I am just too mad at the Media's hypocrisy

[Sir Terrence the Terrible]

The amount of racism spewing out of the news agencies in the wake of Katrina is staggering. A co-worker and very close friend of mine directed me to this website picture that so angered me, I couldn't see straight.

http://www.wonkette.com/politics/ap/index.php

This really upset me alot. This morning on our stations morning news, we ran a story about some of the crime taking place in New Oleans. On reporter describe a situation much like in the photo with three white people wading through the water with a small boat full of food. She describe this a "foraging" for food. In the next clip three black men were pushing a cart full of food down the street, she called this looting. Another scene involved fire. One picture where a group of ten white men and women were starting a fire, she describe this as trying to stay warm. In another scene with a black family doing exactly the same thing, she called it arson. The report went on for two minutes with this white reporter using neutral terms to describe the actions of whites, and totally negative for blacks. I have four televisions in my office monitoring our channel, and several others such as Fox, CNN, and our local competitors. I saw this played out more than four times at the other networks, and at least 6 more times on the local news. This is bull crap.

Another example, the young woman missing in Aruba. Our station played this story out for weeks, however we had a local black girl missing, and no mention. When Sandra Levy was missing, at the same time a young black female was also missing in the DC area. No mention of her at all.

Are the lives of black people worth less the the lives of whites? I would say no, but according to the media that answer is yes. There is also a gender bias. Did anyone know that there are twice as many men missing right now, than women? We only hear about women, more specifically, pretty young white women missing. This is a shame and a crime.

This morning I went to our Executive producer of the morning news and read her the riot act. I asked how could she air this kind of crap when she knew there was a strong racial bias in it. She said she had no idea it was there. The funning thing is it was two of my white co workers that pointed all of this out. If they could see it, why couldn't she?

Lately I have been really paying attention during our broadcast. As I pay attention more, I see we report stories of the negative things that blacks and hispanic do at about four times the rate of whites. If someone didn't know any better, they would believe that whites don't do crime, and only people of color do. Any intelligent person knows that bad people come in all flavors. I am discovering more and more that there is absolutely no balance in the media, and the media is so racist it's pitiful.

American, the most advanced and powerful country in the world, and it cannot get past the race issue. As a hispanic man, this is most frustrating. Why is color always such a big issue all of the time? What ever happen to the people under the color. Have we totally forgotten about them? What are your thoughts on this issue. All opinions are welcomed and respected.

[Duds]

and also agree that it is crap, but dont forget there are a lot of racist black people too. Athletes come to mind quickly, recently Gary Sheffield made a statement how white reporters just dont understand him. Isnt that a racist staement? Same with Milton Bradley and hwo he said Jeff Kent doesnt understand black people. Arent they making there issues a black/white issue? I could be wrong, but thats how it comes across to me.

The amount of racism spewing out of the news agencies in the wake of Katrina is staggering. A co-worker and very close friend of mine directed me to this website picture that so angered me, I couldn't see straight.

http://www.wonkette.com/politics/ap/index.php

This really upset me alot. This morning on our stations morning news, we ran a story about some of the crime taking place in New Oleans. On reporter describe a situation much like in the photo with three white people wading through the water with a small boat full of food. She describe this a "foraging" for food. In the next clip three black men were pushing a cart full of food down the street, she called this looting. Another scene involved fire. One picture where a group of ten white men and women were starting a fire, she describe this as trying to stay warm. In another scene with a black family doing exactly the same thing, she called it arson. The report went on for two minutes with this white reporter using neutral terms to describe the actions of whites, and totally negative for blacks. I have four televisions in my office monitoring our channel, and several others such as Fox, CNN, and our local competitors. I saw this played out more than four times at the other networks, and at least 6 more times on the local news. This is bull crap.

Another example, the young woman missing in Aruba. Our station played this story out for weeks, however we had a local black girl missing, and no mention. When Sandra Levy was missing, at the same time a young black female was also missing in the DC area. No mention of her at all.

Are the lives of black people worth less the the lives of whites? I would say no, but according to the media that answer is yes. There is also a gender bias. Did anyone know that there are twice as many men missing right now, than women? We only hear about women, more specifically, pretty young white women missing. This is a shame and a crime.

This morning I went to our Executive producer of the morning news and read her the riot act. I asked how could she air this kind of crap when she knew there was a strong racial bias in it. She said she had no idea it was there. The funning thing is it was two of my white co workers that pointed all of this out. If they could see it, why couldn't she?

