After Covington Catholic High School student Nick Sandmann shared his side of the story with a very hostile and bullying NBC News on Wednesday, the coverage of the confrontation by the liberal broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC) inexplicably evaporated from their evening newscasts. The timing was suspect, especially considering that Sandmann’s family lawyer issued an ultimatum to the vicious liberal mob threatening libel lawsuits.
During a segment on the Fox News Channel’s Special Report, national correspondent Doug McKelway highlighted pending lawsuits against folks in the liberal media. “Amid the controversy, lawyer Robert Barnes today delivered an ultimatum, retract libelous attacks within 48 hours, or be sued,” he reported.
In an appearance on Wednesday's Fox and Friends, Barnes announced a client-requested “grace period” to help those who smeared them:
ROBERT BARNES: That includes any major member of the media, that includes any major celebrity, the includes anybody with a substantial social media platform. If you have said anything false about these kids, they are willing to extend you a 48-hour time period. A period of grace, consistent with their Christian faith, for you to –through confessions -- get redemption and retract and correct and apologize.
Noting somebody who seemed to take the threat seriously, McKelway pointed to Minnesota Congresswoman and accused anti-Semite Ilhan Omar. “Shortly after that ultimatum, Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, newly elected Democrat of Minnesota, deleted a tweet in which she accused the boys of taunting five black men. She posted that tweet late last night, well after the narrative had been discredited,” he said.
The networks’ refusal to report on Sandmann’s interview with NBC essentially stymied his attempt to defend himself from the rabid liberal hoard sending him and his classmates death threats.
Luckily, Fox News shared soundbites from him and a classmate:
MCKELWAY: A presumption of innocence may be hard to reclaim in the social media age, where standards are few as the Covington student Grant Hillman is discovering.
GRANT HILLMANN: I've never heard such cruel things wished upon another human being. It ranges from getting locked inside a building and burned alive to sexually assaulted by clergy members. It’s just awful.
MCKELWAY: In his first TV appearance, Nick Sandmann, the student behind the smile, explained his thinking as the standoff ensued.
NICK SANDMANN: I'm not sure where he wanted to go and if you wanted to walk past me I would've let him go. I just wish he would've walked away. I knew as long as I kept my composure it would hopefully die.
And by skipping the Covington Kids altogether, the networks also conveniently avoided reporting on how they were getting support from powerful Kentucky lawmakers. “…Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, for the first time, joined other Kentucky lawmakers, Senator Rand Paul, Governor Matt Bevin, and Congressman Tom Massie in condemning the rush to judgment,” McKelway added.
McConnell blasted the liberal media on the floor of the Senate in an impassioned speech on Wednesday. “In a matter of hours, the students were tried, convicted, and sentenced by the media where accuracy is irrelevant and the presumption of innocence does not exist,” he decried.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
Fox News Channel’s Special Report
January 23, 2019
6:08:47 p.m. EasternBRET BAIER: The Kentucky high school student, whose encounter with a Native American elder set off a viral video maelstrom, says he meant no disrespect. His school has reopened after adding more security in the face of violent threats there. Correspondent Doug McKelway is in Covington, Kentucky, tonight.
[Cuts to video]
DOUG MCKELWAY: Classes resumed at Covington Catholic High School today with all entrances and adjacent parking lots blocked by police to all by the school community. That as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, for the first time, joined other Kentucky lawmakers, Senator Rand Paul, Governor Matt Bevin, and Congressman Tom Massie in condemning the rush to judgment.
MITCH MCCONNELL: In a matter of hours the students were tried, convicted, and sentenced by the media where accuracy is irrelevant and the presumption of innocence does not exist.
MCKELWAY: A presumption of innocence may be hard to reclaim in the social media age, where standards are few as the Covington student Grant Hillman is discovering.
GRANT HILLMANN: I've never heard such cruel things wished upon another human being. It ranges from getting locked inside a building and burned alive to sexually assaulted by clergy members. It’s just awful.
MCKELWAY: In his first TV appearance, Nick Sandmann, the student behind the smile, explained his thinking as the standoff ensued.
NICK SANDMANN: I'm not sure where he wanted to go and if you wanted to walk past me I would've let him go. I just wish he would've walked away. I knew as long as I kept my composure it would hopefully die.
(…)
MCKELWAY: The Catholic News Service reported today that last Saturday, the day after the March, Phillips and a group of 20 try to interrupt mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception with drumbeats and chanting. A guard described the incident as, quote, “very upsetting”. Amid the controversy, lawyer Robert Barnes today delivered an ultimatum, retract libelous attacks within 48 hours, or be sued.
ROBERT BARNES: That includes any major member of the media, that includes any major celebrity, the includes anybody with a substantial social media platform. If you have said anything false about these kids, they are willing to extend you a 48-hour time period. A period of grace, consistent with their Christian faith, for you to –through confessions -- get redemption and retract and correct and apologize.
[Cuts back to live]
MCKELWAY: Shortly after that ultimatum, Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, newly elected Democrat of Minnesota, deleted a tweet in which she accused the boys of taunting five black men. She posted that tweet late last night, well after the narrative had been discredited.
