Why do you think that is? This morning's New York Times has a superb, horrific report about street violence in Baltimore.
Timothy Williams focuses on the death toll at one school. His report starts like this:
WILLIAMS (1/17/18): What happened to 19-year-old Markel Scott last March is increasingly common here: Someone walked up to him on the street and shot him six times. Two months from his high school graduation, he died on the sidewalk, still wearing his book bag.That whole report is well worth reading. We make a related point:
“I grew up here and I’ve never seen crime like this,” his mother, Sharonda Rhodes, said recently. “These are not normal times. The guns are everywhere.”
Mr. Scott attended a small school for older students who had dropped out and were trying to get their lives on track. But his resolve was not enough to shield him from the dangers of the streets. Seven students at Excel Academy have been murdered in 15 months, so much violence that an empty desk might mean a skipped class—or another permanent absence.
Dealing with murder has become routine at Excel, with grief counselors called in with each fallen classmate. It has become difficult to focus on things like biology or math. With its shrinking student body, the school is a grim reflection of the difficulties facing Baltimore.
As with Ta-Nehisi Coates' portrait of the difficulties of life for a Baltimore kid, you won't hear a word about this on our liberal tribe's corporate "cable news" channel.
The TV stars on that corporate channel are paid millions of dollars per year. They're paid to keep us entertained and feeling tribally good.
In fairness, they'll pretend to get upset if a teen gets shot and killed by police. To help us see how much they care, they'll invent or disappear basic facts to make the event more heinous.
Otherwise, it's repetitive Fun With Crazy Old Trump, who's just so totally racist. Ain't getting played by the TV stars on corporate "cable news" grand?
You have a problem with the MSM finally copping to Trump's racism? Isn't this a step in the right direction for the MSM, after trying (for over a year) to make believe Trump voters weren't turned on by his bigotry, but voted for him because of the rigged economy? Maybe, after watching Trump hand the economy to Wall Street, and thee being nary a peep from Trump voters, the lazy, stupid, liberal (LOL), MSM finally figured out what any sentient person already knew. Trump is President because the US has a white supremacy fetish.
ReplyDeleteWho could argue with that logic?!
DeleteThe media tried...
Delete...and failed.
“As with Ta-Nehisi Coates' portrait of the difficulties of life for a Baltimore kid, you won't hear a word about this on our liberal tribe's corporate "cable news" channel.”
DeleteThe difficulties of life are deliberately made worse for all but the rich when you live in a plutocracy. When the goal of your society is help the rich suck the wealth from everyone else, those at the bottom will, of course, suffer the most. So plutocrat owned mass media/entertainment cartels figure there’s no point in focusing on sad things that are inherent to plutocracy. They exist to distract the citizenry from such things. Delving deeply into issues is a habit of thinking and behavior that our system of plutocrat owned mass media is designed to eliminate.
"Ain't getting played by the TV stars on corporate "cable news" grand?"
ReplyDeleteIt's got nothing to do with the stars. Propaganda has to maintain its 'narratives'.
Shut up and eatcha veggies like your momma toldja.
Corrupt Hillary indeed.
DeleteThe other question our cable stars never ask is "Why are all these kids in single parent homes?
ReplyDeleteThe report, which won't be discussed, appeared in the New York Times, a publication that is routinely singled out by Somerby for being particularly worthy of condemnation. Sometimes that condemnation is based on the fact that the Times, our most "foppish" newspaper, has an entertainment or lifestyle section.
ReplyDeleteHis info about the 48,000 Detroit students came from the Washington Post and CNN. com. See a pattern here?
But our TV stars are the ones singled out for criticism here. They will "never" discuss this report. Somerby is constantly accusing people of never discussing things, when counterexamples can easily be provided, just as his claim that these people always focus on the words (like shithole/house), rather than the policy, was easily debunked.
It's ok to claim that there isn't much discussion of this or any other topic, or that discussions often go one way rather than another, but saying something is always or never true is not correct.
And does Somerby really think that his readers are mindless drones, uncritically taking their marching orders from TV stars, and having "fun" criticizing Trump? Or that Trump's purported racism is the only thing being discussed about Trump? There are important issues surrounding the current administration that should be discussed. It would be journalistic malfeasance not to discuss them.
This post illustrates Somerby's odd approach: discussing or caring about one thing means you don't care about another.
And it seems strange that he manages to disprove his own theory in his own post: liburalz don't care and don't reezun too gud, so let me quote and link to an article on a particular topic in a liberal publication or by a liberal author to show how librulz don't care about this topic.
The coverage is always on-offs with no sustained coverage. Never discussed on MSNBC or on-air on CNN.
DeleteSo you've watched all of CNN and MSNBC's programming, 24 hours a day, seven days a week? If not, you cannot legitimately make this claim. I happen to have seen it discussed, not frequently, but it is therefore not "never." Those categorical statements are irksome.
DeleteThe attitudes that created and maintained Jim Crow were based on racism, and were enforced at the highest levels of power in the South. You could not understand those attitudes and those laws without investigating the racial component. It is legitimate to at least wonder if those same attitudes exist in Trump, Kelly, et al, helping to shape their views, and ultimately, policy, on immigration.
ReplyDelete" you won't hear a word about this on our liberal tribe's corporate "cable news" channel"
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure this should be discussed on corporate cable news. It seems like a local problem specific to one neighborhood and even to one group of kids. This Excel academy is what we used to call a continuation school. It is for kids trying to complete their education after a disruption of some kind. That disruption could be related to drugs or to family problems or to having dropped out. The shootings seem likely to be gang related and may be reprisals for something the kids have been doing outside of school. I am certain the police are focused on the problem and that they are trying to stop the shootings. If the problem is not shared by other schools and not being overlooked by police, why should it become the focus of national news and why exactly should liberals be involved?
