For everyone still going on about, "Yeah, but, these kids were snarky and white and..where's their parents?!" why don't you go read the best, most comprehensive description of what actually occurred, written by Caitlin Flanagan of the Atlantic.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/01/media-must-learn-covington-catholic-story/581035/
This "reporting" was a disaster for the media, mainstream and otherwise, including the NYT which should be ashamed of itself.
Premature, irresponsible journalistic piling-on like this makes it so very easy for Trump to talk about "fake news."
33
If the kids had not been wearing MAGA caps, this whole thing would have blown over quickly. But the caps are just as much a sign of racism as a white hood to most of us.
17
I said it once and I will say it again:
That kid was not praying.
He was intimidating.
The fact that The NY Times is spending a lot of time beating their breast over the media’s response to an obvious provocation befuddles me completely.
I’m not going to stand for a white washing of what is clearly a racist and privileged white boy making trouble for an indigenous person, cause he said he didn’t mean it.
Hey NY Times Editors - you’re losing me fast.
19
All you need to know now is that the mocking sneers, snarls and smirks will grace the White House soon, thanks to an invite from red-hatted Hitler Youth's biggest fan.
You can rush to judgment now, Frank. Kind of you to try to be fair to the Covington MAGA chapter. Fairness is wasted on them.
15
You're asking for trouble if you're wearing a MAGA hat and being loud and proud. It's provocative and people who wear them know that. Sure they have a constitutional right but do that but do they really want to put themselves in a position where they may incite violence in others? Would the chaperones allow these kids to run with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain?
The Black Hebrew Israelites threw out white racial slurs which included, "white crackers", "incest kids" and "faggots". Apparently that kind of talk is permissible for them only as no condemnation was mentioned by any of the media outlets. I can only imagine the national outcry if the Covington group threw back equally offensive racial slurs.
The American Indian group had their role to play in this travesty also accusing the Covington students of stealing their land and that they should go back to Europe. What's one to do with that?
The real culprits of this mess as I see it, are the chaperones. What responsible adult allows a bunch of adolescents to act like that in public? They disgraced their school, their church and themselves. What if cooler heads hadn't prevailed at this confrontation and people had gotten hurt or killed? Shame on you Covington chaparones!
11
We miss the point that these children were dispatched by their racist parents to DC to defend Southern Conservative Slave State values.
Who are their parents? Do they work for companies that snicker and chuckle at lynchings, and lesser demonstrations of racist hatred in Kentucky?
Come on, news media...who are the parents, who do they work for, what companies do they own, and why are they raising their children to be as racist as they are?
11
Hmm apparently there is more to the story:
https://m.dailykos.com/stories/2019/1/22/1828390/-How-the-press-keeps-whitewashing-the-racism-that-fuels-Trump-s-base?detail=emaildkre
4
MAGA hats are an explicit provocation. MAGA has now joined the ranks of the swastika, the Confederate flag, and KKK.
14
What is the racial diversity of Covington Catholic High School? The cost $8500 per year? Looks to be an exclusive all white male school! MAGA!
6
The aim of modern day news is to evoke outrage. Outrage sells newspapers and makes journalists even more important. Honesty and thoughtfulness are antiquated values, as last seen in Normal Rockwell paintings.
The more outrageous, the more eyeballs, the larger the circulation, the more the money. Trump is a Moron (Nobel Laureate Krugman), Hillary is a Witch, racist cops, poor immigrant children in detention, billionaires on yachts.....whatever it is that is most viscerally offensive. Partisanship is also good for news. Moderate Democrats and Moderate Republicans are boring (and almost extinct). We need to endlessly hear hour to hour updates from an ignorant waitress from the Bronx that is AOC. Media doesn't care she has no experience, or her positions are inconsistent, Anti-Semetic or the numbers don't add up. Media will sink Charlie Rose or Garrison Keilor as it makes good news copy.
Sadly enough the press has become the enemy of the people. Its thoughtlessness, bias and need to manipulate so there is no middle ground is a disservice to all of us.
4
There is nothing Christian about the maga hat. When Christians wear it they display all their worst traits. Go to confession kids, burn the hats, spend your time doing something nice and sincere like feeding federal workers
12
When your standpoint is not borne out by facts, you don’t need facts.
7
I've watched every video multiple times and the kids were punks in every video. It might have been the chaperones fault, it might have been the Catholic church's fault for using them that weekend to make a political statement, or it might have been their parents fault for telling them to wear a MAGA hat to intimidate others, but they were still punks that behaved like punks. At least they weren't shot dead, like every black kid in America.
21
amen Brother
Covington Catholic High School, Lord of the Flies on steroids. Nothing but bad behavior. Lousy chaperones, lousy manners, lousy PR, lousy playing the victim.
13
True, there’s no doubt that people are too quick to judge in this tribal political climate. But, whatever Rashomon take one has of the events in Washington based on various videos with differing POVs, the way the Covington kids acted in Washington does have precedents back home, which cannot be argued away Rashomon style.
Chanting Covington students surrounded an African American basketball player, some wearing black face, some giving white supremacist hand signals. All are clearly seen here... https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/covington-catholic-black-paint/
4
So you are now trying to change what a smirk looks like? seriously? really? come on. If I had THAT look on my face to an adult my mother would have slapped me sideways, yeah slapping is bad, but I would have gotten the message. I watched he whole video (long...) the kid was wrong and the boys around the aboriginal native was NOT wrong. gosh today we give kids byes for being brats.
6
I saw the videos from a variety of angles and edits. After the initial reaction from a video that apparently went viral because of a fake or robot account, the student singled out as the smirker gives an interview with the help of a PR firm to shift the blame to anyone else but himself and that of his school mates. It reminded me a lot of Kavenaugh's "I like beer!" defense/offense full of self-righteousness and self-pity but little sensitivity or awareness. He began with" I had a right to stand there." Of course he had a right to stand there but what about his duties? Far too much emphasis is put on rights and almost none on duties.
In social interactions as well as law, there is a tension between rights and duties. Some states pass laws protecting the right to stand your ground and other enshrine the duty to retreat. It's not enough that that he did 'hurt anyone.' That's not the test. The four ranting, cursing black preachers could have been ignored. Instead they surrounded them as a chanting mob to 'drown them out.' Why? If that is what they think is 'spirit.' the school and the parents are raising bullies and monsters pumped up with self-entitlement with little regard for anyone else.
The student who was recorded saying that it's no big deal your land was stolen because that's the way the world works with land being stolen all the time was correct. That is the way the world works for the winners.
11
Just tell me one thing, Frank, was that a smirk or not?
6
What I see in these comments is primarily hatred, resentment, and universal pu-downs. As my guru Rodney King said, “Why can’t we all just get along?”
I truly believe that none of these comment providers are capable of changing their minds or opinions.So sad, plus it’s why the gov’t shutdown will last until one of these juveniles says, “I didn’t deserve a trophy, let’s play another game.”
2
Let’s all take a moment to reflect... a visual exercise....black teenagers with “Black Lives Matter” T-shirts and hats behaving in the same obnoxious manner. What would be the “pull back and reflection”? There wouldn’t be one!!
9
I believe this Covington School in Kentucky is the same school that the 2x rapist (by the age of 18) was expelled from recently.
6
The way information is shared in our country is truly frightening. While the conversation surrounding the Covington students rages on, there is a complete void in NYT coverage of Rep. Hakeem Jeffries’ (D-NY) statement referring to President Trump as “Grand Wizard.” I’m tired of the claim of “fake news.” Now I see why these claims are made.
If we don’t hold all people accountable equally, what kind of country are we? Do we just support convenient narratives that solidify our own positions? Jeffries outright labels President Trump as “Grand Wizard” yet he gets a pass? Does anyone remember a mere couple weeks ago when Jeremy Kappell, the WHEC meteorologist, was axed without discussion at the behest of Rochester’s African-American mayor, Lovely Warren, because he blended two syllables into a racist term I’d never before heard?
Who needs the Russians or Facebook’s confirmation bias algorithm to meddle in our media! It seems people have dug in their heels for the long run lest they be labeled as (the horror!) “objective!”
1
You're waxing a bit pious, Mr. Bruni. The boy was interviewed on TV and refused to apologize. Refused to acknowledge that standing nose-to-nose with an elderly Native American for long minutes, and smirking at him, was in any way improper.
And by the way, where were the chaperones?
13
Huge fan of yours, but this is not one of your strongest columns. Too wishy washy.
2
The kid was arrogant, was a jerk, had a smirk on his face, was too close for comfort. What does he know anyway about the rights of women over their own bodies? He was being used as a pawn by a Catholic school that should instead be fighting for victims of pedophile priests.
13
"I had every right to do so" is a very poor excuse when someone is rude to an elder.
It is true that you have every "right" not to step aside and remain in an elderly man's face if you want. No need to move out of the way when you "have every right" not to move when you are in the way of someone, especially a senior citizen. I certainly wonder if the teen's high school teaches him that his "rights" always trump being polite to anyone who a teen believes is spoiling his fun.
We all have a "right" to be rude and nasty to people. It does not mean that we teach our teens that there is no need to act with common decency when a senior citizen wants to get by. Clearly most of the other teens moved away, but when they saw their pal demonstrating his "rights" they joined him.
3
Much ado about nothing. Students had every right to be there wearing whatever hats they wanted (remember this is America). They had no obligation to support the march. It is amazing how the left (including most commenters on this article) supports violent anarchist groups like Antifa that physically assault their foes and castigates high school kids who harm no one. By the way, just because Phillips is a tribal elder does not mean he is entitled to any special consideration. He is not a Vietnam veteran, as has been widely reported. And of course, the black radicals who caused all the ruckus get completely exonerated. Doesn't look like white privilege to me.
8
This story was complex and needed to be told from the multiple perspectives. However there was a rush to judgement. Try to get all the facts before weighing in even though your president does not follow this advice. It’s been a bad week for the media with the Buzzfeed story and the Covington story. This feeds into the Trump narrative re: fake news and the right’s obsession about the left’s agenda. Now Trump has more ammunition to feed his culture war feud.
1
I’ll stick with the parkland kids who turned a real tragedy into positive activism and for their efforts they were threatened and harassed by right wing media and hate groups.
Anyone remember that?
11
Mr. Sandmann is guilty of facecrime according to the left. He is also guilty of hatcrime (a close cousin to hatecrime), again according to the left and the mainstream media. I wish that the left in our country knew that Nineteen Eighty-Four was supposed to be a warning and not an instruction manual.
6
Reading through these reader comments proves Bruni’s point. So many here are doing exactly what he’s lamenting that it begs the question whether they’ve actually read his piece.
4
Mr. Bruni, I am a HUGE fan of yours and often in agreement with your viewpoint, both in the Times and on CNN. However, in this case you are WRONG. The so-called "longer tape" omitted what the gang of privileged hoodlums did to Mr. Phillips. The surrounded him, shouting ethnic slurs and intimidating him. One of his cohorts, who was interviewed on MSNBC, said she was so frightened of the "innocent" students that she had a male friend escort her across the square. The media, by and large, continues to ignore racism directed at First Nations people, the peoples who were nearly wiped out by genocide in the early days of America. Before you pen an OpEd, make sure you know all of the facts. As a final check, if Dumbf is applauding their behavior, you should know that it is reprehensible.
9
BALONEY.
Qualifying and defending a creepy guy and then watching the spin develop and allow him to draft a lie is, is, well, quite trumpian wouldn't you say?
9
Thank you, Frank. You are a breath of fresh air.
Our daily news and this particular story are like a plot of an absurdist play.
In the theatre of the absurd, however, the plot can be haunting, but also illuminating and, sometimes cathartic.
In this story, “absurdity” is simply absurdity – terrifying, destructive, apocalyptic.
The sanctimonious hypocrites who jump to conclusion spare no one, not even a kid - and only because his gender, his race, his political view, and his Catholic faith do not harmonize with the liberal media and the absurdly hypocritical Hollywood bullies.
7
If you don't believe that video was made for TV, you watch too much of it. It was full of symbolism.
Let's talk "optics": A group of white boys wearing MAGA hats at the Lincoln Memorial on Martin Luther King Day weekend during the Indigenous Peoples March. The story ends right there, and what happened before and after it hardly matters. Given this president's history of endorsing and defending white nationalism, the kids (and their irresponsible school chaperones) may as well have been carrying Confederate flags or neo-Nazi signs. Those -- and not Lincoln -- are the "beautiful" symbols Donald Trump is proud to openly associate himself with.
3
What disgusted me was the disrespect shown to the Native American elder. It showed the world how disrespectful kids in America are to their elders. Most cultures teach their kids to respect their elders full stop.
7
Let's all remember that there were lots of teens marching at the Right to Life march.
Did any other high schools allow 100 or 120 of their students to respond to this small group of 5 or 6 stationary men yelling incoherent and offensive statements about almost every ethnic and religious group by gathering en masse to chant at them? It doesn't appear so. Apparently, the other teens at the Right to Life march - or at least their chaperones - knew when it is worthwhile to engage with a small group of incoherent protestors and when it is not.
If that was an appropriate response, you would have groups of 100+ high schoolers in Times Square confronting the same 5 or 6 men every single day. Even if you believe that those few men say is offensive - and I do - does anyone think that is a good idea?
No? Well, neither did Nathan Phillips. And unlike these students' MIA chaperones, he did something peaceful to stop it. And the teens (and their right wing and cowed "liberal" defenders) decided that being disrespectful to this elderly man was somehow justified.
4
Wearing a MAGA hat is a political statement--one the teenager in question clearly knew and in which he clearly revelled. Maybe the lesson he'll learn is that politics isn't just in what we say, but in what we choose to promote about ourselves by the choices we make--including clothing.
1
@kathleen cairns
I think that was the point. Is there something wrong with making a political statement?
2
Hmmm... I find it interesting that so many of the comments are full of outrage for the students simply for "being on a political mission" Yes, that's right. The same people who cried the praises of the thousands of teenagers who protested gun violence after the Parkland shooting and stressed the importance of youth involvement in politics are now upset that teenagers took time out of their vacation to make a political statement.
I am 16. Last year, in the wake of the parkland shooting, I proudly marched out of my school and felt both proud for myself and my peers and grateful for the press and the millions of adults who showed us- and youth in general- so much support.
Now, when the politics change, their willingness to stand up for what they believe in is suddenly something worthy of ridicule rather than praise? The amount of comments that claim the students deserve the negative coverage they're getting simply because they were wearing MAGA hats is truly sickening.
To be clear, I do think that their conduct was rude and disgraceful. They- even after the new details that came out- were very clearly in the wrong, and do not deserve the sympathy many right wing outlets are trying to give them.
That being said, their political affiliation should have nothing to to with it. In fact, the fact that they were demonstrating should lend some credibility to their position, not take it away. Don't shame them for their politics. Shame them for what they actually deserve shame for.
10
To everyone who is claiming that we have no idea what the expression on the teen's face was when he refused to move aside so that an elderly Native American man could walk:
Just take a look at the other students and the expressions on their face. Those are not expressions of being helpful. They are the expressions of teens enjoying watching one of their own "standing up" to an elderly man by refusing to move aside for him. One has to be blind to interpret the entire incident in a positive light for those students.
10
@RJ
delusion
"refused to move aside so that an elderly Native American man could walk"
4
@RJ
I see a bunch of kids having fun. But then again, my heart is not filled with hate.
5
I think that at the end of the day too much is being made of the spin on an incident that was pretty obvious for anyone with even a passing acquaintance with teen age boys to understand. The look on the boy's face is unmistakable and speaks volumes about his parenting and the character building failures of Covington Catholic High School.
The spin becomes the story when really the story was that the students of Covington Catholic High School were being rude and confrontational in the public square.
On what may seem off-topic, but in my mind certainly is not, I deeply resent the repeated use of the term "bang on the drum" being used by the culturally clueless on both sides here.
The correct term is "beat," the instrument is a hand drum and the purpose is to establish a meter for the rhythm of a personal song most frequently with spiritual content. Part of the ceremonial content is reminding ourselves that once the words are sung and sounds are freed into the world, they are out there forever; so we must be mindful of what we sing and drum.
4
Would you rather be right or effective? This is a question I've been asked in business, and it stopped me in my tracks. I wasn't allowed to answer "both." Eventually I realized "effective" was the best answer.
Today we have no government, but we do have people on both sides of the fight being very right. "I'm right." "No, I'm right." They are being as childish as I probably was before I got asked that seminal question. They want to be -- have to be -- right. They'll torture themselves in their arguments to keep to their preconceived right-ness.
Ever try to get anything done, like we have to in business? Ever reach out to those you disagree with and get to know each other and each other's opinion? Ever thought about reaching a consensus on things? Ever look at data and be willing to let it disprove you? In business, we have to do these things or we fail. Ultimately, we're graded by whether we make a profit...whether we've been effective.
Until we as citizens grade our politicians by whether we are getting effective government vs. perfectly right positions that lead us nowhere, we'll have the government we deserve.
So let's put aside our "rightness" (I see it seeping through in some of these comments). Let's not let it get in the way of progress.
And I'm so right about this point! :)
3
I wonder about the logic of Covington High School sending its students to attend a political event, I.e., a demonstration against a woman’s right to chose, which though their elders may support, have no business sending these kids to participate over an issue that few of them have even the vaguest understanding of. I tend to see these young boys as having been exploited and misused by those responsible for their education in order to their political agenda.
7
When it is EVER okay not to move out of the way when an elderly person wants to walk through a crowd?
When it is EVER okay to "stand your ground" as a teen boy when an elderly person wants to move through a crowd?
I guess what the right wing defenders of this teenager are saying is that as long as someone else has insulted you, it's fine to be rude to an elderly man and refuse to move out of his way in a crowd.
Is that what Covington teaches the students there?
9
@RJ
I must have missed the part of the video where Mr. Phillips said, “Excuse me. I would like to get through.”
All I saw was him standing there banging a drum in a young kid’s face.
7
A drum playing Native American Elder wades into a group of MAGA hat wearing kids. His intent is reconciliation. One kid remains unmoved and sticks a smirky expression on his face in a stare down with the drummer.
From the pool of young Catholic men surrounding them, one removes his shirts and leads what looks like an abbreviated Haka Dance from the Maori National Rugby Team. (Since they didn't attack the drummer after doing the Haka, I assume they weren't doing the ritual war Haka, but instead using the Haka as a form of ceremonial welcome of the Native American, another common Haka usage. It is also done at funerals as a parting hymn to the deceased.)
The smirky young man finally wanders off.
The media goes into action, creating all sorts of saleable narratives.
What do we learn here?
1. Media are in the business of making money.
2. Kids are impressionable and do kooky things that reveal more about their parents and they way they were raised than about the kids themselves. Since their Catholic Religion is apparently not working for them, they have "gone Maori," having not learned what Jesus said about "welcoming the stranger." A single elderly male drummer seems to have enough ju-ju power to them to necessitate pulling out the Haka.
3. Drummers have excellent timing.
4. Young women don't participate in confrontational mobs as easily as men.
5. Chaperones are old-fashioned. Permissiveness is the new thing.
Whew.
5
Where were the chaperones/parents? Why were they allowing these kids to be so disrespectful? My guess is the kids learned this behavior was acceptable in their school/community/families.
Where were the chaperones/parents when the boys cat-called girls/women with "It's not rape if you like it"? Yes, there is a video of that behavior, too.
7
This incident was another opportunity for white grievance culture to run amok.
A spoiled rich kid (his parents hired a PR firm to spin their narrative), was disrespectful to his elder.
Simply listen to the kid himself in his NBC interview with Savannah Guthrie talking about his "rights."
What white nationalist America has forgotten is with rights comes responsibilities and a teenager equating his right to stand in the way of an approaching senior because he was there first is a false equivalency indeed.
5
Donald Trumps approval rating has declined to 31%
Wearing a maga hat outside your red state bubble will invite comments
These maga hats are provocations,
They are todays white hood.
Why would you let your child wear one of these? Oh never mind - we already know.
6
This PR campaign with the collusion of the media is failing miserably. It just reinforces the elite privileged hostility of these teens towards anyone outside their circle. Their meeting with President Trump will be the icing on the cake.
This isn't the 1980s where someone like Mark Wahlberg can have his vicious violent assaults against Black and Asian children brushed away with the help of priests. Where the victims of color are dismissed and the white guy allowed to only voice his sob story with the help of the country club members controlling the media. Welcome to modern times.
4
Even after all that has happened, the "NYT Picks" of the comments are almost entirely in support of the inacurate and dangerous reporting, or at least in suport of the hateful bias that lies beneath.
Shame, Shame on the NYT!
8
Group of privileged white boys in MAGA hats bused to D.C. to participate in politically charged event then interact with minorities on the Mall. What could possibly go wrong?
4
@Dave
Throw in black Hebrews spouting vile epithets and a 60 year old man banging a drum and pushing himself in front of teenagers who had every right to be standing where they were and....you have a recipe for a social justice warrior event.
5
Covington HS learned valuable lessons this past weekend:
1 - adults will hate you b/c of skin pigmentation
2 - adults will hate you b/c of your religion
3 - adults will hate you b/c of your politics
I include News Media in "adults."
And of course the end of this (hit) piece the DNC Hack singles out "conservatives" for their reaction, exonerating DNC/News Media reaction and its Junk Journalism
6
A couple of the Covington students were on Fox & Friends this morning defending the use of "blackface" at a school rally a few years back. Tells you all you need to know about the ones who wore the red Trump hats.
5
I am a Republican and a conservative, and agree humility looks good coming from either side. Thank you, Sir.
4
I don't find the judgements and criticisms in this case to be hasty, but very real and worth discussing. Even if, as it turns out, Mr Drummer has been less than candid about his past, what was sorely missing from Mr Smirk was decency and respect, yes for the less lucky people in our country. They deserve a place in heaven, too, alongside the Catholic popes. Don't they read the Bible in that school?
1
I still believe that it is imprudent to wear a swastika into a synagogue. To claim ignorance of the significance of the symbol in that context symbolizes the blindness to the ongoing inequity and bigotry that persists in our contemporary society.
3
@Gregory West
And, I might add, my long dead relatives would roll over in their graves - if only they had been given the dignity of burial.
1
How about we shut off all social media for a month. See how that helps. At least we’d have no “President” Tweeter trumps to distract from what’s really happening. I’m so sick of it...
Real news. FAKE President.
5
I hate the message of MAGA but I firmly believe in the rights of free speech, as vile as it can be, and it's hard to defend what we hate but that's what REAL Freedom of Speech is about, to defend even what we hate. It's very un-PC to go against an old Native American war vet but I say in print that he's a LIAR. I've listened to and watched the WHOLE tape and he's only gotten worse in his lies, it's in black and white, it's not an opinion, and that's a fact. What's more, the media is STILL not being 100% honest with their coverage of this event, facts notwithstanding. They continue to equivocate on stating clearly how this episode began, played out and was reported by them, incorrectly. As someone who identifies as Liberal and more importantly a defender of everyone's rights, to be enforced EQUALLY, this upsets me ladies and gentlemen. As my one true hero, the 2nd President John Adams, who defended the British during the "Boston Massacre" and was at first called a traitor for it but later greatly respected for his integrity and whom I use as my example about defending what seems indefensible, said "FACTS ARE STUBBORN THINGS." Let's reflect on what "facts" and "freedom of speech" and "the whole truth" mean, especially when applied to those that we might not be sympathetic towards and how we judge each other and what standards we use in judging them.
13
It is interesting that the majority of these comments still condemn these kids. I think all hope is lost for us as a country when people simply can’t admit a mistake. We should start working on the divorce settlement now before this turns into a hot civil war.
17
@Abbott Hall
The comments provide perfect reinforcement for Bruni's point. No one here cares about the facts. They only want to double down on their preconceived judgements. No dissent, no drifting from the script, allowed. It must be in shock to read a Times opinion piece that is not throwing them more red meat.
4
Thank you Frank Bruni! I don't follow Twitter and most probably never will . It didn't appeal to me at first and now I think it's a menace. It certainly works with no filter and people seem to trust it as a source of truth. It is certainly is a news source for many which is pathetic and we need to remember that it just REPEATS what its GIVEN wake up! Pavlov's dogs!
5
Of course his mom rushes to his defense because nothing should prevent a parent from doing so, right? Wait a minute. Let’s grow up. Anyone watching or listening to any or all of the footage knows exactly what was going through that kid’s head, and he’s on his own now and for a long time accounting for it.
5
As an educator and school leader, I know for certain that those boys should have been required to return to their hotel or bus well before the disturbing moment that attracted all of this punditry. That they didn’t leave, and that we can safely assume that any adults involved in the trip stood passively by, is all we need to know about this school before safely condemning it. I would add that the rush to retreat from condemnation is a symptom of white patriarchy doing its job just as well as it ever has. What a disappointing foot soldier Mr. Bruni makes in this regard.
And now that we also know that boys at this school have, at least once, used blackface as a tool (weapon) to intimidate opponents at basketball games, I should think that Mr. Bruni’s piece here is itself premature and ill-informed.
Places like Covington Catholic deserve nothing less than the scrutiny of any other institution that preserves and upholds racism, privilege, and various documented acts of unchecked, giddy aggression.
10
I haven't read all punditry on this incident. . abd don't intend to. But, I haven't seen any discussion of where the chaperones we're in this! Why didn't they step in and break it up?
2
There is no grand message to be drawn from this pathetic incident, by either side of the politician/pundit divide. What we plainly have is a white kid, with a smirking half-smile, deliberately standing almost nose-to-nose with an elderly Native American man, even though he has considerable room to be elsewhere. That his parents, aided by a PR firm, would do anything other than to apologize for their son's rude behavior only speaks to their and their son's lack of civility and maturity. MAGA is offensive enough, even by itself.
5
@Richard Jewett
I agree. And it is interesting that it just took one teenager "standing his ground" for the rest of his 100 buddies to then surround the elderly Native American man and start their rude behavior toward him.
If only there had been an alpha teen willing to tell the guy - please move away and let him pass and another teen telling the rest of his classmates "please stop chanting at this elderly man and let him be." Since the chaperones from the school were MIA.
2
The jeering and taunting teenagers in their MAGA hats behind the smirking teenager in his MAGA hat was not lost on millions of viewers, and certainly not on the Native Americans who were peacefully protesting . He stepped in front of Nathan Phillips not to protect him as he attests but to obstruct him.
5
I used to do interviews for a Private Investigation Firm.
Far more convenient for me to listen to the stories of
potential new clients.
Rarely did anyone tell the whole and adulterated truth.
We, being human, tend to want to make ourselves look
the least guilty and the most offended.
For those who say the young man had a smirk, let alone
an intentional smirk, where is your evidence ?
Perhaps that is his natural smile,
perhaps it is his nervous smile.
Why don't you go and ask him rather than make a summary
judgement and carry out a public execution ?
Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe the young man has his
hands behind his back, hardly the stance one typically takes during a confrontation you are seeking out.
Mr. Phillips has changed his story several times.
If he wanted to go up further into the Lincoln Memorial
he could have easily done so, if he wanted to stay between
the "Black Israelites" and the High School Boys, he accomplished his task.
Some of the students are wearing MAGA hats.
Has anyone looked into where/when they got them for all
of them look brand new, in some of the pictures you can see the folding creases. I would imagine for most of them why wouldn't they want to see American Great Again ?
That the New York Times allows people to call that young man a racist, insensitive, etc in the comments section is astounding.
Given what I have seen of teenage behaviour in groups,
I think the students from Covington were quite moderate.
13
Every one of those Covington students was demonstrating both white and male privilege from the moment they boarded a bus in Kentucky. They attend an all male high school which by definition is an act of sexism. Why do male only schools continue to exist in 2019? They travelled to DC to participate in a rally the purpose of which is to protest a legal activity. A legal activity that allows women the right to control their own bodies. A subject that no male has any right to have an opinion on much less to express it and certainly not as part of a public protest. Furthermore, they wore the obscene MAGA hats which have parallels to white hoods, brown shirts and Confederate flags, all of which have been banned. The only possible reason to display such obscene garments must be to provoke fear, intimidation and superiority.
3
The hats say it all. Period. Any expanded versions of the event do not exonerate these kids
7
The later footage confirmed that the kids were behaving like jerks. I don't know about the particular kid who has now become a celebrity, but their whole group was misbehaving and inadequately supervised. And yeah, the Black Hebrew Israelites are awful too, but nobody actually expects better from them. They're known quantities in DC, as in NYC, and they could have just asked a local to find out what was going on.
The only thing the extended coverage changed my mind on was Mr. Phillips. It looked initially like he was a victim. In fact, he was the only person in the entire story who behaved like an adult.
5
Let's not forget that in addition to the cowering chaperones, the Park Service Rangers were no where to be found due to the shutdown. A mob like the Covington Catholic boys would have been disbanded if a full contingent of Rangers were in place.
1
@Sheila Murray
Your use of the term "mob" to describe these boys is ludicrous.
3
Perhaps if the Catholic Church taught it's young male Catholic students better about the atrocities perpetrated by the Catholic Church against Native American people... this appearence of disrespect might never have happened.
8
The kid was being a jerk, and apparently well rehearsed at it. And then he says he was trying to keep the peace? He takes after his hero Trump in the veracity category.
But he is a kid. As were the other gang of knuckleheads.
So where were the adults in this scene? Not among the religious Kooks who insulted everyone they could as often as they could. Not among the Catholic Preists. They allowed a bad scene to grow worse and permitted their kids to engage in the LORD OF THE FLIES scenario we all witnessed.
Nathan Phillips tried to provide some Leadership, wisdom and Maturity into the mess. But failed. But at least he tried. I have great respect for Nathan.
So again, where were the adults that were supervising the Kids?
107
@robert21
Philips has a Trumpian relationship with the truth.
3
@robert21 I was literally going to write this same idea - even starting it with the kid is a “jerk”. What you wrote is spot on - and very well stated!
4
@robert21
You fail to mention the deplorable job the MSM did in over reacting to a small misleading snipet. They didn't learn their lesson from BuzzFeed. Shameful, led by CNN who never apologized.
