SATIRE (unless it isn't)
THE HOAX FILES · 46
A Grieving Town and a Ready-Made Villain
A town was grieving, and the villain was ready before the facts were. The victim deserves better than a narrative.
Media-wide
A 16-year-old's death became a political story within days. The medical examiner's findings told a different, sadder one.
As printed on the graphic:
Libs of TikTok Murdered Non-Binary Teen Hoax
What they sold
February 2024, Owasso, Oklahoma. Nex Benedict, a 16-year-old nonbinary student, died the day after a fight in a school bathroom. National coverage and advocacy groups framed it as a death after a school beating. The Human Rights Campaign's memorial page title still says Nex died after a school beating. Coverage and activists tied the death to Oklahoma's political climate and to Libs of TikTok founder Chaya Raichik, whom state superintendent Ryan Walters had appointed to a library advisory committee in January 2024 (REPORTED). President Biden issued a statement mourning Nex (Breitbart).
What the record shows
March 2024. The Oklahoma medical examiner ruled the death a suicide, from combined toxicity of two medications (NBC News, The Hill). The full autopsy report, released March 27, documented head injuries but found they were not the cause of death, and kept the suicide ruling (The Oklahoman, Washington Post). FNN found no evidence tying Libs of TikTok or Raichik to the fight or the death, and no authority has done so.
FNN is careful here. A kid died. Nex was bullied, and the school's handling of it deserves real scrutiny. None of that is a hoax. The hoax was the media's rush to name a political villain.
The damage
FNN analysis: turning a child's death into a political weapon before the autopsy was done hurt the family and the cause. Gallup's 2024 trust: 31%.
Closer
A child is dead, and they reached for a villain before the autopsy. Shame on every newsroom that did.