to answer the completely fair question black-on-black crime has been protested but the white media does not care because it doesn't move the needle. most of us can't imagine this sadness and i hope we never do.
Part of the issue is that the media tends to follow issues that are unique and rare. For instance, if a 1-year old falls in a swimming pool and drowns, it most likely will not make the 10 pm local news as more then a side note. But if a 1-year old falls in a washing machine and drowns in Oregon, it makes national headlines.
Now consider that perspective in regards to how alive racism is in the U.S. If it is as bad as everybody claims, how is it that Al Sharpton isn't on a 356 day tour from crime to crime? This case has claimed the attention of everyone in America for the alleged racial profiling that lead to the death of a young man. If racism was as rampant as claimed, why would this story be as big as it is? Especially since the shooter is of Hispanic ethnicity?
This.
Unfortunately, gang violence isn't really uncommon, hence it isn't reported.
Believe me, when I was growin up, I thought the worst thing you could turn out to be was normal, So I say freaks in the most complementary way. Here's a song by a fellow freak - E.V
the "white media" ???? you my friend are a perfect example of why racism is alive and well in America...the white media ? you are lost in your own cause so much you can't see beyond "black and white" the 60's are over my friend, just try and get along with your fellow man and stop pushing your agenda on people.
Godfather.
I have to agree with this.
Sick of that term. Sick of all of these damned labels!
And as a sidenote - we're fucking human beings. Racism will always exist, here and everywhere. Sure it has been and will hopefully continue to be lessened, but it will never go away. And it will always be from all sides. Not just one. And definitely NOT just the one that dipshits like Farrakhan and Sharpton and any other propogators want to promote (regardless of their race....did I even have to say that?)
the "white media" ???? you my friend are a perfect example of why racism is alive and well in America...the white media ? you are lost in your own cause so much you can't see beyond "black and white" the 60's are over my friend, just try and get along with your fellow man and stop pushing your agenda on people.
Godfather.
I have to agree with this.
Sick of that term. Sick of all of these damned labels!
And as a sidenote - we're fucking human beings. Racism will always exist, here and everywhere. Sure it has been and will hopefully continue to be lessened, but it will never go away. And it will always be from all sides. Not just one. And definitely NOT just the one that dipshits like Farrakhan and Sharpton and any other propogators want to promote (regardless of their race....did I even have to say that?)
(yeah, I'm just a bit grumpy this morning )
I agree with you ! now get yer grumpy ass to the nearest cup of coffee and pour directly into a open vain ...works for me sometimes.
Why Rush Limbaugh and the right turned on Trayvon Martin
A national tragedy became another awful political shouting match, thanks to vile pundits and talk-radio hosts
BY ALEX PAREENE
Center: A photo of Trayvon Martin, taken from his Twitter feed by the Daily Caller and disseminated by right-wing media.
TOPICS:TRAYVON MARTIN, MEDIA CRITICISM, RACE, TUCKER CARLSON, BARACK OBAMA, EDITOR'S PICKS
Seventeen-year-old Trayvon Martin was killed by a gun-toting, self-appointed “neighborhood watch leader” named George Zimmerman on Feb. 26, in Sanford, Fla. Zimmerman was not and has not yet been arrested. Martin’s death took some time to go from a local news story to a major nationwide controversy, but once it went national it quickly became huge. Coverage from the Huffington Post, a March 8 CBS News report and related Associated Press stories led to widespread Internet and cable news coverage.
Except on the right. In the parallel conservative media bubble, of Fox News and talk radio and right-wing websites, Trayvon Martin’s story didn’t register. Even after the major national newspapers began getting into the story, after the NAACP began demanding the Justice Department investigate, the right-wing press and commentariat kept silent. Drudge completely ignored the story. By March 19, Fox News had done precisely one Trayvon Martin segment. It was still possible, on March 21, for Mother Jones’ Adam Serwer to write that “the right-wing reaction to the shooting of Trayvon Martin has been mercifully muted.”
When right-wing media figures first began to weigh in, it was with (occasionally surprising) thoughtfulness . On March 22, Allen West, a congressman who regularly explores new frontiers in unhinged right-wing provocation, posted an angered but measured response to the Martin killing on his Facebook wall, calling police inaction “an outrage.” Reihan Salam, writing at the National Review, said “I get the tentative sense that this conversation hasn’t gotten crazily polarized.” On March 23, National Review editor Rich Lowry wrote a piece astoundingly headlined “Al Sharpton is right.”
On March 23, two things happened: Buffoon Geraldo Riviera made his infamous remarks on the role Martin’s style of dress played in his death — a dumb point dumbly made — and President Obama told the press: “My main message is to the parents of Trayvon Martin. You know, if I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon.”
It was basically on this day that everything went to hell. The story of an unarmed teenager shot dead while walking home and a police force that decided that didn’t constitute a crime suddenly became a partisan issue with numerous points of contention.
Here are four reasons this became another right-versus-left shouting match:
1. The conservative movement denies the existence (or prevalence or impact) of racism.
Though toxic racial resentment is one of the most powerful driving forces behind contemporary right-wing populism, the conservative movement largely prefers to believe that racism was “solved” many years ago, most likely on the day Martin Luther King gave the “I Have a Dream” speech. The corollary to this belief is that accusations of racism are the new racism, and said accusations are invariably politically motivated.
