from The Gray Area:
1/30/23; updated 2/1/23:
If you are like me, when you heard the story (and even saw the video) of the Tyre Nichols beating in Memphis (and eventual death) you were horrified that something like this could happen for apparently no good reason. Even if he ran, he was not resisting arrest any longer when they held and beat him. Horrible! Despicable!
The other thought, these police officers were all black. I wonder how the media will handle that inconvenient truth in their coverage of this?
1. Will this episode quietly fall out of the news coverage after a few days?
2. Will it continue the same as if the perpetrators were white?
3. Will the media spin the story into something else?
Well, The headlines below in The Washington Post this weekend answers the question. Its apparently number 3.
The number of political narratives that are being inserted into this horrible story is laughable. But, nothing about this story can honestly be called laughable. But, serious journalistic attention to this story is glaringly absent. Replaced, instead, by political narratives.
Here are three WaPo headlines:
Tyre Nichols loved sunsets. People are sharing glowing skies in his honor. -
In life, Tyre Nichols loved sunsets. Each evening, he would watch the sky as it changed color, often snapping photos of the view, his mother said. In the days since his death, which came after he was brutally beaten by Memphis police officers, people across the country are sharing their images of powder-pink skies and glowing orange landscapes in his honor.
Systemic racism, institutional racism, sunsets, community policing, could this happen to a white man? Rarely mentioning that black police officers were involved (other than to say how activists must grapple with that fact in the face of '
institutional racism'). They don't mention how their efforts to 'defund the police' (changed now to '
community policing' due to the overwhelmingly negative reaction to the 'defund the police' movement) have caused
police departments to lower standards to get new recruits (two of those indicted were in that group of recruits). No. The media instinctively jumps to the political narratives they support and propagate vs concentration on facts and true journalistic curiosity to the causes.
Similar were
Van Jones remarks on CNN,
who said even though the five officers were black (as was Nichols), the beating could still have been driven by racism. His argument was that police officers—even black police officers—”internalize” certain stereotypes about other black people. These statements are nuts. A political narrative gone wild!
Now,
even Al Sharpton is coming out of the woodwork, as he usually does to stir up political emotions.
Normal people of every political tribe are appalled by this senseless action by 4 police officers in Memphis. Lets deal with that issue, and ignore the political opportunists who want to get something out of another crisis.
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