Lately I have been really paying attention during our broadcast. As I pay attention more, I see we report stories of the negative things that blacks and hispanic do at about four times the rate of whites. If someone didn't know any better, they would believe that whites don't do crime, and only people of color do. Any intelligent person knows that bad people come in all flavors. I am discovering more and more that there is absolutely no balance in the media, and the media is so racist it's pitiful.

American, the most advanced and powerful country in the world, and it cannot get past the race issue. As a hispanic man, this is most frustrating. Why is color always such a big issue all of the time? What ever happen to the people under the color. Have we totally forgotten about them? What are your thoughts on this issue. All opinions are welcomed and respected.

[Sir Terrence the Terrible]

and also agree that it is crap, but dont forget there are a lot of racist black people too. Athletes come to mind quickly, recently Gary Sheffield made a statement how white reporters just dont understand him. Isnt that a racist staement? Same with Milton Bradley and hwo he said Jeff Kent doesnt understand black people. Arent they making there issues a black/white issue? I could be wrong, but thats how it comes across to me.

I don't think that Gary's comments are that out of order Duds. There are some issues that blacks don't understand about latino's, some issues that whites don't under blacks, and that is largely why we have racism. There was a experiment on 20/20 last year that was very eye opening for many people, even ones who call themselves very liberal. They wired five people so they could monitor brain activity, and they had them look at photos of different people. Everytime a white person saw a black face in the pic's, their brain activity showed signs of increased activity in a section of the brain the monitor good and bad thoughts. Certain patterns in the analsys signal positive thoughts, and certain patterns register negative ones. When done in reverse on a black person(especially elder black men) the same thing happened when blacks saw certain kinds of white faces.

Racism cuts both ways. Some blacks don't understand whites, some whites don't understand blacks. That's natural, culturally they are quite different. However, what bugs me is that neither seems to want to bridge the gap and make an attempt to even try to understand each other. This is the part of America that I think is so backwards, entrenched, and dang stupid.

[Kam]

Are the lives of black people worth less the the lives of whites? I would say no, but according to the media that answer is yes. There is also a gender bias. Did anyone know that there are twice as many men missing right now, than women? We only hear about women, more specifically, pretty young white women missing. This is a shame and a crime.

it is scary. and unfortunate. but currently, according to corporate advertising dollars, it is true. i always found it telling to watch what commercials played during what programs and how you can see the broad strokes painted by advertising dollars (beer during football games, car commercials during evening news, and even further WHICH car commercials do you see during which programs? mercedes/lexus/porsche or hyundai/saturn/etc). the media (overall, all types, including entertainment) is incredibly biased so much so that certain things are almost accepted cliches (it's a 'surprise' and original when the black character isn't the first to die in a horror movie, see Crash (the paul haggis movie) as a good example).
and what makes that link scary, is how many times did someone look it over before they realized something was wrong. it all stems from ignorance, and the solution, an education and acceptance of everyone as human beings first and foremost, is such a simple solution, but an incredibly expensive one for the people who make money on keeping the status quo as the status quo. its the same with terrorism (ignorance, that is) we can hunt down and kill the terrorist and treat the symptoms, but its a lot harder to treat the disease and foster education and learning in the world and eliminate the disease of terrorism and racism and other 'isms' rather than flounder at trying to eliminate each symptom as it pops up. when we get rid of money and religion, the world can finally progress into star trek utopia and then we can all fight those damn klingons (where are you worfster!!?? we'll get you!)

peace (hopefully)
k2
(go 'canes)

[Duds]

I guess thats the point i was trying to make, that it goes both ways, i just dont express myself very well.

I'm glad you didn't take my post the wrong way either

I don't think that Gary's comments are that out of order Duds. There are some issues that blacks don't understand about latino's, some issues that whites don't under blacks, and that is larger why we have racism. There was a experiment on 20/20 last year that was very eye opening for many people, even ones who call themselves very liberal. They wired five people so they could monitor brain activity, and they had them look at photos of different people. Everytime a white person saw a black face in the pic's, their brain activity showed signs of increased activity in a section of the brain the monitor good and bad thoughts. Certain patterns in the analsys signal positive thoughts, and certain patterns register negative ones. When done in reverse on a black person(especially elder black men) the same thing happened when blacks saw certain kinds of white faces.

