As despicable as it may sound, journalism has become nothing but a virtue signaling factory, with reporters competing over who creates the most outrage-fueled clickbait garbage available.
For proof of how low the news industry has sunk, look no further than what a writer with the USA Today, the prestigious American daily that’s been around since the early 1980s, did to the young and talented Oklahoma Sooners quarterback, 21-year-old Kyler Murray.
Just moments after Murray won college football’s most prestigious award, the Heisman, sports writer Scott Gleeson saw an opportunity to drag the young man’s name into the mud instead of congratulating him on his accomplishments. And how did he pull that off? By “digging up,” i.e. going after, 7-year-old tweets the young player published that did not fit the politically correct narrative the media now favors.
The horrific act, which was branded as “journalistic malpractice” by Jeff Deist, the Mises Institute’s president, and “oppressive” by investigative journalist Glenn Greenwald, stole the moment from Murray’s win, and the internet was inundated with headlines calling the young man a homophobe.
Pressured by the mob, the Oklahoma University quarterback promptly issued an apology for reportedly using “homophobic language” when he was just 14-years-old.
It Takes A Village
Regardless of what he said in his old tweets, nothing could compare to the type of hateful vitriol he may have encountered when he opened his phone or computer that Sunday, as his case was even used as an example by CNN hosts telling parents to teach their kids about sexism.
But as pointed out by writers such as Robby Soave, America has become a cruel guardian to its children. Coincidentally, the country has become less tolerant of children’s actions as the progressive mentality that makes it society’s job to care for the youth became the prevailing narrative.
It’s almost as if putting the welfare of our children in the hands of government makes us more likely to rely on the state and mob rule to “correct” a behavior we believe it’s incompatible with our own.
Thankfully, the very publishing of the original story regarding Murray’s old tweets prompted countless Twitter users to accuse the writer and the publication of taking cheap shots at the player just for clicks. Some went as far as using a term oftentimes used by President Donald Trump when referring to some media outlets: the enemy of the people.
Others accused USA Today of pretending that 7-year-old tweets are newsworthy, all while the U.S. government stations its troops in over 100 foreign countries and helps murderous regimes such as the Saudi kingdom to starve Yemeni children to death.
Could it be that progressives were right all along and that it really takes a village to ruin a child’s life? Thankfully, the village didn’t fall for the phony outrage raised by the “news” industry this time around.