On Wednesday, November 24, just before the Thanksgiving holiday, a jury found Gregory McMichael (65), his son Travis McMichael (35), and their neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan (52) guilty on 23 counts in the murder of Ahmaud Arbery on February 23, 2020, near Brunswick, in Glynn County, Georgia.
Let's not forget the job done by journalists at the New York Times and initially at the Brunswick News for digging out and reporting the facts of the case, keeping it alive. Newspapers are intended for far more than just carrying Black Friday advertisements.
Ted, Look who I found yesterday. She's speaking for all journalists as you are, too! Thank you.
Angie Drobnic Holan, editor-in-chief, PolitiFact:
I’m grateful for people who take time to send notes of appreciation and encouragement to journalists. Between boatloads of misinformation and media bashing from all sides, there are some days when being a journalist is just plain hard. On those days, a few notes of praise can make all the difference. Here are just a few of the comments the team at PolitiFact received recently: “I appreciate your work to bring truth to the people.” “I believe in what you are trying to do.” “I love what you do. It’s critical to expose damaging falsehoods.” Those words mean a lot in tough times. If you appreciate a journalist’s work, take a minute this month to let them know.
Thanks, Fern. Did you know that many, many real journalists throughout the world are murdered daily because they research and publish the truth. Many of them are killed by thugs who have been hired by fossil fuel companies, governments, and other corporations that fear their raping counties of natural resources might be delayed.
No one has been held to account in 81% of journalist murders during the last 10 years, CPJ’s 2021 Global Impunity Index has found.
By Jennifer Dunham/CPJ Deputy Editorial Director
Published October 28, 2021
Somalia remains the world’s worst country for unsolved killings of journalists, according to CPJ’s annual Global Impunity Index, which spotlights countries where members of the press are singled out for murder and the perpetrators go free.
The index showed little change from a year earlier, with Syria, Iraq, and South Sudan, in that order, again coming in behind Somalia to occupy the worst four spots on the list, as conflict, political instability, and weak judicial mechanisms perpetuate a cycle of violence against journalists.
Excellent suggestion! I do this often, and even get replies!! But, frankly, I stay away from the righties because most of them have ears closed and eyes shut unless one echoes their diatribe.
Yup. Sinclair is not a news organization. They are in the business of engagement for serving marketing (ads). They follow what Facebook has made so apparently simple. In order to charge customers for advertising, they must first demonstrate engagement, and that metric can be manipulated with enragement practices and content.
Impressive! Thank you. The website graphics are very well done. I have read they are securing a wide grip among numerous outlets to promote a very conservative; right wing. I am not seasoned enough or familiar enough with them to assert the latter one way or the other.
Sinclair, Fox, Facebook are engaged in an immoral and unethical practice for profit. They do not care who they hurt, by how much, nor the greater effect on civil society.They feed off Demagogues that fan the flames of indifference, outrage, and hate. How long will we choose to keep it legal?
"How long will we choose to keep it legal?" I fear that cat is already out of the bag. Or, the genie out of the bottle. Either way, they "ain't" going back.
Much of the free press in America and the rest of the world is disappearing largely because of Murdoch, Sinclair, Gannett, and a couple of other companies that control almost all of the media,
In the U.S. the Fairness Doctrine played into the hands of the Murdochs at the behest of Reagan. Truth and fact in reporting became its casualty. Electronic technology did not help in some respects, because of the celerity with which "news" is broadcast and skewed to a particular political ideology. While I believe most news/media outlets really want to be on the right side of integrity and morality, several do not want to be there, are not there and are nefarious by intention.
Exactly. Same spectacle as a sports game. The bigger the rivalry, the more outrageous and emotional the pregame is, the closer the game, the more attentive the viewers or, “spectators” to it all. It’s interesting that Sinclair also owns a pro wrestling venue. That’s where their playbook comes from.
Lesson 10: “To abandon facts is to abandon freedom. If nothing is true, then no one can criticize power, because there is no basis upon which to do so. If nothing is true, then all is spectacle. The biggest wallet pays for the most blinding lights.”- Dr. Tim Snyder
Corporate control of mass communications, of political parties, of the branches of government and the courts. Wealth gap and inequality at historical highs. Ownership of the means of production, capital, access to credit, and power highly concentrated at the top.This creates class conflict. And history shows that the conflict can either be reduced by increasing equality by reordering the wealth and increasing freedom ( access to the vote). When this doesn’t happen, revolutions do.
Or not. To believe in only one possible outcome, to think it that oligarchy is the only inevitability, doesn’t take history nor those who are taking responsibility for making it into account. We are Heather’s Herd, and we are chipping away at what RFK labeled “the vanity of false distinctions”.
Ah, yes, RFK. One of my champions! His brother was my Commander -in-Chief. I admit to being skeptical and cynical at this stage in my life. It has been a life-learning experience!! If we are part of "Heather's Herd", we are well-advised not to stand in one place for too long; or, being too silent.
Very true, and a dangerous state of affairs for democracy. Without a robust fourth estate to question and publicize the actions of government, the ever present lure of corruption - not to mention idiocy - has no check on it. The larger problem seems to be that currently there is no strong financial model for gathering and disseminating in depth news. With smartphone cameras anyone can be an amateur reporter, but that seems to squeeze out the space for professionals. To the detriment of us all.
Intellect has given sway to sound bites and half-a**ed opinions marketed as "news" of, worse, "facts". The idiocy to which you speak was lauded by Sarah Palin (OH, GOD!) when she railed publicly against intelligence and those "intellectuals". Unknown to her ilk, being "smart" takes work.
Aren't you discounting the advent of the Internet? It more than anything brought about the ruin of local papers. It lowered the barriers to entry and, at the same time, undercut the basic advertising model that had always paid the bills. In truth, many cities wouldn't have newspapers today without chains like Gannett that mastered how to publish on the cheap. By cheap, I mean papers with many fewer stories, and often stories of diminished quality. Even in pre-Internet years, newspaper readership had been steadily eroding. Corporate consolidation that led to mega-chains began decades ago.
Yes, Michel, the advent of the Internet certainly has had a lot to do with the demise of newspapers. Companies like Sinclair, etc., probably about five now, have taken control of the media all over the U.S. Since they have, the various newspapers, radio and TV stations have had to put out what those corporations want published. Hence, Fox, etc., have usurped independent news. Thanks for mentioning the Internet, which has caused this.
Yes, Sinclair has wreaked havoc on quality journalism. I was ecstatic when its merger with my employer for 18 years, Tribune Company, fell through in 2018. Sinclair was deprived of 42 Tribune TV stations, mostly in large cities.
Michael, I recently read, perhaps here or in WAPO, that The Hill has been taken over by a right wing organization and is obviously now giving us another right wing slant for Washington, D. C. Disqusting.
Spot on! Not only did it lower barriers to enty, the Internet also relaxed on matters of truth and fact. Credible and reliable sources became more critical while also becoming much more difficult to discern real truth and actual fact.
🤣🤣🤣 While some regarded him as the Shining White Knight, I regarded him as the Knight of Darkness. He set our country on its current path of self-destruction.
With an absolute hideous reputation on racism; denial of the HIV/AIDS crisis because he and Falwell Sr. deemed it God's curse for being queer. The Iran Contra affair for which Ollie North (hated by most US Marines) fell on his sword for Reagan.
Subscriptions to quality National and local newspapers should be viewed as a civic responsibility as well as essential to being informed. While it is true that advertising revenue is essential to the survival of our news journals - national and local - it is the existence of a strong subscriber base that drives advertisers to support those newspapers. A free and independent press is an essential element to the survival of democracy. When the light of democracy is threatened it is free and independent journalism that supplies the power to keep the light on.
I want to think more about what government support means to the health of a free press. Government needs to support the idea and existence of a free and independent press. However, interference by the government or picking “winners and losers” amongst media sources would undermine their independence. It can be a delicate balance and getting it wrong could be quite dangerous. Best if government maintains a reasonable distance from individual news media while supporting them and maintains transparency and openness.
As with support for the Public Broadcasting Service, funding can be organized and dispensed to avoid the pitfalls you mentioned, which are generally veiled obstacles to avoid doing what is necessary. It is well known dodge.
I subscribe to many publications that I don't read every day just to keep them supported and alive. I am concerned about corporations buying up local papers the way the corporations are buying up housing, turning it into rental property and nudging out people with VA loan approval. PSB is member supported and would be even more member supported if we all knew government grants were not available. We have to keep the changing of "who is in charge now?" issue of our political system. It is all too common that we see things from our own perspective and think it should be clear to others what is right and wrong. PBS is good, right? Well, not to many of the current "right." I agree with Bruce on this.
Fern I applaud your suggestion, though I’m leery of how it might be implemented. At one time Voice of America, back in the days of Edward R. Murrow as director of USIA, set the standard for objective new reporting. Under Trump, VOA’s factual objectivity was trashed and it became a voice for Tubby Trump. Also, who would determine what news sources should be supported/subsidized? Frontline is another investigative source that for more-than-a-generation has maintained its integrity. Personally, I would welcome, as part of a compensation packet, digital access to the NYT and Washington Post given to all Foreign Service Officers and others in US government. But, under First Amendment, shouldn’t Fox and others be included?
As an alternative, I would encourage far greater financing of the NEH, NEA, and Public Broadcasting Corporation. Though Lynne Cheney was, at times, a blight on the National Endowment for the Humanities, on balance it has been a positive for Americans. NPR is a beacon of light in many corners of America. Years ago I recall that Berlin spent more on supporting ‘culture’ that did the United States.
I am heartened that more nonfiction books are sold annually than fiction. As Sergeant Friday said “Just the facts, m’am.’
Delighted to see you Keith, and to spend some time thinking about the options, which you have laid out. Plenty of historical examples to review, too. Thank you.
"Though Lynne Cheney was, at times, a blight on the National Endowment for the Humanities..."
One thing we can thank the then somewhat doddering and somewhat demented old Cold Warrior James Billington for, is holding on to his tenure as Librarian of Congress - the plum Liz Cheney really had her greedy eye on.
I am pondering the support of the Free Press by the government with respect to Fox News. I have no trouble with the News. I do have extreme concern about the lies, fabrications, conspiracy theories and hate that the well-known part of Fox perpetuates. Censorship is dangerous but I think we should be able to come up with standards. The standards of course are problematic in themselves but if the public is to support news agencies we need to come up with standards. We individually are, of course, the best filters of information and maybe in the end that’s what we should rely on before wading into the murky waters of standards and censorship. You know the free market of ideas.
The role of the former "Fairness Doctrine" that used to apply to broadcast media until the Reaganmonster did it in.
The long and dishonorable history of "yellow journalism" in instigating wars....
The ongoing role of (say) the Washington Post and New York Times in legitimizing official lies--even from liars as gross and obvious as trump-- (long-after-the-fact breast beating doesn't cut it!)
The blackouts of independent thinkers from DuBois to Chomsky to Sanders to Zinn....
Robin, The subject up for discuss has to do with funding of local news operations. Local newspapers are fast disappearing. Rural areas are not served. The more news the more democracy. Newspapers bring more than news - entertainment, sports, business, local activities, the functions local government's, wedding announcements, obits -- sense of community. Dependence on social media works against a well informed fact oriented news. There will be good, bad and outlets in between. Less isolation and more interaction.
I have to agree with this, having watched the decline of news organizations with growing alarm for the past 20 or so years. It's a tricky question to be sure. But if a financial model can't be found that allows for a vigorous news industry, it is certainly in the best interest of a healthy democracy that some type of taxpayer support be made available.
I agree. However, subscriptions to some local newspapers are prohibitively expensive, making it impossible for many to subscribe to the local paper. A subscription to the local paper in my parent's region is over $700/year.
That sounds like an online price. I bargained the Palm Beach Post seven days a week down to $50 a month for a paper edition which I prefer to their $20 monthly online e-edition, which includes every page of the paper version, even the ads. Eventually, there will be no paper editions at all, which will be good for the trees in our forests, which are not unlimited.
Bruce—I write in response to your remark, “it is the existence of a strong subscriber base that drives advertisers to support those newspapers.” I would note, back in the 60s, The New Yorker audience actually grew in numbers, mostly college students in their late teens and early twenties, because of its clear and moral stand against the Vietnam War. It was then that ad pages began their drastic disappearance, the majority of which withdrew because The New Yorker had begun to attract “the wrong kind” of reader. Translation: people not of the “right” age and income brackets. Media observers and analysts repeatedly have noted, “The standard cure for ‘bad demographics’ in newspapers, magazines, radio and television is simple: Change the content.” (Source: Media Observer and Analyst Ben H. Bagdikian)
I understand your view. However, the problem for any media is not and has never been in any single case the growth of its subscriber base with a less desirable demographic. It is and has always been the shrinkage of its reach with a desirable demographic for its advertisers when compared to alternatives. No advertiser stops using a forum because it’s reach increases. It does so because there are more cost effective ways to reach its desired audience. So subscribe to and support quality journalism including by supporting those who support it.
Bruce—Indeed, I appreciate your statement that “it [the problem for any media] is and has always been the shrinkage of its reach with a desirable demographic for its advertisers when compared to alternatives.” Still, as a point of clarification, I would note that I had used what had happened to The New Yorker as an iterative and cautionary example to show how markets drive editorial decisions. I fret over whether media, a commercial, profit-driven enterprise, can meaningfully engage in public service and nurture the public trust and still make the sort of money they currently do.
I look at it this way, we should pay for content, like the music industry where Pandora, Spotify et al are starving the creators, we should disavow those platforms until they pay for their raw materials
I don’t read The Atlantic Cover to cover, but I pay for the content nevertheless
I agree. A while back Jeff Bezos asked what he could do with his money that would do the most good. I wrote a long suggestion that he fund start up local news papers in small towns around the country and it would have cost him a pittance and its value would grow exponentially. Alas, it didn't happen.
Brilliant idea Martha!❤️ Bezos has had many chances to return the Post to a prominent role in correcting mis/disinformation, but there are a lot of small local papers that could shine a light on what goes on locally and needs to be told.
Our town’s little local newspaper went belly-up about two years ago. Had been in business for 100 years. It had many years of being a right-wing publication but for about 5 years, we had a very open-minded editor. Unfortunately, he passed away at a very young age.
Perhaps we will see a resurgence of local newspapers…
beginning small but with potent and pertinent news… because citizens are coming to understand our democracy is at stake and the Murdoch’s of the country are not giving us the true story.
Exactly right. But what if there were no newspapers? I don't worry about the Times but I do worry about the future of local news. There are hundreds of Brunswick Newses that have closed shop. Also, many of these civic guardians are no longer locally owned. They have been bought up by venture capitalists with no interest in the profession. Newsrooms have been gutted; reporters get paid slave wages. Of course, revenue from advertisers has all but dried up thanks to the Internet, today's equivalent of the efficient network of roads that all led to Rome. We know how that ended.
If not locally owned, what’s the difference from closing shop? The effect is the same. The people are not connected to each other anymore. The people are conditioned to think only in terms of National stories. They become tribal. Us vs Them.
Before Gutenberg invented movable type, there were other means of communication than newspapers, even just people sitting around a fire exchanging ideas ... which is more or less what we do on the internet. People find ways to exchange ideas. The Incas, whose architectural skills (Machu Picchu) were noteworthy couldn't even read or write.
"Quipu (also spelled khipu) are recording devices fashioned from strings historically used by a number of cultures in the region of Andean South America.[1] Knotted strings for collecting data, government management and keeping records were also used by the ancient Chinese, Tibetans and Japanese,[2][3][4][5] but such practices should not be confused with the quipu, which refers only to the Andean method."
I was just thinking about that as I read this. I carry mine with me everywhere, even from room to room in my own house (mostly for safety reasons.)
I live in a small town, but my house is on a corner facing a state highway and a side street that provides traffic a shortcut through town. Since I'm only two blocks from the historic downtown, the speed limit on these two streets is 30 mpg. Nevertheless, local hoodies and their souped-up Mustangs, local white supremacists in their gigantic pickup trucks festooned with Confederate flags, "soccer moms" late for whatever errand they might be on, and truckers who fail to notice the various signs slowing traffic - all drive down this street well over the speed limit, endangering children and pets and even homeowners who might be working in their yards. I posted a comment on my FB page about the speeding and was literally attacked by various members of the aforementioned who said I should "take down license plates and report them if this was really true." Of course, there's no time to do such a thing with a vehicle whizzing by at 45 mph. But I have thought about just standing on my front porch with my cell phone on video and turning THAT over to the local police department. A single patrol car could probably issue enough tickets to balance the police department's budget for a year, if they had the sense to position a vehicle at this intersection! It's a sign of the times that I even thought about doing something like this!
I have a granddaughter at age 10 did a science project on this, now she had the help of her father on this but it was still Amy who took the data and wrote the report. Her dad is a computer science professor but they only use a stop watch and a tape measure. They live close to Amy's grade school in Waterloo Ontario. They timed the cars flying through the school zone and then calculated their speed. Amy and dad did the calculations for her report. The teacher liked the report and sent a copy to the local paper. New enforcement followed.
While I agree with the sentiment of supporting local news, unfortunately, all local newspapers are not equal. If you live in a heavy red area, the newspaper often reflects the community, only occasionally allowing an opposing view on the OpEd page. Bravo for the Brunswick, GA reporter!
There are many subscribers in this forum who are life-long urban dwellers and have little to no idea what passes for news in underserved and rural areas. It is the assumed that news, via tv, radio and internet, is equally available to all*. Of the three, radio is sometimes the best available. I can tell you, from personal experience, that when we bought our property and built our home on the eastern plains of Colorado in the late 90s, phone lines had not yet been run so not only did we not have a landline we had no internet access at home for 5 years. (We both had in town jobs where we had access to news and information.) We did have cell phones that may or may not have had a signal at any given moment; they were unreliable at best. Papers national or local (Denver, Colorado Springs dailies) were not available for delivery.
