A narrative is a powerful thing. It can sway public opinion and even influence elections … and it doesn’t even need to be honest or accurate.

The latest narrative being breathlessly pushed by the left-leaning media is that Catholic high school students in Washington, D.C., harassed and mocked Native American protesters while wearing pro-Trump “Make America Great Again” hats.

And the liberal media is milking it.

It’s the kind of story the media trips over themselves to spread — but it looks like tripping is exactly what outlets just did by spreading half-truths instead of waiting for all the facts to come out.

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In a video that is going viral online as well as being featured on mainstream media outlets, students from Covington Catholic High School are being smeared as racist and hateful.

But new video that shows more of the Friday incident, as well as on-the-ground reports from people who were there, paints a very different picture than what is being portrayed by the left.

Extended footage of the clash reveals that far from being surrounded, it was the Native American demonstrator — the same man being portrayed as the victim by the media — who sought out and approached the high school students, and the Catholic young men didn’t appear to be “taunting” him at all.

I’ve spliced together cell phone footage from this event, and this student’s account appears to be accurate. Check out the thread below for the sequence of videos: pic.twitter.com/FSQsGkcCBg — W. Ghoulie (@SportsBuckeye) January 20, 2019

Reports from outlets such as The Washington Post have tried to magically guess the motives of one particular student at the rally, declaring that him standing fairly calmly and stoically while a demonstrator beat a drum inches from his face was somehow sinister.

“One stood about a foot from the drummer’s face wearing a relentless smirk,” The Post declared using clearly manipulative language.

Except the video shows that this “relentless smirk” was actually a teenager trying to stay calm with a neutral expression in the middle of a complex scene.

“I am a student at Covington Catholic and was present at the occurrence. Here is what truly happened,” a young man who attended the event told WKRC News.

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Response from Cov Cath student who says he was present at the event in question in Washington.@Local12 pic.twitter.com/nqLD1pJY2u — Adam Clements (@AClementsWKRC) January 20, 2019

“In the midst of our cheers, we were approached by a group of adults led by Nathan Phillips, with Phillips beating his drum,” the student told the news station. “They forced their way into the center of our group. We initially thought this was a cultural display since he was beating along to our cheers and so we clapped to the beat.

“However, after multiple minutes of Mr. Phillips beating his drum directly in the face of my friend (mere centimeters from his nose), we became confused and started wondering what was happening. It was not until later that we discovered they would incriminate us as a publicity stunt,” the student continued.

He and other attendees noted that while there was name-calling and racist slurs being thrown around, it didn’t come from Covington Catholic High School.

“To reiterate, we did not partake in any physical or verbal abuse,” the student said. “After that initial occurrence, we were then verbally assaulted by four or five African-American men who called us ‘faggots’ and berated one of our African-American students for being friends with us. The truth needs to come out.”

This could just be a case of he-said-they-said, except there is video that appears to confirm this much more measured version of events.

One piece of footage in particular directly contradicts the claim of Nathan Phillips, the Native American man, who according to The Post insisted that he felt “threatened” by the teens and was “swarmed” by the Catholic group.

The video suggests that this was a major exaggeration, if not an outright lie.

This unedited video (with the original sound) is indisputable proof that the Native American man approached the Catholic school kids pic.twitter.com/cFi0qRYDg2 — PolishPatriot™️ (@PolishPatriotTM) January 20, 2019

“Covington Catholic student bothering elder man” yet here is evidence of the man approaching them during their school cheer not disturbing anyone. Doesn’t make sense pic.twitter.com/SRYRJOIoKf — Maria Judy (@mariajudy_) January 19, 2019

Other videos show racism — but from the Native American protesters, NOT the Catholic students. “You white people go back to Europe, this is not your land!” the same group that the media is portraying as the “victims” can be heard yelling in one clip, while the teenagers in MAGA hats do their best to stay calm and respectful.

“You white people go back to Europe, this is not your land” pic.twitter.com/az204veNKo — Cosmo Di Girolamo (@CosmoDiGirolamo) January 20, 2019

Other video clips show radical black protesters hurling racial and derogatory slurs — including the N-word — toward the Catholic teens, apparently mocking them for their race and friendship with African-American students who were in attendance, as well as insulting black Trump supporter Kanye West.

The new video evidence was so compelling that some critics who had previously condemned Covington Catholic High School reversed course and apologized for falling for the false media narrative.

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

We seem to have entered a strange era where media outlets are not just biased — that’s been true for decades now — but actively push propaganda to advance angles that they know to be false.

Do you think this was a deliberate setup to make the MAGA teens look bad? Yes No Completing this poll entitles you to The Western Journal news updates free of charge. You may opt out at anytime. You also agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use You're logged in to Facebook. Click here to log out. 99% (2376 Votes) 1% (22 Votes)

It might have worked in the past, but people aren’t falling for it anymore. Citizens are now journalists, with cameras and microphones in their pockets, and this means that the true version of events can be pieced together from independent videos.

Media exaggerations and lies only succeed if the American people let them. The job of journalists is to report the truth, as honestly and completely as possible.

If outlets can’t even do that, it’s time for them to be replaced by new voices who don’t fall for what can only be called a hoax.

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