Racism is on the decline but media will be the last to report it

Mediaite's Noah Rothman has a good column out this week about how America's improving race relations -- what he calls "empirical, undeniable reality" -- are bad news for the mainstream media.

Instead of highlighting this fact, the media instead use isolated incidents to paint a broad and dire picture of an American society deeply divided along racial lines. But as Rothman notes, racial disparity has improved over the last generation in nearly every measurable way.

Many, particularly those in the elite media, react bitterly to this news. The outcome of the Zimmerman trial has highlighted how many media professionals cling to the belief that racial disparity in America is fixed feature of its existence and will never appreciably dissipate.

“Do you think the American justice system is innately racist?” CNN anchor Candy Crowley askedIllinois Gov. Pat Quinn on Sunday morning.

“This is, for many Americans, another piece of evidence of the incontrovertible contempt that this nation often shows and displays for black men,” argued radio and television host Tavis Smalley on ABC’s This Week on Sunday.

The Nation‘s Mychal Denzel Smith parodied left-wing overreaction by saying that Zimmerman’s defense “literally invoked the same justification for the killing of Trayvon Martin that you would during lynching.”

“George Zimmerman was protecting, not just himself, but white womanhood from this vicious, black thug,” Smith added breathlessly.

These are the same media voices likely to call for a “frank, national conversation on race” after making these comments which can only be characterized as conversation-stifling. It has never become clearer that the media rewards commentators who reject measured conversation and the fostering of a dialogue for irresponsible baiting and instigation.

At the very least, responsible news anchors and commentators should be arming their viewers with the facts prior to rending garments over the state of race relations in America. Even if these statistics do not support the narrative of persistent racial hatred which they have committed their careers to addressing.