Often overlooked is the fact that local publications in rural areas may not be newspapers at all but advertising pages with a few tidbits of "local news", human interest and recipes thrown in. Sometimes people don't understand the distinction. The stories are frequently about a local sports team or event that is sponsored by a business that advertises in the paper. They are often "free" and available in boxes on the street and inside the businesses that advertise in them. People pick up these publications because they are free and contain just enough content to be of interest. And because these publications are free people are lulled into the idea that it must be easy and inexpensive to produce a (quality) newspaper so why pay for it? . Sadly, legitimate local newspapers are becoming a rarity more quickly than most might guess.
My point is this, there are large swaths of rural, sparsely populated areas in the US. Those rural dwellers' inability to freely access reliable, accurate news and information is a disadvantage in their decision making processes. They take what they can get and it's not always honest or reliable.
*Biden's Broadband Infrastructure initiative will help equalize the ability of rural dwellers have to access to a broader range of news and information. For everyone, this is a plus.
Lin, I will answer your comment in 2 segments. First, yes, it is often likely that libraries in rural red areas carry none of the "national newspapers" and may carry the "most local" large paper, frequently Gannett, Sinclair, etc., but often not even that. It is difficult for urban dwellers, especially coastal urban dwellers, to understand just how narrow the scope of news and opinion can be in these areas. It is frequently not an option of picking and choosing from a vast array of sources but what is presented to you locally. This includes material that one's pastor deems acceptable for consumption.
The Poynter Institute is a valuable asset to the Journalism community. It can be invaluable to both students and working journalists as well as the public at large (specifically Politifact). My daughter received valuable guidance more than once from Poynter while in J School and after, particularly with regards to investigative journalism.
I appreciate the willingness of subscribers to search out resources like Poynter and promote them. Unfortunately, Poynter is unable to tackle the compounded issues of "news deserts" in small, far flung communities across the United States. I say this as someone who was born and raised in a town with a great daily, the Washington Post, has lived in major metro areas across the United States as well as in isolated rural areas that are unbelievably detached from the real news of our country and the world.
One if the issues that is choking the life out of our country right now is the libral urban coastal dweller's arrogant belief that they always know more and they always know better than the rural dweller. (I am an expat urban coastal liberal, I know what a jerk I can be). Many do not understand the deep seated distrust that keeps rural folk from picking up a mainstream newspaper and what it is they distrust. That's not okay. Entrenched arrogance is one of the things that keep small town and rural readers from seeking more center and liberal news sources We need to acknowledge and address that issue honestly and aggressively.
Thank You, Daria. Like you, I have lived in DC but also in rural Illinois.
Being from NYC, I always was surprised at WaPo's swipes at the Times and even DC Metro's swipes at the NY subway. I'd never experienced that going the other way.
What I found, in Illinois was that when people asked where I was from and I said NYC, they expressed assumptions and resentments which truly surprised me. I really had never thought much about Illinois one way or another when I unexpectedly landed there, but clearly they 'knew' all about NYC without ever having been there. I just listened. It was an education.
And maybe that is part of the problem, not that some people in big cities have the wrong ideas about small towns, but that we don't think much about them at all. And that some people in small towns have too little information and too much resentment.
Lin, Migrating from a big city to a rural area teaches many very valuable lessons, including the fact that rural folk can be kind, generous but wary...those of us from places like NYC & DC or LA & San Francisco may be met with suspicion...do we have horns? (😉).
You said, "And maybe that is part of the problem, not that some people in big cities have the wrong ideas about small towns, but that we don't think much about them at all. And that some people in small towns have too little information and too much resentment".
There is a lot of truth in what you've said. Living in México as a US citizen has made me much more aware of how baked in preconceived notions are and how they can negatively impact even the most casual interactions between locals and in comers
lin, There may be a local news movement that there, which can grow and grow. I found the poynter.org yesterday and do not have any idea of the depth or width of what is happening in terms of the growth of local news. I'll just keep digging from time to time, so others may follow and go much deeper into this area than I can. See a sample of wish lists of a few of poynter's people:
Rick Edmonds, media business analyst:
Financially, local news is not out of the woods by a long shot. It’s encouraging, though, how many sources of support have emerged. A partial list: readers and advertiser/sponsors, of course; member/donors; national and local philanthropy, both foundations and wealthy individuals; Google and Facebook through their charitable arms (and they may be paying for the content they borrow before long); Report for America; ProPublica and The Marshall Project mastering local partnerships; even Congress is taking a serious look at federal support, picking up a portion of the salaries of local news professionals. Then there are those journalists who don’t let a little thing like a downsizing keep them from their calling. They step up and do essential work for their communities, often with reduced pay or no pay. I am thankful for them.
Sitara Nieves, Poynter faculty:
I’m grateful for all the local public radio newsrooms that continue to invest in stories that matter. There are plenty of those stories to choose from — and you can hear lots of them just by listening to anything your public radio station produces — but here are two that have stayed with me this year because of the stories they broke, how they keep following that story over time, and how transparent they made their reporting processes.
The first story I’m thankful for is the reporting collaboration between Nashville Public Radio and ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network, published in October: “Black Children Were Jailed for a Crime That Doesn’t Exist. Almost Nothing Happened to the Adults in Charge.” The story is horrifying, meticulously reported, and quickly led to local and state government responses, along with a request for a Department of Justice investigation from 11 members of Congress.
I also appreciate that the reporters, Meribah Knight from Nashville Public Radio and ProPublica’s Ken Armstrong, detailed their extensive reporting process in a methodology section at the end of the story: providing transparency that shows how the story was reported, and also offering a great primer for anyone interested in investigative journalism.
The second is WBEZ Chicago’s multimedia story “Drowning in Debt,” published this month, where María Inés Zamudio reported on how tens of thousands of Chicago homeowners — most in Black-majority areas — are in debt on their water bills after city leaders hiked water costs to raise revenue.
I’m thankful that WBEZ published their reporting methodology in a piece co-authored by data editor Matt Kiefer and Zamudio, which details how WBEZ began reporting the story in the first place. (They’ve been on this story since an initial investigative piece in 2019.) Zamudio and Kiefer show how they used the extensive data they gathered as part of their reporting, which I love. For example, they published the source code they wrote to build the database they created to identify vacant homes with water debt, and made data available for download.
I’m grateful to everyone doing all the work we hear, watch, and read every day. You are appreciated.
Have feedback or a tip? Email Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones at tjones@poynter.org.
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lin, I am curious to know about your interest in journalism -- American and International? What prompted your inquires? Have you worked in the field? Have you been in contact with organizations, such as Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), Neiman Foundation for Journalism, American Journalism Historians Association (AJHA), Report For America, The Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), etc. Thanks.
You wrote: "Often overlooked is the fact that local publications in rural areas may not be newspapers at all but advertising pages with a few tidbits of "local news", human interest and recipes thrown in. Sometimes people don't understand the distinction. The stories are frequently about a local sports team or event that is sponsored by a business that advertises in the paper."
This is true of what passes as a "newspaper" in my small town. One other thing they do is post obituaries and letters to the editor, most of which reflect the far right prejudices of the newspaper's owner. Thus, I do not subscribe. They have one reporter, who is primarily an ambulance chaser and sports writer, along with the obits.
Last week our local paper broke the story of a black woman who was hit and killed by a white woman who admitted she’d been drinking. This happened 5 months ago and as yet no charges.Police just recently issued a warrant to pull data from the car.
Several months ago local news reported on a young ,black couple who were arrested after videoing, from their car, the police’s handling of a a young, disturbed teen. The charges were later dropped when the DA realized they didn’t have a case.
Our local paper went under and was bought by another local newspaper that still prints the news for this area, but it's slant to the right makes it hardly worth reading.
We have a local paper owned by a conservative group. They do print letters to the editor from varying points of view. I have also wondered about their main news reporter's political leanings. That's a good thing.
The paper may still be contributing to a sense of community, to business, local activities, etc. As long as the paper is there, perhaps, some moderation will leak through as time goes on.
The return of Local News is not a 'sentiment' KellyS, it is a necessity. A local paper has to be in syn with its community, while the news department, along with reporters focus on the facts, which are reflected in the work.
Sentiment: a view of or attitude toward a situation or event; an opinion. So, to clarify, my view is that local news should be supported. My reality is that, until moving to Ecuador last summer, my "local"Forida newspaper, owned by Gannett, published articles so slanted in support of a MAGA perspective, rarely publishing Letters to the Editor opposing that view, such that I could not support it with a subscription. Often, it was a regurgitation of national news reported much better elsewhere.
Kelly, your comment makes me wonder who is really in control at Gannett owned newspapers. Our “local” paper is owned by Garnett and while they often “regurgitate” national news they also regularly publish Letters to Ed from both sides.
Our Republican county commissioners actually had a proclamation mocking an opinion writer for the editorial board and her immigrant status.Someone got under their skin ! Our elected sheriff and some local politicians often refuse to provide comments to the “local “ newspaper, preferring instead to comment to the truly local, and right leaning news source.
Today’s story in our “local” paper in the You Can’t Make This @#$& Up section:
Fl gov recently visited here for anti-masking mandate press conference along with the local D.A. and sheriff. They showcased the parents of a child with Down’s Syndrome who claimed their daughter was abused at school with a face mask tied to her head. Police reports released this week indicate parents lied to investigators, photos were staged, and the child actually preferred having the mask on.
I would say this “local” story too would get under Repubs skin but alas the damage is done. The father had his millisecond of fame with Tucker and raised thousands through crowd-funding to “ fight mask mandates.”
Our family is all in FL otherwise we would seriously consider Mexico or joining you in Ecuador !
Local conservatives constantly complain about the Gannett-owned Palm Beach Post being too liberal and favoring liberal letter writers. They published one from me today which only got political in its last few words after leading one to think they were reading something about sports. Here's the letter if you're interested in reading it:
“Though sports rarely creep onto the Opinion pages of the Post, a recent article in the Sports section concerning the almost wholesale firing of college football coaches raises questions. Could it be that college sports, particularly football and basketball at large universities, have strayed far from the purposes such educational institutions are intended to serve? Are the schools in it only for the money? Once a university “sells out” in regard to its athletic programs, it is a small step toward “selling out” in other areas, such as politically-motivated appointments to its medical school faculty.”
Thank you, Kelly. Your experience with a local newspaper is not uncommon and then there is the more frequent one of there being none. I have just learned of the Poynter Institute devoted to local news, journalism, teaching and placing reporters. Where there are local newspapers, with news departments antithetical to democracy, other options must be available. Even right-wing outlets may be of service in some ways to communities. This is a larger discussion and, unfortunately, I must quit now. I look forward to more exchanges with you on the subject. Salud!
Correct. That is why Bari Weiss quit their editorial staff and started posting as "Common Sense" on Substack. Writes occasionally, but most postings are by others with whom she agrees.
I don’t want to be a negative voice… but the Times article about Kyle Rittenhouse was almost enough for me to cancel my 40+ years subscription to the same…
Thank you, Heather Cox Richardson your precise delineation of the despicable details of the Arbery Murder is equal to a steel etching on crystal that you as a fine historian and technical writer demonstrate great understanding of the importance of significant detail.
After a life time of reading history in my eighth decade you have prompted me to actually study history in detail.
You have a genius for reaching through the thickets of inconsequential details and surgically excising the salient facts that do make important events, History.
You are my first read everyday and give me a deep attraction to revisit you during the day.
Yes. Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us. My first read every morning too. You help me understand so many things. I hope you are well. We need you.
Progress? Maybe. Throughout this entire process; the public and the judicial, I have not read or heard any variation on the word “lynching”.
Even HCR avoided it.
“And there, things might have rested, much as they have so often rested in our nation’s long history when white men have killed Black men.”
By anyone’s definition, the murder of Ahmad Arbery was a lynching, the three men who carried it out made up a lynch mob, and the cooperation and cover-up by local law enforcement is consistent with the history of lynching in this country.
It was unquestionably a lynching — and the nearly all-white, Southern, rural, conservative jury spoke that conclusion loudly and clearly with its unanimous verdicts. But I respectfully submit that your Comment is misdirected. The genius of this prosecution was to stick to the damning facts and avoid labels and inflammatory characterization. “Despite the evidence of racism she had at her disposal, Linda Dunikoski, the prosecutor, stunned some legal observers by largely avoiding race during the trial, choosing instead to hew closely to the details of how the three men had chased the Black man, Ahmaud Arbery, through their neighborhood.” — NYT, 11/27/2021.
I agree. In my opinion the video evidence was so conclusive that it made it easier for all to see that the actions of the perpetrators was wrong. This was a crime on many levels. They were left with no choice but to convict. For me this is a cold comfort that the correct verdict was made. Arbery is dead. There were a lot of people in that rural town willing to make the wrong decision. The fact that so many people in the area felt that they had a right to pick up guns, chase down a person in multiple trucks and shoot a man in broad daylight for little to no reason is very sad, chilling and infuriating. It was clear that Arbery had not stolen anything and that he did not have a weapon and that he did not want to engage with the men. I do not know anyone who is not curious what the inside of a house being built looks like. I have done the same exact thing Arbery did and I have never been chased down by multiple men with guns in trucks.
I have done this also as a curious child on a neighboring street, and as an adult while taking a long walk. People are curious, we want to see the layout, understand how things look before completion. Every person I’ve quizzed about this, including my adult children have done the very same thing! White privilege rears it’s head again!
I am a retired engineer who has looked at many houses under construction. I helped build houses with Habitat. I found a major problem with a neighbor's house under construction, trusses installed backwards, which had to be redone. In retirement l built our timberframe house, all except the timbers. I supervised the construction of a 2 million dollar addition to our church.
Never have I ever considered that I might be trespassing.
I feel it is also important to distinguish between justice and accountability. Justice would see Ahmad Arbery still alive and celebrating the holidays with his family. But we do now have accountability for his killers. There continue to be many cases of injustice where accountability is lacking providing clear evidence there is much work left to do to stamp out racial bias and injustice. There remains much work to do to establish that “more perfect Union” to which we aspire.
The point is to speak truth to people in ways they can hear, so that they will listen. Articulating your strategies and selecting your words to open minds and eyes.
A life was taken. The prosecutors proved that.
Yes, Ahmaud Arberry was lynched. But insisting on that point might very well have derailed justice.
They're still facing federal hate crimes charges. That's where they'll get held to account for lynching.
What kills me is, as HCR noted, they had the backing of TWO prosecutors offices. They would have gotten away with this modern day lynching. Their real crime was taking a video of a murder and feeling so safe and protected, they put the video out in public.
I’m heartened by the fact that the citizens of GA stood up even though the prosecutors tried to cover it up. The majority of us need to use our voice and our clout!
Mitch McConnell could have ordered a roll call vote. He did not. McConnell wanted to go by unanimous consent - which allowed Paul to sabotage the bill under pretense of improving it.
Except in name, the House bill was the same as the one which had previously passed the Senate - unanimously.
This highlights the perversity of Rand Paul, as well as Republicans' willingness to use procedural means to perpetuate injustice.
I agree Gail. The hate crimes charges will be the expose on the “lynching”, the conviction on murder was an important step towards getting at that truth. I wonder if there are any experts on the US history of trials for lynching or hate crimes in our midst.
She was brilliant and Arbery’s mother agreed. She didn’t need to yell or pound on a table. Pure evidence was key in the verdicts of guilty for all three who thought they could get away with this heinous crime of murder. Their stupid “citizens arrest” law only hindered the time to actually arrest these bastards.
Well, two things hindered the arrest. The DA who had worked with McMichael was so corrupt, that she was fired after she swept Arbery's murder under the rug, and has now been indicted for past corruption. Her sympathies were with the McMichaels, and the citizens arrest was enacted after emancipation, to enable the Klan and others to "arrest" ex-slaves. It is no longer on the books in Georgia, but I suspect that our current "purple" voting status made it expedient to erase it.
Professor Richardson laid out the rather complex case, and delineated the series of events leading up to the conviction. That is enough for me. Inflammatory language was not avoided. It would not have been appropriate in the context of her writing. “Lynching”…not in the classic sense, yet what happened has the same feel, and result.
IMPRESSIVE, the prosecutor, who did not play cards of any type, made the case on the facts. She showed Mr. Arbery as a person and that no matter what the color of his skin, as a person, he was murdered. And the old boys who did murder him will live in prison. That is some justice.
Yes, Ralph. As well as the defense counsel preening their white right and lynching him a second time throughout the trial….impugning his character, ridiculing and trying to bar support and presence of black pastors in the courtroom, mocking physical characteristics during summation to deny that he was an avid runner, veiled and sometimes naked suggestion that he was less than those who killed him and somehow deserved it. They prattled on as if they were defending a massah’ who was protecting his land by punishing a recalcitrant slave. Disgusting. And THAT was also there on the screen for all to see.
If I could have thrashed all three defense lawyers, I would have loved the chance. The shame of it is indefensible.
If audio visual technology is so prolific now that it contributes to evidence which cannot be denied exposing white supremacy as motivation and reason to crimes against against an entire race for more than a century? So be it.
I live near Atlanta, and the word "lynching" has been used several times in reporting about the Arbery murder. While I would never say we're out of the woods, I do think that progress has been made. I'm skeptical, however, about the apparent awakening of some Republican politicians, including Gov. Kemp, who was very supportive of the verdict. My skepticism is rooted in the fact that we have a large, vocal Black population, and Brian Kemp is anxious to court that group's votes, despite that he and his legislature have authored draconian voter suppression and vote nullification laws.
They're guaranteed life sentences, and I believe the junior McMichael will have a mandatory "no parole" sentence. Naturally, they'll appeal, but I doubt it will work. The judge behaved, and the only misbehavior was on the part of the defense - morons!
Thanks for the link. I am encouraged that more people than I thought are calling a lynching exactly what it was, but I remind myself they damned near got away with it. Had the video been wisely erased, or never made, instead of being stupidly released to the public….