Racism cuts both ways. Some blacks don't understand whites, some whites don't understand blacks. That's natural, culturally they are quite different. However, what bugs me is that neither seems to want to bridge the gap and make an attempt to even try to understand each other. This is the part of America that I think is so backwards, entrenched, and dang stupid.

[GMichael]

There is plenty of blame to be spread around to all sides. What we need to do is to forget the blame, and most of all, forget the sides. We should all be on the same side. That will never completely happen. But think how much better it would be if we all tried anyhow. It comes easier for some than for others. We'll just have to try harder. Someone has to "take up the slack."

[Sir Terrence the Terrible]

There is plenty of blame to be spread around to all sides. What we need to do is to forget the blame, and most of all, forget the sides. We should all be on the same side. That will never completely happen. But think how much better it would be if we all tried anyhow. It comes easier for some than for others. We'll just have to try harder. Someone has to "take up the slack."

You are absolutely correct G. It seems that no one wants to stick their hand out first though. I am lucky, while most of my family is carribean latino, my grandmother is european white, some cousins are black or mixed black, and I have some white second cousins. I thought the whole world was this multicultural and got along like my family did. Boy was I wrong!

[dean_martin]

Yep, I was just exposed to such an example of this. I couple of weeks ago I went to a continuing legal education seminar that included one of the attorneys who represented Richard Scrushy in the HealthSouth fraud prosecution. The stories that were coming out during the trial suggested that Scrushy's attorneys (the lead defense attorneys were black) were pandering to the black jurors. The stories really seemed bizzare in that Scrushy is white. Then, when the verdict came back "not guilty" the press blamed the "uneducated black jurors" and the pandering. If anyone is interested in this case they can access ALL the government's evidence. Out of over 1 million documents confiscated by the government NOT ONE linked Scrushy to the fraud. During the trial, the prosecution leaked the fact that it had sent in a high-ranking corporate officer with a wire to get admissions from Scrushy on tape. When the tapes were played at trial the conversations revealed that Scrushy was oblivious to the company's books being fixed. Several of the board members were indicted and most were convicted EXCEPT for the guy who the gov't sent in to tape Scrushy. It turned out that this guy was the mastermind behind the fraud. The board members and upper management involved cooked the books to inflate the stock then sold their stock options. Scrushy never sold his. In other words, he never personally profited from the fraud. Scrushy was trying to court a buyer for his company at the time and the board and upper management were fighting him on it because they knew that the potential buyer would come in and examine the books. I found it hard to believe that Scrushy didn't know what was going on until I heard this summary of the evidence that was never reported. There are still editorials with racial overtones in Alabama papers saying that Scrushy should be retried.

[GMichael]

You are absolutely correct G. It seems that no one wants to stick their hand out first though. I am lucky, while most of my family is carribean latino, my grandmother is european white, some cousins are black or mixed black, and I have some white second cousins. I thought the whole world was this multicultural and got along like my family did. Boy was I wrong!

HAHAHA,...

So true. I was lucky that my parents taught me, at an early age, that everyone deserves to be treated as equals. By time I noticed that they didn't always treat people the same, it was too late. I was already set in my ways and didn't fall into their shortcomings.

I am white. About as white as white can be. 10 minutes in the sun and I turn red like a lobster. Must be the German, Irish and Dutch in me. My wife is from the Philippines and is about as dark as dark can be. Those same 10 minutes in the sun for her turn her even darker. We get along fine. All it takes is a little understanding.

Now, how do we get the rest of the world to follow?

[Pyrrho]

I don't think that Gary's comments are that out of order Duds. There are some issues that blacks don't understand about latino's, some issues that whites don't under blacks, and that is larger why we have racism. There was a experiment on 20/20 last year that was very eye opening for many people, even ones who call themselves very liberal. They wired five people so they could monitor brain activity, and they had them look at photos of different people. Everytime a white person saw a black face in the pic's, their brain activity showed signs of increased activity in a section of the brain the monitor good and bad thoughts. Certain patterns in the analsys signal positive thoughts, and certain patterns register negative ones. When done in reverse on a black person(especially elder black men) the same thing happened when blacks saw certain kinds of white faces.

Racism cuts both ways. Some blacks don't understand whites, some whites don't understand blacks. That's natural, culturally they are quite different. However, what bugs me is that neither seems to want to bridge the gap and make an attempt to even try to understand each other. This is the part of America that I think is so backwards, entrenched, and dang stupid.

