McPherson: Black Protester Beaten at Trump Rally?

CNN claims that a Black Lives Matter protester was ”punched and kicked” at a Donald Trump rally in Alabama on Saturday by “several” attendees, presumably because white racism was ubiquitous. The reporters also insisted that ”all of the attendees who were involved in the physical altercation with the protester were white.” The first claim is dubious, and the latter is proven false by CNN’s own video. The Clinton News Network, so labeled for the endless amount of water it is prepared to carry, is drumming up racial hatred to help out some old friends.

This story broke over 24 hours ago, but all of the follow up only refers to the original CNN piece. No corroborating interviews, or helpful video has surfaced. There’s been a steady, howling echo of righteous indignation, but no additional substance. Huffington Post, CBS News, the New York Daily News, Think Progress – everyone is referencing CNN. The problem is CNN’s own video is far from conclusive. Watch for yourself. It’s 1 minute 47 seconds long, an eternity in the news world.

The CNN report first states that “several attendees” were beating the man, identified as Mercutio Southall. From the video it‘s clear there is a scuffle taking place, far less certain that punches and kicks are being delivered, by a group of people, or any one individual in the group, against Southall, while he’s standing or even after he falls to the ground. It looks to me like the Trump supporters were struggling to get him up off of the floor and out the door, and are obstructed to the bitter end by the alleged victim himself. A witness said Southall fell on the floor and refused to leave. “Every time they got him on his feet he would try to lay down again. When they did finally get him on his feet & headed towards the door he tried to run back into the crowd shouting & screaming.” If several people were punching and kicking me repeatedly, I wouldn’t be hanging around.

The most violence I can detect is from Southall, who is seen repeatedly flailing his arms about wildly, and a man who appears to be a security officer, firmly but calmly pushing another man away from the area, then joining the people trying to push Southall out of the rally. This Gawker story boasts video from “all angles,” but provides just two short clips that do not show any punches or kicks, seeming instead to vindicate the above interpretation of events.

The CNN story claims that “At least one man punched the protester and a woman kicked him while he was on the ground,” which implies that brutal, racist, mob violence took place – in Birmingham, Alabama of all places. Interviewed later, by phone, Southall said that racial epithets were in fact used, and he felt like he was facing a “lynch mob” as white people punched him in the face and neck, and kicked him in the chest and stomach. Jeremy Diamond, one of the authors of the CNN piece, took care to tweet out a 30 second edit of the video and declare that “A black protester at Trump’s rally today in Alabama was shoved, tackled, punched & kicked.” How odd that neither he nor fellow reporter David Mark, had the presence of mind to follow up such an obviously big story by obtaining photographic evidence of wounds sustained by Southall immediately after receiving numerous blows to the head and torso from a hate-fueled lynch mob.

With video and eye-witness reporting, why were no arrests made? And how is it that a man savagely beaten to the ground by several people needed no medical attention? Something really stinks here.

Mark and Diamond state unequivocally that a protester was beaten, leaving no room at all for doubt when the story told by their own video is far from clear. It’s possible that more video and/or witnesses will surface, but in the meantime there’s cause for skepticism. Good reporters always employ a little.

These reporters seem more interested in fomenting racial conflict than getting their facts straight. They even insist that “all of the attendees who were involved in the physical altercation with the protester were white” when the video shows that to be patently, undeniably false: Another black man can be seen joining in the scuffle, and he too looks like he’s trying to get Southall to leave. More and more, this is looking like a political hit job.

Speaking recently at Missouri University, Ben Shapiro said that Republicans win elections when they convince voters that an existential threat to their way of life lurks beyond our borders. Democrats, by contrast, win elections when they can convince voters that Republicans are the threat. Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton is suffering big time in the polls right now, against every Republican candidate, and while practically coronated by her party she must still face the electorate. Trump is scoring well with blacks and women, constituencies that Broom Hilda desperately needs next November. There’s no better way to scare members of those two groups into voting blue than ginning up racial discord.

Enter CNN.