"Was that a smirk on the teenager’s face? A sneer? His expression was just indefinite enough . . . "
As a gay man, I know that sneer, Frank. As a gay man, you know it too. African-Americans know it, as do women. There's no mistaking that smirk. That sneer of contempt. It indicates disregard of the full personhood of the one being sneered at. It is the sneer of entitlement. Of being superior because the sneerer has been taught at home, in school, in church, that their whiteness, their straightness, their maleness, their better religion, allows them to sneer at those they consider to be less than, those who do not fit the carefully constructed mold of the sneerer's world. Behind that sneer lies the threat of bullying and violence. Too many off us have known that sneer and exactly what it means. And no amount of parsing or excusing the contemptible behavior of those Covington boys by you or anyone else, will take away the truth of that boys sneer and just what it means to many who have experienced. I know that sneer.
138
@Peter Faass
Dunno if that qualifies as a smirk. Maybe.
OK, let's say it's a smirk. So...what?
I didn't -- and still don't -- see anything to get worked up about any of this. Three opposing groups expressing themselves in a nonviolent, albeit theatrical, manner. Which in itself should be reassuring these days.
9
@Peter Faass. An awful lot of hate in that response. Sorry for your pain.
4
There needs to be a new cultural standard that will help put an end to this nonsense: anyone that participates in doxxing or calls for violence online needs to be fired from their jobs. If there is one thing that makes people think twice before posting stupid things online, it is their wallets.
5
It wasn't fake, but it was poorly reported. I saw the young man's later interview and he seemed to be somewhat dismissive of his own behavior, disrespectful as it was. I don't understand what the boy's point/purpose was. The chaperones bear the brunt of the responsibility for what transpired. I went to a private boarding school where respectful behavior was expected at all times, especially in public. There's a lesson for everyone to learn from this sorry incident..
4
Point taken, Mr. Bruni. Pundits and editorialists should wait until all the data is in before rendering judgment. That said, here is what I commented shortly after the Covington news first broke.
"I'm sorry. An absolutely vile group of incompetent parents and teachers sent teenagers dressed in MAGA hats to a Right-to-Life rally where the prospect of confrontation was about as high as anybody could imagine anywhere.
The kids might warrant a little slack for their callow age, but the action of their elders is unforgivable for the situation wgere they put those boys and now for the vapid rationalizations they spout to justify their sorry behavior.
Would you willingly put your teenage kid in such a place? If so, don't ever become a parent or a school teacher."
I still pretty much stand by this comment. On more sober reflection, however, I might have omitted the words "absolutely vile" in the first paragraph.
6
Journalism is in trouble if my experience with the former chair of a Canadian journalism school is any indication. I was surprised at the tone and message contained in his tweets, especially considering how volatile the story had become by the time I first saw one of his tweets.
This journalism professor attached great importance to the fact the teenage boy was wearing a MAGA hat but didn’t mention this in his statement detailing his version of the event. From these two facts, and one other, the professor was able to infer the teen understood full well why he and his group had been engaged. Furthermore, because of the teen's, and I quote, "disingenuousness (sic) about the provocation potential of the hats, people might want to think hard about other aspects of the (teen's) statement."
These positions were spouted by a leader in the journalism profession, an educator of future journalists. The fellow claimed he had no "preconceived opinion." Really?
6
I happened to be visiting with family in DC the weekend of the women’s march. There were no fewer than 10 bus loads of energetic but basically well behaved Catholic teens at the fancy hotel where we stayed. I believe in free speech and teenagers should also have opportunities to express their opinions. But the matching outfits and gear made me think that these were not individually considered opinions but rather a well organized and funded show. Anyone who says that these were only kids should remember that they were there to “represent”— and their hats, behavior and opinions were meant to be seen and heard by the rest of us.
8
We tend to blame the "other" groups, the functioning of many of our institutions, we once revered for our national decline. After all, MAGA is a frank admission most agree the USA is in decline. Rather than blame each other or some group, if we were adults, we would attempt to gather to examine what is it within us, our institutional makeup that has gone wrong? Make a list of them, study each thoroughly, evaluate and propose solutions. Some important problems should be obvious. How makes complex budget decisions in complex organizations (energy, environment, education, finance, commerce, etc.) with 535 politician, lawyers? We only need look at this today. How about the $5.5 billion spent on the 2018 elections? Was the public interest served? Adults would examine all of these flaws, practices, develop solutions by examining best practices of others around the world, finding solitions that fit the USA. But that would take a frank admission that an 18th Century political/economy design, formulated by mostly slave owners simply doesn't fit needs, expectations, aspirations of most of us in the 21st Century. To view the ancient as sacred cows, is an integral part of our restlessness, dissatisfaction, demonization, here and around the globe. With all our education, a process of reason has devolved into a schoolyard fight.
2
I watch exceedingly small amounts of television but recall how scripted and sensational it was when I watched it. That event was most definitely choreographed and planned by somebody or people. Right now, I'm terribly torn by my love of the Church of my youth and what it now appears to be. There is great danger in America.
2
OK, Doublethink R Us- How is it that most of the world saw the cap, saw the smirk, interpreted and reacted the same way? These kids/meat shields for Trump had apparently just been to another highly charged rally, and just happened to be there, eh? So this commuting with brands attached is "organized innocence", is it? On that basis, none of the last 2 years happened, either.
4
The news media, taken as a whole, is about as responsive to criticism and suggestion as our President is, but I guess the writer gets some credit for trying. The news media is as beholden to their base (viewers) as our President is to his. Discussion of tempering news media behavior is as about as useful as discussions of tempering our President's.
Someday someone will write the definitive story of this regretful time in our nations history - the mutually beneficial marriage of Trump and the media, a marriage neither wants a divorce from. Hey, he may be a disastrous President, but he's good for CBS news, right?
3
Do not have all the facts on this episode, how started, who started it, so my judgement remains subjective. BUT, the stare and look bordering on arrogance on that young man's face toward an elderly native American told me enough. His mind was on full display in that stare.
6
The smirk of the privileged said it all. We might call it the Kavanaugh smirk, it certainly worked for him.
7
@Kathleen and the lack of objectivity and reason as well as tolerance for adult men bullying children who they believe disagree with them by you and many on the NYT site perhaps could be called Dianne Feinstein or Michael Avenatti propaganda attitude.
2
This is not a complicated issue. A young teen with a MAGA hat gets in the face of an elderly Native American Indian veteran and stares him down with a smirky snarky smile. He should be taught some manners. End of story.
7
@NYJohn wrong - you didn’t watch the video. The kid did NOT get in the adult’s face. The adult got in his face in an attempt to bully and intimidate. The adult should be apologizing for assault of the kid.
3
@NYJohn you'd think a 60-some year old man would have some manners. Do you consider it good manners to walk up to someone, get within a few inches of their face, stare them down, and bang on a drum. I guess I didn't see that chapter in Emily Post's book. So who is using worse manners - a boy standing there silently smiling, or a person who gets in someone's face while banging a drum? The hypocrisy by so many readers of the NYT is bizarre.
3
The video should be watched and dissected by all high-school kids in America - especially those white and male. Watching the longer video, it is easy to see how all of the boys' offenses **might** have been caused by nervousness, confusion, and ignorance. It's at least as possible that they were motivated by malicious racism, but the longer video makes any definitive statement thereunto impossible.
But the video goes a long way toward illustrating why it's so important to understand that underlying intent is not the sole defining feature of racism. Perhaps the boy was trying to smile to convey calmness - but he (and just about every teenage boy I've ever met - as a teacher I can say with confidence that this look knows no racial bounds) needs to know what grinning in the face of an elder looks like. Perhaps the laughter was sheer confusion - but people need to know what it looks like when a larger group laughs in the faces of a smaller group. Perhaps the chants and cheers were simply school spirit - but those boys and their teachers need to recognize what their "school spirit" looks like to the world: appropriation, mockery, disrespect.
The boys, their families, the school, people everywhere - all need to understand this. They need to understand that the anger so many felt was legitimate, worthy of empathy, deserving of apology.
But feeding that anger by muckraking a minor is not an acceptable response, period. And moral relativism is not a defense.
5
Would that the right engaged in such hand-wringing as is going on now in the "liberal" media.
2
I agree with Greg.Cahill.
We all recognize contempt: smiling mouth (forced) without smiling eyes (crinkles about the eyes = a smile).
4
@Allan Hotti Do we all recognize aggression? When was the last time you walked up to someone and got inches from their face while beating a drum? Most people would shove or punch someone that showed this kind of aggression.
2
@Allan Hotti what would your response be if an adult man wearing a MAGA hat walked up to you and got inches from your face, staring you down, while banging on a drum? Would you stand there silently as this boy did (a true profile of courage)?
Mr. Bruni, I respect your opinions and often believe that some of your mea culpas in the past have been well placed.
However, in the case of the Covington affair, may I refer you to an article in today's "Guardian" by Jason Wilson. In his opinion piece, he says it better than I ever could about how the right-wing media has jumped in and distorted reality--once again.
Please take another look at the event and perhaps reconsider your well-intentioned mea culpa in the name of the press.
Being "fair and balanced" is one thing but the facts seem to speak for themselves. Don't bend so far over backwards to prove you can see both sides.
7
Yes, the gun was jumped in how quickly people condemned these youngsters. But, as the mother of three sons, I know a contemptuous, sneering, superior smirk when I see one. If that young man was my son, I would not be hiring a P.R. firm but a counselor.
9
@JMR do you know what the definition of assault is? An intentional act by one person that creates an apprehension in another of an imminent harmful or offensive contact. If he were my son I’d be sending him to self defense classes so that he would feel confident of neutralizing the threat the next time an adult male assaulted him like Mr. Phillips.
1
The charges of entitlement and cruelty - to women - stand.
These are entitled, affluent white males, with a goal to force their specific religious and gender control over all American women, even those not of their religion.
That's definitely entitlement, and for poor women, cruelty.
Reputable studies she shown that 98% of sexually active Catholic women have used birth control other than the rhythm method. But those people were invisible at this rally.
7
The whole doxxing and death threats would end once attorneys start taking names of these people on Twiter and showing them calls for violence against anyone will result in a criminal record. this goes for both sides.
The one tweet with the kids being thrown into a wood chipper from a Disney rep? He seemed to back down pretty fast from those words and rhetoric, but he wouldn't be so smug if he had to answer in court.
3
@Scott my hope is for a sweeping defamation suit filed by the boy.
1
I watched the whole video and I still say these boys - while wearing symbols of trump who assaulted over 20 women - came to Washington to take away basic rights of women then surrounded not the black men calling them names but an Indian veteran and then tried to intimidate him and for what reason? Watch it again and while the boys are not criminal it is really vile behavior.
7
We are only a few weeks into the new brave year of 2019. Perhaps we can use the opportunity to commit to being more considerate and reflective about the habits of mind promoted by our internet- and media-soaked culture. Can we, for example, resolve not to let our attention be ceaselessly led around the world to place judgment on human beings, whom we will never meet, hundreds of miles away from our keyboards, with complicated lives of their own, in the service of our simian amygdala's need to condemn, to blame, hate, and fear? Can we resolve to fight the urge to turn other people into symbols, and to remember that the largest problems lack a human face? I see a digital wall of stories about a smirking boy while the earth burns and the homeless freeze, and I despair.
2
I’m not impressed. I’ve been commenting since Trump won, that we on the Left need to come to our collective senses about identity politics before it’s too late. Movements and organizations that exclude any racial or gender group are inherently racist and sexist — and yes, this includes Black Lives Matter. I’ll say it: “All Lives Matter”. If you want to call me a racist for stating an obvious, non-racist truth, so be it. I’ll continue to support Medicare For All, free college education, environmental protection, and other causes that benefit all Americans regardless of race or gender. Other liberals can go support their stupid identity politics and help Trump drag our nation into the dirt. I’m done with the mainstream Left.
4
I wish the Covington students hadn't worn those MAGA hats (provocative, yes, but still just stupid hats). I wish the Black Hebrew Israelites hadn't hurled vile insults at the students (just kids, let's not forget that). I wish the Covington students had, instead of letting themselves get egged on, just turned the other cheek and walked away (which would have shown considerably more maturity than any of the adults involved). I wish the Omaha elder hadn't approached the students and then proceed to beat a drum inches from a kid's face (not acceptable behavior from an adult). I wish the kid had just walked away at that point (again, a level of maturity nobody involved possessed). I wish the media had chosen to show a little restraint by telling the whole messy story of what actually happened and not the one they wanted to tell. I wish people would be a little more critical of themselves and their own awful behavior in response to the whole mess. There were many opportunities for averting this whole mess in which nobody came out looking good.
5
The National Review describes Nathan Phillips, an apparently underemployed, poor, and relatively toothless native American, that's elderly, possibly homeless and suffering from some sort of diminished mental faculty as being "full of falsehoods, inconsistencies and nonsense".
Why don't the wealthy white nationalists at the Review then explain why they look down their increasingly long noses at Phillips when this description sounds so similar to their billionaire MAGA President's plank?
I'm a white Catholic myself. To these older eyes, the hooting, snapchatting, in your face and not old enough to vote yet, entitled private school, MAGA hat wearing Covington kids, circling a drum beating native, looked like a tribal and bigoted political stunt, about as far away from Mother Theresa and the Jesus we learned about back in the day in church, as sniffling Brett Kavanaugh and his boofing good buddies.
The National Review and Covington kids are naked white privilege in full regalia, representative of America's plantation culture and institutional gangster system of governance. These kids and their parents are nothing like JFK, RFK and particularly MLK and act more like their antithesis.
5
Sorry,Frank, I usually agree with you but these kids were jeering and mocking the indigenous people no matter what part of the video you see it from. Shame on them and shame on the adults who were with them and the adults who sent them to Washington wearing their derisive MAGA hats to an. Anti-abortion rally! I was a Catholic school girl and we were suoppose to make our school proud not SHAMED!
4
When are the pundits at THIS paper going to accept responsibility for promoting the view that Trump or his supporters are fascists? How many times have I read such accusations in these forums that were surely not coming from gulags via morse code? Such preposterous views coming from traceable sources are probably far less common in North Korea or China, which isn't even fascist. For political purposes, this paper is now promoting views that our federal employees are desperate for food using photos, non-satirically, of people in food lines that could give them product placement revenue from Whole Foods, Yeti and Starbucks.
2
Surprised that you fell for the myth of the McConnell/GOP affiliated PR firm. The Bishop has not given the boys a free pass, nor has the Vatican. A careful review of the lengthiest video demonstrates teenage punks taunting an elder. Local witnesses, some quoted in the media, also observed the biys acting out. And their adult chaperones? Apparently in hiding.
6
The expression on that boy’s face is clear: it is the smirking, sneering scorn of a white cis gendered male. That boy was born hyper-privileged, and he squandered his opportunities by behaving like an entitled bully. We are in the age of accountability. This boy will have to face the music.
4
@She-persisted the behavior of the 60-something man is clear: he proactively tried to bully a minor - walking up to him getting within inches of his face and banging a drum. Who does that? Most people who experienced something like this would likely not be nearly as self-controlled as the high school student who was a victim of this implied threat. Had it been me at the very least the man would have been shoved out of my personal space. His behaviors made him undeserving of respect.
3
"Hasty condemnation"? Those kids deserve all the disdain the received, Frank. Any "liberal" who says otherwise should have their card revoked. What if it was a Hasidic gentleman praying, confronted by shouting hooligans in MAGA hats? What would the editorial response be then, I wonder?
5
White male privilege strikes again! Those male teens gave as good as they got. No excuses. While there is more context, the pundits did not get it completely wrong. The students should be required to apologize to the drummer. It’s the decent thing to do irrespective of political leanings. OWN the behavior!
3
@Margaret Spencer
No. Absolutely not. The boys did nothing that requires an apology.
3
Dear Mr Bruni -- whose writing I adore:
I acknowledge your point that we too easily accept such narratives when they fit our pre-positions. What made me skeptical of the complicating narratives here was a quick look on Covington Cath's website. Check out their mascot (white KY Colonel -- whose cartoon image is painted red when they are up against a really big foe and pictures of boys painting themselves up "Braveheart" style.
There is a Catholic male prep school culture that needs to be examined. We learned that via Brett Kavanaugh, I thought.
I am a Catholic and have taught in Catholic institutions for much of my adult life and have worked against such a culture.
3
The media dropped the ball on the Covington incident with precious little contrition. How easy it is for those of us on the left to stereotype male, white, catholic, anti-abortion, Trump-supporting youth with thoughtless condemnation. Sadly, our so-called elected leaders offered up no more courage than the media on the left. As progressives who seek change through the Democratic Party, we should be repeating the same words for our political party as we do for our country. "My country, right or wrong. If right, then keep it right. If wrong, then make it right." And, I should add, when wrong, be contrite and apologize. Regarding the amateur pundits who cry for parental intervention, some of us see that as a cop out. When I disagree with conservative colleagues, one of the biggest fears they voice to me about my left peers is a creeping totalitarianism. Rather than playing the pot calling the kettle black card, I try to understand their fear. Witch hunts, hair - trigger condemnation, failure to discern nuance in the viewpoint of others, bigot-baiting as a tool of abuse hidden behind the mask of a social justice warrior. I've seen enough of it on the left. Understanding without surrender; tolerance without co-optation. This is the kind of liberal Democratic Party we need.
2
hmmm ... a christian school outing ... yet wearing maga, not school spirit, hats ... too little of christian humility (if that's still considered a virtue) on display ...
I wonder what that school is actually teaching their students ...
5
Isn't social media a great thing for democracy? No, of course its not, at least as used in the West. In days past, the TV media would have hours, until the evening broadcast, to think, fact check, and at least try to get it right. Ditto for newspapers, based on the time needed to go to print. Now, it appears there's not even an effort to get it right. Rather, everyone's in search of something to be outraged about. What a shame.
2
re: …"hasty condemnation..." - Frank...
I'm convinced there were many people in 1939 who thought and said, it's just some crooked crosses - no problem.
MAGA Hat. The ubiquitous symbol of all that is destroying America.
Ok, Frank, it's the media.
5
The 1950's, warts and all, was still a better place and time than we are living in at this moment. ABC, CBS, NBC. That was it. Local newspapers covered the country, almost literally, with newsprint, reporting on Thelma Lou's blue ribbon winning canned beets to President Eisenhower's heart attack. And some things were not reported on. Period. And if you had to ask why not, well, shame on you. Others' private lives were none of your business. Shame worked in mysterious ways, its wonders to perform.
Not perfect by a long stretch, but, oh so much better than today.
3
The message of a MAGA hat is clear, "I support misogyny, racism, homophobia and xenophobia." Couldn't be more clear!
7
I would say that this whole thing started with misinterpretation of the people involved in this incident/confrotation (?) at the start. After that it went downhill & perhaps will never truly be interpreted clearly by those involved.
1
Mr. Bruni,
I went to Catholic school for sixteen years in the fifties and sixties, presumably the time of America's greatness to which the MAGA hats urge us to return.
Were we in fact in those years, the Catholic boys' school students would be in understandable fear for their personal safety. They disrespected an elder and acted obnoxiously in public. That behavior was just not tolerated. Not for one little second.
Part of me wishes that those MAGA-hatted students would enter into a time machine and find themselves in, say, 1959 facing discipline from Brother X or Father Y! Talk about fear!
78
@Anne You're not kidding! Old school Catholic school was no joke and had zero tolerance for any sort of disrespect. That boy would have been in trouble for not moving out of the gentleman's way and saying, "Excuse me Sir"
There is no way these boys have the grit to handle going to school under my grade school principal, Sr. M** de L*****, that's for sure.
5
Contrary to what Bruni suggests, the latest media 'racist' branding of a white high school student (which could have got him killed) was not simply a rush to judgment mistake. Nor largely the result of pundit greed for a sensationalist fiction created by deletion of facts and encouraging people to make up provocative lies. The Native American drummer was quoted, coaxed into telling 3 different and evermore distressing tales. But rather this is the latest in a stream of 1% funded "hate" propaganda that is calculated to divide and conquer the people of the United States into a Middle Eastern like anarchy of warring tribes - that our media's paymasters think will be easier for them to control. A few decades ago they began a campaign to destroy America's unique melting-pot derived majority consensus, which they apparently believe is threatening to their plans for wage-killing "global labor competition", by calls for multi culturalism, encouraging immigrants to self-segregate into patchwork quilts of "gateway communities" and large-scale sabotage of US immigration law. But ~70%, what happens to be a white racial majority in the US remained that they also seem to believe is a threat.So recently they've orchestrated the dividing of male/female whites with all manner of MeToo like Inquisitions, and almost daily "they're racists" media vilifications of most white males which gives our 'leaders' an excuse to defy the alleged 'racist' majority's will if it conflicts with 1% interests.
5
@winthrop staples
That’s what it’s all about. Weaken America and control the world from Davis.
1
An environment of 7/24 news feed via Twitter, FB, and the tens of cable news networks all rushing to fulfill our constant need for breaking news will occasionally throw up things like this.
Add the current social disposition of the man in the White House, our own checkered history with treatment of minorities, the shameful past of slavery, the continuing misogyny and things get an immediate spark before they get vetted. In trying to become more politically correct, right or wrong, we have also become vastly more sensitized. That adds to a sense of immediate injustice.
Stand back, exhale, look at the overall trend, and work to correct the occasional mishaps. We will be ok. This is a phase. Not the best phase of the past 4 decades but still a phase. Don't let it create structural damage. We control the outcome.
As CS Lewis put it "You cannot go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending".
Taken to heart, that mandates a positive outlook on our society. Remain positive and motor on.
3
Thanks Mr. Bruni for some context. The public certainly isn't served by pundits rushing to comment before everyone else and driving these story-lines (for a short time at least) more than the actual facts/evidence do. Seems like we're setting ourselves up for a trap. How about a doctored video of a presidential candidate saying racist or otherwise offensive things showing up on twitter on election eve? If Trump, probably real, but what if it's Bernie Sanders? We certainly have the technical ability to make videos that look and sound legit? If it takes a day or two to figure its a hoax, where are we if the pundits are piling on in the meantime.
A smirk? People say the boy was smirking?
No. It was an uncomfortable friendly smile the boy decided to assume because he knew that if he didn't smile, was instead stone-faced, it could be read as confrontational and things could escalate from there -- while his intention was the exact opposite: to de-escalate the situation.
That's what the boy explains in his two-page written statement.
Anyone who doesn't believe him and persists with their own interpretation of what they see in his face is saying he's lying.
Sorry, no. He's not lying.
7
If he had really wanted to “de-escalate the situation” he could have moved and tried to calm down his mob of schoolmates. What he clearly wanted in the moment was to disrespect the elder guy with the drum, and that’s what he did.
You may need to think about what you really are seeing in this video encounter. If someone stayed that close to a Christian elder in prayer, how would you feel. They have a lack of understanding of others perspectives, that is clear. They have not been schooled in First Nations customs and social norms. They apparently don’t care. He was not acting in good faith and certainly not responding with respect for someone much older than himself. I’m sure he never called the man “sir”.
2
Sorry, the hat, it is the hat. And all it stands for. In front of the Lincoln Memorial. And all IT stands for.
I was in DC that day awaiting the Women’s March. MAGA cap wearing kids at crashing an Indigenous People’s rally OR a march to subjugate women are in the wrong spot. Kids (at least several I encountered) goofing around at a national monument featuring a sign requesting quiet and respectful behavior are in the wrong spot, too. These kids apparently have no idea of the complex histories and issues surrounding either rally and their national history and yet somehow their opinions - simplistic and spoon fed - are somehow to be taken seriously? If so, let’s start by removing a symbol of hate and divisiveness from their heads - looking at you, school administrators, chaperones, PARENTS, teachers. (And, BTW, I have seen the Covington blackface students taunting opposing students of color basketball clip in the home team gymnasium which further does not speak well of Covington.)
A school’s mission is education so maybe encourage a forum that addresses more than one simplistic version of the issues, as it seems we are so fixated on representing the all sides thing in this matter.
In the meantime, perhaps simple respect for elders is a good place to start. Looking at you, kid, under that red hat.
1
Thank, Frank. You've reminded me again of why I do not have a Twitter account. And never will.
3
Non-celebrity teenagers (and sometimes their elders) behaving less than ideally used to just be an isolated incident and par for the course. Thanks to social media and viral video, that same behavior can now attract national attention.
My career has been built around technology, but I wish every single day that all social media was a 'genie' we could stuff back into the bottle. If everyone would simply stop using it, so many things could change for the better. Unfortunately I'm quite certain that will never happen, and I seriously worry that society as we know it will unravel because of it.
6
I'm glad many in the media are taking a step back for reflection, but I'm dismayed by how many commenters here and elsewhere are still certain they know "the truth" based on videos they watched online.
I personally witnessed a similar rush to judgment as a resident of Ferguson MO in 2014, when I could watch daily protests with my own eyes and not rely on the media. And frankly, the gulf between what I was seeing and what was being reported was VAST.
It was alarming and ultimately very traumatizing to witness such a disconnect, and to have people who watched a video from across the country dispute with absolute certainty what I knew to be accurate.....when I was actually THERE.
In fact, I frequently saw videos being shot from a very specific angle, so as to match the desired narrative and to minimize other details that may be unsavory.....like cars being vandalized and fires being set in my neighborhood during so-called "peaceful" protests.
I also got to feel the wrath of total strangers, who decided that they knew all about me and all about my community because of what they saw in the media or watched on some random video. It was a terribly eye-opening experience that made me deeply skeptical. And now, it makes me feel empathy and sadness for all those involved in this latest spectacle.
9
Et tu, Frank? I expected a little better from you than both-sidesism. Yes, we know more context now. We know that the row started with exchanges of abuse between the students and a small group of black men who belong to a fringe group called the "Black Israelites." We know the students were verbally provoked. We also know that those red MAGA caps also constituted a provocation. (And once again, I have to ask, where were the adults? Why didn't their teachers tell them to leave the political caps at home and just wear their school uniforms or sweatshirts?)
We also know now that Phillips intervened to try to defuse the confrontation, and he succeeded -- mainly by "drawing fire" to himself. The students turned their race baiting on him. And don't tell me they didn't know that doing the "tomahawk chop" wouldn't be taken as a racist insult. Failure all around except by Phillips, who kept his cool and his dignity while demonstrating that a good deed never goes unpunished. But he was the only adult in sight. Where were the others? They should have gotten the kids away from there as soon as the insults with the other protesters began to fly, and should have given them a stiff lecture about not engaging and escalating the situation.
157
@Susan Wood hmmm — He tried to defuse the situation by marching into the group with a banging drum, banged the drum for a minute inches from the face of one of the students, what other members of his group yelled at them to go back to Europe? How exactly is that a diffusion?
34
@Alan I didn't see the other Native Americans, though I'll take your word for it that they were there. But did they yell "go back to Europe" before or after the kids decided it was more fun to race-bait Phillips than to yell insults at the Black Israelites? I saw the same video you did, and I don't see Phillips's drumming as aggressive. This isn't a big war drum, but a small skin-covered rhythm instrument, and anyone with two brain cells that connect could figure out that his chant had some religious meaning even if they didn't understand the words. If it had been a group of black people singing "We will overcome," would you say the same? I'm afraid I know the answer. If it had been a group of white people singing "God Bless America?" Of course not.
19
@Susan Wood, Phillips travels the country injecting himself into confrontational situations. His actions, and those of the so-called “Black Israelites” were quite deliberately antagonistic. They showed less judgment than a bunch of teenage boys, which is saying something.
15
I watched all the videos and my initial disgust stands. These kids, at the behest of a chaperone, chose to engage with the black nationalists, rather than simply getting on the bus. In the process, they confronted and mocked Nathan Phillips. They also sexually harassed young women leaving the Women's March. The school reinforces this behavior by allowing blackface rituals at school events. I faults the school and the chaperones. Rather than dodge the issue, Covington should teach racial tolerance and women's studies.
186
@Greg.Cahill I'm a parent of adults and a teacher. I didn't come to an opinion until I had watched the entire, long video. If my children or students had behaved that way (mocking and laughing at an adult, doing the tomahawk chop, and most important of all, NOT disengaging from a troublesome situation), I would have been quite angry. These students are not children. They are young adults and should know how to behave. I imagine some of their parents chose to give them a religious education in order to instill that very idea. "Kids will be kids" is a cop out. I wonder how many people would be so supportive of these young men had they chosen to harass females, as in "boys will be boys". Of if the students were black...
23
@Greg.Cahill
Exactly!! In what universe is it okay for a high school to allow a group of 100 of its students to engage with a group of 5 men ranting incoherently and insulting people of every religion and race?
In what universe does that group of 100 students not just gather around and engage, but decide that they will chant and cheer and otherwise act provocatively toward 5 stationary men ranting incoherently?
In what universe does a school excuse it when those very same teenagers behave rudely toward the one elderly gentleman who tries to stop them from continuing their gratuitously provocative behavior?
Those teenagers wanted to keep jeering en masse at the 5 incoherently offensive men. And they were stopped. That does NOT excuse them behaving rudely toward the man who stopped them.
19
@Greg.Cahill No, wrong. The Black Israelites were the first harassers. They were the first ones insulting the Native American group. Then the Covingtons arrived, and the Black Isrealites started insulting them. the kids should have just boarded the bus and left, I agree. But it's wrong to say they started this. I realize it's required to blame white males, no matter their age for EVERY bad thing that happens on this planet, (and any other planet), but it's not accurate.
5
Mr. Bruni,
I respectfully disagree with you, there is a ton of shame here to be spread thickly around to all the pundits, news outlets, politicians and ordinary citizens who jumped on this bandwagon to smear a bunch of kids. Let me say that again, kids, k-i-d-s, who were doing something admirable, supporting a cause. This is not a comment on the cause, but on their actually separating from a video screen and marching for something they believe in.
These people took the slimmest bit of an edited video and made it fact. Upon additional information surfacing, very few took the opportunity to admit they were wrong and apologize, but simply deleted a tweet or post and went on with their lives, but the damage was done. The more unhinged among us are calling for the death of high school kids, offering sexual favors for people to punch them in the face or supporting those calling for violence.
I sincerely hope that we can do what you recommend and next time something controversial happens hot the pause button, gather the facts and then make a decision. But with CNN and FOX on the job, I'm not real hopeful.
7
@Jason A.
The longer video shows that there is something wrong with the school itself, not just those teens.
There were 5 stationary men ranting about almost every ethnic group and religion. There were dozens or perhaps of hundreds of school groups who passed by them and didn't allow their students to engage with a tiny group of individuals who obviously are not open to any kind of discussion.
Only Covington and their chaperones thought it would be a great idea for 100+ teens to start chanting at those 5 ranting men en masse.
A smart elderly gentlemen used a drum and chanting comes along to end a situation where 100+ teens are chanting at the same 5 ranting men that everyone else has ignored to try to rile up those men even more.
