The Daily Reveille
Tuesday, March 18, 2014
Opinion
page 17
Mother’s Day shooting coverage shows media bias OUR LADY OF ANGST SidneyRose Reynen Columnist Choosing which stories to tell the American public must be a hard task for the media. There’s so much we should be aware of — Miley Cryus stuck her tongue out again! President Barack Obama did something cute! A Republican politician said something offensive about women! Aside from these topics, the media, in a sadistic kind of way, loves covering violence. Debates about mental illness, gun rights and parenting are aroused, and large numbers of people tune in to see various pundits shout at one another on CNN. Sadly, we’ve been seeing too many of these incidents in a relatively small amount of time. On Mother’s Day last year, a joyous second-line parade in New Orleans was interrupted by a plethora of bullets. Fortunately, there were no fatalities. However, 19 people, including a few children, were shot, and another person was trampled as parade-goers attempted to flee. Soon after, two brothers, Akein “Keemy” Scott and
Shawn “Shizzle” Scott, were identified as the perpetrators of the violent shooting. Although this incident didn’t receive the level of press that accompanied the Boston Marathon bombing or the Aurora theater shooting, the case has been picked up by the U.S. Attorney’s Office after the brothers and seven others were indicted on federal drug trafficking charges. My question: when will national media cover this story? Though there were no fatalities, this is a serious crime of the same nature as what happened in Boston and Aurora. The bullets that struck those 19 people certainly could have killed them. Luckily, they didn’t. Only three people died as a result of the Boston Marathon bombings. Were the deaths of three non-African-American individuals more worthy than the injuries of 19 African-Americans? Nevertheless, I can’t help wondering how or if they would even cover such a story. The perpetrators were not identified as Muslim, so the media can’t go with the seemingly obligatory “terrorist” angle. The perpetrators were not frail, unsociable white kids, so they wouldn’t be able to have debates about their mental health. National media outlets seem
to be unconcerned with the perpetration of this so-called “blackon-black crime.” Unless there are white victims, black criminals don’t achieve the apparent stardom white criminals do. To the media, AfricanAmerican men committing crimes is nothing out of the ordinary and definitely not worth reporting. Even though statistics show white people have a higher rate of committing crimes than African-Americans, there is no societal recognition of these numbers. White people committed 65 percent of the reported rapes and 62.8 percent of aggravated assaults in 2012, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Media coverage of tragic events like the Aurora theater shooting hurts more than it helps. Victims and criminals become pawns in debates about gun rights, mental illness and terrorism. Instead of focusing on the actual humans involved, even the most respectable news outlets politicize the stories to no end. As with the Mother’s Day shooting, it is the lack of coverage that reveals more. Because this incident occurred in a predominantly AfricanAmerican area by African-American men, there is no one in the story for the white viewers at
MICHAEL DEMOCKER / The Times-Picayune
Shawn Scott, accused of the Mother’s Day second-line shooting that injured 20 people, is taken to Orleans Parish Prison in New Orleans on May 16, 2013.
home to identify with or even sympathize with. Because of phenomena such as “missing white woman syndrome,” referring to the hours upon hours of media coverage dedicated to stories about upper-middle class white women who have gone missing, it’s hard to ignore the media’s bias against stories that can’t be packaged neatly for the viewer’s consumption. The Mother’s Day shooting is not different from the crimes the
media chooses to cover. The only difference is that the media has deemed the victims unworthy of their coverage and sympathy. SidneyRose Reynen is an 18-yearold film and art history freshman from New Orleans.
Contact SidneyRose Reynen at sreynen@lsureveille.com; Twitter: @srosereynen
Michele Bachmann’s words advocate majority rights NO WAY, JOSE Jose Bastidas Columnist Representative Michele Bachmann opened the door to a whole new chapter in the “equal rights” debate by speaking on a topic no one has yet considered discussing in the public eye for fear of sounding like an intolerant bigot — the issue of majority rights. Earlier this month, Bachmann told conservative radio host Lars Larson her belief that the gay community bullied politicians’ agenda — a comment inspired by the latest veto of the infamous “anti-gay” bill in Arizona. Bachmann’s words have inspired a local conservative group to take action, and construction has begun on a 40-foot-tall monument to Bachmann in the middle of the LSU Student Union. The conservative group “Conservatives against foreigners and gays and other stuff,” or C.A.F.A.G.A.O.S., has successfully broken ground on the project, despite being unauthorized by school officials. “Michele is finally giving us conservatives a voice in public life,” President of C.A.F.A.G.A.O.S. and conservative studies freshman
Sissy Sarandon said. “After years of suffering in silence while minority rights were being put before our own, we want to honor the person who finally spoke up.” The monument, which as of now has no completion date, will be a giant statue of Bachmann holding a sign, which reads: “Say no to straight bullying.” Equal rights groups on campus declined to comment because they were unaware of C.A.F.A.G.A.O.S.’s existence. “We are following Michele [Bachmann]’s lead and have begun working on our own media advocacy program,” C.A.F.A.G.A.O.S. Vice President and male gender studies sophomore Jardaniel Jameson said. Immediately after Jameson swung a sledgehammer and literally “broke ground” on the project, he was arrested by LSUPD. “Jardaniel is our hero and we have contacted Michele’s office to implore her to come to his rescue,” Sarandon said. “If you’re reading this Michele, C.A.F.A.G.A.O.S. and Jardaniel need you.” C.A.F.A.G.A.O.S. was founded the day after Bachmann’s radio statement. In the past two weeks, members of the group have created proposals to ban gay groups from campus, deport every immigrant — including the ones with green cards — and send letters to
SUSAN WALSH / The Associated Press
Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Md., on March 8.
every public official in the nation to implore for the repeal of the Civil Rights Act. So far, they haven’t received any answers. Bachmann’s office manager replied to our request for comment with a puzzled, “Huh?” “We get that our leaders are busy, but we are ready to do whatever it takes to make them listen.”
Sarandon said. “If that means writing to all of them every day until they answer, then we will.” C.A.F.A.G.A.O.S. is a national organization comprised of Sarandon and Jameson. They will be holding tryouts for new members as soon as Jameson gets out of jail. “We want equal rights for ourselves,” Sarandon said. “Everyone
else can just move to Canada.” Jose Bastidas is a 20-year-old mass communication junior from The Woodlands, Texas.
Contact Jose Bastidas at jbastidas@lsureveille.com; Twitter: @jabastidas