
NBC News decided to cover Kyle Rittenhouse getting hospitalized for a brown recluse spider bite this week, which is fine — weird news is still news. But they couldn’t just report the spider bite without rewriting the entire history of what happened in Kenosha, Wisconsin in 2020, describing the fiery riots as a “civil rights rally.”
A civil rights rally. Buildings were on fire. People were getting shot. Armed mobs were roaming the streets. But sure — it was basically Selma.
Here’s what NBC News actually posted on May 7, 2026: “Kyle Rittenhouse, who gained fame for opening fire at a 2020 civil rights rally in Wisconsin, was hospitalized after he was bitten by a venomous spider.” That’s the whole thing. That’s what they went with. “Gained fame for opening fire at a civil rights rally.” Not “was acquitted of all charges after defending himself during violent riots.” Not “was found not guilty by a jury of his peers.” Nope. He “gained fame” for “opening fire” at a “civil rights rally.”
The internet did what the internet does when a major news network publishes something this dishonest. Mollie Hemingway responded with the restraint we’ve come to expect: “Your propaganda outlet is pure evil.” Hard to argue with that assessment.
Other reactions were equally brutal. One commenter nailed it: “Civil rights rally? NBC has become a parody account.” Another offered a helpful spelling lesson: “Civil Rights Rally? I don’t think I’ve ever spelled riot or mob action that way.” And my personal favorite: “This is why we celebrate when you all get laid off.”
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Let’s remember what actually happened in Kenosha in 2020, since NBC apparently can’t. Rittenhouse shot three men — all of whom, as it turned out, were convicted felons — while defending himself during riots that caused millions in property damage. He was charged, he went to trial, and a jury acquitted him on every single count. That’s not opinion. That’s the legal record.
But NBC doesn’t care about the legal record. They care about the narrative. And the narrative requires that Kenosha was a peaceful expression of civil rights, not a destructive riot that terrorized a community. The narrative requires that Rittenhouse was an aggressor, not a teenager who was attacked and defended himself. The narrative requires that we all forget what we saw with our own eyes.
This is what they do. They don’t just spin the news — they memory-hole it. They take events that were broadcast live on every network, events that we all watched in real time, and they just… rewrite them. Burned-out car dealerships become “civil rights rallies.” Self-defense becomes “opening fire.” Acquittal becomes irrelevant.
The really beautiful part is that this wasn’t even a political segment. It was a story about a spider bite. They could have just said “Kyle Rittenhouse was hospitalized after a spider bite” and moved on. But they couldn’t help themselves. They had to squeeze in the revisionist history, as reported by Twitchy. They had to remind everyone that in NBC’s version of reality, Kenosha 2020 was just folks marching for justice.
We watched those buildings burn. We saw the footage. We sat through the entire trial. And six years later, NBC News is telling us it was a civil rights rally.
They’re not even good at lying anymore. They’re just lazy about it.


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