thoughts. unfocused.

This is not meant to belittle Gabrielle Giffords or Lara Logan. Not at all. It’s meant to show that our media is fucked in how it presents violence to the public. Every murder and every rape should be front page news. No doubt. But while the Today Show, and others, decide to devote hours upon hours of airtime to inane crap, people die and women are raped. Every. Single. Day. Hell, not even local news station can manage to find time to devote a segment to a rape victim if there’s an acrobatic kitten involved.*

Last month there was a tragic shooting in Arizona. A maniac killed six people and wounded even more. A congresswoman was shot, so it’s been on the front page of many newspapers. It’s been a mainstay of cable news for the last month or so. Fair enough; something like that should be news. Our legislative branch went batshit and started contemplating (seriously, this time) mental health and gun control legislation. Maybe because one of their own was involved? The whole, this could have happened to me! thang goin on, ya dig?

Last week there was another tragedy. A news reporter was sexually assaulted while covering the protests in Egypt. This is awful, don’t get me wrong. The last few days it’s been another cable news staple. Again, fair enough. This should be news. But it’s only news because Mika Brzeznki was horrified**. How often, in the course of her career, do you think Mika Brzezinski has reported on a tragedy? Without emotion. But what do we have? This could have happened to me! thang goin on, ya dig?

Light should be shed on such horrific events in an attempt to make sure they don’t happen again. But our media only bolts into action when it appears as if we can bleed that shit dry, right? I aim to watch at least ten minutes of the morning news shows every day, and one thing is sure: they all cover the same “headline” stories, and they all are filling the f*** outta some time.

As of January 8, 2011 - the day six people were murdered in Arizona - there had been eight murders in Prince George’s County, MD. One a day. I didn’t see this on the cable news networks, and it makes me wonder how many other counties have similar murder rates. And how many murders fly under the national radar? I can only imagine.

Our national media is just…awful. Is that the best word? Awful? I used to desprise the phrase if it bleeds, It leads. I used to think it was a scummy way to run the news business. But now I’m thinking maybe, once a week, all news shows should be forced to focus on the most horrific acts of violence perpetrated throughout the country. Just to remind people.

Just to remind people that more than six people in this country have been murdered. Just to remind people that more than one woman has been raped.

—————-

* I’m not saying to not air the acrobatic kitten segment - damn that’s cute! But maybe cut out the weather. Who gets the weather forecast from the news, anyway?

** This woman is always so cold when reporting on tragedies. Today on MSNBC’s Morning Joe she was uncharacteristically emotional. Using her as an example.

She's a citizen! Build a fence around her!

NOTE:


This isn’t about illegal immigration. It’s about the blinders some anti-immigration activists wear when discussing Mexicans.

Yeah, I said it. Mexicans. Because I’ve never heard a Minuteman whine about how all those damn Irish Catholics are making job-stealing babies by the minute. I mean come on! If any group in the United States is taking up job space it's the Catholics. 100% FACT: For every illegal immigrant in the United States, there are 85, 568 Catholics who refuse to work. Okay, I made that up. Sue me.

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From Yahoo! today: Border activist convicted in deadly home invasion

This woman and her henchmen killed two people. And yet, we have not built a fence around her.

I'd like to take just a few moments to point out one of many differences between so-called Minutemen and other anti-immigration activists.* When an illegal immigrant commits a heinous crime such as murder, anti-immigrant folks rail about how this is why we need better border security, this is why we need a fence! We need to keep these people out! All they bring to this country is crime! And they steal our jobs!

I'll forego, for the time being, the bullshit job-taking, crime-bringing anti-immigrant talk. It's mostly just thinly-veiled racism, but whatever.

There's a stark contrast between folks like me and Minutemen, and we see it in what occurs in situations such as this.

Where is the rage from progressives over this anti-immigrants crime? Why aren't we calling for all Minutemen to be put in jail, or shoved into a small sect of land! Why, Shawna Ford killed those people! And she's an anti-illegal immigrant activist! They must all be like that!

Why is that not happening? Because we progressives - liiibrulz! - are fairly level-headed. We realize that just because three Minuteman commits an awful crime doesn't necessarily mean all of them are equally capable of committing crimes of the same nature.

There are scumbags in the United States. Some of them are illegal immigrants. Some of them are citizens of this country.  I think I'll call Tom Tancredo in the morning, just to ask if he's gonna do anything about this shit.

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* It's my belief that when you get down to the core of such beliefs it's all just thinly-veiled racism/xenophobia powering it all. So I generally refer to such folks as simply anti-immigration activists.

Mubarek, Mushmarek

I did not pick up on this until today. There were a few headlines on Yahoo! today describing Hosni Mubarek as an "embattled" President.

Embattled President? No. No...NO!

Mubarek is a dictator. And the people of Egypt have had enough. Good for them. I hope they stay in the streets. I hope they flip over more cars and burn more s***. Those who are brave enough to stand up to their tyrannic dictator deserve our respect and support. If this keeps up, there will likely be massive bloodshed. Hopefully it won't come to that, but if you can cite a true revolution that didn't require a physical, bloody (and I'm talking Under Siege-type bloody) I'd be surprised. But anywho....

It's amazing to me that a country founded on a violent revolution is so ambivalent to the troubles of a nation in a similar state of resistance to oppression. I remember two weeks ago, there was quite a bit of hostility toward the protesters. The general consensus was,  Whaazahh huh?! B-b-b-ut Egypt is my friend! 
 Uh, derrrrrp. And yet, we still show a bit of deference to Mubarek.

Why? He's a prick. But he's a prick who's allowed the covert US agencies to torture suspects for the last gabillion years. That's why.

SIDE NOTE: I was going to write a much more substantial blog, but in trying to find a quote from the incredible Chalmers Johnson concerning "extraordinary renditions," I found out that Johnson passed away late last year. Now I'm f***ing really sad, because Chalmers Johnson was just...awesome. I've always jokingly referred to him as the poor man's Noam Chomsky, because he was not as well-known to the general public. Whatever.

This sucks.

An article by Mr. Johnson. From 2007.