NEO: Nathan Phillips, character assassin: what even his critics seem to be ignoring about him.

However, what’s being almost completely ignored even on the right (the NY Post is just about alone in mentioning it, and they don’t emphasize it much at all) are Phillips’ most vicious lies, told quite early in the game (I’ll get to what they were in a minute). These particular lies probably had a big role in shaping people’s perceptions of the boys and helped to spur their widespread demonization.

It was Phillips himself who quite early on, during his Saturday interview with CNN that set the original tone and was widely disseminated, gave the following description of the Covington boys:

It looked like these young men were going to attack [the Black Israelites]. They were going to hurt them. They were going to hurt them because they didn’t like the color of their skin. They didn’t like their religious views. They were just here in front of the Lincoln — Lincoln is not my hero, but at the same time, there was this understanding that he brought the (Emancipation Proclamation) or freed the slaves, and here are American youth who are ready to, look like, lynch these guys. To be honest, they looked like they were going to lynch them. They were in this mob mentality.

* * * * * * * *

If not for that long video that finally emerged (ironically, as a result of the Black Israelites taking it and posting it), Phillips’ pernicious and poisonous narrative would have carried the day. As it is, his narrative continues to override reality for many many people. And that is also with the assistance of the MSM, including Savannah Guthrie’s gentle, respectful later interview of him (a contrast to her challenging one of Sandmann) that failed to question Phillips on a single one of his lies. Rather, she let him continue to spread his narrative as he wished.

On Wednesday, William Jacobson wrote, “The lesson anybody on the right needs to learn, is you need to have your own video cameras running.”

During the Tea Party days, before he turned away from blogging about politics, I remember blogger Moe Lane frequently stressed the importance of having at least two people shooting video at a Tea Party pro-small government protest. For example, it’s one thing to have video of having someone having his camera knocked away; it’s another to have simultaneous video of the assailant in the act.

Conversely, multiple cameras rolling at an event works against someone creating a false narrative — as Phillips discovered this week the hard way.

COMPASSION: The Day They Came To Tell Me My Husband Died.

CHANGE: Migrants are now being returned to Mexico to await asylum hearings. “And Mexico is onboard with the policy and cooperating.”

TRADE WARS ARE FUN AND EASY TO WIN: Thanks to Trump, China’s economy is rapidly decelerating. “Meanwhile, Chinese lawmakers have been rushing through a new law designed to alleviate American concerns about intellectual property rights and forced technology transfers, something that President Trump has made a top priority.”

BAD, PRESS: How the media fail.

To watch Stelter’s show, Reliable Sources, after a reporting debacle is to watch a master class in whataboutism and faux-persecution, followed by the insistence that even the most egregious lapses in judgment or professionalism are to be expected from time to time and that we should actually be worrying about the real victim here: the media’s reputation. This, suffice it to say, is not helpful. Were a football commentator to worry aloud that a team’s ten straight losses might lead some to think they weren’t any good — and then to cast any criticisms as an attack on sports per se — he would be laughed out of the announcers’ box.

* * * * * * * *

Sometimes consciously, but most often unwittingly, journalists treat Democrats as normal and Republicans as abnormal and proceed accordingly in their coverage. Once one understands the rules, the whole setup becomes rather amusing. When a headline reads “Lawmaker Involved in Scandal,” one can immediately deduce that the lawmaker is a Democrat. Why? Because if he were a Republican, the story would make that clear in the headline. Without fail, stories that begin with “Republicans pounce” are actually about bad things that Democrats have done or said, while stories about bad things that Republicans have done or said begin with “Republican does or says a bad thing” and proceed to a dry recitation of the facts. A variation on this rule is “Republicans say,” which is used when a Republican says something that is so self-evidently true that, had a Democrat said it, it would have been reported straight. For a neat illustration of how farcical things have become, take a look at the Washington Post’s most recent “fact check,” which helpfully informs its readers that the claimed “one thousand burgers” President Trump bought for the Clemson football team were not, in fact, “piled up a mile high” because, “at two inches each, a thousand burgers would not reach one mile high.”

Democracy dies in darkness, indeed.

It’s not at all “unwittingly.” Just think of the media as Democratic party operatives with bylines, and you won’t go wrong.™

ROBERT SPENCER: Why Hasn’t Dr. Lara Kollab’s Medical License Been Revoked? She tweeted about killing Jews, and then apologized — after she got caught.

UNEXPECTEDLY: People Keep Injuring Themselves on Electric Scooters, Study Finds. When we were in California at New Year’s, the people we saw on them looked to be having fun. Some of them also looked to be intoxicated.

BOTTOM STORY OF THE DAY: Kim Kardashian’s Trainer’s Butt Transformation Is Nothing Short Of Amazing.

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Plus, deals on Office Supplies.

THIS IS CNN: Roger Stone going to prison? “He might like it,” says CNN’s Jake Tapper.

I BLAME ANTI-VAXX HYSTERIA: State of emergency declared in US measles outbreak. Though there are no doubt plenty of cases sneaking across the border, too.

IT’S TIME FOR A #METOO MOMENT IN HIP HOP:

In the weeks following the horrific revelations made in Lifetime’s bombshell six-part docuseries “Surviving R. Kelly,” the fallout has been immense.

The 52-year-old R&B superstar, accused of alleged sexual and physical abuse with underage girls spanning nearly three decades, has parted ways with Sony Music Entertainment and its subsidiary RCA Records, following protests over his conduct.

But while a day of reckoning seems to be finally at hand for Kelly, the hip-hop and R&B world has yet to truly have the #MeToo moment that has rocked Hollywood, professional sports, the video-game industry and the journalism biz.

Why are leftwing dominated industries such cesspits?

Earlier: The sexual predators everyone still worships.

I DUNNO, FINASTERIDE CAN HAVE SOME PRETTY BAD SIDE EFFECTS: Study: Prostate drug finasteride safely lowers cancer risk.

WHY THEY FIGHT: For Many Women, Kavanaugh Could’ve Been Their Husband, and the Covington Teens Could’ve Been Their Sons.

I REMEMBER WHEN MICROSOFT GOT ANTITRUST TROUBLE JUST FOR GIVING AWAY A FREE BROWSER: Wow, fancy that. Web ad giant Google to block ad-blockers in Chrome. For safety, apparently. “Several other developers commenting on the proposed change expressed dismay, with some speculating that Google is using privacy as a pretext for putting the interests of its ad business over those of browser users.”

AMERICA’S HALL MONITORS AT TIME-WARNER-CNN-HBO STRIKE AGAIN: Bill Maher Trashes ‘Prick,’ ‘Smirkface’ Covington Kid w ‘S***-Eating Grin.’

Bill Maher’s never lacked for chutzpah, given his own smirking shit-eating grin. But once again, somebody who prides himself as being an iconoclast simply reinforces the establishment left opinion.

(Classical reference in headline.)

THEY’RE ALWAYS IN THE LAST PLACE YOU LOOK: Earth’s Oldest Known Rock Was Found on the Moon: One of the moon rocks collected by Apollo 14 actually originated on the Earth.

JOHN HAWKINS: Long Term, How Do We Live With the Sorts of People Smearing Covington Catholic Teen Nick Sandmann?

NEWS FROM KNOXVILLE:

Related: Our Response.

DISPATCHES FROM THE EDUCATION APOCALYPSE: Man Booted From School Board Meeting For Naming Teacher Who Called Covington Boys ‘Hitler Youth.’

THE POWER LINE WEEK IN PICTURES: Epidemic Fakery Edition.

HMMMM: Trump Didn’t Save the NFL, the Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes Did.