As Elspeth Reeve pointed out in a sharp piece for the Atlantic Wire, the Trayvon Martin case posed something of a problem: No one was accusing anyone other than George Zimmerman of racism. There wasn’t an obvious political partisan advantage to raising awareness of Martin’s death. But some right-wingers find any acknowledgment of racism by liberals to be blood libel against all conservatives. And so … they began defending George Zimmerman’s honor, and smearing Trayvon Martin.
Glenn Beck’s site, the Blaze, led the charge, suggesting without much in the way of evidence that Martin was “the aggressor,” based on nothing other than the fact that he had been suspended from school. (The site also threw in some speculation that Martin may have been an arsonist.) The sole reason for this was a pathological need to deny the existence of any form of racism that doesn’t take the form of liberals hating white people.
In order to argue that Zimmerman found Martin suspicious for some reason other than the sole fact of his black skin, conservatives began seeking evidence that Martin was terrifying. The evidence all basically revolved around his blackness, but “logic” doesn’t have much to do with the popularity of the fake “Trayvon” photo, sourced to the neo-Nazi message board Stormfront and briefly featured at Michelle Malkin’s new site “Twitchy.” (The photo was, in fact, of another black teenager that Stormfront and Twitchy had mistaken for Martin.)
Tucker Carlson’s Daily Caller is now the Internet’s leader in the ongoing campaign to make Trayvon seem threatening. Mediaite’s Tommy Christopher had a good (or depressing) close reading of the Caller’s coverage, which ran the gamut from Martin-smearing to credulity-straining Zimmerman defenses (in one video freeze frame he looks like he might have a big scar, of the sort caused by scary black kids).
As you can see, The Daily Caller was very thorough when it comes to covering Al Sharpton riling up black people, or Jesse Jackson showing up late, or President Obama being a bad, bad man, or George Zimmerman telling his side of the story and gaining “momentum.” They were so thorough that they even managed to work communists and Father Pfleger(!!!) into their coverage, and obtain the expert legal opinion of Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX). They’ve also been very thorough about conducting an internet grave-robbing, posting two rounds of tweets from the slain teenager’s closed Twitter accounts. [emphasis his.]
This devolved into the now common Internet practice of showing pictures of Martin posturing for the camera, giving the finger, arguing that the liberal media didn’t want you to know what Martin really looked like. How do photographs like that affect the facts of his shooting as we currently understand them? People who are already scared of young black men and people who exploit the fear of young black men for political purposes simply and sincerely believe that Americans as a whole will be less likely to feel that an injustice has occurred if they learn that Trayvon Martin was scary and not adorable.
(The Caller has begun to slightly rein in its coverage, following widespread criticism of its awfulness, but we’ll see how long the restraint lasts.)
The “highbrow” version of this barrel-scraping garbage is, say, Jonah Goldberg’s ponderous column and blog post on how middle-class blacks don’t understand that white racism is no longer a problem in black communities.
2. The president is extremely polarizing
President Obama was careful to limit his comments on the Martin story (which were made in direct response to a question from the press, and not, say, prepared remarks) to a personal message of empathy for Martin’s parents and a call for everyone to take the situation and the investigation into it seriously.
Naturally, Newt Gingrich immediately called the remarks “disgraceful.” This is also around the time that Rush Limbaugh felt free to weigh in, too. Josh Barro noted some of the not particularly enlightened conservative response in his Forbes piece on the right’s race problem.
It is a simple fact that when the president takes a position on something, anything, roughly 50 percent of the nation then decides to take the opposite opinion. Once Obama spoke out, caring about Martin became a “Democratic” issue, and Republicans felt not just free but obligated to fling all sorts of shit.
Soon, even Peggy Noonan was weighing in to say that Obama’s response was more proof of his arrogance, or whatever. The New York Post’s attempt to cover the story insensitively but not too insensitively led to a front page accusing black political leaders (or “race hustlers” in Post parlance) of “hijacking” the tragedy. The real tragedy is that black people and Democrats won’t stop talking about Trayvon Martin!
3. The killing was already political.
Often, when people complain about people “politicizing” a tragedy, what they’re actually complaining about is people attempting to determine what policies helped lead to the tragedy. In the case of any given incident of gun violence, America’s lax restrictions on gun ownership can suddenly seem a bit irresponsible. In the Martin case, liberal journalists noted that Florida had passed “stand your ground” self-defense rules, lobbied for by the NRA and dreamed up by ALEC.
It’s unclear whether or not the “stand your ground” law would have any real effect on Zimmerman’s hypothetical defense in court, and though it’s plausible, we can’t know for certain whether the law made him feel emboldened enough to shoot, but it seems self-evident that Florida’s “robust” self-defense laws are part of the reason the police never arrested him. Their understanding of the law, correct or no, led them to believe that Zimmerman was immune from prosecution.
Conservatives feared, rightly, that outrage over the killing would lead to some pushback against their largely successful under-the-radar attempts to legislate gun control completely out of existence state by state. Libertarians were first out of the gate on this front, with Reason magazine’s contributors pointedly and repeatedly arguing that “stand your ground” laws had nothing to do with the shooting, at all. (This David French post at the Corner suggests that Trayvon Martin was the one legally protected by Florida’s laws. Having the law on his side wasn’t as useful as having a gun, of course, and if Martin had been armed I suspect the national conversation would be … very different, right now.)
Part of the frantic defense of Zimmerman is an attempt to ensure that liberals never, ever go back to the gun control advocacy they essentially gave up on after the 1990s.
