As we close out 2019 let us hope that 2020 brings a return to responsible journalism where news and analysis take precedence over activism and virtue signaling.

A startling example of media malfeasance went unnoticed by many in the holiday rush, but came to life right here in Massachusetts when a sports reporter was brought on to Boston Public Radio to give her opinion on the recent Army-Navy football game in which some cadets were seen making the “OK” sign with their hands.

It is a physical gesture that has been an innocent form of communication seemingly forever but has been intentionally miscast as a sign connoting “white power” on fringe social media forums in recent years.

The reporter, Trenni Kusnierek of NBC Sports, a Boston Public Radio contributor, joined the WGBH radio show to explain to the hosts and the audience what had happened.

Off she went.

“ESPN went live,” she explained, “And their main host, Reese Davis was with a bunch of servicemen,” she emphasized. “I don’t believe I saw any women, a bunch of servicemen behind him.”

“And all of a sudden you see a kid put up a flag and then you see creep into the shot someone doing the upside down ‘OK’ symbol, which is now known and registered by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate symbol,” Kusnierek said. “The upside down, two fingers together, three down, actually looks like the ‘W’ and the ‘P’ for ‘white power.’”

If Kusnierek cared to learn a little more about the SPLC’s credibility issues, or could be bothered to explain to the audience that the gesture is universally considered benign, she’d be providing journalistic analysis, but her agenda was clear: These white men were bad and were guilty and little more needed to be adjudicated.

She wasn’t finished.

“To me, what was most distressing is there was an African American service member one or two rows in front of the two people doing it … He was the only person of color in the shot. You go a row or two back and here are these men who are flashing this symbol and they were in uniform.”

The fact that there are going to be more than a smattering of people in uniform at an Army-Navy game aside, Kusnierek determined that the white cadets were a clear and present danger to the African American cadet.

But not limited to just him.

“You just can’t weed out people who have prejudices and who are racist and believe in, quite frankly, male white power coming into our armed services and how is that going to have a trickle-down effect (on) women, gays, lesbians, and people of color?”

Now, according to her reasoning, all of our military has been tainted by white supremacy. How would that play out in a combat situation? General Trenni Kusnierek tells us.

“How do you know if you literally go into battle … How could you possibly feel safe with your fellow (troops) if you’re always looking over your shoulder and wondering whether or not that person standing next to you sees you as less than human and less valuable? Are they going to protect you in the worst possible environment?

The reporter wasn’t through sizing the smiling cadets up, though. She knew their type. “The stupidity of and the arrogance these young men thinking they can get away with it.”

After all, these were the best of the best, not the usual slack-jawed moron who walks into a recruiting station.

“Anyone who is going to West Point or the Navy Academy are some of the brightest human beings on our planet,” said Kusnierek. “This isn’t open enlistment. This isn’t some kid who was barely graduating from high school and joins a branch of the military to try to further his education and maybe gain some maturity.”

Trenni Kusnierek of NBC Sports had all the evidence she needed to see. Now it was time for her verdict.

“You know what you’re doing and you should be promptly punished for it,” she railed at the cadets. “And to me it’s an investigation that shouldn’t take much time and they should be immediately expelled and dishonorably discharged.”

Speed up the investigation. Just go through the motions and ruin their lives, already.

Days later, after an investigation at the Military Academy at West Point it was determined what we always knew: the cadets were just playing a game. It was not a white power gesture.

“The premise of the game is that a person makes a circle with their pointer finger and thumb below their waist,” the investigator noted to the Navy Times. “If someone looks at the circle, they lose and the person who made the circle gets to punch the person who looked in the arm.”

Further, Twitter being what it is, a photograph emerged of Ms. Kusnierek making a very similar gesture. It made its way around social media largely due to the fanbase of the Kirk Minihane Show — a popular podcast and one of the very few outlets that bothered to shine a light on the craven and irresponsible analysis of the football game.

Should Trenni be “immediately expelled and dishonorably discharged” from her job?

We reached out to Kusnierek but have received no comment at the time of publication.

Maybe she’ll apologize to the honorable cadets she smeared. Some of those young people are bound to see combat.

Like so many in the media, that particular reporter is content to levy heavy accusations at innocent people based on the rules of progressive intersectionality but feels no pressing need to undo the damage or even apologize to the innocent victims.

In 2020, let us hope for a better media than this.