News/Commentary

Reuters’ deceiving ‘guilty plea’ of J6 defendant and assault of Brian Sicknick is what’s wrong with media

July 29, 2022 | | Print Article

It seems the media just can’t help themselves when it comes to destroying their reputation with the American people.

The latest example of this comes from Reuters, which tweeted on Wednesday that the man “accused of assaulting Capitol police officer Brian Sicknick to plead guilty” in a court filing.

It’s not as if the truth wasn’t in the article, it’s just that readers might need an excavating tool to find it. As for the tweet, Reuters had a second option to come clean in a follow-up but failed to do so:

“George Tanios, one of two men who had been accused of assaulting police officers during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol including now-deceased Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to lesser misdemeanor charges,” the news agency said in its lede.

It wasn’t until the second sentence that Reuters makes it clear that the plea had nothing to do with assaulting a police officer.

“Tanios pleaded guilty to entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds and to disorderly and disruptive conduct on restricted grounds,” Reuter reported.

Much deeper into the piece, readers are informed that Sicknick “died of natural causes following multiple strokes the day after then-President Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol.”

Below this was the revelation that Tanios was “not charged in connection with Sicknick’s death.”

Tanios and co-defendant Julian Khater are facing two felony counts of assaulting federal law enforcement after allegedly attacking several police officers with a chemical agent that day, to include Sicknick.

Reuters noted that prosecutors said they offered Khater a plead deal. He could face up to 6-1/2 to 8 years in prison, and his attorney wants more time to review the offer.

Due to be sentenced on Dec. 6., Tanios likely faces a term of between zero and six months in prison for the misdemeanor plea .

Interestingly, the news agency seemed to take a shot at Tanios’ occupation in the article: “At the time of his arrest, Tanios was the operator of Sandwich U – a shop in Morgantown, West Virginia that makes ‘fat’ sandwiches, a type of sandwich containing greasy foods such as fries or mozzarella sticks that first rose to popularity among Rutgers University students in his hometown of New Brunswick, New Jersey.”

Tom Tillison
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