After the left-leaning media-led smear campaign against high school boys from Covington Catholic fell apart after video evidence demonstrated that not only did the boys not target an African American group with “racial epithets” and “harass” Native American protester Nathan Phillips, the boys were actually the ones who were pelted with insults and harassed, the left-wing New York Daily News published another hit-piece on the Catholic school on Monday.
The piece, shamelessly titled “SEE IT: Covington Catholic High students in blackface at past basketball game,” begins by saying snarkily, “This won’t help Kentucky student Nick Sandmann’s case.” It then “reports”:
A photo said to be featuring Covington Catholic High School students clad in blackface during a 2015 basketball game made the rounds on Twitter Monday morning amid last week’s Indigenous Peoples March controversy.
The photo depicts several white students, some in blackface, shouting at an opposing black player.
While the photo’s origins couldn’t be verified, the official Covington Catholic High School YouTube account published a video last January boasting its basketball school spirit, and several clips, including one from 2012, showcase attendees chanting in black face, a mockery of the opposing players. The school took down the video later on Monday.
Here’s the photo that the Daily News describes as showing the high schoolers in “blackface”:
But, many have since pointed out, rather than showing high schoolers in “blackface” (wearing black makeup in order to imitate in a derogatory manner an African American), the photo clearly shows students in a “blackout” event. Matt Walsh summed up the arguments succinctly in an op-ed for the Daily Wire:
Anyone with, say, a third of a functioning brain rattling around in their skulls will immediately understand the scene. The kids are all wearing black because the fans of sports teams often will come to games all in the same color. Oftentimes fans will wear black as part of a “blackout.” Other times they’ll white as part of a “whiteout.” Or sometimes they’ll wear blue or red or any other color. This is standard operating procedure in American sports, especially scholastic sports.
Why are they screaming at the opposing player? Well, because he is the opposing player and that’s what the home fans do and have done in every basketball game or football game ever played anywhere on Earth. Why is the opposing player black? Well, because that just happens to be his race. If he was white, they would be just as unwelcoming. This is part of the pageantry of sports.
The blowback to the Daily News’ hit-piece has begun online, including from Robert Barnes, the lawyer who has repeatedly called out journalists for libeling the Covington teens and is threatening lawsuits on their behalf against any who fail to adequately retract their false reports.
“Fake news. This is a blackout event, not people in blackface. Hence, notice how the kids entire bodies are in black paint or black clothing. I guess NYDN thought it wouldn’t be fair if they didn’t get sued too,” wrote Barnes in response to the Daily News tweet.
“Many independent journalists who lean left agree the kids were falsely attacked, led by one of the best grassroots journalists in the country on these kind of issues,” he wrote Tuesday after a series of posts directed at specific reporters. “No media member who refuses to retract at this juncture has any credible defense to libeling these kids.”
A few other responses to the Daily News’ smear piece (warning: language):
Related: Lawyer For Covington Kids Threatens To Sue NYT For ‘Obvious Libel’; People Line Up To Help