And the students turned their negative attention toward that elderly gentlemen, when they should have simply dispersed and realized that a large group of 100+ students engaging with 5 ranting men isn't a good thing.
9
I respectfully disagree with you. Bottom line, these kids DID act poorly, DID taunt mock and disrespect the native America.
Because people were so ashamed of these kids behavior it was immediate condemnation, then more information came out, then the lies and a PR firm got involved and tried to change the whole narrative. Disgusting behavior by the student body, the school should be ashamed.
2
Too bad the honorable and fair media, specifically the NY Times, didn't engage in introspection and course correction for their nonstop rush to condemn candidate Hillary Clinton, as they now routinely appear to do anytime Trump and his MAGA base cry fake news.
These MAGA hat wearing white teenage boys are products of their environment which includes values instilled by their parents, teachers and mentors. Yes, all children and teens can behave badly at times. How their behavior of chanting gibberish Native American while mugging, dancing, feigning tomahawk chops and beating imaginary drums in front of Mr. Phillips is not considered racist or at least disrespectful, is beyond me.
These kids should be reprimanded but NOT expelled from their school. That being said, what caring, responsible and intelligent adults would permit their children to attend a large public anti abortion rally wearing incendiary MAGA branded hats and gear. Was this a test of free speech tolerance for their children? Where were the adult chaperones for these kids? Cheering from the sidelines? There are always all sorts of groups, many fringe ones, too which are protesting at the Lincoln Memorial & throughout Washington all the time. Camera phones are everywhere. Sending poorly supervised children into these large politically polarized crowds wearing politically charged clothing is just asking for trouble. The school, teachers, chaperones and parents should all be held accountable here.
12
Raised Catholic, am not a practitioner now. But the current U.S. hate for Catholics is as prejudiced as any other group hate. How many ministers sexually abuse young people in their congregation? Yes, the priest abuse is wide. Don't Catholics have charity for the poor, like other Christians, Muslims do, despite the evils that some of their congregants are engaged in? And which religions are allowed to protest abortion? (for the record I'm extremely pro-choice)
I do understand the difference when diverse groups engage in name-calling against white people, but, hate chants against any group is not the way to end hate. Can't we acknowledge that?
6
@Rose Anne Excuse me, but why do you think it's acceptable for "diverse groups" to insult white people? Why?
3
No, stop.
We don't need mea culpas about the media coverage.
In fact, if you saw the whole tape--including those same students harassing girls about a half hour before the confrontation--you'd see their behavior looks even worse.
All we need is that one picture.
Because, tell me: what positive intent did that Junior Mitch McConnell in the MAGA hat have in getting in the face of that tribal elder and smirking at him like a kid he was trying to bully?
Right. Because there is none.
Unless you believe it's positive to show people of color that they are powerless in Trump's America. As in, you can't stop us.
13
Absolutely, you know you are right, and I agree. Now the student and his family with their PR firm are trying to spin this where the kid was the being the “ peace maker “ attempting to defuse the situation. A big fat lie !
2
If you despite Trump, and think he's doing his best to ruin democratic institutions, the red hats the kids were wearing is a red flag. I'm a lifelong Catholic who can't sit in church without thinking, "Half of these people probably voted for Trump. How they can reconcile that support with the teachings of Jesus Christ?"
9
Look at all the comments the mea-culpa articles are getting though!
My guess is that all these apology-article-profits will lead to the higher ups saying, "We gotta be inflamatorily wrong more often! Next time we still need to rush to incorrect judgement, in fact, lets rush to judgement on all issues even when the facts are already known just to stir the conversation. That way we get the clicks on the initial indefensible, liberal party pandering take, but also get even more clicks when we apologize! Two for one!"
Being accurate and informative just doesn't sell anymore.
The facts of this story are being lost here.
Those 5 or so ranting men are at Times Square NYC almost EVERY SINGLE DAY.
Can you imagine a group of 120 teenagers from a NYC public high school being allowed -- or even encouraged by their chaperones -- to surround and engage that group of 5 ranting men in NY Times Square and then start chanting at them en masse?
Can you imagine an elderly man who walks into the massive crowd of 120 chanting teenagers to try to get them to stop engaging with the 5 ranting men in Times Square?
Can you imagine what would happen if the 120 chanting teens stopped chanting at the 5 crazy men in Times Square and instead directed their focus at the elderly man who is trying to stop them?
Would ANYONE feel sorry for those students because they were allowed to jeer and chant ugly things at the elderly man who was trying to stop them from engaging with the 5 ranting men in Times Square?
Would ANYONE say that those teens were perfectly justified in ranting and chanting at the elderly man trying to get them to stop engaging with the 5 crazy men in Times Square when it was clear that their school chaperones were either encouraging their engagement or didn't care?
There is something truly wrong with how this story is being portrayed. Apparently Bruni now approves of hundreds of teens going to Times Square to engage with the 5 ranting men there and then shouting down anyone who dares to make any effort to stop them.
That is white privilege.
11
@me
For the record, I believe the Covington teenagers had the right to attend the Right to Life rally. They also "had the right" to be rude to an elderly Native American man. They also "had the right" to gratuitously engage with a small group of 5 men offensively protesting against pretty much everything and then claim that they took those 5 men so personally that it excused their rudeness to an older gentleman.
Just because a group of 100+ teenagers "have the right" to be rude toward an elderly man does not mean that their actions may never be criticized.
By the way, those teens didn't get shot for their rudeness. No one shot the MAGA teenager and then claimed that the threatening way that he and his 100+ friends gathered around the elderly man instead of moving out of his way meant that he and his friends were dangerous and therefore deserved to be shot.
That's white privilege.
@RJ
I would love to see how trump and conservatives would have reacted if those 100+ kids were either black or brown and they were taunting a elderly white man.
trump would have wanted them killed by the state.
I hate to undercut what is meant as a polite reminder to avoid snap judgments based on too little information. Let's replay this with the benefit of hindsight.
It now appears unclear what precipitated the confrontation. That's fine; I don't put a lot of stock in internet videos and still haven't watched this one. I don't care. I'm not going to take blame as a liberal for other people's failure to exercise caution: maybe you all need to start checking your sources and stop playing the Trump game. It only works if your worldview is untethered to reality and you can keep running with a lie: we cannot.
I believe the uncontested version of the facts includes the kids mocking Native Americans, while wearing MAGA hats, at a rally to push the diminution of women's rights. As for who escalated the tension to the point of what seemed an uncomfortable confrontation, I am not sure. Maybe it was a misunderstanding, and all sides are telling the truth. Does that change the above facts? Not at all.
As for blame, if you want to throw that... there are (it seems) some people who clearly deserve it. The so-called black nationalists throwing insults at children were way out of line. The hats themselves are provocations, as we all know, but that's still not acceptable for adults. Let children be children... unless they are 70 and President. And that brings me to the group that deserves a lot of blame: what chaperone okayed "school cheers" in the face of rising tension like this?
4
@Andre
Those men are at Times Square in NYC nearly every day. No NYC schools have seen fit to allow groups of 100+ teenagers to start chanting and engaging with them en masse.
3
Maybe Omaha Nation elder Nathan Phillips had enough of how poorly Native Americans have been treated by white Americans over the centuries. Maybe the reversal by the Trump administration of the Obama administration’s denial of a key permit for the Dakota Access Pipeline was just another example in a long history of poor treatment of Native Americans. Then maybe seeing the young white men wearing MAGA hats at an already tense rally was the last straw for him. So was it right for Mr. Phillips to get into Nick Sandmann’s face? To Mr. Phillips, maybe it was. Try walking a mile in his shoes.
3
Phillips did not get in the kids face, just the opposite. Phillips simply chanted his prayer , walking towards the students looking to defuse tensions...the kid made a point of getting in Phillips way, of blocking Phillips progress , and his cheering classmates emboldened him to arrogantly stand there with that smug expression on his face!!!
1
I see something much more worrying here.
Why did people so readily accept that a 16-year-old boy was manipulating a situation with a 60-year-old tribal elder?
Are we subconsciously thinking that even a 16-year-old kid in a MAGA hat is maybe more astute than a tribal elder? Or that the tribal elder is naive? Or ... what exactly??
Imagine if exactly the same video had been shared with the roles reversed: a 60-year-old white man staring down a 16-year-old Native American. How would we react?
I wonder is our reaction a sign that, despite our best intentions, we haven't yet rid ourselves of our subconscious racial biases.
Of course many people were not thinking this way, they just heard that a group of kids insulted a Native American and were rightly appalled. But some people did watch the video and draw a fairly questionable conclusion ...
4
@Denis
What do you mean "questionable"? In what world do you believe that it is okay for a group of 100+ teenagers of any race to act rudely toward a senior citizen of a different race who is doing nothing but playing a drum and singing?
I think you are the one who makes me worried about people with double standard.
And those 100+ teens were doing something that should have been stopped. For you to believe they were justified in their rudeness to the elderly gentleman, you would have to believe that it is always a great idea for a group of 100+ teens to chant and cheer en masse to provoke a group of 5 obviously incoherent people who are spewing insults at every race and religion.
1
This is an early warning. With new technology coming that allows fake videos to be easily created, we are about to see much more of this.
4
Especially if you are prone to conspiracy theories.....there are multiple videos from this, they are not altered videos, if you watch a few you can see exactly how this all went down. The kid is a lying punk !
The lawsuits are about to begin, hopefully the damages paid out will be sever enough to make people stop and think in the future.
8
@Monna they've got a PR team and the kid's making a public spectacle of himself on tv. Good luck with that.
2
Well said and much appreciated. I usually don't agree with much of what you write, but this self-reflective work speaks to a need this nation, and its thought leaders, need to understand. We need much less condemnation and much more introspection before we spout off on anything we see or hear.
Thanks to your reasonableness in this divisive situation, I think I will be much more open to what you write in the future. I may not agree with all of it, but I'm pretty certain I will likely respect it a whole lot more, perhaps enough to change my own mind, from time to time.
9
Mr. Spock: Recent events would seem to be directed toward a magnification of the basic hostilities between Humans and Klingons. Apparently, it is by design that we fight. We seem to be pawns.
Captain James T. Kirk: But what's the game? And whose? And what are the rules?
5
You see a smug, entitled kid with a smirk. I see a kid in an overwhelming situation who probably thought the "mature" response was to smile. I know that I have deliberately tried to arrange my face in what I thought was a neutral, placid expression when I'm in an awkward situation; but for all I know, I could have looked smug, indifferent, or slightly insane.
11
Well, that depends....did you purposely block someone and refuse to move as you stood in someone’s face with that smug smile ? Because that’s exactly what this “ innocent “ kid did.
Is there any wonder that between the sex abuse scandal and this disrespectful incident that the Catholic religion is 'circling the drain'.
4
First, thank you Mr. Bruni for the well-written and important perspective. I’m glad a searing spotlight is focused on how hate and racism is fostered in new generations in America. That’s the point of all this, really. These are just kids, pawns of local church leaders and chaperones who can only function within a dark kind of tribalism.
Let’s not forget, though, that many Catholic schools are providing good education and values. This one in Kentucky’s an aberration.
1
Hmm, it's starting to look like my second comment on the power of punditry today has been put on ice or censored for using the example of my comments getting put on ice or censored for being only critical.
Despite all the very interesting commenter views on this story, I'm still resisting watching the actual video of this event. It's just too interpersonal, minor, nonrepresentative and far from me to base a meaningful opinion on. It's tabloid news.
3
The pundit walk backs of the original accusations were way too fast. Since reading them, more evidence of boorish, threatening behavior has emerged (the Covington boys harassing at least one woman that day) and school-sanctioned black face "entertainment". These kids are entitled racists, and the adults who should be guiding them towards becoming responsible citizens are failing miserably, if they are even trying.
8
Regardless of what happened before, the trump MAGA hat is now a loaded symbol - much like the confederate flag - of racism, white supremacy, and even Neo-Naziism. The immature kids wearing the hat in the face of and staring down a Native American is tantamount to a hat with a swastika or a tiki torch staring down a Jew or a white cone hat in the face of a African-American. Indeed, the MAGA hat at the so called right to life march these juveniles attended is as anti-Women rights too and would be as offensive starring down a woman with that symbol of hate.
Knowing what happened before has not changed my revulsion of these kids and their unapologetic and ignorant response afterwards.
12
"Covington and the Pundit Apocalypse" is just the tip of the internet iceberg. For instance:
"Social Media Rumors in India: Counting the Dead"
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-46146877
"Across India mob attacks are on the rise, fuelled by false rumours on WhatsApp and social media. According to the BBC's analysis of incidents between February 2014 and July 2018, at least 31 people have been killed and dozens more injured.
"The WhatsApp Video Driving People to Murder"
"A video clip shared on WhatsApp went viral in India... with tragic consequences. In the clip, a man on a motorbike appears to be kidnapping a child from the street. The messages that accompanied the video as it was shared from phone to phone...warned the community to be on the lookout for “potential child-lifters”. Vigilante mobs formed and killed an estimated 10 people."
"Burned to Death Because of a Rumour on WhatsApp"
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-46145986
"The mob...was in the grip of...a story stirred up somewhere unknown and spread through the private messaging app WhatsApp.'Please everyone be alert because a plague of child kidnappers has entered the country,' said the message. ...As people held their phones aloft to film, the men were ...savagely beaten. Then the petrol that was brought earlier was poured on them. ...She watched in horror as... the same technology that allowed a man in Acatlán to summon a mob to kill her son allowed her to watch him die."
4
Wearing a MAGA hat makes
- your smile a smirk,
- your attitude disrespectful,
- your look arrogant,
- your stare confrontational, etc.
Wearing a MAGA hat gets you:
- kicked out of restaurants,
- have drinks splashed on your face,
- demonized and threats of abuse and death.
America is a land where people push limits to
- disrupt mainstream,
- rebel establishment,
- challenge authority.
And right now; mainstream, establishments and authorities are tell you: DON'T WEAR A MAGA HAT.
7
@MM What does this tell us about freedom of thought in the US?
2
It’s quite apparent that what liberals really hate is free speech. Going to Washington to a rally, wearing red hats- all of these thing apparently should be forbidden according to most of the comments here.
Scary.
11
@Greg - wearing a MAGA hat while representing a Catholic school at a religious rally unacceptably conflates political and religious views. The school chaperones should have forbidden it.
8
@Georgia Raysman
That makes no sense at all. The Constitution guarantees freedom of religion and freedom of speech. What you want is tyranny and suppression of both freedom of religion and freedom of speech.
3
What’s scary is that is what you take from this.....not the behavior displayed by these young boys, the 100 students who are our future. What’s scary is you don’t think for yourself, or even think much at all, so it seems.
There’s enough blame to go around. Activist Philips leading his followers walked up to a bunch of rowdy teens playing his drum. He wanted the boys to step aside? No 'excuse me, I'd like to pass.' Or did Mr. Philips want to separate the two groups and promote peace? Did he say that or just keep banging his drum in the teenager's face?
Should teenage Sanders have stepped aside anyway? Sure!
Should he have left his hat home? Yep.
But what responsible grownup behaves the way Mr. Philips did?
Enough blame to go around!
9
@Georgina
Why should he have left his hat home?
Are we now living in a country where you should not display what you believe in because other people may verbally and physically hurt you and the mass would cheer and say "You deserved it. You shouldn't have worn it"?
3
Nathan Phillips is a liar. He never served in Vietnam, he was a Marine Reserve and went AWOL 3 times. Only served in the CONUS. He also instigated with college kids before about American Indian heritage. We've all been duped and bought it hook, line and sinker.
20
Lecture us all you want about keeping our heads on straight, but don't hold your breath. Two of our biggest provocateurs are Fox News and MSNBC: Fox is persistently shameless and MSNBC, just persistent.
One of the heaviest known weights is that of a MAGA hat: especially when worn by the uneducated and/or the foolish.
76
@Steve
The third big provocateur is the group of media who wish to find equal fault with both sides. In the days of Eisenhower and Kennedy, both sides had their virtues and faults, and the John Birch society was marginal. Now one of the sides runs from Eisenhower to Kennedy and the other is dominated by a conspiratorial and apocalyptic Bircher mindset. The New Deal is no longer a given to be tinkered with, expanded, or shrunk, but rather the victory of an alien socialist ideology to be undone and eradicated.
10
@Steve
and the entitled, even if they are oblivious of that fact
8
@Steve Fox News, unlike MSNBC and the rest of the MSM reserved their commentary until they understood the facts. It's why they are the most trusted source of news in the country.
8
Given the date and the place, regardless of their Constitutional right to free expression, their actions were inappropriate throughout their time there, regardless of how they were treated by other groups. Responsible adults from the school should have stepped in and removed them from the situation long before the iconic video was taken. Do they have a right to assemble there and act like the immature, privileged teens they are? Sure. But that doesn't mean they should or that we cannot criticize them for doing so.
4
I agree wholeheartedly. The kid can claim he did nothing wrong, he legally did nothing wrong. But, common decency, respect for others, etc...flat out obnoxious, arrogant and smug, yes...but legal.
1
This is an apologia for horrendous behavior by privileged boys. Shame.
7
I graduated from a Catholic high school 25 years ago. As I watched the video, I thought, "what a bunch of jerks," while feeling vaguely uncomfortable. As I sat with my discomfort, I realized its origin was in familiarity. Those kids could have my classmates. I have no doubt that in the same circumstance (they, we) might have behaved the exact same way. Why? Because we were ignorant jerks from a small, mostly white town, who had no exposure to anyone who wasn't remotely like us.
The only difference between us and them...in 1997 all of our actions weren't subject to recording and instant proliferation to millions of people. I shudder to think what would have happened to us if they were.
Yes, these students bear responsibility for what happened, but so do their teachers and their parents. Someone has to educate our young people that they need to behave like someone is recording their every move at all times because usually, someone is. At the very least, I would expect Catholic educators and Catholic parents to teach their young people that Jesus is watching at all times.
8
Thanks, a wonderful thoughtful response.
Nice to read, after reading so many bad ones.
@Jullian- and to remind you that the separation of Church and State would suggest that you leave your inflammatory political hat at home.
Usually when there is a demonstration, a counter-demonstration at the same location at the same time will cause problems. The demonstrators should be allowed to express their views unimpeded. A counter-demonstration can be organized at another time.
What are the Black Israelites and the native American elder doing there? If they are protesting abortion, that is okay. What are those kids doing there also? They are being used as pawns by their school. Why are they wearing MAGA hats?
The whole thing was a mess to begin with.
3
What is left out of Bruni's account is how the right quickly packaged the narrative to suit their own purposes, that is, to present themselves as victims and guilty of nothing, while everyone else should be condemned. Actually looking at what happened and taking any responsibility means nothing to the right - media coverage taking their side means everything.
Read the following
How conservative media transformed the Covington Catholic students from pariahs to heroes by Jason Wilson
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jan/23/how-conservative-media-transformed-the-covington-catholic-students-from-pariahs-to-heroes
3
Yep....that’s exactly what I have seen happening, twist this around blame the media and blame the Native American and defend the poor innocent boys .
This angers me more than the students behavior did....
Did not an entity of the Roman Catholic Church load these boys on a bus to Wash, DC for the express purpose of political activism? What did they expect when they put these boys in front of the Lincoln Memorial wearing birther-lie MAGA hats? Trump put white nationalism in charge if all three branches if US government for two whole years. The American people need to react strongly to MAGA hats on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. The boys have not been harmed. There is no safe space in political activism for anyone in the violent Trump era.
4
It's amusing how non-New Yorker's refer to the Black Israelite gang as "activists!" At first I was outraged by this event. Then I saw that "Black Israelites" were involved and I immediately knew that blame assessment would need to be reassessed. I had my first run in with them 20 years ago in Times Square. I have seen them for years harassing innocent strangers with racist taunts. That is their M.O. They try as hard as they can to get you fight them. They are also extortionists. They set up in front of a store and create a problem until the store pays them to go away. I know of one place where they tried this and got threatened by the mob! They split. So, professional provocateurs are taking shots at awful, jerky boys catholic boys(who shouldn't be there but that's another story) and a professional protester steps in for the perfect photo op. He got his 15 min. of fame! Can we go back to real issues now?
12
You may know the black protesters, form your opinion from that , but then you are wrong about the rest of what went down.
There were over 100 students, 5 protesters, and this Native American man stepped in the middle to try and pray for peace!
The school is known for its bad behavior. Did the staff who chose the Colonels--white moustache, grey slouch hat--as the school mascot and the street address as Dixie Highway do so without regard for the racial and sexual prejudices that these choices imply?
If it walks like a duck and it quacks like a duck....
3
Are you suggesting that we speak before we think?
We're just doing as our "Commander-in-Chief"!
2
If I was required by coercion to believe in virgin birth, first female human constructed out of the RIBS of the first human male, humans walking on water, abraca-dabraing water into wine, restoring site to blind people with a hand waive, I would be just as arrogant as that young boy-man.
1
Online mob mentality is reserved for cowards. These adults who promoted the DEATH of children over a 30 second video clip without any context at all shows the mental immaturity and sociopathic tendencies we so often see from the left. It's wrong on so many different levels.
8
If I had a kid going to Washington DC with a group, that kid would not be wearing a MAGA hat, no matter what. That was a provocation, and they know it. Jesus would not be wearing a MAGA hat. Just sayin.
8
@CalvalOC Not to mention the old fashioned idea of separating Church and State.
2
@CalvalOC
Jesus knocked over the money changers’ tables at the temple and told everyone he was God. Can’t think of anything more provocative than that, except perhaps wearing a red hat.
1
When I saw this, not knowing anything about the school or why they were there, my impression was that the kid was a typical 15 or 16 year-old goof. When I was a 16 year-old goof, there were no omnipresent videographers. I did not impute nefarious motive to this kid because I knew nothing about him and the video is inconclusive. In any case, I did not get myself worked up because I did not see any reason for such a response. Having since seen the kid informing a reporter "I had every right to stand there" my response is slightly changed. Still a goof, but with unhelpful adult coaching. But still not worth getting worked up.
3
I disagree, there is a big problem brewing there, with the kid, with the school, with attitudes like yours....stuff like this does matter, it’s a teaching moment.
The red hats symbolized Trump and all his deeds, and they were worn by a group of white teen boys from an elite schools to protest women's right to control their own body, enough said?
Even if the vital moment on the first short video clip was misconstrued, the boys did plenty of other things to demonstrate their culpability. First of which was wearing those hats. The boys certainly had the rights to wear whatever they wanted, but came thus was also the meaning.
If you steal a car but not a pair of shoes, and somebody accuse you of stealing the shoes. Does absolving yourself of the shoe theft absolve you also of the car theft?
3
The facts that the media mostly got wrong concerned the origination of the brouhaha (i.e., who started what?).
But what the media importantly did NOT get wrong is the very disrespectful ways in which the Catholic prep school boys treated Nathan Phillips, the tribal elder. They did in fact taunt and mock him, and of course the one boy stared him down—which is as aggressive as it can get.
2
In the internet, with its wide open, instantaneous, utterly unregulated world wide publication of news and opinion, everyone is a pundit. Even those who comment about pundits in the NYT are mostly self-edited. We are rarely fact checked.
Since except, perhaps, for enciting violence , internet comment regulation is anathema. How do pundits avoid premature judgment about the meaning and motivation of actors seen on a million cell phone videos.
Pundits have the conceit that they are all professionals. Let them all ,then, adhere to the professional ethics . Serve the public, self-criticise, use the power of professional shame by fellow professionals to limit the instant moral judgments and addiction to seeing evil when none may exist. Perhaps, prevent tweeters and blog writers from deleting their embarassing tweets and essays. Create a public archive where anyone can judge the pudits worth and bias by their total work product. In the end, if they shoot from the hip too often, their readers will walk away.
3
When my children were of a certain age, they volunteered with a Roman Catholic youth group each summer to work in Harlan County, Kentucky, one of the poorest counties in the United States. Covington, Kentucky, as represented by this group of privileged white males seems a world away.
4
I'm guilty and even worse. I say the image, read the headline and thought: "Oh, Lord, I don't even want to read that story," being so sick of similar stories. I even mentioned to my wife, basically parroting what I saw - or thought I saw.
The Internet is a pandora's box and it's wide open. If this were 30 years ago, there would have been time for the press to get the story right and by the time I picked up my next morning paper, something closer to the truth would have arrived.
We must vet, but it's hard to vet, takes time to vet, and often our emotions just pull us in the direction we want to go anyway.
5
"Rush To Judgment" the Kennedy assassination book is a title more appropriate to our times. Stephen from San Mateo put it succinctly in a comment to another article: "I like to say the internet companies are saving the world one targeted advertisement at a time."
The internet has made people electronic addicts with Pavlovian responses. The tech companies, with almost universal government connivance (ironically, some partial exceptions in autocracies), profitably go about the business of selling heroin to junkies, candy to infants. And no more than telling a little kid that lots of candy is bad for her or a junkie that heroin is bad for him, will telling people the internet can never be reliably honest, secure, or private, change their addiction to it, especially regarding (anti)social media, the fentanyl of the internet.
How many people who vehemently condemn interference in American elections, especially that of Russia, through phony online stories and ads, as well as through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and the like, nonetheless proclaim their indignation on these very same platforms, thus contributing to their "legitimacy" and profitability?
Instant "media" is essentially a Rorschach blot encouraging and enabling people to be certain of what they already think, 24/7 verification of one's hopes, fears, and beliefs.
As Tom Lehrer sang:
"They give the kids free samples,
Because they know full well,
That today's young innocent faces,
Will be tomorrow's clientele."
4
Spot on. Wouldn't it be great if everyone would stop and reflect on the other's point of view.
7
The Covington incident reporting was racial profiling, pure and simple. The news media normally gets away with racially profiling whites, and were it not for the extra footage the Covington incident would have been no exception.
Appallingly, many readers of Frank Bruni's column repeat the error by posting comment implying that their skin color somehow makes the Covington students guilty of lynchings and genocide. All because one student had the audacity to smile at a man banging a drum in his face.
14
@William Case. "All because one student had the audacity to smile at a man banging a drum in his face."
I would rephrase that to say one student had the audacity to smile in the face of a man banging his drum.
These were kids- they may grow up to emulate Trump, or they may regret the way they thought and acted (who hasn't?). I like to hope that we can give the same forbearance to these white, misled conservative "Christians" as we can to juvenile offenders from any background. We should in all cases, and be consistent about it.
I don't like the MAGA hats, but seriously...this wouldn't have been a viral moment based solely on the fact that they were wearing those hats. Frank is right, we need to stop seeking outrage and seeing only what we want to see. Take the high road. We'll never change people's opinions by pillorying them first chance we get.
3
I look at the video and see a bunch a of rowdy high school kids being manipulated and framed by a leftist liar.
They don’t know what the song or drumming mean. It looks to me like they are trying to be supportive by joining in the song (whatever it means) in good fun.
If this is how things are going to be, I don’t see how our country is going in any other direction but widespread violence between factions that can no longer tolerate each others’ world views.
5
Catholic women use contraception and abortion services at the same frequency as do non-Catholic women. Thus it is gross hypocrisy for the church to oppose the use of contraception and abortion services. Decisions about reproduction are for individuals and families to make---They are not church or church school business. Catholic church leaders should refrain in any case from using young students as tools to protest the law, especially when the church position is so completely undermined by hypocrisy. This would help to avoid future embarrassment such as that faced by the church and the Covington students in DC.
3
@Thomas D Dahmer You really can't mean that. I imagine Catholics are just as likely as non-Catholics to lie, cheat, and steal, so you think the Church shouldn't oppose lying, cheating, and stealing? It opposes contraception and abortion because according to Catholic theology, those things are WRONG, regardless of how many people disagree or ignore the Church's teaching.
I'm confused. I saw teenagers laughing, jeering and making tomahawk chops at an elderly Native American man drumming and singing songs of peace. How is that not reprehensible, especially when done by young men who are supposedly there to represent Christ and his teachings?
4
@FanieW Well the teens were actually first approached by a group of Black Israelites, and called names such as 'Klansman' and 'future high school shooter'. Nathan Phillips (the American Indian) then approaches the boys and bangs his drum in their face. Nathan Phillips has done this before, 4 years ago he went up to college kids that were throwing an 'American Indian themed party' and criticized them. He's also a liar, he never served in Vietnam. He actually went AWOL three times while in the Marine Reserves.
6
Is anyone yet exhausted from the constant indignation and outrage we experience on the internet and in the media?
4
I'm pretty liberal but when I tried a moderate approach to this incident with my very liberal colleagues I was told:
"They (the kids) are Catholic. What more do you need to know?" as though the kids' religion is enough to decide and condemn. I couldn't help thinking if these "tolerant" people would say the same thing about Muslims or Jews.
The people who said this are friends who know I'm Catholic.
6
@keith
The answer to your question, as I'm sure you well know, is no. If these kids had been Muslims or Jews it would not even be a story.
1
Ponder this thought in a vacuum: block out all else you have heard and read about this incident. Adults, parents, signed permission slips and paid money for their children, teenage boys to travel ten hours to the capital to march and advocate against a very adult topic: reproductive rights. They did so knowing their children would wear bright red Make America Great Again hats. They did so, having paid even more money to send their children to a private school whose religious backers, an organization run by all men, have a multi-hundred year record of aiding, abetting and tacitly approving of an international pedophile ring that has escaped the rule of law in every country where they do business.
No need to see any videos or listen to any pundits. These are the parents rearing the children for the next generation. That should be all we are talking about. Not, the hoped for, planned and expected outcome of the parent approved trip to the capital.
5
reminds me of the Oscar Grant "hot-take" in Oakland. here is a young man whose life story because of his unnecessary (yet predictable) death became one of sainthood totally unrelated to the facts. He and his gang of buddies were so disruptive on the BART train that the passengers had called and the police were waiting. his record of transgressions were long. but none of this mattered once his accidental death by police happened. he is now a martyr. but his unruly life should instead be a wake-up call to other young black men to stay in school and overcome adversity and the unfairness of society.
3
This tempest in a teacup boiled over because the boys were rude to an elder who is also a member of a minority, one that has been abused greatly.
These boys were there to demonstrate against women's rights and wore MAGA hats, which suggest a disdain for the rights of others.
By the time people are teenagers, they are responsible for their own behavior. There is no good excuse for the way they acted.
3
Just why would a bunch of 17-year-old boys travel to Washington to protest against a woman's right to chose?