I thought some might be interested in this piece on Ahmaud Arbery from May 2020. (There is also a link at the bottom of the page to a short piece that the author wrote after the conviction of the murderers a few days ago.)
"Nobody belonged to the salt marshes of coastal Georgia more than Ahmaud Arbery. His family’s roots there run more than 200 years deep. A native of those same marshes writes about who Ahmaud was, how well he was loved, and what his community must reckon with in the wake of his murder."
Thank for this link. It is an important, revealing analysis of what happened and the societal structures that allowed this horrific murder. One excerpt that stood out for me:
“And while the immediate fault for those actions lies with the people who took them, we as a community and as individual electors idly allowed our leadership to believe that we would accept or expect them to allow this racial killing to go unpunished. That fault lies with us. Worse, the McMichaels’ intimate knowledge of how their crime likely would be treated by local law enforcement most certainly emboldened them to grab their guns that day and pursue Ahmaud. If the McMichaels had believed the police would arrest or kill them for their armed pursuit of Ahmaud, then they never would have left their homes in the first place. Accordingly, if we as a community had not been willfully blind to our institutionalized racism, Ahmaud might still be alive.”
Such a terrific link! Maybe this is its most important sentence: "We cannot bow our heads and call it “tragic” and leave it to the authorities and the politicians who will never protect our neighbors or us unless we require it of them." Amen!
These were some thoughtful stories. I'm glad Jim Barger was so well accepted to walk and live amongst the Blacks in order to do his research. I know an area in Washington, DC that needs some research, but I wouldn't recommend Jim go there ! I taught in that area for five years and had a few incidents. Thankfully nothing major. There are White areas in Maryland I know better than to be 'caught' in after dark ! Do I think all White people are mean and crazy - Heck no ! I have White friends who we don't get along with all the time but we remain friends. It's going to take time but If we allow the human race to survive I believe we'll evolve past this tribalism. Thanx for sharing these stories.
I grew up in NYC but my father grew up in Norfolk, Virginia. In the late 1980s I moved to DC and my son attended DC public schools.
Although I knew the difference between de facto and de jure racism against African Americans, my father and son lived it and witnessed it - more closely, more viscerally. As Jews in predominantly Black communities. My father in the fields and factories, my son in the schools.
Your comment about 'not being caught after dark in some White neighborhoods' rang a bell. I used to have a Hanukkah open house. One year I invited our favorite DCPS teacher and her children, she declined. The next year, she came alone. The third year she brought her children. She explained, growing up in DC her parents had protected her from abuse by keeping her from White neighborhoods. Now as a teacher and a parent in that neighborhood, but not a resident, she had to 'test the waters.' I got it.
Wonderful! Brother James puts flesh and blood and roots onto this murder. His reflection on the various levels of accountability, right down to the surrounding community and all of us was a riveting sermon in itself, pushing us out our mental church doors to " run with Maud". Thank you so very much, Jan!!
Really powerful and evocative piece. Thank you for sharing this. What a beautiful young man, from such a rich culture. Through all the darkness, it heartens me to read Barger’s piece in some way. People insisted that their voices be heard and that justice prevail.
I signed up for the newsletter as well. Former Detroiter. Denverite for 41 yrs. No connection to the South. Another cog in the wheel that keeps us all moving forward.
Thank you for posting the link to this article. I have posted it to my Facebook page in the hopes that it will be widely read. I have also signed up for the site. Thank heavens for the video.
Good morning everyone. I have one word to say about this Letter: Yep. Especially yep about the release of the video being possibly the ONLY reason why justice was actually served. The hubris of the trio of lynchers that everyone would go along with their narrative of events led to that--for them--fatal misstep. I hope they rot in jail forever.
Today I mourn the loss of Stephen Sondheim, who died suddenly, a day after what was apparently a lovely Thanksgiving day spent with his loved ones. The soundtrack to my life has been dominated by his music in so many ways. Sondheim, from a very young age, displayed an unerring empathy for the human condition and I think was at his most eloquent when at his most angry. His contribution to American music as both a composer and lyricist is unparalleled.
thank you, Linda. Whenever I despair of the cruelty of humans to one another, I turn to the beauty of art and music to know what's possible. The truth and hope of artists can never be totally surpressed, even by dictators.
Mary, if you haven’t heard of her, may I recommend Carrie Newcomer. I love all her music. She speaks to my soul. I Heard an Owl is one of her longer lived songs “ so don’t tell me hate is ever right or God’s will. These are the wheels we put in motion ourselves. And the whole world weeps and is weeping still, though shaken I still believe the best of what we all can be and the only peace this world will know can only come from Love.”
"If Gregory Mc Michael had not produced that video..." He produced it because he was still living under the delusion of our racist history as a nation and in Georgia in particular. That has proved not to be the case this time and, I hope, continues into the future.
It’s hard to tap the heart icon for this distressing but absolutely necessary clear, moment by moment, explanation of how Ahmaud Arbery was murdered and the case ‘dropped’ by numerous officials…but the Thank You is for you & your helpers who dig up the complete circumstances and enlighten us. Hope you’re long since asleep.
Twenty years ago, my life changed forever with the arrival, to the greater Boston area, of a group of "Lost Boys of Sudan". We "Moms" started out taking them meals, warm clothing and unexpectedly, they filled our hearts and lives! We formalized financial efforts and created a couple of non profits for education and mentoring. I have seen the insidious racism these individuals and families have experienced (some of it directed at me) in supposedly politically liberal and "welcoming" communities from Cambridge to wealthy/"woke" White suburbs.
Someday, I hope to pull together a book about that journey we continue to share but In the meantime, 8 children (18 mos. to age 10) who call me "granny" and whom I cherish and get such a kick out of (kids are universally just kids!) are coming face-to-face with the reality that they are Black in America. While the word lynching was not brought into the trial (probably a shrewd strategy on the part of the prosecution) what happened to Ahmaud Arbery (and so many others) was a lynching and it needs to be written and said out loud.
For 20 years I have experienced a level of fear for my Sudanese families I never felt with my biological sons. When my youngest son was in his mid-20's he was in Tupelo, Mississippi for work and went for a run in a local Black neighborhood . . . . he did not fear for his life.
Janet - I hope you do carve out time to write that book. I have just finished reading A Beginner’s Guide to America: For the Immigrant and the Curious by Roya Hakakian, a poignant glimpse into the immigrant’s journey of coming to America and learning to “Americanize” without losing your own identity (written and told through the eyes of an immigrant). There is much in this book for a native-born citizen of the US to absorb and process. Definitely worth reading, which is why I encourage you to put your own story into words that can be shared with others.
Thanks for this Lena. I downloaded the book and am looking forward to reading. Getting to know and embrace immigrants has been an enlightening experience (difficulties included) and warrants sharing. As those of us who have been involved often recognize, we feel we get so much more in return than we give.
I remember the Rodney King case when a video camera weighed as much as a case of bottled water. The outcome was proof of police brutality not murder as a life was not taken in that altercation.
Let’s hope there are at least less hate crimes with the advancement of video recording from phones, parking lots, body cams, etc.
What is most astonishing is that the defense actually thought the video looked like a justified homicide. White male supremacy is like a cancer. Without early detection and treatment it will metastasize regardless of advances in technology.
We see this hubris daily in the halls Congress; its now “normal, acceptable behavior, enflamed by the tacit lack of consequence from its own governing body
The interesting tidbit in the video of King's beating was that the camera operator offered the tape to LAPD first; they didn't deem it of value, so he gave it to the press.
While there was only one state conviction to come out of the trial, I firmly believe that 30 years later, a different verdict would be delivered today, and there would be four convictions of both assault and excessive use of force.
It is a story where justice was served as opposed to Rittenhouse’s trial. We have a long way to go before we fully acknowledge the extent of racism in our country.
Today's Letter centered on the killing of Ahmaud Arbery; the murder case against, Gregory McMichael, Travis McMichael and William 'Roddie' Bryan and the guilty conviction of all three men. The Letter ended in this way:
'But there is one sticking point: if Gregory McMichael had not produced that video, it’s entirely possible that the crime and its coverup would never have been prosecuted.'
Perhaps that is correct - the conviction depended on the cell phone video, but, perhaps, too little credit was given to the local reporter covering the case, Larry Hobbs of the Brunswick News.
'Before it was a national touchstone, the Ahmaud Arbery murder was a local news story'
'Ali Velshi highlights the work of Larry Hobbs, reporter for the Brunswick News, who didn't settle for meager answers from local police and filed a public records request to get the police report on the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, which would become the basis for reporting that would shed some of the first public light on the case.' (MSNBC)
'Journalists are reexamining their reliance on a longtime source: The police'
'... for Larry Hobbs, who wrote that first short news article, doubts about the case were raised at the onset.'
'Hobbs, one of four reporters at the daily Brunswick News, said police wouldn’t answer his questions or even tell him Arbery’s name, which he discovered by calling the coroner. He published four stories before he obtained the police report, based almost entirely on an interview with Greg McMichael, who said he told his son to grab his gun when he saw a Black man running.
“Red flags start going up,” Hobbs said. “All the things started falling into place that this wasn’t right.”
'Prosecutors were also not forthcoming, he said. Jackie Johnson, the Brunswick district attorney who was later indicted over her handling of the investigation and was voted out of office, gave the case to Waycross District Attorney George Barnhill. Barnhill justified the use of force as a lawful “citizen’s arrest” in a letter to police. Meanwhile, he told Hobbs he was still investigating, Hobbs said.'
“The main thing I did was just not let go of it,” Hobbs said. “I didn’t do any great writing. I didn’t do any investigative reporting. I’m a small-town newspaper. We don’t really have time to invest. I come in every day and there’s an empty newspaper I have to do my part to fill up.”
At that time, the New York Times reported on the shooting, bringing national exposure and emerging details of the video that would later be released. Still, Hobbs has been credited for his dogged reporting, as he stayed on the case, covering the trial every day until he wrote Wednesday’s story of the conviction.' (Washington Post)
'Jury finds all three defendants guilty of murder in Ahmaud Arbery shooting'
Mike, I am so glad that you brought up reporter Larry Hobbs. People don't know what reporters do. As with so many teachers, nurses, artists and athletes.. I'm not talking about media stars, but regular reporters; the work was bred in their bones. Most reporters work very hard with little sleep and for 'bupkis', the Yiddish word for absolutely nothing. People look down on them. I don't know if the disrespect was there or as rampant as it seems after Trump. It's sickening. We need reporters, WE NEED REPORTERS!
Your description, Fern, is right on. This was true in the early 1970s when I landed my first job as a reporter in Thomasville, Ga. (oh what an education those three years were). And it was true decades later. Today the job is immensely more difficult because of much smaller staffs, minuscule budgets, and the demands of online and social media publishing.
Likewise, Fern ... in fact, at risk of reposting some of these materials, your in depth analysis prompted the following (another sleepless night powered by purpose) ...:
AHMAUD ARBERY HOLDS US ACCOUNTABLE - By Jim Barger Jr.
"Nobody belonged to the salt marshes of coastal Georgia more than Ahmaud Arbery. His family’s roots there run more than 200 years deep. A native of those same marshes writes about who Ahmaud was, how well he was loved, and what his community must reckon with in the wake of his murder."
"... every day the sun rises afresh across our marshes and out across the ocean at the edge of the horizon. The Geechee word for this time of darkness erupting into color and light is “dayclean.” My dear friend and mentor — Cornelia Bailey, one of the former matriarchs of our Golden Isles Geechee community — took me into her home and into her world and taught me to approach every “Dayclean” as a new life unto itself, an awakening to which we are not entitled and for which much is required.
As my preacher at St. Luke’s AME church on St. Simons Island says, “It wasn’t the alarm clock that woke you up today. It was God!” There is both a recognition and an obligation in that deceptively simple faith statement. As we demand justice for the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, we must not lose sight of the fact we must also seek absolution for ourselves. We cannot bow our heads and call it “tragic” and leave it to the authorities and the politicians who will never protect our neighbors or us unless we require it of them. Rather, we must own responsibility for Ahmaud’s murder and its cover-up as both an individual and collective sin that stains us all. Then, we must humble ourselves by accepting forgiveness and vowing henceforth to do everything in our power to ensure that it never happens again." (Jim Barger Jr.)
_______
THANKSGIVING - Travis McMichael, Greg McMichael and William "Roddy" Bryan found guilty in the murder of Ahmaud Arbery - by Jim Barger, Jr.:
"In this precise moment, the sky over coastal Georgia is as clear and as blue as I have ever seen it. The wind is gentle across the marsh. An osprey circles contentedly overhead. The tide has turned. On February 23, 2020, three men took the life of Ahmaud Arbery. Between that day and today, grey clouds have cast shadows over this place. But today, the clouds have lifted. From now on, the day before Thanksgiving will have a new significance here in coastal Georgia. It will be remembered as the day that twelve of our neighbors re-affirmed the value of Ahmaud Arbery’s life and repudiated the notion that his killing was justified." (Jim Barger Jr.)
_______
Local citizen appeals for open acknowledgement and press coverage that kept this murder from being buried in the unwritten archives of AMERICA'S BIG LIES:
"If you’re going to read only one thing to inform your attitude and obligation as an ordinary person toward race relations, go find yourself a Bible and turn to the Gospel According to Mark, chapter 12, verse 31, where you will find this instruction from a first century carpenter, quoting ancient Hebraic law:
"Love your neighbor as yourself."
There is no other commandment greater — we are told it is like loving God himself.
We must love our neighbors, and we must expand our narrow definition of neighborhood. Ahmaud Arbery was a member of my community. He was a son, brother, and cousin of one of our own, which makes him by proxy a son, brother, and cousin of mine. He was my neighbor. He was a neighbor of everyone who lives in the Golden Isles of Georgia — including everyone who lives in the neighborhood of Satilla Shores. And in the most cowardly fashion, he was gunned down by angry, confused, depraved men, fueled by hate, emboldened by a flawed sense of entitlement, infected by a culture that glorifies gun violence, and enabled by the apathy and disinterest of the rest of us. I and all of the other people in my community and in this nation failed to protect our neighbor, Ahmaud Arbery. We failed to afford him the same protections that we so richly afford ourselves. In short, we loved ourselves more than we loved him." (Jim Barger Jr.)
Black Power Ideologies An Essay in African American Political Thought John Mccartney Paperback List Price: 34.95*
"In a systematic survey of the manifestations and meaning of Black Power in America, John McCartney analyzes the ideology of the Black Power Movement in the 1960s and places it in the context of both African-American and Western political thought. He demonstrates, though an exploration of historic antecedents, how the Black Power versus black mainstream competition of the sixties was not unique in American history. Tracing the evolution of black social and political movements from the 18th century to the present, the author focuses on the ideas and actions of the leaders of each major approach.
Starting with the colonization efforts of the Pan-Negro Nationalist movement in the 18th century, McCartney contrasts the work of Bishop Turner with the opposing integrationist views of Frederick Douglass and his followers.
McCartney examines the politics of accommodation espoused by Booker T. Washington; W.E.B. Du Bois's opposition to this apolitical stance; the formation of the NAACP, the Urban League, and other integrationist organizations; and Marcus Garvey's reawakening of the separatist ideal in the early 20th century. Focusing on the intense legal activity of the NAACP from the 1930s to the 1960s, McCartney gives extensive treatment to the moral and political leadership of Martin Luther King, Jr., and his challenge from the Black Power Movement in 1966."
"John T. McCartney analyzes the ideology of the Black Power Movement in the 1960s and places it in the context of both African-American and Western political thought. He demonstrates, through an exploration of historic antecedents, that the Black Power versus black mainstream competition of the sixties was not unique in American history."
"In a systematic survey of the manifestations and meaning of Black Power in America, John McCartney analyzes the ideology of the Black Power Movement in the 1960s and places it in the context of both African-American and Western political thought."
"Black Power Ideologies is a significant contribution to scholarship, for while there are hundreds of books on Black Power, this work takes the concept from the colonial era to the 1960s, and provides an accompanying political analysis to its historical development."
THE HISTORY-MAKING CLASSIC ABOUT CROSSING THE COLOR LINE IN AMERICA'S SEGREGATED SOUTH
“One of the deepest, most penetrating documents yet set down on the racial question.”—Atlanta Journal & Constitution
"In the Deep South of the 1950’s, a color line was etched in blood across Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia. Journalist John Howard Griffin decided to cross that line. Using medication that darkened his skin to deep brown, he exchanged his privileged life as a Southern white man for the disenfranchised world of an unemployed black man.
What happened to John Howard Griffin—from the outside and within himself—as he made his way through the segregated Deep South is recorded in this searing work of nonfiction. His audacious, still chillingly relevant eyewitness history is a work about race and humanity every American must read."
"... published 83 years ago. And lest you begin telling yourself that the age of these prophetic books demonstrates that we’ve moved beyond the problem, then skip ahead to Chapter 15, entitled “White Aggression,” where Dollard writes in anachronistic prose a statement that nevertheless directly informs our understanding of the 21st Century lynching of Ahmaud Arbery:
"The only protection the Negro has is the conscience of the individual white man, and, as we know, this barrier cannot be relied upon throughout the whole population. Some white people possess the necessary restraints, others do not. The asocial, sadistic, or psychopathic white person is a real danger, for few of the culture-old restraints on individual aggression apply to his acts against the Negro.""
"An impassioned, thoughtful, and fearless essay on the effects of racism on the American identity by one of our country’s most humane literary voices.
Acclaimed as “one of the most humane, honest, liberating works of our time” (The Village Voice), The Hidden Wound is a book-length essay about racism and the damage it has done to the identity of our country. Through Berry’s personal experience, he explains how remaining passive in the face of the struggle of racism further corrodes America’s great potential. In a quiet and observant manner, Berry opens up about how his attempt to discuss racism is rooted in the hope that someday the historical wound will begin to heal.
