THE VAULT INVESTIGATES: Seeds of Fire — Special Report: BAD BUNNY SAGA (Part 2)

Game week, the halftime show, and what millions actually saw.

Dear friends,

In collaboration with Anonymous Media Group and The Dirty Dozen Dispatch, we continue our Seeds of Fire series with a special report on how culture, poverty, and digital systems are turned into weapons in the United States, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines.When the Super Bowl cameras finally cut to the halftime stage, the fight over Bad Bunny wasn’t hypothetical anymore. Levi’s Stadium was flooded with light, the crowd shot showed a sea of phones, and the broadcast team did the familiar “history in the making” patter the league reserves for moments it wants to brand as bigger than a concert.

If you had only watched the clips and headlines leading up to the game, you might have expected something closer to a political rally than a show. Donald Trump had already called the NFL’s decision “absolutely ridiculous,” claimed he had “never heard of” Bad Bunny, and let allies frame a Puerto Rican headliner as an insult to “real Americans.”

This is Part 2 of our Bad Bunny Super Bowl…