Supplemental: The stories we need and the facts we create!

MONDAY, AUGUST 25, 2014

Same story told two different ways:
Before the week is done, we’re going to talk about metaphor.

Joe Klein used the term last week. Live and direct from Nerdland, the professor shot him down! For transcript and tape, click here.

Whatever! In this morning’s post, did you notice the way our own “progressive” tribe keeps creating the story we need? Did you notice the way we invent the facts we need to create the needed story?

Remember when we hated the Sanford police? We made up the claim that they didn’t tell the Martins that their son had been killed for three days.

That claim was ugly, and it was false. But it generated hate, and so we told it rather widely.

In this morning’s post, we discussed the very same story, invented the very same way.

This time, we want to hate the Ferguson police. And so we invented the claim that they left Michael Brown’s body uncovered for hours and hours. The story got bruited around so much that Van Jones even believed it, and Van Jones is very smart and also very fair.

It seems that claim was false too. But it generated hate, and so we spread it around, though not as much as we did in the initial instance.

Can you see that those are the same stories? That they're driven by the same phony fact, a fact we simply invented in two different forms? Is that the way you ever thought our own lofty tribe would perform?

Final question:

Reading yesterday’s New York Times, can you see the way this works in the pseudo-journalistic sense? Technically, you debunk the false claim. In actual fact, you write your report in such a way that many readers will walk away thinking you reinforced it!

Do you think that isn’t the way it works? As Al Pacino once thoughtfully said, “Who’s being naïve now, Kay?”



86 comments:

  1. In her service as a correspondent, Julie Bosman took the initiative in reinforcing the invention.

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    1. Yes, people have no right to feel any outrage if the body was covered up for over four hours.

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    2. If you are going to create a story to generate outrage, why not ask what happened to all those cigarillos. I'll bet the cops smoked them while gloating over Brown's body, casually flicking ash all over the blood splatter and joking about how long it was taking the detectives to show up. Now that's a scene to feel really bad about! I bet that happened, given what bigots white people are in those Southern suburban towns.

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    3. Yes, those who live in Nerdland hate us some cops. Bob is right to call us out for all the hate we generate for the other here in Nerdland.

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    4. The main group I hate now is trolls. I really really hate me some trolls. How can we get those trolls into a place where they can be dragged through the streets? I'd line up for that! Just tell me how and where.

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    5. Be careful what you wish for. If Bob granted it and started deleting everything that doesn't follow his narrative to the letter, this blog would die in a week.

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    6. I think this blog would develop a robust discussion on topics that are important, including education, political discourse, the role of media in politics, and occasionally philosophy.

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    7. @12:39 If you were around before Bob moved to blogspot, you'll know there was no facility to content on the old TDH . That didn't seem to do any harm...

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    8. If you were around right after he moved you got comments by BOB, debates between deadrat and David in Cal, and lots of payday loan spam. Now that the trolls have appeared the payday loan spammers have been replaced by the supernatural marital saviors. And BOB left in his own name.

      None of this is particularly important, that said.

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  2. "Before the week is done, we’re going to talk about metaphor."

    Great! Maybe then we'll learn what the hell Michael Brown's death has to do with Ray Charles' "Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music."

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    1. I think someone needs to talk with the metaphorical analysts.

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  3. Ms Harris-Perry referred to the body left on the ground four hours, but she didn't say it was uncovered. Nor did she say whether the city, county, or federal investigators needed it to be left undisturbed while they did their work. She said Darren Wilson didn't know about the robbery when he stopped Michael Brown, but she didn't consider the possibility he found out about before shooting him. Nor did she wonder if Brown had perhaps tried to grab Wilson's gun.

    While her anger is understandable, her work in incomplete.

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    1. You mean she didn't soeculate without evidence to support what you think might have happened?

      How awful of her!

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    2. "speculate" of course, not "soeculate"

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  4. Remember when we believed liberals were pure as the driven snow and journalists were top notch truth tellers? Neither do I. But Bob always believed Sadaam had WMD's too.

