Thread by @pragmatometer

While we don't yet know if the boys' version of this encounter is 100% true, we do know that Phillips' version is a flat out lie.

The NYT, without a shred of due diligence, has unleashed the wrath of tens of thousands on these kids, but can't be bothered to issue a correction.

https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1086982942965067776

This is what motivated journalism looks like: they saw a white kid in a red hat and a Native American in the same frame, and applied it to a template.

This isn't journalism; it's a race baiting diatribe on Trump and his supporters superimposed on a compelling freeze frame.

There is now an uncut video (1h 46m) available.

Original narrative:

· The highschool group surrounded Phillips, shouting "build the wall".
· When the situation "turned ugly", Phillips tried to retreat, but was blocked by the kid who's face has now been shamed before millions.

Per the video:

· The HS group was there ~1h before Phillips.
· "Build the wall" never shouted.
· Phillips intentionally marched into center of group.
· MAGA hat kid stood there, smiled, and walked away having said/done nothing.
· Adults shouted racist/homophobic slurs at kids.

Yeah, I'm going full 180: at this point I don't think the kid is guilty of so much as being smug.

An adult started pounding a drum just inches from a high schooler's face and then set him up for media-assisted national outage, and we're going to, what, drag him over his smile?

Forget this kid's face. Forget the name of his school. But remember these names: @smervosh, @CleveWootson, @aolivo, @JoeHeim, @publicroad.

These are the journalists from NYT, WaPo, and more that just character assassinated a KID without so much as 5 seconds of research.

👆 If there's one tweet in this thread that you RT, make it that one.

They didn't blink before publishing a story that will follow this kid for life, yet not one has retracted their story, published a correction, or so much as tweeted what really happened.

Light. Them. Up.

On a related note, this is still a top-3 story in @TwitterMoments; not a single corrective tweet has been included.

This is not a correction. Not even close:

https://twitter.com/smervosh/status/1087147406926450688?s=19

I was briefly encouraged earlier to see that some corrections were beginning to roll out.

Unfortunately, as it turns out, these corrections still fall woefully short of honesty by both (still) overselling the kids' involvement, and underplaying what they were subjected to.

It's obvious at this point that watching an hour and 46 minutes of uncut video before destroying a kid's reputation is simply too much to ask, so I've created some Twitter-sized clips of a few of the key moments.

That said, the full mirror is on YT here:

For clarity, the source video－and therefore all these clips－are from the perspective of a Black Israelites group that was protesting at the march.

The first hour sets a rather obnoxious stage, but I'll focus on the time period surrounding the confrontation with Phillips.

We pick up at roughly 1h:6m into the video. The protestors don't seem to be addressing the high school students yet, but note that they do threaten a random bystander with violence ("I'm gonna f*** him up") if he gets too close:

Shortly later, at 1h:7m into the video, the protestors begin taunting the high schoolers, calling them "incest babies".

Next, at 1h:12m into the video, we start seeing where the media narrative absolutely falls apart.

You can clearly see Phillips approach the group of boys, who had, for nearly an hour now, been standing in the same place. They do not encircle him, chant "build the wall", etc.

There are better up close videos of the confrontation itself, so I'm going to stick with what's shown in the uncut video here.

We pick back up at the 1h:15m mark, where the protestors start calling the high schoolers "future school shooters":

Next, at the 1h:18m mark, the protestors start calling the boys crackers and n*ggers.

For all the handwringing from the media about what a racial confrontation this was, how on earth was THIS not the center piece?

(Well, we know why, but here it is, anyway...):

Next, at the 1h:24m mark, "On the back of your dollar bill it says 'In God We Trust', but you give fagg*ts rights".

The reaction from the boys is about what you would normally have expected from the media, but red hat attacks are a bit more lucrative than homophobia, it seems:

And believe me, there's more. Let's jump back to the 1h:17m mark, for example, where a *prayer circle* is ominously warned that there "aint gon be no peace until blood is shed":

I have to admit, throwing these all out here feels a bit like an exercise in futility. These journalists have seen all of this by now, and yet the most we've seen is the bare minimal movement required to acknowledge some "nuance" in the event.

At any rate, keep these videos in mind as the "corrections" start rolling out. If they don't make it clear that Phillips lied, these kids were repeatedly harassed, and the most damning thing we have against them is over-analyzed facial expressions, don't let them off the hook.

UPDATE: adding one more clip from a closer vantage that demonstrates that Phillips didn't only approach the group, but the MAGA hat kid in particular.

Remember, Phillips claimed that this kid "blocked" him from "retreating" a group of kids shouting "build the wall":

"I'M SO CONFUSED", one kid shouts.

What kind of a high schooler would say a thing like that after being harassed by adults for an hour, and then placed in the rather unusual situation of a random dude with a drum in your face? Obvious bigotry, that remark.