What grade would you give the local media in covering race?
MarketWatch’s Jon Friedman asks his readers what grade they would give the media for the way we cover race relations in America? And we’re wondering what grade you’d give the local media in covering race?
In Friedman’s commentary leading up to that question, it’s pretty clear that he flunks the media. The article is titled “The media are flopping at covering race. Commentary: Too much hype and too little analysis.”
Friedman’s criticism is harsh:
At our worst, journalists are making the same sorts of mistakes and miscalculations that surface whenever the pack descends on a hot topic, whether it happens to be health care or Iraq. If we’re not oversimplifying the news, we’re hyping it to whip up a controversy. Or we’re twisting the meaning of events to sell papers and woo viewers and listeners. And we wonder why the public hates and mistrusts us.
Friedman notes numerous recent incidents in which race became a media topic:
- Henry Gates’ arrest and President Barack Obama’s entry into the matter.
- Rep. Joe Wilson’s “You lie” outburst.
- Jimmy Carter saying that outburst was racially driven.
- Glenn Beck calling Obama a racist.
- Serena Williams threatening a lineswoman at the U.S. Open.
- Kanye West interrupting Taylor Swift at the MTV Video Music Awards.
Friedman asked three journalists for their thoughts. One said the media exploit race for headlines instead of examining the real issues. A second said that the media fail to recognize when race is not the issue — and that the media don’t talk about race enough when it’s not the main issue.
The third journalist — Jeffrey Toobin of the New Yorker and CNN — observed:
“What all of these issues have in common is the issue of motive and race. When is an action a statement motivated by racism or racial attitudes? That’s one of the hardest things to determine. One of the hardest things to prove is someone’s motive.”
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch had three Page One stories about two of the incidents in Friedman’s list — Henry Gates and Joe Wilson — although those three stories were provided by our wire services.
This past Wednesday, the Post-Dispatch had a Page One story about the attack of a Belleville West High School student on a bus. In that story, Belleville police backed off their previous day’s assertion that the attack might have been racially motivated. (That first story appeared on the bottom of Page A2.)
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(3 votes, average: 1.67 out of 5)
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Steve Parker is the deputy managing editor for news, and oversees the Post-Dispatch's front page. STLtoday's online news editors are on his newsroom team. Parker has been at the paper since September 1980. 
I give it a D+. Why isn’t this story of the black women beaten by a racist white man in Cracker Barrel being covered like the Belleville bus beatdown?
Watch CNN tonight.
Cracker Barrel Beating May Be Hate Crime
Posted: 6:15 am EDT September 16, 2009Updated: 1:15 pm EDT September 16, 2009
MORROW, Ga. — The FBI is investigating the beating of an African-American woman by a white man at a Cracker Barrel restaurant as a possible hate crime.
Morrow police said they arrested Troy Dale West, of Poulan, Ga. after he attacked Tasha Hill after she asked him to “be careful” at a Cracker Barrel restaurant.
Morrow police were called to the Cracker Barrel restaurant on Southlake Plaza Drive in Morrow Sept. 9 at 7:30 p.m.
VIDEO: Man Charged In Cracker Barrel Attack
Upon arrival, officers said they located the female victim and called for EMTs and Fire Department officials to assist. At the same time, the alleged offender in the case, Troy West, was detained at the scene, police said.
Police said an investigation revealed that the female victim, identified as Tasha Hill, was entering the Cracker Barrel with her 7-year-old daughter as West was leaving the restaurant. As West was leaving, the exit door came close to striking the 7-year-old daughter of the victim, police said. Hill, by all witness accounts, politely asked West to be careful, officials said.
“The man slung open the door pretty hard and fast and I had to push my daughter out of the way. I turned to the man and I just said, ‘Excuse me sir, you need to watch yourself you almost hit my daughter in the face.’ And from there it just went downhill,” said Hill.
At that point, West became enraged and began to beat the victim in front of her 7-year-old daughter, according to police. Hill said she told West she was an Army servicemember and she did not want any trouble.
West threw her to the ground and hit her in the head with his fists and feet, police said. During the exchange, witnesses said West could be heard screaming racial slurs at the victim.
“Then he punched me in my face,” said Hill. “And I fell to the ground and he proceeded to punch in my head and face.”
Many witnesses stepped up to assist police in the investigation by providing written statements as to the events that transpired. Cracker Barrel was also helpful to police in this investigation, Morrow police said.
