Excellent advice to the media on how to avoid another Ferguson
Wouldn’t it be nice if the media would take this advice from Robert Tracinski to heart?:
1. It’s not a story until there are facts (and claims aren’t facts)…
2. Forensics is a science…
3. People are individuals, not symbols…
4. Legal procedures and privileges exist for a reason…
5. You are not the story…
Those five points are just the rough outline; you have to read the whole thing to get the full flavor of this excellent article.
Only problem is—and it’s a biggee—the media doesn’t want to avoid another Ferguson. They love the Ferguson story, the Trayvon Martin story, and the Rodney King story of yore. If such stories don’t emerge naturally, the media will create them, not avoid them. The media errors that Tracinski lists in his article are not really errors at all, they are purposeful propaganda techniques and rabble-rousing, combined with a not-immoderate degree of MSM self-puffery.
The Marxists love these stories too. Same folks as in the media essentially. I can see the Destroyer in Chief yelling burn this ****** down in the Oval Office, and delighting in the unrest and festering divisions and outright tribalism. The Left doesn’t care who destroys us, they are convinced that it will be they that own the resulting world. The fools don’t realize that there are plenty of suitors for the smoldering spoils.
Really. The advice presumes good intent which means Tracinski is either an idiot or a liar or both.
There is not a 4th option for him.
I was on a grand jury that considered the case of a media frenzy over 6 white cops executing an unarmed black man in New Orleans.
We reviewed the evidence and found that the six white cops were two black men, one black woman, two Hispanic men, and one Native American. and the unarmed dead guy was pointing a loaded .38 revolver at them.
So we returned a No True Bill which means no indictment.
There was such rage at us that the grand jury was disbanded, the open container law the dead guy was originally stopped for was repealed, and the way grand juries were selected was changed.
The meme of you don’t understand because of “white privilege” seems to be reaching a new fervor. The scariest thing of all is the number of whites who have a case of Racial Stockholm Syndrome. I was told to no longer comment on a leftist friend of several friends FB page after seriously challenging the poor little oppressed people meme and pointing out a few oppressions of whites historically and the sins of some non-white groups. The friend is now pushing a meme of Jesus looked a lot like Michael Brown….I want to ask who took a Polaroid two thousand years ago….I suspect this may be another thing coming where the left will say modern Israel is not legit because “Jews were Darker skinned two thousand years ago….”…it totally would not surprise me….
and of course I made the evil point that the basis of much of modern technology, while made in china today, was invented by American and Europeans and people tend to want to flock to the white run countries of Europe and the United States….you are never supposed to point that out…..
and yes, i am aware of the dark skinned Ethiopian Jews …a small minority of the Jews…
Mike:
You must not have read to the end of the piece. Actually, there is a fourth option. Here’s the last two paragraphs:
Near the beginning of the piece Traciniski, wrote:
If the media want to do a better job next time–and that’s a big “if”–I can offer them five basic rules that they ought to have followed in this case.
And I immediately thought he’s an imbecile since the MSM pushes their agenda and they have no intention whatsoever of objectively reporting the story (ie doing “a better job next time”). As Neo put it:
The media errors that Tracinski lists in his article are not really errors at all, they are purposeful propaganda techniques and rabble-rousing, combined with a not-immoderate degree of MSM self-puffery.
Clearly, as Neo’s 11:38 comment shows, Tracinski is not a naive fool, so the question becomes why he wrote his piece this way. The answer, I believe, is that by calmly offering the media advice on how to improve their reporting, he more convincingly highlights the MSM’s self-important, agenda-based, biased methods–for the far-too-many Americans who still believe the MSM is mostly correct and is acting in good faith.
Consider how much less effective the opposite approach would be with respect to such people: If he’d titled his piece Five Ways the Mendacious Media used Ferguson to Propagandize their Agenda and Incite the Mob, they would just dismiss Tracinski as a right-wing nutjob and turn the page.
And who knows, maybe there’s actually one or two MSM reporters who, given the calm, objective tone of the piece, might actually absorb a little and begin the long road of questioning his or her Agenda Uber Alles approach to journalism. Or not.
drsanity is a (now inactive) blogging seer.
Not going to happen.
MSM is way too liberal to stop the propaganda. Also way easier to opine than to uncover facts.
For the financial managers of the MSM, they just love controversy as that generates ratings.
Unfortunately, the narrative is more important than the facts. Both Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown could fit the carefully constructed narrative as long as the actual facts were down played. The narrative suits the purposes of Sharpton and Jackson as well as activists and politicians who profit from racial division.
It is too bad the MSM is all too willing to play into the people who look for racial division. These are the same SJW’s who are always looking for something to exploit. If the MSM were to focus on the facts as known rather than whatever the popular narrative, we would be far better off. But, it turns out fact don’t see as well as narratives. Schade.
“…Ferguson where a policeman shot and killed an unarmed black youth..”
What Bullshit. How many times have we seen stories or heard broadcast updates starting with that crap?? Endless.
Focus, you Pinheads: Michael Brown was a 300-lb thug, stoned on hemp and all-aggression. Anybody unclear of the probable consequences of attacking a police officer IN HIS CAR?? His lying Mommy stating repeatedly that Mikey wouldn’t do that needs to study the forensics from INSIDE the police car and the video of Mistah Punky attacking the Asian store owner when he was leaving with stolen property.
Rev. Tawana Brawley Sharpton is a sleazy, lying snake-oiler. Period. May he get absolutely everything he so justly deserves. How’s those years of tax evasion treatin’ya, Rev.Tawana,’Yo?!
Mike:
As Gary suggests, it is possible that Tracinski is not, after all, addressing the media — but is using this “open letter to the media” format as a way to address a different audience. It’s a useful device, and an effective one.
I see something similar going on, all the time, with respect to Israeli public relations. American Jews bemoan the latest pronouncements from Israel and wail: “When are they going to learn?!? That kind of rhetoric will NEVER win over my anti-Israel neighbors!” To which the answer — not given often enough, and usually ignored anyway — is: “Lady, that message wasn’t intended to convince your neighbors, and it wasn’t aimed at you. It was aimed at ISRAEL’S neighbors. You know, the ones that want to destroy Israel and sow salt where it stood. And the message was: we’d love to live in peace with you. But until you’re willing to do that too, we will do what we have to do to protect ourselves. Hurt us, and we’ll make sure you regret it.”
NeoConScum:
As an alternative to Tracinski’s excellent piece — one with the advantage of being shorter — how about this?
Wouldn’t it be nice if, instead of filling the headlines with sensationalism, our noble journalists just made a point of saying this from time to time: “By the way, folks, not to detract from Michael Brown’s application for sainthood or anything. But I’d like to point out that it’s pretty stupid to attack a uniformed police officer. Even if you don’t believe that Michael Brown did that, just keep it in mind — attacking a police officer is a stupid thing to do. Okay? Okay.”