Millions of people in this country are still relying solely on the mainstream media for their information. Wether it be, USA Today, the New York Times, or ABC News, people have a tendency to flock to the “respected” names in news to read up on what’s happening in our country. For the “big” stories, those news outlets do not disappoint, inundating us with so much information it is almost overwhelming.
For example, on June 7, 1998 James Byrd Jr. was hitchhiking in Jasper, Texas when John William King, Lawrence Russell Brewer Jr. and Shawn Berry spotted him. The three white men chained Byrd, who is African American, to the back of their pickup and dragged him for miles. When Byrd’s decapitated body was found the next morning, nationwide outrage ensued and the media did their best to keep the public abreast to what was going on in Jasper. In the 5 months after Byrd’s murder, the NY Times ran 31 stories mentioning Byrd’s name, while USA Today ran 23. Truly an excellent job of reporting.
Now the question has arisen though, are all crimes created equal? If you were to do a search at the New York Times for the name Channon Christian or Christopher Newsom, you would return 0 results. The reason this is relevant is because Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom were a young white couple (aged 21 and 23 respectively), who were brutally raped and murdered by 4 black men back in January.
The crime started as a carjacking, then escalated to much worse. According to the grand jury presentment Christian was raped vaginally, orally, and anally, and Newsom was raped anally. Within a few hours, Newsom was shot, his body wrapped in bedding, set afire and dumped alongside nearby railroad tracks. Christian remained alive for several more hours. She was raped and strangled, and her body was discarded in a trashcan.
Kidnapping, sexual assault, murder, 46 charges in total listed in the 24 page indictment, and not so much as a paragraph from the New York Times or USA Today. This has led to plenty of speculation from conservatives as to the media’s selection of what is ‘newsworthy’. Michelle Malkin had this to say:
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Bill White
Personal attacks are not allowed? LOL Pitts has received hundreds of phone calls, had people stalk him outside his home, and been forced to take an extended road trip for his own safety.
You are not the arbiters of what is and is not allowed. LOL
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--- "Wilson, Dave - Miami" xxxxxxmiamiherald.com wrote:
> Mr. Bill White:
>
> Sir, I have to strongly protest the forum posting on
> your website --
> http://www.overthrow.com/lsn/news.asp?articleID=10433
> -- that encourages the harassment of Miami Herald
> columnist Leonard Pitts and his family. You, your
> members or your contributors may disagree with what
> Mr. Pitts writes, but it doesn't license harassment.
> This posting also appears on a Yahoo! news group
> that is affiliated with your organization.
>
> Please remove the personal information about Mr.
> Pitts from these postings immediately.
>
> Thank you for your attention in this matter.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Dave Wilson
> Managing Editor/News
>
> The Miami Herald
> 1 Herald Plaza
> Miami, FL 33132-1693
> xxxxxxxxxmiamiherald.com
Dear Mr Wilson:
We have no intention of removing Mr Pitts' personal information.
Frankly, if some loony took the info and killed him, I wouldn't shed a tear.
That also goes for your whole news room.
Bill White, Commander
American National Socialist Workers Party
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(personal information removed by Politics Editor)
2 - Dave Nalle
Ok, we're all into free speech and everything here, but posting the home address and phone number of a reporter so people can harass him is definitely outside of the comments policy and I'm filling in for CR on fixing it since it's 5am over in Spain. I don't think anyone will object.
Even Nazis have the follow the rules, Bill.
Dave
3 - Michael J. West
To Leonard J. Pitts Jr., I truly wish to cry you a river. Not because I feel “victimized” or “oppressed”, but because you do. Only in America can a nationally syndicated columnist, who has won the Pulitzer Prize claim oppression.
Of course, if Comment #1 is any indication, Pitts IS victimized and oppressed.
Wow. That was the fastest-debunked article I ever saw.
4 - Dave Nalle
Well, it does help when a self-admitted nazi comes by and harasses him right here on the spot.
Dave
5 - zingzing
i wonder if the dragging and decapitation had anything to do with the "newsworthyness" of the byrd story.
i mean, people get raped and murdered everyday. not to demean the dead, but it's an everyday event. black people murder white people, white people murder black people, people get raped by all sorts at all times of day in all sorts of ways. it's horribly normal.
just because the national press doesn't pick up a story of murder doesn't mean it's some racial agenda. for the national press to pick up on it, it has to be someone famous or it has to be a particularily strange crime.
sounds like hollow bitching to me.
but the nazi thing was funny.
6 - Charles
Zing Zing,
you say "for the national press to pick up on it, it has to be someone famous or it has to be a particularily strange crime."