4. Racism.
Of course at the root of the most noxious material from the far right is simple racism — the sincere belief that if a black kid got shot, he probably had it coming.
"Tucker Carlson’s Daily Caller is now the Internet’s leader in the ongoing campaign to make Trayvon seem threatening. Mediaite’s Tommy Christopher had a good (or depressing) close reading of the Caller’s coverage, which ran the gamut from Martin-smearing to credulity-straining Zimmerman defenses (in one video freeze frame he looks like he might have a big scar, of the sort caused by scary black kids)". (From the article above)
saw this on the white media last night...I mean news ...
Godfather.
Don't let those altered images fool you. That is one frame, frozen and manipulated.
If the police handled this professionally, they would have taken photos of his injuries. If this goes any further, these will need to come out -- if they exist.
I don't think we can come to any conclusions of Zimmerman's injuries without better evidence.
Some in the media actually want us to feel sorry for George Zimmerman. Yes, the self appointed neighborhood watch captain, habitual 911 caller, police officer assaulter, domestic abuser, black child stalker, 911 operator ignorer, racial slur user, and unarmed black teenager killer. The same George Zimmerman who still hasn’t been arrested after killing Trayvon Martin over a month ago. Now we’re being told we should feel sorry for him because he’s being “demonized” in the media. Supporters even complained the only picture the media used of him was a mugshot! Really? Welcome to our world George. Black men have been demonized by the media since the invention of media. Trayvon is still being labeled a thug, even after he was shot down with nothing but skittles in his pocket, and tests proved Trayvon was not under the influence of alcohol and drugs.
It doesn’t matter that George Zimmerman’s story, unbelievable as it already was, is falling apart more and more each day. That forensic experts are saying that it’s a scientific certainty it’s not George Zimmerman screaming for help on the 911 call. That video from the night shows George with no marks, coupled with the funeral director’s account of a unmarked, unbruised Trayvon. Sanford’s own investigators didn’t believe George’s lies and were ready to charge him with manslaughter, even before all of this evidence was available to the public. That’s of course until Chief Bill Lee, who has since stepped down, and state attorney Norman Wolfinger, who has now removed himself from the case, let George walk free. So now let me get this straight, George Zimmerman followed, confronted, and murdered an unarmed boy, then lied to the police, but he’s the victim?
Now the new focus is on “media blunders”, rushing to judgement and even calls for justice for George Zimmerman. Media outlets are scrambling to either distract us with pundit beef, or bounties, or find something to support the Zimmerman family’s outrageous claims. Even ABC’s enhanced video claiming to show “gashes” on Zimmerman’s head is borderline ridiculous, considering how much the head bleeds from even the smallest cut, and the fact the police have no gloves on. How come ABC didn’t enhance his face to see if his nose was broken? Zimmerman supporters are even throwing down cold hard cash to help his legal defense.
I have a very simple solution. If you don’t want George Zimmerman tried in the media, arrest him, so he can be tried in a court of law.
"Tucker Carlson’s Daily Caller is now the Internet’s leader in the ongoing campaign to make Trayvon seem threatening. Mediaite’s Tommy Christopher had a good (or depressing) close reading of the Caller’s coverage, which ran the gamut from Martin-smearing to credulity-straining Zimmerman defenses (in one video freeze frame he looks like he might have a big scar, of the sort caused by scary black kids)". (From the article above)
I'm sorry, but comments in articles such as "In one video freeze fram he looks like he might have a big scar, of the sort caused by scary black kids" are the exact type of race-baiting many of us have mentioned in this thread. Why does that article have to imply that anyone mentioning the fact that Zimmerman had a wound on his head is somehow a racist and put racist phrasing in their mouths when there was none? If reporting on Zimmerman's injuries (which were treated by paramedics at the scene according to the police report and are looked at at least once by an officer in the video in question) makes someone a racist, what does it make someone if they edit audio of a 911 call in order to make someone sound racist?
"Tucker Carlson’s Daily Caller is now the Internet’s leader in the ongoing campaign to make Trayvon seem threatening. Mediaite’s Tommy Christopher had a good (or depressing) close reading of the Caller’s coverage, which ran the gamut from Martin-smearing to credulity-straining Zimmerman defenses (in one video freeze frame he looks like he might have a big scar, of the sort caused by scary black kids)". (From the article above)
I'm sorry, but comments in articles such as "In one video freeze fram he looks like he might have a big scar, of the sort caused by scary black kids" are the exact type of race-baiting many of us have mentioned in this thread. Why does that article have to imply that anyone mentioning the fact that Zimmerman had a wound on his head is somehow a racist and put racist phrasing in their mouths when there was none? If reporting on Zimmerman's injuries (which were treated by paramedics at the scene according to the police report and are looked at at least once by an officer in the video in question) makes someone a racist, what does it make someone if they edit audio of a 911 call in order to make someone sound racist?
again
I have a very simple solution. If you don’t want George Zimmerman tried in the media, arrest him, so he can be tried in a court of law.
