Kyle Rittenhouse is setting up an organisation to ‘hold the media accountable’

Kyle Rittenhouse, who was found not guilty of murdering two men in Wisconsin in a court case in November, has revealed he has set up a new project to “hold the media accountable” for their coverage of the homicide trial.

Mr Rittenhouse, 18, shot dead Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber in Wisconsin in August 2020, amid protests over the police shooting of a Black man named Jacob Blake.

A third man, Gaige Grosskreutz, was shot and survived.

Speaking to controversial Fox News host Tucker Carlson, Mr Rittenhouse said: “Me and my team have decided to launch The Media Accountability Project as a tool to help fundraise and hold the media accountable for the lies they said and deal with them in court.

“I don’t want to see anybody else have to deal with what I went through, so I want to hold [the media] accountable for what they did to me, because I don’t want to see anybody have to go through what I went through.”

While some might consider what the teenager went through as the good ol’ fashioned US justice system – which, we regret to inform Mr Rittenhouse, many people go through – he went on to add that he’s looking to sue “politicians, celebrities [and] athletes” as part of the project.

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“Whoopi Goldberg’s on the list. She called me a murderer after I was acquitted by a jury of my peers. She went on to still say that,” he added.

The lawsuit against the Sister Act star, if it does end up being filed, would come after the comedian was suspended for two weeks by ABC for saying the Holocaust “isn’t about race” during an episode of The View last month.

Asked by Mr Carlson if he would also go after those who called him a “white supremacist”, Mr Rittenhouse replied: “Absolutely, we’re going to hold everybody who’s lied about me accountable, such as… everybody who’s lied and called me a white supremacist.”

Pretty much saying the same thing twice in that sentence there, Kyle.

Meanwhile on the official website for TMAP – we can’t believe that’s the acronym they went for either – the project quotes Malcolm X who said: “The media is the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty, and to make the guilty innocent – and that’s power”.

Twitter users have since ridiculed the new organisation, with some describing it as “nauseating” and others claiming that it is “ironic” Mr Rittenhouse would go on Fox News to talk about accountability:

As well as claiming to “hold the worst offenders in our activist media accountable in court”, TMAP says it has a long-term goal of “[providing] material support and [promoting] the important work being done by independent journalists who are committed to the truth”.

Given we’re journalists who write for The Independent, we look forward to receiving our cheque in the post soon, Kyle. Cheers.

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