On August 18th, Bill O’Reilly discussed the charges of racism at a Missouri town hall. This is a news item that first surfaced on CNN, and has since risen in controversy. O’Reilly, and Dr. Marc Hill went over several of the facts of this case.
The problems though are many. Foremost is the fact that it seems all the details of what happened have yet to be accurately described. Yes, the White male was arrested for assault. Yes, signs are not allowed at that town hall meeting. Yes, the woman was in violation, and it is unclear what was in the mind of either individual involved.
The fact that the poster was of Rosa Parks does not instantly mean anyone knew who she was on the poster. I bet many of my readers wouldn’t be able to pick out Rosa Parks picture without help. Still that does not give anyone else a right to assault someone for the poster either. Even if they disagree with the poster. But that doesn’t make it an outright racial event. Especially at a highly heated debate as the health care reform issue is.
Based on those facts, CNN is wrong in allowing a depiction of this being a racist act. But O’Reilly is wrong to dismiss the accusations of signs with the N-word. It is something that is being reported, though not visually backed up, and thus is questionable as to veracity. So Dr. Hill should have stood stronger on that point.
But when Dr. Hill makes the claim that the town halls, across the nation as he implies, are all racist – I think he is channeling Speaker Nancy Pelosi. There is no proof of this. There is no way to even make a credible argument for this. So in effect all he is doing is fanning racial flames. Which is wrong.
But O’Reilly goes off the deep end when he assumes that the only possible way a person can find there to be racial animus at a town hall is if a White opposes President Obama’s health care reform – and thus must be assumed a racist by anyone Black. It is illogical and fallacious and insulting. Such reasoning is as bad as the claims of Dr. Hill. If this is not what O’Reilly meant, he did a supremely poor job of making his position clear.
But there is more to this, as I found on Youtube.
Given the additional video evidence, the question of racial discord seems far more credible. To a degree.
There is the fact that the initial incident looked to be approaching an explosion point. Which would mandate the separation of both parties. But if the excuse for the removal of the Black woman is the fact that she had a sign, why were the others with signs and flags allowed to stay? Why were police so forceful with the Black woman, once she was separated from the man assaulting her, and adamant in expelling her? Why were police so uncaring in dealing with other sign holders in the crowd?
And from the evidence I was able to find, I did not once see anything that included the N-word. Nor am I aware of any credible source stating that. Still there was a remarked difference, which should be addressed.
Was this event a blatant racially biased event? I think not. Though there was plenty of insensitivity and more than enough emotion – for various reasons. And I think that CNN, Tim Wise, Fox News, O’Reilly and Dr. Hill are all equally at blame for sensationalizing what happened at Hillsboro. Which just makes it that much harder to really address obvious issues when they appear in the media.
In all honesty, the major media can kiss my buttock when it comes to covering racial bias in this nation. The major media has a blind eye to what really should be discussed, and a knack for sensationalizing the more trivial events. I mean I still have yet to watch coverage of the Oscar Grant case, or Adolph Grimes and Robbie Tolan, which took place this year. Yet there was no end to coverage of OJ, and the spin on that was anything but a witch hunt.
This event is a tough call. It is obvious that there is a disparity. Much like the systemic disparity I have often spoken about. But if we only get to see the edited versions the major media provides we are left with an equally biased and unfair view of events from either side.
Perhaps that is the most important thing to keep in mind. Today the problem is not only the systemic problems that we as a nation have carried forward over centuries, but the overreactions of media in (rarely) both directions when they do choose to hype a situation. Ultimately neither helps resolve anything. And everyone loses.
I don’t think all town halls are like this. I don’t think everyone is like this. But until we deal with the underlying issues, and the ideological propaganda of the major media, it will only get worse.
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