The evil side of social media

Richard A. Sokerka

An investigative report, conducted by a private detective agency, into the interaction last month between Coving­ton Catholic high school students and a Native American man has exonerated the students, according to the Diocese of Covington, Ky.

The report was released nearly a month after controversy first erupted following an edited video emerging on Twitter showing what appeared to be a confrontation between a Native American elderly man with a drum — later identified as activist Nathan Phillips — and a group of students from Covington Catholic.

The incident took place as the students were waiting at the Lincoln Memorial to meet their bus on their way home from the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C.

This video went viral on social media sites within minutes of its posting. Many of those who immediately commented, spewed vitriol at the students and their faith and condemned them.

But when the full video was posted sans any editing, it pointed to a very different story and very different outcome, which the investigators corroborated.

The team of investigators, reviewed 50 hours of internet activity, interviewed 43 students and 13 chaperones.

They found that as the students arrived at the Lincoln Memorial, they encountered Black Hebrew Israelites, who were yelling offensive statements at anyone who walked by, the report found. “We see no evidence that students responded with any offensive or racist statements of their own.”

“We found no evidence of offensive or racist statements by students to Mr. Phillips or members of his group.”

The investigators concluded that the statements they had obtained from students and chaperones were “remarkably consistent,” both with one another and the video footage reviewed. In contrast, they said, “Mr. Phillips’ public interviews contain some inconsistencies, and we have not been able to resolve them or verify his comments.”

The character assassination that these Catholic high school students had to endure after participating in the March for Life points to the evil side of social media.

A dangerous combination is formed in a society where we get breaking news instantly and can comment immediately on it, in many cases anonymously.

Rather than assume the students were innocent until proven guilty, social media posters condemned them before getting all the facts or better yet, viewing the full version of the video.

If only they had resisted the temptation to rush to judgment and condemn others by taking the time to review all the facts, these students would never have had these awful accusations hurled at them.

While social media presents seemingly infinite opportunities for the common good, the disembodied and deceptively impersonal, almost anonymous, nature of digital communication is fraught with pitfalls and the potential for harm.

The students at Covington Catholic know this well — they have lived through what the evil side of social media can do to innocent people.