I must admit to watching the media coverage of the rioting with a certain amount of disgust, and this is one of the few times I kind of agree with the president’s comments after the grand jury’s decision regarding Officer Darren Wilson’s involvement in the Michael Brown shooting.
We are a nation built on the rule of law, and so we need to accept that this decision was the grand jury’s to make. There are Americans who agree with it and there are Americans who are deeply disappointed, even angry. It’s an understandable reaction. But I join Michael’s parents in asking anyone who protests this decision to do so peacefully.
— President Barack Obama
CNN referred to the shooting as a “murder” during their riot coverage. Fox News is still pontificating. The liberals are exploiting blacks on the ground while conservatives exploited willing blacks who are only showcased when the issue is race. Anarchists are using Ferguson as an excuse to continue their delusional quest to overthrow the country while college students participated to earn some feel-good, Ferguson extra credits.
The now-second-guessing cable news media wanted the juicy live video. Political halfrican-Americans seized on yet another opportunity to prove their blackness. Social media intellectuals showed their true colors. The activists wanted to revive their relevance. Criminals pounced on a police force that would be distracted. The writers at “Law & Order” have a new plot line. All found a way to cash in on a local tragedy.
What’s understandable is that we expected the insanity of looting and burning down of one’s own neighborhood after bitching that few businesses wanted to set up shop there. What’s understandable is the same sensationalist media that cherry-picked the Brown shooting and involved themselves in the wall-to-wall coverage, will lecture the nation before soon leaving behind the Ferguson residents with the devastation they helped inflame.
We were at the White House when the grand jury decision was announced and at the time, there were more police and media personnel than tourists.
One man overheard our conversation about the controversy and agreed to share his sobering perspective….
While I don’t agree with everything this man said, he did make a few valid points that mustn’t be dismissed just because it’s something you can’t identify with. To do so would make you sound like another elitist, know-it-all pundit wannabe.
And let’s not forget the dirty little secret: with the exception of the state’s lieutenant governor, almost all of the prominent players in the Ferguson tragedy are Democrats and/or progressives.
It will be very easy for many on the conservative side to cite the “rule of law”; the same sanctimonious who are on our televisions, radios, and campuses live a life of security most of us will never experience, thus their sheltered perspective on how things should be must be taken with a degree of skepticism.
Ferguson, Missouri is a self-inflicted wound committed by almost involved. There may be “no justice” and “no peace”, but there sure seems to be a teachable shortage of shame as well.
As for the media, next stop: Cleveland…?
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