I think a major source of the problem is the segregation (whether by choice or not) that exists in this country. There is nothing like interacting with people of a different background on a daily basis to see that they really are people like everyone else. (Some good, some not so good, just like people everywhere.) But when people are segregated, their ideas about each other are largely derived from stories they have heard (as they do not have the direct experience needed to come to conclusions on their own). I used to teach, and I have taught in white suburbia and in cities where the students were more integrated. I was quite shocked by the racist statements of students in white suburbia, and NEVER encountered the same kinds of statements from students in the mixed areas. (Just so you know, I am white, and look about as white as could be--very light skin, blue eyes, etc. None of the racist remarks were directed at me.)

Let me be very clear, however, as I do NOT want to give the impression that all white people in suburbia are racist (I am from such a place myself, though I now live in a city, in a portion that is mostly black). But racism can flourish much easier in areas where people do not encounter people of other races in their daily lives.

So, I think this is going to be a problem for a very long time, as many people, being racist, do not want to live next door to one of "them" (whoever the "them" might be).

Oh, and for those who are curious, being a white person in a predominantly black area is mostly fine. Most of my neighbors are quite friendly and nice, as nice as anywhere I have lived. There is a bit of a cultural difference between me and some of my neighbors (though not nearly as many as you might think), largely due, I think, to a difference in education. But it is not really a problem, as I do not pretend to be what I am not, and neither do they. Being different is not bad, and this is something that people should learn.

Another source of the problem is the tendency that people have of lumping groups together instead of judging them as individuals. When they see, for example, one black person do something bad, they often imagine this to be typical of all black people. Imagine, if you will, that YOU were to be blamed for the faults of those who resemble you (racially, culturally, whatever). You obviously would regard this as most unjust (which it would be), and yet many people do this with others all of the time. People say things like, "Black people are...", "Hispanics are...", "White people are...", "The Palestinians are...", "The Israelis are..." [finish the sentences for yourself]. Obviously, NOT all black people are anything (other than black people), NOT all Hispanics are anything (other than Hispanic), NOT all white people are anything (other than white people), etc. But many people, being too lazy to think, lump people together, as it is easy and quick, saving them the trouble of judging individuals on their own merits. Most people can't be bothered with actually THINKING about things. This common tendency is not likely to go away any time soon either.

[piece-it pete]

Hello T!

Sticking to those nice noncontroversial topics, I see .

Plain talk is good, just on its' own.

I've thought about this for years, ever since a black guy asked me why white people were prejudiced. I think what I told him is still largely true:

The average white person is scared of minorities. We overall do not understand the minority viewpoint and/or culture, and fear what we don't understand.

I know this is something of an oversimpification and there are legitimate greivences on all sides. I still believe it to be generally true.

Of course this excludes the haters of all stripes and colors. But these are fortunately in my experience the "minority".

When I gave commercial real estate a crack back around '90 I had some eye opening experiences in the restaurant end. One in particular: A couple of Indians (from India) owned and operated a couple gas stations in upstate NY, and were looking to buy a place to start an Indian style restaurant. One for sale was a Greek restaurant (How many stereotypes are we at already ). I arranged a meeting at the place.

All parties were nice types. The Greek, effusive and friendy, gave everyone whatever they wanted and the discussion started. Like this: "So, you're from India. Boy, you guys can sure run those gas stations and convenience stores!" (I was gaping with my mouth wide open, no kidding) The Indians, one a very solemn Sunni and the other a worldly happy adopted NYC'er, thanked him and said "Yes, we've gotten good at that. I've got to say, you Greeks are great at these restaurants!"

Whoa. All very straightforward and friendly. Since then I've watched and have noticed that overall minorities talk about each other quite openly! This is something whites are not allowed to do - discuss perceived traits of various races openly.

I'm coming back to plain talk. If you ask 10 white people why they don't want XX minority "moving in their neighborhood", 9 of them will say, "W-w-w-well I don't mind". AT LEAST 5 will be lieing.

For the most part it's not because they believe that XX minority is evil. It's because of at least 5 reasons that will never be told because they'll be villified if they say what they actually think.

And even the minorities are afraid of discussing this stuff "on air". How on earth are we supposed to deal with this stuff if we can't even talk about it?

Pete

[kexodusc]

As someone who's lived in 3 different countries I have a different perspective on this. America, Canada, and Germany (I guess France as well - I lived there for a few months, but I'm hardly an expert) all have their share of prejudices, but they differ according to the history of the country/region. In the case of America it's so polarized on the black and white color issue - in Canada it's language, in Germany it's religion, in France well, they've got their dirty laundry too.