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    1. Remember when liberals tried to be pure and journalists tried to tell the truth? I'd be happy if that happened again. I'm tired of cynicism.

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    2. Well if you can tell me a single thing in the NY Times article by Bosman and Goldstein that is untruthful
      I will be as unhappy as you. But best I can tell the cynic here is Bob Somerby.

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    3. You just don't get it. It is not enough to present the truth and nothing but the truth. You must also present these truths in the order Somerby insists upon, lest you feed "widespread" rumors that "many people" believe.

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    4. We can give two very good examples of mainstream reporters saying the body lay uncovered in the streets for hours. So could BOB, but he has yet to definitively find out who Alexander Becker is, so we are not prepared to let him near Google unattended.

      Neither example we could cite involves favorite transgressors targeted by BOB.

      Is BOB trying to lay out the facts, or is he trying to stoke more hatered of the New York Times? We don't know.

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    5. What did you just contribute to this conversation? Did you provide the names of two reporters? No. All you did was attack Somerby, yet again. We understand that you dislike him. Must you keep saying it endlessly? Just go away.

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    6. Can't speak for ZKoD, but I'm not going anywhere. And I am going to continue to call Somerby on his bullshit.

      Here's a thought: If you can't handle that, why don't YOU go away? Not that I mind listening to you whine on a daily basis.

      Just wondering why a person would subject himself to the inhuman cruelty of having to read opinions other than those of his fearless cult leader to the point that he cries about daily.

      Of course, nobody died and appointed me TDH Pope, so you can continue to make an ass out of yourself all you want. No skin off my nose.

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    7. Why don't you label your garbage so we can skip it without wasting time reading? KZ at least does that.

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    8. 9:02 why don't you repeat your unlabeled whine elsewhere?

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    9. Damn 9:02. You got the same Google problems as old BOB? You can't find some quick examples of mainstream media saying the body lay uncovered for hours.

      We would have done it for you but you say you don't read our stuff. After you do, of course.

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    10. See how trolls hijack a discussion?

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    11. They started the discussion and then end up hijacking it. Damn trolls.

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    12. Somehow trolls are always the first to comment on a post. How does that happen? I think they are the ones with the software alerting them to a new post. I think they have that software because it is their job to post here and they get paid by the comment. The rest of us only browse by when we have a spare moment, often long after the comments have been the scene of a troll-fest, smothering any chance at substantive discussion. So, no, the trolls haven't started anything worth reading and when someone does say something about the content of Somerby's posts, it is immediately drowned in childish, churlish, and addled chatter. But I'm glad to know someone is making a living in today's economy.

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    13. @ 9:49, just happened to catch your comment while browsing. Yours was a very substantive comment. One of the best insights about trolls I have seen in quite a while.

      Do you know what happened to the spellcaster?

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  5. "Reading yesterday’s New York Times, can you see the way this works in the pseudo-journalistic sense? Technically, you debunk the false claim. In actual fact, you write your report in such a way that many readers will walk away thinking you reinforced it!"

    "Do you think that isn’t the way it works? As Al Pacino once thoughtfully said, 'Who’s being naïve now, Kay?'"

    So Bob, may we surmise that you can no longer pretend that such journalistic malpractice is merely "lazy" or "incompetent?"


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    1. No. But we can definitely say Bob agrees with Michael Corleone that the Don is much like a President or a Senator.

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    2. But does he renounce Satan?

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  6. "Remember when we hated the Sanford police?"

    No, Bob. I don't remember when "we" ever felt that way. I do recall something about the lead detective who questioned Zimmerman that night being dumbfounded with the DA cut him loose. That gave good ol' Zim plenty of time to lawyer up and come up with a better story.

    "We made up the claim that they didn’t tell the Martins that their son had been killed for three days."

    Not exactly, Bob. ABC News reported that, based on the truth that Martin's body remained in a morgue for three days with a "John Doe" tag before his body was released to his father.

