21 September 2007...2:59 pm
CNN, the KKK and the Jena 6
I’m one of those people who watched Bill Maher’s Real Time and heard the two black panelists asking the question: How come none of the national media have picked up on this story?
So, I’ve been watching it trickle into national consciousness, culminating in yesterday’s massive non- violent protests (and the scum-sucking Klansmen and Kewpie Dolls from Hell™ of the Rightie blogosphere proving that Jim Crow is alive, well, and running the “Party of Lincoln” — See Michelle Malkin’s “props” to Michael van der Galien, a Dutchman who “loves” America and posts on Joe Gandelman’s “The Moderate Voice” HERE. Sadly, Michael used to post HERE, on The Democratic Daily, but his “moderate” credentials have been sacrificed, evidently, for increasingly strident Right Wing attacks. It is truly sorrowful to see a White Dutchman pompously and self-righteously lecturing Southern Blacks on racism in the USA. Formerly, he’d seemed a decent guy.)
Today, while reading the CNN account of the arrest of two crackers in a red pickup truck who were driving by the protesters in Alexandria, LA (40 miles away) as they waited for buses back home in the aftermath of yesterday’s protests, I listened to the CNN “news” at the top of the hour (my father-in-law is 100 years old, and listens to CNN at the “Spinal Tap” volume of 11.)
An 18 year old was arrested on charges of allegedly inciting a riot by driving by with nooses attached to his truck.
And I went ballistic.
Why?
Because THIS is what was on the CNN website AT THE EXACT SAME MOMENT:
Two arrested in noose incident near Jena, Louisiana
… The driver of the red truck, whom Alexandria police identified as Jeremiah Munsen, 18, was charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor — a reference to the 16-year-old passenger. Munsen also was charged with driving while intoxicated and inciting to riot, according to the police report.As officials were questioning the driver, he said he had an unloaded rifle in the back of the truck, which police found. They also found a set of brass knuckles in a cup holder on the dashboard, the police report said.
The passenger told police he and his family are in the Ku Klux Klan and that he had KKK tattooed on his chest, the police report said. He also said that he tied the nooses and that the brass knuckles belonged to him, the report said…. [emphasis added]
The POLICE report says that the kid says he’s a member of the KKK, along with his family?
And that’s not NEWS in this story?
Here’s the “USA TODAY” style bullet points at the top of the CNN story for the ADHD:
Story Highlights
Police report: A 16-year-old arrested in noose incident says his family’s in KKK Driver, 18, charged with DUI, inciting to riot, contributing to delinquency of minor Nooses were hanging from back of pickup in Alexandria, Louisiana Alexandria a staging area for Thursday protest march in nearby Jena
[emphasis added]
Somebody’s censoring the news. Because there’s no responsible news editor I’ve ever known who would suppress that vital portion of this story.
The Klan is alive and well in America, kiddies.
And the GOP is, if not in bed with them, tucking them in at night, and handing them their teddy bear.
You know: the one with the little noose around its neck.
Courage.
5 Comments
22 September 2007 at 5:53 pm
Do I understand correctly that you went “ballistic” because one on-air report on CNN did not mention the Klan ties of those idiots (in the truck with the nooses) which the CNN website detailed? Have you listened recently to a radio broadcast of a TV news report? I heard one the other day, concerning a story I had personal knowledge of, and it was astonishingly non-substantive. It was edited so heavily from the interview it was based on that it was hard to even follow. There was absolutely no political content, so I can’t blame the GOP.
I do not expect news editors on TV news to give me a meaningful story, especially in recent years. I believe that they are targeting a core audience with a very short attention span, many of whom would turn the channel if the picture of that truck with the nooses stayed on screen for more than a few seconds. They have to keep those images changing to compete with MTV and video games.
My theory on the CNN TV report is that they had to shave some seconds off their Jena story to squeeze in the latest about Britney Spears (or someone like her) in time for the commercial break. TV news is not where I go for great analysis. If you don’t expect it, you will be pleasantly surprised on the rare occasions when it happens.
Wouldn’t most people just naturally assume that those idiots had some sort of ties to the Klan? Of course the Klan still operates. My husband worked at a prison, and a couple of his co-workers who bragged about their ties to the Klan (especially if they want to impress members of the Aryan Brotherhood inmate gang) came from the Northwest, where you live. But they only bragged when they thought it was “safe” to do so: no supervisors, only one “independent” witness. The Klan has been marginalized by everyone in the mainstream, including the GOP.
And isn’t the ACLU famous for defending the free speech and association rights of the Klan (while trying to squelch those of the Boy Scouts)? Does the GOP control the ACLU, too?
23 September 2007 at 11:39 am
My problem was that their WRITTEN version of the story had that ‘bullet point’ at the TOP of the story. Stories MUST be written first so that the blow-dried “anchors” can read them from the teleprompter.
So, some producer at CNN decided to 86 that portion of the story. Why? Who knows?
But it’s hard to argue that the information was cut out unintentionally or to “save time.” No: it was intentionally repressed.
The argument that other stuff gets the same shoddy treatment is the old fallacy that ‘two wrongs make a right.’ No. They don’t. Perhaps I went ballistic, because I happened to be READING the CNN website when I HEARD the broadcast in the other room. Good grief.
24 September 2007 at 12:43 pm
I still think that TV news reports are often of little value because of quick, less-than-thoughtful editing to fill time slots precisely. And I am certainly not defending shoddy editing. I heard there was a one-hour special on Jena on CNN later. If the KKK was not mentioned in this special, you could have a point about GOP control.
But I thought that allegedly bragging about KKK connections made these guys seem like the sad losers most current KKK members are. Maybe CNN wanted people to get the idea that from the report you watched that A LOT of whites in the area did stuff like this just because of the area’s history. Actual KKK boosterism on the part of the perps could make people think that only a few kooks engage in this type of activity. Might make some in their audience less interested in future “in-depth” reports.
It is also possible that someone decided, wisely or not, that quoting these idiots’ advertisement for the KKK on air could provide them with material for a recruiting video. Their outrageous action was clearly done with publicity in mind. Their bragging about the KKK would, of course, repel most people and make them roll their eyes at the stupidity of the perps. But such “bravery” might be attractive to some who feel that they are victims of official favoritism toward blacks.
4 October 2007 at 8:29 am
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5 October 2007 at 7:23 pm
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