Media to blame for parade of fake racism stories

'Fox & Freinds Weekend' co-host questions if the incident ever took place after noting no video, microphones, or fans in attendance heard the alleged racial slur on 'American Reports.'

Once again, as regular as clockwork, a bombshell allegation of racism has been amplified by the media only to turn out to be false. This time it was a claim that a racist slur was shouted by a Brigham Young University volleyball fan at a black player from Duke. Just like the Jussie Smollett case, just like the NASCAR noose story, and just like so many others, this tale of 21st Century racism has now fallen apart upon investigation.

This parade of fake racism stories raises one vital question. How does this keep happening? How has our news media not learned its lesson and slowed its roll instead of breathlessly bemoaning imaginary bigotry? While incompetence and gullibility should never be excluded from consideration when talking about journalism, something deeper and more important is going on here.

The real answer to this constant face planting by the news media is in large part that the credulity with which these incidents are met is a kind of self-fulfilling evidence of how racist our country allegedly is, whether said incidents are true or not. The real message that the media is sending is that overt racism is so commonplace that these tall tales are more likely to be true than not. Even though they almost never are.

And what happens when it turns out these acts of racism never occurred? Practically nothing. There is never a reckoning, there are never consequences. And it never changes. Maybe what is off here is the mainstream news media’s underlying assumptions about America.

BYU COMPLETES INVESTIGATION INTO RACIAL SLUR ALLEGATIONS,