During a speech in Baltimore on Saturday, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan justified the violence that took place in Ferguson, Missouri in the aftermath of the grand jury decision and called on African-Americans to “die for something” and “tear this goddamn country up” as peaceful protests only benefit “white folks.” Since Farrakhan’s remarks at Morgan State University became public, the major broadcast networks have all ignored the story completely in both their respective morning and evening newscasts.
Michael Brown
By Tom Blumer | November 30, 2014 | 11:56 PM EST
The establishment press's performance in Ferguson has certainly been disgraceful, especially its role in turning one local death into a national obsession.
One element of that buildup involves Shawn Parcells, one of two men hired by the family of Michael Brown, the 18 year-old man who was killed in an altercation with Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson in early August, to look into his death. The press, including CNN in a video seen here, has reported much of what Parcells has claimed throughout the case with little if any skepticism, permanently poisoning the well with non-factual and doubt-inducing information feeding the left's insatiable desire for proof of incurable racism in law enforcement and America in general.
By Tom Blumer | November 28, 2014 | 7:32 PM EST
Lisa Bloom describes herself as a "Fighter for justice at my law firm, The Bloom Firm," and is "legal analyst for NBC News & Avvo."
NBC and Avvo should seriously reconsider their relationships with Ms. Bloom. In a series of tweets on Tuesday, she seethed over the grand jury's failure to indict Darren Wilson in the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. Since then, she's been a whirling dervish of dementia over "#WhitePrivilege." First, let's look at the crucial Tuesday tweets which exposed Bloom's fundamental dishonesty about Ferguson:
By Randy Hall | November 28, 2014 | 5:32 PM EST
Even though It's only been a few days since the grand jury in Ferguson, Mo., decided not to charge police officer Darren Wilson with any crimes connected to his shooting of black 18-year-old Michael Brown on August 9, racism has become a hot topic for columnists and commentators.
One extensive discussion on the subject was “The New Threat: Racism Without Racists,” which was written by John Blake, a blogger for the Cable News Network who quoted Duke University social expert Eduardo Bonilla-Silva on Friday as stating: “The main problem nowadays is not the folks with the hoods, but the folks dressed in suits.”
By Tom Blumer | November 28, 2014 | 4:55 PM EST
To grievance-mongers in the fever swamp, Trayvon Martin will always be a cute little kid who had just bought Skittles and iced tea, and then got shot by a bloodthirsty racist on neighborhood watch. The truth — that Martin bought Skittles and AriZona Watermelon Fruit Juice Cocktail, two of the three key ingredients in a mind-altering, dangerous concoction known as "lean," and that Martin's autopsy showed "liver damage ... consistent with ... excessive 'lean' usage" — doesn't matter.
Taking dishonesty to the next level, the mythology surrounding Michael Brown's death at the hands of Ferguson, Missouri police officer Darren Wilson, which insists that Brown had his hands up and said "Don't shoot!" has been completely discredited. But that doesn't matter, because, y'know, it's a "metaphor" that can't be allowed to go away. The Associated Press, via reporters David A. Lieb and Holbrook Mohr, disgracefully — but all too typically — gave the reality-deniers a 980-word story to spread their garbage (bolds are mine throughout this post):
NY Times Hypocritically Spreads Skepticism on Ferguson Grand Jury; Calls Cops an 'Alien, Occupying Force'
By Clay Waters | November 27, 2014 | 12:27 PM EST The New York Times continued to spread skepticism about the decision by a grand jury in Ferguson, Mo., not to seek criminal charges against a white police officer who shot a black teenager. The Times hypocritically upended its own liberal sensibility by suggesting more prosecutorial zeal would have been a good thing in this particular case. And a lead editorial likened the Ferguson police to "an alien, occupying force that is synonymous with state-sponsored abuse."
By Curtis Houck | November 27, 2014 | 7:07 AM EST
During his MSNBC show on Wednesday night, Ed Schultz and guest Mike Papantonio devoted five minutes to promoting, among other things, their beliefs that Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson “crafted his answers” to the grand jury and in his interview with ABC News “to match the law” and that Fox News, the tea party, and conservatives will soon want their “made-for-TV folk hero” in Wilson to run for Congress and appear on Dancing with the Stars.
Following a series of clips from Wilson’s interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, Schultz welcomed in Papantonio and felt it was crucial to warn viewers that “I’m going to judge here, okay” that Wilson had “got crafted answers to match the law so he could escape justice.”
By Tim Graham | November 26, 2014 | 11:14 PM EST
On Wednesday's Today, NBC co-host Savannah Guthrie confronted Michael Brown's mother, Leslie McSpadden, as gently as you possibly could about her husband encouraging the latest round of Ferguson rioting. After showing a video of Louis Head screaming "Burn this b--ch down," McSpadden refused to hold him accountable for the aftermath. Instead, she blamed the white governor for the unrest. Guthrie had no pushback beyond "Can you explain what you mean?"
By Jeffrey Meyer | November 26, 2014 | 8:18 AM EST
On Tuesday night, Cornell Brooks, president of the NAACP, appeared on CNN’s Erin Burnett OutFront to discuss the shooting death of Michael Brown and dismissed calls for violence by a member of Michael Brown’s immediate family as inciting violence. Burnett played video of Brown’s stepfather, Louis Head, telling a crowd of protestors to “burn this bi*** down” after the grand jury decided not to indict Officer Darren Wilson and asked Brooks if “that served as a call for violence?” Rather than condemn Brown’s stepfather’s highly charged rhetoric, the president of the NAACP proclaimed “I don't think that was a call for violence or it caused violence.”
By Curtis Houck | November 25, 2014 | 9:24 PM EST
The CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley used the conclusion of its Tuesday night broadcast to lament and highlight the instances in which President Barack Obama has commented on the issue of race and how the events in Ferguson, Missouri have “tested once more” the President who has “willingly shouldered the burden of a nation fractured along racial lines” despite his “unrealistic expectations of healing” these divisions.
By Scott Whitlock | November 25, 2014 | 4:40 PM EST
According to MSNBC panelist Mychal Denzel Smith, the problem with the Ferguson decision is that people are not dealing with the inherent "racism" and "white supremacy" of America. The Nation magazine blogger appeared on the Reid Report to praise the protests as a way to make "the people in these privileged and powerful positions uncomfortable with all of the death that we are facing, the terrorization that we are facing as a community."
By Jeffrey Meyer | November 25, 2014 | 4:13 PM EST
On Tuesday afternoon, MSNBC host Al Sharpton conducted a news conference with attorneys for the family of Michael Brown. Immediately following the news conference, MSNBC host Ronan Farrow expressed his outrage at the lack of charges brought against Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson for the shooting death of Michael Brown. Speaking during his Ronan Farrow Daily program, the MSNBC host proclaimed “Reverend Al Sharpton along with attorneys for Michael Brown’s family, Benjamin Crump and Anthony Gray, giving their first remarks since the incendiary announcement in Ferguson last night.”