In each case of stereotyping originates from some sort of historic truth. Not necessarily "the absolute truth", just the perceived truth (which is often not true at all)...that's how a stereotype works, there's evidence to make it believable, and enough reinforcement to make it general, or universally accepted. Sometimes it's just way too inaccurate to be credible but works anyway. I hear a billion stories about Chinese restaurants. In college, I worked for three different Chinese restaurants, and a few bars and general family restaurants. I can say without hesitation that the Chinese restaurants were the cleanest, most sanitary places I worked in - but they HAD to be...health inspectors were always around, and were very critical. Maybe they have statistical evidence to support it? I don't know, but I was shocked at how long an inspector could take at a small restuarant with 6 tables, and how fast he could burn through a Denny's and overlook the obvious violations.

My bloodlines are Irish/Scottish and Cree(North Dakota Indian)/Metis(French Canadian Indian). 50% white/50% Indian (or Native, we use both terms without hesitation, some do not, I'm not here to start that argument) I've found it amazing how much different I am treated from one country to the next. In Canada, my skin color has been mostly irrelavant, except for the few idiots in a bar fight or whatever...but I've received tons of negative comments for speaking french (which is actually my 2nd language, I don't speak it nearly as much as english). What's worse, when I speak french in Quebec, they answer me in English because I speak "bastardized Canadian French" not pure Quebec French (which again, is different than real France French)...except for Montreal...best city in the world they'll take your money no matter what you sound, look, or smell like.

In the USA its skin-tone. Though for whatever reason I've been at the receiving end of prejudiced remarks from non-whites more than whites in the USA. Except when I was living in Atlanta and I travelled through rural Georgia, but that's another story...

The media rubs me the wrong way too Sir T. The whole damn country does some times, the way native people are presented in school history classes is a joke. My ancestors were killed or bannished (ironically enough by my other ancestors) pretty much for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. But I think that element of American history has been overshadowed by black history. Guess we can only handle one wrongdoing at a time.

My families are probably as bad as anyone for stereotyping...I've just learned to block it out, sometimes there stereotyping from ignorance, which I can forgive - then there's hate, which is much worse. Doesn't matter the culture I think it's just an unfortunate element of human nature. Whenever I get down about it I just do what my grandmother always told me to do - think about how far society has come in just such a short time. I didn't have nearly as bad as she did, forced onto reservations, separated from family, etc. My kids will have it even better.
The last 50 years or so have been revolutionary on many levels. I really think in my heart that things are slowly getting better. Multi-culturalism is new to much of the human race. Previous examples were brought on usually only when one culture was conquered and assimilated by another. It's not going as fast as we'd like, and we've got a lot of hard work left to do, but I think for the most part people are willing. It's just the few idiots that spoil it for the rest of us.

Apparently idiots aspire to work in the media industry.

[piece-it pete]

Would it be inappropriate to post some Tom Lehrer lyrics?

Pete

[GMichael]

And here it's the people who like separates vs. those who like receivers. Where will it end?

[Sir Terrence the Terrible]

Apparently idiots aspire to work in the media industry.

I just started working in television news, and you just don't know how right you are man.

Last year I went to Hawaii for 3 weeks. Stayed in the sun so much that my friends swear I changed races(I can now pass easily for a black male). Before my trip I was never couscious of my skin color. After that trip I noticed that I was treated very differently. We in American have definately forgotten that people are under all of this skin color.

And here it's the people who like separates vs. those who like receivers. Where will it end?

LOLOLOLOLOL, those dang arrogant seperate types, they just don't understand receivers. They have seperated themselves from receivers too long! LOLOLOL

Hello T!

Sticking to those nice noncontroversial topics, I see

Pete, I guess I am so laid back about so many things that these dang noncontroversial topics really piss me off! LOL.

[piece-it pete]

Sir T, everyone, I just wanted to mention that it is AMAZING this thread has been treated so maturely. ANYWHERE, but particularly online, this sort of thing turns into a childish hatefest. My hat is off to you all.

I think discussing dificult topics here has taught us all something.

Pete

[Duds]

I thought this post would be totally out of hand right now. I'm glad it's not though!!!

Sir T, everyone, I just wanted to mention that it is AMAZING this thread has been treated so maturely. ANYWHERE, but particularly online, this sort of thing turns into a childish hatefest. My hat is off to you all.