Why then was the Duke rape case such a broadly publicized crime? Do you think a stripper being raped is unsual???
7 - zingzing
nope, but it was duke players, and everybody looks for a reason to hate duke. it is nice to see them fall. (even though they got out of it.)
8 - zingzing
athletes fit into the "celebrity" clause. and duke althletes are mega-celebrity status.
9 - Nancy
It was rich, spoiled, privileged frat jocks - society, if you will, of whatever color - & the prosecutor made sure it was noised about, for his own reasons. That's why it got as much attention as it did. They probably would have had as much ballyhoo if they'd all been rich, spoiled, privileged black frat jocks. It seems to me there's plenty of hoo-ha whenever some black athlete does something naughty, no? I think Zing has it right: it's the degree of uniqueness of the crime. Kill your grandma with a gun - ho-hum; kill your grandma with a gun, then cook & eat her: now THAT is news!
10 - Zedd
Charles,
The abuse of Blacks in the South is something that this country has worked hard to rid itself of. It is one of the pure evils that have been perpetuated by this country (not individuals). The nation is healing slowly and painfully from this illness. We are however trying to heal.
Murderous crime by individuals has taken place since Cain and Abel. Is horrific but it is not news. Were the Black men adequately sentenced?
The news was not the murder of this man. The story was that of Southern white men taking a Black man for one of those "rides". Let us congratulate ourselves as a nation that we will not sit silently when such things happen. Its only been 35yrs since we said "NO" to overt racism in our society. We still need to make the message clear that we meant "NO".
That story was a good thing for America. The frenzy said something wonderful about who we've become because before, we were accomplices to pure evil!
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Now as for counting the number of murders that get reported in the news by race of victim, lets not go there.
Considering that huge disparity, some may say you ARE whining. Its not time to complain yet Charles. But oh I look forward to the day when everything is equal enough for you to have a legitimate reason to whine.
11 - Zedd
On the Duke thing, I didn't buy the racial element as something that needed to be highlighted. I did understand that most Black female victims are ignored and there is a long standing history of that and the goal of that stripper's (eye roll) supporters was not to let that happen, understandably. However they needed to wait and determine what sort of character she had. I just didn't like the HUGE hype over the stripper. Something seemed off about the attention being given to that particular situation.
I also acknowledge that Black athletes who are accused by White women of doing the same things ALSO get eliminated, highly.
Mike Tyson and that young beauty contestant (Black) were a matter of national news too.
That woman (the stripper) was wrong and should be highly prosecuted and jailed for what she did to those collage students and their families. She was a gold digger and a user.
Now back to reason.... The history of wrongful accusations of rape by race, suggests that White males are not YET in the victim category. Its waaaaaaaaaaay too early to complain. Again, a few years back people were being killed for whistling at a White woman. Men hung on trees because of wishful flirtations (let alone rapes); peoples brother's and sisters who live today with that pain and the perpetrators never getting hauled in for a single question.
I don't know, perhaps the author is whining prematurely. People are screw ups. Just wait a while, you'll get your chance to whine legitimately if you must. But do wait. Its waaaaaaaaaaaaay too early.
12 - Billybob
It's to bad Leonard J. Arm Pitts Jr was not chained to the truck instead of Byrd. As the saying goes. YOU CAN TAKE THE NIGGER OUT OF THE JUNGLE BUT YOU CANT TAKE THE JUNGLE OUT OF THE NIGGER. Senator Byrd Democrap 1976
13 - zingzing
aren't you just a peach?
14 - RJ
"[O]n June 7, 1998 James Byrd Jr. was hitchhiking in Jasper, Texas when John William King, Lawrence Russell Brewer Jr. and Shawn Berry spotted him. The three white men chained Byrd, who is African American, to the back of their pickup and dragged him for miles."
Interesting anecdote you won't find in the MSM:
John William King was not born a racist murderer. He became one in prison. Here's why:
"King had previously been gang-raped in prison by black prisoners and, although he had no previous record of racism, had joined a white-supremacist prison gang, allegedly for self-protection."
I doubt his rapists' names will ever be known, nor will they be charged with any additional crimes, "hate" crimes or otherwise. But they were at least in part responsible for King's subsequent hate crime.
The more you know...
15 - Dr Dreadful
Ignore Billybob, zing. It's just our resident agent provocateur, sr, under one of his many aliases.
16 - RJ
Interesting crime stats:
But on the other hand, when overall cross-racial violent crimes are tabulated"including incidents not formally classified as racially motivated hate crimes"Justice Department statistics show that blacks attack whites far more often than whites attack blacks.
