Journalistic Failures Risk Big Blowback
Kyle Rittenhouse, “Russiagate” reporting a disservice to us all.
Ordinarily I wouldn’t preface a news item or analysis by admitting to this or that political leaning, but I’ll show my hand here, right at the top. I am a “never Trumper” and so wanted to see what evidence the Robert Mueller investigation into “Russiagate” would uncover, and even after Kyle Rittenhouse’s acquittal earlier today I can think of no legitimate reason why he was carrying an assault-style rifle on the night of August 25, 2020, when he shot and killed two men and wounded a third – killed, not murdered, because he was acquitted.
Russiagate
I was confused and then alarmed by lots of media coverage of the Christopher Steele “dossier” that was so key to the “Russiagate” investigation over the years. I mostly rely on what is known variously as legacy media or mainstream media to get my news, as do most people (in spite of social media rumor mills and misinformation trolls), and I relied on such media to learn more about the alleged Russia connection to Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. It turns out I was wrong to do so. Many in the media were just looking for evidence that would convict Trump, similar to what lawyers do in a criminal case – the prosecution only wants evidence that will lead to a conviction, and the defense only wants evidence that will lead to an acquittal. There is no impartiality here – that’s up to the judge and jury to maintain. By analogy, this is our expectation for the media. Many failed, as it turns out.
Even when Mueller’s report was delivered in 2019 and failed to confirm any suspected collusion or conspiracy as such between Trump and Russian authorities, some in the media simply emphasized other illegal behavior and misconduct the investigation found and downplayed what it did not find. Here’s an example from Time magazine:
“Special Counsel Robert Mueller revealed a sweeping Russian effort to penetrate the Trump campaign in 2016, followed by frenetic attempts by the President to stymie investigations into it afterward.
In an extensive 448-page report sent to Congress Thursday, the former FBI director detailed dozens of instances in which Russian operatives interacted with Trump associates, although he ultimately found no evidence that the campaign worked with Russia in the end.
Although Russia ‘perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency’ and the campaign ‘expected it would benefit electorally’ from Russian hacking efforts, ‘the investigation did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities,’ the report said.”
My felt pain is not that Trump was or was not found culpable in a legal sense, but that it was largely only Right-wing and Far Right media that seriously contested the case against Trump. Yet these media outlets and pundits often were accused of being mere Donald Trump stooges for doing so, particularly by Left-wing pundits. That’s what the media had become - a pissing match.
Only in recent weeks have we begun to see many kinks in the armor. The Washington Post opened up a little on its shameless role in what is nothing less than a debacle for American journalism, and yesterday CNN published what may be the best summary of the Russiagate affair, including media coverage, that I’ve seen in any mainstream media source to date. And CNN was one of the original offenders! It was no mea culpa, and maybe the network just wanted to go on record with better reporting at this point, but it is a good summary of what went wrong (see link above).
I’m still a “never Trumper,” though.
Kyle Rittenhouse
I remain suspicious of Kyle Rittenhouse’s intentions in walking into an active street protest with an assault-style rifle. But information that came out during the trial felt, at times, like being in an alternate universe. The information that emerged may have been published earlier in some places, but again, I’m writing as a typical news consumer here. If I was surprised by what I saw and heard then so were millions of other Americans.
Example: It was not commonly reported that Rittenhouse’s father lived in Kenosha, thought The New Yorker magazine apparently did report that detail earlier. I don’t believe for a moment that Rittenhouse went to Kenosha to protect his father, but had I known earlier that his father in fact lived there it might have changed the impact of the relentless narrative that he “crossed state lines” to create mischief. I can only think most media outlets ignored or even suppressed this detail because otherwise they might be accused of supporting Rittenhouse somehow.
Example: When the self-defense strategy was introduced by Rittenhouse’s lawyers I, as the prosecution argued at trial, wondered how can you get away with presenting a visible threat to protesters by carrying an assault-style weapon into a crowd and then claim self-defense when they come after you. But, as revealed at trial, he ran away before shooting in at least one instance, and fired when video showed pretty clearly he was being menaced. I don’t know if that really supports a “self-defense” claim - after all, what would you think if you saw a guy strutting around with an assault-style rifle in a crowed place - but let’s keep in mind that it’s the prosecution that has to prove its case. The defense doesn’t have to prove anything. At a minimum, reasonable doubt came into play here. Most media reporting all along never suggested there could be any doubt that it was premeditated mayhem resulting in murder.
Example: Right-wing media has tried to make much of the fact that Joseph Rosenbaum was a child sex offender when he was a teenager. In particular, Tucker Carlson ruthlessly played up this angle and callously emphasized the man’s mental health history in his derisive dismissal of the case against Rittenhouse before the verdict was in. More relevant was the evidence presented at trial that Rosenbaum had acted aggressively during the protests; indeed, he had been acting irrationally all that day. I can’t imagine the full extent of his tragic life, but just as Tucker Carlson was wrong in his reporting so were many in the mainstream media who simply cast Rosenbaum as an innocent bystander or howled at the judge’s earlier decision that neither he or the other two demonstrators who were shot could be called victims. The judge is going to come in for a lot of criticism after today’s verdict, but he was right in thinking that the use of the word “victim” only engenders sympathy, thereby biasing perceptions. The judge wouldn’t allow this, but many in the media encouraged it.
The most interesting witness in the case, Gaige Grosskreutz, a paramedic who survived being shot, admitted at trial that he pointed his own weapon at Rittenhouse first. I call Grosskreutz the most interesting witness because while his body language betrayed his contempt for the accused he did not lie on the stand just to help the prosecution win a conviction. He apparently believes in due process.
I don’t care about Rittenhouse’s guilt or innocence at this point – the case against him was weaker than we were led to believe and the jury has ruled. I, too, believe in due process.
The Real Cost to Society of Bad Journalism
I don’t know how this acquittal will play out in the public sphere. Joe Biden reportedly said this evening that he was ‘angered’ at the verdict - I have to ask how is that not as bad as almost anything Donald Trump tweeted while president? Does Biden not believe in due process? Still, what I want to impress on readers is that the real cost to society of so much bad reporting on both “Russiagate” and the Kyle Rittenhouse case is just this: Blowback. Alienation. Polarization. More votes for people I don’t trust in future elections. More people deciding to get their news from media outlets that are right sometimes, but cannot be trusted in the main. More threats to democracy, this time caused by the very people who routinely claim to be supporting democracy.
All this may sound like I’m putting a great deal of responsibility on media for what ails America.
Yeah, I am.
Abe Aamidor is a former long-term reporter at The Indianapolis Star and the author of several books from quality publishers such as Indiana University Press and Routledge. You can read up more about him at www dot aamidor dot com or his public profile at LinkedIn.