And the Rest of It

In a way, one should not be surprised:

Russian president Vladimir Putin proposed giving broad new authority to set the direction of foreign, domestic and economic policy to the State Council as part of the constitutional overhaul he announced last week.

Putin laid out the details of the plan — widely seen as the Kremlin’s effort to lay the groundwork for Putin extending his rule beyond the end of his current term in 2024 — in draft amendments to the constitution submitted to parliament Monday.

This wouldn't be a problem if one simply treated these people as traitors, revoked their citizenship and never allowed them to return:

The Norwegian prime minister lost her parliamentary majority Monday after the right-wing Progress Party withdrew its ministers from the government coalition. The protest move came in response to the controversial repatriation of a suspected Islamic State member and her children from a Syrian camp.

Conservative Prime Minister Erna Solberg said she would seek to continue to govern in a minority coalition with two smaller parties. The Progress Party may continue to support some of Solberg’s policies.

Monday’s Norwegian government crisis was among the most dramatic political ramifications of a dilemma Solberg has shared with leaders across Europe. Many European nations have refused to heed calls to repatriate suspected Islamic State fighters and their children from Syria. In some cases, their reluctance drew heavy criticism from human rights groups and the Trump administration, with the latter viewing the Europeans’ approach as a security threat. Last fall, President Donald Trump warned that the captured fighters would be released unless European governments were ready to take them back.

Half a year later, only a few suspected Islamic State members have been repatriated, even as European governments are increasingly being challenged in court to do so.

Often, the small and silver screens will portray members of the bribed press as a rag-tag band of crusaders for the buried truth.

Look what these crusaders wished to bury:

Within 48 hours, the truth had emerged. A longer video, which showed the Covington boys' prior harassment at the hands of the Black Hebrew Israelites, made it clear that the kids had not directed racist invectives at Phillips' crowd—they were cheering in order to drown out the Black Hebrew Israelites. Phillips then entered the teens' midst, drumming and chanting at them. Some thought he was joining their cheer, a small few made inappropriate tomahawk gestures, while others seemed confused or even wary—correctly wary, since Phillips and his entourage had not come in good faith.

I wrote about the additional footage, and, over time, many commentators backpedaled. The mainstream media did as well. Case in point: The New York Times went from "Viral Video Shows Boys in 'Make America Great Again' Hats Surrounding Native Elder" to "Fuller Picture Emerges of Viral Video of Native American Man and Catholic Students."

But less well remembered than the mainstream media's belated mea culpa was the absurd effort to re-legitimize the initial narrative.

On the next day, January 21, the New York Daily News published a contemptible hit piece attributed to its sports staff titled: "SEE IT: Covington Catholic High students in blackface at past basketball game." The first sentence read: "This won't help Nick Sandmann's case," as if the story was some sort of indictment of him. In fact, it had nothing to do with him, or any of his classmates at the Lincoln Memorial. The "blackface" incident was from a Covington basketball game years before, in which some attendees had painted themselves black to show school spirit. Ill-advised, in today's rage-charged climate? Sure. An example of racial harassment? Probably not. In either case, it had nothing to do with Sandmann.

When one cannot deny his initial rush to judgment, he attempts (and poorly, too) to validate it some other way.