Corrupt Media Declared Trevor Bauer Guilty Until Proven Innocent — And Ruined His Life

After having his name dragged through the mud by legacy media over frivolous sexual assault allegations for more than two years, former Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer’s legal battle with his accuser has been settled, his legal representatives announced Monday.

“Over the last two years, I’ve been forced to defend my integrity and my reputation in a very public setting, but hopefully this is the last time I have to do so, as I’d prefer to just remain focused on doing my job, winning baseball games and entertaining fans around the world,” Bauer said in a video released after the settlement. “So today, I’m happy to be moving on with my life.”

According to Fox News, the entire saga began in the spring of 2021 when a woman named Lindsey Hill accused Bauer of “assaulting her on two different occasions at his home in Pasadena, California, during what she said began as consensual sexual encounters.” Despite his denial of the allegations and assertion that the encounters were consensual, the MLB suspended Bauer for 324 games, which was eventually reduced to 194 in December 2022. The Dodgers — which recently honored an anti-Christian drag group at their summer “pride” game — dropped Bauer from their roster over the allegations in January.

In April 2022, Bauer sued Hill for defamation, and she countersued for “sexual battery” several months later. Hill’s request for a restraining order against Bauer was ultimately denied by a judge, with prosecutors also declining to charge Bauer for the alleged crimes.

While this week’s settlement was completed outside of court “with no money exchanged between the two parties,” Hill is set to receive $300,000 from her insurance company. This payment is “independent of her settlement with Bauer,” according to Fox.

In maintaining his innocence, Bauer on Monday released a series of text messages and video purportedly obtained in the discovery process that appear to exonerate him from wrongdoing. Documented in Bauer’s reaction video, the alleged text messages indicate Hill had planned to accuse Bauer of sexual misconduct prior to meeting him.

Here are the alleged texts as summarized by Bauer.

‘Next victim. Star pitcher for the Dodgers,’ a text Lindsey Hill sent to a friend before she ever even met me. ‘What should I steal?’ she asked another, in reference to visiting my house for the first time. The answer? ‘Take his money.’ So how might that work? ‘I’m going to his house Wednesday.’ she said, ‘I already have my hooks in. you know how I roll.’ Then, after the first time we met, “Net worth is 51 mil” she said. ‘b-tch, you better secure the bag,’ was the response. 

But how was she going to do that? ‘Need daddy to choke me out,’ she said. ‘being an absolute wh-re to try to get in on his 51 million,’ read another text. Then, after the second time we met, former [San Diego] Padres pitcher Jacob Nix told her ‘you gotta get this bag.’ ‘I’ll give you 50,000’ Lindsey replied. Her AA sponsor asked her at one point, ‘do you feel a tiny bit guilty?’ ‘Not really,’ she replied.

Bauer further claimed in his video that his suit allowed his legal team to uncover “critical information” that was “deliberately and unlawfully concealed” from him and his lawyers, including a video Hill filmed of herself lying in bed, smirking, alongside a sleeping Bauer. Hill took the video “the morning after she claims she was brutally attacked, emotionally traumatized, and desperate to get away from me,” Bauer said. “I think it paints a pretty clear picture of what actually happened the evening of May 15 and why the video was originally concealed from us.”

Legacy Media Misconduct

Equally egregious as Hill’s flimsy accusations is the willingness of America’s regime-approved press to immediately proclaim Bauer as guilty when the allegations dropped. Throughout the ordeal, outlets such as USA Today and Insider eagerly glommed onto Hill’s allegations, treating them as gospel and refusing to give Bauer’s denial of the accusations the same level of attention.

Meanwhile, The Athletic — an online sports outlet owned by The New York Times — took their propaganda-level coverage to the next level. While “citing medical records filed” by Hill, the website reported that “doctors had noted ‘signs of basilar skull fracture.’” According to The Los Angeles Times, the outlet “later clarified that [Hill] had been ‘initially diagnosed’ with a skull fracture, but that a fracture had been ruled out by a subsequent CT scan.”

As noted in a defamation suit Bauer filed against The Athletic, however, “There was no basis for that assertion because [Hill’s] own medical records — which The Athletic possessed — showed that she had no such fracture.”

The suit — which also named Molly Knight, a then-senior staff writer for The Athletic who issued numerous tweets about the story that included phrases such as “cracked skull” and “fractured skull” — was dropped by Bauer in June after The Athletic amended its story and Knight withdrew her posts.

Unsurprisingly, many major outlets, including The Athletic and Associated Press, have avoided mentioning the texts or video Bauer released in their reporting on this week’s settlement.

The Dire Consequences of #MeToo

It’s one thing for media outlets to report on allegations of sexual assault in an informative fashion. But that’s clearly not what happened in Trevor Bauer’s case — or any other high-profile accusations leveled within the past several years.

Since the rise of the #MeToo movement, corporate media propagandists have taken it upon themselves to become the ultimate arbiters of truth when it comes to allegations of sexual misconduct. No longer are the accused “innocent until proven guilty” or given their day in court. Instead, hack-tivist “journalists” decide whether someone deserves the benefit of the doubt.

Look no further than the confirmation of now-Justice Brett Kavanaugh. When faced with an onslaught of baseless allegations of sexual assault from more than 30 years ago, Kavanaugh was slandered and proclaimed guilty by legacy media before being able to defend himself and before the facts of each case were presented to the public.

It didn’t matter that his accusers’ allegations didn’t hold up under scrutiny. The media deemed him guilty, so what more was there left to say?

This same “logic” also applies to figures like Donald Trump and Russell Brand. If you can’t be used to further regime media’s objectives, any allegations of sexual impropriety are automatically declared true. If you are useful, then these same outlets and “reporters” will excuse, ignore, or dismiss such accusations (see Joe Biden and Tara Reade).

The case of Trevor Bauer represents a dangerous trend in which America’s most corrupted industry is given the power of judge and jury over matters that can destroy lives.

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Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He previously served as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood

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