The Media Twists the Truth in a Horrible Chicago Torture Story

A heinous crime has been committed in Chicago as a gang of four young African-American youths — two male and two female — kidnapped and tortured a mentally handicapped white teenager from the streets one of America’s most dangerous cities roughly a week ago.

Making the incident worse than the racial aspects of the case are the fact that the perpetrators broadcast their sickening actions on Facebook in real time and taunted their 18-year-old victim, demanding he repeat the words “F*** Donald Trump” and “F*** white people” over and over in addition to cutting him with a knife and forcing him drink water from a toilet bowl.

Throughout the kidnapping — which took place over the course of two days, the perpetrators used the word “n****r” to refer to their victim, even though he’s white. Ultimately, the perpetrators demanded $300 as a ransom payment from the victim’s mother via cell phone before the victim escaped as police arrived.

The four people charged with the crime are Brittany Covington, 18, Tanishia Covington, 24, Tesfaye Cooper, 18 and Jordan Hill, 18. They’ve been in custody since January 6, two days after the graphic video was shot and parts were broadcast on television networks across the country.

Outraged community and political leaders in Chicago and across the United States denounced the perpetrators, but some stopped short of calling the actions a hate crime while others made excuses, saying that police brutality has justified some violent actions of young people both white and black.

Former Chicago Police Superintendant Garry McCarthy believes the crime is evidence that America is becoming more divided and that partisan politics may be partially to blame. “Unfortunately, this is becoming the new normal,” McCarthy said on Fox News’ America’s Newsroom. “The more outlandish the incident, we’re horrified, but there’s no reaction to it.”

On CNN, African-American host Don Lemon was discussing the crime with Democratic strategist, CNN guest commentator and former Bernie Sanders press secretary Symone Sanders (no relation), who is also black. Lemon argued, “I can’t say that it’s a hate crime because Chicago police won’t say it. They’re saying they’re still investigating; they’re not done with their investigation. But when you look at this, Symone, they’re saying, ‘F white people, F Trump’ — how can you say it’s not a hate crime against a white person?”

Sanders retorted, “This is sickening, but I’m going to say something that’s probably not very popular. We cannot callously go about classifying things as a hate crime. Motive here matters.” Sanders attempted to say that the perpetrators may have committed their crime out of hatred for the things Trump has said, rather than their hatred of the victim’s race.

“So, was this for hate of Donald Trump — for the president-elect [and] for the things he has said?” Sanders asked. “Or pure hate of white people? That matters because if we start going around, and anytime someone says something or does something really egregious, really bad and as sickening as this in connection with the president-elect, or Donald Trump, or even President Obama for that matter because of their political leanings, that is slippery territory.”

Sanders claimed, “That is not a hate crime; hate crimes are because of a person’s racial ethnicity, their religion, their gender, their disability — your political leanings — because someone doesn’t like your political leanings, they do something bad to you; that is not a hate crime.”

In November, Sanders was also questioned about hate crimes after another video from Chicago showed a mob dragging a white man out of a car and beating him because they believed the man was a supporter of Donald Trump. At that time, Sanders said, “Hate crimes and protesting are not the same thing,” Sanders said. “A hate crime is a crime that is committed against somebody because of their religion — because of what they look like, because of their sexual orientation. That’s not the same thing as protesting.”

Another guest on that program, former Navy SEAL and Trump supporter Carl Higbie, asked Sanders, “Then what do you say to the people who are — who dragged a poor white guy out of a car and beat him?”

Sanders then mocked Higbie’s concern sarcastically, saying, “Oh my goodness, poor white people. Oh my — stop. Stop it, Carl.”

Obviously, these are cases where the mainstream media was attempting to be politically correct. However, they ignore statistics that say that the nationwide rate of black-on-white homicide has been approximately twice as high as the rate of white-on-black homicide for the last 10 years.

In this case, many media sources revealed most details of the case as soon as they came in. But CBS Radio did something else.

In a shocking twisting of the truth, the network wrote the story so as not to reveal the racial identities of either the perpetrators or the victim and even worse, made it seem as if the races were reversed. A transcript of the story, which is a prime example of the current phenomenon of “fake news,” reads as follows:

The viral video of a beating and knife attack in Chicago suggests the assault had racial overtones. CBS’s Dean Reynolds tells us the victim is described as a mentally-challenged teenager.

In the video, he is choked and repeatedly called the N-word. His clothes are slashed, and he is terrorized with a knife. His alleged captors repeatedly reference Donald Trump. Police are holding four people in connection with the attack.

Media observer site Mediaite quickly commented on the CBS report, calling it “technically correct, but widely misleading… By noting the attackers used the N-word during a racially-motivated attack while ‘referencing’ Donald Trump, the clear implication is that the victim was black and his attackers were racist Trump fans.”

Thomas Lifson of the website The American Thinker agreed, writing, “This may be the single most despicable act of media bias I have ever encountered. Now consider for a moment how difficult it must have been for CBS News employees to make themselves bulletproof (in their minds, at least) by being factual, yet create a counterfactual message in the minds of its listeners. This is the sort of lying that takes skill and practice.”

Indeed, the way the report is written — leaving out the races of the people involved — is so purposeful in its obscuring of the truth that one has to wonder what (or whose) agenda was at work when the assigned editors wrote the story. CBS has since neither named nor fired the story’s editor, nor even issued a correction.

The four young people named in the attack have since been charged with two hate crimes (since they targeted the victim based on his race and his disability) as well as other charges, including aggravated kidnapping, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, unlawful restraint, burglary and possession of a stolen motor vehicle. The two men involved in the incident each have prior arrest records and one has spent time in jail. They were all ordered to be held without bail by Cook County Judge Maria Kuriakos Ciesil.

In the meantime, the victim has received medical treatment and was released from a local area hospital. Neal Strom, the attorney handling his case, stated, “The family is huddled around him morning, noon and night, but he needs help.”

The victim’s 32-year-old brother related, “We’re still just trying to get our heads together. He’s doing as well as he can. He was with us all last night; he’s with my Mom now.” Donations can be made to the young man’s family at this page.


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