Jussie Smollet: or, How Narratives Unravel

[Vozh]

For full disclosure, I'm a socialist, and not particular invested in parliamentary politics.

I don't really care if it's true, or what happens to him if it isn't. If it is, a rich dude got punched in the face and some violent unstable types might get arrested for it. That's a win-win as far as I'm concerned. If it's not true, it means a rich twit paid someone to hit him in the face, which I find immensely gratifying.

[ShakaZuli]

So, again, because this case may end up being a fabrication, this means that all of the aforementioned incidents and many others.....aren't actually hate crimes? Or something?

Maybe it's because victims of hate crimes are far more likely to be members of an ethnic or religious minority than a member of the ethnic or religious majority. Odd how that works. But no, clearly that cant be the case, its clearly because the evil liberals hate the poor mistreated white people.

aha and yet when blacks make most of the prison populatiom this is suddenly a problem. Hypocrisy at its finest.

[Andsed]

Ah. God why do these cases need to be so fucking convoluted? I mean how hard is it to provide proof and conduct a proper investigation? I blame politics as well as social media

Don't worry, you can distract yourself by finding love through matching the contents of your fridge with another on https://www.refrigerdating.com

What a fucking world we live in..

This is jut making me wish for a nuclear apocalypse

[Bombadil]

We'll see where this fun rabbit hole leads.

The man could’ve literally picked any of the fifteen bazillion hate crimes that happened to make his stand on, but nope, he decided to fake one instead.

Literally has the opposite effect of what he was trying to convey.

Again..

Media reports about the Empire incident being a hoax are unconfirmed by case detectives. Supt Eddie Johnson has contacted @ABC7Chicago to state on the record that we have no evidence to support their reporting and their supposed CPD sources are uninformed and inaccurate.

[Andsed]

The man could’ve literally picked any of the fifteen bazillion hate crimes that happened to make his stand on, but nope, he decided to fake one instead.

Literally has the opposite effect of what he was trying to convey.

Again..

Media reports about the Empire incident being a hoax are unconfirmed by case detectives. Supt Eddie Johnson has contacted @ABC7Chicago to state on the record that we have no evidence to support their reporting and their supposed CPD sources are uninformed and inaccurate.

Has Smollet given any strong evidence for the assault happening yet? Cause if not I am assuming it was a hoax.

[Costa Fierro]

Smollet is a liar, in the same vein as those who accused Brett Kavanaugh of engaging in sexual transgressions as liars too.

If your account of something is filled with holes and inconsistencies then you are lying.

[Bombadil]

Again..

Media reports about the Empire incident being a hoax are unconfirmed by case detectives. Supt Eddie Johnson has contacted @ABC7Chicago to state on the record that we have no evidence to support their reporting and their supposed CPD sources are uninformed and inaccurate.

Has Smollet given any strong evidence for the assault happening yet? Cause if not I am assuming it was a hoax.

I don't actually work for the Chicago police so I don't know.

[Proctopeo]

Somebody who mocks other people for believing in conspiracy theories suddenly believes in conspiracy theories..

Conceptualize my bewilderment.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/oregon-official-texts-show-collusion-between-police-far-right-extremists-n971926

Or, you know...

Ah yes, Oregon. The state whose largest city, Portland, is 1,745 miles away from Chicago. The state in Cascadia, which is named after the Cascadian Mountain range, which is very far away from the Great Lakes. That Oregon.
Excuse me while I laugh.

Wait what? I am honestly confused here.

The spokesperson for Chicago police said that reports this is a hoax are 'uninformed and inaccurate.' Shouldn't be anything confusing about that.

Any citation on that? All I've been able to find are his attorneys saying that, not the spokesperson. The CCO's Twitter has nothing of that sort in it as well.

The only thing with that exact wording is from Essence (and from two days ago, mind; much has happened since), but the fact it's not on any of the actual (or even quasi) news sources makes it... dubious at best.

Social media needs some serious regulation.

As much as I malign the worst of social media, I disagree.
Some mild regulation would do the trick, but in the complete opposite direction of what you're suggesting.

[Andsed]

Has Smollet given any strong evidence for the assault happening yet? Cause if not I am assuming it was a hoax.

I don't actually work for the Chicago police so I don't know.

Huh well if someone here could present that it would be nice. But until I see some strong evidence I am assuming it was a hoax.

[Bezkoshtovnya]

So, again, because this case may end up being a fabrication, this means that all of the aforementioned incidents and many others.....aren't actually hate crimes? Or something?

