Another Smollett/Covington Catholic-Style Hit Job [OPINION]

Saturday morning, while listening to Chris McCarthy and Scott Lang fill in for Ken Pittman, I heard a story on the national news report that caught my attention. It was about a woman who claimed she had been the victim of hate speech at her local supermarket. As the woman sobbingly explained what had happened to her, I immediately called BS on her story and it turned out that I was right.

The woman, Democrat Georgia State Rep. Erica Thomas, an African-American woman, claims she was ragged on by a white man for having too many items in the express checkout lane. She admits that she did have a few too many items but says the fact that she is nine months pregnant prompted her to break the rules.

Rep. Thomas took to Facebook to share her version of the story: “This white man comes up to me and says, ‘You lazy son of [expletive]. You need to go back where you came from.'" All of this follows by less than a week, of course, President Trump's tweet suggesting that four socialist members of the U.S. House could do likewise. Thomas claimed she feared for her life.

It just didn't add up to me. Too coincidental? All that was missing was the noose and the MAGA hats and an old Indian chanting while banging a drum. And why would the network even make room for such local silliness in a four-minute national newscast with so much real important news happening on Saturday? As it turns out, my instincts were correct.

After spotting the Facebook video, the media was taping interviews with Thomas outside of the supermarket the following day when the evil racist white guy showed up to complain to the manager about what had happened and to set the record straight. Turns out that Eric Sparkes, a man of Cuban descent, is a registered Democrat who despises President Trump and the comments he made to the four congresswomen.

When confronted in front of the press, Thomas' story shifted a bit. “I don’t want to say he said, ‘Go back to your country,’ or ‘Go back to where you came from,' but he was making those types of references is what I remember," Thomas said.

Why is this kind of thing still happening? What is the point? And why does the media continue to run with such garbage without checking into it first?

This woman should face charges for what she did. She should be censured by the Georgia House and should be required to issue a public apology to this man. The willingness of the media to rush to press with this trash without doing any fact-checking first is unacceptable and has to stop.

Barry Richard is the host of The Barry Richard Show on 1420 WBSM New Bedford. He can be heard weekdays from noon to 3 p.m. Contact him at barry@wbsm.com and follow him on Twitter @BarryJRichard58. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.