Oh the jubilation in America today. I have been watching the news (Fox News channel) since 10am. The worst or best depending on your point of view, news out all day has been OJ Simpson. You might think nothing else has happened in the country or world with all the coverage this has gotten.
Most jubilant of all the commentators (news anchors these days comment and interpret the news far too much to call them newscasters) is Sheppard Smith, on the air since 3pm. The man is fairly glowing with joy announcing that OJ Simpson is potentially in trouble. He spent the first 11 minutes 30 seconds of his program discussing nothing else. He even preempted news on a hurricane report. At 3:15, after a commercial break, he his back at it on the same subject.
So far today every 3rd news story has been about OJ Simpson. Whether it’s about the alleged robbery in Vegas, or the book that was initially considered completely vile and insulting and is now being published to make the Goldman family money.
Honestly, I could care less about OJ. He is no superstar since he left football. His life is anything but astounding. But he does not deserve the attention and media focus he receives. Jack the Ripper got less attention.
But here is the point I want to make. Some may say, ‘Michael, you go on and on about the imbalance of the media. You claim there is bias in news stories and racism in the nation. But it’s really not that bad.’ And I agree it’s not that bad, compared to the 1920’s when Rosewood was destroyed, or the 1960’s when fire hoses and police dogs (not to mention an uncounted number of murders) were unleashed on African Americans. That doesn’t mean it’s good.
On August 24th the major news media ignored the news that a murderer was finally going to be brought to justice. The fact that it took over 40 years to do so was never mentioned. The fact that local police knew who killed to Black teens and did nothing was not mentioned. It was just glossed over.
Continued in part 2...
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