    But unfortunately, it is true that the cops made no effort to ID Trayvon and identify and notify next of kin. They had his wallet, they had his cell phone, they had neighbors who might have recognized him. But only after Martin's father filed a missing person report the next morning did the cops show him a photo of his dead son and tell him of his death.

    Pretty sloppy. But no, I didn't "hate" them for it.

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    1. How is that sloppy given that Trayvon was not living in his home at the time? His ID wouldn't have his local address. What is your evidence that the cops made no attempt to identify him?

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    2. Yes, we all know that the Sanford Police lack modern communications gizmos like telephones with which they could have contacted the Miami PD who could have then been sent to the address on his ID.

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    3. What is your evidence they didn't do that?

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    4. Because the first family member notified was Martin's father, the next morning, after he reported his son was missing.

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    5. That's not a source, it is an assertion.

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    6. His son was missing the night his son was killed. Why didn't his father notice? Wasn't he supposed to be straightening the boy out after a third suspension from school caused his mother to abandon him?

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  7. Three Obama representatives at the funeral of a violent felon who attacked a police officer and forced him to defend his life and the lives of citizens by killing another person, something no one other than a thug ever wants to do. Zero Obama representatives at the memorial for beheaded journalist Foley.

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    1. That does seem wrong. Did Foley's family perhaps request a private service?

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    2. "Tom Bebbington, director of communications for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Manchester, told CNSNews.com that the officials in attendance at the Mass included New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan (D.), Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R.-N.H.) and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D.-N.H), and Rep. Ann Kuster (D.-N.H.).

      Bebbington confirmed that no White House officials were present.

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    3. Well, that's not right.

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  8. So one fact is reported wrong, it gets disseminated and then corrected. For Bob, it now defines the coverage of Michael Brown. Brown himself, of course, is just a prop, a corpse with which Bob can beat his various targets, as was Trayvon Martin before him. All the correct things that have been reported? Irrelevant. Because they do not fit Bob's narrative of a corrupt, pandering press. Many years ago, before he went around the bend, this is the sort of thing Bob would have pointed out, not done himself. But that was, indeed, many years ago.

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    1. Facts reported wrong:

      1. Brown was shot with his hands in the air, execution style while surrendering.
      2. Brown did not attack the officer.
      3. The officer was uninjured.
      4. Brown did not rob the convenience store (versions: he gave the cigars back, he paid for the cigarillos, the clerk was trying to prevent him from leaving the store, it wasn't Brown).
      5. The name of the wrong officer was tweeted by Anonymous before the name of the actual officer was released.
      6. Wilson comes from a police force full of bigotry that had to be disbanded due to misconduct of the officers (it was disbanded due to corruption of the managers).
      7. Wilson is using the money raised for his defense for personal purposes, to line his own bank account.
      8. No bottles were thrown, no guns fired, no looting during the peaceful protests so use of tear gas, rubber bullets was an overreaction to protests.
      9. No incident report was filed.
      10. Wilson did not go to the hospital for treatment.
      11. It is a violation of procedure to file an incident report later.
      12. It is inappropriate for the grand jury to meet in secrecy, to decide whether an indictment will be brought, to hear prosecution but no defense.
      13. No investigation, witness statements, etc. began immediately.
      14. Witnesses contradict each other in major ways.
      15. False statements were made about where and how many bullets were fired and where they hit.
      16. The people conducting the family's autopsy were not qualified and did a poor job, producing results that may be contradicted by later autopsies.
      17. The body was left uncovered for 4 hrs.
      18. Taking 4 hrs before moving the body is not routine procedure under the circumstances.
      19. Underrepresentation of minorities on the police force in Ferguson is different than in other areas of Missouri.
      20. Police released the video of the convenience store robbery in order to taint Brown's reputation, instead of in response to press requests.

      And so on...

