Today’s population almost entirely bases their opinion off of the mass media they take in daily. This quick to conclude type attitude that most people base themselves on is very dangerous and can lead to false information being spread like wildfire. Here are a few instances where mainstream media outlets had deceived their viewers.

In a recent NFL football game, a nine year old boy who was wearing face paint and a Native American headdress was barraged by multiple news and media outlets about being “blackface” and culturally appropriating Native Americans.

The boy, Holden Armenta, was called a racist who was “hating black people and Native American people at the same time.” The news outlets that did this took pictures angled to the one side of his face that was painted black, and not of the other side which was red. Holden was most definitely not wearing blackface, but was simply supporting his favorite football team.

The headdress was another main arguing point for multiple news stations. They said that by wearing a headdress as a white boy was culturally appropriating Native Americans. Come to find out, Holden is actually of Native American descent. He was not “hating Native Americans,” but rather he was expressing his traditional heritage.

Thankfully, there was an uproar in the boy’s defense where many people took his side. Unfortunately, there was no formal apology from any of these media sources who attacked the young child for his freedom of speech and expression. An article posted by the New York Post goes over this story in more depth and with sources on which outlets attacked him.

This one story goes to show just how unforgiving and quick to act media outlets are. They will go out of their way to try to ruin lives, no matter the age, just to make money. Thankfully for young Holden, he had many people on his side, including his loving mother and father. Unfortunately many people who are attacked in similar ways do not have the same support from others, and are often “canceled.”

Without a return to proper, integrity driven journalism, more people will be vilified and treated poorly.