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13 Responses to “Sunday open thread”

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1. Sister Toldjah says:

   May 20, 2007 at 11:25 am

   Moved from another thread to this open thread. –ST

   ST wrote about the Christian-Newsom murders about a week ago, pointing out the media double standards in covering the case. Apparently, the criticism from ST and other bloggers hit a sensitive spot. Today, I finally picked up a newspaper and read about the case.

   Well, sort of. It’s not really about the murders. It’s about how the blogosphere is picking on the poor MSM over the case. AP reporter Duncan Mansfield goes all out here to cast the blogs in a bad light. What he actually does is prove ST’s point about the MSM.

   Check this out:

   In a powerful demonstration of the way the Internet has opened up the mainstream media to intensive second-guessing, bloggers are charging that news outlets have ignored the rape and murder of a young Knoxville couple because of the racial implications of the story.

   The two victims were white; the five defendants are black.

   The critics include mainstream conservatives, such as the National Review, and white supremacists.

   First, the guilt-by-association card. You don’t like the way the MSM has buried the story? Ah – you agree with the Klan!!! You must be a bigot!!

   They have drawn comparisons to the Duke lacrosse rape case and wondered why the killings of Channon Christian, a 21-year-old University of Tennessee student, and her 23-year-old boyfriend Christopher Newsom are not getting the same attention from what the bloggers regard sneeringly as the liberal media.

   Forget the fact that the national mediots themselves admit they vote something like 88% Democrat. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. And stop “sneering”.

   But Mansfield doesn’t stop there:

   It was bloggers who undermined CBS anchorman Dan Rather’s 2004 report about President Bush’s National Guard service, digging up evidence that the documents may have been forgeries.

   Undermined a report and showing the documents may have been forgeries?? Now there’s a loaded phrase – hints that the bloggers were up to no good. A more accurate wording would have been “exposed the fraud”.

   But that isn’t all the evil bloggers have done:

   The next year, CNN chief Eason Jordan resigned after bloggers jumped all over him for supposedly saying that some journalists killed in Iraq by the U.S. military had been targeted.

   Supposedly?? No, he was caught on tape, saying exactly that. No ’supposedly’ about it.

   Satisfied that he’s established that the blogosphere is up to no good, Mansfield goes into CYA mode:

   Local media in Knoxville have covered developments in the carjacking case since the bodies were found, and The Associated Press ran stories that were transmitted nationally. But the killings have received scant attention from other media outlets.

   Well, hooray for the AP. But….I did a search and found one previous AP story on it, back on January 12. And CBS actually did carry that. But nothing on AP or any other national outlet since then until this story. Now maybe Duncan Masnfield might want to compare how many Duke lacrosse case stories AP churned out just in the 4 months following the non-incident, and compare with the one, solitary story on the fate of Channon Christian and Chris Newsom.

   But wait….there’s more:

   “The Internet has been basically chastising the mainstream media now, it seems, since the Internet opened up,” said Aly Colon at the Poynter Institute, a journalism think tank in St. Petersburg, Fla.

   “I mean, as soon as somebody had an electronic Internet megaphone, the opportunity to throw brickbats at the media just got amplified from the backyard-over-the-fence to an e-mail or a blog. That isn’t necessarily new, but I think what you are witnessing may be is an increasing amount of that taking place.”

   Well, as Malkin might say, boo-freakin’-hoo. Notice how Colon steers clear of the idea of accountability of the mediots. It’s just those mean old bloggers with an axe to grind picking on the poor journalists.

   Some Internet postings have suggested the killings should be treated as a hate crime. But Police Chief Sterling Owen said: “We have no evidence to support the notion that this was a race-based crime. We see this as a cold-blooded murder.”

   Similarly, claims made over the Internet that the couple were sexually mutilated are “absolutely not true,” John Gill, special assistant to District Attorney Randy Nichols, said Friday.

   In other words, the bloggers are wrong!!! Don’t believe them! Like the MSM, you’re supposed to pretend this crime never happened.

   Then Mansfield comes full circle with ugly insinuations:

   Christian’s father, Gary Christian, wore a Confederate flag T-shirt to the first hearing for one of the defendants and then pointed at the man as if firing a gun. But family lawyer Joe Costner said Channon Christian’s parents have repeatedly said they do not believe their daughter’s killing was race-related.

