by Lloyd Billingsley
Jussie Smollett manufactures a myth to boost his $1 million salary - and Democrats look the other way.
Manqué cineaste Simon Lynxx needs to raise money for his film,
so he pays two black friends to mug elderly movie mogul Hermann Wolff,
so Lynxx can rescue him and get cash out of gratitude. That’s from Take Five, a D. Keith Mano novel released in 1982, the year actor Jussie Smollett was born.
Nearly four decades later, Smollett is an actor in the Fox series Empire, centered on hip-hop artist Lucious Lyon, CEO of Empire Entertainment. In real life, not on the show, Smollett sends a threatening letter to himself showing a noose, then pays two black friends to attack him in Chicago, which they proclaim is “MAGA country!”
The pair beat Smollett and string a rope around his neck while yelling racist and homophobic slurs. Smollett somehow escapes unscathed. The tale soon unraveled, and as Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson put it, Jussie Smollett “paid $3,500 to stage this attack...The stunt was orchestrated by Smollett because he was dissatisfied with his salary,” reportedly more than $1 million per year before taxes.
Smollett paid the $3,500 to Abel Osundairo, his personal trainer, and Ola Osundairo, a former extra on Empire. Police have the check and a video shows the pair buying the masks. The story was less credible than Al Sharpton’s Tawana Brawley hoax, but Smollett cast himself as a Trump victim. So right from the start leftist Democrats were all in.
“The vicious attack on actor Jussie Smollett was an attempted modern-day lynching,” proclaimed Cory Booker. “I’m glad he’s safe.” In similar style, fellow presidential candidate Kamala Harris tagged the attack a “modern day lynching.” Green New Dealer Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who believe walls are immoral, called it a “racist, homophobic attack.” The media echo chamber also chimed in.
On February 14 Robin Roberts interviewed Smollett on “Good Morning America.” Smollett contended he was a victim and did not orchestrate the alleged attack. According to Roberts, “It’s a setback for race relations, homophobia, MAGA supporters. I cannot think of another case where there is this anger on so many sides and you can understand why there would be.”
Yet as the story unraveled, Smollett’s siblings blamed the media.
Jocqui Smollett and Jurnee Smollett-Bell reposted on Instagram a 1964 quote attributed to Malcolm X. “This is the media, an irresponsible press. It will make the criminal look like he’s the victim and make the victim look like he’s the criminal. If you aren’t careful, the media will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.”
Though suspicious from the start, Chicago police gave Smollett the
benefit of the doubt and assigning a dozen detectives to what the victim
said was a hate crime. Old-fashioned police work quickly exposed
Smollett’s fakery and, as Superintendent Johnson said, “When we discovered the actual motive quite frankly it pissed everybody off.”
By February 20 Smollett’s story had completely collapsed, and African American comedians were mocking the actor. Chicago police were coming after Smollett with charges of felony disorderly conduct for filing a false police report. At that point, the establishment media escalated the rhetoric.
Thursday morning, Keith Boykin and Van Jones appeared on “At This Hour” with Kate Bolduan and both defended their belief in the story as it broke. “A lot of people say, how can you believe this story from the beginning?” Boykin said. Jones responded “Because it happens!” and described Smollett as “a Jackie Robinson against homophobia in the black community, an icon, a beloved icon.”
Boykin said “I’m hoping still despite all the overwhelming evidence that is presented that it’s not true.” And as the CNN commentator explained, “we had Nazis marching in Charlottesville not long ago. We have people sending pipe bombs to CNN. We have just today or yesterday, we have a Coast Guard white nationalist who is involved in plotting a terror attack on Americans. So, we live in difficult, extreme times. When a story comes up however implausible it seems on its face, unfortunately, we live in a world now where these things are even possible.”
That is the prevailing ethos of fakery on the left.
Since such bad things are possible, that trumps any concern over the “overwhelming evidence” of the Smollett case and other hoaxes. Like Pelosi, Ocasio-Cortez, Booker and Harris, Van Jones and Keith Boykin said nothing about Smollett’s motive for the fakery, to boost his salary beyond $1 million a year, and whether that constituted greed. Also missing was analysis of leading Democrats who got it wrong, the slander toward those who elected Donald Trump president of the United States, and the effect of fakery on actual victims of hate crimes.
For further reading on that theme see Crying Wolf: Hate Crime Hoaxes in America by Laird Wilcox and Wilfred Reilly’s Hate Crime Hoax: How the Left is Selling a Fake Race War. Based on the record, and the fathomless credulity of the media, readers can expect more fakery in the style of Jussie Smollett, who faces three years in prison.
