Appearing on the November 24 edition of Hardball, MSNBC contributor Michelle Bernard called for the federal Justice Department to "get involved" in prosecuting Ferguson, Missouri, police officer Darren Wilson regardless of the outcome of the St. Louis County grand jury investigation. Bernard insisted that Brown was the latest "casualty" of a nationwide "war on black boys."
Missouri
By Ken Shepherd | November 21, 2014 | 3:42 PM EST
“What do we want?”
“Darren Wilson!”
“How do we want him?”
“Dead!”
That's a call-and-response chant of radical, bloodthirsty protesters outside the police department in Ferguson, Mo., on Thursday, Nov. 20, as reported by freelancer Justin Glawe, writing at the Daily Beast.
By Tim Graham | November 12, 2014 | 8:37 AM EST
The Washington Post has appointed a “social change reporter,” Sandhya Somashekar, and her front-page story on Wednesday promoted black protesters surrounding the Michael Brown shooting in Ferguson, Missouri. The subhead was “Protesters aim to keep pricking the consciousness of whites and the political establishment.”
Somashekar made absolutely zero reference to the Post’s earlier reporting that seven or eight African American eyewitnesses are backing up the account of police officer Darren Wilson that Michael Brown was fighting for the policeman’s gun, causing Wilson to fire in self-defense.
By Curtis Houck | October 22, 2014 | 10:15 PM EDT
On Wednesday, the results of the St. Louis County autopsy of 18-year-old Michael Brown, who died after being shot by Ferguson, Missouri police officer Darren Wilson on August 9, were leaked to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper and largely supports Wilson’s claims that he had a physical altercation with Brown inside his police SUV.
When it came to the major broadcast networks offering any mention of this big development, CBS and NBC failed to cover the story on both their morning and evening newscasts, respectively.
By Ken Shepherd | October 15, 2014 | 8:48 PM EDT
Below the fold on the front page of the October 15 edition of the Washington Post was a rather fascinating story out of Ferguson, Missouri, about how young black voters in the St. Louis suburb are considering casting at least one vote on the ballot this November for a Republican.
By Randy Hall | September 17, 2014 | 7:18 AM EDT
The Huffington Post announced that readers had chipped in $40,969 to fund a reporter staying on the scene in Ferguson to report on the ongoing conspiracy to protect brutal police and keep the blacks poor.
They called it a fundraising campaign for "compelling" coverage after most of the national media moved on.
By Ann Coulter | August 28, 2014 | 9:41 PM EDT
As the story of Ferguson, Missouri, police officer Darren Wilson's shooting of Michael Brown begins to look less clear-cut than we were led to believe by Brown's friend, Dorian Johnson, the "voices of oppression" on MSNBC now say the real issue is that there aren't enough blacks on the Ferguson police force.
As Brown may or may not have said seconds before his death: I give up.
By Ken Shepherd | August 22, 2014 | 4:45 PM EDT
In the center of CNN.com's front page right now is a headline demanding, "Where's Officer Wilson?" "As Ferguson calmed after nights of protests over the fatal shooting of an unarmed black teen, the question remains: Where's the police officer who pulled the trigger?" a caption below a file photo of Wilson added.
Yes, now that things have calmed down and returned to normal, what's the harm in stoking outrage about a "missing" police officer who hasn't been charged with a crime. Here's how CNN.com's Fatih Karimi and Michael Pearson opened their August 22 story:
By Kyle Drennen | August 21, 2014 | 3:20 PM EDT
Between Wednesday's evening newscasts and Thursday's morning shows, NBC, CBS, and ABC all praised Attorney General Eric Holder's visit to Ferguson, Missouri. On Wednesday's NBC Nightly News, correspondent Ron Allen proclaimed: "Those demanding justice for Michael Brown are relieved that Eric Holder is here because they simply don't trust the local authorities." [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]
On Thursday's CBS This Morning, correspondent Vladimir Duthiers similarly announced: "The visit by Attorney General Eric Holder to Ferguson was really an effort by the White House to try to bring back confidence to a community that's just been torn apart by the shooting of the 18-year-old Michael Brown....Now, many here are seeing Holder's presence as a step towards transparency."
NYT's Front Page Gushes on Eric Holder, 'Leaning Forward' on Race in Ferguson Case; Hits Too-Cool Obama From Left
By Clay Waters | August 20, 2014 | 10:01 PM EDT More pampering of Obama's Attorney General Eric Holder on the front page of the New York Times: Wednesday's edition featured "Shared Vision, Varying Styles," yet another defense of Holder (and criticism of Obama from the left) in a "news analysis" in the paper's off-lead slot by White House reporter Peter Baker, with Matt Apuzzo.
Strangely for a story on racial matters under Obama, the story made no mention of Obama's infamous judgment that Boston police had "acted stupidly" after a racially fraught incident in July 2009 involving the arrest of black Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates. Also nothing about Holder playing the race card by blaming opposition to the administration's policies on "racial animus."
By Ken Shepherd | August 20, 2014 | 4:15 PM EDT
Here's a somewhat racial angle to the Ferguson, Mo., saga that you probably won't see MSNBC pick up on. The Daily Beast's Tim Mak today reported on "Ferguson's Other Race Problem: Riots Damaged Asian-Owned Stores."
"Asian-Americans own a number of the stores lining West Florissant Avenue, where more than 20 businesses have suffered damage in the wake of Michael Brown’s killing," Mak noted, adding that "At least five of these stores are Asian-American-owned, according to local sources and business records. Just 0.5 percent of Ferguson is of Asian descent, according to 2010 U.S. Census data." While he made clear that local Asian-American business owners "don’t think looters targeted them because of their race" that it's undisputable that they have suffered store damage and economic loss because of the looting and violence:
CBS's Axelrod Praises Twitter's Ferguson Protests; Omits How Featured Protester Hoped Rioters/Looters 'Keep at It'
By Ken Shepherd | August 14, 2014 | 9:40 PM EDT Smartphones and social media are enabling African-Americans all over the country to join in on peaceful, digital protests of the fatal shooting of unarmed Ferguson, Mo., teenager Michael Brown, CBS's Jim Axelrod reported on the August 14 Evening News. Axelrod turned to one such Twitter user, "Andre Fields... a 27-year-old political aide" from New York. But while Axelrod presented Fields as measured and interested in "both sides" of the story being heard, a look at this Twitter stream reveals some disturbing tweets.
"If rioting and looting is what it's gonna take for them to get their voices recognized then I say keep at it," Fields (@_JustDreTho) tweeted at 10:31 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday, August 12. Hours earlier, Fields tweeted a quote from the late Martin Luther King Jr., "Riots are the language of the unheard." Of course the whole conceit of Axelrod's story is that the previously unheard and marginalized ARE being heard, and seen, through the peaceful and ubiquitous means of social media [see the segment's transcript, screen capture, embedded tweets and video below page break]