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    2. AnonymousAugust 25, 2014 at 8:02 PM

      If you can find actual examples of actual reputable journalistic enterprises reporting these things as facts, please post the examples. Not what people on the internet said, not reporters reporting what witnesses and sort-of witnesses said, but real, live journalists stating these things actually happened and were the actual facts of the case. I'm sure you'll have no trouble, given how certain you are.

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    3. Too much work, too little time, no incentive. Where else would I have heard these things except from various media?

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    4. In other words, you pulled it out your ass.

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    5. Exactly. You heard stuff here and there, and decided to twist it to fit your narrative. When called on it, you're just too busy to bother. The sad thing is that, unable to support your belief, you cling to it anyway. Like Bob, you're interested only in pushing a narrative, not the facts themselves.

      Next?

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    6. No one jots down sources for everything they read during a day, because someone might ask for them later. Much of this was on HuffPo tracing back to wherever they got it -- for example the one about Wilson's previous police force.

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    7. When was the last time old Bob said anything about Ariana's little invention?

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    8. You don't need to "jot down" anything. If what you said was correct, you could find examples after a 30 second google search. Actually, you wouldn't need to do a google search, because if the reporting was as you say it was, Bob would have dropped his pud long enough to type on endlessly about it. Instead, Brown's killing has given Bob so little to crow about, he's been back to droning on about poor Al Gore in 2000 -- contrary, I'm sure, to what his expectations were when this story first hit.

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  9. Michael Brown was an aspiring lyricist. Clearly this color blind gentle giant could not have attacked that police officer and was an angel trying to bring peace to his community.

    “My favorite part of killing people is when they hit the ground. “With this Glock in your face. And you betta not make a sound. And I only like white men on my money [???]. Those who are last shall be first, Whites on the bottom. He musta walked up and unloaded because there was no stopping him. Somebody else layin’ across the street, must be his partner. Damn!”

    “I’ll be counting money by myself. I’m a rich nigga so I got that wealth. I fuck three [???] hos by myself. While I’m smoking on this [!?!?]. When the sun goes down. You in trouble now.”


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    1. Wow, the Zimmerman Defense Team sure has gotten lame.

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    2. And under Missourri law, Michael Brown had every right to buy himself one of them Glocks.

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  10. Remember, the Zimmerman Defense Team is undefeated so far.

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    1. Two kills to none.

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    2. Two men who survived attacks. That is their right. No one is required to die just because their attacker is a black teenager.

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    3. 12:05, you obviously didn't get the memo. You are to voluntarily die if attacked and, if you're a cop, other citizens are to be subject to attack by marauding violent felons instead of you acting to protect them, because slavery.

      Who to feel more sorry for, the black teenagers who end up dead because their single mothers taught them to be violent criminals because slavery, or the white teen-brained progressives who end up dead because their single mothers taught them to be stockholm syndromed victims because slavery.

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  11. I was just watching the PBS News Hour on Public TV. Sure enough one of the guests complained that it was bad to leave Brown's body out there for four hours.

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    1. Sure enough David. They did leave the body out there for four hours.

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    2. Don't confuse David with facts. Bob has proven beyond a doubt that the "widespread" story that "many" believe was wrong, and that they actually covered Brown's body with a sheet before they picket it up some four hours later.

      In David's fevered imagination, that means they did a David Copperfield with the sheet and the body magically disappeared. In fact, all that big lump was was a legitimate pothole repair, though botched.

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    3. They also put a barrier around the body. David is pointing out that the complaint about the body being left for four hours is being widely discussed.

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    4. Given what has transpired I think only a fool would deny leaving the body out for four hours was not the wisest decision made by St. Louis County law enforcement officers.

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    5. That's why it makes more sense that they did it because they needed to, and not for arbitrary or political or racist reasons.

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    6. And that was only one of the incredibly dumb decisions the cops made.

      Training textbook will be written using Ferguson as an example of what NOT to do.

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    7. No matter what the police did in this situation, they would be criticized because the agenda is to portray them as incompetent, because that supports the view that Brown's shooting was unjustified.