"Tucker Carlson’s Daily Caller is now the Internet’s leader in the ongoing campaign to make Trayvon seem threatening. Mediaite’s Tommy Christopher had a good (or depressing) close reading of the Caller’s coverage, which ran the gamut from Martin-smearing to credulity-straining Zimmerman defenses (in one video freeze frame he looks like he might have a big scar, of the sort caused by scary black kids)". (From the article above)
I'm sorry, but comments in articles such as "In one video freeze fram he looks like he might have a big scar, of the sort caused by scary black kids" are the exact type of race-baiting many of us have mentioned in this thread. Why does that article have to imply that anyone mentioning the fact that Zimmerman had a wound on his head is somehow a racist and put racist phrasing in their mouths when there was none? If reporting on Zimmerman's injuries (which were treated by paramedics at the scene according to the police report and are looked at at least once by an officer in the video in question) makes someone a racist, what does it make someone if they edit audio of a 911 call in order to make someone sound racist?
again
I have a very simple solution. If you don’t want George Zimmerman tried in the media, arrest him, so he can be tried in a court of law.
Why don't we just let the state and federal investigators do their jobs and determine if he should be prosecuted and stop letting the media create a racial firestorm (and ratings bonanza) by reporting only Martin's family's version of events and airing edited audio and making misleading statements about grainy video? If there's enough evidence against Zimmerman, then prosecute him. But if the evidence supports his version of events, why should we go along with the media's racial profiteering?
If anyone is really concerned with justice in this case, then they should withhold their judgment and demand that the media do the same. Rushing to judgment in either direction isn't going to bring about anything resembling justice. Prosecuting without a case strong enough to have even a moderate chance of conviction isn't going to bring about justice any more than declaring the case closed too soon would.
SANFORD, FL—Amidst the controversy surrounding the recent shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, the Sanford Police Department cautioned Florida residents Tuesday against taking the law into their own hands, except when following the state statute that explicitly authorizes people to do so. "Let me be clear: We do not want citizens resorting to deadly force when they believe they're being threatened—unless, of course, they are following the letter of the law, which says they can resort to deadly force when they believe they're being threatened," said interim Sanford police chief Darren Scott, referring to the state's "Stand Your Ground" rule. "Law enforcement should be left to the police. However, it can also be left to common citizens, since pursuing vigilante justice is perfectly within their legal rights. Have I made myself clear?" After being bombarded with questions about the confusing nature of the law, a flustered Scott said, "Just don't be racist and kill people, okay?"
saw this on the white media last night...I mean news ...
Godfather.
you seriously are going to argue that the aryan network isn't heavily influenced and reported by white people? stop now, just stop.
yer killin me here,you stop !
Godfather.
ok i'm directly saying that Fox News is littered with white male and female anchors, stars, and starlets. I am also directly saying that they choose to understand, interpret, and transmit information based on their own social class, race, gender, and sexual habitus. On Fox News it is overwhelmingly white, upper-class, masculine, and heterosexual. Most entertainment news stories that you post from that station reflect this type of mindset. How would you directly respond to this other than to deny it? Like what evidence do you have to support the idea that they don't reflect a white, upper-class, masculine, heterosexual value system?
saw this on the white media last night...I mean news ...
Godfather.
Don't let those altered images fool you. That is one frame, frozen and manipulated.
If the police handled this professionally, they would have taken photos of his injuries. If this goes any further, these will need to come out -- if they exist.
I don't think we can come to any conclusions of Zimmerman's injuries without better evidence.
I'm going to go along with Monster Rain's earlier post bro, this whole deal is really out of hand and being
judged by the media and influnencing the public with their spin on what they call evidense and as it's been said the media is using this story to boost ratings...in the end it's all about the dollar for the media not Zimmerman or Trayvon.
RW81233 pleassse ! you're telling me Fox does not employ anybody but white upper class males and a few females for eye candy only ? :shock: Fox is huge and and I have seen people of different color on many of their news stations......ohhhh I see now..you and Al Sharpton are one in the same...you are Al Sharpton sent to the PJ ten club to sell your vision of racism
on a serious note man I think you are wrong,I have heard all the talk about fox and some I even kinda agree with but you and the Fox race thing is just a bit much.
in my opinion they are only pretty until they start talking and spouting off the normal fox news talking points....easy on the eyes, but poison to the ears.... kinda like the spice girls...
"You can tell the greatness of a man by what makes him angry." - Lincoln
I have a very simple solution. If you don’t want George Zimmerman tried in the media, arrest him, so he can be tried in a court of law.
is the police and DA not charging him the go ahead for irresponsible reporting?
don't want him tried in the media...don't have a 24 hour news cycle that misinforms, doctors 911 calls, and makes this an issue of race when it was probably just one idiot killing a kid that didn't need to be shot. Why is it so hard to accept that Zimmerman may not be guilty according to Florida law and that he may not have been acting because of race. Why arrest a person the police know is innocent based on how the law is written?
I will never understand the fascination with racism that people have...it does as much to keep it alive as the people who actually act out of irrational hate to begin with...
that’s right! Can’t we all just get together and focus on our real enemies: monogamous gays and stem cells… - Ned Flanders
It is terrifying when you are too stupid to know who is dumb
- Joe Rogan
Ok, just to stay true to Kat's suggestion I will get it back to the topic after this. I didn't say they didn't hire women at all. I said that most of their entertainment news stories reflect a white, masculine, upper-class, heterosexual sentiment. Women can do that just as well as any guy. On top of that do you notice anything about the ethnic/racial makeup of the "talking heads" you just posted?
My main contention is that most of the stuff they put out is through a decidedly whitened lens, and this has had a dramatic effect on the way they have covered this tragedy. Please see the other links and articles that I posted on the matter - particularly the timeline one whereby the conservative news (read: Fox) has only begun to take up the story after it became about gun control and race.
