How to Succeed Without Really Trying

Hello Thinkers,

Some of you have asked me what I think about W's selection of Harriet Miers for Supreme Court Justice. I'll get that opinion out this week. In the words of President Bush, "Trust me."

However, this event developed over the weekend and with most interesting news articles, there are at least 3 other "unwritten stories" that are there if you look close enough, sometimes more. After a long Saturday morning of baby tending and removing computer viruses, I took a lunch break and hit the couch. I did the usual quick channel surf over a bowl of soup and stopped at FNC. There was a large crowd of black men breaking into a store with blaring text at the bottom of the screen indicating this was happening in Toledo, OH.

From what I saw and heard reported, an American Nazi group planned a march in Toledo protesting gang violence. (I'll leave the usual First Amendment debate out of this.) As one might expect, counter protests began and things got ugly fast. Fox had a live local feed from a helicopter camera crew as roving gangs of almost exclusively young black men looted a store, broke into a bar (eventually burning it) and terrorized the neighborhood. Once the violence started, the American Nazi group march was ended and they either left or were escorted from the area.

I quickly surfed the other news stations as the violence, captured live, was unfolding. I knew the answer to my unspoken question before I touched the remote. Only Fox was covering this.

So what was the headline from ABC News/AP on Sunday?:

"White Supremacists Riot in Toledo, Ohio"

and

"Mayor of Toledo, Ohio, Declares Emergency, Sets Curfew After Hundreds of White Supremacists Riot"

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1220242&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312

...Now granted, I was not in Toledo to witness this. However, I did watch it for the better part of an hour and the only white people I saw (and hence the only ones who could be logically considered "White Supremacists") were the news people reporting it. So for this event, and the aforementioned news story, here are the "unwritten stories" that I see:

1. Misleading reporting - in this case outright lies.
2. Journalistic Sin of Omission.
3. A society doing the stupidest thing imaginable.
4. Case study: How to get the results you want with the least possible effort.

First there is 1. Misleading reporting. The headline of the article EXPLICITLY states that the rioters were "White Supremacists." In the interest of political correctness, ABC News and AP wants you believe that white supremacists were the ones who looted the stores, burned down a family tavern and rioted. They didn't.

Next, let's look at 2. Journalistic Sin of Omission. The ABC/AP article does little, if anything to inform you that the looting and arson was done by roving gangs of young black men - and not white supremacists as their headline says. Would this standard of reporting be the same if young white men rioted at a Louis Farrakhan march? Reading the article, you might be able to figure out what happened - or you might not.

TOLEDO, Ohio Oct 16, 2005 - Protesters at a white supremacists' march threw rocks at police, vandalized vehicles and stores and cursed the mayor for allowing the event. Mayor Jack Ford said when he and a local minister tried to calm the rioters Saturday, they were cursed and a masked gang member threatened to shoot him. At one point, the crowd reached 600 people, officials said.
...
Rioters set fire to 86-year-old Louis Ratajski's neighborhood pub, Jim & Lou's Bar, but he and his nephew escaped the flames.
...
One group of men pounded on a convenience store, and others overturned vehicles.
...
"It's exactly what they wanted," Ford said of the group that planned the march, which was canceled because of the rioting.
...
Officers wearing gas masks fired tear gas canisters and flash-bang devices designed to stun suspects, but the groups continued throwing rocks and bottles.
...
Finally, police marched shoulder-to-shoulder down the street shouting to people to stay inside, and the crowd of several hundred broke up.

...Also, of all the images that ABC News could put on their website, they chose one obscure enough to mask the features of the "protesters."

I do not, nor have I ever supported the American Nazi party. But if they were out to protest against your demographic, would you think the best response is arson and looting? This brings us to 3. A society doing the stupidest thing imaginable and 4. Case study: How to get the results you want with the least possible effort.


The best thing these "protesters" could have done was to prove the American Nazi party wrong. Instead, they chose to add credibility to the Nazi's argument. Just plain stupid. I'm certain the Nazi's were toasting their horrible success late into Saturday evening. Probably at about the same time ABC News and AP decided to throw their credibility out the window.

I expect ABC News will either rewrite or kill this link as it is a flagrant example of PC bias in their reporting. Check out these sites that are covering this and include screen shots of the original ABC/AP news story:

http://newsbusters.org/node/2277
http://michellemalkin.com/archives/003733.htm