Correction, Please!
In the Business of Bias
Item: On January 29, the same day Fox television show Empire star Jussie Smollett claimed he had been the victim of a brutal “hate crime” on a Chicago street, the New York Times published an online article under the headline “Jussie Smollett, Star of ‘Empire,’ Attacked in What Police Call a Possible Hate Crime.” The article — in a prime example of a rush to judgment — describes the “attack” on Smollett, stating, “Jussie Smollett, one of the stars of the Fox television show ‘Empire,’ was attacked in Chicago early Tuesday morning by two people who yelled racial and homophobic slurs and wrapped a rope around his neck, according to the police, who said they were investigating the incident as ‘a possible hate crime.’”
Describing the “attack,” the Times’ Sopan Deb wrote, “Smollett, who is black and publicly came out as gay in 2015, was walking on a downtown street when two people approached him and yelled the slurs, according to a statement from the Chicago Police Department. The attackers then began hitting Smollett in the face and poured an ‘unknown chemical substance’ on him.”
And in a one-sentence paragraph (for greater emphasis), Deb wrote, “One of the attackers also wrapped a rope around Smollett’s neck before the duo fled.” And quoting from the Chicago Sun-Times, the article reported that “the attackers yelled ‘this is MAGA country,’ a reference to President Trump’s campaign slogan.” The attackers were presumed to be white Trump supporters.
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