Twenty-six-year-old African American NASCAR Driver Bubba Wallace finds himself in the thick of a major controversy concerning a “noose” found June 21 in his NASCAR garage at Alabama’s Talladega Speedway When the FBI investigated they said June 23 that the noose-like rope was used as a garage pull since 2019, months before Bubba’s team moved into the garage No. 4. NASCAR officials responded with outrage, accepting the media’s explanation that it was a hate crime, meant to intimidate NASCAR’s only African American driver. “We are angry and outraged and cannot state strongly enough how seriously we take this heinous act, “ NASCAR said in a statement June 21. Like everyone in the press, NASCAR leaped to unfounded conclusions. Leaping to “racist” conclusions mirrors the post-George Floyd era, where even black-on-black murder is blamed on law enforcement.
Showing how the media influences public thinking, NASCAR got caught up in the rush to judgment without knowing the facts. “As we have stated unequivocally, there is no place for racism in NASCAR, and this act only strengthens our resolve to make the sport opening and welcome to all,” letting fans, black and white, know that NASCAR abhors racism. NASCAR had been accused for years of letting fans fly the Confederate Flag and various events, especially in the Deep South. FBI investigators found June 23 that there was no hate crime committed at Talladega Speedway’s garage No. 4, because the noose-like rope was used as a garage pull in 2019, months before Bubba’s Chevrolet #43 in Richard Petty’s team moved into the garage. President Donald Trump, 74, said Bubba should apologize to NASCAR and the fans once he found out the noose-hysteria was another hoax.
White House Press Secretary Kaleigh McEnany heard it more from the anti-Trump Washington press corps, looking for anything to attack the president in the run up to the Nov. 3 presidential election. McEnany infuriated White House correspondents comparing it the former Empire star Jussie Smollett’s Jan. 19 false police report that he was attacked in Chicago by white racists. FBI investigators found problems with Smollett’s story, staging the incident to help his career. Smollett was charged Feb. 20 with staging a hate crime, filing a false police report. White House press corps ripped into McEnany, demanding that she answer why Trump thought Bubba needed to apologize when he made no false accusations like Smollett. McEnany never said Bubba fabricated the hate crime for any purpose whatsoever. She tried to make a point about the rush to judgment.
White House pool reporters couldn’t figure out why Wallace should apologize for passively letting the press run with another fake news story. Wallace knew June 23, along with everyone else, that anyone connected to NASCAR was cleared with any hate crime, let alone any wrongdoing. “When you level false charges, you not only slander me, you slander the American people,” said McEnany quoting Trump. Trump knows a lot about false charges in the Russian hoax by the media for the past four years, yet never an apology from the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, MSNBC or any other anti-Trump news outlet. White House reporters demanded why Bubba should apologize when he did nothing wrong. “That’s what we’re trying to ask you, Kaleigh, is why should he have to apologize about that?” Kaleigh should have said Bubba knew two weeks ago there was no crime.
Kaleigh deferred the question rather than keep the media attack coming. “I’m not going to answer as question for the sixth time,” Kaleigh said, not satisfying the press. But the real reason Bubba should apologize is for not making a public statement disputing the noose-controversy June 23, two weeks ago, when the FBI determined there was not hate crime or any other wrongdoing. Smelling blood after Floyd’s murder by one sick Minneapolis cop May 25, the press was quick to leap on any story that hinted at possible hate crime. Finding the noose was the perfect storm for the media, looking for anything sensational to report after Floyd’s death, but, more importantly, weeks of race riots and vandalism around the country. White House press needed to be told that Bubba should have stepped up and admitted that no one in NASCAR tried to make any racist statement against him or anyone else.
Unable to silence the White House press corps, Kaleigh’s doing a good job for a 32-year-old but doesn’t have enough savvy to stop the onslaught. All Kaleigh needed to say is that Bubba didn’t inform the public once he found out June 23 that no hate crime or any other wrongdoing was committed. Maybe that’s a lot to ask of a 26-year-old NASCAR driver but he should have gotten some help from the home office. Once the FBI ruled the so-called noose was an innocent door puller, NASCAR should have gone public, apologizing for leaping to conclusions about anyone employed by the sport. Showing the White House reporters go from one thing to another, they questioned McEnany about whether the president condones flying the Confederate Flag. “Has he considered banning the Confederate Flag from Trump rallies,” asked a reporter, more interested in “gotcha” than news.