5
@James
To protest Roe v Wade. Which they are entitled to do, as any other citizen.
7
@James
I think it is in the name of their march-the Right to Life, which many think is an important right, too.
6
The hasty condemnation of the MAGA hat wearing teens was mostly accurate, in spite of the Black Israelites events that preceded & in spite of all the media equivocation. I've seen 3 different videos, read several explanations both critical & defending the teens & I watched the NBC interview with the smirking teen. I've read about the checkered history of the Covington School, too.
This group of white Catholic School teens mocked & taunted Mr. Phillips with their gibberish native American chanting and dancing while feigning tomahawk chops & beating imaginary drums. This was not a crime but it was highly offensive group racism on display. The MAGA hats only exacerbated the situation since people of color & most Americans who dislike Trump see these red baseball caps as brazen public substitutes for white hooded sheets worn in the dark of the night in anonymity. Mocking, taunting & teasing people who don't look, dress, speak or act like them are certainly not unique behaviors to this group of teenage boys or tragically, the current man-child sitting in the White House. These Catholic students should be reprimanded for their shameful behavior at the Lincoln Memorial but they are, like all children, products of their environment, representing the values instilled by their parents, mentors & teachers. As disrespectful & offensive their behavior was, I don't believe expulsion from school is warranted. However, fundamental culture issues at their school need fixing first.
7
After viewing and re-viewing a few videos, after listen to mr. Phillips explanation, hearing Sandmann's explantion....I remain at my first reaction. The student with the MAGA hat, his fellow students that cheered him on , were purposely taunting,intimidating and disrespecting the native american who had attempted to distill the nefarious nature of the situation between the two arguing groups, the students and the Hebrews. NOW with all the criticism, the student is trying to lie his way away from the truth of what he was doing that day. This event was never misreported, in my opinion....what we thought we saw, is what did happen between these two men, no between this man and a misguided arrogant youth. What we are really seeing in regard to this, is the divide in this country. Conservative are blaming the native American, simply because of the divide...the hats symbolize the attitudes.
2
Trial by media goes against all of the traditions of American justice. The sad part is that much of the media seems to think it okay to conduct trial by media if the target is white, older male, and Christian. Even the New York Times looks the other way in those instances, as evidenced by its hiring practices in the Sarah Jeong case.
8
Would not a TimesLine reconstruction of events put some objectivity into all of this?
The whole thing was insignificant and stupid, and probably little different than the arguing that happens in front of the Lincoln Memorial on any nice summer day.
There was no hidden meaning here. I saw a bunch of kids making fun of the black Hebrews making fun of the native Americans for worshipping creation and not the creator. When one of the native Americans started drumming and walking into the crowd, one person chose not to make way, as is their prerogative. The crowd dispersed.
A big nothing. For shame, any pundit who thought this represented something significant and their meal ticket for the day.
5
Thoughtful article. I rarely watch CNN or MSNBC any more because they have declined into almost becoming predictable, banal mirror versions of Fox News.
6
Are you sure you're not rushing to judgment believing this kid? If he had truly wanted to "de-escalate" the tension, he would have turned to his own cohort - the boys chanting cartoonish native American war cries, ripping off their shirts in freezing weather, signalling tomahawk chops - and told them to knock it off. Instead, his grin repeatedly widened as his little hooligan pals egged him on. Now he's on the hot seat and saying whatever he has to to get himself off the hook. If the MAGA crowd is so proud of their retrograde stances on, well, just about everything - immigration, political correctness, feminism, and race relations to name a few - why will they only own it while they're engaged in egregious behavior and never when they're called out on it? If they're right, they should have the guts to defend their behavior. Instead, they go "full wink wink, nod nod" as the Alt-Right so proudly attributed to Trump. Spineless cowards all.
5
Now I am confused. I went back and looked at the videos, including the ones where these juveniles were harassing girls. ("It's not rape if you enjoy it.") I've supervised a lot of field trips in 40 years of teaching high school but I have never seen a group of teenagers acting the way these boys acted. Never. It is truly shocking. Perhaps I come from a different culture of public education where we have rules and government regulations and consequences. Any teacher who allowed her charges to behave this way on a field trip to Washington would be suspended pending investigation and possibly fired. Her students would get at the least, severe warnings. Pundits are guilty for focusing on the children and not on the adults in charge of them. Who are these mysterious and secret beings?
Mr Bruni, I am disappointed in you is you cannot see what has just happened. I expected better.
3
I just saw Fox news foootage of two Covington Catholic school boys in crisp white shirts and navy ties defending blackface as “school spirit”. In as much as I agree with Mr. Bruni that we have become divisive largely due to our own insatiable appetites to prove our positions right on social media, and then repost our espoused self righteousness to make ourselves feel better. Ironically it serves neither side well. I do know this, blackface isn’t school spirit, smirking at our elders does not diffuse situations and last I checked we have a separation of church and state, so can someone explain why Catholic School teenage boys were at a political rally against a women’s right to choose? I guess I believe people when they show me who they really are.
244
@Katharine V
Yeah, there are some very disturbing photos out there of Covington students in "...blackout..." mode among a group screaming from the sidelines at a black kid from an opposing team as he waits to enter a basketball game. The kid's coach- a white guy- is staring at the Covington Catholic kids in disbelief.
I get it that it is not , literally "...blackface..." in the sense of minstrel shows and Al Jolson singing "...mammy..." but clearly a little common sense is in order.
You really, really have to wonder at the leadership at this school.
46
@Katharine V First, Right to Life is about more than abortion; it is also about the disabled and seniors, and THEIR right to live, and THEIR value as human beings, despite a prevailing value system that considers them garbage. Secondly, the boy in question did not say or DO anything violent or harmful to the man, who approached him. Why are readers more angry at this one teenager, who didn't assault anyone, than they are at teenagers who physically attack others, including teachers, kids who are smaller than they are, or anyone walking alone on a street? Why never any outrage against truly violent and dangerous offenders?
8
@Katharine V
"..can someone explain why Catholic School teenage boys were at a political rally against a women's (sic) right to choose?" Well, Katharine, would you suggest that being Catholic and a teenager negates your right to have an opinion regarding a public consciousness issue, or to speak out or demonstrate in favor of, or against, it? I don't know what that 'blackface' comment was all about (and why should I believe that you do, or that you are accurately reporting it, given what has happened in the last few days where Covington is concerned?). I looked at the same now- famous photo that you saw, and I simply did not see a smirk, only what appears to be a smile, and maybe even a good-natured smile at that. These kids were victims of a reverse-prejudice now endemic to the Left-Liberal side of the political ledger, and their future lives may irretrievably suffer from the accusations alone, even though those accusations have now proved baseless. Maybe they shouldn't be allowed to speak in their own defense, either, since you feel they had no right to express a perfectly legitimate attitude based on their core beliefs. (Shades of Judge Kavanaugh being pummeled by the Left for daring to show outrage at baseless charges leveled against him and thereby showing a 'lack of judicial temperament".) I imagine 65 years from now we will regard most of today's Left's intolerance as we
now look at the political blacklisting and rush to judgment so prevalent in the 1950s.
13
Yes, and... I hope that a thoughtful thorough examination of this event includes the idea, to paraphrase, that youth are a looking glass, a reflection of the greater society within which they are born and raised. By the way, in the case of the Covington youth that greater society does not end at Catholic and Kentucky, but rather includes us all.
1770: Boston Massacre sparks widespread discussion and debate.
1861: Civil War sparks widespread discussion and debate.
1941: Pearl Harbor sparks widespread discussion and debate.
2019: Teenager smirking at an elderly man sparks widespread discussion and debate.
Somehow we have come to a place where a facial expression can launch our public into a frenzy.
Is this a sign of a society that has the luxury to freak out over a smirk? Or something else?
59
@KJ The Roman Republic's civil wars began once its archenemy, Carthage, was defeated. From that point on, the greatest power in the world had no one to fight but itself. This has also been true of the United States since the end of the Cold War. We have only been UNITED States when we have had an external enemy or threat. Take that away and we will destroy ourselves. (Hint: the rest of the world knows this about us and is watching with glee.)
10
@KJ It wasn't even a smirk.
It was an uncomfortable friendly smile the boy decided to assume because he knew that if he didn't smile, was instead stone-faced, it could be read as confrontational and things could escalate from there -- while his intention was the exact opposite: to de-escalate the situation.
That's what the boy explains in his two-page written statement.
Anyone who doesn't believe him and persists with their own interpretation of what they see in his face is saying he's lying.
Sorry, no. He's not lying.
6
@KJ The same people who are upset about this kid's facial expression don't care one bit when cops are ambushed and killed, or when innocent citizens are murdered in home invasions.
4
It is sad that many of the Most Recommended comments ignore the basic point Bruni is making, instead illustrating well his point about rushing to judgment regarding "news" derived from electronic manipulation. One is instantly handed endless Rorschach blots, both images and non-contextual statements. What is the brain to do, without a conscious effort to the contrary, but "see" whatever it is one fears or hopes.
And, as to the manipulators, Hannah Arendt expressed it well almost a half century ago when she wrote, "...lies are often much more plausible, more appealing to reason, than reality, since the liar has the great advantage of knowing beforehand what the audience wishes or expects to hear. He has prepared his story for public consumption with a careful eye to making it credible, whereas reality has the disconcerting habit of confronting us with the unexpected for which we were not prepared." (New York Review; Nov. 18, 1971)
7
I hope this chastens MSM enough that they are willing to remove Trump from the discussion and really talk about why people distrust the media. Let Trump prattle on by himself. MSM needs to take this moment to assess why the chant of fake news resonates. We need a free press, but like all freedoms, we need the concomitant responsibility. Covington went viral because media wants to confirm its biases and match the narrative it is powerful in shaping. Edited and refereed media should be the saucer, not the hot cup. I hope that can still be a viable business model.
5
All good points. But really, does EVERYTHING need to be topic of national conversation? This event involved the man, a group teenagers--they're just kids, for Pete's sake!--and some other small group. That's it. Why do we all have to jump in an make a national issue out of someone else's event? I'm sorry, but it's just not our concern...whether it sells tv ads and newspapers or not. For once, can't we just move on?!
3
@james s. biggs Because it's a trifecta--affluent white males, Catholics, at a pro-life march--with the MAGA hat to top it all off. The Left hates all those things, and would like nothing better than to be able to discredit them all forever after. When they can attack all four at the same time, well, all the better.
This is a complicated situation that we may never understand completely. One thing that is obvious to me having been a teacher and seen the kind of behavior shown in the videos is that the young men were engaged in being swept away in a testosterone fueled mob mentality moment in which they were feeding on each other's negative energy. It could be described as a "Lord of the Flies" moment. Fortunately, violence did not ensue but it easily could have. No one comes off well here including Mr. Phillips and especially not the Black Israelites, but let's not give the kids a pass because there is no excuse for them to act like entitled punks. Hopefully, there will be adults in the room who can teach them some lessons about more appropriate responses.
2
Am I the only one who cares that this was a bunch of kids who’d been cleared to participate in the march, wear hats that would attract attention, and were chaperoned at the time of the incident? Regardless of their behavior, am I the only one that thinks maybe adults should hold off on writing about and crucifying the behavior of kids? I realize they aren’t children but many of the kids involved in this aren’t old enough to vote. Is it now perfectly acceptable for adults to name, hypothesize and hurl insults at kids, some of whom just started shaving? I’m not saying I condone their behavior but when did it become ok for adults to act like this when the adults in charge all sanctioned this behavior?
4
What is the role of the public relations firm that did crisis management for the high schooler in this discussion? Is it possible that this firm has massaged the truth in such a way that we are overcorrecting for our original understanding of the situation? What is the role of this public relations firm in the rapidly congealing elite consensus on this issue, and is that elite consensus serving the cause of true peacemaking?
3
I've listened back and forth, read the articles, watched the videos, have my own opinion - like everyone else. Above all the emotion and posturing only one thing seems crystal clear to me. Wow, America! We are at a boiling point.
1
"There’s no shame and much honor in the job of coming to judgments about news events.
"But we don’t have to rush there."
Yes but ... most of us always will, whether or not we are pundits. Whether preliminarily, instinctively, possibly involuntarily, to validate our predilections.
Or calculatedly, out of experience which causes us to adopt - even with regret - an approach something along the lines of "easier to apologize than get permission" or just "shoot first ask questions later" or "the person battling in the arena can't have the observer's perspective."
Nevertheless, it is undeniably right to strive to do better and propagate so doing, by every possible means. Or despair.
When I first saw the initial video, my reaction was total confusion. I didn’t understand what was going on, how that man and that boy ended up where they were, or much of anything else. It was like I was dropped right in the middle of something without any context to make a judgment. Too bad most people just decide to throw all their own assumptions in and not wait for the facts.
5
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
5
There is the issue of who "started" something. And then there's how did those involve respond?
The students didn't start it. But their behavior, even when couched as an attempt to peacefully but strongly respond to the Black Israelites with a school chant, went wrong. Why the smiles, smirks, and sneers if the situation was serious and alarming? Why the tomahawk chops? People reacted as much to the look on the face of the boy confronting that Native American veteran than to anything anyone said; 80% of communication is non-verbal. The MAGA hat seemed to confirm what it looked like.
The full details of the incident, from beginning to end, actually do not change what's most disturbing. Initial acts of incivility were met by an attempt to defuse the situation, and devolved into racial and ethnic baiting mixed with adolescent impulses to look big in front of one's peers. The MAGA hats are ironic, because what the students ended up doing is a Trumpian response to the situation, including a Trumpian spin on the truth in the media aftermath.
The interpretation of the incident has morphed into what is essentially a defense of misbehavior being okay as a response to misbehavior. For the chaperones of those students, it was a teaching moment that they badly muffed; possibly because they harbor some of the attitudes that bubbled up into tomahawk chops and a pointless stare-down in their wards.
There is a lot of condemnation to go around, here. Don't let the students off the hook.
16
Just a few passing thoughts that seldom seem to wane:
A full and thorough reading and understanding of an article BEFORE tweeting or commenting is becoming less and less the norm.
So often, a lot of folks are more concerned with getting his/her tweet or comment posted than digesting what the article was really about.
The sense of indignation is more powerful than admitting one was in error or overreacted. Seldom does someone actually apologize for jumping to the wrong conclusion or making an erroneous assumption that is incorrect, hurtful or simply just plain wrong.
"Instead of bucking the political tribalism in America, we ride it." - I believe Mr. Bruni nailed it with that simple sentence.
8
The outrage was never "correctly calibrated." It was disproportionate to even the worst offense.
6
The good little catholic boys were brought in from Kentucky to participate in the supposed "pro-life" march. Wonder whose bright idea that was? Wonder whose bright idea the red hats were?
This is exactly what The Con Don and his Robber Baron/Radical religion Good Old Boys want. Chaos. Mistrust. Misunderstanding.
The better to destroy OUR United States of America. Let's be smart, Good People of America, and not let these traditional "bully" tactics work.
12
@njglea
So, I guess free speech is out then...
3
I read an opinion recently declaring that we as a public are addicted to outrage. With that in mind and reading Mr Bruni I was reminded of something from my elementary journalism class. The main purpose of news papers, TV, radio and now social media, twitter, facebook et al is "To Sell Soap". I think we forget the underlying reason we have media is "To Sell Soap". The headline, the cliff hanger, the click bait are all intended to get us to the commercial. Instant outrage gets us to where the clicks take us to where we see the commercial. There may be no way around this but it should not be forgotten.
3
"Nobody talks about a “cold take,” though that’s the temperature of truth."
It's lines like these that make Frank Bruni's writing (and articles) such wonderful reads.
Literary craftsmanship.
4
Gender is a significant factor in this encounter. How differently do we expect this would have played out if the teenagers were girls? Girls are not immune to bullying others, but do boys feel more peer pressure to band together?
3
There is little to be certain of about the events that occurred that day. But these things I believe: There was way too much testosterone in the air, and peer pressure enabled stupidity.
7
@Jeff P
I agree. I remember school trips when we high school students were full of beans and feeling our oats. Given freedom from a strict school regimen, skylarking and tomfoolery come naturally. Of course, you’d need a real writer not a journalist feeding the masses to capture this. I applaud Bruni for describing some of the limits of journalism. The novelist Norman Mailer turned reporter used to be able to describe this more complicated reality.
1
The cultural anthopologist, Clifford Geertz, talked about "thick interpretation" of events and gestures so that we might distinguish between a blink and a wink. Someone who is winking is communicating a code within that network of meaning. Was Nick blinking? A thick interpretation of that moment highly suggests he was winking, along with his buddies. This does not release from responsibility others who may have been players in this drama. However an elder of an indigenous population historically oppressed in this country appeared before these young men, he should have been met with regard and not a smirk. The President of course is winking from the White House.
3
I think you are absolutely right, Mr. Bruni, that we all need to less hasty to make judgements based on limited facts.
I would say that there are some facts from this episode that I do find disturbing:
1. that there seem to be no adult chaperones to protect these teens from harms by others, or from harms related to their own actions in a group setting, where we know "group-think" can get young people into trouble. Presumable there were chaperones, but in a practical sense, they were absent.
2. I find it disturbing that a high school would take a side on a political issue, and use their resources (buses, staff), and make their students pawns to support that idealogical stance. I know that the argument will be "well this is a Catholic school, and their parents want their children raised with those values". This is exactly the thought process behind madrasas, and I am sure these same folks feel madrasas are evil. The purpose of a high school education SHOULD be to raise adults who can independently, objectively (to the extent possible) evaluate information, process the merit of diverse opinions, and draw their own conclusions. This is essential to the health of a democracy. Nothing good comes from isolating teens in an atmosphere of like-minded individuals, and imposing a narrow value system on them.
6
Were you then and are you know as disturbed by the use of Parkland High School students at anti-gun rallies? Or is it appropriate for students and the young to be used to support the liberal cause de Jour? The use of young people is very effective politically so please do not express dismay when both sides engage in this game.
3
Thoughtful and well said, we should all take it to heart regardless of which tribe we belong too.
2
Nothing about the subsequent videos, expensive PR-released rebranding, Today Show interview, or aggressive both-sidesing by a media more concerned with appearing neutral than reporting facts, has done anything to negate what we all saw in the first video. The walkback, the endless effort to provide a platform to the perpetrators that would never be afforded to teenagers of color, and the op eds like this serve only to mask the reality.
Our eyes did not deceive us.
17
Frank, you are wrong on this one. Yes, the original video was presented without all the facts, but as we get more and more information about what happened before the confrontation with Nathan Phillips, we see a pack of "crazies" (that's what the kids proudly call themselves when they wear black face and body paint at home games) harassing girls, yelling, taking off clothing, and behaving like spoiled, privileged brats. People of color on the front line of Trump's racial attacks see the MAGA hats in a way you and I can't understand. Spin and justify all you want, but the smirk on the kid's face is the real truth here.
21
Why isn't anyone interested in the Black Hebrew Israelites? Who is interviewing them, or commenting on their role in the situation?
6
@Michael They don't matter that's why and trying to use them is a cheap tactic. They are a fringe group with weird beliefs but they also have a right to free speech. People walk pass them everyday on street corners but it seems these entitled brats thought only they had the right to free speech.
1
@Hellen The kids from Covington dont walk past them every day, so I suspect were not accustomed to being called products of incest as are probably a lot of folks who live in DC. But that aside, I was simply asking why they are not being interviewed. The Black Hebrew Israelites seem to be very hateful, but strangely immune from criticism.
2
Why didn't the chaperones of the students pull them away from these crowds. They have a responsibility for the safety and well-being of their charges, and we haven't heard yet how they reacted.
5
I admit my initial reaction against the lad was an over-reaction. Some would say "a gross overreaction." So where did my gross instant overreaction come from? Where did YOUR reaction come from? And how many Americans who saw the image for the first time carefully and deliberately waded into the story without reaction, or even judgment? In these times careful analysis devoid of emotion is practically non-existent. So where did this all come from?
1
I am glad my adult children and other young adults are seeing this played. When I tell them that Martin Luther King was portrayed as a criminal and agitator who "provoked" racists they have a hard time understanding. They only see the revisionist version where people are portrayed as heroes on his side.
They never witnessed the media giving a platform to racists being allowed to explain why they had to use dogs and water hoses. How the newsreels of the protesters praying and being peaceful weren't telling the whole story. Why they were victims too and those agitators with King started the whole thing. I also remember how members of Congress and law enforcement branded King a criminal. So this tactic is not new and neither is the media's involvement, although they now like to pat themselves on the back and pretend they were on King's side. Some of us remember the true events and this is classic American racism 101.
8
@Hellen
Thank you for this past-reality check. It does seem to me that the media HAS largely 'switched sides' today. They seem to be playing on old (and probably lucrative) stereotypes. Today the "sides" are the not the same and the division between them has blurred. They seem to prefer using a stereotype of MLK as an interest-group crusader -with very little attention given to the his final years' views when he became a strong proponent for ECONOMIC justice. From my understanding, he saw economic reforms as our most important issue and means of getting civil rights justice. I find it convincing. I do wonder if it was this, in particular, that lead to his assination.
1
@carl bumba. King combined the issues of civil rights, labor rights, economic rights and unjust wars. This made him an even more dangerous man to many. I just remember how he was vilified by politicians, the media and law enforcement when he was alive. It is why his family refused to attend the first march to make his birthday a holiday, there were still repulsive things being said about King. So they were afraid to attend and only backed the movement when they saw how many of us came out.
@Hellen
Thanks, again. I got the feeling from Tavis Smiley's book that his fight against poverty, e.g. Campaign for the Poor in DC and the sanitation workers' strike in Memphis, might have been even more a threat to the establishment then his opposition to Viet Nam. But I'm far from informed here.
Breast-beating by the Left plays into the hands of Right-wing manipulators. I have watched a number of videos, from different times and angles, and saw nothing to exonerate the boys. Their behavior was still racist and despicable. No one on the Right has moderated their initial claims, they have only enlarged and embellished them with the help of PR firms. Keep tucking tail and running whenever right-wingers throw a (carefully calculated) fit and morals and decency in America will be forever lost.
9
@Renee Margolin you didn’t watch the videos if that’s your conclusion. Either that or you are blinded by hatred.
2
Trump is not the problem. When he is gone we will still be awash in idolatrous white Christian Judases.
Without Christian support, it's doubtful the GOP could be doing the damage it does to this country and the world.
3
The kid wore a hat and thus is the instigator.
The kid went to a Catholic School and thus is the instigator.
The kid was at a pro life march and thus is the instigator.
The kid smiled and thus is the instigator.
The kid stood his ground and thus is the instigator.
The kid has received death threats, parents try to soften reactions and thus is the instigator.
The kid should have been more adult and thus is the instigator.
Blame a kid much?
12
Reprise the lyrics from the 1949 South Pacific Broadway Musical and again in the 1958 movie.
"You've got to be taught
To hate
And fear
You've got to be taught
From year
To year
Its got to
Be drummed in your dear little ear
You've got to
Be carefully
Taught
You've got to be taught
To be
Afraid
Of people".
We done parents of the Catholic Boys School. You certainly taught your children well to fear and hate!
2
Every school teacher knew immediately what the MAGA boy's expression was. Entitlement. The look of a practiced bully. The look of a boy who would scream to the principal that he had done nothing wrong. These boys are proud to follow a man who thought is was clever to say Wounded Knee to try to slander a potential opponent. Wounded Knee was a massacre. Two hundred women and children died there. Don't further muddy the water about white upper class entitlement.
18
This isn't fake news. It isn't news at all. I question a newspaper that would select this event to share with its readers. The NYT must be more selective. The alternative is what we have now: actual events being supplanted by stories as the topic of news coverage. The real has become the hyper-real. Baudrillard was on to something.
4
Was that a smirk? Was that a sneer? The short answer is YES. There is nothing "indefinite" about it. Mr. Bruni you disappoint me here. Another column serving to tell people they didn't see what they saw.
Just what is the "cold take" here? That because the boys were being shouted at by a handful of crazy people, their reaction is justified?
Where are the columns asking why the boys were engaging at all? Where are the columns asking why/when/where the boys will be accountable for their part in ginning up the situation?
I seriously doubt if several dozen African-American boys with caps on backwards shouted, jumped, gestured and engaged in an aggressive staring, refusing to move, stance with an old white man, the columns would state the same as this one. No "cold takes" for them.
9
@Francine Larson from Orwell’s 1984: “In any case, to wear an improper expression on your face (to look incredulous when a victory was announced, for example) was itself a punishable offence. There was even a word for it in Newspeak: facecrime, it was called.”
3
Nazi youth groups, MAGA youth groups...I guess Frank Bruni doesn't see that this is exactly what the Gillette ad was about. Those kids are old enough to understand what they did, including the one with the PR firm, was indefensible and yet, they went on the offensive. I didn't jump to any conclusions, I saw exactly what was going on; since when is surrounding one or two Indigenous People's drumming being "nice"? You know Mr. Bruni, those boys at Covington are taught to hate homosexuals just as much as they are to hate women's right to choose.
11
@lzolatrov you didn’t watch the video. The Native American bully walked into the group of HS students and attempted to bully and intimidate one who simply stood where he was.
1
Yes they were the instigators, no doubt, videos and witnesses. Also this school has a proven past history of harassing blacks and others at school events. The other thing is the looks of hate on the faces of these screaming ,yelling mob of teens.Where does this hate come from?
4
@RichardHead
From the interior of your mind. There was no haye.
2
This paper (and many other respected news sources) are committing abuses of their power and position in society at a level that few could imagine before they had an online edition. The availability of vast amounts of information that can be easily presented and modified to suit interest has made coersion and division hallmarks of the digital age. Video images of interpersonal interactions, as in this story, are simply too loaded and too easily misreported or manipulated that they should not be presented by legitimate news outlets, in the first place. Respected journals used to adhere to many more boundaries and standards. As a national (and even world) institition, the behavior of NYT is about as base as is Donald Trump's behavior, an individual politician. His transgressions, like interpersonal exchages in public, are loaded and easy to recognize. NYT's trangressions, are even more dangerous to society because they are far less obvious and involve their unelected role as a watchdog.
For instance, NYT is now actually engineering videos INTENDED to go viral. On my phone, I keep getting attractive, unwanted links to old NYT-produced videos loaded with social media icons. [Like the funny (and vulgar) video about knowing whether or not you're a racist.] If a picture is worth 1000 words, what's a video worth? Look how they add and change photos and headlines (and even content) in a single article!
4
All Bruin is saying is jumping to conclusions and making judgements about specific events can often lead to a wrong conclusion. That’s the province of entertainment tonight. Regrettably punditry today is not thought leadership, it’s entertainment and their audience is their base.
All the long paragraphs in the comments are simply excuses for those that jumped to conclusions and got it wrong, and can’t admit it.
Come on people you can do better.
4
@Paul Totally disagree with you. I re-watched many clips and verified what I saw, the jeering of the watching students, and out of nowhere one boy shouting, "its not rape if you enjoy it". This is Catholic education? No, the supposed "jumped to" conclusion was correct.
2
To turn around and now defend these kids at all costs is as dangerous a rushed celebration as was the original reaction to the confrontation. This is a very nuanced incident, and we are not a "nuance" people. We like our politics in black and white (no pun intended), and we ignore the ubiquitous gray of every day life at our peril. There is much to criticize here on both sides, and we need not be in any rush to canonize these young men. They have just as much soul-searching to do as the pundits do.
It's a shame to see Frank Bruni get gaslit along with many of the media outlets that ran the story. This episode resulted from a failure of adult supervision. The chaperones, the school administration, and the diocese were sending pupils to a political demonstration, where confrontations like this one were possible. The boys didn't start the confrontation, but they certainly escalated it; does it not matter that there were five of the wackadoodle street preachers, and fifty of them? Those red and white MAGA hats, more to the point, tell many of us everything we need to know.
9
Was our conclusion hasty? Lots of kids laughing at and mocking the Native American is apparent, no matter what video you see,.
The right has attempted to spin the spin by claiming the main kid was actually trying to prevent a confrontation (why would there be a confrontation if everyone was apparently being peaceful?), but many of us have seen that chin forward stance so many times in our lives.
The stance says," I will not move for you because I'm better than you."
That said, much of the reaction was do to kids being kids. I don't think there was anything particularly nefarious going on.
Wearing a MAGA hat on a school trip, however, gives no one the benefit of any doubt.
7
@EmmettC
Nathan Philips' ancestry is irrelevant. People who bang drums in other people's faces and call it a peace gesture deserve ridicule, but teenager Nick Sandmann didn't ridicule Phillips; he merely smiled at him. Many people would have pushed him away.
6
The truth or falsehood of the particular situation does not change certain basic truths of our society, that we have a system that is racist, often misogynistic, and favors the privileged class. We often make one situation the bell weather for or against this truth which is far beyond this one incident. It is much more important to focus on how we can create a more just society rather than fixating on one episode by looking honestly at our own attitudes, honestly and clearly. rather than changing others that we can not change. This does not mean that we should ignore societal problems and fight to change them, but rather we should also see how they begin with ourselves. We are all responsible for our nation and ignoring this makes us part of the problem. I wonder whether we can do this as it is a hard lesson.
I think the media including Frank Bruni should stop apologizing so much. Your credibility is taking a hit when you do this, and giving ammunition to the counter narrative. Moreover, the initial reaction to the boys' story is still closer to the truth than any new evidence has shown. Same with the BuzzFeed story last week - the initial assessment that Trump tried to influence Cohen is still true in the view of the majority. The inaccuracy pointed out by Mueller's team is about a detail, not the entire story.
In both cases our initial assessment feels true because we know the truth when we see it. So stop groveling and apologizing.
3
@RB
Your assertion that the new media looses credibility when it admits error is laughable. Had the New York Times not admitted its initial reporting on the Covington incident, the full video footage would have branded it as a purveyor of fake news. The Mueller teams point out that the statements made in the BuzzFeed article was inaccurate. Inaccurate means wrong. The only statements referred to in the BuzzFeed articles were statements that alleged Michale Cohen told investigators that Trump ordered him to to Congress.
6
I didn’t need anyone in the media to tell me that the young man in the MAGA hat was too close to Mr. Phillips for too long. Mr. Phillips says that he was unnerved and no one in the media told him to say that. Boundaries of good manners and respect for the personal space of others were breached. My initial thought, my kids would never have been allowed to do that. My second thought, where are the adults. Now I think, why do we allow Twitter to be such a pervasive influence.
