Reprinted, with minor edits, from: "Race, Crime & The Media," by R.C. Kirkwood, Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture. All research attributed to R.C. Kirkwood.
If a gang of five whites had ripped a black couple from their car, tortured them for hours and then dumped the bodies somewhere, the national news media would surely have non-stop coverage of the crime and go into hysterics. Probably every newspaper across the country would have bold headlines proclaiming that a racially-motivated hate crime had occured and flags at government buildings would be lowered to half-mast in mourning. Of course, the opportunity for such theatrics rarely comes along, and for good reason: as federal statistics show, nearly all interracial crime involves blacks harming whites. And that's the thing: most of these incidents involving blacks attacking whites are never reported outside of local news and, even there, usually without mentioning race.
Take, for example, the incident involving Christopher Newsom and Channon Christian. As most are now aware, this couple from Knoxville, Tennessee was carjacked and put through the horrors described only hypothetically above, only now for real and with the racial roles reversed. According to police, the actual details were even more horrendous; the black gang of carjackers shot the white boy, Christopher, wrapped him in bedding and then set him ablaze with gasoline. Afterwards, they dumped his body on nearby railroad tracks. The white girl, Channon, was forced to watch this horror and repeatedly raped. After spraying liquid cleaner into her mouth, the black gang killed her as well, placed her parts in trash bags and stuffed them in a garbage can. The mainstream media was almost completely silent about the event until the news spread, as the outrage did, through alternative online channels.
Unfortunately, it was not the only incident as of late. Around Halloween, three girls were visiting a haunted maze in Long Beach, California and crossed paths with a group of boys near the entrance. According to the police report, the boys grabbed their crotches and began leering, asking “you down with it?”. When the girls went through the maze, the boys were waiting for them at the exit. “I hate white people,” one boy declared. “White bitches!” another shouted. As you might have guessed, the girls were white and the group taunting them, which had grown to include females, was black. Supposedly, one of the boys in group moved forward and hit one of the white girls across the head with a skateboard. When the girl fell, he hit her again. In response, one of the other two white girls supposedly tried to intervene, but was punched, kicked and stomped to the ground. That girl received 12 facial fractures and severe damage to one of her eyes. The third white girl tried to help, but the mob beat her, too - again, kicking and stomping after she was pushed to the ground. During the trial, the judge tossed out DNA evidence of a victim’s blood on one attacker’s clothes. "It complicated the case", a lone local news source reported. Ultimately, the judge sentenced the guilty party to house arrest and probation. The New York Times and other national news media ignored the story. No wondering how it could happen. No soul-searching. No lectures on racism.
In April 2005, a mob of 30 blacks attacked four white girls at Marine Park in Brooklyn, New York. The mob shouted “black power” and invoked Martin Luther King, Jr., according to a small weekly covering the incident. Two of the victims of the incident landed in the hospital, one with a broken nose. Immediately, police denied that the assault was a hate crime. The national news media ignored the case.
On December 14, 2000, Jason Befort was at his Wichita home with his girlfriend, Heather Muller, and a few friends, including Bradley Heyka. Everyone in the group was white. There was also "H.G" - the only one to survive the night. According to reports, two black brothers, Jonathan and Reginald Carr, invaded Befort's home at gunpoint and proceeded to rob and sodomize the white teens. Then, the brothers drove the teens to a field to execute them. H.G. was shot and run over but somehow lived. Despite her testimony, which indicated that racial slurs had been uttered throughout the night by the two black brothers amidst their torture spree, prosecutors hotly denied that this was a hate crime. Although the story briefly appeared in local newspapers and on local television news, the races of the perpetrators and victims were not reported. Meanwhile, mainstream media - CBS, CNN, the Washington Post and the New York Times - ignored the story altogether. Had the attacks involved whites attacking blacks in this manner, all of these news organizations would have dispatched staff writers, photographers and cameramen to get every aspect of the story.
