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Certain newsrooms are in bargaining mode over the Covington Catholic fiasco.

The narrative alleging that an elderly Native American man was harassed this weekend by a group of racist, white high school students at the March for Life has fallen apart, leaving some news organizations scrounging for whatever they can to justify inciting an online riot to form against a group of Kentucky teenagers.

The New York Daily News has, for example, published a story this week accusing Covington Catholic students of donning “blackface” for a high school sporting event.

“SEE IT: Covington Catholic High students in blackface at past basketball game,” reads the New York Daily News headline. The report claims that a photo “said to be featuring Covington Catholic High School students clad in blackface during a 2015 basketball game made the rounds on Twitter Monday morning amid last week’s Indigenous Peoples March controversy.”

The Daily News seems to have misidentified the year of the photo, which likely comes from 2012.

“The photo depicts several white students, some in blackface, shouting at an opposing black player,” the report said. “While the photo’s origins couldn’t be verified, the official Covington Catholic High School YouTube account published a video last January boasting its basketball school spirit, and several clips, including one from 2012, showcase attendees chanting in black face, a mockery of the opposing players.”

The video was removed Monday from the Kentucky school’s YouTube page.

“The full-body black paint worn by the students in the school’s official video closely resembles that of the students in the photo being circulated on social media,” the Daily News report continues, going full Zapruder. “One student from the photo, not in blackface, is sporting a logo that also mirrors the Covington emblem.”

It added in reference to the most visible teen from the March for Life video from this weekend, “This won’t help Kentucky student Nick Sandmann’s case.”

Okay, a few things here: First, to suggest that the students were doing some sort of minstrel show in mockery of an opposing team seems like a stretch, to put it mildly. As many others have already noted, the Covington photos clearly depict a “blackout” game, where attendees are encouraged to dress completely in a single color in support of their team. The photo shows everyone clad in black. It also shows that some students have painted their entire bodies (not just their faces) in black.

Occam’s Razor, folks. Either these kids went all-out to promote the designated color for that specific game, or they publicly targeted an opposing team with extremely racist antics. It could be that the Covington teens in this photo engaged in extremely racist behavior, but let’s maybe wait until someone can confirm that that’s exactly what happened here before we accuse them of the worst. A rush to judgment based on incomplete information is what got us here in the first place.

Secondly, what does the New York Daily News mean by, “This won’t help Kentucky student Nick Sandmann’s case”? There is no case. Sandmann maintains that he did not harass or abuse an elderly Native American in the nation’s capital, and the videotape bears him out. How does a photo from 2012 dispute his claim? Sandmann was in elementary school at the time that the Covington basketball photo was taken.

Is the Daily News suggesting that because some students may have behaved badly in the past, then Sandmann probably behaved badly, too? That’s some solid reasoning.

Lastly, let’s recognize the Daily News’ report for what it is: A newsroom is looking for something after the fact to justify its earlier rush to paint the Covington teens as monsters. The narrative alleging that Covington students bullied a Native American protester was based on a single, incomplete video. It turned out almost immediately to be bogus. But rather than admit error, some are making the not-so-subtle attempt to prove that Covington is a bad school, and that therefore the MAGA hat-wearing teens from this weekend are also bad people, and so therefore it’s OK to gang up on and bully them.

Stand-up comedian Jeremy McLellan explains the motivation behind the Daily News’ lousy follow-up reporting best.

“We have now reached the ‘Bargaining’ phase of the ‘5 Stages of Grief That You Shared An Internet Hoax,’ which is when you pivot to smaller allegations in an attempt to justify the original mob. The smartest ones drop truth altogether and pivot to ‘the larger context,’” he writes. “What every single one of these ‘bargains’ has in common is it pivots the discussion away from the original (false) allegation that sparked the internet mob. PLEASE LET’S AGREE THEY ARE BAD. But if it’s not about the original claim, it’s bargaining.”

He adds, “Psychologically it makes you feel better about having unjustly attacked someone. ‘Well if he was bad anyway, or he did something else that was bad, or was simply from a bad group, what’s the harm?’ Most people think this way. It feels good. Meanwhile our souls rot.”