Apparently the only people on the planet to buy Jussie Smollett's continued assertion that he was in fact the victim of a hate crime are the guardians of truth in the media.



"We may never really know what happened" about a hoax documented with checks and videos is about five inches removed from "Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia" territory. https://t.co/MpU4uWBvwv — Tiana Lowe (@TianaTheFirst) March 26, 2019

Cool. Were you there that night? Smollett's camp says he was the victim of a hate crime. The police dispute that. There isn't video of the alleged attack. Thus, we may never know what really happened. — Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) March 26, 2019

Everyone looking at this Jussie Smollett news: pic.twitter.com/mnJa9OaEzV — Abby D. Phillip (@abbydphillip) March 26, 2019



We actually don't have "so many questions" though, at least not about Smollett's guilt. As Stelter correctly pointed out, I wasn't there that night. But I do have eyes and ears.

If the media wants to employ an evidentiary standard that deems the Smollett case a wash, then literally no one could be viewed as guilty of anything, including a murder caught on tape. Let's take a quick look at the facts.

When Smollett first reported he was attacked, he alleged that the assailants were two white guys in MAGA caps who screamed that a congressional district with a D+38 lean is "MAGA country." Today his attorneys conceded that the attackers were two black Nigerian brothers that Smollett knew personally.

After weeks of investigation, the police found evidence that the Nigerian brothers purchased the materials used in the "attack" at a Chicago hardware store, a check to the brothers from Smollett, and multiple call records confirming their correspondence before and after the attack. I'd say that he's guilty beyond a reasonable doubt given the 16 felonies brought against him by a grand jury, but now prosecutors have dropped the case after Tina Tchen, the former chief of staff to Michelle Obama, and Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx ran interference to cajole prosecutors into dropping the case.

Even Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel went off on the prosecutors today, excoriating the move as a "whitewash of justice." Or, as Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson described:



Our job as police officers is to present them with the evidence ... If someone ever falsely accused me [of a crime], I would never hide behind a brokered deal and secrecy.

...

Prosecutors have their discretion of course, we still have to work with the state's attorneys office, we'll have conversations after this. At the end of the day it was Smollett who committed this hoax.



Proving hoaxes is usually difficult, but in Smollett's case not so much. We had his unlikely and then constantly changing story and a bevy of evidence proving what happened the night of the hoax. We also have the text messages and reporting proving that Foxx was working on behalf of Smollett for 13 days before she officially recused herself. The consensus includes the Chicago police force as well as the mayor. This is about as close to a slam dunk as any journalist could possibly hope for in confidently reporting facts.

Now, let's think about this a second: The media spent the better part of the past two years convincing us that President Trump was about to go to jail for colluding with the Russian government. They listened to a Brazilian Twitter bot and attempted to destroy the lives of the Covington Catholic boys even though there was video evidence available exonerating them. They uncritically reported not just one 30-year-old, evidence-free sexual assault allegation against a Supreme Court nominee, but the despicable farce of the Avenatti-backed Julie Swetnick lie.

So yeah, I'm fine if journalists are taking a step back and increasing their evidentiary standards for reporting across the board. But this ain't it.

Smollett bet on sycophants in the national news media and political actors behind the scenes to bail him out of prison, literally and figuratively, under the guise of ambiguity. I'd argue now that Smollett's continued outright lies are less damaging to the truth than Stelter's equivocation, the coy veneer of "we're just asking questions!" to give cover to Smollett.

The time is ripe for a media reckoning. A free society requires a robust Fourth Estate to check the privileged and the powerful. Instead, journalists cower to a hate crime hoaxer and his cronies in the Cook County State's Attorney office.