Investigators are tightening their grip of evidence against Jussie Smollett, the scam artist/actor of “Empire,” to the point where he is now officially indicted of a crime .
Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi confirmed Wednesday afternoon that Jussie Smollett is officially a suspect in a criminal investigation for filing a false police report, a Class 4 felony which could lead to a maximum penalty of three years in jail.
Guglielmi said CPD detectivespresented their evidence before a Cook County grand jury.
As you may well know, Smollett reported to CPD in January that he was attacked by two masked men who hurled “this is MAGA country” to the actor before beating him and tying a rope around his neck in Chicago's Streeterville neighborhood.
Evidence eventually pointed towards Smollett having hired two men, who were Nigerian-born extras on his TV show “Empire,” to fake the attack. Even more troublesome for Smollett is that this hate hoax occurred after being upset that a threatening letter he “received” a week prior had not gotten the attention it deserved. That letter is now also under investigation, with signs pointing towards it also being a Smollett hoax.
As I mentioned just last week, the Smollett drama is further proof that we have a journalism problem in this country. The media were quick on the trigger, even when there were plot holes to his story bigger than the death star.
The amplified nature of the media’s reaction, which caused this whole domino effect, is not surprising. We live in an age when both left and right are the most divided they’ve been since civil war era USA. But the more dangerous problem is that we’re willing to give the media mediator power. They are supposed to be the ones that lead the conversation. It’s because of them that celebs and politicians decided to accept Jussie Smollett’s account as truthful. I mean, why wouldn’t they? A gay, black man insinuated that he was brutally attacked by two guys who shouted pro-Trump rhetoric towards him. The story is almost too good to resist for the likes of CNN and MSNBC, whom have, by all accounts, ever since Trumps’ election, stooped down to the same propagandist levels we used to mock Fox News for. In fact, now Fox News doesn’t seem so bad, they actually look pretty normal, what with MSNBC all but becoming their leftist counterpart, using Fox News’ formula of agenda-driven news as a way to up ratings and succeeding at that. It’s the only way a news network that up their rating these days, either be pro-Trump or anti-Trump.
The last two years have seen some of the most accomplished and well-respected journalists completely throw out ethical journalism in favor partisanship. This won’t be the last occurrence of such a preposterously reported news event, mostly because fake news is just much more profitable than real news.