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The Value Of An Apology, At Least From A Republican's Perspective!!
On Thu, 8 Oct 2009 18:08:09 +1100, "DRS"
wrote: "tony cooper" wrote in message [...] Chris's comment was that Fox News reported that there were black looters and white vigilantes keeping the peace. I flat-out don't believe this. I think Chris is making up an example out of whole cloth. [...] A Google search on "fox vigilantes looters 'new orleans'" gets nearly 4,500 hits. The general thrust is that Fox more than any other station pushed the line that in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina the mainly black population of New Orleans descended into an orgy of looting and violence that justified a strong police/military response (for example, http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,168269,00.html). It followed this up with a "documentary" series on post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans called K-ville that glamourised the New Orleans police as some kind of thin blue line in an outlaw city when in reality it is notorious for its corruption, racism and inefficiency (for example, http://www.counterpunch.org/flaherty09152007.html). If anything, the role of white vigilantes killing black men was underplayed by the media, especially by Fox. The full and disturbing account was compiled by crime journalist A.C. Thompson of the Nation. His full article and and interview about how it came to be can be found at http://www.alternet.org/story/114286...rina_flooding/. The major points I found in only a few minutes search were that: 1. Fox pushed the demonisation of the black population of New Orleans by exaggerating the extent of the violence and looting; 2. The media generally underplayed the actions of white vigilantes and the refusal of the NOPD to investigate these crimes; 3. The implication is that the media, with Fox leading the way, played upon racial stereotypes that distorted the reporting of the facts. Now, I don't want to get buried in the details of this particular argument, but I do want to suggest some of you might want to think about short-circuiting these endless he-said/she-said subthreads by doing some homework, especially on things that are easily checked. Who knows, people might end up learning something. I would like to suggest that you might want to think about reading the posts I've made and addressing what I've said and not what you seem to think I've said. I've made no comments about Fox's handing of the Katrina aftermath conditions. I haven't maintained that Fox did or did not demonize the black population. I haven't maintained that any reporting agency presented biased or unbiased stories. I haven't maintained that Fox did or did not play on racial stereotyping. I haven't commented on any of that. What I objected to was Chris's comment "I recall during the floods in New Orleans there was a comment that there were gangs of black criminals looting and white vigilantes trying to keep the peace and get supplies for people." He used this as a example of words used on Fox programming to portray a "different scene". I don't believe he heard that. I believe that he made it up. I do not believe that any journalist on any station or with any news medium would use "vigilante" as a positive comparison to the negative "looters". Making claims that he can't support by providing a cite is bad, but making up quotes to support a claim is worse. -- Tony Cooper - Orlando, Florida |
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The Value Of An Apology, At Least From A Republican's Perspective!!
"tony cooper" wrote in message
On Thu, 8 Oct 2009 18:08:09 +1100, "DRS" wrote: [...] Now, I don't want to get buried in the details of this particular argument, but I do want to suggest some of you might want to think about short-circuiting these endless he-said/she-said subthreads by doing some homework, especially on things that are easily checked. Who knows, people might end up learning something. I would like to suggest that you might want to think about reading the posts I've made and addressing what I've said and not what you seem to think I've said. I've made no comments about Fox's handing of the Katrina aftermath conditions. I haven't maintained that Fox did or did not demonize the black population. I haven't maintained that any reporting agency presented biased or unbiased stories. I haven't maintained that Fox did or did not play on racial stereotyping. I haven't commented on any of that. True. What I objected to was Chris's comment "I recall during the floods in New Orleans there was a comment that there were gangs of black criminals looting and white vigilantes trying to keep the peace and get supplies for people." He used this as a example of words used on Fox programming to portray a "different scene". True. I don't believe he heard that. I believe that he made it up. This is where people (I'm not picking on you particularly) slip into the endless he said/she said subthreads that go nowhere. What I showed was a context of natural disaster, media demonisation of the black population and largely under-reported white vigilantiism in which it is easy for memory to make errors or conflate elements of different stories. The way out of these endlessly repetitive threads that establish nothing is to do some homework. I do not believe that any journalist on any station or with any news medium would use "vigilante" as a positive comparison to the negative "looters". Had you checked the first link I gave you'd have found anecdotal evidence in the first paragraph to support your claim: "Thousands of National Guardsmen and women armed with food, water and weapons streamed into the hurricane-ravaged New Orleans on Friday to bring relief to the suffering and take back the streets from the looters and armed vigilantes." Making claims that he can't support by providing a cite is bad, but making up quotes to support a claim is worse. Maybe he made it up, maybe he made an error, maybe it's true and it's on YouTube. I don't know. But for heaven's sake, let's all please move on. Somewhere. Anywhere. |
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