Maybe it's because victims of hate crimes are far more likely to be members of an ethnic or religious minority than a member of the ethnic or religious majority. Odd how that works. But no, clearly that cant be the case, its clearly because the evil liberals hate the poor mistreated white people.

aha and yet when blacks make most of the prison populatiom this is suddenly a problem. Hypocrisy at its finest.

I am utterly failing to understand what possible point you are trying to make here.

[Scomagia]

For full disclosure, I'm a socialist, and not particular invested in parliamentary politics.

I don't really care if it's true, or what happens to him if it isn't. If it is, a rich dude got punched in the face and some violent unstable types might get arrested for it. That's a win-win as far as I'm concerned. If it's not true, it means a rich twit paid someone to hit him in the face, which I find immensely gratifying.

That's really stupid. Arbitrarily supporting violence against someone because of what's in their bank account is fucking low.

Granted he almost definitely wasn't attacked but still, your post is vile.

[Hatterleigh]

Yah, sounds like a bunch of baloney ngl. Dude should get charged

[Scomagia]

The man could’ve literally picked any of the fifteen bazillion hate crimes that happened to make his stand on, but nope, he decided to fake one instead.

Literally has the opposite effect of what he was trying to convey.

Again..

Media reports about the Empire incident being a hoax are unconfirmed by case detectives. Supt Eddie Johnson has contacted @ABC7Chicago to state on the record that we have no evidence to support their reporting and their supposed CPD sources are uninformed and inaccurate.

Despite what they're saying, their actions say something different. The two Nigerians they picked up have not only been released, they're said to be cooperating. If they aren't being charged with a crime, in what other capacity could they cooperate with the police?

Also, the police have said that the reports are unconfirmed, not false.

[Porco Rosso and his Pretty Red Seaplane]

If I remember right that was one incident involving a single high ranking officer in the Portland area. This does not now translate to every police precinct being in league with their local Klan or somehow make that a very likely scenario across the country.

Law enforcement has, historically, never been kind to Civil Rights protestors or the Left Wing in general.

Yes, obviously this is a law enforcement conspiracy. It's absurd to think that Smollett might seek to get attention and pay two friends to rough him up off camera and throw a clothesline over him, and that he might give the police a message history that redacted the two people who conspired to fake the attack.

It's much more reasonable to believe that two trump supporters were walking around chicago at two in the morning, wearing MAGA hats so their political affiliation could be easily identified and carrying a clothesline and some bleach so that they could attack any C-list gay black actors that might be wandering around in the arctic conditions; and that the police, after receiving the report of the attack decided that they should remove all evidence of these men from the security footage they obtained and instead find two of Smollets friends who he had messaged with his phone, convince them to make a false statement that they had been paid to attack him, get a local retailer to forge a receipt for the clothesline that has been used in the attempted lynching, and get Smollets phone service provider to alter his message history to incriminate him; all to make him look bad.

[Greater vakolicci haven]

Yeah. Filing false police reports, especially one that is aimed at inflaming political tentions, is bad. The media shouldn't face fines for it, but they should be required to print an apology and run a prominent story about, you know, the actual truth

[Clarissa the Happy and Cheerful Robot]

1. Do you believe that Smollett is telling the truth?

I guess we caught the liar with his pants on fire, and on a telephone wire.

2. If he is lying, what should the penalty be?

I think he should just issue a public apology for lying, and also being asked to pay a fine for wasting the time of the police.

3. Should the media be held accountable for popping off before any facts other than his statements came to light?

Ahh, now this one... I feel like most of the media is a sucker for these kind of juicy stories, so they probably could be held responsible for it. I said probably could because problem was, word already got out from that Tweet alone, and it snowballed before the police could do their investigations and their detective work. By the time the police was about to finalize their findings, the media let it out.

It's like that Black Panther thing all over again.

[Thermodolia]

The thing is that if you report as soon as something happens your risk of misrepresenting the story dramatically increases. If the media had waited but a day before jumping all over the Covington incident then they would have given a much more complete and honest representation of the event.

In the case of Smollett, waiting a few days would have done the same. See, people often don't actually follow events very closely. If you give them a false understanding from the start then a lot of people will hold on to that even in the face of changing information.

You can't wait a day after the fact because someone else will have reported such a juicy story first, which means that you lose out on potential viewers and lose money. Shareholders are sad. Nobody wins.

You can't end this kind of reporting without ending the 24 hour news cycle, but the market craves it.

Sounds like we kill the 24hr news. Per the usual it’s CNNs fault

[Bombadil]

Again..

