Kyle Rittenhouse found not guilty: Here's how TV news covered the controversial verdict

A jury found Kyle Rittenhouse not guilty of homicide and other charges Friday –  a story that has played out as both a legal drama and a political flashpoint.

Because everything is political, every issue carving deep divisions between entrenched sides, and this was no different. The trial of Rittenhouse became a cause celebre for conservatives and liberals, a symbol of bigger disagreements over issues of gun rights and self-defense, as well as greater social-justice concerns.

It was covered as such.

Rittenhouse was found not guilty of five charges in a Kenosha, Wisconsin, courtroom. In August 2020 Rittenhouse shot and killed two men and wounded a third during unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, where he traveled from his home in Illinois. He claimed he went there to provide security during social-justice protests that had turned violent days after a white police officer shot Jacob Blake, a Black man. Social-justice protests took place in several cities in the wake of the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer two months prior.

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CNN, Fox News and MSNBC's initial coverage was similar

Speaking to the media after the trial ended, Mark Richards, one of Rittenhouse’s attorneys, said that he knew some people would always believe that Rittenhouse had no business being in Kenosha, much less armed with an AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle.

“I think if we all would just mind our own business a little bit I think we’d all be better off,” Richards said. “I think that’s a hard lesson to learn.”

But couldn’t the same be said about Rittenhouse, a reporter asked. It was the exact question that should have been asked after a statement like that.

“It could be,” Richards said. “He was asked to be there. He wanted to help the community.”

CNN, Fox News and MSNBC all had reporters on the ground, and as with most breaking stories, their initial coverage was similar.

For a while, anyway.

One Fox News anchor John Roberts said, “So many people … in this country had convicted Kyle Rittenhouse before he got anywhere near a courtroom.” You wonder what Roberts would have said if the jury convicted Rittenhouse.

Later, Joe Concha, a Fox News contributor, went after a competitor's host after showing some of her social media.

That didn't take long.

"The next chapter in the Kyle Rittenhouse story are likely multiple defamation lawsuits against not only several media outlets," he said, singling out MSNBC and host Joy Reid. On TikTok, Reid had compared Rittenhouse's crying on the stand during testimony to that of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his Senate confirmation hearing.

Each network called in legal experts to speculate as to why the jury came to its decision; a lot of the blame went toward the prosecution’s handling of the trial.

“They had several missteps, strategic and legal," Elie Honig said on CNN.

On Fox News Jonathan Turley was more critical.

“The prosecution’s case just fell apart from the outset,” he said. “Their own witnesses gave evidence against the prosecution.”

Paul Butler said on MSNBC that he was “concerned about what this verdict expresses. Trials are poor instruments for social change or social transformation. But at the same time verdicts do mean something. This case happened during a Black Lives Matter protest over the police shooting of an African American man.”

The Rittenhouse trial was a flashpoint of political disagreement

The Second Amendment, Black Lives Matter – the case was a magnet for political disagreement.

Conservatives immediately hailed the verdict. Rep. Paul Gosar, who was censured by the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday, tweeted in support of Rittenhouse, as did his House colleague Andy Biggs.

“NOT GUILTY,” Biggs tweeted. “This is why in America we have trial by jury, not by media.”

The fallout from the verdict will continue. The divisions will, as well. David Hancock, a spokesman for the Rittenhouse family, told Fox News after the verdict was read that “this family has been just repeatedly attacked with no basis in truth.”

But on MSNBC Butler wondered what the acquittal will mean in the long run, and what it may inspire.

“We know that armed civilians are now part of the American political landscape,” Butler said. “What some may take from this verdict is that vigilante justice prevailed, and that’s a public-safety concern.”

Reach Goodykoontz at bill.goodykoontz@arizonarepublic.com. Facebook: facebook.com/GoodyOnFilm. Twitter: @goodyk.