Posted on 04/24/2012 9:34:10 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Whatever the ultimate outcome of the case against George Zimmerman for his shooting of Trayvon Martin, what has happened already is enough to turn the stomach of anyone who believes in either truth or justice.
An amazing proportion of the media has given us a painful demonstration of the thinking — and lack of thinking — that prevailed back in the days of the old Jim Crow South, where complexion counted more than facts in determining how people were treated.
One of the first things presented in the media was a transcript of a conversation between George Zimmerman and a police dispatcher. The last line in most of the transcripts shown on TV was that of the police dispatcher telling Zimmerman not to continue following Trayvon Martin.
That became the basis of many media criticisms of Zimmerman for continuing to follow him. Only later did I see a transcript of that conversation on the Sean Hannity program that included Zimmerman's reply to the police dispatcher: “O.K.”
That reply removed the only basis for assuming that Zimmerman did in fact continue to follow Trayvon Martin. At this point, neither I nor the people who assumed that he continued to follow the teenager have any basis in fact for believing that he did or didn't.
Why was that reply edited out by so many in the media? Because too many people in the media see their role as filtering and slanting the news to fit their own vision of the world. The issue is not one of being “fair” to “both sides” but, more fundamentally, of being honest with their audience.
NBC News carried the editing even further, removing one of the police dispatcher's questions, to which Zimmerman was responding, in order to feed the vision of Zimmerman as a racist.
In the same vein were the repeated references to Zimmerman as a “white Hispanic.” Zimmerman is half-white. So is Barack Obama. But does anyone refer to Obama as a “white African”?
All these verbal games grow out of the notion that complexion tells you who is to be blamed and who is not. It is a dangerous game because race is no game. If the tragic history of the old Jim Crow South in this country is not enough to show that, the history of racial and ethnic tragedies is written in blood in countries around the world. Millions have lost their lives because they looked different, talked differently or belonged to a different religion.
In the midst of the Florida tragedy, there was a book published with the unwieldy title, “No Matter What ... They'll Call This Book Racist.” Obviously it was written well before the shooting in Florida, but its message — that there is rampant hypocrisy and irrationality in public discussions of race — could not have been better timed.
Author Harry Stein, a self-described “reformed white liberal,” raised by parents who were even further left, exposes the illogic and outright fraudulence that lies behind so much of what is said about race in the media, in politics and in our educational institutions.
He asks a very fundamental question: “Why, even after the Duke University rape fiasco, does the media continue to give credence to every charge of racism?”
Harry Stein credits Shelby Steele's book “White Guilt” with opening his eyes to one of the sources of many counterproductive things said and done about race today — namely, guilt about what was done to blacks and other minorities in the past.
Let us talk sense, like adults. Nothing that is done to George Zimmerman — justly or unjustly — will unlynch a single black man who was tortured and killed in the Jim Crow South for a crime he didn't commit.
Letting hoodlums get away with hoodlumism today does not undo a single injustice of the past. It is not even a favor to the hoodlums, for many of whom hoodlumism is just the first step on a path that leads to the penitentiary, and maybe to the execution chamber.
Winston Churchill said, “If the past sits in judgment on the present, the future will be lost.” He wasn't talking about racial issues, but what he said applies especially where race is involved.
So true, and the worst part is how suprised we all are to even see this article in print.
They really don’t in any identifiable form, it’s become indoctrination in political correctness.
Great article. I’m glad to see that there are some sane people who can discuss this case rationally.
But never of their legal system; you know, Eric Holder's people?
That's why the concept of 'disrespecting' is so lethal.
Yep, and it’s worn thin.
I love the term “hoodlumism”.
Very appropriate.
That's simple. It's because white people are too afraid to stand up for the truth and defend themselves. The Leftist media knows this and continues the race baiting in order to keep its grip on power through a coalition of non-white racists and guilty white liberals.
Bump for the good Doctor Sowell.
Bump for Dr. Sowell.
Here is where a President who was a uniter and not
a divider could make a statement calling for calm
and restating the fact that we are a nation of laws.
But Nooooo.
Because the only one those boys made pay was Duke University ( 20 Million).
They should have sued the professors who signed the petition against them.
Obama discarded the bust of Winston Churchill because he doesn't like a) whites or b) British people.
So let's send him a nice bronze bust of Tom Sowell.
1) Scare headlines in huge print, often of minor news;
2) lavish use of pictures, or imaginary drawings;
3) use of faked interviews, misleading headlines, pseudoscience, and a parade of false learning from so-called experts;
4) emphasis on full-color Sunday supplements, usually with comic strips;
5) dramatic sympathy with the "underdog" against the system.
---
With the exception of #4 and modified for current media sources - can anyone point out why we should NOT call this coverage as "YELLOW JOURNALISM"?
http://www.amazon.com/Matter-What-Theyll-Call-This-Racist/dp/1594036004
If Dr. Sowell recommends this book, I’ll add it to my ‘to read’ list.
You're joking, right? I don't think they teach much of ANYTHING in schools anymore; they're too busy making posters extolling the virtues of recycling, green energy, public transportation....
Reading, writing, arithmetic?
Dream on.
On the first or second day of the Trayvon Martin death, an NBC news reporter filed his report saying that Trayvon Martin was “gunned down” by George Zimmerman. I had to replay that part to make sure my ears were not fooling me. “Gunned down.” NBC news SUCKS!!!!
The “media” no longer even pretend to report news, they spout propaganda, pure and simple, they are less trustworthy than the typical drunk on a bar stool bragging about his exploits.
According to Zimmerman whose story is supported by the evidence it was more like Martin was gunned UP! Up off Zimmerman that is. The central theme of the left in this incident is that Zimmerman is white and white people have no right of self defense against anyone who is slightly darker in skin color regardless of what actually happened. They will bleat, squeal, rant, hiss, piss and moan like a welfare recipient whose benefits have been cut off but that is what is really at the bottom of it. The most pathetic part is how many of those who are pushing this meme are themselves white.
The news media wants to sell stories, truthfully or not.
I have seen actual wittness accounts and personal interviews “edited” so the story becomes other than the actual truth. It is done all the time so what you might read is not necessarily what the truth is or actually happened.
To understand how the left is going to react to any issue,
take what is right and good, turn it completely upside down,
and you have it.
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