Meanwhile, Simon Lynxx got money for his movie but went on to lose his senses one at a time, so Take Five is paginated in reverse. As the Jussie Smollett case confirms, the left has lost all sense of truth, and the soi-disant progressives march backward on the road to serfdom.
Lloyd Billingsley is the author of Barack ‘em Up: A Literary Investigation, recently updated, and Hollywood Party: Stalinist Adventures in the American Movie Industry. Bill of Writes: Dispatches from the Political Correctness Battlefield, is a collection of his journalism.Nearly four decades later, Smollett is an actor in the Fox series Empire, centered on hip-hop artist Lucious Lyon, CEO of Empire Entertainment. In real life, not on the show, Smollett sends a threatening letter to himself showing a noose, then pays two black friends to attack him in Chicago, which they proclaim is “MAGA country!”
The pair beat Smollett and string a rope around his neck while yelling racist and homophobic slurs. Smollett somehow escapes unscathed. The tale soon unraveled, and as Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson put it, Jussie Smollett “paid $3,500 to stage this attack...The stunt was orchestrated by Smollett because he was dissatisfied with his salary,” reportedly more than $1 million per year before taxes.
Smollett paid the $3,500 to Abel Osundairo, his personal trainer, and Ola Osundairo, a former extra on Empire. Police have the check and a video shows the pair buying the masks. The story was less credible than Al Sharpton’s Tawana Brawley hoax, but Smollett cast himself as a Trump victim. So right from the start leftist Democrats were all in.
“The vicious attack on actor Jussie Smollett was an attempted modern-day lynching,” proclaimed Cory Booker. “I’m glad he’s safe.” In similar style, fellow presidential candidate Kamala Harris tagged the attack a “modern day lynching.” Green New Dealer Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who believe walls are immoral, called it a “racist, homophobic attack.” The media echo chamber also chimed in.
On February 14 Robin Roberts interviewed Smollett on “Good Morning America.” Smollett contended he was a victim and did not orchestrate the alleged attack. According to Roberts, “It’s a setback for race relations, homophobia, MAGA supporters. I cannot think of another case where there is this anger on so many sides and you can understand why there would be.”
Yet as the story unraveled, Smollett’s siblings blamed the media.
Jocqui Smollett and Jurnee Smollett-Bell reposted on Instagram a 1964 quote attributed to Malcolm X. “This is the media, an irresponsible press. It will make the criminal look like he’s the victim and make the victim look like he’s the criminal. If you aren’t careful, the media will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.”
By February 20 Smollett’s story had completely collapsed, and African American comedians were mocking the actor. Chicago police were coming after Smollett with charges of felony disorderly conduct for filing a false police report. At that point, the establishment media escalated the rhetoric.
Thursday morning, Keith Boykin and Van Jones appeared on “At This Hour” with Kate Bolduan and both defended their belief in the story as it broke. “A lot of people say, how can you believe this story from the beginning?” Boykin said. Jones responded “Because it happens!” and described Smollett as “a Jackie Robinson against homophobia in the black community, an icon, a beloved icon.”
Boykin said “I’m hoping still despite all the overwhelming evidence that is presented that it’s not true.” And as the CNN commentator explained, “we had Nazis marching in Charlottesville not long ago. We have people sending pipe bombs to CNN. We have just today or yesterday, we have a Coast Guard white nationalist who is involved in plotting a terror attack on Americans. So, we live in difficult, extreme times. When a story comes up however implausible it seems on its face, unfortunately, we live in a world now where these things are even possible.”
That is the prevailing ethos of fakery on the left.
Since such bad things are possible, that trumps any concern over the “overwhelming evidence” of the Smollett case and other hoaxes. Like Pelosi, Ocasio-Cortez, Booker and Harris, Van Jones and Keith Boykin said nothing about Smollett’s motive for the fakery, to boost his salary beyond $1 million a year, and whether that constituted greed. Also missing was analysis of leading Democrats who got it wrong, the slander toward those who elected Donald Trump president of the United States, and the effect of fakery on actual victims of hate crimes.
For further reading on that theme see Crying Wolf: Hate Crime Hoaxes in America by Laird Wilcox and Wilfred Reilly’s Hate Crime Hoax: How the Left is Selling a Fake Race War. Based on the record, and the fathomless credulity of the media, readers can expect more fakery in the style of Jussie Smollett, who faces three years in prison.
Meanwhile, Simon Lynxx got money for his movie but went on to lose his senses one at a time, so Take Five is paginated in reverse. As the Jussie Smollett case confirms, the left has lost all sense of truth, and the soi-disant progressives march backward on the road to serfdom.
Source: https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/272951/fake-noose-lloyd-billingsley
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