These shootings are sad but unless there is something to be done and some action that can be taken by readers, they are not "news."
Somerby forgot to tell us why cable news should be covering this story.
You could make the same argument about police shootings, yet these other stories are not told to a wider audience.
DeleteThere is no indication that gang activity is something that can be stopped by public involvement or that it is caused by racism by the police or anyone else. I just don't see the point.
DeleteThe biggest thing people can do to stop such killings is to stop the demand for illegal drugs and other criminal products. Do you see that happening? I don't.
Community policing has helped in Los Angeles. I don't know what they are doing in Baltimore, but it is a local issue, not a national one.
Here's what they're doing in Baltimore. After the Freddie Gray tragedy and the reaction to it, Baltimore police reduced their crime prevention efforts. They are less vigorous in their policing. The result is that many more people have been murdered. Most of the victims and most of the perps are black. It's ironic that public reaction to the Freddie Gray death has led to many more black deaths.
DeleteSo holding police officers accountable for their actions leads to them to shirk their responsibilities.
DeleteYou can call that "ironic". I'll call it criminal.
I was once accused of cheating on my income taxes. Now, i don't pay income taxes at all. (That'll teach them.)
Delete"Ironic", isn't it?
How about holding parents in the community responsible for the ways they don`t raise their kids properly.
Delete7:37 AM,
DeleteHow about employers paying workers a good enough wage, parents won't both have to work, never mind both working multiple jobs to make ends meet.
11:27 -- You can call it "criminal". But, the fact is that black people are dying because of reduced police protection.
ReplyDelete11:30 - Your answer is cute and clever. Attacking bad police work shouldn't deter good police work. Unfortunately, that's exactly what has happened.
We need to find a way to reduce bad police work without reducing good police work (which is much more common.) Unfortunately, the approach used by the BLM and other liberals and much of the media is simply anti-police. People like George Zimmerman and Darren Wilson have been demonized even though their actions were justifiable.
D in C, other than your conclusory contention, and I presume right wing propaganda organs, what evidence do you have that anyone is being killed as a result of steps taken in reaction to the Freddie Gray death? How do you account for the continued reduction of crime in New York City, after the policy of stopping people on hunches was abandoned?
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteThere was a short NPR article from Dec. 31 (Baltimore Residents Blame Record-High Murder Rate on Lower Police Presence) summarizing a discussion from a radio program which indicated some of the locals blame the increase in homicides on the police backing off their patrols. No evidence was given either that the police actually did change their methods or that this supposed change was directly responsible for the large increase in homicides (1003 in the last three years vs. 662 in the preceding three). Read five other articles on post-Freddie Gray policing and crime stats in Baltimore and not a single expert confirmed David’s conclusions. Not saying these articles don’t exist; perhaps he can provide references.
Deletehttps://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-05-03/ferguson-effect-baltimore-millennials-worst-nightmare
Deletehttp://dailycaller.com/2017/10/01/the-fbis-latest-report-suggests-the-ferguson-effect-is-real/
https://www.city-journal.org/html/ferguson-effect-lives-14919.html
Dude - above are some article arguing that the Ferguson Effect is responsible for the increase in Baltimore murders. The third one is particularly comprehensive.
New York City is an exception to what has happened in other cities. Some assert that the reduced murder rate there is the result of gentrification. E.g., here's an academic study on this topic. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/285802834_Gentrification_and_Violent_Crime_in_New_York_City
Thanks David. Will read these. Reading the other articles tore at my gut, recalling a haunting murder trial jury experience from many moons ago (effing horrible). Can't agree with your assessment of Zimmerman though.
DeleteBaltimore's increasing crime trend started before the Freddie Gray incident. Baltimore's police are under-staffed, having no more force than other cities with dramatically less crime, and have suffered from corruption. Baltimore has had recent spikes in guns and opioid, contributing to the issue. Baltimore police are not reducing their efforts in reaction to Gray or BLM. George Zimmerman should have been found guilty. His actions have shown since his trial that he is a truly immoral and damaged person of unusually low character and frequent violence. He has proudly boasted of his killing of Martin and has attempted to profit from the murder. He publicly refers to Martin as a "moron", has tweeted a picture of Martin's dead body while announcing that he is "a one man army". He auctioned the gun he murdered Martin with, saying it is an "American firearm icon". He has been arrested numerous times for violence against women. After a recent incident involving violent behavior towards an african american woman, as he was hauled away by police, he exclaimed "I didn't know you were a nigger lover." As a jury member at the trial says "George Zimmerman got away with murder, but you can't get away from God."
ReplyDeleteBaltimore's increasing crime trend started before the Freddie Gray incident. Baltimore's police are under-staffed, having no more force than other cities with dramatically less crime, and have suffered from corruption. Baltimore has had recent spikes in guns and opioid, contributing to the issue. Baltimore police are not reducing their efforts in reaction to Gray or BLM. George Zimmerman should have been found guilty. His actions have shown since his trial that he is a truly immoral and damaged person of unusually low character and frequent violence. He has proudly boasted of his killing of Martin and has attempted to profit from the murder. He publicly refers to Martin as a "moron", has tweeted a picture of Martin's dead body while announcing that he is "a one man army". He auctioned the gun he murdered Martin with, saying it is an "American firearm icon". He has been arrested numerous times for violence against women. After a recent incident involving violent behavior towards an african american woman, as he was hauled away by police, he exclaimed "I didn't know you were a nigger lover." As a jury member at the trial says "George Zimmerman got away with murder, but you can't get away from God."
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