Before the 24-hour news cycle could spin one complete time around on its axis, many major media outfits, with a special extra push from the Hollywood social elite, unleashed a ferocious manufactured news story. The story’s goal was to promote a progressive media driven anti-Trump political agenda.

Destroying a group of high school students was merely collateral damage.

In the very first paragraph of a Jan. 18 article from CBS News titled, “VIDEO SHOWS TEENS IN MAGA HATS SURROUNDING NATIVE AMERICAN VETERAN," the reporter writes, "an encounter occurred between a group of white students wearing Make America Great Again hats and a Native American Vietnam veteran."

The Day's headline on the original Associated Press story it ran: "Students in 'MAGA' hats mock Native American after rally."

White Students? MAGA hats? Over and over that narrative is pushed in just about every report from most of the major news outlets.

The left loves to use the phrase “dog whistle.” They use it every time they try to make a racial argument against Trump. When you pound the same phrases over and over highlighting the color of the boys’ skin and coupling that with the fact some were wearing MAGA hats , it was a clear signal to the liberal army to take up the cause and go on the attack. It’s the left’s version of a “dog whistle."

And go on the attack is exactly what they did.

These cable news reports were seemingly depicting a group of Catholic High school kids from Kentucky as racist Storm Troopers doing the bidding of President Donald Trump. Did I mention the kids were wearing “Make America Great Again” hats? Did I mention they were white?

The severely-edited video gave America a one-sided report that strongly implied a group of abusive, condescending kids were acting like monsters and mistreating a Native-American hero.

If not for the release of a more comprehensive video, the kids from Covington Catholic High School would have been completely obliterated by the media.

It’s worth remembering these high school students started out with five strikes against them.

Strike one: They are white.

Strike two: They are boys.

Strike three: They were attending an anti-abortion rally.

Strike four: They are Catholic.

Strike five: Some of them were wearing "Make America Great Again” hats.

It is pretty much the Holy Grail for a biased ultra-left media. Nothing is a bigger target to mainstream America in new-age 2019 than perceived white privilege.

However, when more video was released, providing a fuller perspective of what was going on, the public discovered it was a bunch of baloney. The kids were being ridiculed and mocked with homophobic slurs and reverse-racism by a group unseen when the first edit was viewed. That group, the self-labeled "Black Hebrew Israelites" were particularly offensive. These men called the students “racists, bigots, white crackers, faggots and incest kids.”

Despite the verbal attacks, the video shows the Covington students did little to nothing wrong in response.

What I found equally abhorrent to the mainstream medias laziness, was the horrific treatment these kids received on social media. The kings and queens of Hollywood took to Twitter and showed their fangs. Here are a few of their tweets:

Kathy Griffin (comedian): “Name these Kids, I want Names. SHAME THEM”

Reza Aslan (CNN): “Honest question. Have you ever seen a more punchable face?”

Stormy Daniels (porn actress): “I'm suddenly in favor of building a wall...around Covington Catholic High in KY."

Mira Sorvino (actress): “I hate this! It makes me sick to see those smarmy self-congratulatory expressions on their faces!”

Chris Evans (actor): “This is appalling. The ignorance. The gall. The disrespect. It’s shameful.”

Rosie (entertainer): “smug (obscenity)”

Debra Messing (actress): “Condescending, disrespecting, (obscenity)”

Allyssa Milano (actress): “The Red MAGA hat is the new white hood”

Wow! MAGA hats are now compared to the KKK. I’m actually at a loss for words.

So who is the true villain in this fairy tale?

Donald Trump? No. The kids from Covington Catholic High? No. Nathan Phillips, a veteran who attended the Indigenous Peoples March? No. The Black Hebrew Israelites? No.

The Media? Yes, yes and yes! In a rush to blast anything Trump or Trumpesque the news networks ran with a story without getting all the information. Shame on the media.

In 1984, George Orwell referenced a government that insisted on two minutes of hate daily. Now we have two minutes of hate 24 hours a day.

Lee Elci is the morning host for 94.9 News Now radio, a local station that provides "Stimulating Talk" with a conservative bent.