I will never understand the fascination with racism that people have...it does as much to keep it alive as the people who actually act out of irrational hate to begin with...
it only does so if you find it inconvenient to discuss privilege in America. if we don't continue to try to improve then a status quo that still benefits rich, white, heterosexual, men will continue - the numbers overwhelmingly back me up on this (see: the 2010 census).
I will never understand the fascination with racism that people have...it does as much to keep it alive as the people who actually act out of irrational hate to begin with...
it only does so if you find it inconvenient to discuss privilege in America. if we don't continue to try to improve then a status quo that still benefits rich, white, heterosexual, men will continue - the numbers overwhelmingly back me up on this (see: the 2010 census).
You mean this one showing Asians making substantially more than everyone else? (actually this is 2009, but I doubt it changed much in a year)
I'm not claiming this means racism doesn't exist. I am saying, however, that pointing to simple data and drawing a casual conclusion reveals more about one's own opinions than it does about the nature of reality.
moto, both asian-pacific islander (a small but not insignificant portion of our population) and caucasian are making significantly more per year (like 20-30k more). I also didn't just mean income, you have to take into account incarceration rates, job stability, hiring practices, media treatment, so on and so forth. again i don't mean to take away from the topic at hand it was just an ancillary argument i was having about white privilege.
I will never understand the fascination with racism that people have...it does as much to keep it alive as the people who actually act out of irrational hate to begin with...
it only does so if you find it inconvenient to discuss privilege in America. if we don't continue to try to improve then a status quo that still benefits rich, white, heterosexual, men will continue - the numbers overwhelmingly back me up on this (see: the 2010 census).
Black rich people benefit from the current system as well.
but are you ok with the rest of what I wrote right?
The media making this a black white issue without prior knowledge is not ok. And the media is being and should be blamed for that...not white privilege or racism.
Do you think it is racism that directly causes the issues that Black America faces today? but more than that...do you think that white privilege makes it impossible for minorities to succeed?
Improving the status quo is important. I agree...but why don't we focus on improving the status quo for all and not focus on race as a part of it. Why don't we stop checking race on every form we fill out. It seems to me we teach people to look at race as a characteristic of a person, when it is simply a different heritage.
one of the most condescending approaches and side affects of all of this is that blaming white privilege for the experiences that minorities have makes it seem like they are incapable of not only overcoming but making things better themselves. Does that make sense? on paper I don't know if it is saying what I want. Basically, those that are blaming whites/racism for the tough issues facing minorities today makes it seem like the minorities are incapable of succeeding and changing their place without help from whites. I know that isn't the point that many are trying to make when they discuss it, but I catch myself thinking that from time to time.
Racism = possibly erred logic but most certainly irrational. Eliminating it will be impossible. Improving race relations is possible, and it has happened over the past 50 years. But blowing this kind of thing up as racially motivated is not the way to do that, especially when it may not be to begin with...
I just cannot help but think that if we ended the drug war over time we may find that the trends we see today being reversed.
that’s right! Can’t we all just get together and focus on our real enemies: monogamous gays and stem cells… - Ned Flanders
It is terrifying when you are too stupid to know who is dumb
- Joe Rogan
Mike we agree on quite a bit here. Rich people almost always win in America, it's just that most rich people are white. And sometimes yes it is racism and white privilege that causes some (not all) problems for minorities (even poor whites) in our society. When people are still getting pulled over for the color of their skin then racism still exists, when 75% of black men and about the same for Latino men have some experience with our penal system something is not right. These are but a few of many instances that are often overlooked as evidence that racism still exists in our society today. Martin could be an example of this being a black kid, wearing a hoodie in a predominantly white suburban area and getting targeted (not even the shooting just targeted) speaks to the idea that one individual in our society was looking at him and using stereotypes to criminalize him. John Stossel actually plays into that by criminalizing him for both being 'dumb enough' to wear a hoodie as a black man because of the connotation that it promotes. If we were past racial pathologizing then why would he have said that?
Either way where we always agree most is that this is a systemic issue. Where we disagree most is how to solve it (you want free markets and i don't think that's any more viable in reality than communism was), and where you only see it as a systemic issue and non-racial, I see it as a racial issue hidden, yet exacerbated, by the system.
Comments
Unfortunately, gang violence isn't really uncommon, hence it isn't reported.
Sick of that term. Sick of all of these damned labels!
And as a sidenote - we're fucking human beings. Racism will always exist, here and everywhere. Sure it has been and will hopefully continue to be lessened, but it will never go away. And it will always be from all sides. Not just one. And definitely NOT just the one that dipshits like Farrakhan and Sharpton and any other propogators want to promote (regardless of their race....did I even have to say that?)
(yeah, I'm just a bit grumpy this morning
Godfather.
saw this on the white media last night...I mean news
Godfather.
Why Rush Limbaugh and the right turned on Trayvon Martin
A national tragedy became another awful political shouting match, thanks to vile pundits and talk-radio hosts
BY ALEX PAREENE
Center: A photo of Trayvon Martin, taken from his Twitter feed by the Daily Caller and disseminated by right-wing media.