Pulitzer prize-winning author Larry McMurtry calls this “a profound, passionate, crucial piece of writing . . . Few readers, and I think, no writers will be able to read it without a small pulse of triumph at the temples: the strange, almost communal sense of triumph one feels when someone has written truly well . . . The statement it makes is intricate and beautiful, sad but strong.”"
'The sheer range of West's interests and insights is staggering and exemplary: he appears equally comfortable talking about literature, ethics, art, jurisprudence, religion, and popular-cultural forms.' - Artforum
"Keeping Faith is a rich, moving and deeply personal collection of essays from one of the leading African American intellectuals of our age. Drawing upon the traditions of Western philosophy and modernity, Cornel West critiques structures of power and oppression as they operate within American society and provides a way of thinking about human dignity and difference afresh. Impressive in its scope, West confidently and deftly explores the politics and philosophy of America, the role of the black intellectual, legal theory and the future of liberal thought, and the fate of African Americans. A celebration of the extraordinary lives of ordinary Americans, Keeping Faith is a petition to hope and a call to faith in the redemptive power of the human spirit."
Good Old Boys with pick up trucks and guns? NeoNazis with Tiki torches? So yesterday.
Pubescent sociopaths with guns. So now. TrumpYouth on the march with assault rifles and up for Congressional medals. They're not just tweeting from their parents' basements anymore.
New South vs Sclerotic MidWest?
But seriously. Yes, tech in the form of phone videos. But very much tenacity in the form of community activism and community journalists. And the truthfulness of a jury. Overcoming the racist right wing apparatus of official injustice.
So yes. Please keep standing on street corners and in front of courthouses, writing Letters to the Editor, contacting your elected officials, and supporting local independent journalism which covers, rather than covers up, local goings on. And please, answer the call to jury duty and pay attention to candidates for office at every level. (That derelict judge in Wisconsin ran unopposed.)
As HCR said to Bill Moyers:
"But you think of all the sacrifices that people have made to keep this country a democracy and to keep it healthy and to try and keep it equal. It seems to me to be a small price for me to pay to take the extraordinary training I’ve had and all the privilege I’ve had in my life and, you know, stay up a little bit later than I would like to."
Thank You HCR. An example to follow - to find ways and take time to for activism in our days. It doesn't necessarily take extraordinary training or privilege - but our determination and diligence.
Thank you for this, found Bill Moyers as a young, curious Dem. He is integrity personified. How I wish he had the reach of Rupert’s propaganda machine.
Jeri, you are so right, " integrity personified". A former TV news colleague of mine in Orlando worked for a time for Moyers and took me for a tour of their workplace in NY. I met Bill, who was sitting in a little video editing room with a yellow legal pad, just like all the rest of us had to do to produce our work. I remember how impressed I was that he did his own work!!
Hi Michael, Bob Jordan hired me in 1976 when he first came to town. I worked at 9 as a reporter and substitute for Carole Nelson on the noon show until I got married and moved to New Smyrna. WESH hired me ( Carol Granstrom) to anchor 6 and 11 with Bruce Hamilton. I was there til 1984 when I was asked to run for Congress by a Coaltion in the Dem Primary that summer ( Mondale and Ferraro). Your name rang a bell when I saw it. Who did you work with at WFTV?
I knew your name was familiar, but I couldn't place it. I saw you on air many times and was aware of your campaign. I worked mainly with Chris Schmidt, the news director. I had been promoted to manage the Sentinel's day-to-day work with WFTV and start the newspaper's online operation. The latter grew quite large quickly, and I moved into a GM role to focus exclusively on the online side. Before that, I had several editor roles, including metro editor. I also directed the paper's coverage of the Challenger disaster. Before moving to the Sentinel, I worked at Florida Today as a reporter and editor for five years. Fond memories.
Yes, good memories of good and challenging days! Not sure where you live now but the Sentinel Building is basically an empty shell. My husband and I drove past yesterday and I predicted it will be torn down. Sad. An icon!
So glad to see you here.....another amazing aspect of HCR's site is the connection of people old and new. All the best, Michael, and thank you for all your important work in local news in our Orlando community.
"But there is one sticking point: if Gregory McMichael had not produced that video, it’s entirely possible that the crime and its coverup would never have been prosecuted."
Yes. Not just possible, but, probable. That fact was clear from the very first time I saw the video, however, I never understood why it was released until today and today's Letter.
Now I understand: McMichael released the video thinking it would exonerate him in an interesting reveal of his own perspective on shooting an innocent, obviously unarmed man who was actually backing away (by my own examinaiton of the video) when McMichael pulled the trigger on the shotgun.
So, going forward, if I know that video can get white folks charged with murder, well, so does everyone in America.
So, don't look for much video to surface of future murders of black men by white men unless it is somebody's doorbell camera but cops are on to those now too.
Because, independent of GBI's claim that things are changing in Georgia, and by extension, the USA, I don't think we have clear evidence of that from this trial, as Dr. Richardson points out.
Without video? No conviction.
Because, without the video? The white man was (will be) believed and the dead man cannot give his testimony.
The guy really thought that they had done nothing wrong, so here’s a former cop who worked for 20-30 years as a cop in the Brunswick area. I would like to see what else he witnessed or participated in that he didn’t see anything wrong with. Where there’s smoke there’s fire. I’ll bet that a close examination of his work record will reveal that this was not an aberration but more the norm as far as his interaction with black people went. Think about it, he actually believed that showing the video would make a nagging problem go away, that either speaks to his intelligence or hubris or both. So he was the guy walking around with a gun and a badge all those years, walking around with other people with guns and badges who thought just like he did, and if you think that Brunswick was an outlier in Georgia, think again. I live in Georgia and have worked all over this state, the malevolence exhibited in this case is not an outlier but it’s the norm. Do you think it’s strange that people have a strong aversion to the police? Let them keep their badges but take away their guns and the public might have a very different attitude towards them and they towards the public.
When the video of the beating of Rodney King surfaced in 1991, it had originally been offered to LAPD, who expressed no interest in it. Subsequently released to the public, the video eventually prompted a state trial that resulted in 4 acquittals for assault and 3 acquittals for excessive force. The federal trial for civil rights violations ended with 2 convictions and 2 acquittals.
I became a law enforcement trainer in the area of non-firearms use of force tactics shortly after that in 1994, and used that video as a warning: I would tell my students to assume they were being video taped (by the end of my career, it was cell phone video; we had in-car cameras for a short time around 2008-2010) on every stop or citizen contact that they had. We all know what has happened now with citizen recordings of law enforcement interactions. That warning that I gave 10+ years ago seems not to have been much of a deterrent.
That anyone could believe that the video produced of Awbery's shooting could be exculpatory shows the fundamental belief system that is alive and well in white law enforcement.
A brilliant retelling of the steps that ultimately led the three bigoted vigilantes to court. I needed the clarity of your pre-trial run-through, Heather, to understand how our justice system could have gone awry yet again. As always, my thanks!
Kim, had it not been for Darnella Fraziers' video, the George Floyd trial would have been different. I question would it ever materialize had the video not been made public?
It shouldn't be up to us with cellphones taking videos of every possible situation that may bear witness to the truth.
You are correct. It should not be citizens with cellphones documenting situations that may bear witness to the truth, and yet, here we are. I used to drive a public transit bus. The buses are loaded with cameras. We drivers weren’t certain how to feel about that when they were implemented. But they saved us more than they hurt us. Most of my coworkers were very conscientious about their role in dealing with the public and public safety. But many citizens who don’t use public transit, don’t want them on the streets and don’t take any care about how they maneuver around them. I could retell many stories but the point is … the truth just might depend on a captured video.
Linda, With all the tools that governments, institutions and businesses have to monitor us it is definitely in our best interest to use the tool we have at our fingertips 24/7. Consider the dash cams and body cams that remain deactivated or the possibility of footage being withheld.
It shouldn't be this way, but it is. Conferring unimpeachable sanctity on the word of tainted law enforcement and the white establishment has led us to where we are today. It IS on us to guarantee justice for ourselves and others.
Daria, I do think these Court cases have made it easier for those to whip out their phones to provide documentation. The other day I was walking into a store and a man (white) made a snide remark to a driver (black) who was parked near the entrance. Was he parked illegally, yes . He certainly hadn't planned on parking there all day. However as I looked around, there were 4 people with phones video taping it. Nothing came of it, but I was surprised how quickly those phones came out.
Oh that that were true. Perhaps it can’t be changed, but it can be gussied up and made to appear innocent… even divine right. Take Manifest Destiny… the willful slaughter of indigenous peoples and the taking of their lands and homes. The arrogance to declare them “savages” while behaving in a totally destructive and savage manner. The past can’t be changed, but it can be distorted.
... maybe if the pope rescinded the papal edict of 1493 it would remove the foundation of ‘laws’ that followed, based on the doctrine, in the USA, and globally, to justify colonial expansion. That might shake things up a bit.
Beyond that, if the DOD continues, maybe some emerging element could ‘discover’ this new land within the old, which (according to the DOD) would give exclusive, unchallenged powers of governance to the discoverers:
“Discovery doctrine is a principle of Public International Law. According to this principle the title to a newly discovered land lay with the government whose subjects discovered new territory. The doctrine was developed by the U.S. Supreme Court through Johnson v. M'Intosh, 21 U.S. 543 (U.S. 1823). In this case the court observed that “If the discovery be mad e, and possession of the country be taken, under the authority of an existing government, which is acknowledged by the emigrants, it is supposed to be equally well settled, that the discovery is made for the whole nation, that the country becomes a part of the nation, and that the vacant soil is to be disposed of by that organ of the government which has the constitutional power to dispose of the national domains, by that organ in which all vacant territory is vested by law”.
"Apparently thinking that since Barnhill had found Bryan’s video exonerating, everyone else would, too, Gregory McMichael worked with lawyer Alan Tucker to take the video to a local radio station, which uploaded it for public viewing."
... so, what then ... was he seeking recognition and applause from his fellows at the pool hall - maybe free drinks for the evening?
... or maybe fuel for the rising tide of pro-patriot/anti-American sentiment ... maybe a FOCSNOOZE star-making 'personality' might air it on national TV and he could become famous ...?
I used to think that patriots were people willing to risk their lives for a nation "conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men* are created equal."
* It took a few decades for women to be given a thought, even longer - well, not yet manifest- that all humans are created equal.
Me too Rosalind - and I have no doubt such patriots do exist; also that this genre of citizen soldiers believe they are patriots, loyal to the original intent for wealthy European patriarchs and their minions to establish a more perfect union free of the rule of monarchs, supporting their right to prosper without constraint - that paradigm had nothing to do with equality or liberty for anyone outside of that exclusive club - if only everyone would keep their proper place, all would go well ... so now, if they can get rid of all the disobedient, non-compliant naysayers, we can get back to business as usual and carry on ... butts in the air, baby - the younger and fresher the better ....
Let's not forget the job done by journalists at the New York Times and initially at the Brunswick News for digging out and reporting the facts of the case, keeping it alive. Newspapers are intended for far more than just carrying Black Friday advertisements.
We also need newspapers that aren't owned by the Murdochs insisting on printing biased material and propaganda. We need to protect the free press!
Pick a journalist. One that you read and like. Reach out to them and thank them. Follow them. Read their stories and share them.
Ted, Look who I found yesterday. She's speaking for all journalists as you are, too! Thank you.
Angie Drobnic Holan, editor-in-chief, PolitiFact:
I’m grateful for people who take time to send notes of appreciation and encouragement to journalists. Between boatloads of misinformation and media bashing from all sides, there are some days when being a journalist is just plain hard. On those days, a few notes of praise can make all the difference. Here are just a few of the comments the team at PolitiFact received recently: “I appreciate your work to bring truth to the people.” “I believe in what you are trying to do.” “I love what you do. It’s critical to expose damaging falsehoods.” Those words mean a lot in tough times. If you appreciate a journalist’s work, take a minute this month to let them know.
https://www.poynter.org/
Thanks, Fern. Did you know that many, many real journalists throughout the world are murdered daily because they research and publish the truth. Many of them are killed by thugs who have been hired by fossil fuel companies, governments, and other corporations that fear their raping counties of natural resources might be delayed.
Killers of journalists still get away with murder
No one has been held to account in 81% of journalist murders during the last 10 years, CPJ’s 2021 Global Impunity Index has found.
By Jennifer Dunham/CPJ Deputy Editorial Director
Published October 28, 2021
Somalia remains the world’s worst country for unsolved killings of journalists, according to CPJ’s annual Global Impunity Index, which spotlights countries where members of the press are singled out for murder and the perpetrators go free.
The index showed little change from a year earlier, with Syria, Iraq, and South Sudan, in that order, again coming in behind Somalia to occupy the worst four spots on the list, as conflict, political instability, and weak judicial mechanisms perpetuate a cycle of violence against journalists.
https://www.google.com/aclk?sa=l&ai=DChcSEwjZkYqoqrn0AhXUPq0GHZO1BT8YABAAGgJwdg&ae=2&sig=AOD64_3wU6eSW4b0vHI_qfI_C8Vzez_lXQ&q&nis=1&adurl&ved=2ahUKEwixhYCoqrn0AhUyHTQIHS8FBW0Q0Qx6BAgCEAE
Yes, I am.
Thanks, Fern, because of you mentioning CPJ, I just went to their site, subscribed and donated to them!
Excellent suggestion! I do this often, and even get replies!! But, frankly, I stay away from the righties because most of them have ears closed and eyes shut unless one echoes their diatribe.
Keep a watch on the Sinclairs. They are gobbling up broadcast sites across the land.
Yup. Sinclair is not a news organization. They are in the business of engagement for serving marketing (ads). They follow what Facebook has made so apparently simple. In order to charge customers for advertising, they must first demonstrate engagement, and that metric can be manipulated with enragement practices and content.
https://compulse.com/?utm_term=sinclair%20broadcast%20group&utm_campaign=Compulse+-+Brand&utm_source=adwords&utm_medium=ppc&hsa_acc=1404611682&hsa_cam=14090246053&hsa_grp=124791233025&hsa_ad=536589439122&hsa_src=g&hsa_tgt=kwd-1548874620&hsa_kw=sinclair%20broadcast%20group&hsa_mt=e&hsa_net=adwords&hsa_ver=3&gclid=Cj0KCQiAy4eNBhCaARIsAFDVtI3OjyxhehviFLz96J3ay9eUtVGATxa7xGGtxSY5nzsGEHx1J23NwbgaAirLEALw_wcB
Impressive! Thank you. The website graphics are very well done. I have read they are securing a wide grip among numerous outlets to promote a very conservative; right wing. I am not seasoned enough or familiar enough with them to assert the latter one way or the other.
Sinclair, Fox, Facebook are engaged in an immoral and unethical practice for profit. They do not care who they hurt, by how much, nor the greater effect on civil society.They feed off Demagogues that fan the flames of indifference, outrage, and hate. How long will we choose to keep it legal?
"How long will we choose to keep it legal?" I fear that cat is already out of the bag. Or, the genie out of the bottle. Either way, they "ain't" going back.
Yes, the Sinclairs are insidious.
Yup.
You are too kind. I would opt for nefarious or pernicious.
You're right, of course.
Thanks! But, insidious also captures their psyche.
Much of the free press in America and the rest of the world is disappearing largely because of Murdoch, Sinclair, Gannett, and a couple of other companies that control almost all of the media,
In the U.S. the Fairness Doctrine played into the hands of the Murdochs at the behest of Reagan. Truth and fact in reporting became its casualty. Electronic technology did not help in some respects, because of the celerity with which "news" is broadcast and skewed to a particular political ideology. While I believe most news/media outlets really want to be on the right side of integrity and morality, several do not want to be there, are not there and are nefarious by intention.
“We are not in the entertainment business”-Jim Lehrer
I believe Fox News does claim to be entertainment!
Exactly. Same spectacle as a sports game. The bigger the rivalry, the more outrageous and emotional the pregame is, the closer the game, the more attentive the viewers or, “spectators” to it all. It’s interesting that Sinclair also owns a pro wrestling venue. That’s where their playbook comes from.
"Knuckle dragging" style "entertainment". 🤣😁😈
So true! Sadly, today's ratings rule over reason and integrity.
Lesson 10: “To abandon facts is to abandon freedom. If nothing is true, then no one can criticize power, because there is no basis upon which to do so. If nothing is true, then all is spectacle. The biggest wallet pays for the most blinding lights.”- Dr. Tim Snyder
Corporate control of mass communications, of political parties, of the branches of government and the courts. Wealth gap and inequality at historical highs. Ownership of the means of production, capital, access to credit, and power highly concentrated at the top.This creates class conflict. And history shows that the conflict can either be reduced by increasing equality by reordering the wealth and increasing freedom ( access to the vote). When this doesn’t happen, revolutions do.
Say "Hello!" to the new American fascist oligarchy. Soon, the majority will be nothing more than serfs.
Or not. To believe in only one possible outcome, to think it that oligarchy is the only inevitability, doesn’t take history nor those who are taking responsibility for making it into account. We are Heather’s Herd, and we are chipping away at what RFK labeled “the vanity of false distinctions”.
Ah, yes, RFK. One of my champions! His brother was my Commander -in-Chief. I admit to being skeptical and cynical at this stage in my life. It has been a life-learning experience!! If we are part of "Heather's Herd", we are well-advised not to stand in one place for too long; or, being too silent.
Very true, and a dangerous state of affairs for democracy. Without a robust fourth estate to question and publicize the actions of government, the ever present lure of corruption - not to mention idiocy - has no check on it. The larger problem seems to be that currently there is no strong financial model for gathering and disseminating in depth news. With smartphone cameras anyone can be an amateur reporter, but that seems to squeeze out the space for professionals. To the detriment of us all.
Intellect has given sway to sound bites and half-a**ed opinions marketed as "news" of, worse, "facts". The idiocy to which you speak was lauded by Sarah Palin (OH, GOD!) when she railed publicly against intelligence and those "intellectuals". Unknown to her ilk, being "smart" takes work.
