A seemingly premeditated mass shooting at the Washington Navy Yard killed 12 and left three others wounded this week. "It's another gun crime!" the media screamed.
Yet last night in Chicago, 13 bystanders were shot by random gang thugs in a random killing. Sadly, scenes like the one in Chicago last night are becoming more and more commonplace in the Windy City, yet they receive considerably less media attention than stories like the Navy Yard shooting, the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting or even the case of George Zimmerman.
I may be wrong to insert relativism into this debate, but I'm actually more concerned with the societal implications of daily random killings in the streets of Chicago than a disgruntled nut-job's sporadic "workplace violence." No, such a comparison does nothing to bring the victims of these crimes back to those who've lost them or make the woundeds' injuries less painful. And no, I'm certainly not excusing one crime or the other. All I'm saying is that there's a significant difference in criminal mentality here and the media remains disturbingly silent on this issue.
While I'm left pondering the societal implications, Ace can't help but wonder about the racial implications behind the media negligence:
I have to think right now that blacks might well be wondering why a mass-shooting in which most victims are black fails to generate the slightest blip on the national media radar.
Doesn't the media even care? I have to think some blacks are wondering.And the actual answer, I think, is this: Yes, they do care. In fact so much they're willing to suppress the news of all tragedies that befall you. Because they think that is what is best for you.
So complete media silence on a tragedy due to a policy designed, condescendingly, to "help" blacks.
Has it helped them? Who knows. I don't. Perhaps it has. But it does result in a complete embargo of most crime occurring in inner-city mostly-black communities. [...]
My prescription for the media is the same I'd give to the government: Why don't you start treating people like adults deserving of respect and deserving of the truth, rather than misguided children who have to be forever insulated from it?
