Most of the time, I try to keep things on the lighter side with our weekly visits. However, every once in a while something happens and it prompts me to say something, even if it isn't necessarily "light" or humorous. This past week, I saw something that prompts me to say something.
For those of you who may not have seen or heard of the incident, I will fill you in. During the pro-life march in Washington D.C. last weekend, a group of students from Covington Catholic High School from Kentucky were there to participate in the march. Some of these students were wearing the red "Make America Great Again" (or "MAGA" hats as they have often been called) that are popular among supporters of the policies of Pres. Trump. While waiting for bus transportation in front of the Lincoln Memorial, a group of protestors from the "Black Hebrew Israelites" group began hurling vile, racial insults aimed at the Covington High School students. The students asked their chaperones for permission to begin chanting school spirit cheers in order to drown out the vulgar insults. (Yes, I know I am using descriptive terms such as "vile" and "vulgar" because the insults were vile and vulgar. This is not an objective news story, this is my column.) As the Covington High School students began their school cheers another group of Native American protestors approached the students playing drums and chanting their own chants. One elderly man walked up to one of the students and continued to beat his drum and chant in the students face while the student stood his ground with a smile on his face. This is the image many news outlets chose to release without any information about the events leading up to this "confrontation." In fact, many of these same news outlets led people to believe that it was the group of high school students who approached the Native American protestors.
Without the benefit of the entire story, many people (even some of my close friends), jumped to the conclusion that these students from Covington Catholic High School were being disrespectful to the Native Americans. The response of some to this "partial" news coverage was disturbing to say the least. Death threats and calls for violence against these children has been rampant. One Disney film producer actually suggested that these children should "go screaming, hats first, into the woodchipper." Yes, that was said by a Disney film producer. I'm not making that up, I have seen the screen-shot of the gentleman's statement, complete with artwork depicting a person being shoved into a woodchipper with blood being sprayed onto the ground. I wonder what "Uncle Walt" would think of this kind of violence against children being promoted by someone associated with his company. Times have certainly changed since Walt Disney was in charge, haven't they?
This incident brings to light the dangers of what can happen when news outlets put forth a news story with an agenda. As news reporters, we have a great responsibility to simply present the facts with as little "opinion" as possible when presenting a news story. I think if a reporter has a personal viewpoint that they want to express, it should be done in an opinion piece, such as the one you are reading now. That's just my "opinion." When tasked with writing a story about what happens with the county commission, or school board, or anything else, I try to take the advice of Joe Friday from the TV show "Dragnet" and present "just the facts, ma'am, just the facts." Even when I write a sports story, you know I'm pulling for the Cowboys to win, but win or lose, I am going to give the accurate score to the game.
I know there are some in the news business that may disagree, and that's their right to do so. That's what this page of the newspaper is for.