On Wednesday’s episode of “The Five,” Greg Gutfeld took a few minutes to take a look at the media’s response to being called out for pushing a false narrative about the viral story of the “stand-off” between the Covington Catholic high school boys and Native American activist Nathan Phillips. “Watching the media analyze this mess, I feel like I’m watching a murderer doing an autopsy on his own victim,” said the co-host.
Gutfeld started the segment by presenting the first of a series of clips from NBC’s Savannah Guthrie’s interview of Nick Sandmann, “the reluctant face of the Covington controversy,” which aired Wednesday.
“What some people see is a young kid with a smirk on his face,” Guthrie told the high school junior.
“Hmm, there’s that ‘some people’ again. One day I’d like to meet ‘some people.’ ‘Some say’ it’s Savannah Guthrie,” Gutfeld remarked before cuing the next clip. “Then came Nathan Phillips’ claim of a ‘Build the Wall’ chant that apparently no one else heard.”
“Did anyone say ‘Build the Wall’?” asked Guthrie.
“I never heard anyone say ‘Build the Wall,’ and I don’t think I’ve seen it in any videos,” Sandmann replied.
“After a review of the videos, NBC News could not hear anyone shouting that hot-button phrase,” Guthrie admitted.
“So no one chanted it. But what if they did?” Gutfeld asked. “‘Some say’ we’re letting liberal fascists decide what can’t be said in public. The [Black] Hebrew Israelite said things that we can’t repeat here, but it’s ‘Build the Wall’ that matters most. ‘It’s a hot-button issue, some say,’ which is media for ‘Let’s trash you,”’ he added, referencing the radical racial group that the Southern Poverty Law Center has designated a “hate group.”
“Then came the [Make America Great Again] hat.” said Gutman, cuing the next interview clip.
“If you think you weren’t wearing that hat, this might not have happened or it might have been different?” Guthrie asked Sandmann.
“That’s possible, but I would have to assume what Mr. Phillips was thinking, and I’d rather let him speak for why he came up to us,” said Sandmann, in yet another entirely reasonable response.
“Sound familiar? ‘You go out wearing that, clearly you’re asking for it.’ Cause ‘you’re just a victim of your own choices and actions,'” said Gutfeld, partly quoting left-wing CNN host Chris Cuomo.
“You neglect that they were mainly victims of their own choices and actions. Shouldn’t we discuss that?” said Cuomo in a response directed at President Trump. “Wonder if the hats had anything to do with your muted response?”
Gutfeld then teed off on Cuomo’s victim-shaming: “Imagine saying that about a feminist protester and her clothes,” he said. “Funny how the media, who claim their speech is always under threat because of Trump, are now dictating what words and clothing are forbidden. Then they blame the victim. Hell, now standing is even ‘hateful.'”
“There’s something aggressive about standing there, standing your ground,” Guthrie told Sandmann. “You both stood your ground, and it was like a stare down. What do you think of that now when you think about that moment?”
“I would say Mr. Phillips had his right to come up to me; I had my right to stay there,” he replied, the teen again sounding far more reasonable than his adult interviewer.
“I don’t know, maybe standing is the only thing you can do when a stranger beats his drum in your face,” said Gutfeld. “But then Guthrie questioned why the teens would be scared of male adult strangers aggressively taunting them.”
“Did you feel threatened at all?” Guthrie asked.
“I definitely felt threatened,” Sandmann said.
“There were more of you than them, but you felt like they were stronger?” she said with a smile and a pronounced sense of skepticism.
“They were a group of adults, and I wasn’t sure what was going to happen next,” the boy replied.
“Okay, so get this. When a teen is standing quietly, somehow that’s threatening. But when four crackpots threaten you, that’s just good natured fun,” said Gutfeld.
The co-host then showed a headline from the Washington Post Tuesday that read: “A viral story spread. The media rushed to keep up. The Trump Internet pounced.”
“Meanwhile, The Washington Post whines that the right has seized on their screw-up,” said Gutfeld. “So after pushing this smear, they’re now blaming others for getting caught. ‘Some might say’ the outcry prevented the press from doing far worse.”
Gutfeld then summed up how the media has handled the story: “So watching the media analyze this mess, I feel like I’m watching a murderer doing an autopsy on his own victim. ‘Hmm, it must be suicide,’ they declare. Well, ‘some say’ they suck.”
Video below via Fox News (relevant comments start at the 8:52 mark):