Incidentally, that is exactly what happened when three white lacrosse players at Duke University were accused of raping a black stripper at a party: the national news media descended in full force. As a result, members of the lacrosse team were smeared and the team's season was cancelled. The New York Times, the Washington Post and the major television networks unlimbered a blunderbuss and sprayed us with various takes on the story. It was time to search our souls for racism, they said. For intolerance, they said. For bigotry. For a crime that, as it turns out, never happened. The stripper later admitted she had lied and the prosecution, which had vigorously pursued the case, may end up being disbarred from practicing law for its dishonest assessments. Oddly enough, a rape did occur sometime later at an off-campus fraternity party at Duke. The national news media ignored it, and the Raleigh News and Observer eliminated race in its description of both the party and the suspect. Wondering why? Wonder no further: a black fraternity had hosted the party and, you might have guessed, the suspect was black.
On face value, it may seem as if those who run national news media simply hate white people and like black people. But perhaps there is more going on here. First, hiding the truth of white-on-black crime can prevent whites from seeing blacks as a danger, while emphasizing what few blacks are attacked by whites can replace misgivings with a perception of black victimhood. In the end, a world view is constructed that not only swaps negative stereotypes of blacks with sympathetic views, but also caricatures whites as potential villains if guided by negative opinions of blacks. In the book Coloring the News, Bill McGowen argues that the goal is to create acceptance of increasingly more blacks in positions of power and the media is constantly spinning stories to protect that ambition. For example, McGowan notes that, when exposing rank incompetence and rampant criminality among rookies in the NYPD, the New York Times failed to disclose how or why such incompetence and criminality had crept into the ranks. The truth is, hiring standards had been lowered. As you might have guessed, the purpose of lowering hiring standards was to create a squad with more blacks. "Diversity", it is called.
"Diversity" is the buzz word - and something of a new religion now. In journalism, the last few years have been one long chin-wag about it. Businesses receive dogmatic flyers and evangelical videotapes importuning them to hire minority applicants and interns and to attend job fairs with non-whites, specifically. They receive surveys designed to measure the racial complexion of newsrooms. The American Society of Newspaper Editors proclaims, “We count the number of journalists, their gender [sic] and race” in order to “help newsrooms think about diversity." The publisher of the New York Times has said that diversity is the most important issue facing his newspaper. What he did not say, of course, is that this is how Jayson Blair, despite his long rap sheet of plagiarism and mendacity, slipped through the cracks and got a reporting job there.
The slant on race in the newsroom has not gone unnoticed. In a forum post on the website of the Poynter Institute, David Mills, a former writer for the Washington Times, hammered the Los Angeles Times for ignoring the Halloween mob melee incident at Long Beach. “You don’t have to be a card-carrying Klansman,” Mills wrote, "to point out that the LA Times surely would be treating this story differently if three black women had been attacked by 30 white teenagers hurling words like “F— black people.” Columnists and editorial writers would be rending their garments, agonizing over the meaning of such a brutal crime."
Arguably, that particular assault is among the worst black-on-white violence that Southern California has seen in recently memory. Yet the only reference to the beatings on the op-ed page came last Sunday, when Michael McGough, a senior editorial writer, wrote of the following: “I wouldn’t dare to prejudge [the case] even if the facts weren’t so murky.” He then fretted that an “unintended consequence” of hate crime laws is that “such laws could end up punishing blacks who commit violence against whites — which is a far cry from the historical experience that inspired hate-crime statutes.” What a bizarre thing to say in view of the brutal violence and suffering, and what a bizarre focus of concern amidst it, about whether violent people who attack whites will be treated as if they had committed a hate crime. Of course, it all fits the pattern: holding blacks accountable for hate crimes would cut against the understanding that blacks are victims, potentially reinforce negative stereotypes and hurt the cause of "diversity". So, assuming that to be the case, how far are they willing to go to preserve this goal of "diversity" - and at what cost? We may soon find out.