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    8. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/24/darren-wilson-jennings-police-department_n_5704133.html?utm_hp_ref=crime&ir=Crime

      That's a link to the HuffPo article, citing the Washington Post, about the Jennings City Council disbanding their PD and starting from scratch because of numerous instances of brutality, the final one being a black woman shot to death during a traffic stop, with a child in the back seat.

      Wilson was one of the officers offered the opportunity to reapply for his job, but he chose to join the Ferguson PD instead.

      I can find nothing to support your claim that the Jennings department was disbanded over management corruption. But given your propensity to pull things out of your hindquarters, I'm not surprised.

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    9. Sorry, 12:16, but "incompetent" is the kindest word I can think of to describe a police department that dresses up in military fatigues and shows up with armored vehicles to point assault rifles and machine guns at its own citizens.

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    10. Yes, that is what happens when you read articles slanted to portray police as brutal. Nothing about financial corruption because that is off message. If you only read stuff that caters to your views you don't get a full picture.

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    11. It took me less than 30 seconds to find the Washington Post stating that the Jennings police were disbanded due to racism and corruption. You find it by searching on Jennings and corruption.

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    12. @12:35, why would a suburban police department be well trained in riot control? Bernard Parks said part of the problem was too many different units without clear leadership. That doesn't mean people were stupid.

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    13. If you've got a source that says the Jennings PD was disbanded because of financial corruption, I will be glad to read it.

      But pardon me if I don't hold my breath waiting.

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    14. "Much more often," you unfunny clown? According to the most recent stats I have, 448 white people were murdered by blacks in 2011, vs 193 the other way around. 250 extra deaths? And that should make us "pray" we don't have a race war? Really, what a fucking buffoonish douchebag. Your fleshy white ass is >10x likely to die from food poisoning (oh please, please, leave some chicken out for a few hours -- preferably raw -- and then chomp down on it. The world would be a far better place if you did) than be murdered by a Scary Black Man. But let's bow our heads down and praaaay with David in Clowny, Bob's most faithful and well-deserved commentor, that whites don't stop using cops to kill black people (an average of over 100 times a year), and start doing it directly themselves instead. Oh, the tragedy!

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    15. Anon -- your stats show that black murder whites 2.3 times as often as the reverse, and that the total number of interracial murders isn't that large. I had thought the differential was greater. Thanks for the correction.

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    16. @12:46 -- The Washington Post. Google Jennings and Corruption and it will come right up.

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    17. David in Cal, regarding your post at 1:50 AM, you wrote:

      " I despise people who look for trouble in this way and those in the media who help them do so,

      This horrendous crime is the fruit produced by these hate-mongers."


      Let's quote from the police press release about this incident, which occurred in the wee hours of a Friday night/Saturday morning in West Point, Mississippi, population 11,000 give or take.

      "All parties were asked to leave the Waffle House at about 1:00am. Then at 2:00am E911 dispatched officers to the Huddle House. It’s not clear whether or not all of the parties were involved in both incidents. Witnesses on the scene were interviewed but were unable to give any details leading to the identity of the aggressors. The victim was accompanied by at least two other individuals who gave statements about the assault.

      The witnesses described the aggressors as a group of black males but couldn’t provide any other information. The victim of the assault is white."

      So lets play blog commentator.

      Armed white guys go into a place late at night after being warned there are a bunch of angry black people there. Argument ensues of a nature that police are called.
      White guys go into the place next door. Only one of the white guys is beat up. Other white guys unable to give police any information leading to the identity of the black guys who beat up their buddy. Except their color.

      You are a piece of work, to use a Bob phrase.

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    18. @ 9:45 "The Washington Post. Google Jennings and Corruption and it will come right up."

      From the Washington Post:

      "After going through the police academy, Wilson landed a job in 2009 as a rookie officer in Jennings, a small, struggling city of 14,000 where 89 percent of the residents were African American and poverty rates were high. At the time, the 45-employee police unit had one or two black members on the force, said Allan Stichnote, a white Jennings City Council member.

