Have you heard about Wesley Snipes? Why not? - 6.18.2007.2

Sometimes you need to look back to see a full picture. As we live our lives going from point A to B we sometimes lose track of events around us. It’s human nature. The news media in this nation are no less human, but considering the nature of their profession they are supposed to be more reliable. So when I looked back on an item I wrote about Mr. Wesley Snipes, I found it interesting how the media has reacted.

For those that may have forgotten,

“I have some issues with this whole thing. First is the fact that the government accepted an amended claim of 0 income and made a refund of $7,000,000 without a red flag popping up is not Mr. Snipes fault. I would think someone would have noticed before now. And to suddenly issue a warrant without contacting an individual that has international travel as a normal course of business seems extreme. So far as has been reported no attempt to contact Mr. Snipes has been done.”

That was on day one. Things progressed as follows,

“I’m speaking about comments that I have heard in regards to Mr. Wesley Snipes. While Mr. Snipes has been indited by the government, the hoopla that has been brewing seems to be misplaced. You may have seem comments like ‘where is Welsely Snipes’ or comments like ‘no one can find Mr. Snipes’… I speculated that Mr. Snipes might just be out of the country. Like many entertainers in the movie acting industry, Mr. Snipes does travel out of the country to film projects on location… I wonder though why not one news agency that I saw, and not one article I read, mentioned this possibility. Rather they just inferred that Mr. Snipes was in hiding. Why?”

Then in November

“It is his claim that “I'm to be the scapegoat, because there's more public interest in `celebrities gone bad' than `rich people being taken advantage of”.

Which lead to

“In current news, why is it that news media agencies are molding the voluntary surrender to authorities of Mr. Wesley Snipes as the cops actively moving in and arresting him? Mr. Snipes has returned from his work in Namibia, and as worked out surrendered to authorities peaceably. Yet if you listen to the soundbites on the news stations it sounds as if Mr. Snipes came back, got off a plane and authorities swooped in…”

So what was the outcome of all this activity? Well according to TheSmokingGun.com Mr. Snipes has unfairly claimed that race was a factor in the ongoing case. They went on to say

“Douglas Rosile and Eddie Kahn, have not been charged with failure to file tax returns, though investigators are aware that Kahn did not file returns for six years and that it was "possible" Rosile did not file for two years”

Stay with me here, Continued in part 2...