The leftist media’s push to convict Kyle Rittenhouse in the shooting of three criminals during last year’s Blake Riots in Kenosha is as embarrassing as it is tenacious.
Presented with the obvious headline and first sentence for the stories about yesterday’s testimony from Gaige Grosskreutz, whom Rittenhouse shot in the arm, the Convict-Kyle media didn’t disappoint.
Grosskreutz testified, some reported blandly.
He “feared for his life,” others said.
He thought Rittenhouse was an “active shooter,” another explained.
All true, except that not one of those claims was the news.
Grosskreutz admitted that Rittenhouse shot him only after Grosskreutz pointed his pistol at the then 17-year-old, who was on the ground defending himself from the raging, leftist mob that had chased him, knocked him down, and attempted to kill him.
Headlines, Stories
The New York Times offered this anodyne headline: “Man Shot by Kyle Rittenhouse Describes the Encounter on a Kenosha Street.”
The first paragraph said the same thing, followed by this exchange between prosecutor Thomas Binger and Grosskreutz:
“What was going through your mind at this particular moment?” Thomas Binger, the prosecutor, asked in court.
“That I was going to die,” Mr. Grosskreutz, a volunteer paramedic, said.
Grosskreutz’s heroism as a “paramedic” that night was CNN’s take: “Armed paramedic who was shot by Kyle Rittenhouse testifies he thought teen was an active shooter.”
First paragraph:
An armed paramedic who was shot by Kyle Rittenhouse in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last year testified Monday that he pulled out his own firearm because he believed Rittenhouse was an active shooter.
The Washington Post offered this summary: “Gaige Grosskreutz says he feared for his life, pointed gun at Kyle Rittenhouse before getting shot.”
There followed a first paragraph that said nothing.
The Kenosha News reported likewise in its headline: “Rittenhouse Trial Day 6: Gaige Grosskreutz says he feared for his life.”
First paragraph:
A man who survived being shot by Kyle Rittenhouse described raising his handgun toward the Antioch, Ill., teenager after watching him shoot and kill Anthony Huber.
Even the oft-reliable New York Post blew it: “Lone shooting survivor takes stand in Kyle Rittenhouse trial.”
First paragraph:
The lone survivor allegedly shot by Kyle Rittenhouse during a night of mayhem took the stand Monday and emotionally described how he feared for his life after watching the teen fatally shoot another man at close range.
“Lone survivor,” of course, suggests that Rittenhouse was a madman on a rampage, not a man who shot two convicted felons and a third convicted criminal in self-defense.
The Real Story
Not that the worthies of the leftist media omitted that crucial fact. They just buried it — where readers would take less notice.
The full exchange between defense attorney Corey Chirafisi revealed that Grosskreutz did not have a permit for the Glock .40-caliber he carried that night, and he lied by omission in his $10 million lawsuit against Kenosha. The legal shakedown attempt omits the significant fact that he had a gun.
With a photograph of Grosskreutz in front of the courtroom, Chirafisi asked the confessed communist agitator whether he’d “agree your firearm is pointed at Mr. Rittenhouse.”
“Yes,” Grosskreutz replied.
Then came the truth:
Chirafisi: K. So, when you were standing three to five feet from him with your arms up in the air, he never fired, right?
Grosskreutz: Correct.
Chirafisi: It wasn’t until you pointed your gun at him, advanced on him, with your gun — now your hands down, pointed at him — that he fired, right?
Grosskreutz: Correct.
That, of course, was not supposed to happen, and so leftist media kept it out of the headlines.
Beyond that, in recounting that Rittenhouse shot and killed Joseph Rosenbaum and skateboard hero Anthony Huber, some stories did not disclose that both men attacked him. Of course, they omitted the unpleasant truth that both were violent criminals.
Rosenbaum was convicted of raping five little boys. Huber was a convicted strangler and domestic abuser.
Grosskreutz, too, is a career criminal.