Special thanks to Chronicles Magazine
If a gang of five whites had ripped a black couple from their car, tortured them for hours and then dumped the bodies somewhere, the national news media would surely have non-stop coverage of the crime and go into hysterics. Probably every newspaper across the country would have bold headlines proclaiming that a racially-motivated hate crime had occured and flags at government buildings would be lowered to half-mast in mourning. Of course, the opportunity for such theatrics rarely comes along, and for good reason: as federal statistics show, nearly all interracial crime involves blacks harming whites. And that's the thing: most of these incidents involving blacks attacking whites are never reported outside of local news and, even there, usually without mentioning race.
Take, for example, the incident involving Christopher Newsom and Channon Christian. As most are now aware, this couple from Knoxville, Tennessee was carjacked and put through the horrors described only hypothetically above, only now for real and with the racial roles reversed. According to police, the actual details were even more horrendous; the black gang of carjackers shot the white boy, Christopher, wrapped him in bedding and then set him ablaze with gasoline. Afterwards, they dumped his body on nearby railroad tracks. The white girl, Channon, was forced to watch this horror and repeatedly raped. After spraying liquid cleaner into her mouth, the black gang killed her as well, placed her parts in trash bags and stuffed them in a garbage can. The mainstream media was almost completely silent about the event until the news spread, as the outrage did, through alternative online channels.
Unfortunately, it was not the only incident as of late. Around Halloween, three girls were visiting a haunted maze in Long Beach, California and crossed paths with a group of boys near the entrance. According to the police report, the boys grabbed their crotches and began leering, asking “you down with it?”. When the girls went through the maze, the boys were waiting for them at the exit. “I hate white people,” one boy declared. “White bitches!” another shouted. As you might have guessed, the girls were white and the group taunting them, which had grown to include females, was black. Supposedly, one of the boys in group moved forward and hit one of the white girls across the head with a skateboard. When the girl fell, he hit her again. In response, one of the other two white girls supposedly tried to intervene, but was punched, kicked and stomped to the ground. That girl received 12 facial fractures and severe damage to one of her eyes. The third white girl tried to help, but the mob beat her, too - again, kicking and stomping after she was pushed to the ground. During the trial, the judge tossed out DNA evidence of a victim’s blood on one attacker’s clothes. "It complicated the case", a lone local news source reported. Ultimately, the judge sentenced the guilty party to house arrest and probation. The New York Times and other national news media ignored the story. No wondering how it could happen. No soul-searching. No lectures on racism.
In April 2005, a mob of 30 blacks attacked four white girls at Marine Park in Brooklyn, New York. The mob shouted “black power” and invoked Martin Luther King, Jr., according to a small weekly covering the incident. Two of the victims of the incident landed in the hospital, one with a broken nose. Immediately, police denied that the assault was a hate crime. The national news media ignored the case.
On December 14, 2000, Jason Befort was at his Wichita home with his girlfriend, Heather Muller, and a few friends, including Bradley Heyka. Everyone in the group was white. There was also "H.G" - the only one to survive the night. According to reports, two black brothers, Jonathan and Reginald Carr, invaded Befort's home at gunpoint and proceeded to rob and sodomize the white teens. Then, the brothers drove the teens to a field to execute them. H.G. was shot and run over but somehow lived. Despite her testimony, which indicated that racial slurs had been uttered throughout the night by the two black brothers amidst their torture spree, prosecutors hotly denied that this was a hate crime. Although the story briefly appeared in local newspapers and on local television news, the races of the perpetrators and victims were not reported. Meanwhile, mainstream media - CBS, CNN, the Washington Post and the New York Times - ignored the story altogether. Had the attacks involved whites attacking blacks in this manner, all of these news organizations would have dispatched staff writers, photographers and cameramen to get every aspect of the story.