4
@Jeana
The video shows that Nathan Philipps walked up to Nick Sandmann and began banging a drum in his face. Sandmann did not approach Phillips.
4
@William Case Look again. Mr. Phillips put himself between the two groups and Nick Sandmann planted himself in Mr. Phillips space. Maybe the chaperones did nothing because they know these boys are uncontrollable.
2
Amazingly, many commenters still cast teenager Nick Sandmann as the villain in the Covington incident. As adult members of the Black Hebrew Israelite hate group shouted racial slurs at him and a charlatan who falsely masquerades as a Vietnam vet provocatively banged a drum in his face, Sandmann had the audacity to smile. Horrors! The feds should file hate crime charges against Sandmann for smiling while white.
12
@ellie k.
You may not formally equate them, which is the easy way out, but you clearly intend to tie the two. That is reprehensible.
How much of the narrative we now believe is due to that put out by the pr firm hired by the parents?
And why did the students choose to (gleefully, it appeared) do that mocking chant when confronted by the black group, who did nothing more than hurl insults?
And why did the young man choose to confront the drummer by getting in his face? If he felt threatened, as he said, why didn’t he retreat?
Yes, we shouldn’t go by appearances, but what I observe was a bunch of young kids who felt no shame, or even the need to pause, before using mocking as a tactic, and one so certain of his own narrative of events that he felt no compunction to stare down someone who should have been afforded the dignity to have not been put in that situation.
Yes, we should not be hoodwinked, but is this new interpretation of events a further hoodwinking, partially formed by a pr firm that knew how to frame it and get a megaphone to the world, for their narrative that we must now accept as the truth.
I’ve read all accounts, and seen other footage, but I still observe the lack of respect and sense of boundary that these kids showed, because they can.
5
@mt
The only thing that counts is the extra video footage. It shows the drummer approached teenager Nick Sandmann and began banging the drum in his face, Sandmann is only guilty of smiling.
6
@William Case
Does it count that Sandman, at no point, appears to be smiling? That at no point is walking up to someone and chanting and playing a drum near them necessarily, or most likely, an act of hostility, as Sandman claims?
@William Case "Extra footage" does not show that. PR
1
The chaperones were supposed to be there to, uh, chaperone. They were supposed to be the adults in the room because this busload of boys still are not in full possession of good judgment - regardless of privilege or perspective. If the chaperones had stepped in, perhaps it could have, at least, put the brakes on pundits going at it so fast.
3
@Kate
I’m sure the chaperones would have been just as clueless. These children were set up by a manipulative monster out to prove a point. Who can anticipate such a thing?
2
@Kate
The video shows the people who needed chaperones were the adult Black Hebrew Israelites who menaced the students and shouted racial slurs at then, the Native American adults who tried to disrupt the student rally, and the reporters who racially profiled the students.
1
Thank you for this article. At least in my orbit, it seems people are desperate to make an example of the Covington students as representatives of all that they see as evil, and they are projecting all their anxieties and fears and anger onto the image of a smirking white boy in a Trump hat because that's what they see as the embodiment of all that. But the problem with making examples of people is that you forget they're actual people, not cardboard cutouts or abstract ideas. You may be angry at the inequalities and inequities of this country, but piling on this group of teenagers doesn't bring back black boys killed by cops, it doesn't reunite Central American children with their parents, it doesn't create a just society. And ultimately it won't lessen your pain. It'll just drag you down to Trump's level of truth-blindness and bitterness.
4
As a nation we need to recognize that a good third of our population are nascent or full-fledged fascists. It is unfortunate that "fascist" has become such an amorphous and loaded term because it is a good description for the people who support Trump. We are not comfortable with this reality so we get a lot of columns and articles that have a tacit undertone of false equivalency. The binding principles of Trumpism are hatred of women and minorities. These people don't have different viewpoints or an ideology that should be respected, they are culturally unevolved. Come on! It's not like they're being coy about this. Trumpism is a danger to our society (and the world) and needs to be countered, nonviolently, at every opportunity. Imagine if the German people in the early 30s could see the future? Would there be polite columns and hand wringing about biased media? Time to wake up and take a hard look at our society.
3
@Scott B I’d agree that a significant % of the population has become fascist but you have incorrectly identified which part: it’s the far left who would like to see the deaths of all who hold different views and seek at every opportunity to silence their voices.
2
@Scott B
I guess you are in favor then of eliminating all of the millions of undesirables? How do you plan to accomplish that?
2
@Scott B
It seems a little imprudent to throw around terms like "fascism" without empirically justifying it, especially if it's not obvious that you, personally, have lived under fascism. The fact that we may freely accuse Trump or his supporters of fascism without fear of repercussion seems to suggest this is invalid. (We're also pretty clueless about war, not having had one on our soil since the middle of the 19th century.)
1
Your article is a start but the reversal of these never ending ‘white privilege’ conversations can only start when the media takes on the cold truth about it’s reluctant reporting on the AA culture. As a AA father I’m was embarrassed for my kids, embarrassed for extende family and friends when I saw how the AA men were taunting and threatening HS kids b/c they were white. AA get a pass for this, they get a pass for 70% of AA children born out of wedlock, and most recently the Democratic nominee gets a pass by allowing her to be the first Indian elected to the Senate but in the next article hailing that she could be the second AA elected as POTUS - which one is it? Quit treating us as different, quit treating us like children. Treat us the same so the healing in America can begin.
4
It seems this Catholic school in Kentucky is following the teachings of Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and Franklin Graham instead of Pope Francis and Jesus Christ.
5
@Nick Adams Perfectly said.
These children, or Trumpians in the making, make me sick. How dare a Catholic school or any school bring their students to an anti contraception aka an anti women's rights fights or marches? What is wrong with their parents who allow and encourage their behavior? A PR firm? How horrific is that?
2
@CS .......Er....Because they don't agree with your position????? BTW, I'm pro choice. But your comments reflect nothing but intolerance. How dare they? They lie in America. They get to have an opinion.
8
I have to wonder how many columnists have regular experience of being on the street during protests. Those who have will understand that serious and ethical protestors, elderly and young alike, design and prepare for their actions. They participate workshops on non-violence, they prepare themselves to not respond when they are taunted and mocked, they practice techniques like silence and sitting down to de-escalate situations, techniques thoughtfully developed to build on the ideas of Mahatma Gandhi and MLK. What Frank Bruni and so many others are missing is the sadness many of us feel about this: (1) that on the needle of the meter of responsible versus irresponsible protest, the behavior of a religious-school group registered much closer to the Black Israelites than to the side of responsibility, and (2) that what the video shows, a surrender to the temptation bully someone more vulnerable to you, as a response to having been previously bullied yourself is a woeful neglect of responsibility.
Of course they were children, and we must afford them cover for that. But their mentors and chaperones deserve our scrutiny. For their own sake, and for the sake of our national consciousness, the actions, failures, and motivations of those adults need to be carefully examined in the calm light of the days to come. That, Frank Bruni, is what I and many others, wish you would write about. I write as a Catholic, an experienced protestor, a teacher, and a senior citizen.
2
@Paul Dobbs the student stood silently enduring a man trying to intimidate and bully him who was banging a drum inches from his face. The kid is a profile in courage.
1
Doesn’t matter which video of the melee you watch but this promotion video is gonna have to be redone! Do not think they are fulfilling their claims of the school does for students. Note, counted 2 non-white people.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rtqbPw_p3e4
Does anyone even remember Melissa Click, the journalism instructor at the University of Missouri who was caught on camera asking for "muscle" to move journalists away from a protest encampment? That went viral too. There was a larger context there, but no one seemed to care. Least of all the right-wing media and the self-appointed guardians of "free-speech" who are always on the lookout for the depredations of "political correctness." She lost her job there (technically her contract was not renewed under pressure from a deeply reactionary state legislature), but no one cares. Not Bruni. Unlike the "promising young men" (white of course) who lives were "threatened with ruin," Click's fate evinced no concern from anyone once the meme had played itself out. Because maybe, she was a woman, because maybe she was perceived as "shrill," because maybe, she wasn't so young, because maybe, the picture of her is awful. This is yet another case of the right-wing working the refs, and liberals like Bruni bending over backwards to appear "fair."
Maybe there is a difference in the behavior we expect from a high school student and a college instructor? She was the one teaching impressionable young people how to think and behave. She should also be insisting that journalism reports the news, not attempting to cover up things that we would prefer to remain unknown to the general public.
2
And, oh yeah, when high-school students ("impressionable young people") start talking about gun control, they're vilified by the right. Then they're responsible for what they're doing . Unlike when they sexually assault someone, as long as their nominated for the Supreme Court, eh Denis? And the right-wing media has no ethic of self-correction or self scrutiny. Is Alex Jones still peddling his theories about the the Newtown massacre? Seems to me the only "adults: required by the right to be "responsible" are the ones on the left. Otherwise the get a free pass.
What a fascinating Rorschach test incident in this Age of Trumped Up Outrage.
If only we had had more "context" before the video was broadcast nationwide and went viral. What I saw was a smirking kid in a brand new scarlet red MAGA hat sneering at an elderly Native-American. So disrespectful and so reflective of what a disgusting terrible role model Trump is doing to the adults and even children in this country! It all fit my angry mindset.
And the sneering disrespect of a minority person was, I figured, no doubt cheered on by Trump and GOP supporters, who seem to spend every waking moment of their lives tearing people down and making America Miserable Again.
So Frank's column is an appropriate reminder to hold the outrage until we have the facts of the situation. But the media did not provide it before rushing to get that provocative video on the air.
I remember a column by Margaret Sullivan several years ago in the Times about the need for reporters to provide more context in their coverage. Well, the coverage of this event was a perfect example of what happens when a seemingly provocative incident is highlighted without background, critical thinking, and a search for facts.
And pundits more than likely are not educating or enlightening at all, but are picking up paychecks because they are adept at talking in sound bites and can gin up emotional outrage for their team.
How do we get back to truth, fairness, responsibility, and sanity? Or can we?
5
"Was that a smirk on the teenager’s face? A sneer? His expression was just indefinite enough to become a symbol of entitlement for the pundits who favor that locution, of the white patriarchy for another group, of the wages of Trumpism, of the fraudulence of Catholicism."
If you have ever been the target of an adolescent bully then the meaning of that expression and posture are perfectly clear regardless of any other ambiguities in the situation or excuses offered.
4
How much do these boys really know about the current state of politics? Why are they choosing to identify with Trump? It feels a bit like Hitler's youth. Young men blindly following a charismatic, but horrific leader. Rather than judging these boys too harshly, we should be asking them more questions. Perhaps what they need is more introspection?
3
Anyone who thinks the extended footages exonerates these boys’ behavior is either delusional or incapable of reading people. Busing rich white 14 years old boys across three states to protest what they don’t understand wearing the hats of racism and misogyny by a tax exempt apolitical “church “ is a setup for something bad. This is a violation rather than an expression of the First Amendment.
6
I truly wonder what everyone would be saying if an African American kid came face to face with a MAGA wearing hat guy, and almost simultaneously a mob of African American encircled around while shouting "school chants" to help everyone calm down?
I suppose it now needs to be called "diffusing the situation".
3
"Some of the condemners counter that their essential point remains, that entitlement, cruelty and racism persist and even thrive in today’s America. That’s for sure. But when the evidence cited for that turns out to be inconclusive or wrong, their position is weakened. Their goal isn’t served."
This, to me, is the heart of it. This video has affirmed and consolidated those on the right and divided those of us on the left. Not only does it not further our goals, it undermines them. I'm saddened that many of the commenters here and on other sites, cannot sit for a moment ( or three) with their own errors without rushing to rationalize them away. Some are still claiming falsehoods or making assumptions about both the boys and Mr. Phillips. Some of us have learned very little, or worse, nothing from this.
5
@GAonMyMind
Perhaps the left needs to do some soul searching?
1
Well, I certainly was wondering, how long it would take for the Catholic apologists to worm their way into this excruciatingly disturbing story, and give political cover to not just these hideously immature and poorly behaved boys who, at the very least were and are poorly educated and thereby severely misinformed on matters of cultural norms and tolerance, but far worse, to the Church itself.
Between Mr. Bruni, Mr. Douthat, and Mr. Brooks' lashing out at those of us who, did in fact, see what we saw for what it was, a bunch of unchaperoned boys, all emotionally and hormonally worked up, hurling verbal taunts, jeers at a single elderly male Native American who was doing his best to invoke a moment of peace, it pains me even more that all three of these writers now want to back track their blame and put it on- social media- instead of where it squarely belongs, on these misguided adolescents.
Why are Bruni, Douthat, Brooks, rewarding these little hate monger political wannabe kids, and their indignant and smug denials of 'I did nothing wrong'. Hate (disguised as bad behavior) needs to desperately be called out for what it is.
No excuses fellows.
If there is ever a reason I'm looking to unsubscribe from the NYT's, it will be because wrong is wrong, and if even ultra conservative Brooks, Douthat can't see the forest for the trees about common decency, then, my time here with the NYT's is done.
5
Okay, so help me understand this.
Last year, a catholic high school in Covington Kentucky (different school) prevented the valedictorian from giving his speech. It made reference to gun control. They claimed it was too political. He was forced to do it outside, using a megaphone.
Yet, another local school permits (encourages? forces? ) it's students to attend a march ostensibly protesting Roe v Wade. Wearing MAGA hats. But that's not too political?
Funny that.
Homicide and suicide are among the top 3 causes for deaths in the 12-18 group in the US.
That's right America, keep letting others use your kids for their political aims. But then don't be too surprised when your country is coming apart at the seams years later.
7
The “handle” is my husband’s profile but we share the response capability on each of our iphones so I am “ISKmamfa,CT”. The same technique used by this young man (outrigged in MAGA) was consistently used at Planned Parenthood in Brookline MA - blocking me often as I approached the walkway for my dental appointments locared in the same building where Planned Parenthood rented space. Horrible posters were thrust in my face along with length of rosary beads. A young man later stormed Planned Parenthood and shot two Catholic BC co-eds to death who were enokoyed in the PP offices. This young man later committed suicide in his jail cell while awaiting trial. There were no videos taken. At the Lincoln Memorial you see, if you carefully examine the video frame by frame, the “would be” chaperons duck or turn away as the camera or iphone is pointed in their direction. Another young man, when motion is slowed, clearly screams at the Native American veteran, a genuine elder, after hysterically laughing (the boy rigged in both MAGA hat AND sweatshirt). Jeanne Mancini claims “Right To Life” is non-violent, yet lives were taken as I clearly recall at this simple building where I ventured fitfully at best simply to have my teeth cleaned. MAGA is a direct danger to human rights and life. Adults ducked in the video - shame lies with them. The lesson learned? Disrespect for life and liberty period.
4
Regardless of all the ins and out of this encounter it is still unacceptable behavior for a bunch of supposedly Christian HS students to turn into a MAGA hatted mob. I attended several Catholic schools in the south in my youth and can't imagine myself or classmates ever acting this way. The current Church apparently has many more issues than clergy sexual abuse.
4
no surprise...when news divisions were given over to the entertainment programmers, for-profit news led to the rush for
revenue and more recently with the rise of the cables, the potential for stardom eagerly courted by most anchors (see their personal appearances, books, etc) which, in turn, has given us a class of couch potato (literally, on screen, and figuratively, as demonstrated by their lack of grasp of the issues that scroll by on their teleprompters (a recent failure of grasp was defended by a "well, jimmy carter was before my time")...the very best still do their research and actually report (most are specialists, financials or science for examples, who are talking to audiences who are knowledgeable and who know that mere opinionism is always exposed by real facts and the command thereof...
3
I've watched multiple videos about this incident and I strongly object to the notion that the original assessment was wrong. Anyone wearing a MAGA hat is communicating their values and the videos clearly show those values in action.
And any kid who thinks he or she can tell women what they can do with their bodies needs to shut up and deal when the public condemns what that kid has done with his or her own body, via tomahawk chops and smirks.
So enough with the mea culpas. The pundits, the media, and progressives called this play right the first time.
7
YouTube contains a delightful video of a group apparently from the same school (Covington Catholic), in which one boy shouts, "It's not rape if you enjoy it!", others laugh, and the accompanying parents/teachers -- their voices can be heard prior to the shout -- say nothing.
These are not kind and respectful people.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqUh7nlXn2k
6
There's another aspect to this story that should be considered -- which is -- why is it even considered news if someone makes a face at someone else? If someone jeers at someone? Why are we all so overly concerned with instances of perceived disrespect, particularly when there is so much REAL news to be concerned with? Why are we so lascivious about finding stories about badly behaved white people, or Trump supporters, in particular? Bad behavior comes in all shapes and colors. If we really started posting news about everyone who behaved badly or disrespectfully, there literally would be no space left for any real news.
I'd like to suggest that we lay off stories of disrespect and one person or crowd jeering at another. Get back to the real news, like the government shutdown, health care, major disasters, global warming.
7
Come on, Frank. Can you really tell me that you don't think the behavior of these youths was just plain appalling and disrespectful? Why were bus load of kids wearing MAGA hats who came to Washington to protest women's reproductive rights, exhibiting mob behavior and clearly mocking a native American elder, allowed to carry on this way, and where were the adults who should have been supervising them? That's more the question we should be asking instead of pinpointing the focus on this one boy who stood there in Mr. Phillips way glaring at him. There were women there who were being harassed by these same boys before this incident took place, and there is even a video of it. Now the behavior of these kids is actually being applauded by those who are so warped, like President Trump, that they see this as an opportunity to shout "Fake News!" and we are being told that we actually owe these kids an apology. If we cannot condemn this kind of behavior and we enable kids to emulate our bully president, what does that say about is as a society, and what does it say about the responsibility of parents to raise their children to be thoughtful and respectful?
6
The amount of hate spewed at 16 year old for smiling and wearing a souvenir cap is truly frightening. What have we become?
11
For better or worse, the red MAGA hat is now the new white hood. At first glance, this can be dismissed this as hyperbole, not unlike calling someone Hitler. But if you think about it, they serve the same purpose. They are both intended to call attention to one's self and they are both intended to intimidate. So those kids, by wearing that hat, preemptively relinquished any benefit of the doubt they might have had and have put the burden of proof on themselves.
Might there have been a mistake made? Maybe. But imagine for a moment the exact same situation except that those boys were black and wearing BLM hats. Fox would have had a field day with it.
4
An “onslaught of death threats” directed at the Sandmann family and others has been mentioned here, more than once. Really? An onslaught? Okay, maybe a few sick individuals rage against the participants in this media show, but how do those “threats” get through to the families? Do they answer their phones when an unidentified number or name is displayed? (I don’t even do that.) Do these individuals march around outside their homes with signs threatening death to the kids? Are threats issued through easily traceable social media? Are the threats generated by Russian bots? Did the threats come through the USPS? (They were in the press on Monday, which would be miraculously speedy postal service anywhere in the US.) FedEX? UPS? So I guess before I swallow that (increasingly popular) PR stunt that should definitely prove victimhood, I’d want to see some proof—pictures or recordings of these threats. And if the threats happened, we know the ever-vigilant parents and their security people have the proof. Wonder if Mr. Phillips has received threats? Of course, he doesn’t have a PR firm working on his behalf, so I guess we’ll never know.
5
It seems ever more clear to me that the problem is Twitter. I don't have a solution for that; you can't ban the thing. I guess I wish people would voluntarily stop using it.
Trump losing his microphone alone would be worth it.
7
"I have a right to stand there." That's not some pundit making a value judgment, that was the student in question. No one told them to wear blackface at basketball games when playing a school with black students. Insensitive, racism, students just being students, which is it? Obviously parenting and adult supervision is lacking both at home and Covington Catholic High. But more important, common sense on the part of the school and the students is called into question. As a Catholic, we are taught from an early age to know the difference between right and wrong, perhaps a more an extended session with the Sisters would cause a moment of reflection for the young adults who were there.
4
Most women are very familiar with men who insist on taking up lots of space (spreading legs and occupying 2-3 seats, etc.) and expecting everyone to step aside for them. It's called male privilege and seems normal in our culture.
This young man who was interviewed on TV after his parents hired a PR firm stated that he was entitled to "stand his ground". Why is a young white male not expected to step aside for an indigenous elder male? White male privilege Trumps respect for elders.
8
@SusannaMac Agreed. And what exactly is the ground this minor is defending in front of the Lincoln Memorial? So tired of everyone shouting about their own rights, disrespected others, and not taking responsibility over those truths we hold to be self evident.
3
@SusannaMac
Because this was not an "elder" and because the rules you nominally adhere to died decades ago--at the hands of the left.
If an elderly white Republican male approached a group of young feminist women holding signs stating "US out of my uterus", I doubt enormously that you would have them step aside.
2
"Kids," they call them, invoking innocence or sympathy for the potential to do stupid things. It's acceptable, in most situations. But in this situation? Absolutely not!
-First, they're not there participating in a kids' activity, they're there participating in an adults' activity. They're there to express political opinions directly (through demonstrations) or indirectly (through wearing MAGA hats).
-Second, this is clearly a planned activity endorsed by their school (they're accompanied by chaperones) and by their parents. These kids are consciously put into this situation by approving adults.
-Third, the entire sequence of actions by the group, the students and their chaperones together, appears very controlled. An out-of-control mob doesn't behave like this. They have by far the numbers to intimidate, which they do by first circling the black protestors, then by retreating to the steps in an organized fashion, and then by becoming more aggressive and threatening through chanting victory marches and taking their clothes off facing the black protestors.
-Fourth and worst, the chaperones let all this happen. This whole incident is not something that happens within seconds. It takes many many minutes to develop and evolve. The *only* meaningful explanation is that the chaperones let the kids, knowingly. The chaperones are a part of the instigators.
So, I'm sorry, but this school, their chaperones, their kids, their parents, none of them are innocent. They are the cause.
6
Teenage boys under apparent adult supervision chose to engage in a peaceful protest against women's rights.
They do have that right.
I don't agree with them but since they were dealing with largely adult issues, their acts can be scrutinized through an adult lens.
Own it teenagers. Guess you are on your way to being men.
And those MAGA hats? Anyone that wears those dumb hats deserves ridicule.
2
The way things are going, that teenager who just stood there will sit on the Supreme Court or become president some day.
4
I guess it also depends on who "Our" is in "Our hasty condemnation".
Do you really think most of your readers at the NYT are going to the tedious pundits on TV or Twitter for news or are you saying you have to watch it for your job?
Sometimes a cigar actually is a cigar and a smirky kid is just a rude kid and you can believe your lying eyes, PR spin thanks to Mom's wallet, aside. Not sure what was "cruel and dangerous" or "glimmering". Maybe quit believing reports written by theater wannabes or something.
2
Granted, the young men were just innocently acting in a manner consistent with their Kavanaughesque sense of entitlement. The question remains: What sort of institution facilitates their sense of privilege to assume they will be free of consequences for wading into a politically-charged situation, wearing garb offensive to the majority of Americans, while shouting chants that can only be interpreted by those privy to a preppy-/frat-boy mentality? Why did their parents and their school put them there?
4
Bruni very carefully steers clear of the following FACTS: 50 yelling, mocking, tomahawk-chopping boys COMPLETELY surrounded a handful of older Native Americans, to the point of jostling the drummers behind Mr Phillips. Why is that FACT being ignored in favor of excusing the boys behavior because THEY were taunted by black racists? There's a "boys will be boys" pivot going on and the white boys bullying behavior is being whitewashed further.
5
This was an idiotic story from the get go. There is nothing newsworthy, whatsoever, about a group of high school students acting like jerks, or a hitherto obscure Native American activist being a jerk, or all of them acting like jerks at a protest rally. The only thing that made it take off was the visual of the kid with the smirk and the hat facing off with Native American. The news media and Trump should have known better to just leave it alone and not inflame tensions with a nothing story. But they didn't. They both stooped to their usual, predictable low of pitting Americans versus other Americans because it gets attention. It's base, despicable and it needs to stop. But it won't. Because the Oval Office and the Press are all egomaniacal, status obsesessed children who thrive on attention above all else.
3
I would say that the boy had a look of fear on his face, not a sneer. How is one supposed to look when someone is pounding a drum two inches from one's face? Laugh? How? There is a sixteen year old kid with someone acting just a tad strangely a few inches away. Suddenly he is a racist, misogynist, vulgarian, homophobe, and most likely kicks small puppies. What is wrong with some of the writers? The boy was standing there. How can that be rude? What exactly was he supposed to do?
8
We are all on edge. Our country is in dire straits. So we are paying attention to everything with red alert. And people who wear those hats are generally trying to stir things up. They are modeling their very unbalanced and divisive and confrontational “leader”.
And the chief did feel threatened. He was there, so his narrative holds a lot of credibility.
But we need to breathe, reflect, hope that our country can survive this maniac, and use our frontal cortex to initiate constructive change.
(But then when the SCOTUS reveals irrationality, we go right back to being ready to jump.)
1
It is called gossip. It is passed off as "news" and then passed on in "social media."
You even ask us to participate by "joining" or "following" you.
This particular piece of gossip is most onerous - a video. Since almost everyone can produce it, anywhere, anytime - and they do - they are "experts" too and come to believe truth as whatever can be presented in a video.
Some time back, news and reporting disappeared.
6
This would have gone down differently if that had been a poor black or Latino kid doing the same thing to an elderly white vet. Wealthy white kids who learn that parents and money and whiteness and privilege will protect them. And that process of protection will not serve these kids well; it reinforces their sense of entitlement.
6
The best thing about this article is the pronoun "we." Yes, it's become apparent to most Americans that the "tribalism" and hate mongering in the United States originates and is encouraged by the media.
I did not see an apology, but I suppose a recognition is as close as we'll come to a rush to judgement, and it is *judgement* no different than the Salem witch trials.
One of the boys tried to commit suicide.
1
Perhaps there was a quick rush to judgment - but I have yet to figure out a benign interpretation of that young man's standing two feet away from and older man, staring and not moving. Whether he was smirking or smiling, his actions were rude and disrespectful. The students jumping up and down in support behind him emphasized that. I saw an interview on NBC news in which he said he was doing nothing wrong and had a right to be there. He is correct - but that does not mean he was not very rude. Yes he was entitled to be there - but he was demonstrating his entitlement with disrespect to the older man he faced.
3
Tribalism anathematizes any chance that a more perfect recollection -- of ANYTHING American -- can be formed from the errors of a Founding framed on slavery's notion that many of us weren't even 100% human.
As is, if the Kentucky Covington kids compromised any laws of a higher order, their Constitutional rights are at least protectively grandfathered even if our of/by&fors are duly Amended insofar any order whence to form a more perfect union is prohibited from going backwards.
That popular-vote democracy should someday trump electoral-college Trumps might be a good place to start. But meanwhile, these kids can't be touched w/ a ten-foot mini hand.
1
The media has taken little responsibility for their role in creating the morass that is our so-called "culture".
Fittingly, the US is in an ironic situation: deep, dark psychological miasma while still enjoying a higher standard of living than most. "America"'s reality is in massive conflict with it's mythos and it's making us nuts.
Breaking that tension will be the inevitable outcome. And we may not emerge better for it.
2
The irony that these teens are the perfect examples of entitled snowflakes. Their parents better have deep pockets because their behavior portends future events needing not just PR but lawyers.
4
The only people defending the boys are those that support taking the reproductive rights away from women, are white, support Trump or are staunch Catholic. "There are good people on both sides." NOT then, and not in this case.
These students were being disrespectful and mean. They can spin the PR as much as they want. Yet a better response is call out the behavior, they apologize and then assign them to read Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, and write a 500 page essay on it. Or require them to volunteer a summer working at a non-profit that works with Native Americans. Discipline the chaperones, and last but not least, fire the board of directors at the school. They should be ashamed of their behavior. Disgusting that they did it and more disgusting is hiring a PR firm to spin the narrative.
2
These Catholic school boys should not be allowed to wear those MAGA hats to represent their school. The hats represent hate and racist views to many!
Sadly it appears our so called elite schools are producing more entitled Donald Trump's and Brett Kavanagh for our future !
2
@Gerard
Thank goodness for those schools! Better more like Trump & Kavanaugh as opposed to Pelosi & Ginsburg
After an incident such as this, every parent I've known would have sat down with child and had a strong conversation with them about the dangers of these type situations and how to avoid them, at least until they're old enough to understand the situation's complexities. They'd also be having a strong conversation with the school over the actions/inactions of the chaperones that ended up with their children in this dangerous situation.
Really makes you wonder what the parents are like that they hired a PR firm (and who exactly is paying for the firm?).
5
This is a stupid distraction, can we please get on with the real news.
4
No, my outrage is not put on hold. I’m outraged at what seems increasing incidents of vehement hate against others. I’m outraged how discussions have decended into labels and trash talk. The black israelites are a hate group to be dealt as is done with white supremicists. The native americans are romanticized in many respects and could have done their drumming and praying from the edges; are they so naive to think their mere prescence will stop a melee? They forgot Wounded Knee, both incidents? And the catholics, well, face it do you see any faces of color in that group? Tuition is expensive, it is an elitist school and Cincinnati looks south on race issues. I wasn’t there but would have walked away, which is what absent chaperones needed to have their students do. People are so caught up in using a cell phone to capture a moment instead of perhaps pulling others away. Don’t gawk at the car wreck - help or move on.
2
@ellie k. There were two African-Americans among the Covington kids. The Black Israelites were particularly hateful toward them, using the n-word and pillorying them for associating with the others.
1
Considering there are now videos showing these kids chanting build the wall and "it's not rape if she enjoys it" I'd say what has been very obvious all along to everyone who isn't a partisan hack has been proven. These kids are exactly what people have been assuming them to be from the beginning. Reasonable people know their parents are the real problem for raising them like this, but it still doesn't excuse their gutter trash behavior.
5
The Patriarchy will squash and suffocate any attempt to threaten it's supremacy. It's existence is being challenged right now and it will get past smirky to physical very quickly. That youthful rowdiness will look more dangerous as it becomes normalized. Our daughters and other disrespected communities will pay a steep price for daring to challenge these boys.
3
All you have to do to see exactly what Bruni is talking about is turn to the Comments section. Ready, fire, aim!
6
Smirking-boy's parents hired a PR firm to retroactively create a narrative putting a heroic spin on his conduct. College acceptances, no doubt, on the line. I have not read or seen anything that convinces me that the original reports on the shameful incident were not largely correct. It's sickening that so many so quickly retracted/apologized. White privilege wins again.
