Arrest The Media For Inciting Riots And Violence

Recent debate over the types of photos used to portray black shooting victims exposes a widely held bias that assumes they are criminals, rights advocates said this week as many in the African-American community called attention to what they say is mainstream media misrepresentation in the wake of yet another police shooting of an unarmed black man. Police shot and killed unarmed Missouri teenager Michael Brown, 18, on Aug. 9 in Ferguson, a suburb of St. Louis, sparking protests in the mostly black community against the mostly white police force.

Though some initial media reports showed Brown smiling at his high school graduation in cap and gown, most chose a photo of a stoic-looking Brown wearing a red jersey and throwing what some could interpret as a gang sign, which friends said was simply a peace sign.

Some experts said such media portrayals reveal a pattern of criminalizing black bodies in the U.S. media.

“It’s playing into the bias exposed after Trayvon Martin was killed. Even though young white people wear hoodies too, [George] Zimmerman saw someone who was … ‘up to no good,’” said Rashad Robinson, executive director of Color of Change, a group aimed at strengthening black Americans’ political voice.

“These young people have their bodies criminalized even after death.”

Decriminalization occurs when images chosen by media consciously or unconsciously create a justification for why people of color are killed, he said.

After African-American teen Renisha McBride was shot and killed by a resident in a mostly white neighborhood while reportedly asking for help after a car accident, the media focused on whether McBride was drunk or high on marijuana at the time — a debate that Robinson said glosses over the fact that she probably posed no threat to her shooter.

Many African-Americans feel as if they have to prove they are “one of the good ones” in order to gain sympathy in mainstream America, he said, noting that Brown’s mother told reporters after his death that her son had graduated and was headed for college.

“They have to earn the right for the benefit of the doubt or to be humanized or to gain empathy for their family,” Robinson said. “This is how the media views the humanity of black people, their dignity in life and in death.”

Exacerbating the problem, Robinson said, are media portrayals of African-American men in narrow roles.

It was nice watching Ed Schultz have to eat crow, because he got caught dead to rights. He knew full well that he edited Perry's speech to purposely leave off the debt part in order to try and brand Governor Perry as a racist. Do you all see a pattern forming with all of this? There is a reason why I harp on and on and on about not trusting the national media. I remember watching Andrea Mitchell of NBC and MSBNC reporting at a Sarah Palin Going Rouge book signing saying that the people standing in line "were mostly white" like what that have to do with anything I'm not sure. With all that said, it doesn't surprise me at all that NBC News edited the Zimmerman 911 call and took out what the 911 dispatcher said with the intent to try and paint George Zimmerman as a racist. It's just another example in a long line of shameful race manipulating tactics passed off as "journalism" by NBC News and the national media in general.

At what point does all of this start to backfire and people in the media are held accountable for there actions as you would a Law Enforcement Officer or Public Official. At what point do you cry wolf so many times and beat the race issue into the ground that you make the problem worse.