Catholic schoolboy Nick Sandmann went viral after taunting Native American elder Nathan Phillips while wearing a Make America Great Again cap. Photo / Supplied
Catholic schoolboy Nick Sandmann went viral after taunting Native American elder Nathan Phillips while wearing a Make America Great Again cap. Photo / Supplied
It was the viral story of the week: a teenager in a "Make America Great Again" cap was filmed standing in front of a Native American drummer smiling broadly as his friends cheered.
As the days passed, a more complex picture of what happened between rival groups at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington has emerged.
Most disturbingly of all, the murky origins of the footage have raised alarming questions over who shared the footage and whether their intention was really to further divide America and stoke tensions even further.
High school student Nick Sandmann was swiftly condemned as a racist when the video emerged a week ago, the footage held up as evidence of a broken society, a culture of hatred in the United States and an administration that trades on divisions.
But the story took on a life of its own after a longer video emerged that added context and complicated public understanding of what really happened.
The new footage showed a group of Hebrew Israelites taunting the teenagers and calling them "incest babies" and "future school shooters" before the situation escalated.
The students began chanting in response, passers-by were dragged into the tense situation as the four African-American men threw around the n-word and Native American elder Nathan Phillips decided to step in.
What resulted was the short scene the world at first saw with no context — the 64-year-old and the teenager standing face-to-face as the musician played his drum and chanted and Nick smiled. Who was the aggressor? Was the teenager simply standing his ground?
The different interpretations have played out across social media, with furious commentary thrown back and forth as each side of politics sees the version that fits their own preferred narrative.
This Veteran put his life on the line for our country. The students’ display of blatant hate, disrespect, and intolerance is a signal of how common decency has decayed under this administration. Heartbreaking. https://t.co/NuPnYu9FP4
Looking like Nick Sandman & Covington Catholic students were treated unfairly with early judgements proving out to be false - smeared by media. Not good, but making big comeback! “New footage shows that media was wrong about teen’s encounter with Native American” @TuckerCarlson
Nick Sandmann and the students of Covington have become symbols of Fake News and how evil it can be. They have captivated the attention of the world, and I know they will use it for the good - maybe even to bring people together. It started off unpleasant, but can end in a dream!
Mr Phillips said afterwards that he was simply trying to defuse the situation, but felt "hate" and had heard the students chant "build the wall" — something not captured on video. Nick then issued a statement claiming he had also been trying to stay calm and restore some peace. Both appeared on the Today show to explain their side of the argument.
The uncomfortable confrontation soon became one of the biggest stories in the world, with well-known figures from both sides of politics getting involved.
Deb Haaland, one of the first Native American women elected to Congress, on Saturday tweeted: "The students' display of blatant hate, disrespect, and intolerance is a signal of how common decency has decayed under this administration."
In Monday, Mr Trump tweeted that the Covington Catholic high school students "were treated unfairly with early judgements proving out to be false — smeared by media."
He later added that the teens had "become symbols of Fake News and how evil it can be."
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told Fox News on Wednesday she had "never seen people so happy to destroy a kid's life."
That prompted a reply from Florida school shooting survivor David Hogg, who asked: "Really?"
Others raised the issue of children in US detention centres and the Trump administration's record of separating migrant families. The "MAGA teen" controversy had come to represent all the most divisive issues in American political life.
WHO CIRCULATED THE STORY?
The story has mushroomed throughout the week, but perhaps the most alarming aspect of the furore is its origins.
The House Intelligence Committee has asked Twitter to provide more information about the @2020fight account that first circulated the video, which has been viewed more than 2.5 million times. The social media giant suspended the account on Monday after a CNN investigation revealed suspicious features.
The account used the photo of a Brazilian blogger, but claimed to be a California schoolteacher named Talia. It followed more than 37,000 users and averaged 210 posts and likes a day — classic signs an account may be fake.
“As far as standing there, I had every right to do so. My position is that I was not disrespectful to Mr. Phillips. I respect him. I’d like to talk to him...But I can't say that I'm sorry for listening to him and standing there.” Nick Sandmann on if he owes anyone an apology pic.twitter.com/iiVqPtltjf
There are two sides to every story. I made a snap judgment based on a photograph & I know better than to judge a book by its cover. I wasn’t there. I shouldn’t have commented. I’m glad there wasn’t violence. I hope theses two men can meet and find common ground as can WE ALL! pic.twitter.com/R20v9ot2Ey
And @2020fight was listed on social media marketplace Shoutcart, which allows individuals to pay for "shoutout" posts on popular accounts, Robert Matney, director of communications at cyber security firm New Knowledge told the Huffington Post
"Deliberate attempts to manipulate the public conversation on Twitter by using misleading account information is a violation of the Twitter Rules," said a spokesperson for Twitter.
Russia has previously used these sinister cyber attack strategies to manipulate the 2016 US presidential election — although there is no evidence the @2020fight account is linked to the country.
In December, two explosive reports revealed the incredible extent of Russian meddling on every social media platform to help Mr Trump during and after the presidential election. They revealed that a shadowy organisation called the Internet Research Agency used the networks to spread disinformation through millions of posts targeted at specific demographics, particularly African-Americans. It used black activism accounts to stoke racial tensions and shared pro-Trump memes on religious and conservative pages.
The confrontation between Nick and his friends and Mr Phillips has all the elements for the ultimate social media storm. It involves two parties who appear to fit neatly on two distinct sides of politics, and an incident with competing interpretations capable of inciting strong emotions.
The Omaha tribe elder had been attending an Indigenous Peoples Rally, while the Catholic private schoolboys had travelled from Kentucky to attend a March for Life anti-abortion march. This was funded by their school — something that is common among religious US schools — and Covington Catholic was then dragged into the debate too, as social media users unearthed reports of alleged rape and racism involving students.
Everyone took sides, usually based on whether they too were conservative and religious or progressive and atheist.
The media pounced on the story, but the backlash was just as swift, with fierce criticism of some journalists for their perceived lack of nuance, and for seemingly vilifying the teenager without knowing more. Coming after the controversy of BuzzFeed's disputed story on Mr Trump and Russia, the drama fit neatly into the President's characterisation of the media as "fake news".
Even Covington Catholic at first took a defensive stance, condemning Nick's actions, before saying it would need to investigate the matter further. The school was forced to close on Tuesday because of the threat to the safety of students and staff.
New York Times columnist Frank Bruni said the storm showed how "we react to news by trying to fit it into the argument that we routinely make, the grievance that we usually raise, the fury or angst or sorrow that we typically peddle."
Media theorist Douglas Rushkoff wrote for CNN that the video was not a "meaningful reflection of human nature or even America's current cultural divide" as many had claimed, but "simply demonstrates how social media amplify and inflame our tensions".
He said online platforms and the algorithms driving them were the "real enemies of humankind", rather an "a few smug white kids or chanting American Indian elders".
There is another of way of looking at this moment and why it provoked so much feeling.
White, conservative Catholics in MAGA caps versus a chanting Native American elder in a contentious viral video: it's the perfect metaphor for this sorry moment in American politics.