TOPICS:TRAYVON MARTIN, MEDIA CRITICISM, RACE, TUCKER CARLSON, BARACK OBAMA, EDITOR'S PICKS
Seventeen-year-old Trayvon Martin was killed by a gun-toting, self-appointed “neighborhood watch leader” named George Zimmerman on Feb. 26, in Sanford, Fla. Zimmerman was not and has not yet been arrested. Martin’s death took some time to go from a local news story to a major nationwide controversy, but once it went national it quickly became huge. Coverage from the Huffington Post, a March 8 CBS News report and related Associated Press stories led to widespread Internet and cable news coverage.
Except on the right. In the parallel conservative media bubble, of Fox News and talk radio and right-wing websites, Trayvon Martin’s story didn’t register. Even after the major national newspapers began getting into the story, after the NAACP began demanding the Justice Department investigate, the right-wing press and commentariat kept silent. Drudge completely ignored the story. By March 19, Fox News had done precisely one Trayvon Martin segment. It was still possible, on March 21, for Mother Jones’ Adam Serwer to write that “the right-wing reaction to the shooting of Trayvon Martin has been mercifully muted.”
When right-wing media figures first began to weigh in, it was with (occasionally surprising) thoughtfulness . On March 22, Allen West, a congressman who regularly explores new frontiers in unhinged right-wing provocation, posted an angered but measured response to the Martin killing on his Facebook wall, calling police inaction “an outrage.” Reihan Salam, writing at the National Review, said “I get the tentative sense that this conversation hasn’t gotten crazily polarized.” On March 23, National Review editor Rich Lowry wrote a piece astoundingly headlined “Al Sharpton is right.”
On March 23, two things happened: Buffoon Geraldo Riviera made his infamous remarks on the role Martin’s style of dress played in his death — a dumb point dumbly made — and President Obama told the press: “My main message is to the parents of Trayvon Martin. You know, if I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon.”
It was basically on this day that everything went to hell. The story of an unarmed teenager shot dead while walking home and a police force that decided that didn’t constitute a crime suddenly became a partisan issue with numerous points of contention.
Here are four reasons this became another right-versus-left shouting match:
1. The conservative movement denies the existence (or prevalence or impact) of racism.
Though toxic racial resentment is one of the most powerful driving forces behind contemporary right-wing populism, the conservative movement largely prefers to believe that racism was “solved” many years ago, most likely on the day Martin Luther King gave the “I Have a Dream” speech. The corollary to this belief is that accusations of racism are the new racism, and said accusations are invariably politically motivated.
As Elspeth Reeve pointed out in a sharp piece for the Atlantic Wire, the Trayvon Martin case posed something of a problem: No one was accusing anyone other than George Zimmerman of racism. There wasn’t an obvious political partisan advantage to raising awareness of Martin’s death. But some right-wingers find any acknowledgment of racism by liberals to be blood libel against all conservatives. And so … they began defending George Zimmerman’s honor, and smearing Trayvon Martin.
Glenn Beck’s site, the Blaze, led the charge, suggesting without much in the way of evidence that Martin was “the aggressor,” based on nothing other than the fact that he had been suspended from school. (The site also threw in some speculation that Martin may have been an arsonist.) The sole reason for this was a pathological need to deny the existence of any form of racism that doesn’t take the form of liberals hating white people.
In order to argue that Zimmerman found Martin suspicious for some reason other than the sole fact of his black skin, conservatives began seeking evidence that Martin was terrifying. The evidence all basically revolved around his blackness, but “logic” doesn’t have much to do with the popularity of the fake “Trayvon” photo, sourced to the neo-Nazi message board Stormfront and briefly featured at Michelle Malkin’s new site “Twitchy.” (The photo was, in fact, of another black teenager that Stormfront and Twitchy had mistaken for Martin.)
Tucker Carlson’s Daily Caller is now the Internet’s leader in the ongoing campaign to make Trayvon seem threatening. Mediaite’s Tommy Christopher had a good (or depressing) close reading of the Caller’s coverage, which ran the gamut from Martin-smearing to credulity-straining Zimmerman defenses (in one video freeze frame he looks like he might have a big scar, of the sort caused by scary black kids).
As you can see, The Daily Caller was very thorough when it comes to covering Al Sharpton riling up black people, or Jesse Jackson showing up late, or President Obama being a bad, bad man, or George Zimmerman telling his side of the story and gaining “momentum.” They were so thorough that they even managed to work communists and Father Pfleger(!!!) into their coverage, and obtain the expert legal opinion of Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX). They’ve also been very thorough about conducting an internet grave-robbing, posting two rounds of tweets from the slain teenager’s closed Twitter accounts. [emphasis his.]
This devolved into the now common Internet practice of showing pictures of Martin posturing for the camera, giving the finger, arguing that the liberal media didn’t want you to know what Martin really looked like. How do photographs like that affect the facts of his shooting as we currently understand them? People who are already scared of young black men and people who exploit the fear of young black men for political purposes simply and sincerely believe that Americans as a whole will be less likely to feel that an injustice has occurred if they learn that Trayvon Martin was scary and not adorable.
(The Caller has begun to slightly rein in its coverage, following widespread criticism of its awfulness, but we’ll see how long the restraint lasts.)
The “highbrow” version of this barrel-scraping garbage is, say, Jonah Goldberg’s ponderous column and blog post on how middle-class blacks don’t understand that white racism is no longer a problem in black communities.
2. The president is extremely polarizing
President Obama was careful to limit his comments on the Martin story (which were made in direct response to a question from the press, and not, say, prepared remarks) to a personal message of empathy for Martin’s parents and a call for everyone to take the situation and the investigation into it seriously.