This case has been referred to the FBI Civil Rights Division for a possible violation of Federal Hate Crime Laws.
Once officers obtained witness statements on the scene and looked at video surveillance from the Cracker Barrel, West was arrested and charged with battery, disorderly conduct, and cruelty to children in the first degree.
West has bonded out of jail.
As usual the MSM coverage was almost exclusively anti-white and apologist.
The media and it’s bais coverage is 70% responsible and both blacks and white conveniently using race when it suites their cause. Serena recieved backlash, yet a day later Roger F. blantenly cursed out an official and very little was said no apology needed. But as I’ve always said as long as black and whites keep infighting the foreigners will keep multiplying and taking over. You see they are smart they fight with brains take good paying jobs, export others, then import our basic all of our basic needs try buying an $1800 American made television. But you’ll have no problems finding $1 rolls paper towels made in America. So let’s keep fighting….
Black woman beaten by white man = racist. White boy beaten by 2 black boys = not racist. I see your point.
Yesterday’s racist editorial cartoon by Matson merely illustrates that it is much safer to parody white men typing their opinions than to hold black men accountable for their violent behavior.
I give the Post Dispatch an F for its biased blogs. They frequently delete reader opinions from blogs that are deemed controversial.
The Gates story makes the PD front page, but what about the Buffulo NY story of a white boy beaten by a gang of blacks for dating a black girl - nothing. Why, wrong races? http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/09/07/new.york.beating/index.html
And I can’t wait to see how many people cancel the paper after reading Horrigan’s anti-Lmbaugh editorial today. Horrigan, Mr. Sarcasm himself, goes after Limbaugh for sarcasm. Can’t get much more hypocritical than that. Yet he is allowed to write racist and anti-Christian hate commentaries. Go figure. And Mr. Mowbray wonders why no one reads the PD. As the libs like to day, “it’s the hypocrisy!”
The PD never misses a chance to stir up black vs. white in anything it can.
There is a big difference between black teen agers on a school bus ganging up on ONE white teen ager! THAT is gang mentality! If two adults get into it that’s a different story. From my own experience I doubt seriously this gal that got herself whopped was ‘polite’ when I know better! That is NOT the way blacks talk to whites anymore. They are rude, pushy, aggressive, and she just picked on the wrong white guy! She probably preached to this guy from the south - wrong move! Open your big fat mouth beyond what is necessary and you ask for a situation to develop. IF she had been polite, he probably would have said he was sorry and went on his way. And, in what neighborhood was this Cracker Barrel? White or black? If black, then that speaks for its self right there! OF COURSE they are going to side with the black gal! Granted, a man should not beat on a woman, but I’ll bet you a dollar to a doughnut she probably pushed him or put her hands on him!! I’ll just betcha! Hate crime? Nah, just a ‘rude’ crime!!!
Now, lets see how far the blacks can carry this little tid bit!!!! All the way to Al Sharpton?
I was being generous in giving the media a D. I believe the media sensationalizes everything to get white people in a tiff. They use words that bring out emotions rather than report facts. Media’s main audience is white people. When it came to the Gates issue, no doubt racism was involved, but the way the media reported it was so incorrect. The same with the bus incident…i mean they just outwardly assumed it had to be race. 2 races can fight with each other over different things.
I dont know about the Serena thing, so I will have to look it up. But the Kanye thing was so not racist. That was something entirely different.
Glenn Beck calling Obama a racist, was just Glenn Beck once again being a racist and playing the race card, he is just the tv version of Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter…he needs viewers and an audience, what better way to appeal to white people, than to whine about racism and to make it look like whites are victims when they are not?
The “you lie” incident, that is questionable. Alot of Republicans have been doing racist things more than usual lately (especially with all the email controversies). They don’t even want to accept that Obama is their president, they have been treating him worse than Bush was ever treated by Democrats. So it is questionable about the “you lie” incident, who knows…
I think the media focuses on race in the wrong way. They usually report before they even really know the story, and society tends to be stuck on with the “first”.
No doubt blacks suffer alot of racism, and we have a long way to go before blacks are treated right in America…but if the media is going to talk about racism against blacks, they need to do it properly, meaning, they need to leave out emotional words. also, some things shouldn’t be reported at all, like nazi rallies and kkk rallies…or rallies in general…no one needs to know, that only serves to flame the fire.