The media is both a tool and a weapon
Lawrence O’Donnell did the piece above that is quite telling. Since the execution of Michael Brown by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson, many eye witnesses have been telling a fairly consistent story.
- Michael Brown was in an altercation with Darren Wilson at the window of the police vehicle.
- A shot was fired.
- Michael Brown ran away from Darren Wilson.
- Darren Wilson shot at Michael Brown while he was running away.
- A bullet seemed to hit Michael Brown as he ran away.
- Michael Brown turned around with his hands up surrendering.
- Darren Wilson pumped several more bullets into Michael Brown as Darren Wilson approached Michael brown.
Many eyewitness video clips on YouTube and eyewitness interviews similar to the eyewitness in Lawrence O’Donnell’s piece above have basically said the same thing. They have said it to several reporters and anchors at CNN as well.
Most of the anchors and reporters at MSNBC have been accurately putting the eyewitness accounts into proper context. Many others including Jeffrey Toobin have been hedging. With the emergence of two new eyewitnesses Jeffrey Toobin became giddy on CNN. He is now declaring that the execution of Michael Brown was likely a murder.
As Lawrence O’Donnell said, the story of the two new witnesses correlated perfectly with the statements from all previous eye witnesses. What could possibly be the difference? Sunny Hostin laid it out.
I guess I am just so surprised. From the very beginning of this story everyone was questioning eyewitness accounts of the people in the neighborhood. I don’t really understand why now there is this game changer. Why now you have two White witnesses that are somehow not connected to the community. And now they seem to be the more credible witnesses? It’s really befuddling to me quite frankly because now we have six, seven, eight witnesses saying the dame thing.
Over time with the release of the irrelevant Michael Brown ‘shoplifting’ video, as well as typical teenage music and pictures interpreted to malign Michael Brown, many began giving plausibility that Darren Wilson’s execution of Michael Brown may have been justified.
22-year-old John Crawford III went shopping at a Walmart store in Ohio. John Crawford III had an unpackaged BB gun in the store. Walmart sells those. No one was bothered by him having the toy. That is, except for 24 year old Ronald Ritchie.
It turns out Ronald Ritchie called 911 claiming there was a Black man walking around with a gun in the store. Ronald Ritchie claimed the gun was as AR-15 rifle and that Michael Crawford III was pointing it at other shoppers. Based on the information from the video tape and eye witness accounts, Ronald Ritchie seems to have lied. Officers show Michael Crawford III almost on sight.
In a country where open carry is the law of the land in many states including Ohio, why were cops so quick to pull the trigger? It is bias, a bias against weaponized Black men.
Police bias against Black men likely got those two Black men executed for no reason. Media bias could make the cops walk free.
The effects of bias and specifically media bias is quite dangerous. It should not be viewed as mostly a racial thing. It is much deeper. Media bias allowed the misrepresentation of the Affordable Care Act and as such implementation setbacks (e.g., Medicaid Expansion not implemented in many states). That has caused the death of many.
Media bias against Muslims makes the caricature of an overly powerful ISIS / ISIL an existential danger to Americans. Popular opinion influenced by a biased media forced the hand of a President reluctant to go into another war. This will get many Americans killed unnecessarily.
Media bias promotes economic theories that are proven false yet fail to inform Americans accurately. Supply side economics has provably failed. Increasing the minimum wage does not increase unemployment. There is no economic reason to treat investment income different than wage income other than to expand wealth and income disparity. Yet there is a media bias against calling out the snake oil salespeople.
If America ever got an unbiased media, sooner rather than later many of America’s social, racial, and economic ills would disappear.