Kyle Rittenhouse: Trigger Happy Murderer or an American Hero?
To most of America, Kyle Rittenhouse is now considered a household name, in both equally good and bad ways. On August 25th, 2020, Kyle killed two people and wounded one person with his AR-15, he was only 17 at the time of the shooting, which was in response to a series of riots that broke out after the murder of Jacob Blake, an unarmed black man who was killed by the police. During his trial, Kyle stated that he went to the riots to defend a local gas station from getting looted and destroyed. In no way was Kyle summoned or required to do this task. The right-wing media ran with the idea that Kyle was fearing for his life and that since the victims were white, he could not have had ill intentions, to begin with. In a poll by Economist/YouGov, 76% of Democrats believed he should've been found guilty of homicide, while 65% of Republicans did not. The political polarization of the Ritenhouse trial partly stems from the fight about the Second Amendment right and the claim of self-defense. Regardless of each party's feelings towards this case, it was very interesting to watch the media proclaim Kyle as some sort of celebrity. On Fox News, Sean Hannity would spend time saying monologues almost nightly about how Rittenhouse was not in the wrong, almost as if Rittenhouse was doing the country a favor in getting rid of "looters". From conservatives making memes on Twitter that show Kyle edited onto Captain America's body, to Matt Gaetz, a Republican senator from Florida, offering Kyle an internship after the trial is over, every sector of the conservative media made Rittenhouse out to be some divine political martyr. One of the only conservatives that came out with a calm and partisan mind was David French, he warned the media against turning a reckless teen into some sort of hero. He stated that the lionization of Kyle Rittenhouse would lead to more Americans feeling free to do similar acts of violence.
Although it was not a direct influence on the media, Judge Bruce Schroeder started the trial by telling the jurors not to believe everything in the media. Instead of leaving it at this vague statement, he goes on to tell the jurors that the media knows nothing about the case or the evidence and that things will be misconstrued. To take it a step further, Judge Schroeder even banned the word "victim" when referring to..well the victims of this case. He notably left other buzzwords like "looters" "rioters" and "arsonists" out of the ban.
https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/rittenhouse_trial_media.php
