Covington Catholic: doxxing followed by support on a fateful weekend

The weekend of January 20-21, 2019 saw many social media participants retract their criticism of the Covington Catholic students who awaited their bus at the Lincoln Memorial the Friday before and were confronted by protesters.

Of course, it did not look that way in the beginning, as only short film clips appeared which made the protesters look like victims. Those clips provoked intensely angry social media reactions.

Then, much longer videos appeared, showing the boys did the best they could. See my posts on the lack of chaperone supervision here and here.

Here is a short clip from one of the longer videos:

Many who had jumped to premature conclusions retracted them. There were plenty. Three follow.

This one is from a former Junior League chapter president. Junior League is a highly exclusive volunteer organisation of women. It’s very difficult getting nominated let alone approved for membership:

Completely different angle.
I'm sorry for judging this kid. pic.twitter.com/1WXz2s2Nhw

— Sandy (@RightGlockMom) January 20, 2019

And here is Dilbert’s creator, Californian Scott Adams:

Scott Adams apologizes for believing @CNN about the Covington Catholic Boys fake news. With coffee. https://t.co/Izg0tq4YkB

— Scott Adams (@ScottAdamsSays) January 20, 2019

Finally, we have Benny Johnson from The Daily Caller:

Just watched the full, unedited video of the MAGA kid and the Native American vet.

I’d like to amend this tweet.

The kid did absolutely nothing wrong. I regret the error. It makes this assault by leftists I witnessed all the more sick. https://t.co/JZOyMCnUtu

— Benny (@bennyjohnson) January 20, 2019

MSN issued their retraction on Monday, January 21. Thankfully, their account was well written and detailed. You can read a play-by-play account at the link, but here is a top-level summary:

A new video that surfaced Sunday shows what happened before and after the encounter Friday in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington.

In the new video, another group taunts the students from Covington Catholic High School in Kentucky with disparaging and vulgar language. The group of black men, who identify as members of the Hebrew Israelites, also shout racist slurs at participants of the Indigenous Peoples Rally and other passersby.

This man had a tongue-in-cheek view of the media narrative to come:

Media tomorrow:

OK, so maybe the Covington students didn’t accost a Native American.

And maybe they didn’t actually dress in black face.

But they’re still white. And they like Trump. So they’re still guilty.

— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) January 22, 2019

Over the weekend, militant leftists doxxed some of the students and their families. ‘Doxxed’ means that personal information was revealed online.

Even worse, they maliciously targeted one boy who wasn’t even in DC that day. They also went after his family — on the weekend one of the sons was getting married.

The Gateway Pundit got the full story from his older brother, excerpted below (emphasis in the original):

“People then proceeded to spam my family with harassments and threats of physical violence. We then find out our parents[‘] address was posted online. If that wasn’t enough, our family operated business has been slandered and attacked,” he continued.

The radicals then found out where this boy — who wasn’t even there — had applied for college:

The cyberbullies began posting details about his dream of becoming a chef and found the college that he is hoping to attend. The mob then began urging the school to rescind his acceptance, calling him a racist.

Back now to the Covington students. CJ Pearson is a Trump supporting teenager. Judging by his tweets, he will go far in life. He has been closely following what’s been going on with the Covington boys:

NEWS: Liberal activists are calling the college admissions offices of universities that have accepted Covington Catholic students, urging them to rescind offers of admission, a Covington Catholic senior tells me.

— CJ Pearson (@thecjpearson) January 21, 2019

Not surprisingly, those who supported the boys blamed the media for having fanned the flames that later prompted the doxxing. Breitbart has a good account of media pot-stirrers.

Someone tweeted:

As an encore to their utter lack of journalistic standards, the establishment media used a fake news story to smear children. God help these sick people.

The Hill‘s Buck Sexton realised some of his cohorts had gone too far:

Im generally very opposed to firing people for what they believe, write, or say, except in blatant circumstances

but as a professional journalist, if you use your platform to lie about high school kids, doxx them, and try to ruin their lives

Yeah. Your ass should get fired.

— Buck Sexton (@BuckSexton) January 20, 2019

And, fortunately, someone did get fired:

One down. Journalist who wished for the death of several Covington Catholic High School students and their parents in tweets over the weekend has been fired. https://t.co/AFqnL3DnUl

— Kambree Kawahine Koa (@KamVTV) January 22, 2019

The tide had turned. Concerned Americans began tweeting their support:

Praying for their safety and that every sick person who doxxed them and threatened them is punished to the fullest extent of the law. https://t.co/0GYHMdsDw6

— Lisa Mei Crowley (@LisaMei62) January 20, 2019

I am not a “lawsuit guy” but…

I hope the kids from #CovingtonCatholicHigh get legal representation and sue everyone in the Media involved with spreading the scam to ruin their lives.

I mean EVERYONE.

There needs to be consequences for FAKE NEWS smears or it will never stop.

— C3 (@C_3C_3) January 20, 2019

The MSM are destroying these youths. They have to close their social media accounts, due to the threats. Listen to this amazing young man, who is going to help them, against the lying, race baiting MSM. https://t.co/yP32D7GOnx

— Cyber Safari (@PCyberSafari) January 21, 2019

OANN journalist (and fellow Catholic) Jack Posobiec had been in touch with Covington families that fateful weekend:

Just got off the phone with parents from Covington Catholic

– They fully stand with their kids

– Receiving death threats

– Asked for others to help get out the truth

– Are planning a joint statement

– Requesting a town hall at the school #StandWithCovington

— Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) January 20, 2019

Attorney Robert Barnes volunteered to take on the boys’ case pro bono:

I will represent the kids for free if they want to sue @maggieNYT for obvious libel. https://t.co/VmqVqIVNoe

— Robert Barnes (@Barnes_Law) January 20, 2019

The Kenton County prosecutor warned that violent threats are felonies and would be taken seriously. He lives in Covington, Kentucky:

Threatening acts of violence against educational institutions in Kentucky is a felony and we don’t take it lightly no matter the circumstances. #KYcrime 🇺🇸

— Rob Sanders (@KYprosecutor) January 20, 2019

His statement won praise from a Hollywood actor, who is also a Trump supporter:

This is glorious. Now all of us who have been appalled by the threats of violence against these children and their school can start collecting evidence and forward it to authorities who will actually do something… https://t.co/XuslYVsghy

— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) January 22, 2019

In closing, it is difficult to imagine just how frightening that weekend must have been for the boys, their siblings and their parents along with other family members.

Imagine the number of social commitments that they cancelled, how much harassment they had to endure and the psychological trauma that must have accompanied the whole wretched experience.

Again, this could have all been easily avoided on the day of the March for Life.

We see how one moment of lack of adult intervention can snowball into far-reaching and potentially dangerous consequences.

Where were the chaperones?

More to come next week.

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