      Racial tension was endemic in Jennings, said Rodney Epps, an African American city council member.

      “You’re dealing with white cops, and they don’t know how to address black people,” Epps said. “The straw that broke the camel’s back, an officer shot at a female. She was stopped for a traffic violation. She had a child in the back [of the] car and was probably worried about getting locked up. And this officer chased her down Highway 70, past city limits, and took a shot at her. Just ridiculous.

      Police faced a series of lawsuits for using unnecessary force, Stichnote said. .....

      The Jennings department also had a corruption problem. A joint federal and local investigation discovered that a lieutenant had been accepting federal funds for drunken-driving checks that never happened.

      All the problems became too much for the city council to bear, and in March 2011 the council voted 6-to-1 to shut down the department and hire St. Louis County to run its police services..."

      Corruption and racism. Why do you insist on ignoring one of the two?

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    19. "I agree with others here that people who complain the body being out in the street for 4 hours are looking for something to complain about."

      Just a thought here. I'd speculate, David, that if there was a dead body out in front of your home for four hours on a Saturday afternoon, you might complain.

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    20. Anon 10:26 - You're discussing an attack on someone named Craig Wilson. I linked to an attack on Ralph Weems IV and David Knighten. My link said,
      [Weems] said a man waved him over outside the restaurant and told him politely that people were upset by the killing of 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and it wasn't a safe place for whites.

      The link goes on to say that a large group of black people attacked Weems and Knighten.

      ...they apparently had been followed by more than 20 people....

      Knighten, who said he had served with the Air Force in Afghanistan, said he came out of the restroom to find Weems surrounded. "I was trying to defuse the situation," he said....

      Knighten said some people blocked him from leaving with Weems. When he got out, he said, Weems was down and people were kicking him. Knighten said others attacked him, adding "I do remember racial slurs being yelled from the crowd."


      Now, suppose that after one of those 448 black on white murders, a crowd of 20 white people had chosen a random black person, followed him, surrounded him and beat him up. That would be big national news, and rightly so.

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    21. David, the person who posted the other incident was trying to say that white people commit hate crimes too, not confusing the two incidents.

      It was a stupid response to your point. Showing that a dog can bite a man is not a cogent response to a "man bites dog" story. It is the norm (supposedly). So stories about white people doing racist things are the norm, not a contrary example, as yours was, showing racism directed toward two white men. Your story will not receive national attention, partly because it doesn't seem like a huge problem of institutionalized racism that needs to be dealt with. It seems like a one-off, easily explained by the heightened racial tensions generated by the Brown shooting.

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    22. I think the person posting both comments suggested two, maybe three perhaps drunk white guys went into a restaurant late one Friday night knowing there might be trouble, got into some, then dealt with cops who had been called. Instead of leaving, they went over to the next door restaurant followed by black guys with whom they had the trouble. The black guys apparently had only one of the white guys in mind since he was taken outside and beaten. One other guy later recalled he was attacked too, but apparently he either forgot to tell the police at the time or the police forgot to put it in their press release. The other guy also seems to have forgotten the third person with them mentioned by the police. It is possible that the third person with the white victim was just imagined by the officers since the hour was late.

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  12. http://crooksandliars.com/2014/08/mississippi-waffle-house-mystery-why-did

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  13. Before the week is done we're going to talk about Metal.

    Way back when, Pat Boone shocked the world with his famous album, In a Metal Mood: No More Mr. Nice Guy. We’ve thought of Boone in the last day as we’ve reviewed the modern sounds in blogging heard in yesterday's posts.

    Why do young people hate old people covering bad rock music?

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    1. Yes, let us indeed ponder how Boone, like Mandela and King before him, reached across the Great Divide to record his first Billboard-charting album in 35 years.

      If only we had more like him, we would never had had the War on Gore.

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    2. Stop talking to yourself, KZ.

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