Ray Donovan was a former Secretary of Labor charged with multiple felonies. He should never have been charged, and the prosecutors’ case was so weak, that the defense didn’t put on a single witness. The jury came back with “Not Guilty”, but the damage was done. Donovan then famously said to the gathered media:

“What office do I go to, to get my reputation back?”

In the book “1984” citizens are told to believe 2+2=5.

On Sunday ESPN and a vast cadre of social media race-baiting mobsters reported that a Rockies fan screamed the “N” word at a black baseball player. Big news – right? Except, it didn’t happen. It was a lie.

The fan was calling for the attention of Dinger the Rockies purple dino mascot.  Actual facts quickly emerged that he didn’t use a racial slur (something that ESPN failed to consider) and dolts like Bob Nightingale and Keith Olbermann failed to consider. Had they spent two minutes looking at the video it would have been clear to any rational human that the fan was looking at, and signaling to, Dinger the Purple Dino. No one sitting within earshot of the fan recoiled in horror, because he wasn’t yelling a racist slur. He was calling to a guy dressed in a dinosaur costume. Facts? The mob never needs facts. Just torches.

ESPN with its libelous headline and absurd story trended through Sunday and most of Monday notwithstanding that facts had shattered ESPN’s headline to pieces. ESPN finally moved its story off its trending list, but by late PM on Monday ESPN had replaced that headline with a 1,000-word story with this headline:

Miami Marlins’ Lewis Brinson, after reviewing the video, says he hears the Rockies fan using slur but is open to mascot explanation

Brinson claims he keeps hearing the “N” word, even though it is undeniable that the fan did not say it. He’s “open” to an explanation? It wasn’t said.

Brinson goes on to play victim about the slur-that-never-was:

“I’m getting a lot of love and support on Instagram and I’m sure on Twitter. I appreciate that wholeheartedly, 100%.

Support for what? There was no racial slur. It didn’t happen. ESPN’s follow-up to its near libel is to give Brinson a forum to claim he still hears an ugly racial slur where none was uttered. ESPN then allowed the Rockies to repeat the obligatory  “There is no room for racism” and “we have zero tolerance for racism” tropes just so everyone knows, the Rockies aren’t going to sponsor a “We Embrace Racists” Giveaway Night.

For ESPN, it’s important to tell its audience that gosh, it didn’t happen this time… but it might happen sometime…so we got in front of the story that didn’t happen, so you know it could happen, and Brinson thinks he heard it anyway, so…throwing a fan under the bus happens, but just in case a racial slur actually happens in the future, we are prepared for full volume virtue signaling.

What happens to the fan who did nothing wrong? Yeah, he’s probably in hiding because social media mobsters don’t look for evidence, they look for blood.

There’s a clinical name for hearing things that aren’t said. It’s called Pareidolia. Pareidolia is a psychological phenomenon wherein people hear what they want to hear, or see what they want to see. Millions hear racial slurs or racial slights when none exist. We exist in an environment where inanimate objects like a boulder or a glass of milk are racist.

At summer camp many years ago, I was a group counselor relaxing in the break room. There were about a dozen other counselors with me. One of the counselors was a loud-mouthed jerk. He was also black. He said something he thought was hilarious. It wasn’t, but the rest of the counselors reflexively laughed or smiled. I just stared at him while he stared back. Then he said: “You don’t like me because I’m black”. I replied, “No, I don’t like you, because you’re an asshole”. The air was sucked out of the room. You could hear a pin drop. Then my friend sitting next to me said: “Yeah, you are an asshole”. My friend is black, and that statement gave the rest of the white counselors permission to breathe.

There is good news. According to ESPN, The Rockies “don’t plan to make any changes to the mascot’s name”. That means, they will. The actor playing Dinger is probably taking a mandatory online course in racial sensitivity as we speak for something he didn’t do. “Dinger” will probably be memory-holed by 2022 and replaced with a tree mascot.

I can hear that Rockies fan from here. “What office do I go to, to get my reputation back?”