Naturally, Newt Gingrich immediately called the remarks “disgraceful.” This is also around the time that Rush Limbaugh felt free to weigh in, too. Josh Barro noted some of the not particularly enlightened conservative response in his Forbes piece on the right’s race problem.
It is a simple fact that when the president takes a position on something, anything, roughly 50 percent of the nation then decides to take the opposite opinion. Once Obama spoke out, caring about Martin became a “Democratic” issue, and Republicans felt not just free but obligated to fling all sorts of shit.
Soon, even Peggy Noonan was weighing in to say that Obama’s response was more proof of his arrogance, or whatever. The New York Post’s attempt to cover the story insensitively but not too insensitively led to a front page accusing black political leaders (or “race hustlers” in Post parlance) of “hijacking” the tragedy. The real tragedy is that black people and Democrats won’t stop talking about Trayvon Martin!
3. The killing was already political.
Often, when people complain about people “politicizing” a tragedy, what they’re actually complaining about is people attempting to determine what policies helped lead to the tragedy. In the case of any given incident of gun violence, America’s lax restrictions on gun ownership can suddenly seem a bit irresponsible. In the Martin case, liberal journalists noted that Florida had passed “stand your ground” self-defense rules, lobbied for by the NRA and dreamed up by ALEC.
It’s unclear whether or not the “stand your ground” law would have any real effect on Zimmerman’s hypothetical defense in court, and though it’s plausible, we can’t know for certain whether the law made him feel emboldened enough to shoot, but it seems self-evident that Florida’s “robust” self-defense laws are part of the reason the police never arrested him. Their understanding of the law, correct or no, led them to believe that Zimmerman was immune from prosecution.
Conservatives feared, rightly, that outrage over the killing would lead to some pushback against their largely successful under-the-radar attempts to legislate gun control completely out of existence state by state. Libertarians were first out of the gate on this front, with Reason magazine’s contributors pointedly and repeatedly arguing that “stand your ground” laws had nothing to do with the shooting, at all. (This David French post at the Corner suggests that Trayvon Martin was the one legally protected by Florida’s laws. Having the law on his side wasn’t as useful as having a gun, of course, and if Martin had been armed I suspect the national conversation would be … very different, right now.)
Part of the frantic defense of Zimmerman is an attempt to ensure that liberals never, ever go back to the gun control advocacy they essentially gave up on after the 1990s.
4. Racism.
Of course at the root of the most noxious material from the far right is simple racism — the sincere belief that if a black kid got shot, he probably had it coming.
Don't let those altered images fool you. That is one frame, frozen and manipulated.
If the police handled this professionally, they would have taken photos of his injuries. If this goes any further, these will need to come out -- if they exist.
I don't think we can come to any conclusions of Zimmerman's injuries without better evidence.
Why I Refuse to Feel Sorry for George Zimmerman
Poor George Zimmerman?
Some in the media actually want us to feel sorry for George Zimmerman. Yes, the self appointed neighborhood watch captain, habitual 911 caller, police officer assaulter, domestic abuser, black child stalker, 911 operator ignorer, racial slur user, and unarmed black teenager killer. The same George Zimmerman who still hasn’t been arrested after killing Trayvon Martin over a month ago. Now we’re being told we should feel sorry for him because he’s being “demonized” in the media. Supporters even complained the only picture the media used of him was a mugshot! Really? Welcome to our world George. Black men have been demonized by the media since the invention of media. Trayvon is still being labeled a thug, even after he was shot down with nothing but skittles in his pocket, and tests proved Trayvon was not under the influence of alcohol and drugs.
It doesn’t matter that George Zimmerman’s story, unbelievable as it already was, is falling apart more and more each day. That forensic experts are saying that it’s a scientific certainty it’s not George Zimmerman screaming for help on the 911 call. That video from the night shows George with no marks, coupled with the funeral director’s account of a unmarked, unbruised Trayvon. Sanford’s own investigators didn’t believe George’s lies and were ready to charge him with manslaughter, even before all of this evidence was available to the public. That’s of course until Chief Bill Lee, who has since stepped down, and state attorney Norman Wolfinger, who has now removed himself from the case, let George walk free. So now let me get this straight, George Zimmerman followed, confronted, and murdered an unarmed boy, then lied to the police, but he’s the victim?
Now the new focus is on “media blunders”, rushing to judgement and even calls for justice for George Zimmerman. Media outlets are scrambling to either distract us with pundit beef, or bounties, or find something to support the Zimmerman family’s outrageous claims. Even ABC’s enhanced video claiming to show “gashes” on Zimmerman’s head is borderline ridiculous, considering how much the head bleeds from even the smallest cut, and the fact the police have no gloves on. How come ABC didn’t enhance his face to see if his nose was broken? Zimmerman supporters are even throwing down cold hard cash to help his legal defense.
I have a very simple solution. If you don’t want George Zimmerman tried in the media, arrest him, so he can be tried in a court of law.
thank you!
i think this is something all of uc can agree on...
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
I'm sorry, but comments in articles such as "In one video freeze fram he looks like he might have a big scar, of the sort caused by scary black kids" are the exact type of race-baiting many of us have mentioned in this thread. Why does that article have to imply that anyone mentioning the fact that Zimmerman had a wound on his head is somehow a racist and put racist phrasing in their mouths when there was none? If reporting on Zimmerman's injuries (which were treated by paramedics at the scene according to the police report and are looked at at least once by an officer in the video in question) makes someone a racist, what does it make someone if they edit audio of a 911 call in order to make someone sound racist?