8
Liberals are smug, self-righteous scolds? Stop the presses!
6
The most mind-boggling things about this is the free pass the Black Israelite's get along with CNN analysts and Kathy Griffin who were threatening or encouraging violence against this kid. I even saw a tweet by and SNL writer offering sexual favors to those who would punch these kids. Regardless of how you think this kid attacked. We have public figures who happen to be adults wanting to do harm to children. Kids wearing scary red hat is what people have the biggest issue with, REALLY??
12
Almost the same situation at the women's march last week!
Ha ha only kidding.
A crowd that size and no police that could help defuse the situation?
As far as I can see it all comes down to male egos.
I suggest they all go home and watch a Gillette commercial.
2
Pope Francis won't be inviting the smirker to the Vatican but the Idiot-Who Thinks He's President has already invited him to the White House.
2
My complements to all the NY Times writers who, in the last few days, have attempted to bring to light the deeper story behind the original headline. You are to be commended for examining your own failings, weaknesses and reliance on social media for information as well as for commentary.
In contrast, so many responding to those multiple articles have refused to see that their original reaction was to a tiny sliver of a complex event that happened in approximately the same time frame it took for the video to viral.
Perhaps a quote from one of modern history's most profound observers should be pondered by any who dig in their heels:
"I have steadily endeavored to keep my mind free so as to give up any hypothesis, however much beloved (and I cannot resist forming one on every subject) as soon as the facts are shown to be opposed to it." ~ Charles Darwin
8
I lived and worked in the Washington DC area and did lots of freelance press photography in DC. I saw very many demonstrations and protests of all sorts and temperaments. I also watched some of those videos. Those kids were actually well behaved and good mannered about the entire situation. It was learning experience for them. They did nothing wrong. The media still hangs on to a hint of condemnation with these caveats that the kids were not quite, entirely, blameless. They did this or that or wore the evil red hat, blah blah blah.
I haven't yet seen a complete, unreserved apology that they deserve.
8
Frank, you are not wrong about the reactions but my question is why would a group of chaperones not lead these boys away from this confrontation? Another point is that all-boys schools tend to exacerbate a certain male culture that can become toxic. As a former teacher and mom of teens, I know how I would have interpreted the look on the young man's face and I would have told him to back off and sit down. I'm also aware of students who misbehave just up to crossing the line, knowing they have plausible deniability. That look wouldn't have worked with me, at all. Do I consider this young man irredeemable? No, of course not. He just needs a lesson in manners and respect. Teens make mistakes and it's up to adults to teach them how to deal with them.
6
Perhaps there is a learning moment in all of this.
To begin wth, wearing a MAGA hat is a form of protest. Let's face it, this wasn't just some MLB logo hat even if the young men wearing the hats were ... young?
And if you ever had to chaperon a trip for young people, you know that keeping them on a tight leash can be the difference between a nice trip and calls back home to parents. The boys are not innocent but they are also simply just boys. And the Air & Space museum was closed.
And then there were the four members of the Black Hebrew Israelites, how I wish they had adopted a different name, who were clearly taunting the growing group of young men.
And then you have Mr. Phillips, the native American Indian pounding his drum.
So what if we were to simply audio edit out the sounds from the ranting Black Hebrew Israelites and also the raucous chants from the group of Covington boys. What would be left with?
Essentially, a young white student ... still a child, staring (perhaps with a smirk) into the face of an older man who was not banging on any heads, but simply creating a sound of his people.
Boiling this down to just that scene, all I saw was communication, albeit perhaps non-traditional communication. But given that this was taking place in Washington D.C., pretty good communication for this town.
There was no shoulder shove or drumstick tap. Instead it was eye to eye contact. And hopefully Mr. Sandmann took something useful away from the conversation.
1
@It's Time: " The boys are not innocent but they are also simply just boys. "
So, in essence, boys will be boys? That kid is not 8 years old. He knew exactly what he was doing and thought he could do so with no consequences.
2
@Anne I don't believe he thought at all. I think he just reacted in the moment.
And there most certainly are consequences but not all consequences need to become a permanent scar.
For the record, I do not support the reason for his protest trip to D.C. nor do I support chaperones letting these teens gather in a public and most sacred place (the Lincoln Memorial is also shadow over the Vietnam Memorial). I have taken multiple teen groups on trips to DC and would never have permitted them to brandish what I would have considered an inflammatory symbol out of both respect for others and concern for their safety. I don't blame Mr. Sandmann for wearing a MAGA hat as much as I do his chaperones.
But what are the consequences and justice that should be applied here? My thinking is that Covington should better train its chaperones and apologize for not having better controlled the situation. This was their responsibility, protecting the safety of the teens in their trust.
But Mr. Sandmann and Mr. Phillips stare-down has presented them with an opportunity to teach all of us. Imagine the power of an image in which the two might sit down and better learn about one another. Imagine if Covington invited Mr. Phillips to speak. Imagine the positive that could come out of all this at a time where maybe, just maybe, wearing a MAGA purchased from a street vendor (and I have no knowledge if that is the case) was just a cool souvenir for a kid and his buddies.
1
@It's Time: Thank you for your thoughtful reply. I agree with some of your sentiments, however, when you say "I don't believe he thought at all. I think he just reacted in the moment," I think that's how privilege work. Women and people of color are much more aware of consequences to our actions. This kid had the privilege to "not think." And I don't think he's going to be permanently scarred. This might have saved him from moving on to worse behaviors in the future if it causes self-reflection.
There is so much to unpack in this incident. Certainly recognizing our tribalism and tendency to rush to judgment helps us understand and can lead us to some insights that can lead us toward a more thoughtful way of perceiving these rapidly developing events. Thanks to Frank for helping us strive toward a more balanced and reasoned view.
2
I don't think Frank Bruni needs to apologize to his readers. After viewing the extended versions of the videos, I don't think there was a rush to judgement by the New York Times or any other responsible news organization. The Washington Mall is a gathering place for all types of groups expressing a wide ranges of views, ideologies, and grievances. These groups used to gather in Lafayette Square, until the area in front of the White House was barricaded for security reasons. Why do these groups congregate on federal land? Because these groups (particularly extreme groups) receive a greater level of free speech protection than they do in many states and local municipalities. Keep in mind, that the Black Israelites and the Nathan Phillips group had been there for some time before the CovCath students arrived. Many visitors to the Lincoln Memorial stopped briefly to listen the the speeches or the drum beat and moved on. These students had the same opportunity to listen and move on. But no, as one student put it, they stood there as if it was a sporting event, jeering and yelling at the opposing team. No one jeered at them as they march to overturn Roe v Wade. The sheer arrogance of these students was palpable in the videos. They started the confrontation and they should suffer the consequences of their actions- end of story.
8
However one might choose to interpret the actions of the CovCath boys, Mr. Phillips group, or the Black Hebrew Israelites, the mob of 60 or more boys behaved badly and descended into a mob. The lack of supervision giving rise to this incident says more about the school and the community of families that support it than the boys themselves. We should remember that these are children-old enough to know better, for sure-but children, none the less, who parrot what they see and hear in their homes and community. Their school AND their parents, failed them utterly in instilling the basic American values of respect for others, polite public behavior, respect for our nation's history represented by our National Mall, and respect for themselves.
7
Women and people of color have experienced various degrees of street harassment from leers, jeers, verbal assaults, to gropes and grabs, to spitting and obscenities directed at them. If social media holds people accountable for behavior that has for far too long gone unnoticed, unchecked, and not taken seriously if reported then I'm okay with it. There are natural consequences to our actions.
5
@Anne but that's not what happened here. The black group taunted the high school boys -- then Phillips and his drum invaded their personal space and banged his drum--banged his drum.
So what did the Covington boys due that merits the left twitterists and mouthpieces attempting to ruin their lives. Did they deserve death threats?
8
@Ralphie: I heard on NPR that the black group consisted of 4 people. While they were apparently spouting hateful rhetoric, they were not a huge threat to anyone and they were outnumbered by the other groups. And if the black group taunted the boys, the boys did not have to engage.
2
@Ralphie: And, no, they do not deserve death threats. Neither did Blasy-Ford and her family deserve death threats.
3
Where were the Chaperones? Was going to a Right to Life rally supposed to rile up teenage boys to do...What?
2
@Jamie Keenan
Protest, maybe? That shouldn't be so hard to grasp.
5
Where, in all the "pundits , bloggers, NYT gurus..." is there any mention of the Black Israels? What scant mention of them seems to indicate that they were the agents provocateurs. We can be outraged at white boys, especially if Catholic but dare not go on the third rail by mentioning another race and religion.
Likely won't be vetted but had to be said anyway.
4
@Snarky Parker And where is mention of people of color among the crowd of male high school students? That does speak volumes about their values.
!) Search Shar Yaqataz Banyamyan on YouTube for the entire hour
plus long video.
2) Ask place yourself how this could possibly be a national news story.
Who put the edited clip onto Twitter ( person unknown.
That says a lot.
3) One Trillion photographs were taken last year. Maybe we are looking for meaning in the wrong place ( photos and videos)
A sorry state of affairs indeed.
2
Isn't it odd that not one commentator or news source paid any heed whatsoever to the "black Israelites" who supposedly started it all by verbally assaulting high school kids and who knows who else? Guess that behavior doesn't fit into the narrative.
6
@Joe I’ve read several mentions of black israelites, and seen them in a video.Maybe change your sources.
2
@ellie k.
Touche ! I guess my point is that one is a mention, the other is an entire newscycle.
What amazes me the most is all of this back and forth about knee jerk opinions. I don't see how it matters that at some earlier point these poor little boys were being verbally harrassed by a group of uncouth zealots. How on earth does any of that justify the rude and disrespectful behavior of those poor little boys. They were not just being rude and disrespectful, they were being gleefully rude and disrespectful. Any time you doubt that just watch the video again.
7
Translation: Democrat fear and loathing of Trump led them to believe the lies of a non-veteran Indian professional demonstrator to conduct a high tech lynching of a bunch of kids wearing MAGA hats.
3
The MAGA crowd knew what they were doing wear garb that is the new swastika. They are no different then the raving lunatics at a Trump rally.
5
It’s a pity that the five black teens whose deaths Trump called for after they were falsely accused of rape in NYC didn’t have a Republican PR firm to help them explain “what really happened.”
(smirks)
4
@Ben Martinez
Smirking is now a capital offense, at least if done by the right.
1
Does everyone now understand that the majority of Americans and the rest of the world view those hats as the modern equivalent of Swastika armbands? Wear them and you are announcing that you are in favor of racism, you are anti- immigrant, you are a nationalist, not a patriot, and Trump is your leader.
5
I hardly think the NYT comments section is the equivalent of the “majority of Americans” and “the rest of the world” and suggest you speak for yourself. It carries more credibility. Trump isn’t just my leader, he is the President of the entire US of A. That’s what you and your fellow travelers cannot accept without going into full on TDS and picking on school boys. But, but they wore hats that trigger meeeee and I must destroy them, right?
6
@Katie Perception is everything. And yes, I am indeed a "traveler," a world traveler who hears about Trump in every country I visit. It's embarrassing to have a present like this and his MAGA cult. As a devoted public school and college teacher of 40 years, a mother of sons including one who's a Coastie, I'm certainly not one to pick on schoolboys. However, I do understand them --and also understand that they don't know what their hats are symbolizing to the majority --I'll say it again -- of the world. When we recover from our TDS in 2 years, I expect that we the majority will suffer from Post Trump Stress Disorder--as will the MAGA hatters when they realize what his deficit and policies have done to our country and beyond.
2
Kids. We were all one, once. And we all made stupid decisions for many reasons - peer pressure being a top reason. To me, this is one more example of kids who are probably not bad kids overall, but who don’t have the mental maturity to make mature decisions. I think the Sandmann boy didn’t want to be there but didn’t know what to do to extricate himself while his cohorts, from the safety and comfort of being off the main stage and on the sidelines, egged him on. Because that’s what a lot of fired up boys do. It leads me directly to the question of where the adults were who were charged with chaperoning/guiding these boys through this situation? Not only did they fail to guide them through a hugely teachable moment, they failed to immediately remove them from a volatile situation that could have escalated to injury or worse.
5
And where did they get the MAGA hats? Why would they willingly wear them? Are MAGA hats now "cool?"
2
Maureen Dowd wrote an article in the NYT about the Furies, referring to the women now entering Congress this year. The actual furies are the ready, shoot aim crowd on twitter and other social media who see or hear something, and react with outrage by tweeting their immediate ego driven judgmental response. Then the media picks up on it, and not to be out scooped, makes a bigger deal out of whatever it is.
The next day, the actual story comes out and everyone looks around at the carnage and asks, how did this happen?
Delete your twitter accounts please. Lift your head up off your devise and look around. Stay real and sane in this age of outrage. Let the journalists do their jobs first. Delay the angry judgement until the story gets told.
5
It's hard for me to shed any tears for Catholic school boys wearing MAGA hats to begin with. It shows pride, arrogance and hypocrisy and contrmpt for the poor. Things Jesus absolutely detested.
9
Don't you see what "Covington" really represents? It's a tool. And Trump uses it better than anyone. Create a phony (or a real) outrage. Watch the media swarm. Watch Americans divide. Meanwhile, rob the bank while it is all happening. Repeat.
The pea is under this coconut shell......now watch as I shuffle the three coconut shells around the table....try to guess which shell holds the pea....now the shell is here....now it's over there....now it's firing Comey.....then it's denying Nancy Pelosi an Air Force transport.....keep your eye on the moving shell.....
It's a con, and Trump is a great conman. That's all "Covington" (or MAGA, or the wall, or Charlottesville, or his Nuremberg-like rallies, or......) really is.
The only way to beat the con is to recognize it is a con, and you are being coned. Then confront the conman and chase him out of town. And learn from it.
6
Wearing the stupid MAGA hat speaks to his naïveté or implied racism.
Also, I guess his parents and teachers haven’t educated him as to how Catholics were discriminated against in our nations history. When JFK ran for president, that was a big “issue.”
And yes, using those “impressionable “(giving benefit of the doubt here) students for political purposes puts the onus on their “elders.”
It’s so easy the create hatred. This country had better get its act together.
4
@Avatar Considering how difficult it is for catholics to heal themselves on ongoing pedophlia in their church, you’d think they would train their young better. Not sure exactly how, but their church is very tarnished.
1
@ellie k. There's that, too. Yikes, really.
It's a shame. There are things about all religions that are worthwhile, but the negative aspects seems to supersede and prevail within them all for decades now.
Hopefully, this is a turning point away from the bad faith, yellow journalism that has so profoundly poisoned our body politic and national discussion.
3
So much of the progressive response to this incident is sadly reminiscent of progressive responses to other liberal auto-da-fes.
For example, when the Rolling Stone story about a claimed gang rape at a frat house at UVA proved to be obscene fiction, did progressives apologize to the wronged frat brothers who had cinder blocks thrown through their windows in their own personal Fake News Kristallnacht? Nope. They professed their certainty that those frat bros were just rapists who hadn't been caught yet.
To this day progressives on the faculty of Duke claim the Lacrosse team raped Crystal Magnum despite so much evidence to the contrary a District Attorney was disbarred for false prosecution of the young men. And the New York Times has never -- never -- apologized to the Duke Lacrosse team for its biased coverage.
Good on Mr. Bruni for his moral courage to look in the mirror. Shame on the scores of commenters here who want nothing more than to continue to participate in a mob running down white, Catholic boys for being white, Catholic boys. Covington Catholic High School is closed today, long after the more complicated truths are known, because of continuing threats of violence.
Good on the Hunkpapa Lakota man and MAGA hat man who exchanged phone numbers yesterday outside the Basilica in Kentucky to meet for coffee.
If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.
2
ySo on this issue the Times allows only one side. Thousands of commentators that no as much as r opinion staff are desperate to be heard and to show that the schools behavior was appalling...but this position is not the conventional wisdom. Just as the Times assured us that there were WMDs in Iraq now it makes heros out of a racist mob. Im sure this will not be posted and and facts such as the hiring of a PR firm by the parents of that boy will never be allowed in the paper of record. Brooks has told us Mr. Philip is a liar and thus that is what he is. You denounce a rush to judgment while you make it and truth is the casualty.
I will ask again why it is that the teenager, who actually said NOTHING, is so much more offensive to all of you than the so called "Black Israelites", who instigated all the confrontation by hurling insults like "incest babies" at everyone who passed. Please explain why you are all ignoring their undeniable rudeness, but piling on to this one teenager because he is white and you don't like his facial expression.
7
After watching all the videos, I come to the same conclusion, The behavior of the young white adults was rude at best and racist at its worst. Its too bad the adults that are now coaching the response from the young adults were not present to chaperon the event.
3
I don't buy the Sandman's or Bruni's attempt at plausible deniability. I suppose some people just have a naturally formed smirk on their face at all times? Sandman has one of those faces? and with a MAGA cap on? Do these catholic teenagers and Frank Buni think we are fools? Well yes I suppose they do. Smirk me again Nick!
Why does the taunting of Catholic teenagers with MAGA hats by 4 black men make it ok to stare down and taunt an elderly native American beating a tom tom? Typical Trump Republican racist false equivalence as a diversion to what was plainly MAGA hat wearing catholic teenagers sneering, laughing and taunting and intimidating a Native American elder. Just like the President does on a regular basis with respect to non-white Americans.
3
Two words: MAGA hat.
5
@Mark Merrill
Two words back at you. In Tolerant
3
MAGA hat boys, and their were a couple of hundred of them, support a man who has no problem saying Pocahontas as a slander. He has said Wounded Knee to slander a presidential contender. Wounded Knee was a massacre. School teachers know the look on MAGA boy's face. It's the face of an arrogant bully. He will stand in the principal's office and scream that he did nothing wrong. Only the people who say that idiot glare will know the truth.
4
To be honest, I read the first article and the following ones and just felt sad. Why do media “columnists” who work for publications, jump the gun and then berate their readers for creating opinions based on what was written? Maybe if news outlets (all of them) stopped their 24/7 hysterical reactionary focus, the American people would get back their quality news. You are all so eager for click bait that you force news when there isn’t any. And then chastise us for believing what you wrote. (Collective You). Look in the mirror, please.
2
If you'll check your monitors, you will see those smug brats are still taking interviews and wearing their Trump caps
3
Wow. From over here, y'all need to quit hyperventilating. Does the country have a lot of problems? Yes. Does having a mass-hysteria social media outrage mob help? Absolutely not. You should see when the Europeans have protests. They set cars on fire and fight the riot police. (Gilets Jaunes anyone? Catalans?) The next day everyone's like, cool, whatever, have a glass of wine. So? Some punks got whipped up into a frenzy by some mean grown-ups calling them bad names, and then were rude to a Native American, and were wearing some baseball caps no one likes. And GASP, they were Trump supporters, how DARE they be??? Oh, yeah because as Americans, it's their right? Since when does everyone on the planet behave perfectly all the time, especially a group of 15 and 16 year old boys who are adrenalized and in their own little mob? Why is everyone so shocked? And then all you see are supposedly sane liberals calling for their life destruction and ruination, for violence, for them to "just set themselves on fire" as I saw one nice Californian lady call for. Keep singing kumbaya to yourselves, but you're not advancing the actual rights and dignity of the minorities you think you are protecting by acting like a bunch of old ladies clutching their pearls every time people act like jerks.
2
For recompense, Trump could have republicans attach a Vatican appreciation rider onto H.R. 1697 Israel Anti Boycott Act. Man o' man, the last thing democrats want is to have millions of lapsed Catholics in blue and purple states actually care about Catholicism. Never arouse the latent medieval. This whole mess is like a Steve Bannon fever dream. Or simply one of his carefully crafted media runaway outrage loops.
Why on earth did a Boys School go to an event about abortion?
When these young people get a uterus ... their opinions will matter. Until then ... they are promoting chattel.
And I don't care how fast the rush to judgment was .... Sandmann was, is, and continues to be a jerk. He deserves a life of derision over this.
2
@Barb Cook When I saw that kid's smirk, I immediately thought of Kavanaugh, too. White, entitled, rich and belonging to a completely corrupt church.
4
How this started is under question and is up for discussion. But here is what is indisputable. These boys came to Washington because they are against women's rights to chose to end a pregnancy and against contraception. They were wearing hats supporting a man who has zero respect for women and who bragged about sexually assaulting them. He is a man who even says vulgar things about his own daughters. He lies every time he opens his mouth. He is an unrepentant racist. The boys had chaperones, but those chaperones did nothing to avoid this confrontation. The boys absolutely did jump up and down and Tomahawk chop. When they were accused of harassing the Native American drummer, their parents called in a PR firm. I can't think of a bunch of more entitled children and parents than these people.
862
@Ceilidth
Bruno raises the point about the MSM "quick" rush to judgement. I agree with much of what he writes. You would think after BuzzFeed that more facts would have been gathered before a judgement made?
But I believe he missed several important points. CNN was first to report the story and as late as last night they still hadn't made an apology and were still blaming the "boy" for instigating the whole affair. I believe CNN has abandoned good journalistic standards for sensational scoops. Secondly, like CNN, Bruni suggests the same spark - "glimmers of something cruel and even dangerous" caused the problem.
Therein lies I believe a slice of the media that has a bias against what they consider "White maga wearing Catholic boys of privaledge." Watching NBC interview of Nicholas Sandmann he indicated he wanted to diffuse any potential conflict and the "smile" was his way of indicating the need for calmness.
Some are now starting to suggest if the boys were African-American or from Hollywood the media's response would be different? What do you think?
23
@Ceilidth In addition to your comments, I'm wondering why there hasn't been more said about the boys chanting "build that wall" - I'm pretty sure I heard that correctly in the video. That didn't do anything to defuse the situation - just poured gasoline on the fire, I think.
70
@Ceilidth. Yup. They wore MAGA hats and have ideals different fro mine. They must be evil.
32
It seems that the majority of the comments that the boys should have been removed from the conflicted situation for “safety” are under feminine names.
One reason people go to boys schools is for education in masculine values. Being willing to stand in the face of intimidation and confrontation is among them.
@KBronson
Oh, my .... that isn't the primary stance of Christianity, unless you have actually been hit on one cheek, and then it is to stand and turn the other.
3
So Bruni would have been fine if it was the Westboro Church winding up a pack of teen boys to harass a gay rights gathering, while the chaperones stood by? Got it!
The presence of a few members of a tiny black cult, has the white pundit class in a tizzy, excusing the atrocious behavior of dozens of boys. After a morning of harassing women and girls at a "pro-life" march(also caught on video). While adult chaperones, including priests, stood back. They didn't need the Israelites to get them going. No video changes what we can see these boys doing.
1
Although I'm a liberal, and disagree with Trump on large amount o issues, I am glad to see the composure of the smiling teenage boy. This incident has increased my frustration with certain bloggers, but it has also increased my hope in our nation's future.
To be harassed by one mob, and then to be confronted by another stranger, and still be able to remain calm and non-confrontational is a mark of good Christian character. I would hope that my son will act like him, should he be placed in such a difficult situation.
3
Ok. Well. I'm not condemning anyone.
But why must a bunch of highschool kids be supported in publicly protesting their opinions? Whether on abortion or any other issue. I’d allow an exception for gun control, about which 'adults' have been woefully neglectful. Otherwise, pro or contra their opinions are not their own, but those of their teachers and parents. And in a few years, most will have outgrown their vehemently held certainties.
As for the Black Hebrew Israelites (why the redundancy) could they not be encouraged to follow the example of Moses and take off on a forty-year hike through a wilderness. There’s a desert in Arizona that might serve their purposes, and another in Asia, called the Gobi, which though not as near is not impossibly distant either.
I’ve no snide remarks to make about the drumming pensioner. Though, as nothing provokes mockery more, or is more likely to lead to bloodshed, than a failed peace mission in future he might leave the task of stepping between hostile factions to trained personnel.
In my opinion, wearing MAGA hats to the Women's March is akin to wearing a Yankees' hat to a Red Sox:Yankees game in Fenway park. You only do it to provoke. It then becomes inflammatory. Those teenagers, chaperons and school administrators should have known better.
The media should also think a bit more before squirting gasoline in the hopes that there are embers somewhere. The current feeling that seems to be prevalent in the mdedia is "if it bleeds it leads"
2
@Excessive Moderation They were at the much, much more attended Right to Life March - you know, the one NYT ignores. You should expand your media if you want to be informed.
2
@Excessive Moderation
Then learn not to be provoked. It's a sign of maturity.
1
@Ambrose Rivers I regret not having brought that march into my comment but I still stay with my original premise.
It takes too long, it seems, for most Americans these days to consider analytically any contentious situation, especially like the one the other day that exhibited a range of behaviors that could be conveniently used to justify some preferred political bias or other. Apparently being more and more lost, there seems to be an anxious hurry for many Americans ... such as those inclined to show up for rallies ... to grab onto anything a case is being made for, to provide personal security, albeit group/ mob-dependent. It’s just what America has largely become ... desperate, un-thorough, arrogantly self-absorbed to the degree of being vicious, in need of fast answers, etc., and maybe worst of all, un-courageous. The media cannot possibly reverse the situation, but these agencies can ... from the right of free press ... make matters much worse, and quickly do so sometimes. Our national conversation often looks more like gossip than anything else. The accusation of “fake news” ... though from a duplicitous, obnoxious source ... is one to be taken seriously, including by consumers, for journalism to be responsible.
I have no doubt that if any of these boys were my own, I would be furious at them for their behavior. Anyone who has ever walked the streets in NYC knows to ignore the Hebrew Israelites. They spew nonsense and hate and act like crazy people. The boys had no reason to engage with them at all. As for the way they treated the Native American man, the video shows the disrespect and racism. No matter how you spin it. Having said all that, as a parent and an adult I am very troubled that a minor's image can be broadcast around the world without permission from his parents. At this point it is far too late to stop these kids from being associated with this forever. The bigger picture here is our complete loss of privacy, regardless of age, that is being sacrificed in a world where every cell phone is turned into a news camera. We should all be afraid of that, no matter how we feel about the kids in question.
You keep saying "we".
What you really mean is "the mainstream media", "the liberal media", because The Right, even the responsible Right, is so far gone it will never make a comeback.
You're right, of course. But you also demonstrate the inherent weakness of those who wish to be constructive, be civil, and move on to real issues.
I have no clue about any kind of answer, but I know from bitter experience that maintaining old-school decorum, a professional demeanor, some shred of humanity is no way to deal with fire-breathing liars and religion-soaked bigots of Conservatism. Certainly it is a hopeless approach to Trumpism.
This is no call for no-holds barred spitting contests, but simple adherence to good form will do nothing but get us, our democracy, and our country crushed all the sooner.
Of course there are alternate interpretations of the Catholic Schoolboys in MAGA Hats vs Everybody death match, but the fine young gentleman fake-smiling for long minutes in the face of a man trying to keep the peace is a display of arrogant confrontation that ought not to stand.
Of course, as a he says, he had every right to be there. But he shouldn't have been.
1
I see two dynamics at work here, one jet-propelling the other.
First, the media's "scoop" mentality -- the need to be first, the need to generate clicks, outweighs the need to be accurate and complete. Add to that a juicy racist/victimhood flavor and you have all the ingredients for fake news. And it was fake news, because without the context all you had was that picture -- MAGA wearing teen with a slightly creepy grin on his face, staring at a elderly man beating a Native American drum. That's not enough to base real news on, but it's fine if all you want is a scoop.
1
Give me a break. My "hot take" was not disproven one bit by any extra footage, nor by the teenager's ridiculous lie that he and not a lawyer wrote his response to the incident.
MAGA sneering and contempt and "tomahawk chops" are what the "hot takes" responded to, and that's exactly what happened.
6
"entitlement, cruelty and racism persist"
That's indeed for sure, and some blacks, browns, and reds are guilty of it too.
It's one reason why I also read daily not only the NYT but also The Wall Street Journal, and view not only CNN and MSNBC but also Fox News - to obtain a more complete and more balanced view of the news.
1
Yes, initial presentations were arguably slanted.
Yet human beings live and die by interpreting facial and body expressions, and that smug, posturing young man got the attention he craved.
His school was ignorant enough to call blackface a "blackout" game, and to send a pack of young males with trigger hats to chant and jump in a tribal ritual of entitled testosterone.
If anything, I learned more about how irresponsible this school has been, and how uneducated its students and parents.
4
Where is common courtesy?
5
Wearing a MAGA hat is an inherently political and hateful act. Identifying oneself with the racist zealots in the current administration will unmistakably color the way the wearer's actions are interpreted.
I have no interest in the kid's carefully crafted narrative from a paid PR firm. I don't dispute their first amendment right to wear MAGA gear. But don't get upset when the political statements you chose to wear inform others' view of your actions.
5
Bruni, you're going to take heat here for this one. So be it.
Why aren't we all talking about... oh, I don't know... maybe the Trump administration's efforts to weaken restrictions on the use of trichloroethylene? Children are becoming seriously ill in Indiana where levels of the chemical, which the CDC has listed as a carcinogen, are testing extremely high. The EPA has apparently stated there is no health risk.
Doesn't this seem like a more pressing debate?
3
Your piece was excellent, but judging from the comments in the left leaning press - all I read - no one is budging from their initial assessments, for reasons you describe.
I missed this story too, until the CNN report that shocked me in its stark debunking of the earlier reports. The reporter didn't hesitate or use the 'there are bad people on all sides' fall back. This CNN reporter clearly put the fault on the Black Israelites, she provided video of some vile taunts, including call the boys 'incest babies' - which I haven't seen or read anywhere else, said they'd been taunted for over an hour before reacting. Anderson Cooper looked stunned. I was actually feeling this reporter - a woman of color, not that it should matter, but these days it does - was going to get in trouble.
We need more journalists like the CNN reporter. She, so far, has been the only one to report honestly on the incident.
5
And yet, these boys are now going to meet with Trump, the center of the sun of hate and pride, to get pats on the back.
4
The times and other outlets generally emphasize the ugliness and partisan nature of this incident. The real story is the complete lack of any journalistic standards. To call this story fake news is an insult to fake news. The Russians or Saudis would have been less ham handed in their efforts to undermine our society. They have to earn their credibility, somehow the times still had some.
This is awful. I have no idea who's lying to me or how hard. I used to enjoy checking you guys out then fox maybe the post or WSJ. Then triangulate to what may be the truth. All of you are lying all the time. Usually not directly but enough that none of the information I can get is useful for anything but figuring out how much I've been lied to after the fact. Is this what you were aiming for?
