If conservative activists have “seized” on the mystery surrounding Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick’s death the day following the storming of the Capitol, liberal activists have had no problem exploiting it and the established narrative — that he was struck and killed by a Trump supporter wielding a fire extinguisher. As we were looking at responses to that tweet about Sen. Josh Hawley demonstrating his “white nationalism” with a raised fist, we saw this:
Felony murder.. https://t.co/kimL6YonGe pic.twitter.com/ES8xZizQpY
— Constance Graham, MS, HRD (@wilsongraham123) February 23, 2021
Felony murder? Are you sure about that? Because PolitiFact isn’t, writing that we still don’t know what killed Officer Sicknick.
The cause of Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick’s death remains under investigation. Here’s what we know. https://t.co/h65yNN4Lae pic.twitter.com/LTZ9LTX7P3
— PolitiFact (@PolitiFact) February 23, 2021
“Adding to the mystery: Early news reports that said Sicknick was struck with a fire extinguisher during the attack have been challenged by other reporting suggesting that wasn’t the case.” The New York Times corrected its story on Sicknick’s death, which it had attributed to blunt force trauma from a fire extinguisher. That didn’t stop the Democrats from using the fire extinguisher story in their second impeachment trial of Donald Trump, though. Sounds like Democrats pounced on the story.
We didn’t quite get a “Republicans pounce” out of PolitiFact, but we did get this: “Some conservative activists have seized on the changing and differing news accounts to accuse the media of exaggerating what happened to Sicknick.” For what it’s worth, Sicknick’s mother recently said she thinks he suffered a stroke.
PolitiFact finally acknowledges the truth: nobody has any idea how Brian Sicknick died. His mother said he was never hit and believes he died of a stroke. His brother thinks it may have been pepper spray. Nobody knows:https://t.co/uFvuQm4VgZ
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) February 23, 2021
Have any of the cable hosts who repeatedly dramatized a false story about how Sicknick died — causing that story to ricochet across social media to millions of people — retracted what they said, including @maddow & @andersoncooper?https://t.co/uFvuQm4VgZ pic.twitter.com/y9h0iHOZGq
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) February 23, 2021
Good article in the @Independent on the media recklessness over Brian Sicknick's death and why it was so harmful:https://t.co/fcbVuV36Pq
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) February 23, 2021
Dangerous disinformation spread on cable news: pic.twitter.com/x1BkltyIs7
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) February 23, 2021
I'm sure the corporate media will move to prevent this sort of misinformation too, right?
— Lijer (@Eligolas1) February 23, 2021
That doesn’t fit the narrative
— Christopher Dowd (@ChristopherDowd) February 23, 2021
Hey Glenn, any clarity on that video of the unconscious police officer during the riot?
Obviously seems like it wasn't Sicknick at this point, but I can't find any specifics.
The spread of the video was a significant part of the misinformation falsely linking this to Sicknick.— MikNuggies (@miknuggies) February 23, 2021
That video did spur Twitter detectives to finger the wrong guy, a retired Chicago firefighter who was 600 miles away at the time of the riot, and ruin his life.
Serious question, do you think he would have died if it had been a normal day at work?
— kristr01 (@kristr01) February 23, 2021
Unknown at this point. He's not arguing the cause of death, but the false coverage of it
— Michael Wayne Little (@retiredkyng) February 23, 2021
People are still going to believe the original narrative regardless. It’s far more fitting & allows people to continue to believe we’re under attack & therefore need more protection from our government.
— Just.A.Thought ? (@e_galv) February 23, 2021
It’s really disheartening to read in the comments to Glenn Greenwald how many don’t think it’s relevant how he died because he wouldn’t have died had the Capitol not been attacked — but we don’t know that. Some of us would just prefer the truth in any case.
Related:
New York Times issues a correction regarding Officer Brian Sicknick’s death after saying he was bludgeoned with a fire extinguisher https://t.co/iOZhhtIPj3
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) February 15, 2021