Media reports about the Empire incident being a hoax are unconfirmed by case detectives. Supt Eddie Johnson has contacted @ABC7Chicago to state on the record that we have no evidence to support their reporting and their supposed CPD sources are uninformed and inaccurate.

Despite what they're saying, their actions say something different. The two Nigerians they picked up have not only been released, they're said to be cooperating. If they aren't being charged with a crime, in what other capacity could they cooperate with the police?

Also, the police have said that the reports are unconfirmed, not false.

As I understand it the attack wasn't recorded, the two men here were seen on camera in the vicinity. Ultimately until the police come out with an official statement one way or another none of us know what the hell happened. Yet I see people have made their conclusions already.

The fact is that race crimes have been on the rise over the past few years, but pointing at cases like this is the equivalent of going 'look, my gramps smokes 100 cigarettes a day and he's 90 years old so clearly smoking is good for you!', when the majority of evidence is simply that smoking causes cancer. Or Trump noting it's extra cold and therefore questioning climate change.

Why do these stories blow up far greater than the general steadily increasing hatred from anti-Semitism in Europe to right wing terrorism in the US.

And why aren't steps being taken to come down heavily on those platforms that are profiteering from allowing the spread of misinformation, hatred and more through providing targeted advertising and ability to spread utter lies.

If he made this up to salvage his career than he should be fined, if he was actually attacked then it shouldn't be an issue to be gloated over by either side. That's not to say we can't take steps to regulate those companies that allow for either side to live in its little bubble of truth.

[Deutschess Kaiserreich]

For full disclosure, I'm a socialist, and not particular invested in parliamentary politics.

I don't really care if it's true, or what happens to him if it isn't. If it is, a rich dude got punched in the face and some violent unstable types might get arrested for it. That's a win-win as far as I'm concerned. If it's not true, it means a rich twit paid someone to hit him in the face, which I find immensely gratifying.

Probably fake punched him so it didn't hurt

[Western Vale Confederacy]

You can't wait a day after the fact because someone else will have reported such a juicy story first, which means that you lose out on potential viewers and lose money. Shareholders are sad. Nobody wins.

You can't end this kind of reporting without ending the 24 hour news cycle, but the market craves it.

Sounds like we kill the 24hr news. Per the usual it’s CNNs fault

There is a sliver of truth in Trump’s often ridiculed statement that the media have become quote on quote "fake news" and "the enemy of the people".

[Vassenor]

The man could’ve literally picked any of the fifteen bazillion hate crimes that happened to make his stand on, but nope, he decided to fake one instead.

Literally has the opposite effect of what he was trying to convey.

Again..

Media reports about the Empire incident being a hoax are unconfirmed by case detectives. Supt Eddie Johnson has contacted @ABC7Chicago to state on the record that we have no evidence to support their reporting and their supposed CPD sources are uninformed and inaccurate.

So now the narrative that this was all a hoax is starting to unravel?

[Confederate States of German America]

Again..

Media reports about the Empire incident being a hoax are unconfirmed by case detectives. Supt Eddie Johnson has contacted @ABC7Chicago to state on the record that we have no evidence to support their reporting and their supposed CPD sources are uninformed and inaccurate.

So now the narrative that this was all a hoax is starting to unravel?

No, as others literally pointed out right below this post.

[Estanglia]

Again..

Media reports about the Empire incident being a hoax are unconfirmed by case detectives. Supt Eddie Johnson has contacted @ABC7Chicago to state on the record that we have no evidence to support their reporting and their supposed CPD sources are uninformed and inaccurate.

So now the narrative that this was all a hoax is starting to unravel?

Nope.

[Kowani]

Again..

Media reports about the Empire incident being a hoax are unconfirmed by case detectives. Supt Eddie Johnson has contacted @ABC7Chicago to state on the record that we have no evidence to support their reporting and their supposed CPD sources are uninformed and inaccurate.

So now the narrative that this was all a hoax is starting to unravel?

All we’ve learned is that everyone needs to stop bounding t’fuckin’ conclusions and wait for the goddamn police statement.

[Bezkoshtovnya]

Again..

Media reports about the Empire incident being a hoax are unconfirmed by case detectives. Supt Eddie Johnson has contacted @ABC7Chicago to state on the record that we have no evidence to support their reporting and their supposed CPD sources are uninformed and inaccurate.

So now the narrative that this was all a hoax is starting to unravel?

No...it is merely stating that the reports that state without a doubt that it is a hoax are unreliable and not to be taken as truth. The only thing unravelling remains the original narrative put forward by Smollet.