   So if you think this was a horrific crime and newsworthy, you not only agree with the Klan, but you oughta be fitted for your own Confederate flag T-shirt. Excuse me, but exactly what relevance does the T-shirt have to the issue of why the MSM buried the story?

   As if this lame excuse for a story wasn’t bad enough, there’s one more reason why its very existence proves ST’s point.

   I said I read this piece first in the print media, and it’s the first I’ve seen in print about this case. Now I live in southern NJ, in the Philly suburbs. We get tons of major print media every day. If there’s a major story, it ought to show up somewhere in there.

   So did I see it in the NY Times? Nope. I searched their archives; they’ve never touched the story, including Mansfield’s piece today.

   How about the Philadelphia Inquirer or Daily News? Nope. Strike two and strike three. Neither of those two MSM stalwarts have written a word on it. Searching their web site turned up nada.

   So where did I see it?

   The Japan Times.

   I’ve been in Asia giving a series of seminars for the last 10 days and arrived in Tokyo last night. And I read this in Sunday morning’s Japan Times.

   ST’s point was that the MSM is failing to cover the story. And if I weren’t in Tokyo, I still wouldn’t have seen anything about it in print.

   And that, I think, proves ST’s point no matter what MSM apologists claim. Thanks for the assist, Duncan.

   Comment by Great White Rat @ 5/20/2007 – 9:14 am
2. Sister Toldjah says:

   May 20, 2007 at 11:28 am

   Good catch on the article, GWR – it’s almost as though the writer is trying the victims in the crime, and not the actual criminals, and painting critics of media coverage as in bed with white supremacists. Why am I not surprised? He sounds like one of those lawyers who will say anything to get their clients freed.
3. Ryan says:

   May 20, 2007 at 11:51 am

   When the MSN gets caught, what do they do? Lash out at those who caught them. They are the elite. How dare some “blogger” call them on something! You know, if they feel this way, why bother allowing “letters to the editor” or any correspondence with them whatsoever. Clearly we are just stupid and they know what’s important in our lives.
4. ferrarimanf355 says:

   May 20, 2007 at 6:26 pm

   I’m rooting for these guys:
   LINK
5. Sister Toldjah says:

   May 20, 2007 at 8:11 pm

   Now that’s a shocker.
6. forest hunter says:

   May 20, 2007 at 8:47 pm

   GWR: Are you still here (Tokyo)? Or were you just passing through the terminal?
7. NC Cop says:

   May 20, 2007 at 8:54 pm

   The critics include mainstream conservatives, such as the National Review, and white supremacists.

   I remember reading that article with this line in it the other day. I couldn’t help but laugh. Remember, there’s no media bias.

   Can you imagine if it had read “The critics include mainstream liberals and communists.”??

   Priceless.
8. Great White Rat says:

   May 21, 2007 at 3:54 am

   forest, I’m in town through Wednesday night. I catch a train for Osaka for a short trip, then pop back to Tokyo on Thursday night. Then I’m here until Sunday afternoon when I fly back to Newark.
9. Great White Rat says:

   May 21, 2007 at 4:00 am

   NC Cop, you got it. That’s exactly my point. When the communists and libs are on the same side, you’re never supposed to notice it.

   Or…to take a more recent example…when the Democrats and al Qaeda are on the same side. Such as on abandoning Iraq. Can you picture any AP article with a line like this:

   “Opponents of the administrations Iraq policy, including Democrats and al Qaeda, once again criticized plans for the surge.”

   If you saw that, it would be the definitive flying pig moment.
10. Drewsmom says:

    May 21, 2007 at 6:24 am

    This was a HATE CRIME, where is the rev al and jessah jackson on this crime, nowhere to be found as usual and the msm is covering this one up big time.
    They get worse every single day, amazing.!!!!!
11. forest hunter says:

    May 21, 2007 at 8:07 am

    GWR: If you’re so inclined and you have a number I can reach you at, email me.
12. Great White Rat says:

    May 21, 2007 at 8:22 am

    Forest, sounds good, but I don’t have your Email.

    ST, since you know both, could you either send me forest’s Email, or send him mine? Much appreciated if you can.
13. Sister Toldjah says:

    May 21, 2007 at 8:45 am

    Just sent to you both, G-Monster

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