Aren't you discounting the advent of the Internet? It more than anything brought about the ruin of local papers. It lowered the barriers to entry and, at the same time, undercut the basic advertising model that had always paid the bills. In truth, many cities wouldn't have newspapers today without chains like Gannett that mastered how to publish on the cheap. By cheap, I mean papers with many fewer stories, and often stories of diminished quality. Even in pre-Internet years, newspaper readership had been steadily eroding. Corporate consolidation that led to mega-chains began decades ago.
Yes, Michel, the advent of the Internet certainly has had a lot to do with the demise of newspapers. Companies like Sinclair, etc., probably about five now, have taken control of the media all over the U.S. Since they have, the various newspapers, radio and TV stations have had to put out what those corporations want published. Hence, Fox, etc., have usurped independent news. Thanks for mentioning the Internet, which has caused this.
Yes, Sinclair has wreaked havoc on quality journalism. I was ecstatic when its merger with my employer for 18 years, Tribune Company, fell through in 2018. Sinclair was deprived of 42 Tribune TV stations, mostly in large cities.
Michael, I recently read, perhaps here or in WAPO, that The Hill has been taken over by a right wing organization and is obviously now giving us another right wing slant for Washington, D. C. Disqusting.
Spot on! Not only did it lower barriers to enty, the Internet also relaxed on matters of truth and fact. Credible and reliable sources became more critical while also becoming much more difficult to discern real truth and actual fact.
One can thank Ronald Reagan for the Murdoch invasion. His papers are forbiddin in other countries. FOX is his empire of poison and hate.
Don’t worry, I blame Reagan for quite a lot of things!
🤣🤣🤣 While some regarded him as the Shining White Knight, I regarded him as the Knight of Darkness. He set our country on its current path of self-destruction.
His last name was not Reagan, rather is was really "Rayguns."
With an absolute hideous reputation on racism; denial of the HIV/AIDS crisis because he and Falwell Sr. deemed it God's curse for being queer. The Iran Contra affair for which Ollie North (hated by most US Marines) fell on his sword for Reagan.
Our subscription support of local, regional and national news/journalism is a critical component of the battle for equalities and the system of laws
Subscriptions to quality National and local newspapers should be viewed as a civic responsibility as well as essential to being informed. While it is true that advertising revenue is essential to the survival of our news journals - national and local - it is the existence of a strong subscriber base that drives advertisers to support those newspapers. A free and independent press is an essential element to the survival of democracy. When the light of democracy is threatened it is free and independent journalism that supplies the power to keep the light on.
Government support is essential as a the 'free-press' is crucial to Democracy.
I want to think more about what government support means to the health of a free press. Government needs to support the idea and existence of a free and independent press. However, interference by the government or picking “winners and losers” amongst media sources would undermine their independence. It can be a delicate balance and getting it wrong could be quite dangerous. Best if government maintains a reasonable distance from individual news media while supporting them and maintains transparency and openness.
Yes! With all the corporate welfare (looking at you, oil companies, pharma) why is no help given to newspapers?
I agree. It’s healthy when our President and Congress has a love/hate relationship with the press.
As with support for the Public Broadcasting Service, funding can be organized and dispensed to avoid the pitfalls you mentioned, which are generally veiled obstacles to avoid doing what is necessary. It is well known dodge.
For one thing, government can be more careful about monitoring news monopolies.
Needs to be addressed. Yes, lin!
I subscribe to many publications that I don't read every day just to keep them supported and alive. I am concerned about corporations buying up local papers the way the corporations are buying up housing, turning it into rental property and nudging out people with VA loan approval. PSB is member supported and would be even more member supported if we all knew government grants were not available. We have to keep the changing of "who is in charge now?" issue of our political system. It is all too common that we see things from our own perspective and think it should be clear to others what is right and wrong. PBS is good, right? Well, not to many of the current "right." I agree with Bruce on this.
Fern I applaud your suggestion, though I’m leery of how it might be implemented. At one time Voice of America, back in the days of Edward R. Murrow as director of USIA, set the standard for objective new reporting. Under Trump, VOA’s factual objectivity was trashed and it became a voice for Tubby Trump. Also, who would determine what news sources should be supported/subsidized? Frontline is another investigative source that for more-than-a-generation has maintained its integrity. Personally, I would welcome, as part of a compensation packet, digital access to the NYT and Washington Post given to all Foreign Service Officers and others in US government. But, under First Amendment, shouldn’t Fox and others be included?
As an alternative, I would encourage far greater financing of the NEH, NEA, and Public Broadcasting Corporation. Though Lynne Cheney was, at times, a blight on the National Endowment for the Humanities, on balance it has been a positive for Americans. NPR is a beacon of light in many corners of America. Years ago I recall that Berlin spent more on supporting ‘culture’ that did the United States.
I am heartened that more nonfiction books are sold annually than fiction. As Sergeant Friday said “Just the facts, m’am.’
Delighted to see you Keith, and to spend some time thinking about the options, which you have laid out. Plenty of historical examples to review, too. Thank you.
"Though Lynne Cheney was, at times, a blight on the National Endowment for the Humanities..."
One thing we can thank the then somewhat doddering and somewhat demented old Cold Warrior James Billington for, is holding on to his tenure as Librarian of Congress - the plum Liz Cheney really had her greedy eye on.
I am pondering the support of the Free Press by the government with respect to Fox News. I have no trouble with the News. I do have extreme concern about the lies, fabrications, conspiracy theories and hate that the well-known part of Fox perpetuates. Censorship is dangerous but I think we should be able to come up with standards. The standards of course are problematic in themselves but if the public is to support news agencies we need to come up with standards. We individually are, of course, the best filters of information and maybe in the end that’s what we should rely on before wading into the murky waters of standards and censorship. You know the free market of ideas.
Consider:
The role of the former "Fairness Doctrine" that used to apply to broadcast media until the Reaganmonster did it in.
The long and dishonorable history of "yellow journalism" in instigating wars....
The ongoing role of (say) the Washington Post and New York Times in legitimizing official lies--even from liars as gross and obvious as trump-- (long-after-the-fact breast beating doesn't cut it!)
The blackouts of independent thinkers from DuBois to Chomsky to Sanders to Zinn....
One could rant on and on....
Robin, The subject up for discuss has to do with funding of local news operations. Local newspapers are fast disappearing. Rural areas are not served. The more news the more democracy. Newspapers bring more than news - entertainment, sports, business, local activities, the functions local government's, wedding announcements, obits -- sense of community. Dependence on social media works against a well informed fact oriented news. There will be good, bad and outlets in between. Less isolation and more interaction.
I have to agree with this, having watched the decline of news organizations with growing alarm for the past 20 or so years. It's a tricky question to be sure. But if a financial model can't be found that allows for a vigorous news industry, it is certainly in the best interest of a healthy democracy that some type of taxpayer support be made available.
I agree. However, subscriptions to some local newspapers are prohibitively expensive, making it impossible for many to subscribe to the local paper. A subscription to the local paper in my parent's region is over $700/year.
That seems excessive. My local is 156, six days a week
That sounds like an online price. I bargained the Palm Beach Post seven days a week down to $50 a month for a paper edition which I prefer to their $20 monthly online e-edition, which includes every page of the paper version, even the ads. Eventually, there will be no paper editions at all, which will be good for the trees in our forests, which are not unlimited.
My “local” Gannett/Florida Today is 9.99/month for online.
Several ago tried to bargain them down for dad’s paper edition
but they wouldn’t budge. It was ~. 60$.
Mine, The Seattle Times, is $30/year for Sunday only.
"A subscription to the local paper in my parent's region is over $700/year."
Perhaps that is the cost of a paper delivery subscription? Digital may be less expensive.
Our Asheville NC is about $ 400/year. Online would be cheaper but my wife likes the hard copy of crossword and jumble.
Yes, we all might explore local independent papers across the nation and get on line subscriptions to the ones we like.
Bruce—I write in response to your remark, “it is the existence of a strong subscriber base that drives advertisers to support those newspapers.” I would note, back in the 60s, The New Yorker audience actually grew in numbers, mostly college students in their late teens and early twenties, because of its clear and moral stand against the Vietnam War. It was then that ad pages began their drastic disappearance, the majority of which withdrew because The New Yorker had begun to attract “the wrong kind” of reader. Translation: people not of the “right” age and income brackets. Media observers and analysts repeatedly have noted, “The standard cure for ‘bad demographics’ in newspapers, magazines, radio and television is simple: Change the content.” (Source: Media Observer and Analyst Ben H. Bagdikian)
I understand your view. However, the problem for any media is not and has never been in any single case the growth of its subscriber base with a less desirable demographic. It is and has always been the shrinkage of its reach with a desirable demographic for its advertisers when compared to alternatives. No advertiser stops using a forum because it’s reach increases. It does so because there are more cost effective ways to reach its desired audience. So subscribe to and support quality journalism including by supporting those who support it.
Bruce—Indeed, I appreciate your statement that “it [the problem for any media] is and has always been the shrinkage of its reach with a desirable demographic for its advertisers when compared to alternatives.” Still, as a point of clarification, I would note that I had used what had happened to The New Yorker as an iterative and cautionary example to show how markets drive editorial decisions. I fret over whether media, a commercial, profit-driven enterprise, can meaningfully engage in public service and nurture the public trust and still make the sort of money they currently do.
I agree and support that view
I look at it this way, we should pay for content, like the music industry where Pandora, Spotify et al are starving the creators, we should disavow those platforms until they pay for their raw materials
I don’t read The Atlantic Cover to cover, but I pay for the content nevertheless
I agree. A while back Jeff Bezos asked what he could do with his money that would do the most good. I wrote a long suggestion that he fund start up local news papers in small towns around the country and it would have cost him a pittance and its value would grow exponentially. Alas, it didn't happen.
His ex wife, however, has donated money to various organizations that have and hopefully will expose the hidden truth.
https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/scott-gives-3-million-to-santa-fe-s-museum-of-contemporary-native-arts/article_2b664cda-ceea-11eb-9669-230e0295d981.html
Brilliant idea Martha!❤️ Bezos has had many chances to return the Post to a prominent role in correcting mis/disinformation, but there are a lot of small local papers that could shine a light on what goes on locally and needs to be told.
Well, not yet, Martha. The game’s not over yet!
Exactly. And keep writing. He may have glossed over your first letter and is closer to being ready to see the next one or the one after that.
His ex wife will!
Tax him and the Zukk to force this.
Our town’s little local newspaper went belly-up about two years ago. Had been in business for 100 years. It had many years of being a right-wing publication but for about 5 years, we had a very open-minded editor. Unfortunately, he passed away at a very young age.
In Sundays NYTs. Local News Outlets Could Reap $1.7 Billion in Build Back Better Aid https://nyti.ms/3o0YQ9U
Thank you! I might have missed this. Answer to a prayer. ho
pe it passes.
Perhaps we will see a resurgence of local newspapers…
beginning small but with potent and pertinent news… because citizens are coming to understand our democracy is at stake and the Murdoch’s of the country are not giving us the true story.
Exactly right. But what if there were no newspapers? I don't worry about the Times but I do worry about the future of local news. There are hundreds of Brunswick Newses that have closed shop. Also, many of these civic guardians are no longer locally owned. They have been bought up by venture capitalists with no interest in the profession. Newsrooms have been gutted; reporters get paid slave wages. Of course, revenue from advertisers has all but dried up thanks to the Internet, today's equivalent of the efficient network of roads that all led to Rome. We know how that ended.
If not locally owned, what’s the difference from closing shop? The effect is the same. The people are not connected to each other anymore. The people are conditioned to think only in terms of National stories. They become tribal. Us vs Them.
Before Gutenberg invented movable type, there were other means of communication than newspapers, even just people sitting around a fire exchanging ideas ... which is more or less what we do on the internet. People find ways to exchange ideas. The Incas, whose architectural skills (Machu Picchu) were noteworthy couldn't even read or write.
"Quipu (also spelled khipu) are recording devices fashioned from strings historically used by a number of cultures in the region of Andean South America.[1] Knotted strings for collecting data, government management and keeping records were also used by the ancient Chinese, Tibetans and Japanese,[2][3][4][5] but such practices should not be confused with the quipu, which refers only to the Andean method."
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quipu
The paradigm shift to relying on the ubiquitous cell-fone cams that capture these moments and are being posted on the Internet.
I was just thinking about that as I read this. I carry mine with me everywhere, even from room to room in my own house (mostly for safety reasons.)
I live in a small town, but my house is on a corner facing a state highway and a side street that provides traffic a shortcut through town. Since I'm only two blocks from the historic downtown, the speed limit on these two streets is 30 mpg. Nevertheless, local hoodies and their souped-up Mustangs, local white supremacists in their gigantic pickup trucks festooned with Confederate flags, "soccer moms" late for whatever errand they might be on, and truckers who fail to notice the various signs slowing traffic - all drive down this street well over the speed limit, endangering children and pets and even homeowners who might be working in their yards. I posted a comment on my FB page about the speeding and was literally attacked by various members of the aforementioned who said I should "take down license plates and report them if this was really true." Of course, there's no time to do such a thing with a vehicle whizzing by at 45 mph. But I have thought about just standing on my front porch with my cell phone on video and turning THAT over to the local police department. A single patrol car could probably issue enough tickets to balance the police department's budget for a year, if they had the sense to position a vehicle at this intersection! It's a sign of the times that I even thought about doing something like this!
I have a granddaughter at age 10 did a science project on this, now she had the help of her father on this but it was still Amy who took the data and wrote the report. Her dad is a computer science professor but they only use a stop watch and a tape measure. They live close to Amy's grade school in Waterloo Ontario. They timed the cars flying through the school zone and then calculated their speed. Amy and dad did the calculations for her report. The teacher liked the report and sent a copy to the local paper. New enforcement followed.
Wonderful!!
Yes, Jack, and it was the local reporter Larry Hobbs at the Brunswick News that would not let go.
It was a mother and a community that would not let go.
And the reporter as well, Kathleen. Are you familiar with his role? Why dismiss his commitment?
Exactly! Hobbs is to be commended for his doggedness.
While I agree with the sentiment of supporting local news, unfortunately, all local newspapers are not equal. If you live in a heavy red area, the newspaper often reflects the community, only occasionally allowing an opposing view on the OpEd page. Bravo for the Brunswick, GA reporter!
Deleted & reposted
There are many subscribers in this forum who are life-long urban dwellers and have little to no idea what passes for news in underserved and rural areas. It is the assumed that news, via tv, radio and internet, is equally available to all*. Of the three, radio is sometimes the best available. I can tell you, from personal experience, that when we bought our property and built our home on the eastern plains of Colorado in the late 90s, phone lines had not yet been run so not only did we not have a landline we had no internet access at home for 5 years. (We both had in town jobs where we had access to news and information.) We did have cell phones that may or may not have had a signal at any given moment; they were unreliable at best. Papers national or local (Denver, Colorado Springs dailies) were not available for delivery.
Often overlooked is the fact that local publications in rural areas may not be newspapers at all but advertising pages with a few tidbits of "local news", human interest and recipes thrown in. Sometimes people don't understand the distinction. The stories are frequently about a local sports team or event that is sponsored by a business that advertises in the paper. They are often "free" and available in boxes on the street and inside the businesses that advertise in them. People pick up these publications because they are free and contain just enough content to be of interest. And because these publications are free people are lulled into the idea that it must be easy and inexpensive to produce a (quality) newspaper so why pay for it? . Sadly, legitimate local newspapers are becoming a rarity more quickly than most might guess.
My point is this, there are large swaths of rural, sparsely populated areas in the US. Those rural dwellers' inability to freely access reliable, accurate news and information is a disadvantage in their decision making processes. They take what they can get and it's not always honest or reliable.
*Biden's Broadband Infrastructure initiative will help equalize the ability of rural dwellers have to access to a broader range of news and information. For everyone, this is a plus.
Yes! Exactly! And many conservative communities even prohibit their public libraries from subscribing to newspapers they disagree with.
Lin, I will answer your comment in 2 segments. First, yes, it is often likely that libraries in rural red areas carry none of the "national newspapers" and may carry the "most local" large paper, frequently Gannett, Sinclair, etc., but often not even that. It is difficult for urban dwellers, especially coastal urban dwellers, to understand just how narrow the scope of news and opinion can be in these areas. It is frequently not an option of picking and choosing from a vast array of sources but what is presented to you locally. This includes material that one's pastor deems acceptable for consumption.
The Poynter Institute is a valuable asset to the Journalism community. It can be invaluable to both students and working journalists as well as the public at large (specifically Politifact). My daughter received valuable guidance more than once from Poynter while in J School and after, particularly with regards to investigative journalism.
I appreciate the willingness of subscribers to search out resources like Poynter and promote them. Unfortunately, Poynter is unable to tackle the compounded issues of "news deserts" in small, far flung communities across the United States. I say this as someone who was born and raised in a town with a great daily, the Washington Post, has lived in major metro areas across the United States as well as in isolated rural areas that are unbelievably detached from the real news of our country and the world.
One if the issues that is choking the life out of our country right now is the libral urban coastal dweller's arrogant belief that they always know more and they always know better than the rural dweller. (I am an expat urban coastal liberal, I know what a jerk I can be). Many do not understand the deep seated distrust that keeps rural folk from picking up a mainstream newspaper and what it is they distrust. That's not okay. Entrenched arrogance is one of the things that keep small town and rural readers from seeking more center and liberal news sources We need to acknowledge and address that issue honestly and aggressively.
Thank You, Daria. Like you, I have lived in DC but also in rural Illinois.
Being from NYC, I always was surprised at WaPo's swipes at the Times and even DC Metro's swipes at the NY subway. I'd never experienced that going the other way.
What I found, in Illinois was that when people asked where I was from and I said NYC, they expressed assumptions and resentments which truly surprised me. I really had never thought much about Illinois one way or another when I unexpectedly landed there, but clearly they 'knew' all about NYC without ever having been there. I just listened. It was an education.
