On 7/26/2013 8:31 AM, Kurt Ullman wrote:
In article ,
"Robert Green" wrote:


in flames. It saddens and worries me that now starving small local papers
just can't afford to maintain a remote bureau covering state news and so it
goes largely uncovered nowadays and that's not a good thing.


Heck I live in Indy where the state news IS home town news and I share
your concerns....

I am watching the effing History Channel now and it's all about Civil War
ghosts. I'd say that's proof we can't afford to dumb down the news for
people with IQ's on a par with my dog's. If they can't undestand that "he's
black" is just a description and not a racist comment, they need to smarten
up. The news doesn't need to dumb down. That way lies madness.
Actually in this case, it was the people who are supposed to smart
(Jackson, Sharpton, etc.) that were trying to make it into a racist
comment. I am less concerned about not slapping down the Great Unwashed
than those who are considered leaders.


It worries me that because the trend is now to get two talking heads
explaining a news event from each side, that we end up with a segment where
the Florida AG is paired with Rev. Al Sharpton as if somehow the two had
equal credentials. Watch for it and you'll see it happening time and time
again. Senator Bob Dole v. the head of some weenie home schooling
coalition.
That is more continued laziness on the part of the networks and
others.

But I *don't* worry that some news consumers are so ignorant about news
gathering that they read racism into things that aren't racist. To me, GZ's
"these assholes always get away" is far more damning than "he's black." But
neither means very much in terms of racism. It more clearly points to a
guy, concerned with a rash of burglaries in his community that he felt the
cops were not paying enough attention to, and I think that's a correct
reading. Cops don't care much about B&E's and never did.

Again it isn't the news organization initial response that is of (as
great) concern. It is letting the idiocy hang out there unassailed. THAT
is where the real breakdown occurs (and this is hardly the only time and
hardly attibutable to time pressures or the chaos of breaking news.

Let's turn this around. What else *could* he have said to describe TM well
enough so that a responding cop might be able to ID him? "He has horns?"
"He was flying through the air?" "He smells funny?" "He's wet?" "He's
carrying ice tea?"
Which is a question that should have been asked (in some form..maybe
not QUITE that blatantly) of Sharpton, et al. (Actually the fact that
Sharpton isn't roommates with David Duke at the Home for the Terminally
Inane, I view as one the press' greatest failures.)


If "he's black" made some people throw a hissy-fit that's too bad, so sad.
They're idiots. The world's chock-full of them and it's *their* job to get
educated. You're almost sounding as if you expect the news media to be
nannies and lead these dopes by the hand to more intelligent conclusions
than they ones the seem able to reach with their own brainpower. That
doesn't sound like a true conservative to me. (-:
But the idiots that the press at best condones and at worst actually
enables is where my panties get in a wad. I have some minor concerns
about the original reporting, but the REAL problem with coverage was the
studiously ignoring of the fanning of the flames, not by idiots, but by
well-known people.


People seem to forget that Travon didn't live in that neighborhood. He
lived in Miami and was just visiting his Fathers girlfriend. Therefore
Zimmerman didn't recognize him.