I think discussing dificult topics here has taught us all something.

Pete

[Resident Loser]

I thought this post would be totally out of hand right now. I'm glad it's not though!!!

...but it's still early...

Personally, I think all looters should be shot on sight regardless of race...but it's not gonna' happen...in fact one of the affected state's constitution prohibits declaring martial law...gee. I wonder if that'll be given a serious re-think?

Now, problem is, here we have two moments in time, devoid of context...were there other photos taken that would have shed more light on the circumstance? Maybe the publishers had more info that supported their particular POV...I dunno' and I admit it...so, I'll reserve (to some degree) any particular verdict on what's what...but(as the other shoe falls) we see one party with a loaf or two of bread and another with a trash bag full of things...again, I have no Kreskin-like powers, so a simple judgement call on my part is uncalled for.

What I have seen is footage of folks looting, in situ, no question about it...the food and perishibles are long gone...so there are tapes showing folks rolling entire display racks of items not really required for survival, grinning and mugging for the camera...they just happen to be black...

What we see are clothing stores, jewelry stores and, most troubling of all, gun stores in the process of being or in an after-the-fact state of having been, looted.

Fires ARE being set in housing projects in predominantly black areas...

Thugs have taken over some minority areas and are raping and robbing at will...

We see a scene of a older black man breaking into tears because he knows what's happening outside the confines of his tenuous shelter which also happens to be in a depressed area...

We see veiled threats of continued violence based on some illogical premise from other residents...

We hear of shots being fired at support helicopters postponing further aid flights...

And so it goes...

Now, I'll be the first to admit that these scum-suckers are a small percentage of the population, but it is(like it or not) a predominantly a black population, so it's a simple case of numbers.

There are people out there being held in check by the thin blue line and folks, as we can plainly see, we are one step from anarchy without them.

Is there a case for bias in the news coverage or is it simply a reflection on what is actually happening?

jimHJJ(...just because we don't like what we see doesn't make it less of the truth...)

[shokhead]

The truth is,as much as it sucks is that racism will be here forever. It wont go away. We cant all get along. I think we are all 1 inch or 1 second from whats going on there without Katrina. Sh$t could hit the fan so dam fast and get out of hand it would make our headfs spin.

[Sir Terrence the Terrible]

...but it's still early...

Personally, I think all looters should be shot on sight regardless of race...but it's not gonna' happen...in fact one of the affected state's constitution prohibits declaring martial law...gee. I wonder if that'll be given a serious re-think?

Now, problem is, here we have two moments in time, devoid of context...were there other photos taken that would have shed more light on the circumstance? Maybe the publishers had more info that supported their particular POV...I dunno' and I admit it...so, I'll reserve (to some degree) any particular verdict on what's what...but(as the other shoe falls) we see one party with a loaf or two of bread and another with a trash bag full of things...again, I have no Kreskin-like powers, so a simple judgement call on my part is uncalled for.

What I have seen is footage of folks looting, in situ, no question about it...the food and perishibles are long gone...so there are tapes showing folks rolling entire display racks of items not really required for survival, grinning and mugging for the camera...they just happen to be black...

What we see are clothing stores, jewelry stores and, most troubling of all, gun stores in the process of being or in an after-the-fact state of having been, looted.

Fires ARE being set in housing projects in predominantly black areas...

Thugs have taken over some minority areas and are raping and robbing at will...

We see a scene of a older black man breaking into tears because he knows what's happening outside the confines of his tenuous shelter which also happens to be in a depressed area...

We see veiled threats of continued violence based on some illogical premise from other residents...

We hear of shots being fired at support helicopters postponing further aid flights...

And so it goes...

Now, I'll be the first to admit that these scum-suckers are a small percentage of the population, but it is(like it or not) a predominantly a black population, so it's a simple case of numbers.

There are people out there being held in check by the thin blue line and folks, as we can plainly see, we are one step from anarchy without them.

Is there a case for bias in the news coverage or is it simply a reflection on what is actually happening?

jimHJJ(...just because we don't like what we see doesn't make it less of the truth...)

Well, there goes the thread. And I am not surprised either. I wouldn't expect this(you fill in the blank) to have one shred of sympathy for a poor black person left behind and abandoned with no food, water, or electricity. All this(you fill in the blanks) can find to do is point out the negative that a minority of the population is doing. God forbid nothing happens to you while you live in your ivory tower.