And maybe that is part of the problem, not that some people in big cities have the wrong ideas about small towns, but that we don't think much about them at all. And that some people in small towns have too little information and too much resentment.
Lin, Migrating from a big city to a rural area teaches many very valuable lessons, including the fact that rural folk can be kind, generous but wary...those of us from places like NYC & DC or LA & San Francisco may be met with suspicion...do we have horns? (😉).
You said, "And maybe that is part of the problem, not that some people in big cities have the wrong ideas about small towns, but that we don't think much about them at all. And that some people in small towns have too little information and too much resentment".
There is a lot of truth in what you've said. Living in México as a US citizen has made me much more aware of how baked in preconceived notions are and how they can negatively impact even the most casual interactions between locals and in comers
Liberal
lin, There may be a local news movement that there, which can grow and grow. I found the poynter.org yesterday and do not have any idea of the depth or width of what is happening in terms of the growth of local news. I'll just keep digging from time to time, so others may follow and go much deeper into this area than I can. See a sample of wish lists of a few of poynter's people:
Rick Edmonds, media business analyst:
Financially, local news is not out of the woods by a long shot. It’s encouraging, though, how many sources of support have emerged. A partial list: readers and advertiser/sponsors, of course; member/donors; national and local philanthropy, both foundations and wealthy individuals; Google and Facebook through their charitable arms (and they may be paying for the content they borrow before long); Report for America; ProPublica and The Marshall Project mastering local partnerships; even Congress is taking a serious look at federal support, picking up a portion of the salaries of local news professionals. Then there are those journalists who don’t let a little thing like a downsizing keep them from their calling. They step up and do essential work for their communities, often with reduced pay or no pay. I am thankful for them.
Sitara Nieves, Poynter faculty:
I’m grateful for all the local public radio newsrooms that continue to invest in stories that matter. There are plenty of those stories to choose from — and you can hear lots of them just by listening to anything your public radio station produces — but here are two that have stayed with me this year because of the stories they broke, how they keep following that story over time, and how transparent they made their reporting processes.
The first story I’m thankful for is the reporting collaboration between Nashville Public Radio and ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network, published in October: “Black Children Were Jailed for a Crime That Doesn’t Exist. Almost Nothing Happened to the Adults in Charge.” The story is horrifying, meticulously reported, and quickly led to local and state government responses, along with a request for a Department of Justice investigation from 11 members of Congress.
I also appreciate that the reporters, Meribah Knight from Nashville Public Radio and ProPublica’s Ken Armstrong, detailed their extensive reporting process in a methodology section at the end of the story: providing transparency that shows how the story was reported, and also offering a great primer for anyone interested in investigative journalism.
The second is WBEZ Chicago’s multimedia story “Drowning in Debt,” published this month, where María Inés Zamudio reported on how tens of thousands of Chicago homeowners — most in Black-majority areas — are in debt on their water bills after city leaders hiked water costs to raise revenue.
I’m thankful that WBEZ published their reporting methodology in a piece co-authored by data editor Matt Kiefer and Zamudio, which details how WBEZ began reporting the story in the first place. (They’ve been on this story since an initial investigative piece in 2019.) Zamudio and Kiefer show how they used the extensive data they gathered as part of their reporting, which I love. For example, they published the source code they wrote to build the database they created to identify vacant homes with water debt, and made data available for download.
I’m grateful to everyone doing all the work we hear, watch, and read every day. You are appreciated.
Have feedback or a tip? Email Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones at tjones@poynter.org.
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Whew! Thanks. And then there a student journalists. I recall decades ago our Erasmus Hall HS editors being feted at Columbia Univ.
Here is a link to formidable work done by students in Kentucky
https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2020/12/10/the-student-journalists-who-uncovered-a-police-training-manual-that-advocates-violence
lin, I am curious to know about your interest in journalism -- American and International? What prompted your inquires? Have you worked in the field? Have you been in contact with organizations, such as Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), Neiman Foundation for Journalism, American Journalism Historians Association (AJHA), Report For America, The Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), etc. Thanks.
You wrote: "Often overlooked is the fact that local publications in rural areas may not be newspapers at all but advertising pages with a few tidbits of "local news", human interest and recipes thrown in. Sometimes people don't understand the distinction. The stories are frequently about a local sports team or event that is sponsored by a business that advertises in the paper."
This is true of what passes as a "newspaper" in my small town. One other thing they do is post obituaries and letters to the editor, most of which reflect the far right prejudices of the newspaper's owner. Thus, I do not subscribe. They have one reporter, who is primarily an ambulance chaser and sports writer, along with the obits.
Ellen, I think that's typical. It is very disheartening to live in that kind of an environment.
Last week our local paper broke the story of a black woman who was hit and killed by a white woman who admitted she’d been drinking. This happened 5 months ago and as yet no charges.Police just recently issued a warrant to pull data from the car.
Several months ago local news reported on a young ,black couple who were arrested after videoing, from their car, the police’s handling of a a young, disturbed teen. The charges were later dropped when the DA realized they didn’t have a case.
So there is hope !
Human life value is weighted. To some, life is not at all precious so long as it is someone else's or another family's.
I hope the victim's family realizes some justice for the victim.
I live in a red county in Florida and I’m very grateful for our local newspaper. The Republicans…not so much !
Our local paper went under and was bought by another local newspaper that still prints the news for this area, but it's slant to the right makes it hardly worth reading.
We have a local paper owned by a conservative group. They do print letters to the editor from varying points of view. I have also wondered about their main news reporter's political leanings. That's a good thing.
The paper may still be contributing to a sense of community, to business, local activities, etc. As long as the paper is there, perhaps, some moderation will leak through as time goes on.
The return of Local News is not a 'sentiment' KellyS, it is a necessity. A local paper has to be in syn with its community, while the news department, along with reporters focus on the facts, which are reflected in the work.
Sentiment: a view of or attitude toward a situation or event; an opinion. So, to clarify, my view is that local news should be supported. My reality is that, until moving to Ecuador last summer, my "local"Forida newspaper, owned by Gannett, published articles so slanted in support of a MAGA perspective, rarely publishing Letters to the Editor opposing that view, such that I could not support it with a subscription. Often, it was a regurgitation of national news reported much better elsewhere.
Kelly, your comment makes me wonder who is really in control at Gannett owned newspapers. Our “local” paper is owned by Garnett and while they often “regurgitate” national news they also regularly publish Letters to Ed from both sides.
Our Republican county commissioners actually had a proclamation mocking an opinion writer for the editorial board and her immigrant status.Someone got under their skin ! Our elected sheriff and some local politicians often refuse to provide comments to the “local “ newspaper, preferring instead to comment to the truly local, and right leaning news source.
Today’s story in our “local” paper in the You Can’t Make This @#$& Up section:
Fl gov recently visited here for anti-masking mandate press conference along with the local D.A. and sheriff. They showcased the parents of a child with Down’s Syndrome who claimed their daughter was abused at school with a face mask tied to her head. Police reports released this week indicate parents lied to investigators, photos were staged, and the child actually preferred having the mask on.
I would say this “local” story too would get under Repubs skin but alas the damage is done. The father had his millisecond of fame with Tucker and raised thousands through crowd-funding to “ fight mask mandates.”
Our family is all in FL otherwise we would seriously consider Mexico or joining you in Ecuador !
Local conservatives constantly complain about the Gannett-owned Palm Beach Post being too liberal and favoring liberal letter writers. They published one from me today which only got political in its last few words after leading one to think they were reading something about sports. Here's the letter if you're interested in reading it:
“Though sports rarely creep onto the Opinion pages of the Post, a recent article in the Sports section concerning the almost wholesale firing of college football coaches raises questions. Could it be that college sports, particularly football and basketball at large universities, have strayed far from the purposes such educational institutions are intended to serve? Are the schools in it only for the money? Once a university “sells out” in regard to its athletic programs, it is a small step toward “selling out” in other areas, such as politically-motivated appointments to its medical school faculty.”
Y'all come to the State of Yucatán...you would be welcome and you would love it here.
Thank you, Kelly. Your experience with a local newspaper is not uncommon and then there is the more frequent one of there being none. I have just learned of the Poynter Institute devoted to local news, journalism, teaching and placing reporters. Where there are local newspapers, with news departments antithetical to democracy, other options must be available. Even right-wing outlets may be of service in some ways to communities. This is a larger discussion and, unfortunately, I must quit now. I look forward to more exchanges with you on the subject. Salud!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poynter_Institute
Glad the NYT lived up to their motto THIS time. I'm finding more and more of their reporting to be horribly biased.
Correct. That is why Bari Weiss quit their editorial staff and started posting as "Common Sense" on Substack. Writes occasionally, but most postings are by others with whom she agrees.
I don’t want to be a negative voice… but the Times article about Kyle Rittenhouse was almost enough for me to cancel my 40+ years subscription to the same…
Indeed.
Hedge Funders are buying them up to make them obsolete in our country.Mid West just got a huge offer.
Thank you, Heather Cox Richardson your precise delineation of the despicable details of the Arbery Murder is equal to a steel etching on crystal that you as a fine historian and technical writer demonstrate great understanding of the importance of significant detail.
After a life time of reading history in my eighth decade you have prompted me to actually study history in detail.
You have a genius for reaching through the thickets of inconsequential details and surgically excising the salient facts that do make important events, History.
You are my first read everyday and give me a deep attraction to revisit you during the day.
Again, Thank You.
Brilliant!
That's a lovely comment.
Yes. Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us. My first read every morning too. You help me understand so many things. I hope you are well. We need you.
Progress? Maybe. Throughout this entire process; the public and the judicial, I have not read or heard any variation on the word “lynching”.
Even HCR avoided it.
“And there, things might have rested, much as they have so often rested in our nation’s long history when white men have killed Black men.”
By anyone’s definition, the murder of Ahmad Arbery was a lynching, the three men who carried it out made up a lynch mob, and the cooperation and cover-up by local law enforcement is consistent with the history of lynching in this country.
Ahmad Arbery was lynched.
We need to say the word.
It was unquestionably a lynching — and the nearly all-white, Southern, rural, conservative jury spoke that conclusion loudly and clearly with its unanimous verdicts. But I respectfully submit that your Comment is misdirected. The genius of this prosecution was to stick to the damning facts and avoid labels and inflammatory characterization. “Despite the evidence of racism she had at her disposal, Linda Dunikoski, the prosecutor, stunned some legal observers by largely avoiding race during the trial, choosing instead to hew closely to the details of how the three men had chased the Black man, Ahmaud Arbery, through their neighborhood.” — NYT, 11/27/2021.
I agree. In my opinion the video evidence was so conclusive that it made it easier for all to see that the actions of the perpetrators was wrong. This was a crime on many levels. They were left with no choice but to convict. For me this is a cold comfort that the correct verdict was made. Arbery is dead. There were a lot of people in that rural town willing to make the wrong decision. The fact that so many people in the area felt that they had a right to pick up guns, chase down a person in multiple trucks and shoot a man in broad daylight for little to no reason is very sad, chilling and infuriating. It was clear that Arbery had not stolen anything and that he did not have a weapon and that he did not want to engage with the men. I do not know anyone who is not curious what the inside of a house being built looks like. I have done the same exact thing Arbery did and I have never been chased down by multiple men with guns in trucks.
The thing that is astounding is that so many people can see that video and the facts and call it self defense.
I have done this also as a curious child on a neighboring street, and as an adult while taking a long walk. People are curious, we want to see the layout, understand how things look before completion. Every person I’ve quizzed about this, including my adult children have done the very same thing! White privilege rears it’s head again!
I am a retired engineer who has looked at many houses under construction. I helped build houses with Habitat. I found a major problem with a neighbor's house under construction, trusses installed backwards, which had to be redone. In retirement l built our timberframe house, all except the timbers. I supervised the construction of a 2 million dollar addition to our church.
Never have I ever considered that I might be trespassing.
Thank you, John. This old-time, civil-rights activist likes the mantra, Focus on the Facts.
I feel it is also important to distinguish between justice and accountability. Justice would see Ahmad Arbery still alive and celebrating the holidays with his family. But we do now have accountability for his killers. There continue to be many cases of injustice where accountability is lacking providing clear evidence there is much work left to do to stamp out racial bias and injustice. There remains much work to do to establish that “more perfect Union” to which we aspire.
Yes, Bruce, you make an excellent point. Justice would be Mr. Arbery still here, alive and well.
I see your point, and I agree that a conviction must be the ultimate goal, but isn’t lynching itself a crime? Aren’t there “lynch laws” on the books?
Thank you for responding to my post.
The point is to speak truth to people in ways they can hear, so that they will listen. Articulating your strategies and selecting your words to open minds and eyes.
A life was taken. The prosecutors proved that.
Yes, Ahmaud Arberry was lynched. But insisting on that point might very well have derailed justice.
They're still facing federal hate crimes charges. That's where they'll get held to account for lynching.
What kills me is, as HCR noted, they had the backing of TWO prosecutors offices. They would have gotten away with this modern day lynching. Their real crime was taking a video of a murder and feeling so safe and protected, they put the video out in public.
I’m heartened by the fact that the citizens of GA stood up even though the prosecutors tried to cover it up. The majority of us need to use our voice and our clout!
Don’t forget we still don’t have a federal lynching law due to the obstruction of Rand Paul.
Mitch McConnell could have ordered a roll call vote. He did not. McConnell wanted to go by unanimous consent - which allowed Paul to sabotage the bill under pretense of improving it.
Except in name, the House bill was the same as the one which had previously passed the Senate - unanimously.
This highlights the perversity of Rand Paul, as well as Republicans' willingness to use procedural means to perpetuate injustice.
Once again progress is halted thanks to our “wonderful” senators from KY.
Sick beyond sick
Ralph I think the Federal Hate Crimes trial will expose statements made to support the charges.
I agree Gail. The hate crimes charges will be the expose on the “lynching”, the conviction on murder was an important step towards getting at that truth. I wonder if there are any experts on the US history of trials for lynching or hate crimes in our midst.
Yes, Dunikoski threaded that needle very skillfully.
She was brilliant and Arbery’s mother agreed. She didn’t need to yell or pound on a table. Pure evidence was key in the verdicts of guilty for all three who thought they could get away with this heinous crime of murder. Their stupid “citizens arrest” law only hindered the time to actually arrest these bastards.
Well, two things hindered the arrest. The DA who had worked with McMichael was so corrupt, that she was fired after she swept Arbery's murder under the rug, and has now been indicted for past corruption. Her sympathies were with the McMichaels, and the citizens arrest was enacted after emancipation, to enable the Klan and others to "arrest" ex-slaves. It is no longer on the books in Georgia, but I suspect that our current "purple" voting status made it expedient to erase it.
She did not have to. She spoke of it in summation. The audiovisual evidence was enough to force every jury member to cosnider the implication.
I heard the word 'lynching' used many by those interviewed on MSNBC and CNN.
Thank you. I’m glad to learn the word was put out publicly.
Yes, and by lawyers as well, but it would not be a worthwhile legal tactic.
Yes, including in spaces that could be consumed in some rural, red areas. https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/todaysdebate/2021/11/24/ahmaud-arbery-modern-day-lynching/8723517002/
Professor Richardson laid out the rather complex case, and delineated the series of events leading up to the conviction. That is enough for me. Inflammatory language was not avoided. It would not have been appropriate in the context of her writing. “Lynching”…not in the classic sense, yet what happened has the same feel, and result.
IMPRESSIVE, the prosecutor, who did not play cards of any type, made the case on the facts. She showed Mr. Arbery as a person and that no matter what the color of his skin, as a person, he was murdered. And the old boys who did murder him will live in prison. That is some justice.
Again, only with video...
Yes, Ralph. As well as the defense counsel preening their white right and lynching him a second time throughout the trial….impugning his character, ridiculing and trying to bar support and presence of black pastors in the courtroom, mocking physical characteristics during summation to deny that he was an avid runner, veiled and sometimes naked suggestion that he was less than those who killed him and somehow deserved it. They prattled on as if they were defending a massah’ who was protecting his land by punishing a recalcitrant slave. Disgusting. And THAT was also there on the screen for all to see.
If I could have thrashed all three defense lawyers, I would have loved the chance. The shame of it is indefensible.
If audio visual technology is so prolific now that it contributes to evidence which cannot be denied exposing white supremacy as motivation and reason to crimes against against an entire race for more than a century? So be it.
Ahmed Arbery was lynched. Yes. He. Was.
I live near Atlanta, and the word "lynching" has been used several times in reporting about the Arbery murder. While I would never say we're out of the woods, I do think that progress has been made. I'm skeptical, however, about the apparent awakening of some Republican politicians, including Gov. Kemp, who was very supportive of the verdict. My skepticism is rooted in the fact that we have a large, vocal Black population, and Brian Kemp is anxious to court that group's votes, despite that he and his legislature have authored draconian voter suppression and vote nullification laws.
I hope the large African American population, led by Stacy Abrams, gets to court his ass out right to prison!
They're guaranteed life sentences, and I believe the junior McMichael will have a mandatory "no parole" sentence. Naturally, they'll appeal, but I doubt it will work. The judge behaved, and the only misbehavior was on the part of the defense - morons!
Some columnists haven't been shy about using the word. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/11/24/guilty-verdicts-against-ahmaud-arberys-killers-are-justice-lynching/
Thanks for the link. I am encouraged that more people than I thought are calling a lynching exactly what it was, but I remind myself they damned near got away with it. Had the video been wisely erased, or never made, instead of being stupidly released to the public….
I thought some might be interested in this piece on Ahmaud Arbery from May 2020. (There is also a link at the bottom of the page to a short piece that the author wrote after the conviction of the murderers a few days ago.)
"Nobody belonged to the salt marshes of coastal Georgia more than Ahmaud Arbery. His family’s roots there run more than 200 years deep. A native of those same marshes writes about who Ahmaud was, how well he was loved, and what his community must reckon with in the wake of his murder."
https://bittersoutherner.com/2020/ahmaud-arbery-holds-us-accountable
Jan, this is a stunning piece of journalism. Many thanks to you for providing this link.
