing given that Mass was underway. 'It’s a house of worship, a place of prayer where people come to celebrate. All this anger is so against what we are all about here.' ” • President Trump broke his silence on the disgusting media smear campaign against the Covington Catholic students. In a tweet, President Trump said the students were treated unfairly and smeared by the media. The President named the main student being smeared -- Nick Sandmann. The President tweeted : "Looking like Nick Sandman & Covington Catholic students were treated unfairly with early judgments proving out to be false -- smeared by media. Not good, but making big comeback! New footage shows that media was wrong about teen’s encounter with Native American” @TuckerCarlson" • I cannot help wondering why Pocahontas was in Puerto Rico calling a wall for better border security "stupid" instead of beating a drum with Nathan Phillips. • • • DEAR READERS, we may never fully know exactly what happened at the Lincoln Memorial. BUT, the Covington Catholic students have not been shown on ANY video to ahve incited what befell them. They were calm, considering their ages, and it was the Black Hebrew Israelites who drowned them in disgusting racist epithets, evne calling out the black Covington students in a way that made the otehr students try to shield and protect them. Nathan Phillips is a relatively 'known' personality, who seems to navigate toward media opportunities even as he tries to make some, as yet not very clear, statement about Native Americans. We know he was not in Vietnam. We know he has lied about that. But, for the most part, Phillips seems to be rather sad and 'lost' character who is played by the media for their own Progressive-Globalist agenda. • Most distressing for me is the fact that this same ProgGlobalist media and their supporters -- both political and celebrity -- were and remain willing to attack teenagers as somehow being spokesmen for anything -- let alone President Trump's MAGA agenda. They are children. Their MAGA caps are not racist. They are simply caps. Like the caps that support a baseball team or a sports product. But, the ProgGlobalist media has a history of using children. They did it after Parkland, managing to push forward naive teenagers to carry water for their anti-gun anti-Second-Amendment agenda. • And, now we have, according to a Monday article by Western Journal Conservative Tribune, attorney Robert Barnes, who represents several students from Covington Catholic High School, and who, he says, were libeled in the aftermath of the Lincoln Memorial incident. In an appearance on Fox News this weekend, he listed the individuals he would be going after. First, those who are CLEARED -- Representative Ilhan Omar, who posted a tweet that claimed the students told a woman, “It’s not rape if you enjoy it” and who took the side of the Black Hebrew Israelite sect harassing the students, saying they were harassing the sect instead. Barnes said they asked her to retract the tweet and she did. Also cleared was comedian Kathy Griffin, who retracted tweets which were aimed at doxing the students. But, those facing POSSIBLE LAWSUITS include -- Reza Aslan, the former CNN host known for his frequently profane rants against anything that has to do with Donald Trump or conservatives, who did not retract his seeming call for violence against a minor : "Honest question. Have you ever seen a more punchable face than this kid’s? pic.twitter.com/jolQ7BZQPD" — Reza Aslan (@rezaaslan) January 20, 2019. Another potential target is Matthew Dowd, the ABC News analyst who first lambasted the kids and then clung to the idea that the fuller video showed them to be racists : "Folks, let us not let these kids, their parents, and their school off the hook. Regardless of what led up to this, this is awful....Check the footage. All of it. These students were exhibiting awful behavior and bigotry. @secupp @JohnJHarwood https://t.co/YUNunjQymw" — Matthew Dowd (@matthewjdowd) January 21, 2019. Dowd's tweets were still up late Monday morning, which means Dowd was looking at a possible lawsuit. The New York Daily News is another potential target for their article mistaking a Covington Catholic “blackout game” for an instance of blackface. • While it is true that a plaintiff has to show that there was malicious intent and knowingly that something is wrong and defamatory, which is often difficult to prove, Attorney Barnes points out a “unique exception” : “When there is a defamation and libel of private citizens, particularly minors, then the legal standard goes way down. So you no longer have to prove actual malice or malevolent intent. All you have to prove is that a false statement was made -- or in Kentucky, the law is even broader, ‘an unflattering impression given and a person’s impression in a false light’ -- and otherwise...that it just be negligent to do so.” That, says Barnes, is why the families gave individuals a 48-hour window to retract or delete their statements. “If they still refuse to do so, it’s clearly negligent for them to keep false statements up.” • Western Journal says : "If it gets into a court of law and journalists who should have known better are clearly shown to have not known better, that’s not only going to drag this on -- it’s more than likely to move this into a stage where news organizations are going to try to dig up dirt on minors to defend themselves or admit they were desperate to keep the narrative alive. It’ll likely show, in a very public forum, how they denigrated and villainized under-age kids for clicks and ratings. That’s not a fate anyone who rushed to judgment on this case wants. The longer their arguments are out in the sun of public scrutiny, the more they wither and putrefy -- and to a jury, that could look like a large cash award." • There are villians in the Lincoln Memorial incident -- the Black Hebrew Israelites who are the racists, and the ProgGlobalist media, for whom Nathan Phillips was a useful pawn, pushed forward in their stories to prove the media's pre-conceived Fake Facts. The Covington Catholic high school boys were the ProgGlobalist media's perfect foil -- white, MAGA cap wearers, and Christian. And, that is perhaps the real point of the media frenzy. Their hit piece was not just on children. It was on Christians. The ProgGlobalist media thought they had found another way to label Christians as aggressively racist and misogynist. This time their Fake polemic and attack on children, President Trump, his MAGA supporters, and Catholics, may have backfired. Bigtime.