Why Doesn't American Media Freak Out When the Terrorists Have White Skin?

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/media/why-doesnt-american-media-freak-out-when-terrorists-have-white-skin

I've been deeply struck this week by the extreme amount of attention being paid in the media to the horrific terrorist attacks on the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris. Struck mainly because there is something strangely, and profoundly, disproportionate about it all.

In most regards, the coverage is warranted. Terrorism is an important subject, and in an ideal world, the more information we have about such a thing, the better informed we will be. Presumably, we would then be better situated to work together to form a response that actually would effectively defeat the terrorists, both in their specific purposes as well as in the way they generically spread the use of violence in the world as a "solution."

However, that is not what has been happening.

Instead, the intensity of the 24/7 cable news cycle glare has produced almost all heat and very little light. We're being inundated with what Jeremy Scahill calls the "the terrorism expert industrial complex," a whole cottage industry of neo-conservative ideologues posing as "terrorism experts" who pretend to be warning the public about a dire threat they face, but really are primarily engaged in whipping up xenophobic fears about Muslims, Arabs, and scary brown people in general.

[Orrex]

1. To be fair...

The media also doesn't freak out when the victims have dark skin.

But dark-skinned attackers and mostly light-skinned victims? That's terrorism, baby!

[underpants]

2. They only freak out when someone with white skin is missing or on a "sweetheart" crime spree

[Nye Bevan]

3. Sometimes it kind of does.

[Fred Sanders]

6. Muslim. White skin was stolen from Christians.

[DeSwiss]

4. Because, as ''The Narrative'' states.....

...that whites are victims by default. Or, until and unless proven otherwise (usually when accused by a rich(er) white person) unworthy of the designation.

Unless of course it is the rich white person who is not a worthy of being called a victim, in which case they're ''a troubled individual'' and/or a ''victim of affluence'' rendered onto them by some relative's tremendous financial success. So they're as much ''victims of the system'' as anyone!

- And in any case, they're obviously need of mental health assistance and not prison.

K&R

[Fred Sanders]

5. Because the American media is owned by folks with white skin? Produced by folks with white skin.

Written by folks with white skin. Delivered by folks with white skin.

The American media has white privilege and it has been killing and suppressing folks without that skin since quill was put to papyrus.

Also if you are Muslim by default you are not allowed the privilege of white skin, because the media is also, in addition to the whiteness is also very Christian owned or Jewish owned.

What else do you expect? Fairness?

[Recursion]

7. The military thinks about it, or did 15 years ago

Part of my brief when I was at Bolling AFB was coming up with potential "nationalist" internal attack plans that the geniuses way above my pay grade would counter. So, at least it's being thought about.

[7962]

8. "White terrorists" are who put ISIS on the front page. Where have you been?

Before the British ISIS guy beheaded the journalist, it was 2nd page news. And dont forget the famous speech vowing to fly the flag of ISIS over the White House and British Parliament that was also given by a "white terrorist".
Meanwhile, some say Nigeria is ignored (which isnt true) because those terrorists ARENT white. Which way do you want it, Alternet?

[Fred Sanders]

9. Muslims can never be white, keep up.

[7962]

15. So who were those guys then, white-face actors? Get back to InfoWars......

[Number9Dream]

10. Eric Frein was the top news story of the year in Pennsylvania and beyond

The manhunt for anti-government murderer Eric Frein dominated the headlines in PA for over a month. Many referred to him as a domestic terrorist, and his anti-government views were widely reported. Frein is white.

[quadrature]

11. what kind of numbers-ratio is acceptable?

Beirut, a few years ago.
the Grand Mufti says
the Danish Embassy should be burnt down.
500,000 arsonists show up.
the Army is called in.
...................
US 300 mil people.
a handful of Christian nutcase ministers
say that Abortion clinic doctors should be killed.
2, 3, 5? people take this seriously,
and kill 1 person.

[7962]

16. Come now, you make too much sense for THIS thread!

[oberliner]

12. This article is idiotic

Doubling down on the preposterous quote from the preposterous Juan Cole:

"This horrific murder was not a pious protest against the defamation of a religious icon. It was an attempt to provoke European society into pogroms against French Muslims..."

It takes a serious level of willful blindness to make (and repeat) an ignorant statement like that.

Is it also true that the people marching in Niger against the most recent Charlie Hebdo cover are trying to "provoke European society into pogroms against French Muslims...." and are not protesting the defamation of the prophet?

This is the true racism. The author goes out of his way to meticulously go over Brevik's statements and explanations for why he committed his heinous crime but when black and brown people give their reasons for their attacks and protests, they are not believed.

What will it take to get people like this author to actually believe that the reasons for this anger, for these killings, for these protests, are the reasons that are being clearly and explicitly provided by the people in question?

[FLPanhandle]

13. Writer obviously forgot about Timothy McVeigh

News 24/7 on a white terrorist.

[MohRokTah]

18. Were you around when the bombing happened?

All the way up until they released his photo, the media went on and on about how this was Islamic Terrorism.

[FLPanhandle]

20. I was around

And even after they caught him it was Timmy 24/7

[MohRokTah]

21. Suspect #2

Remember that?

And the constant refrain that suspect #2 HAD to be a Muslim?

[MNBrewer]

14. I'd say it's because the white terrorists are in alignment with the policies of the right wing

Breivik: "keep the Muslims out, and kill Marxists"
McVeigh: "Anti-government"
Michael F. Griffin, Scott Roeder: "Pro-life"
Eric Robert Rudolph: "Pro-life AND anti-gay"

These white terrorists are in alignment with the right wing goal of establishing a Capitalist-Christian, "small government" society in which abortion and homosexuality is punishable by death. Why would the establishment media freak out over that?

[Android3.14]

17. So what, specifically...

Is the level of coverage big media should provide in order to create a racial equivalence of freaking out, and do you have any examples of a blaise media failing to "freak out" in order to report a terrorist attack by white people?

[Avalux]

19. Yep, they're not terrorists if they have white skin.

In the American psyche, terrorists have brown skin, hate us for our freedoms, and come from 'somewhere' that's really primitive and savage.

BTW, there are a whole slew of things that can kill a person on any given day; terrorism is way down on the list. The amount of coverage and obsession over it is ridiculous, but does it's job by feeding our fear-based society. Who benefits from this? Those in power with all the wealth.