Thank for this link. It is an important, revealing analysis of what happened and the societal structures that allowed this horrific murder. One excerpt that stood out for me:
“And while the immediate fault for those actions lies with the people who took them, we as a community and as individual electors idly allowed our leadership to believe that we would accept or expect them to allow this racial killing to go unpunished. That fault lies with us. Worse, the McMichaels’ intimate knowledge of how their crime likely would be treated by local law enforcement most certainly emboldened them to grab their guns that day and pursue Ahmaud. If the McMichaels had believed the police would arrest or kill them for their armed pursuit of Ahmaud, then they never would have left their homes in the first place. Accordingly, if we as a community had not been willfully blind to our institutionalized racism, Ahmaud might still be alive.”
Such a terrific link! Maybe this is its most important sentence: "We cannot bow our heads and call it “tragic” and leave it to the authorities and the politicians who will never protect our neighbors or us unless we require it of them." Amen!
Jim Barger's essay was extraordinary. I am sharing it. Thank you.
I am actually from that part of the world!! And the Geechee (Gullah) culture is a precious glimpse into the past.
I have never spent any time there. I'd like to some day.
Ditto. I labeled it "Must Read"
A thousand thanks for sharing this link. Every law student and every journalism student should read this (not to mention the public in general).
THANKSGIVING - Travis McMichael, Greg McMichael and William "Roddy" Bryan found guilty in the murder of Ahmaud Arbery - by Jim Barger, Jr.:
https://bittersoutherner.com/2021/ahmaud-arbery
Thank you for this!
These were some thoughtful stories. I'm glad Jim Barger was so well accepted to walk and live amongst the Blacks in order to do his research. I know an area in Washington, DC that needs some research, but I wouldn't recommend Jim go there ! I taught in that area for five years and had a few incidents. Thankfully nothing major. There are White areas in Maryland I know better than to be 'caught' in after dark ! Do I think all White people are mean and crazy - Heck no ! I have White friends who we don't get along with all the time but we remain friends. It's going to take time but If we allow the human race to survive I believe we'll evolve past this tribalism. Thanx for sharing these stories.
I grew up in NYC but my father grew up in Norfolk, Virginia. In the late 1980s I moved to DC and my son attended DC public schools.
Although I knew the difference between de facto and de jure racism against African Americans, my father and son lived it and witnessed it - more closely, more viscerally. As Jews in predominantly Black communities. My father in the fields and factories, my son in the schools.
Your comment about 'not being caught after dark in some White neighborhoods' rang a bell. I used to have a Hanukkah open house. One year I invited our favorite DCPS teacher and her children, she declined. The next year, she came alone. The third year she brought her children. She explained, growing up in DC her parents had protected her from abuse by keeping her from White neighborhoods. Now as a teacher and a parent in that neighborhood, but not a resident, she had to 'test the waters.' I got it.
Tribalism suggests something positive, cult does not. Cult more descriptive at this time in our world
That's interesting you say that. At some point we need to learn to accept each others tribalism.
Stunning. Thank you! Am indebted to you for opening this world to me. Breathtakingly lovely.
Wonderful! Brother James puts flesh and blood and roots onto this murder. His reflection on the various levels of accountability, right down to the surrounding community and all of us was a riveting sermon in itself, pushing us out our mental church doors to " run with Maud". Thank you so very much, Jan!!
Really powerful and evocative piece. Thank you for sharing this. What a beautiful young man, from such a rich culture. Through all the darkness, it heartens me to read Barger’s piece in some way. People insisted that their voices be heard and that justice prevail.
Required Reading. Stunning, Important. I have shared it. Thank You.
Thank you for that. I read it, posted it, and signed up to Bitter Southerner newsletter.
I signed up for the newsletter, too. Former Southerner here.
I signed up for the newsletter as well. Former Detroiter. Denverite for 41 yrs. No connection to the South. Another cog in the wheel that keeps us all moving forward.
I'm also a former Detroiter--moved around a bit!
Corner block of Woodward and 8 Mile, then 11 and Lasher, etc.!
Near Joy and Greenfield
Thank you, Jan…” I run with Maud “
Thank you for posting the link to this article. I have posted it to my Facebook page in the hopes that it will be widely read. I have also signed up for the site. Thank heavens for the video.
Jan, thank you for this....a wonderful inside view of a man and his community.
https://poets.org/poem/marshes-glynn
Thank you so much for The Marshes of Glynn...!
What a beautiful counterpoint to this saga.
Good morning everyone. I have one word to say about this Letter: Yep. Especially yep about the release of the video being possibly the ONLY reason why justice was actually served. The hubris of the trio of lynchers that everyone would go along with their narrative of events led to that--for them--fatal misstep. I hope they rot in jail forever.
Today I mourn the loss of Stephen Sondheim, who died suddenly, a day after what was apparently a lovely Thanksgiving day spent with his loved ones. The soundtrack to my life has been dominated by his music in so many ways. Sondheim, from a very young age, displayed an unerring empathy for the human condition and I think was at his most eloquent when at his most angry. His contribution to American music as both a composer and lyricist is unparalleled.
thank you, Linda. Whenever I despair of the cruelty of humans to one another, I turn to the beauty of art and music to know what's possible. The truth and hope of artists can never be totally surpressed, even by dictators.
Mary, if you haven’t heard of her, may I recommend Carrie Newcomer. I love all her music. She speaks to my soul. I Heard an Owl is one of her longer lived songs “ so don’t tell me hate is ever right or God’s will. These are the wheels we put in motion ourselves. And the whole world weeps and is weeping still, though shaken I still believe the best of what we all can be and the only peace this world will know can only come from Love.”
Here’s a link to such a beautiful relevant message in music (I call it an M&M) from Carrie Newcomer. https://youtu.be/u-9oAncqprY
Thank you Christine! I don’t know why I can’t paste here… oh wait … perhaps I need to shut down and restart.
I just googled her and am listening. Thank you 🙏
I would have included a YouTube link but for some reason they won’t paste here for me. 🤷🏼♀️
I will find her!
Linda, I, too, am of the Sondheim era. His grasp of the human condition was extraordinary. Thank you for bringing him into this forum.
Beautiful tribute, Linda. Here is a poignant tribute from the BBC several years ago featuring Dame Judi Dench.
Here it is. https://youtu.be/yvZex3Qf7QQ
"If Gregory Mc Michael had not produced that video..." He produced it because he was still living under the delusion of our racist history as a nation and in Georgia in particular. That has proved not to be the case this time and, I hope, continues into the future.
School children in “those” states won’t hear this story because “Critical Race Theory.”
It’s hard to tap the heart icon for this distressing but absolutely necessary clear, moment by moment, explanation of how Ahmaud Arbery was murdered and the case ‘dropped’ by numerous officials…but the Thank You is for you & your helpers who dig up the complete circumstances and enlighten us. Hope you’re long since asleep.
Many thanks, Heather. The outcome of this trial indicates that there may be a path to equal justice after all.
... may it be more than a makeshift splint or a band-aide ...
That is my hope.
Me too, Daria ... me too ....
Me too, Daria,
“…with liberty and justice for all.”
Twenty years ago, my life changed forever with the arrival, to the greater Boston area, of a group of "Lost Boys of Sudan". We "Moms" started out taking them meals, warm clothing and unexpectedly, they filled our hearts and lives! We formalized financial efforts and created a couple of non profits for education and mentoring. I have seen the insidious racism these individuals and families have experienced (some of it directed at me) in supposedly politically liberal and "welcoming" communities from Cambridge to wealthy/"woke" White suburbs.
Someday, I hope to pull together a book about that journey we continue to share but In the meantime, 8 children (18 mos. to age 10) who call me "granny" and whom I cherish and get such a kick out of (kids are universally just kids!) are coming face-to-face with the reality that they are Black in America. While the word lynching was not brought into the trial (probably a shrewd strategy on the part of the prosecution) what happened to Ahmaud Arbery (and so many others) was a lynching and it needs to be written and said out loud.
For 20 years I have experienced a level of fear for my Sudanese families I never felt with my biological sons. When my youngest son was in his mid-20's he was in Tupelo, Mississippi for work and went for a run in a local Black neighborhood . . . . he did not fear for his life.
Janet - I hope you do carve out time to write that book. I have just finished reading A Beginner’s Guide to America: For the Immigrant and the Curious by Roya Hakakian, a poignant glimpse into the immigrant’s journey of coming to America and learning to “Americanize” without losing your own identity (written and told through the eyes of an immigrant). There is much in this book for a native-born citizen of the US to absorb and process. Definitely worth reading, which is why I encourage you to put your own story into words that can be shared with others.
Support a local bookstore by purchasing at Bookshop.org - https://bookshop.org/books/a-beginner-s-guide-to-america-for-the-immigrant-and-the-curious/9780525656067
Buy at Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/Beginners-Guide-America-Immigrant-Curious/dp/0525656065
Or check it out from your local library.
Thanks for this Lena. I downloaded the book and am looking forward to reading. Getting to know and embrace immigrants has been an enlightening experience (difficulties included) and warrants sharing. As those of us who have been involved often recognize, we feel we get so much more in return than we give.
I remember the Rodney King case when a video camera weighed as much as a case of bottled water. The outcome was proof of police brutality not murder as a life was not taken in that altercation.
Let’s hope there are at least less hate crimes with the advancement of video recording from phones, parking lots, body cams, etc.
What is most astonishing is that the defense actually thought the video looked like a justified homicide. White male supremacy is like a cancer. Without early detection and treatment it will metastasize regardless of advances in technology.
We see this hubris daily in the halls Congress; its now “normal, acceptable behavior, enflamed by the tacit lack of consequence from its own governing body
The interesting tidbit in the video of King's beating was that the camera operator offered the tape to LAPD first; they didn't deem it of value, so he gave it to the press.
While there was only one state conviction to come out of the trial, I firmly believe that 30 years later, a different verdict would be delivered today, and there would be four convictions of both assault and excessive use of force.
It is a story where justice was served as opposed to Rittenhouse’s trial. We have a long way to go before we fully acknowledge the extent of racism in our country.
Today's Letter centered on the killing of Ahmaud Arbery; the murder case against, Gregory McMichael, Travis McMichael and William 'Roddie' Bryan and the guilty conviction of all three men. The Letter ended in this way:
'But there is one sticking point: if Gregory McMichael had not produced that video, it’s entirely possible that the crime and its coverup would never have been prosecuted.'
Perhaps that is correct - the conviction depended on the cell phone video, but, perhaps, too little credit was given to the local reporter covering the case, Larry Hobbs of the Brunswick News.
'Before it was a national touchstone, the Ahmaud Arbery murder was a local news story'
'Ali Velshi highlights the work of Larry Hobbs, reporter for the Brunswick News, who didn't settle for meager answers from local police and filed a public records request to get the police report on the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, which would become the basis for reporting that would shed some of the first public light on the case.' (MSNBC)
'Journalists are reexamining their reliance on a longtime source: The police'
'... for Larry Hobbs, who wrote that first short news article, doubts about the case were raised at the onset.'
'Hobbs, one of four reporters at the daily Brunswick News, said police wouldn’t answer his questions or even tell him Arbery’s name, which he discovered by calling the coroner. He published four stories before he obtained the police report, based almost entirely on an interview with Greg McMichael, who said he told his son to grab his gun when he saw a Black man running.
“Red flags start going up,” Hobbs said. “All the things started falling into place that this wasn’t right.”
'Prosecutors were also not forthcoming, he said. Jackie Johnson, the Brunswick district attorney who was later indicted over her handling of the investigation and was voted out of office, gave the case to Waycross District Attorney George Barnhill. Barnhill justified the use of force as a lawful “citizen’s arrest” in a letter to police. Meanwhile, he told Hobbs he was still investigating, Hobbs said.'
“The main thing I did was just not let go of it,” Hobbs said. “I didn’t do any great writing. I didn’t do any investigative reporting. I’m a small-town newspaper. We don’t really have time to invest. I come in every day and there’s an empty newspaper I have to do my part to fill up.”
At that time, the New York Times reported on the shooting, bringing national exposure and emerging details of the video that would later be released. Still, Hobbs has been credited for his dogged reporting, as he stayed on the case, covering the trial every day until he wrote Wednesday’s story of the conviction.' (Washington Post)
'Jury finds all three defendants guilty of murder in Ahmaud Arbery shooting'
• By LARRY HOBBS lhobbs@thebrunswicknews.com
• Nov 25, 2021
Guilty.
Guilty.
Guilty.
Links to the Brunswick News and Washington Post articles are below
https://thebrunswicknews.com/breaking/jury-finds-all-three-defendants-guilty-of-murder-in-ahmaud-arbery-shooting/article_f99d4097-fe8f-5216-a99f-71f648d66153.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/11/24/arbery-video-conviction/
Kudos to Larry Hobbs and NYT for reaffirming the importance of real reporting.
Yup.
Fern,
I just read the reporter Hobbs closing summary of the verdict.
https://thebrunswicknews.com/breaking/jury-finds-all-three-defendants-guilty-of-murder-in-ahmaud-arbery-shooting/article_f99d4097-fe8f-5216-a99f-71f648d66153.html
Thanks to the pointer to this gentleman's excellent work.
You're a champ, too! Thank you, Mike.
Subscribers you can use the link to Larry Hobbs' article about the verdict here in Mike's reply or in my comment.
Thank you. That article was powerful.
Excellent added detail on the reporter Larry Hobbs Fern. Thanks.
Mike, I am so glad that you brought up reporter Larry Hobbs. People don't know what reporters do. As with so many teachers, nurses, artists and athletes.. I'm not talking about media stars, but regular reporters; the work was bred in their bones. Most reporters work very hard with little sleep and for 'bupkis', the Yiddish word for absolutely nothing. People look down on them. I don't know if the disrespect was there or as rampant as it seems after Trump. It's sickening. We need reporters, WE NEED REPORTERS!
Your description, Fern, is right on. This was true in the early 1970s when I landed my first job as a reporter in Thomasville, Ga. (oh what an education those three years were). And it was true decades later. Today the job is immensely more difficult because of much smaller staffs, minuscule budgets, and the demands of online and social media publishing.
Fern, I did not bring up the reporters name: You did!! I just followed your lead. :-)
Likewise, Fern ... in fact, at risk of reposting some of these materials, your in depth analysis prompted the following (another sleepless night powered by purpose) ...:
AHMAUD ARBERY HOLDS US ACCOUNTABLE - By Jim Barger Jr.
"Nobody belonged to the salt marshes of coastal Georgia more than Ahmaud Arbery. His family’s roots there run more than 200 years deep. A native of those same marshes writes about who Ahmaud was, how well he was loved, and what his community must reckon with in the wake of his murder."
https://bittersoutherner.com/2020/ahmaud-arbery-holds-us-accountable
"... every day the sun rises afresh across our marshes and out across the ocean at the edge of the horizon. The Geechee word for this time of darkness erupting into color and light is “dayclean.” My dear friend and mentor — Cornelia Bailey, one of the former matriarchs of our Golden Isles Geechee community — took me into her home and into her world and taught me to approach every “Dayclean” as a new life unto itself, an awakening to which we are not entitled and for which much is required.
As my preacher at St. Luke’s AME church on St. Simons Island says, “It wasn’t the alarm clock that woke you up today. It was God!” There is both a recognition and an obligation in that deceptively simple faith statement. As we demand justice for the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, we must not lose sight of the fact we must also seek absolution for ourselves. We cannot bow our heads and call it “tragic” and leave it to the authorities and the politicians who will never protect our neighbors or us unless we require it of them. Rather, we must own responsibility for Ahmaud’s murder and its cover-up as both an individual and collective sin that stains us all. Then, we must humble ourselves by accepting forgiveness and vowing henceforth to do everything in our power to ensure that it never happens again." (Jim Barger Jr.)
_______
THANKSGIVING - Travis McMichael, Greg McMichael and William "Roddy" Bryan found guilty in the murder of Ahmaud Arbery - by Jim Barger, Jr.:
https://bittersoutherner.com/2021/ahmaud-arbery
"In this precise moment, the sky over coastal Georgia is as clear and as blue as I have ever seen it. The wind is gentle across the marsh. An osprey circles contentedly overhead. The tide has turned. On February 23, 2020, three men took the life of Ahmaud Arbery. Between that day and today, grey clouds have cast shadows over this place. But today, the clouds have lifted. From now on, the day before Thanksgiving will have a new significance here in coastal Georgia. It will be remembered as the day that twelve of our neighbors re-affirmed the value of Ahmaud Arbery’s life and repudiated the notion that his killing was justified." (Jim Barger Jr.)
_______
Local citizen appeals for open acknowledgement and press coverage that kept this murder from being buried in the unwritten archives of AMERICA'S BIG LIES:
JAZZ'S FACEBOOK POST
https://www.facebook.com/login/?next=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fjosiah.watts.96%2Fposts%2F10219746707272380
_______
TWO WEAPONS, A CHASE, A KILLING AND NO CHARGES
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/26/us/ahmed-arbery-shooting-georgia.html
_______
April 29 headline — “Dispatcher: ‘What Was He Doing Wrong?’”
Dispatcher: 'What was he doing wrong?'
https://thebrunswicknews.com/news/local_news/dispatcher-what-was-he-doing-wrong/article_fe51cdd4-3bb6-5815-9dec-ddcdc8f879f8.html
RECOMMENDED READING:
"If you’re going to read only one thing to inform your attitude and obligation as an ordinary person toward race relations, go find yourself a Bible and turn to the Gospel According to Mark, chapter 12, verse 31, where you will find this instruction from a first century carpenter, quoting ancient Hebraic law:
"Love your neighbor as yourself."
There is no other commandment greater — we are told it is like loving God himself.