[markw]

First off, I think he term "looting" should be reserved for those "liberating" non- essential items such as electronics, jewelery and other non life sustaining, non perishable items. I'd put in armloads of sneakers with this also along with many other items.

Life sustaining items such as food, medicine and the like (and, in this day and age, pampers) should not be included in that category. I'd suggest a new phrase such as maintainng eone's existance, but the media seems to be in love with looting.

...which segues into the next area... the media. Remember, the press that is a business out to sell a product and make money, not a public service. Remember also that it's a "free" press, not under any legal obligation to be fair and unbiased.

I honestly believer that the media plays a large role in the polarization of races in this country. Sensationalism sells and, let's face it, nothing sells more than something that tugs at our emotions. And, one of the easiest emotons to trigger is hate. Show people something they can get worked up about and give them someone to blame and you've got a sale. How many warm, fuzzy stories warrant a front page splash?

Right now, since most of NO is poor and black, it's easy to play the race card and say that help was denied because they are poor and black. They totally seem to ignore that most of the city is well below sea level and depends on man made levees for it's existance, multiple warnings were given by both the local and national officials, (80% of the city DID act on them and boogied), why the local government didn't move the now flooded school bus's to high ground, much less pressed into service evacuating needy)

But, it's easy to play the race card when most of the victims just happen to be black and the current adimnistration is an easy target. ...totally ignoring that nature can be a real mother-(shut yo mouth!) when it wants to be and that this may be the worst natural catastrophy to ever hit this country. The logistics involved here are staggering ... and the people shooting the rescurers don't exactly help the racial issue, either.

The media loves to play up the race situation, as it it's not always lurkng beneath the surfacs and, I truly believe, that most of us are trying to bury it deeper and deeper with each succeeding generation.

Oh, I'm lily white and burn merely looking at the sun. My wife is Brasilian and when going to her family's functions (in Newark), every color in the book is represented. ...and they make killer caipirinhas.

[trollgirl]

I'm glad I did not leave AR entirely. I have spent a lot of time at that other site, and found it to have zero tolerance for candid opinions. I just had two threAds locKed down, and one of them within SECONDS of my posting it. How the hell do they do that? Anyway, I've quit 'em, and you'll just have to keep putting up with Laz for a long time...

On the subject at hand, I read a piece on the web today which used terms like "insurgents" and described the city as "a little Somalia". Seems american troops are being deployed in New Orleans with a combat mindset. Granted, there are some baddies running loose, but this turn of events disturbs me deeply.

If you give to the relief effort, give to the Salvation Army, not the American Red Cross. I buy that opinion at a price.

Laz

PS I won't name them, but I've left a hint in caps, above...

[shokhead]

A combat mindset is just what you need with snipers and such not afraid to fire.

[Sir Terrence the Terrible]

A combat mindset is just what you need with snipers and such not afraid to fire.

Actually this is the last thing they need. Imagine having a hurricane hit you, your flooded out, barely escaped with your life, your starving, dehydrated, poor, and no way to get out. Imagine being sick, can't walk, need medication, water is all around you, and its toxic to you. You have been through all of this and haven't had anything to eat in four or five days. Only the poor and desolate were left in New Oleans, a small part were gang members, but the majority just happened to be just average, ordinary poor folks. What happen down there should not have happen at all. What a tragety, what a travesty.

[Woochifer]

Sad part about all this is that I don't even think that the reporters and editors are even aware of the double standards that exist. The AP is one of the more responsible news gathering organizations out there with very high verification standards on their reporting, so it's disheartening to see stuff like this fall through the cracks at their end. This is not like the cable news channels and talk radio where irresponsible and inflammatory reporting are part of the way they operate.

Just so you know Kanye West talked about this exact issue during NBC's hurricane relief concert on Friday. (Other remarks got cut out by the network censors for the west coast rebroadcast.)

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationwo...home-headlines

Because he is widely seen by critics and industry tastemakers as an influential spokesman for the American black experience, you could feel the strain of his attempt to fulfill that role — to step beyond the generic comments of other celebrities Friday to reflect on the horror being experienced by the flood victims.

You could disagree with his views, but you couldn't deny his passion.

"I hate the way they portray us in the media," West began his remarks during the hourlong program, on which he was one of several celebrities, including Hilary Swank and Leonardo DiCaprio, who spoke between musical numbers. "If you see a black family, it says they're looting. See a white family, it says they're looking for food."