You can pack plenty into a 20-minute documentary.
“The Trial of Kyle,” the second project from Tucker Carlson Originals following “Patriot Purge,” needs to be seen more than once to digest every fact poured into that lean running time.
Perhaps this quote says it all, from none other than Carlson himself.
“If the mob can’t take you out, the media will,” the Fox News superstar says of what happened to Kyle Rittenhouse. Carlson is prone to hyperbole, but after living through the last few months it’s hard to disagree with that assessment.
The Rittenhouse in question is the teen who shot and killed two Black Lives Matters protesters and injured a third during a BLM riot in Kenosha, Wisc. in August 2020. Both Rittenhouse and the victims were white, one of many facts that didn’t matter to reporters covering the melee.
Major media pundits slammed the teen as a “white supremacist,” without evidence, among the serious misdirection august outlets used to besmirch him.
The mini-doc, airing exclusively on Fox Nation, deserves a much wider platform. It’s blistering in its condemnation of the media and our political class, although the former gets off too easily. The media malfeasance tied to the Rittenhouse case could fuel a feature-length documentary.
And deservedly so.
The latter? The government’s inability to protect Kenosha residents, and the businesses they spent years to nurture, should shame legislators for years, if not decades.
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The core of the story, though, is a frightened young man who might be sitting in a jail cell now if not for the new media journalists who captured the shootings on video. It’s another element of the story that deserved more screen time and attention.
How did these intrepid souls beat the mainstream media to the truth?
Rittenhouse, more vulnerable and brighter than the media portrait suggests, tells Carlson he wished he stayed home and played video games that eventful day. Instead, he found himself targeted by violent BLM protesters, and he likely would have been severely wounded, or killed, had he not defended himself.
The proof is in the videos which helped exonerate him.
The Tucker Carlson Originals line represent a sizable upgrade over past, right-leaning documentaries. The production values are top notch, with sharp visuals and arresting graphics that amplify the messages in play.
Once again, Carlson throws out an incendiary charge tied to the Rittenhouse matter. It’s a prime example of Anarcho-Tyranny, he says, in which the government prosecutes those who defend themselves while allowing far-left violence go mostly unchecked.
Is he wrong?
Perhaps the most damning attack on the media has little to do, directly, with Rittenhouse. The press slammed the teen as a white supremacist, someone who hated others for the color of their skin.
We’re still waiting for the proof to confirm that charge.
Yet when a bona fide bigot mowed down six innocent lives, and injured dozens more in Waukesha, Wisc., the media couldn’t quit the story fast enough.
“The Trial of Kyle” goes by in a blur, but it’s impossible not to watch it and fear for what comes next in American culture … even if justice was served in this one, high-profile case.