Sensationalism
How the media can’t tell the truth
“White Missouri cop kills armed black 18-year-old”
This was a headline I read this morning, December 24th, as another black teen was killed by a police officer. Unlike the Eric Garner case, Antonio Martin’s death seems justified, unless I’m missing something. From what I can tell we have an 18-year-old high school dropout with a criminal history brandish an illegal firearm (serial number scratched off) in the face of a police officer. Am I missing something?
Yet as I sit here the state of Missouri continues to descend into the front lines of a racial war being fueled not by politicians, although they don’t help, but by the media begging U.S citizens to give them something tangible to manipulate in their headlines. In New York City, just days after two police officers were killed at point blank in protest to the death of Eric Garner, 5th Avenue was shut down by protestors yet again marching against the NYPD. In every corner of this country it’s as if citizens have taken sides and have declared a war against the problem.
But, what is the problem?
The deaths of Michael Brown and Antonio Martin are very different than that of Eric Garner. Garner’s death should have been the poster board for what the genuine protestors are bringing to light, because let’s be honest, peddling illegal cigarettes is not a justifiable reason for 6 police officers to jump on the back of a 300 pound man. Michael Brown and Antonio Martin though, they were plainly thugs, and I mean that word as it is intended, “a common criminal who treats others violently and roughly.”
Yet, by declaring these two to be thugs I am plainly labeled as a racist, because for some reason people think I can only believe that black people are thugs, but in this assessment people forget its true definition. Has anyone reading this essay ever listend to MGK (Machine Gun Kelly)? How about the countless other white rappers who I too declare to be thugs and who knowingly or otherwise perpetuate a culture of anarchy and disrespect to authority figures.
We have all seen the surveillance tape in the convenience store that Michael Brown robbed prior to his death. While the coverage of this tape was limited to the conservative news outlets, it is telling of the character Brown harbored. We hear about character a lot in the courtroom atmosphere as it is usually a telling factor in the likelihood that an individual would commit a crime. For those of you who have listened to the podcast Serial, Adnan’s character was the basis for his defense.
So why am I talking about character? Because, while Michael Brown’s death may not have been seen by the nation as justified, we were not there. Heresy is detrimental to the judicial process, and while the holes in the case are glaring, indicting the officer was not justifiable given the evidence of the case. So now on to Antonio Martin.
Currently there are hundreds of people battling with police officers over his death, literally fighting cops in anger. They are chanting the catch phrase “hands up don’t shoot” and ignoring any intellect when it comes to describing this young man. First and foremost, I’ve seen the surveillance video as most of you had, and his hands were certainly not up. He failed to ask for the police officer not to shoot. Why? Well it is very clear that Antonio Martin pointed a gun at the police officer, again to clarify, the gun was unregistered and most likely stolen. So why is it that we have blind riots declaring how great of a young man he was? What outstanding moral fiber he had? When in the few hours since his death we’ve discovered that he was a high school dropout (reference my Ferguson article for my opinion on this) and had a violent criminal history including armed robbery.
Through all of this tension over the past few weeks, what has remained a constant with the American public? Remember that headline at the beginning of the article, yes, that is the constant. We have the media sensationalizing every aspect of the case, pushing the racial divide as far as it can go, hoping that it will break down into full blown chaos. The media does not care, what is their repercussion? They will sell more papers, receive more clicks, anything but face the justice these protestors apparently seek. The media is to blame, once again, for perpetuating a culture of lies and deceit by picking only the facts that justify their headlines and continue to put money in their pockets. They do not care what the cost is, like the lives of those two NYPD officers last week, or the countless injuries that face innocent citizens if these marches continue to turn violent.
Playing with dynamite is never safe, and what the media is doing at this very moment can only be described as such. They give half of the supporters what they need to arm themselves with “facts” without addressing any of the actual problems that could be remedied by meaningful action, i.e. education reform.
