The Corner

Religion

The Lincoln Memorial Hoax

Last night, I tweeted that the Catholic high school that apologized over the conduct of its kids at the Lincoln Memorial did the appropriate thing. Then someone shared with me a snippet from a different angle/time that showed the Indian elder/activist approaching the kid in a MAGA hat who looked initially like he was menacing him. I noted that ambiguity in another tweet and said it was still wrong for the other kids to mock the elder’s chant. Now, even more extensive video shows that the elder approached the entire group of kids in the first place and suggests — together with a statement by one of the students — that the kids jumping around and chanting may not necessarily have been mean-spirited. All this took place in the context of a long, poisonous tirade directed at the the students by a group of black nationalists. Anyway, if not a hoax, this at the very least was not what it initially seemed. I deleted my original tweet and we also took down a strongly worded post by my colleague Nick Frankovich that relied on the incomplete video. It’s another reminder — even for an old hand like me — that it’s best not to make snap judgments and to wait for all sides of a controversy to have a chance to be heard.

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