6
Well put. I'm afraid I missed this entire episode "live" - I was side-tracked by what seemed to be more important things, namely the Saturday Met matinee and dread of the much-ballyhooed snowstorm. Catching up on Sunday, I, too, was amazed that the whole earth-shaking event appeared to hinge on the so-called "smirk" photograph, a picture that launched a thousand condemnations. What?? Even I, a frothing Trump loather, thought this was a proverbial bridge too far. Lord knows, I've been captured in less than flattering or truthful photos that reflected a millisecond of the continuum. This launched a probing national debate? I'd say, a pox on all trigger-happy pundits, left and right. Taking a deep, exasperated breath, I'm glad I listened to a somewhat inscrutable opera rather than glaring at CNN or MSNBC or, god forbid, Fox. Time is too precious for nonsense.
4
Aside from the individuals involved in this incident and their families and friends, WHO CARES? Enough with the ridiculous extrapolation of this isolated event into one that has any national implications. It doesn't.
3
Dear Frank: What is the point of this self-effacement? I thought I would learn what actually happened...
Sometimes, what one sees & hears is precisely what is occurring.
5
The culture at Covington is summed up by the students who came to a basketball game wearing blackface, because there was a lone African American player on the opposing team. That tells me all I need to know about that smirking little adolescent facing down the Indigenous American. Trying to calm the situation he wasn't.
7
if the Covington high hooligans had been black, there would have been multiple arrests, if not beatings administered by police. doesn't that tell us what we need to learn from this fiasco?
2
It was a smirk. My opinion is that the MAGA hat wearing kid is that he an active supporter of Trump and stands for what Trump stands for. And listening to his statements, he lies like Trump. I watched all the videos and they haven't changed my mind.
6
@ Larryp
I suspect you have not changed your mind because you don't want to change your mind. It's just too satisfying to hate those kids, isn't it?
3
The disgrace is the media's manipulation of a non-criminal interaction of individuals into a sensationalized national news story promoted to inflame Americans and generate more animosity.
5
All I know is that the smirk on that kids face is him showing off for his peers with rude unmistakable cocky arrogance and his parents and school officials should do something about it. Of course, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, so I doubt we can expect much from his daddy and mommy.
4
So now as we enter the end-phase of this news event... we are arriving at the inevitable point of all new stories lately... the collective shrug. The PR firms and conservative media outlets have achieved their goal - quickly assembling an alternative facts/ counter-narrative whereby this kid is completely justified in acting like he did... even celebrating him. The equivalent of "we'll never know what really happened - so let's just agree to disagree," "just locker room talk", "boys will be boys."
I've read the counter-stories that these kids were also belittled by the Black Hebrew Israelites... which is also unfortunate. But it does not give permission nor excuse subsequent bad behavior by these kids. If someone cuts me off in traffic, it does not give me permission to take it out my spouse when I get home. When I read columns like this one that fret how we all got it wrong on this time... I really worry because - here we go again...
The overeager-to-please/ seeking to find equivalence in both sides of the story/ fair-and-balanced "liberal" media is again being co-opted to disseminate the gospel of the end of personal virtue, accountability and the dignity in supporting anyone outside our own tribe. Work a little harder.
1
I don't get all this self-flagellation.
Those kids were behaving hideously. Rowdy RedState hate. A direct consequence of Trumpism's war on 'Political Correctness'.
The 'Israelites' were behaving badly, a product of the many cults of biblicalists perpetually radicalized in their sectarian hostilities & venom at non-Christians over some certitude in mythological interpretations.
All that aside, remember when every Redstate Media pundit instantly piled onto the 'MagaBomber' conspiracy theory, blatantly blaming the bombs on some liberal false-flag?
The list of culprits was stunning, dwarfing their lockstep midterm propaganda of 'left wing mobs', 'invasions' of 'caravans', 'open borders' Trump's 'Willie Horton' ad, etc.
To name a few:
Lou Dobbs
Ann Coulter
James Woods
Michael Savage
Bill Mitchell
John Cardillo
Laura Loomer
Wayne Dupree
Candace Owens
Etc.
All these extremists proclaimed with certitude: 'Liberals did it'.
Where's their mea culpa? Crickets. Despite their being 100% wrong (unlike the MagaHat Mob who were far from innocent).
Look, Trumpism is truly an emergency. Suggest the press & pundits stop tearing themselves down.
In reality, Nobody lies like Trump (8,158 Lies to date, not a one unintentional) & Nobody lies like Fox, Hannity, Dobbs, Coulter, Ingraham, Gingrich, et. al. (just check their PunditFacts).
Bucker up, keep fighting for truth best you can in an avalanche of TrumpLies. Don't beat yourselves up over some slight possible overstated alarm.
Next.
4
"With everything from Twitter followers to television bookings, we’re rewarded for fierce conviction, for utter certainty, for emphatically taking sides and staying unconditionally faithful to what we’ve pushed for and against in the past." Yeah, I get that. But at least one of your own news reporters, not an opinion columnist, trashed these kids on Twitter. How can that individual, and others, even pretend to be objective when they are tweeting like our idiot-in-chief? Maybe the NYT and other media outlets need to examine their own social media policies.
5
Thank you for calling yourself and us out on this...
2
Excellent article!
1
1. These boys are minors; everyone else involved including pundits like Reza Aslan who said Nick Sandmann has a punchable face, is an adult.
2. A lot was made of the expression on Nick Sandmann's face. George Orwell on the subject, "The smallest thing could give you away. A nervous tic, an unconscious look of anxiety, a habit of muttering to yourself -- anything that carried with it the suggestion of abnormality, of having something to hide. In any case, to wear an improper expression on your face (to look incredulous when a victory was announced, for example) was itself a punishable offence. There was even a word for it in Newspeak: facecrime, it was called. " 1984, Chapter 5
3. Here is the SPLC on the Black Hebrew Israelites. It explicitly says they have a black supremacist wing: https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2008/racist-black-hebrew-israelites-becoming-more-militant Yet no outrage.
4. The eye of the storm Nathan Philips has what the Brits call form. Check his outrage in this story; suspiciously similar to the one at hand: https://www.westernjournal.com/ct/drum-banging-indian-nathan-phillips-news-4-years-ago-telling-eerily-similar-story/ Also check the video embedded in the story at the 1:05 mark. Mr. Philips claims in his own voice to be a Vietnam Vet making the NYT's recent Twitter retraction pointless.
Is this news fit to print?
8
Well said!
3
Oh how I wish the media/pundit reflection and self-flagellation over demonizing and humanity-stripping of 17 year old Trayvon Martin and 12 year old Tamir Rice were this quick. Actually, it never occurred.
4
Irrelevant.
No one claims that native Americans are all saintly nor that all Catholic prep-school teenage males follow the lead of now Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh in sexual attacks, heavy intoxication or bullying of the "Other", whether someone with a darker skin, native American features, a female, a non-native English speaker and so on.
However, the presence of white, teenage boys from such a prep-school environment, far from home, wearing memorabilia of proven serial liar, sexual reprobate, white collar criminal, Mr Trump, involved in politically-charged, mass gatherings will inevitably lead to unacceptable behavior by said boys.
3
Excellent article, Frank Bruni.
1
Just about note perfect.
But now I too will return to a favored theme. Consider whether racism and sexism are pretty much always problematic and wrong. Anyone who works to apply snarl words or pernicious group libels to a group they disfavor defined by race, gender, or both, even if they work hard to oppose people who apply loaded racist or sexist terms to groups defined by race or gender that they favor, is almost surely getting things wrong.
Sometimes criticism is called for, but people such as MLK seem to find a way to critique behavior or patterns of thinking without resorting to snarl words or group libels. From a recent NYT op-ed:
“In his 1967 book “Where Do We Go From Here,” Dr. King noted the limits of Northern liberalism: “Negroes have proceeded from a premise that equality means what it says.” “But most whites in America, including many of good will,” he wrote “proceed from a premise that equality is a loose expression for improvement. White America is not even psychologically organized to close the gap.’”
I think he correctly described the mental and emotional reflexes of most American whites of that day. I’m not willing to say that about most group descriptions I read nowadays.
And that's why I identify as a liberal. Fox News has never, ever, ever admitted that they rushed to judgement about anything.
2
So maybe the smirking, mocking, tomahawk-chopping white kids weren't behaving quite as awfully in that particular instance as was first widely reported and condemned.
But here's the thing.
The fact of them wearing the MAGA hats tells me, with no doubt whatsoever, that they are the type of people who WOULD behave exactly as initially reported (and likely have many times in the past up to that moment).
Spare me the pearl-clutching disbelief. MAGA hat equals white hood, brown shirt, pick your historical analogy ... none of them are benign.
2
Oh my gosh, Servatius, if your comment weren’t so horrifying it would be funny in its absolute refusal to acknowledge the reality that though YOU DO NOT KNOW THESE BOYS, you are eager to blithely assert that “they are the type of people who WOULD behave exactly as initially reported.” You then double down on your claim to omniscience by stating that the boys “likely have” behaved exactly as reported “many times in the past up to that moment.” You give no evidence admissible in a court of law or acceptable to any fair minded person for your conclusions. Instead, you appear to intuit all of this due to a hat and a race. Do society a favor and never serve on a jury in a criminal case. Your comment displays a disturbing tendency to assume the truth of facts not in evidence based on your own VERY apparent biases.
8
I don't quite understand this whole issue. What I saw in the clips was a lack of adult action. Having chaperoned large groups of youth in large crowds, it is easy to get split up. But someone should have helped these kids (15 to 17 years old) out of this situation. Second, the kids should not have been wearing divisive MAGA hats to a Pro-Life rally. And third where is the criticism of adult Native Americans getting in the face of kids. And even more importantly, where is the criticism of the adult Black Hebrew Israelites for their verbal insults and attacks? Fine, be upset with the stupid hats, but don't forget the stupid adults.
2
@Pablo There are plenty of videos racing around the internet now. One of a group of catholic male students jeering, one has a Covington HS hoodie, and there is a male adult in the semi circle standing passively. Considering a priest from the diocese posted a rude remark about ugly feminists one has to wonder about that enivronment and the values fostered.
2
@ellie k.
I just don't know what to think. I felt as though reality changed after Trump was elected. I am from North Central Iowa. I was shocked how people I have known all my life, including four sisters (three who lived in California for 20+ years), saw Trump as intelligent and hard working.
All I saw was a lazy grifter, too lazy to bother with any learning or understanding.
Now a video comes out of some kids. And people with whom I supposed shared a common view based on the view of Trump crazy, see an entirely different scene.
Makes me question what is real.
"To wear an improper expression on your face ... was itself a punishable offense ... There was even a word for it in Newspeak: FACECRIME it was called."
-- George Orwell, 1984
8
Except the evidence cited was not inconclusive or wrong. Frank, use your eyes. It's all right there in front of your eyes. The defenders of these kids keep bringing up the other videos. Guess what? The other videos do not vindicate the kids for their awful, stupid, vile behavior. Did you see the video where they harassed some girls walking by earlier? How about the photo of these fine young men dressed in blackface at a basketball game? They deserve to be called out for it. The videos put the photo into context. They acted like buffoons, and now they're getting a hero's welcome from the head buffoon in the White House. They're not victims, and shame on you and everyone else in the media for twisting this incident into a false narrative. It is gaslighting at it's finest.
3
An insignificant interaction between a teenager and an adult native protestor has now taken up space in this Newspaper how many times? Brooks, Douthat, now Bruni. We better have Kristoff and Krugman write about it too.
Look NY Times - one of the reasons I have enjoyed reading your editorials and news for years now is that I would find information and analysis I couldn't find elsewhere. I was annoyed by TV media and social media because TV media became controlled by social media. Endless coverage of "tweets", reports on viral videos, conspiracies about foreign agents manipulating social media, etc.
In terms of the ladder - is the NY Times now unwittingly complicit in amplifying the ridiculous tabloid reports on social media and the outrage cycle spawned by fake news, division, and hate?
Stop taking your orders from the machine. Stop participating in the very forces that are making everyone feel like they must be divided by identity. Stopped throwing fuel on the fire.
Rise above it NY Times. You are better than this. There is really much, much more important things to be writing about than a staredown between a teenager and a drum beating activist.
Now get to work or I will cancel my subscription.
1
What is clear in general from an incident in which many details are unclear is that there is a vicious, glaring racial divide in the country that Napolean Bonespurs is ripping ever wider. It's ruining the country. Or as he would say, countryty.
3
White teenage boys in MAGA hats at an anti-abortion rally. This woman wasn't even there and I feel intimidated.
6
It is outrageous for students on a Catholic high-school trip to be wearing MAGA hats. MAGA hats are hate speech, like white hoods or confederate flags. Chaperones should have required that the MAGA hats be left back in Kentucky.
3
I remember being their age and I would never have behaved in this manner. These teens were unruly and should have walked on no matter who was egging them on. In fact, where in the heck were their chaperones? And wearing those MAGA hats and the kid cycling by with the MAGA sweat shirt on (not sure if he was with the out of town teens) just politicized it. Those red hats mean intolerance for many of us I am sorry. From all the videos I have seen, it seems to me that Mr. Phillips was trying to defuse a tense situation. Sandmann should have stood down.
3
“ The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command “ - George Orwell.
MAGA, anyone ???
4
That 'hasty condemnation' was based on the evidence of our eyes and ears. This evidence hasn't changed. If this kid was black, and the elder was a cop - or just a random Florida white dude - the kid would be dead now and media all over would look for excuses for his shooting. Did he smoke pot? Did some vaguely similar looking kid (they all look them same you know!) rob a convenience store a couple blocks over earlier? isn't it understandable for a full grown man with a partner backing them uo to feel so threatened by a single fifteen-year old they shot him 15 times?
But the kid's white (and has parents rich enough to hire a PR firm), the elder is Native American - so the kid wasn't shot, and the media desperately look for "context" allowing them to blame the kid's behaviour on some person of colour: the Native American guy "invading" the space of dozens of white kids - didn't you know, he has been "involved in controversy before" - the African American cult members taunting the white kids.
4
Will this nonsense ever stop? The "social" media and "news" media are enmeshed as one. Screaming and yelling has replaced analysis and thought. This article is great, and a sad commentary on our current society. It's all about how to get heard and be paid for idiotic interpretations of "facts". If the facts go against you , just manipulate them to fit your narrative. The "resistance" movement against Trump is stupid, it accomplishes nothing and stoops to create hatred. BTW how many Priviledged people live in Covington, KY ? I believe there are more of these people at NYT, CNN, MSNBC, and FOX News. It's frightening and hard to take any of these organizations seriously.
1
There is nothing as powerful as great writing and Bruni has done it again and again. "A crowd was forming and the clock was ticking and nobody wanted to be late to the inquisition. A “hot take” is prized — hence the well-known phrase for this instant analysis. Nobody talks about a “cold take,” though that’s the temperature of truth."
1
“... I’m sure that if I scrubbed my Twitter history, I’d find that I’ve behaved in the fashion that I’m lamenting here.”
Oh, you don’t have to go that far back: the entire theme of your Friday column was based on the now-discredited Buzzfeed report that Mueller had evidence that Trump directed Cohen to lie for him. Your hatred of Trump blinded your judgement, and you abandoned your role as a journalist and joined the vulgar, shouting mob.
Nobody takes glee in your misstep. I pay a monthly subscription for news and opinions that I expect to be professionally vetted and written; I don’t think I’m being unreasonable. Try to do better.
The maga hat is not the swastika. And no matter how strongly you disagree with their politics, the kids protesting against abortion in these hats are not the equivalent of nazis. Yes, I understand that teenage boys can be obnoxious at times but they absolutely should not have been subjugated to the astounding language thrown at them by the protesting groups who instigated the entire mess, including the native american group. And I have news for the parents of boys who are publicly congratulating themselves for "raised their sons right". I can almost guarantee that at some point, at some time, your son will act arrogant and/or offend someone, deliberately or without meaning too. I just hope when happens..., well, you get my gist.
Is this the tolerance and just world espoused by the left? The hatred and vitriol towards these 14 and 15 olds is astounding.
2
Even Nazis did not think they were Nazis. Not the way we think of them now. But they were and these kids are also acting out the same impulses that the Nazi did back in the 30s. We reminded everybody of Nazi youth. If you’re condoning that behavior you’re part of the problem.
2
Shaping reality to fit your ideology is not new. The left has had it's panties twisted since the 2016 election. The moronic reaction to these children has shown how disturbing and debilitating things have gotten in this country. The most ironic thing about this episode is that it was thought to be a bridge back to their accustomed norms of the hate of the President. The Buzz Feed fiasco did not teach any lessons. Doomed to repeat history is the result of both arrogance and immaturity. As it turns out the only adult was the student who stood his ground and smiled.
2
The hate and vitriol against these kids, their families, their school, and their faith - is stunning and is Exhibit A of the left wing mob incited by social media. For specifics, just see the most popular comments in response to Brooks and Douthat.
Two messages to the left wing mob:
1. A maga hat is not a KKK hood
2. The black nationalists instigated this but no one is a
calling them out.
I thought my fellow NYT readers were better than this - their reflexive response justifies Brooks original points. I hope David writes a follow up "I told you so" column.
3
Neither smirk nor sneer, the smile on that boys face was a mask. I’ve lived, and been confronted by crazies, in San Franspcisco, Chicago and Manhattan. What you do is freeze the best face you can muster to ensure the crazy person accosting you doesn’t get crazier...and hope for the best. Whether being told “ don’t pressure me white boy!” (SF) or being spitted on while repeatedly asked “do you like tuna?” (Chicago), I tried to look happy and harmless, with perhaps the same smile as the Covington boy, I don’t know and there is no video record. Thank God.
2
The Covington incident reporting was racial profiling, pure and simple. The news media normally gets away with racially profiling whites, and were it not for the extra footage the Covington incident would have been no exception.
Frank Bruni says “Some of the condemners counter that their essential point remains, that entitlement, cruelty and racism persist .” Entitlement, cruelty and racism was certainly on display in the Covington incident.
Nathan Phillips, a charlatan who falsely masquerades as a Vietnam veteran, knew his Native American ancestry entitled him to play the martyr. In its reporting on the Covington incident, the New York Times provided a link to allow its subscribers to “read about the Wounded Knee massacre,” as if the Covington teens bear some racial guilt for the 1890 massacre.
As adult members of the Black Hebrew Israelites hate group shouted cruel insults and racial slurs at the Covington teens, Phillips provocatively banged his drum in one of the student’s face, knowing the news media would accept his absurd explanation that banging a drum in a person's face is peace gesture. Even now, Bruni focuses on whether the student smiled or smirked. He can’t bring himself to criticize Phillips because he is “indigenous” or condemn the Black Hebrew Israelites as racists because they are “people of color.”
2
I am fortunate to have grandchildren the ages of those boy. While I don’t consider them to be perfect, I can say with utmost confidence that not one of them would have stood with such utter disrespect in front of a man old enough to be their grandfather, no matter who was the “aggressor.” And sorry PR execs, NYT pundits, and other apologists, that was a smirk on Mr. Sandmann’s face. That boy’s mother jumped to her own conclusion that the trouble began with “black Muslims.” Why hasn’t she apologized to millions of American Muslims for her rush to judgement?
3
Frank, Covington is so yesterday - and it's almost tomorrow...
Is this true???
https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2019/01/19/us/ap-us-border-activists-arrested-.html
“...A federal judge has found four women guilty of entering a national wildlife refuge without a permit as they sought to place food and water in the Arizona desert for migrants...
If so, while it may not totally convince me ICE should be abolished – it does make me think I should go shake a border chain-link fence somewhere...
Thankfully, in America, we have young Congresspeople to do this...
Though that’s the House – our young Senators are too busy running for President...
PS
For every Covington you folks over-hype, there’re ten things instigated by minorities that you under-hype...
Seems to average out about right – given how things are being run these days...
PPS
Solidarity is not about reinforcing who you are – it’s about reinforcing who you are not...
Most universally – you are not:
> Alone
> Inferior
There are – in this great land – as many people who:
> Are like you as dislike you
> Think you are every bit the person they are – even though you are someone else
To continually not feel alone or inferior – that shouldn’t be a privilege for only some...
While we can find dignity in what we do (aka work) – we need to have dignity in who we are...
If you think your work – whether at the point of a gun or a pen – entails robbing others of dignity...
You are no better than a common thief...
Worse than our criticizing journalists’ rush to judgment, we are, more and more, simply tuning you out.
1
Well isn’t that what all Trump supporters do?
2
The MAGA teens parents' PR consultants have apparently impressed Bruni, Douthart, et al to jump on their bandwagon.
Jay Willis at GQ has a better understanding IMO.
https://www.gq.com/story/maga-teens-benefit-of-the-doubt?fbclid=IwAR0ofjS23hB_tE_FkQgz1q4vR-NIigAnXKwBNcTQkbyCrn7fvtGQ8F_WGd4
3
Embarrassing, Frank, that you are falling for a PR firm’s concoction. If you want to be useful, do some independent research and report more of the background on this school and these kids. NYT readers want facts, not mealy-mouthed temporizing.
2
Where did the MAGA hats come from. Did the Catholic boys buy them or did someone give them to them. Why was a Catholic boys high school wearing them to an anti-abortion rally? Where were any chaperones? The only adults were the Black Jews and the Vietnam veterans.
I don’t think the original snap judgments were that far off. What has the Catholic Church become?
2
i don't know. This seems like a column for columnists. It addresses itself to columnists. Could columnists take a retreat
somewhere and work out their guilt for driving a lot of this?
Inquisition? All this is as bad as the inquisition? That's approaching the danger level of hyperbole.
On the other hand, a mob of angry, entitled, future frat boys mocking Native Americans and having an issue with 3 Black Isrealites while actively, physically, confronting and leering at a Native American veteran in an aggressive manner is just about right. https://vimeo.com/312330750
2
It's mlk day...Time for the new York times to do another piece on building empathy for white working poor and middle class trumo voters and understanding their frustrations and their heritage.
1
Yes Frank, there were "some very fine people" among those white nationalists in Charlottesville as well. The knee jerk reaction was so overblown!
1
Shame on us for being fooled by the PR firm hired by at least one kid's parents to handle this story, probably to write an apology letter, and to release additional footage that does nothing in particular to exonerate these privileged little monsters. https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/local/2019/01/21/covington-catholic-runswitch-pr-helped-student-in-controversial-video/2638400002/
1
Public demonstration requires much of the demonstrator—maturity, responsibility, accountability, and guts, lots of guts. Anyone who has ever demonstrated knows that it is at once scary and powerful. You put yourself out there in a way unlike any other and you need to be prepared for the consequences. It is not, nor should it ever be, a field trip experience. Covington Catholic sent a group of chaperones and students to a public demonstration on a weekend of marathon public demonstrations in the public demonstration capital of the world. They were not prepared for the consequences and now we are all suffering. Pundits have twisted themselves into pretzels to turn Nick
Sandmann into a “new-Nazi” or a “true American hero” while some in his community insist that he and his classmates are just “children”. He and they are none of these things. But for sure they were feckless demonstrators.
Why are a group of teenage boys brought to an anti-abortion rally? What right do teenage boys have in having a say on women's abortion rights?
1
@MichaelT
They have the same rights as any other citizen. Get over it.
4
Reading between the lines of this editorial one still finds the liberal leaning. The "complex sequence of events" took place after the actual event with the teens. It was the lib media that rushed to judgment causing the "sequence." Also, no mention was made of the fact that the "indian elder" now appears to be lying about his role thus increasing the complexity. God forbid we discuss the passing "Israelites."
The swastika was ancient symbol of peace that was in use in many different cultures for at least 5,000 years before Adolf Hitler made it the centerpiece of Nazis identity. There's no historical ambiguity with Trump's MAGA hats. We know perfectly well what they stand for: white hood, burning cross, red MAGA hat, Charlottesville.
1
We are seeing before our eyes the rise of Trump's "MAGA Youth". Maybe it's a good thing that they feel bad enough about their behavior to hire a PR firm. But you really don't need CNN to inform you of "what is going on." All you need a solid understanding of the vehicles that brought the Third Reich to power.
Now, Frank Bruni has said it: "the white patriarchy." They are the new Enemy Within, symbolized in the fresh-faced Catholic boys vibing the Native American.
Bruni's sarcastic line is, nevertheless, an accurate reflection of what has happened to our culture in the past 2 years. It has become mainstream and acceptable, even in the media, to hate (1) men, aka "the patriarchy", and (2) white people, who are thought to inherently suffer from "white privilege" no matter their economic status, joblessness, heroin addiction, povery, disease, or other traumas.
Make a Venn diagram of #1 & #2, and you see that white men are the new N-words. Amazingly, a report in the NY Times quoted the Islamists calling the white boy a "cracker" which is certainly a racist epithet. So now the news can't use the N-word, but the C-word is OK because...why?
Is this progress?
1
Well.... cut out from the video compilation by NY Times that appeared today is the chant "built that wall, built the wall" chant by the Covington HS boys in MAGA hats. It was brief but it really happened. I showed the first video that surfaced (not this politically correct show-all-sides-to-story NY Times compilation) to my son and told him that I never, ever want to see him in such video, ever. It was a perfect example of a teaching moment.
Sorry, all these apologies for rush to judge poor Catholic school boys is really unwarranted. Here is a suggestion. How about liberals and center-leftist stop being apologetic for holding a leftist opinions and judgements? I didn't hear any of the GOPers apologizing for Kavanaugh after the stories about his extensive bad behavior surfaced.
1
Certainly no one wants teens getting death threats. But common sense is that the teen should've helped the elderly Native go by. The stare down was idiotic--
1
@That's what she said
"Elderly" is a stretch. It conjures a walking cane, perhaps a walker and difficulties with sight and hearing. This Native American was none of those; he appeared to be in his early to mid 60s (at 67, I do not consider myself, or my peers, to be "elderly". It gets in the way of a good gym workout).
Besides, he waded into the crowd beating his drum. The boys are not required to give way.
2
Sorry the MAGA hat is more than just political paraphernalia. It's a state of mind. It's a statement no different than wearing a white hood. Pundits didn't create that. Videos of rallies of hate spitting wearers of the cap did. The rights favorite trick is to try and guilt the left. I don't feel guilty. I feel sick of pretending that up is down and black is white.
1
@Jenifer
When it comes to the left declaring that items of clothing are a "state of mind", we have descended to sublime nonsense. This is, of course, a determination to be made by the left alone. The right is not to determine that the pink hat worn by women in 2017 is a "state of mind" that indicates treasonous disrespect to the President, a fundamentally destructive attitude toward the family unit and a singularly offensive attitude toward men.
I don't care whether you agree or not. Just realize your subjective discomfort is just that--subjective--and does not reflect the views of almost half the country.
3
It's... too profitable? That's the excuse? How much more damage are the so-called journalists going to do to this country... for profit? I don't care who said what to whom in those videos last week. It is of no consequence. People say mean things to each other every day in private and no one cares. Everyone on the mall that day was looking for a fight. And so they did... so Bruni and his ilk can profit. Shame on you all.
It's amusing that Mr. Bruni thinks is he rewarded for his fierce conviction on TV... I have only contempt.
Our Sovietized mass-media with its cultural Marxist stomping and "white" self-loathing genuflecting made this all possible.
To paraphrase Jerry Della Femina: From Those Wonderful Folks Who Grave You Open-Borders.
Such pain for our "journalists" in discovering it was just malicious nonsense--same, same by ad nauseam day from New York City's mass-media central.
Where's Huntley and Brinkley when you really need them--15 minutes was all they needed.
Too much self-serving feature writing passing for news these days--the real problem.
1
I just wonder what the Liberal reaction would have been had a group of MAGA hat wearing Republicans surrounded a group of children marching for some pet Liberal cause and spewed vile hate speech at them.
Liberals should be ashamed.
Yet, somehow it will be Trump’s fault.
They were triggered.
“Only if we’re honest about what we’ve been doing and why we’ve been doing it.”
We’re waiting.
Trump doesn’t apologize and neither should a Left that gets played everyday in every way. This is another self flagellation by a useless Left out flanked by dumb Republicans.
Aren’t you tired of weak progressives who cannot debate out of a paper bag? I am.
AOC is doing it right. Give her the mic and step back with your circular firing squad.
The reality is that catholic education remains strongest in southen cities where the schools allow whites to largely avoid attemding schools with black or hispanic students. Most catholic schools south of the Mason-Dixon are overwhelmingly white, except for the black athletes recruited to the schools’ sports teams. And these catholic white supremecists — or at least segregationists — often port Notre Dame logos too! Touchdown Jesus is worshipped by a lot of these Opus Dei right wingers these days too.
1
No question that the reality was somewhat more nuanced but a group of white boys donning MAGA gear are not animated by good will. Let's not act like they are. Kids of today, racists of tomorrow.
1
The MAGA hats are the new Confederate flags. Am I the only one that sees that?
1
@MM Q. C.
Yes.
Maybe. But ultimately, the toxic mess of sexism, ugly manhood, racism, entitlement, and the use of Christianity to justify it all - that's how we got into this huge giant mess that is our crumbling republic.
Or what's making America great again.
Your choice.
The right pioneered and perfected hate-based media years ago, and now they are perfecting the subtle art of dramatic victim hood. That sorrowful sound you hear on Fox these days, played on repeat every day, is the apparent swan song of the God-fearing white American man. To the rest of us, the song just sounds like so much whining.
2
Bruni makes the mistake of making up his mind after he sees a video that seems to support that the kids were just confused. They were just doing their school chant. Yet my eyes told me they were laughing, mocking, jeering at the native American. And that view is supported by two more videos I have just seen. In one video the Trump kid yells out: "It isn't rape if you enjoyed it." In another a bunch of the Trump kids yell out to mock a girl walking by in a disrespectful way. I know Bruni has a deadline in getting these columns out, but he has shown me he knows nothing about Christianity if he supports these kids, their chaperones and the school.
Christ said this: " You have heard that it was said, "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth." But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also." Did these kids turn the other cheek? Especially to a Native American who deserves special respect considering what was done to his people?
1
Teenage boys in MAGA hats from a privileged all-boys "catholic" school in Trump country ... what could go wrong?
Maybe the boys were just being juvenile twerps ... I remember being their age, did some juvenile things too.
But guess what? Nobody sent me off to a protest in DC, with a bunch of similar kids. I don't go to a school that had that kind of money and privilege for starters. My twerpy moments were individual, off-stage, and not orchestrated by adults. They were my own, with no political overtones.