We must love our neighbors, and we must expand our narrow definition of neighborhood. Ahmaud Arbery was a member of my community. He was a son, brother, and cousin of one of our own, which makes him by proxy a son, brother, and cousin of mine. He was my neighbor. He was a neighbor of everyone who lives in the Golden Isles of Georgia — including everyone who lives in the neighborhood of Satilla Shores. And in the most cowardly fashion, he was gunned down by angry, confused, depraved men, fueled by hate, emboldened by a flawed sense of entitlement, infected by a culture that glorifies gun violence, and enabled by the apathy and disinterest of the rest of us. I and all of the other people in my community and in this nation failed to protect our neighbor, Ahmaud Arbery. We failed to afford him the same protections that we so richly afford ourselves. In short, we loved ourselves more than we loved him." (Jim Barger Jr.)
_______
John T. McCartney’s Black Power Ideologies
https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781566391450?aff=TheBitterSoutherner
BLACK POWER IDEOLOGIES
An Essay in African American Political Thought
John Mccartney
Paperback
List Price: 34.95*
Black Power Ideologies An Essay in African American Political Thought John Mccartney Paperback List Price: 34.95*
"In a systematic survey of the manifestations and meaning of Black Power in America, John McCartney analyzes the ideology of the Black Power Movement in the 1960s and places it in the context of both African-American and Western political thought. He demonstrates, though an exploration of historic antecedents, how the Black Power versus black mainstream competition of the sixties was not unique in American history. Tracing the evolution of black social and political movements from the 18th century to the present, the author focuses on the ideas and actions of the leaders of each major approach.
Starting with the colonization efforts of the Pan-Negro Nationalist movement in the 18th century, McCartney contrasts the work of Bishop Turner with the opposing integrationist views of Frederick Douglass and his followers.
McCartney examines the politics of accommodation espoused by Booker T. Washington; W.E.B. Du Bois's opposition to this apolitical stance; the formation of the NAACP, the Urban League, and other integrationist organizations; and Marcus Garvey's reawakening of the separatist ideal in the early 20th century. Focusing on the intense legal activity of the NAACP from the 1930s to the 1960s, McCartney gives extensive treatment to the moral and political leadership of Martin Luther King, Jr., and his challenge from the Black Power Movement in 1966."
https://www.amazon.com/Black-Power-Ideologies-African-American-Political/dp/1566391458
"John T. McCartney analyzes the ideology of the Black Power Movement in the 1960s and places it in the context of both African-American and Western political thought. He demonstrates, through an exploration of historic antecedents, that the Black Power versus black mainstream competition of the sixties was not unique in American history."
___
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/black-power-ideologies-john-mccartney/1101600521
"In a systematic survey of the manifestations and meaning of Black Power in America, John McCartney analyzes the ideology of the Black Power Movement in the 1960s and places it in the context of both African-American and Western political thought."
___
https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781566391450
"Black Power Ideologies is a significant contribution to scholarship, for while there are hundreds of books on Black Power, this work takes the concept from the colonial era to the 1960s, and provides an accompanying political analysis to its historical development."
_______
John Howard Griffin’s Black Like Me
https://www.indiebound.org/search/book?aff=TheBitterSoutherner&keys=Black%20Like%20Me
THE HISTORY-MAKING CLASSIC ABOUT CROSSING THE COLOR LINE IN AMERICA'S SEGREGATED SOUTH
“One of the deepest, most penetrating documents yet set down on the racial question.”—Atlanta Journal & Constitution
"In the Deep South of the 1950’s, a color line was etched in blood across Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia. Journalist John Howard Griffin decided to cross that line. Using medication that darkened his skin to deep brown, he exchanged his privileged life as a Southern white man for the disenfranchised world of an unemployed black man.
What happened to John Howard Griffin—from the outside and within himself—as he made his way through the segregated Deep South is recorded in this searing work of nonfiction. His audacious, still chillingly relevant eyewitness history is a work about race and humanity every American must read."
_______
John Dollard’s Caste & Class in a Southern Town
https://www.indiebound.org/search/book?aff=TheBitterSoutherner&keys=John%20Dollard%20Caste%20%26%20Class%20in%20a%20Southern%20Town
"... published 83 years ago. And lest you begin telling yourself that the age of these prophetic books demonstrates that we’ve moved beyond the problem, then skip ahead to Chapter 15, entitled “White Aggression,” where Dollard writes in anachronistic prose a statement that nevertheless directly informs our understanding of the 21st Century lynching of Ahmaud Arbery:
"The only protection the Negro has is the conscience of the individual white man, and, as we know, this barrier cannot be relied upon throughout the whole population. Some white people possess the necessary restraints, others do not. The asocial, sadistic, or psychopathic white person is a real danger, for few of the culture-old restraints on individual aggression apply to his acts against the Negro.""
_______
Wendell Berry’s The Hidden Wound
https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781582434865?aff=TheBitterSoutherne
"An impassioned, thoughtful, and fearless essay on the effects of racism on the American identity by one of our country’s most humane literary voices.
Acclaimed as “one of the most humane, honest, liberating works of our time” (The Village Voice), The Hidden Wound is a book-length essay about racism and the damage it has done to the identity of our country. Through Berry’s personal experience, he explains how remaining passive in the face of the struggle of racism further corrodes America’s great potential. In a quiet and observant manner, Berry opens up about how his attempt to discuss racism is rooted in the hope that someday the historical wound will begin to heal.
Pulitzer prize-winning author Larry McMurtry calls this “a profound, passionate, crucial piece of writing . . . Few readers, and I think, no writers will be able to read it without a small pulse of triumph at the temples: the strange, almost communal sense of triumph one feels when someone has written truly well . . . The statement it makes is intricate and beautiful, sad but strong.”"
_______
Cornel West’s Keeping Faith
https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780415964814?aff=TheBitterSoutherner%27
“Ordinary people organized can change societies.”
'The sheer range of West's interests and insights is staggering and exemplary: he appears equally comfortable talking about literature, ethics, art, jurisprudence, religion, and popular-cultural forms.' - Artforum
"Keeping Faith is a rich, moving and deeply personal collection of essays from one of the leading African American intellectuals of our age. Drawing upon the traditions of Western philosophy and modernity, Cornel West critiques structures of power and oppression as they operate within American society and provides a way of thinking about human dignity and difference afresh. Impressive in its scope, West confidently and deftly explores the politics and philosophy of America, the role of the black intellectual, legal theory and the future of liberal thought, and the fate of African Americans. A celebration of the extraordinary lives of ordinary Americans, Keeping Faith is a petition to hope and a call to faith in the redemptive power of the human spirit."
Routledge, 9780415964814, 304pp.
Publication Date: October 1, 2008
Zzzzzzzzzzzzz ...
Thank You Fern.
Good Old Boys with pick up trucks and guns? NeoNazis with Tiki torches? So yesterday.
Pubescent sociopaths with guns. So now. TrumpYouth on the march with assault rifles and up for Congressional medals. They're not just tweeting from their parents' basements anymore.
New South vs Sclerotic MidWest?
But seriously. Yes, tech in the form of phone videos. But very much tenacity in the form of community activism and community journalists. And the truthfulness of a jury. Overcoming the racist right wing apparatus of official injustice.
So yes. Please keep standing on street corners and in front of courthouses, writing Letters to the Editor, contacting your elected officials, and supporting local independent journalism which covers, rather than covers up, local goings on. And please, answer the call to jury duty and pay attention to candidates for office at every level. (That derelict judge in Wisconsin ran unopposed.)
As HCR said to Bill Moyers:
"But you think of all the sacrifices that people have made to keep this country a democracy and to keep it healthy and to try and keep it equal. It seems to me to be a small price for me to pay to take the extraordinary training I’ve had and all the privilege I’ve had in my life and, you know, stay up a little bit later than I would like to."
Thank You HCR. An example to follow - to find ways and take time to for activism in our days. It doesn't necessarily take extraordinary training or privilege - but our determination and diligence.
https://billmoyers.com/story/bill-moyers-and-heather-cox-richards-on-her-daily-letters/
Thank you for this, found Bill Moyers as a young, curious Dem. He is integrity personified. How I wish he had the reach of Rupert’s propaganda machine.
Jeri, you are so right, " integrity personified". A former TV news colleague of mine in Orlando worked for a time for Moyers and took me for a tour of their workplace in NY. I met Bill, who was sitting in a little video editing room with a yellow legal pad, just like all the rest of us had to do to produce our work. I remember how impressed I was that he did his own work!!
Off topic, Carol, but I worked at the Orlando Sentinel for 18 years in the 1980s and 90s. I worked with some folks at WFTV on some joint projects.
Hi Michael, Bob Jordan hired me in 1976 when he first came to town. I worked at 9 as a reporter and substitute for Carole Nelson on the noon show until I got married and moved to New Smyrna. WESH hired me ( Carol Granstrom) to anchor 6 and 11 with Bruce Hamilton. I was there til 1984 when I was asked to run for Congress by a Coaltion in the Dem Primary that summer ( Mondale and Ferraro). Your name rang a bell when I saw it. Who did you work with at WFTV?
I knew your name was familiar, but I couldn't place it. I saw you on air many times and was aware of your campaign. I worked mainly with Chris Schmidt, the news director. I had been promoted to manage the Sentinel's day-to-day work with WFTV and start the newspaper's online operation. The latter grew quite large quickly, and I moved into a GM role to focus exclusively on the online side. Before that, I had several editor roles, including metro editor. I also directed the paper's coverage of the Challenger disaster. Before moving to the Sentinel, I worked at Florida Today as a reporter and editor for five years. Fond memories.
Yes, good memories of good and challenging days! Not sure where you live now but the Sentinel Building is basically an empty shell. My husband and I drove past yesterday and I predicted it will be torn down. Sad. An icon!
So glad to see you here.....another amazing aspect of HCR's site is the connection of people old and new. All the best, Michael, and thank you for all your important work in local news in our Orlando community.
This is so great, had not seen it. Her last sentence (besides the thank you) made my blood run cold.
"But there is one sticking point: if Gregory McMichael had not produced that video, it’s entirely possible that the crime and its coverup would never have been prosecuted."
Yes. Not just possible, but, probable. That fact was clear from the very first time I saw the video, however, I never understood why it was released until today and today's Letter.
Now I understand: McMichael released the video thinking it would exonerate him in an interesting reveal of his own perspective on shooting an innocent, obviously unarmed man who was actually backing away (by my own examinaiton of the video) when McMichael pulled the trigger on the shotgun.
So, going forward, if I know that video can get white folks charged with murder, well, so does everyone in America.
So, don't look for much video to surface of future murders of black men by white men unless it is somebody's doorbell camera but cops are on to those now too.
Because, independent of GBI's claim that things are changing in Georgia, and by extension, the USA, I don't think we have clear evidence of that from this trial, as Dr. Richardson points out.
Without video? No conviction.
Because, without the video? The white man was (will be) believed and the dead man cannot give his testimony.
--
mike.km2b@gmail.com
The guy really thought that they had done nothing wrong, so here’s a former cop who worked for 20-30 years as a cop in the Brunswick area. I would like to see what else he witnessed or participated in that he didn’t see anything wrong with. Where there’s smoke there’s fire. I’ll bet that a close examination of his work record will reveal that this was not an aberration but more the norm as far as his interaction with black people went. Think about it, he actually believed that showing the video would make a nagging problem go away, that either speaks to his intelligence or hubris or both. So he was the guy walking around with a gun and a badge all those years, walking around with other people with guns and badges who thought just like he did, and if you think that Brunswick was an outlier in Georgia, think again. I live in Georgia and have worked all over this state, the malevolence exhibited in this case is not an outlier but it’s the norm. Do you think it’s strange that people have a strong aversion to the police? Let them keep their badges but take away their guns and the public might have a very different attitude towards them and they towards the public.
My first thought upon learning that he was an armed "investigator" with the police force. How many others have suffered or been murdered by this man?
Well said.
All I know that if the three men had been acquitted, Thanksgiving day would have been quite different.
And rightly so
Absolutely!
When the video of the beating of Rodney King surfaced in 1991, it had originally been offered to LAPD, who expressed no interest in it. Subsequently released to the public, the video eventually prompted a state trial that resulted in 4 acquittals for assault and 3 acquittals for excessive force. The federal trial for civil rights violations ended with 2 convictions and 2 acquittals.
I became a law enforcement trainer in the area of non-firearms use of force tactics shortly after that in 1994, and used that video as a warning: I would tell my students to assume they were being video taped (by the end of my career, it was cell phone video; we had in-car cameras for a short time around 2008-2010) on every stop or citizen contact that they had. We all know what has happened now with citizen recordings of law enforcement interactions. That warning that I gave 10+ years ago seems not to have been much of a deterrent.
That anyone could believe that the video produced of Awbery's shooting could be exculpatory shows the fundamental belief system that is alive and well in white law enforcement.
Let’s how long it takes until “those” states pass laws making citizens’ videos inadmissible evidence.
Correction: Let’s see
Mothertree.123@icloud.com
A brilliant retelling of the steps that ultimately led the three bigoted vigilantes to court. I needed the clarity of your pre-trial run-through, Heather, to understand how our justice system could have gone awry yet again. As always, my thanks!
"if Gregory McMichael had not produced that video, it’s entirely possible that the crime and its coverup would never have been prosecuted."
...but he did...and it was
Kim, had it not been for Darnella Fraziers' video, the George Floyd trial would have been different. I question would it ever materialize had the video not been made public?
It shouldn't be up to us with cellphones taking videos of every possible situation that may bear witness to the truth.
You are correct. It should not be citizens with cellphones documenting situations that may bear witness to the truth, and yet, here we are. I used to drive a public transit bus. The buses are loaded with cameras. We drivers weren’t certain how to feel about that when they were implemented. But they saved us more than they hurt us. Most of my coworkers were very conscientious about their role in dealing with the public and public safety. But many citizens who don’t use public transit, don’t want them on the streets and don’t take any care about how they maneuver around them. I could retell many stories but the point is … the truth just might depend on a captured video.
Linda, With all the tools that governments, institutions and businesses have to monitor us it is definitely in our best interest to use the tool we have at our fingertips 24/7. Consider the dash cams and body cams that remain deactivated or the possibility of footage being withheld.
It shouldn't be this way, but it is. Conferring unimpeachable sanctity on the word of tainted law enforcement and the white establishment has led us to where we are today. It IS on us to guarantee justice for ourselves and others.
Daria, I do think these Court cases have made it easier for those to whip out their phones to provide documentation. The other day I was walking into a store and a man (white) made a snide remark to a driver (black) who was parked near the entrance. Was he parked illegally, yes . He certainly hadn't planned on parking there all day. However as I looked around, there were 4 people with phones video taping it. Nothing came of it, but I was surprised how quickly those phones came out.
Linda, I think if we don't take care of one another no one will take of us. People have their eyes and ears pricked up!
You speculate...the past IS and cannot be changed.
Oh that that were true. Perhaps it can’t be changed, but it can be gussied up and made to appear innocent… even divine right. Take Manifest Destiny… the willful slaughter of indigenous peoples and the taking of their lands and homes. The arrogance to declare them “savages” while behaving in a totally destructive and savage manner. The past can’t be changed, but it can be distorted.
Chief Oren Lyons on Doctrine of Discovery:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yVZDbqh7WgM&feature=share
... maybe if the pope rescinded the papal edict of 1493 it would remove the foundation of ‘laws’ that followed, based on the doctrine, in the USA, and globally, to justify colonial expansion. That might shake things up a bit.
Beyond that, if the DOD continues, maybe some emerging element could ‘discover’ this new land within the old, which (according to the DOD) would give exclusive, unchallenged powers of governance to the discoverers:
Discovery Doctrine Law and Legal Definition:
https://definitions.uslegal.com/d/discovery-doctrine/
“Discovery doctrine is a principle of Public International Law. According to this principle the title to a newly discovered land lay with the government whose subjects discovered new territory. The doctrine was developed by the U.S. Supreme Court through Johnson v. M'Intosh, 21 U.S. 543 (U.S. 1823). In this case the court observed that “If the discovery be mad e, and possession of the country be taken, under the authority of an existing government, which is acknowledged by the emigrants, it is supposed to be equally well settled, that the discovery is made for the whole nation, that the country becomes a part of the nation, and that the vacant soil is to be disposed of by that organ of the government which has the constitutional power to dispose of the national domains, by that organ in which all vacant territory is vested by law”.
“... hey! They can‘t do that, can they?”
“Why not? We did.”
Wow, no wonder mainstream America promotes fear of immigrants - they might do what we have done ... how do we interrupt the cycles of abuse ...?!
https://fb.watch/9y2UtBmREb/
YEEOOOWWWW!!!!!
Thank You.
THANK YOU TOO, MARYPAT!!
Kim, no you can't change the past but I don't have much faith the future will be any better.
"Apparently thinking that since Barnhill had found Bryan’s video exonerating, everyone else would, too, Gregory McMichael worked with lawyer Alan Tucker to take the video to a local radio station, which uploaded it for public viewing."
... so, what then ... was he seeking recognition and applause from his fellows at the pool hall - maybe free drinks for the evening?
... or maybe fuel for the rising tide of pro-patriot/anti-American sentiment ... maybe a FOCSNOOZE star-making 'personality' might air it on national TV and he could become famous ...?
I used to think that patriots were people willing to risk their lives for a nation "conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men* are created equal."
* It took a few decades for women to be given a thought, even longer - well, not yet manifest- that all humans are created equal.
Me too Rosalind - and I have no doubt such patriots do exist; also that this genre of citizen soldiers believe they are patriots, loyal to the original intent for wealthy European patriarchs and their minions to establish a more perfect union free of the rule of monarchs, supporting their right to prosper without constraint - that paradigm had nothing to do with equality or liberty for anyone outside of that exclusive club - if only everyone would keep their proper place, all would go well ... so now, if they can get rid of all the disobedient, non-compliant naysayers, we can get back to business as usual and carry on ... butts in the air, baby - the younger and fresher the better ....
And be invited to Mar-a-Lago
Yeah, that too. A generation of heroes.