In 2005, there were more than 645,000 victims of cross-racial violent crimes between blacks and whites in the U.S. In 90 percent of those crimes, black offenders attacked white victims.
Cry me a river, indeed...
17 - Zedd
What jungle?
You know that Africa has deserts, snow capped areas, plains, coastal living, rain forests?
Where most "niggers" (eye roll) come from is a Savannah. That would be a plains region and off course coastal living.
What jungle are you talking about in this day and age of googling and instant access to knowledge and information?
ANYWAY....Don't say that anymore. You sound uneducated, low class and bitter because of it like a lot of extreme racist. Be a cool racist. Read and learn about the people that you choose to pick on and hate.
Try another post. I'll critique it for you.
18 - Zedd
RJ
Lets do your stats over time. Mmmmmmm how about overall, since our nation's conception. That should give us a good picture.
Cry me a river indeed.
Actually if we could look up those stats, we would have an explanation for your stats. That old noggin exists for a reason. Lets use it.
19 - RJ
Zedd:
So...because Whites did bad things to Blacks in one part of the country 50 or 200 years ago (all before I was born, and most of these victims were born), that excuses the rampant Black-on-White violent crime that is occurring today?
Is that your argument?
20 - Zedd
RJ
I don't think you have the acumen to conduct a lucid discussion with me on this or any other serious topic and I don't care to educate you today.
I would be simply playing with you like my dog plays with a dying fly knowing full well that you don't stand a chance. The entire time I would be debating whether to pounce or to let you think that you have a chance. I would lazily respond to you without making an effort at profundity :o) or any real amount of endeavor. Your comment tells me that you are stuck. You don't get it YET. You reside in an ancient world where everything was mysterious and simple cause an affect was a foreign concept. People are still complicated and wondrous in your eyes. You believe in greatness and the super heroes of time; ideas inferior to divining and bone throwing.
Sorry kid, I don't feel like playing today.
21 - Dave Nalle
Where most "niggers" (eye roll) come from is a Savannah. That would be a plains region and off course coastal living.
No, it's an old seaport in Georgia.
Dave
22 - Nancy
It's always amusing to see what people are misinformed about, geographically. Billybob/sr thinks Africa has jungles (it does, but very few). I remember how astonished I was to see photos proving that Texas has trees. I thought it was just full of cactus, sagebrush, & oil derricks, lol. From what I've seen lately, Africa is mainly full of deserts & huge cities. And oil derricks.
23 - Dr Dreadful
A lot of my fellow Brits seem to think California is just one huge beach. They should see the bit I live in...
24 - Billybob
Zedd, you are correct. I should have said you can take the African out of Africa but you cant take Savannah Georgia out of the African. I appreciate the comparison to sr however he has a vast intellect and I have a fifth grade education. Thanks for the compliment anyway.
25 - Zedd
Nancy, Doc
When we were coming here in the early 70's the kids in my neighborhood asked how we were going to get to America since its up in the clouds I suppose close to heaven). Some who thought themselves to be wiser would tell us that there was tons of money on the ground. All you had to do was just pick it up. My parents had been here a number of times so we knew better. We took an ocean liner as opposed to a plane so they couldn't figure out how a ship would get up to the clouds because America was supposed to be up there and so wondrous.
There was I believe a hurricane at our destination so we ended up coming into Mobile Alabama. The port at that time was atrocious. My Dad had made sure that we wear our red, white and blue sailor dresses on arrival day. When we got up to the deck ands saw muddy water, it was a HUGE let down. We had left out of Durban, a beautiful beach and coastal area and large cosmopolitan city. Mobile was so sad and vacant looking. I thought I was in a bad dream. I had never seen a frame house and those that we saw were leaning with the paint chipped off. I could not believe that this was America.
We ended up having to get on a Greyhound because of the unexpected detour and boy the surprises just kept coming. My Dad was thrilled with all of the oddities and loved the flavor of it all. We were used to Johannesburg and travel along the highway being manicured with topiary and flower creations (massive clocks, or animal shapes designed with thousands of flowers). Even the countryside that we had seen was green and mountainous. Post card pristine looking from afar. We had deflated and amassed a great deal of anxiety about our future by the time we got to our destination.
What shocked us more is people thinking that we came from poverty and a Tarzan existence. That gave us a twilight zone existence which lasted for decades. We'd be asked if we got our clothes when we arrived.... sigh. When we were children at home, we had no idea that Tarzan was supposed to be in Africa :o) I thought it was India because of the missionary "stories" at church of poor almost naked people there :o). You don't even want to know the picture of China that I had. Off course the only animals we had seen were at the zoo so we had no idea... CLUELESS much like Billybob I suppose.
So yep, talk about misconceptions.