But if I had gone, neither my parents nor my school would have allowed me to wear the symbol of a groper, adulterer, fraudster, and hater of people who are browner and less well off than we were.
And I went to a public school, not a private Catholic school.
MAGA is not Christian, at all. Period.
Glad to see that the emerging consensus among the media is that rich, white children, who clearly were doing something racist, on video, with sound, were not at fault. It's becoming more clear everyday, that the news media is unequipped to handle Trump and the institutional racism that is on display across the country on a daily basis. The existence of the NYT is becoming incompatible with having a democratic form of government.
And how is this different than a shameless media that entices the Sheeples with click bait?
The independent mind with a healthy dose of doubt is a rare thing these days of 12 hour news cycles.
Mr Bruni:
After all the racism and other moral abominations that trump has publicly revealed, you should conclude, as I do , that ANYONE who wears a MAGA hat is a moral cretin, to put it charitably.
2
I can't say that the kid's behavior was good, but it was the adult's behavior I find the worst. If the parents object they should have gone to DC and not used kids as pawns. The other adults that seem to be let off the hook in all these comments are the Black Hebrew Israelites who trafficked in homophobia, misogyny and sexism. Yet hardly a word about these tragically misguided and bigoted people from the readers of the NY Times. THAT is disturbing.
Emmett Till was a 14 year old lynched in Mississippi in 1955 for smiling at a white woman, and for not "having the right attitude."
Now we have people advocating death for a 15 year old for "smirking."
You want to tell me how much we've changed?
3
Does a religious school officially participating in political advocacy still retain its tax-exempt status? I would hope not.
1
@Jody
Is marching against abortion political advocacy? I think not. And if it was, the school was not officially participating in it.
Remember, the civil rights movements originated in black churches, with black preachers speaking from the pulpit about discrimination and need to participate in marches.
Yeah, but that's different.
1
The most frightening part of all this is that even when handed evidence to the contrary, people continue to find ways to fit the new information into their old opinion.
1
Truly, does it take a media genius to come to the conclusion that no matter the context, there is a total lack of leadership and respect in the U.S. today. Just look at the president. Daily, he sets new lows in integrity, dignity and honesty. His crassness and low-brow persona is rubbing off on a lot of Americans. It's the job of each and every adult to demand better behavior and attitudes from each other, especially from young people.
One other thing: in the last couple of days, we have been reminded that we should pay attention to teenagers, but they are hardly the age group that engenders good sense and wisdom. Far from it.
1
Very well said, Mr. Bruni.
You have again shown yourself to be an honorable man. I don't always agree with what you say, but I am always impressed with your effort to be honest and good-willed in your opinions.
2
I see an incentives problem. Pundits are not rewarded for being right and honest. They are rewarded for establishing and protecting a personal brand. Honesty and accuracy only matter in so far as the pundit is promoting or diminishing that brand. There's very little incentive to be right because pundits are rarely punished for being wrong. Pundits have to mess up catastrophically before they really feel the consequences of their self-interest.
Can you name 5 disgraced pundits as a result of their public commentary? I can't. The only names that come to mind are Alex Jones and Glenn Beck. Brian Williams probably qualifies. However, Williams was a journalist so the expectations are generally higher. Although, the distinction between journalism and punditry is increasingly blurred. Media personalities like Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson are trying to have things both ways. They want the authority of a journalist but the accountability of a pundit.
The unanswered question of course then becomes: How do we better reward honesty and accuracy in punditry? Conversely, how do we better punish inaccuracy? There's partially a technical obstacle here and partially a legal one. First, viewer exposure is an absolutely terrible performance metric. No one has come up with a better one yet though. Second, the First Amendment is a powerful defense for what are ostensibly "opinions."
We need to solve both problems or our media landscape is only going to get worse, not better.
All of this hand-wringing about the irreducible subjectivity of interpretation misses a very clear truth. The young men were all wearing MAGA hats. Like a uniform. And what the Times and all the other commentators chastising themselves and each other for rushing to judgment don't want to admit is that the MAGA hat is a symbol of something unequivocally offensive. That's not a matter of interpretation. MAGA stands for cruelty to the most innocent and defenseless of children. That's a fact. MAGA stands for willful and potentially catastrophic denial of scientific facts. MAGA stands for the endless stream of virulently hate-mongering lies that Donald Trump has told about Mexicans and Central Americans since the day he announced his candidacy. MAGA stands for the most corrupt effort to sell out U.S. interests to a hostile foreign power in the history of our country. I could go on.
Sure, lots of these guys are probably decent, in their own way. Maybe better, in their private lives, than I am. So probably are the conservative Catholic adults who thought it was a good idea to put them all in a MAGA uniform. And so were lots and lots of people, in their private lives, who embraced or just put up with cruel, authoritarian regimes around the world.
We all like to say "I would have stood up to the Nazis." These kids aren't Nazis. But the line where you stand up to evil needs to be drawn well short of Nazism. MAGA has crossed that line. That's not really debatable.
2
His face, his paul ryan smirk, said everything we need to know about the brat. Not buying it Bruni.
2
@suburbanwarrior
Taking pride in judging on superficials, and a fundamentally incomplete story, is no virtue. Quite the opposite.
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Further muddying the picture here, the Twitter account that spread the video has been determined to be bogus. Russian trolls again? Who knows. It feels like someone somewhere is always trying to play us, to pull our strings like we're puppets. We have to get smarter.
Well I'm not apologizing. If there was ever a picture of Ignorance is Bliss, this is one. If you take away the MAGA hats, if you take away the fact that an all-boys school sent children to demonstrate against women seeking personal rights over their own bodies, you still have a bunch of Kavanaugh kids looking down on what they perceive as an inferior race.
I'm all for the media admitting its mistakes and calling themselves out for rushing to judgement, and I believe that social media is a toxic, hateful environment in which to digest and comment on disturbing incidents such as this encounter, but after watching all the video footage, I am still very much of the opinion that the Covington students, and Nick Sandman in particular, behaved egregiously, and should be punished. These youth embody the racism of the privileged white elite that the Trump administration has given a national platform. Their school and their parents should be ashamed and ask forgiveness. Yet the media, including the NYT, appears to be more concerned with not getting into trouble for passing judgement on behavior that is overtly racist, perpetrated not just by Nick Sandman and the other Covington students, but also by the words and incendiary language of Shar Yaqataz Bamyamyan and the Hebrew Israelites. The media should always strive to depict multiple viewpoints and portray the various sides in a story, but it should also recognize things for what they are, in particular racism and hate. The sickening expression on Mr. Sandman's face, a frozen, cowardly smile expressing cruelty, ignorance, entitlement, and ultimately fear, is a reminder of the supreme denial that is the white American identity, an identity which has no substance without clinging to the falsehood that its reality is somehow separate from the history it shares with non-white cultures.
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Am I wrong or wasn't this the same school that had students appear at a basketball game against a black school with painted blackface? Was this an entirely isolated incident? As always, a much deeper analysis is required before anyone jumps to conclusions.
"A “hot take” is prized — hence the well-known phrase for this instant analysis. Nobody talks about a “cold take,” though that’s the temperature of truth. "
Good line.
Was this really a national news story, whatever "really" happened? The kids, even in the worst narrative, were not behaving nearly as badly as Republican politicians and Fox blowhards do every day of the week, and the media doesn't treat them as hooligans--I guess because they're too powerful.
Based on the comments posted so far I think that the only possible solution is to turn off the Internet.
Actually, the backlash to that condemnation revealed what we have always known: pundits, who are most white and wealthy, will always side with the white and wealthy. Oops, I forgot: white wealthy and male. So one notices that nobody invites the First nation's activist, Nathan Phillips, on tv, or interviews him, or even cares. Because the smirking Covington boys remind these pundits of how much fun they used to have in private school. It is a Kavanaugh moment, only this time, in parody.
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As a lover of the ancient Indian language, Sanskrit, I am deeply disappointed as to how the word pundit has been misappropriated into the English language. Pundit originally meant a scholar who had mastery over a chosen field, and, not the non-stop bloviators it is now used to refer to. Verbal quibbling aside, it seems strange that so many NYT columnists have chosen this topic for discussion. We see this column today which posits that the overall picture is complex and muddled while yesterday David Brooks wrote a column that implied that the version put forth by the boys is true and that the native american gentleman was less than honest. Different columnists can have different opinions, but do facts and truth also differ based on personal political persuasion? Moreover, we are in the middle of a now month-long government shutdown, there is an impending global economic slow down, and, many other issues of concern in today's world. Does this issue deserve the undivided attention of a good many NYT columnists?
My impression is the teenagers are Christian Nationalists who oppose Abortion Rights. And they are proud of to wear the Maga Hats to show their allegiance to Christian Nationalism and Donald Trump. The teenage wrote he was not trying to cause trouble with the Native American Man. We should believe him.
Bruni makes the obvious points about media, the punditocracy, and the influence of social media (and it's dirty secret: the advertising dollars) on the national conversation, and so far the readership of the Times seems to have completely missed the point. Perspective and self-reflection before jumping into the abyss is sorely needed, but the comments suggest that if the media and pundit class as a whole are waking up, then it's going to be up to them to proactively effect a change in the rest of society, because the monster that's been created is getting beyond the point of control.
"Some conservatives are gleeful about how this went down. But isn’t their vengeful joy its own rushed celebration, its own self-serving simplification of a complex sequence of events?"
It's worth pointing out that MANY conservatives (both publications and influencers) also jumped to the same hasty conclusions and have issued thoughtful apologies as well. (See the National Review at https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/01/covington-catholic-nathan-phillips-affair/ ) For once, this is a bit of a bipartisan "come to Jesus" (no pun intended) moment for the media class, except for those inevitable few holdouts, and the more journalists who take Bruni's steps into self-reflection the better.
Hopefully changed behavior will be the result.
(Also, this really makes me wish the NY Times still had a Public Editor.)
All three of the op eds I've read today in the NY Times are equally vacuous. At least they were consistent. As I've said elsewhere, give the people who were involved in the incident a voice rather than anyone interpreting the events. What a concept eh? Give a Native American elder a chance to speak out---give the others who choose to speak out, a chance to speak out. And for the record, if you're going to wear a MAGA hat or a BERNIE hat or a whatever political statement type hat, expect to get some heat. Or leave the hat at home.
Thank you for your thoughtful reflection.
Too quick on the trigger seems to be a symptom of a larger societal problem. Nothing to see here. Let's move on.
Ask yourself: Have you ever seen kindness and openness expressed in the way Nicholas Sandmann says he was doing? Of course you haven’t. That’s because a PR firm wrote that rationale for him. I’ve seen the long and the short video and it’s all the same. Some basic teen hijinks amongst the CathCav kids capped by Sandmann’s massive arrogance and entitlement. In a sane world, he’d be groveling for forgiveness, but we live in a world where conservatives cry persecution and go on the attack and everyone else apologizes. If you buy his story, you’ll believe your kid when he says he didn’t know there would be alcohol at the party he attended. And you’d be a fool.
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Want more President Trump?
This is how you get more President Trump.
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@JND
I agree thoroughly.
Your assumption, of course, is that more President Trump is a bad thing.
From what I see of the current crop of contenders--all of whom seem to want to "out-left" the other, and one of whom has actually declared the future off-limits to men (that demagogue Gillibrand)--I think he is by far the lesser evil.
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Breaking news is a dish best served cold.
This is a terrific column. I think. Maybe it's too early to say?
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As Ashleigh Brilliant once wrote, "Don't believe everything you think."
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Maybe you should just delete twitter and lead by deliberative example.
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I was disgusted by the coverage of this incident. Thanks for admitting this ridiculous coverage. This is exactly the kind of "news" that is dividing us and creating chaos instead of questions or understanding. Shame on the NYT (who I love) and ALL people and media who, rather than report on the why, shout about the what...the superficial. Why not ask why were those boys there, why were there no adults monitoring their behavior and what do the boys "believe"? What do they want to say by being there? Who decided to send the kids there wearing MAGA hats? Why was the native American veteran there? That would be news. We need understanding not news grandstanding and stupidity.
These same boys taunted a young woman earlier in the day, screaming MAGA! and Build the Wall!!
These boys were NOT innocent bystanders.
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How is it possible that the NYT is still pushing this? There's been multiple further clarifying accouts demonstrating the outrageous behaviour of the Covington boys. They blocked, surrounded and then mocked a native american veteran, harrassed young women walking along minding their own business, one of them had the gall to shout "It's not rape if you enjoyed it!" To cap it all they did this wearing MAGA hats at an anti-abortion event. It's also become clear that the school itself is a cesspit of hatred with the revalations about the campaign against one of its gay students.
There's no ambiguity here, no room for doubt or equivocation, these kids behaved and have a history of behaving in a truely disgusting manner and the school should be investgated for permitting them to create this sort of culture. Also frankly whether the boy in question had a 'smirk or sneer' is totally irrelevant, both are dismissive, condescending and mocking. The expression on his face made it extremely clear that he knew exactly what he was doing one way or another so lets not get distracted by it.
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So they were hurt over some things the Black Israelites were saying and that justified their behavior and entitled them to be disrespectful? Then I never ever want to hear or read an article about Black and Native Americans having "attitudes" and needing to just get over it. With all the centuries of verbal and physical abuse we have endured we should be entitled to a few centuries of having an "attitude".
@Hellen
You haven't been alive for centuries. You obviously believe resentment to be a treasure passed down racially, generation to generation. Your problem is that you're going to have to find people to agree with you.
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@Wine Country Dude. I don't need people to agree with me and I don't need a PR firm or hired posters to verify my accuracy. I may not have been alive for centuries but my ancestors were already here for centuries when your ancestors were planning to come over.
The resentment is from those who are upset that we are still here , that we still exist and have not been annihilated like these young brats were led to believe.
I don't apologize for progressives, because they have nothing to apologize for. Wearing a MAGA hat, especially after November 2018, says everything you need to know about someone.
What the media’s “hasty condemnation” shows is its desire to take down this President and his agenda. Nothing more. Nothing less. If it were something else, the media would also be all over photos of Tamika Mallory and Louis Farrakhan, clips of the anti-Israel exchange between “journalist” Christine Amanpour and Rep. Ilhan Omar and the curse filled invective of Rep. Rashida Tlaib. But it isn’t. Hard to believe it, but Joy Behar of the view said it best when asked by Whoopi Goldberg why the media behaved in this fashion with regard to the Covington students. Her response... “[b] because we’re desperate to get Trump out of office”. At last some refreshing honesty! So really....spare us the reasoned appeals to media honesty. Let’s watch for the next media reaction when the political leanings of protest participants are reversed.
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@DS This is the most intelligent comment here. It's appalling to read reader comments ignorant of the facts condemning these kids and unable to accept their own intolerance. The kids were standing there minding their own business when a fringe black hate group attacked them verbally. Nathan Phillips, the ersatz Vietnam Vet, then he felt he should separate beast (the innocent white kids) from prey (the black hate fringe group). Thank god Philipp's not biased and operating on unwarranted assumptions - just kidding. Then this liberal hero gets in the kids' faces pounding on a drum. And the kid is supposed to turn away? I'm sure if a white adult bigot got in the face on an Indian kid protesting something, those same readers would condemn the white bigot. That's because all they see is white bigotry even when it's not there. As for the "smirk," have you never worn an uncomfortable smile on your face in a difficult situation? I know I have. But this kid, who behaved commendably, is supposedly the one who did something wrong. Because he wore a hat. All of you commenters should consider something. Trump cannot win the 2020 election. But the left and the democrats can absolutely lose it.
I don't have twitter. It takes me forever to process information. I'm trying to write something now and each time something happens it changes what I want to say. It is taking forever and almost everything I have written so far is already obsolete. Or at least 90% of it. A few times I've written comments that the second I sent it I felt bad. Other times I am okay with it. But when I am unfair or too clever or too nasty or played for the cheap laugh or really got my information wrong I feel embarrassed. I feel worse if I misrepresented someone, even if it is someone I strongly disagree with, or if what comes out is opposite of what I meant to say. I never like piling on. I have an an addictive personality. But it only kicks in when something is available. So I would be tweeting like crazy if I were on Twitter. But I have no craving to find out what it is that I am missing.
A piece I wrote about writing comments to the Times. https://hawansuyo.com/2018/01/24/comments-robert-roth/
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Chaperones
Parents ?????
I would be ashamed of these students behavior.
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"And while many pundits’ outrage was correctly calibrated to what they assumed was going on, it was built on assumption."
"Correctly calibrated". Hmmm. Is that the new "fake but true?"
Those correctly calibrated based upon a wildly wrong assumption proved themselves perfectly fit to lead the torch-and-pitchfork brigade.
As are the many NYT readers who clearly think the kid had it coming because he was wearing a MAGA hat.
You should be ashamed of yourselves.
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Many of the comments are actually rather amusing relative to the excellent point Mr Bruni is trying to make. Despite all the additional videos, and the hateful speech from the Black Hebrew Israelites, and the additional explanatory descriptions of the incident; many of the posted comments simply cannot desist from blaming the kid in the red hat.
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Newsflash: Pundit scrambles for moral high ground by climbing over other pundits.
Be nice! That’s the takeaway to everyone. Play a game, go ice skating, shovel you neighbor’s walkway. Get off social media.
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What am I missing here? Doesn't most of the guilt in this kerfuffle belong with the Catholic priests who sent these young men to Washington to protest a women’s right to choose what they do with their reproductive rights let alone their reproductive organs? I sure didn’t see any women in the group; just the priest’s puppets acting out as most young men will do if given permission to do so.
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The Right started this Fight 50 years ago, actually 95 years ago. They still hate the New Deal. They still think Social Sevcurity is Communism. They have honed their tactics and fought dirty and now, all of a sudden, they’re shocked that we’re angry and that we’re fighting back.
If you’re wearing a MAGA hat, you’re making a political statement. Don’t be shocked if you get insulted.
And those boys were not blameless, even if the real problem was their chaperones.
It is human to make hasty assumptions, as we all did this week, when the videoed incident of the Native American chanting, facing the young red MAGA-capped Covington teen-ager in Kentucky, occured. Viral hate? A symptom of tribalism? Or just a hasty erroneous assumption till the facts were aired? Social media redaction of the facts? America has been split into tribes by our president and his Republican base.
President Trump condemned the video as an example of "fake news"...but the real story here, Frank, is that Donald Trump has shutdown our government for 8 weeks without paychecks going to federal agencies. He has been adamant about his way or the highway regarding his demented steel (cement? slatted fence?) wall on our southern border. ("Who will pay for the wall?" Trump chanted. Mexico!", his followers shouted).
Two votes in Congress today -- one from the GOP securing $5+billions for his wall, one from the Democrats, just opening the government through February 8, for breathing room during this Trump-manufactured crisis. Will either vote win? Doubtful. The "thought leaders" -- pundits, opinion-makers, journalists -- are our go-to brass-tack sources for truth as they see it. The American people should know by now that "LBYL" -- are the bywords of our democracy. Trump was elected 2 years ago after his people looked at him on TV and leaped, electing him our president. Does any perspective exist today in our people or democracy?
Correction: "Instead of bucking political tribalism in America, we [help to cause] it."
But I suggest it's even worse than that.
Why did anyone bother jumping into that mess at all? Compared to the damage that Donald Trump does every day, what does it matter what a few high school kids did or didn't do?
I'm (too much of) a news junkie, but I never bothered reading anything about this incident until today (your and Douthat's commentaries) and was and remain uninterested in watching the video.
Can we liberals please keep focused on 'the prize' and not let ourselves get bogged up in 'culture issues', unlike the right wing losers?
The two news media explosions of fakery concerning Buzzfeed's lies and the antiwar protestors led by Nathan Phillips - a Vietnam War refridgerator mechanic - who decided that they'd verbally assault a bunch of teens at a pro-life rally - have pretty much depleted any hints of credibility that the progressive news media had left after their childish two year war on President Trump.
Funny how NO establishment Democratic Party-aligned news outlet wants to mention how aging Mr. Phillips and his little band also tried to force their way into a D.C. -area church the next evening to interrupt a Mass.
Neither do any ''news pros'' want to address how much Phillips' group HATE gay men. That news never fits, oes it, Frank?
But this is a good enough comeback by Frank on his profession's complete disaster. Media types USED to look to print the truth, but now they settle for being the relayers of rumors and cheerleaders for their assigned political advocacy causes.
After Trump leaves the scene, here do we go to get a new news industry? Because none of this politicized 90% of them need ask to stick around.
Is this honestly the most important thing going on in the country? It's covered multiple times on the front page of the NYT, for days-- why? The government is shut down, the Supreme Court is allowing discrimination against trans people, the president is still keeping children in cages, and new information about his past shady behavior comes out every day.
This is ridiculous.
For all those commenting on the hateful, divisive MAGA hats...
If they had been wearing “Yes, We Can” hats, would you feel any differently?
It’s not a crime to wear a hat.
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Mister Bruni, in my opinion you are a competent journalist/reporter. But today most reporters and commentators are not ‘pundints’, but rather entertainers. What is most often reported are emotions and opinions and rarely facts.
We shouldn't believe everything we think.
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What we know is, the kid with the MAGA hat supports a draft dodger, and the drummer served in Viet Nam. Choose the American patriot.
@Robert Pryor: "..and the drummer served in Viet Nam.."
Except he didn't.
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@Pantagruel Regardless of the drummers military status, the point is we know what Trump is.
the commentary here is profoundly pitiful. There is nothing wrong with wearing a MAGA hat. It's a campaign hat that the left now wants stand for racism, white supremacy and privilege, rudeness, crudeness to women. You name an evil, the hat stands for it.
No it does not. It's a campaign hat protected by free speech.
And those still persisting in saying the kids surrounded Phillips haven't watched the tape. He walked right up to where they were assembled beating his drum in their faces.
This is basically a non event. These were high school kids dealing with a situation they probably had never seen before. No one was hurt. There was no violence. No rocks or fists were thrown. The Covington kids didn't initiate it. And yet...
The worst of this are the cowards in the media and on twitter and facebook who want to try to ruin these kids lives because they support Trump and support their hate of white males. They are cowards because they would never have the courage to come out from behind their screens and confront anyone.
And beyond that -- what about due process? We so easily suspended that in the Kavanaugh hearings. We've suspended in the Trump-Russia collusion narrative. And now -- because we're so eager to get Trump -- we've suspended it in the case of the Covington boys. Lynch them now. Destroy their lives. It's OK. They're guilty of heinous crimes.
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According to CNN Business, the misleading video was posted on a fake twitter account and the volume of retweets amplified by bots to make it go viral. Why is anyone paying attention to this kind of junk? If you got upset about this story, you are being manipulated. That is true whether you are upset by MAGA boy "smirking" or you are upset about "Fake News" treating MAGA boy unfairly. Whose interests does this story really serve? I would not be surprised if the viral video was teed up to produce an emotional reaction that would discredit those who fell for it.
The leftists and media who went after these boys are evil. Period. Full stop. They were trying to destroy the lives of these young men, and keep in mind that they would still be trying if we did not possess unequivocal video evidence that leftist narrative was a lie. As bad as the Black Nationalists who yelled obscene and bigoted comments at these boys were, the left-wing media lynch mob is even worse. As disturbing as the "tribal elder's" behavior was in accosting these minors, and lying about their behavior, and siding with the Black Nationalists, the ongoing efforts to blame these boys is even worse. While the slurs and epithets yelled at the boys were deeply disturbing, these young man can fairly quickly recover from that, but if the liberal media had had their way, they would have gleefully destroyed these boys' lives. It is appalling that you read comments herein that condemn these boys for wearing MAGA hats and completely ignore the grossly inappropriate behavior of the adults who caused the conflagration, because the tribal elder and the Black Nationalists are "people of color." I can't stand Donald Trump and would never wear a MAGA hat, but to conduct a witch hunt against high school students for doing so is evil.
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A large group of young men crowded around a stranger and mocked him with racist taunts. But now the media tells us that behavior is complicated and ambiguous because some black people said rude things a while earlier? Give me a break.
There is no ambiguity here, only an elite media bubble that will do literally anything to excuse behavior by affluent white kids. If a crowd of African-American teenagers had done this, there wouldn't be enough ink for you all to condemn them.
It also seems worth noting that this essay is by the same man who wrote a hagiographic take on George W. Bush, until very recently the worst president in the modern era. Lie to the public to mire us in a pointless and unwinnable war? Bruni loves your down-home authenticity. Tomahawk chop in the face of a Native veteran just because you can? Gosh, Bruni thinks we need to slow down and not get too upset.
Your political opinions are as predictable as they are worthless.
One other thought on this. At the core of this is a kid having a confrontation with an old guy (like that has never happened before). We then go nuts. There are a lot bigger issues at the moment, the shut down, recent climate reports, and so forth. But, what is really important? A dust up between a kid and an old guy. Go figure.
Those boys are fine folks for sure.
An excellent take on things, Mr. Bruni, thank you. Compared to the half-baked lunacy on the same subject from your colleague, Ross Douthat, this was eminently worth reading.
Media: Lethally Wrong 4 Decades.
Essentially does status-quo safe symptom surfing for ad revenue.
Won't (can't?) get fundamental—won't get its pattern recognition from the 4.54 billion year sample space of evolution.
I challenge any NYT and/or National Review columnist to a written discussion.
We can do a 3-way discussion.
the boys behaved disgracefully
the adults indoctrinating them with religious propaganda are worse
children protesting women's fundamental civil right, led by fanatical adults -- christian theocracy in action
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Don’t try and tell me what my eyes saw and mine knew. That was a condescending smirk by a white entitled teenager wearing a Trump cap besmirching an old Native American with a drum.
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"the evidence cited for that turns out to be inconclusive or wrong"
Sorry, but I saw enough evidence balanced on the top of the boys heads. Worn as reverence to the President or a nod to fellow neo-nazis, the hats corroborate the boys actions which were meant to intimidate an old native american. Granted they were relatively civilized, but that's the new and soft fascism of the day.
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Frank, I love you like a little Brother. Don’t fall for the sanitized, PR firm recirculated “ facts “ that are now being hawked. A picture tells a thousand words, and blame spreading and false equivalence spread a million lies. I know what I saw. Were these Kids auditioning for a white supremacy march ? Plumping up their “ community service “ credentials for College applications? Here’s a clue: The MAGA hats. Prima facie evidence of bigotry and misogyny, at the least. The Kids were being used, by their Church, for political purposes. BUT, they seemed gleeful and proud. If anyone is to blame, it’s their Parents. Wake up.
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This kid was a jerk, whatever his motivation. That he doesn't recognize that, and that other defend his 'right to be a jerk' is the real summation of where we're at now. His smirk, and his glassy-eyed confidence in his own narrow-minded view are disturbing. At an age when a trip to our center of government might have been a 'learning experience' this young jerk is sure that he -already- knows everything. Life will teach him otherwise, and maybe the next time he thinks it would be 'cool' or 'fun' to get in someone else's face, they will rearrange his face, for his education. When you watch how jerk and his friends are cavorting and confronting these other visitors, it is clear they are doing to others what they would vociferously object to someone doing to them... how ironic that for a "Christian" school's students, they are so ignorant of the Golden Rule.
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1. Why were students from a tax exempt Catholic school attending a political march? wearing MAGA hats?
2. Replace all these white kids with black kids - and tell me if our reaction would be the same.
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The school shut down their phones, email off their website. What was the school hiding? I think we need to address why the administration, principal of this school has not been fired. In addition, the Catholic Archdiocese & school administrators should spend more time taking the students & parents on a little road trip to all the other houses of worship in the neighboring area. It might enlighten the nuns/priests/students/parents to sit in on a service of other faiths. The Catholic church is obsolete with their teachings and needs to wake-up if they want to be relevant in the 21st century.
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What I have missed is an example where the conservative media showed self-correction and humility, beginning with their admitting being wrong (the Florida man who was sending bombs to prominent Democrats a classic example.) To me, one of the biggest failings of social media is the unwillingness of many to read what they have just written before firing it into cyberspace. When I was on FB, the first thing I looked at on a long post was the word "Edited." No "Edited," no read.
Thank you, Mr. Bruni. You put into words what I was unable to cogently articulate in my own mind, leaving me with a vague sense that there was something terribly unfair in the news coverage. History is replete with incidents in which events have not be accurately reported, but I find it ironic that the alleged democratization of reporting resulting from advances in technology, has too often spawned news coverage that is more divisive than it is informative.
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The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity. (Disclosure: I didn't make this up.)
Brought me back to our 8th grade class trip to D.C. in 1968. Public school, white shirts, black ties, and really tight supervision by numerous chaperones. The trip happened be in April, and the assassination of Martin Luther King happened that Thursday. We learned of it after seeing a play in Ford's Theater. We were hustled home that Friday to worried parents with smoke drifting over the city.
We weren't in high school, and our political savvy was non-existent. Today's kids are far more sophisticated, and know how to push parental buttons a lot better. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but both sides have to realize reactions to viral posts are immediate, and open to wide interpretation. A group of white kids wearing MAGA hits may mean nothing more than wearing a Che Guevera, or a Straight Outta Compton T-shirt. Their thinking is fluid, reflective of group thought, and I would guess it would change a dozen times before they sort it all out. Might be helpful in the interim, though, for them to actually delve into what the other two groups present were saying.
I would like to take this opportunity to nominate Indian drummer activist Nathan Phillips to be Elizabeth Warren's running mate. He is an Indian, he hates Trump and he has more feet than teeth.
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So, the elderly Native American was in the wrong? Is that the point? If so, say it.
I used to watch CNN or MSNBC and hated FOX News. Now after I watch what these outlets did to these fine young men because of the color or their skin, their gender, and the hat they where wearing is disgusting. I watch FOX now. They got the story right, fair, and balanced. I thought after the Kavanaugh fiasco it was getting hard to call myself a Democrat. Now its become impossible.
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When President Obama saw a potentially explosive and divisive event he tried to serve as a moderator to a calm discussion, not a provocateur. Recall when a white cop arrested a black man who was trying to enter his very own house? Obama's first step was a misstep (he said the arrest was a stupid thing to do, which of course it was, but the President was viciously accused of being anti-police). He called both men in for a talk--showed them respect and dignity, and asked the nation to remain calm. Compare that to Trump's self-serving use of the event to attack the media while taking sides with those who wear his MAGA hats. The background of the Covington kids is the man encouraging their chants.
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