Incidentally, that is exactly what happened when three white lacrosse players at Duke University were accused of raping a black stripper at a party: the national news media descended in full force. As a result, members of the lacrosse team were smeared and the team's season was cancelled. The New York Times, the Washington Post and the major television networks unlimbered a blunderbuss and sprayed us with various takes on the story. It was time to search our souls for racism, they said. For intolerance, they said. For bigotry. For a crime that, as it turns out, never happened. The stripper later admitted she had lied and the prosecution, which had vigorously pursued the case, may end up being disbarred from practicing law for its dishonest assessments. Oddly enough, a rape did occur sometime later at an off-campus fraternity party at Duke. The national news media ignored it, and the Raleigh News and Observer eliminated race in its description of both the party and the suspect. Wondering why? Wonder no further: a black fraternity had hosted the party and, you might have guessed, the suspect was black.
On face value, it may seem as if those who run national news media simply hate white people and like black people. But perhaps there is more going on here. First, hiding the truth of white-on-black crime can prevent whites from seeing blacks as a danger, while emphasizing what few blacks are attacked by whites can replace misgivings with a perception of black victimhood. In the end, a world view is constructed that not only swaps negative stereotypes of blacks with sympathetic views, but also caricatures whites as potential villains if guided by negative opinions of blacks. In the book Coloring the News, Bill McGowen argues that the goal is to create acceptance of increasingly more blacks in positions of power and the media is constantly spinning stories to protect that ambition. For example, McGowan notes that, when exposing rank incompetence and rampant criminality among rookies in the NYPD, the New York Times failed to disclose how or why such incompetence and criminality had crept into the ranks. The truth is, hiring standards had been lowered. As you might have guessed, the purpose of lowering hiring standards was to create a squad with more blacks. "Diversity", it is called.
"Diversity" is the buzz word - and something of a new religion now. In journalism, the last few years have been one long chin-wag about it. Businesses receive dogmatic flyers and evangelical videotapes importuning them to hire minority applicants and interns and to attend job fairs with non-whites, specifically. They receive surveys designed to measure the racial complexion of newsrooms. The American Society of Newspaper Editors proclaims, “We count the number of journalists, their gender [sic] and race” in order to “help newsrooms think about diversity." The publisher of the New York Times has said that diversity is the most important issue facing his newspaper. What he did not say, of course, is that this is how Jayson Blair, despite his long rap sheet of plagiarism and mendacity, slipped through the cracks and got a reporting job there.
The slant on race in the newsroom has not gone unnoticed. In a forum post on the website of the Poynter Institute, David Mills, a former writer for the Washington Times, hammered the Los Angeles Times for ignoring the Halloween mob melee incident at Long Beach. “You don’t have to be a card-carrying Klansman,” Mills wrote, "to point out that the LA Times surely would be treating this story differently if three black women had been attacked by 30 white teenagers hurling words like “F— black people.” Columnists and editorial writers would be rending their garments, agonizing over the meaning of such a brutal crime."
Arguably, that particular assault is among the worst black-on-white violence that Southern California has seen in recently memory. Yet the only reference to the beatings on the op-ed page came last Sunday, when Michael McGough, a senior editorial writer, wrote of the following: “I wouldn’t dare to prejudge [the case] even if the facts weren’t so murky.” He then fretted that an “unintended consequence” of hate crime laws is that “such laws could end up punishing blacks who commit violence against whites — which is a far cry from the historical experience that inspired hate-crime statutes.” What a bizarre thing to say in view of the brutal violence and suffering, and what a bizarre focus of concern amidst it, about whether violent people who attack whites will be treated as if they had committed a hate crime. Of course, it all fits the pattern: holding blacks accountable for hate crimes would cut against the understanding that blacks are victims, potentially reinforce negative stereotypes and hurt the cause of "diversity". So, assuming that to be the case, how far are they willing to go to preserve this goal of "diversity" - and at what cost? We may soon find out.
Special thanks to Chronicles Magazine