I have a very simple solution. If you don’t want George Zimmerman tried in the media, arrest him, so he can be tried in a court of law.
Why don't we just let the state and federal investigators do their jobs and determine if he should be prosecuted and stop letting the media create a racial firestorm (and ratings bonanza) by reporting only Martin's family's version of events and airing edited audio and making misleading statements about grainy video? If there's enough evidence against Zimmerman, then prosecute him. But if the evidence supports his version of events, why should we go along with the media's racial profiteering?
If anyone is really concerned with justice in this case, then they should withhold their judgment and demand that the media do the same. Rushing to judgment in either direction isn't going to bring about anything resembling justice. Prosecuting without a case strong enough to have even a moderate chance of conviction isn't going to bring about justice any more than declaring the case closed too soon would.
Godfather.
Godfather.
SANFORD, FL—Amidst the controversy surrounding the recent shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, the Sanford Police Department cautioned Florida residents Tuesday against taking the law into their own hands, except when following the state statute that explicitly authorizes people to do so. "Let me be clear: We do not want citizens resorting to deadly force when they believe they're being threatened—unless, of course, they are following the letter of the law, which says they can resort to deadly force when they believe they're being threatened," said interim Sanford police chief Darren Scott, referring to the state's "Stand Your Ground" rule. "Law enforcement should be left to the police. However, it can also be left to common citizens, since pursuing vigilante justice is perfectly within their legal rights. Have I made myself clear?" After being bombarded with questions about the confusing nature of the law, a flustered Scott said, "Just don't be racist and kill people, okay?"
I'm going to go along with Monster Rain's earlier post bro, this whole deal is really out of hand and being
judged by the media and influnencing the public with their spin on what they call evidense and as it's been said the media is using this story to boost ratings...in the end it's all about the dollar for the media not Zimmerman or Trayvon.
Godfather.
on a serious note man I think you are wrong,I have heard all the talk about fox and some I even kinda agree with but you and the Fox race thing is just a bit much.
Godfather.
http://www.gogomag.com/talkingheads/foxnews_m_1.php
http://www.gogomag.com/talkingheads/fox ... hannel.php
and yes they hire very pretty women
http://www.gogomag.com/talkingheads/foxnews_f_2.php
Godfather
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
is the police and DA not charging him the go ahead for irresponsible reporting?
don't want him tried in the media...don't have a 24 hour news cycle that misinforms, doctors 911 calls, and makes this an issue of race when it was probably just one idiot killing a kid that didn't need to be shot. Why is it so hard to accept that Zimmerman may not be guilty according to Florida law and that he may not have been acting because of race. Why arrest a person the police know is innocent based on how the law is written?
I will never understand the fascination with racism that people have...it does as much to keep it alive as the people who actually act out of irrational hate to begin with...
It is terrifying when you are too stupid to know who is dumb
- Joe Rogan
My main contention is that most of the stuff they put out is through a decidedly whitened lens, and this has had a dramatic effect on the way they have covered this tragedy. Please see the other links and articles that I posted on the matter - particularly the timeline one whereby the conservative news (read: Fox) has only begun to take up the story after it became about gun control and race.
http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/ ... 2s0697.pdf
I'm not claiming this means racism doesn't exist. I am saying, however, that pointing to simple data and drawing a casual conclusion reveals more about one's own opinions than it does about the nature of reality.
Black rich people benefit from the current system as well.
but are you ok with the rest of what I wrote right?
The media making this a black white issue without prior knowledge is not ok. And the media is being and should be blamed for that...not white privilege or racism.
Do you think it is racism that directly causes the issues that Black America faces today? but more than that...do you think that white privilege makes it impossible for minorities to succeed?
Improving the status quo is important. I agree...but why don't we focus on improving the status quo for all and not focus on race as a part of it. Why don't we stop checking race on every form we fill out. It seems to me we teach people to look at race as a characteristic of a person, when it is simply a different heritage.
one of the most condescending approaches and side affects of all of this is that blaming white privilege for the experiences that minorities have makes it seem like they are incapable of not only overcoming but making things better themselves. Does that make sense? on paper I don't know if it is saying what I want. Basically, those that are blaming whites/racism for the tough issues facing minorities today makes it seem like the minorities are incapable of succeeding and changing their place without help from whites. I know that isn't the point that many are trying to make when they discuss it, but I catch myself thinking that from time to time.
Racism = possibly erred logic but most certainly irrational. Eliminating it will be impossible. Improving race relations is possible, and it has happened over the past 50 years. But blowing this kind of thing up as racially motivated is not the way to do that, especially when it may not be to begin with...
I just cannot help but think that if we ended the drug war over time we may find that the trends we see today being reversed.
It is terrifying when you are too stupid to know who is dumb
- Joe Rogan
Hmm ... I wasn't aware of this. Gonna have to call an emergency meeting w/ the Stonecutters to right the ship. :problem:
by the way ... time to focus ...
Either way where we always agree most is that this is a systemic issue. Where we disagree most is how to solve it (you want free markets and i don't think that's any more viable in reality than communism was), and where you only see it as a systemic issue and non-racial, I see it as a racial issue hidden, yet exacerbated, by the system.