We are, each year, treated to national media reports on race relations in this country and they invariably discuss white America coming to terms with other races in this country. Very, very rarely does the media ever report on other races coming to terms with white America.
But when you read about Congressman Steve Cohen's race in Tennessee's Ninth Congressional District, you really are confronted by both racism and anti-Semitism in a way we rarely think about in this country. And the media is silent. Barack Obama is silent.
What is happening to Steve Cohen is real racism and there are no prominent national media stories about it. Let me be clear here: Steve Cohen and I disagree on probably 99% of all issues. The point, though, is that the national media is all too willing to run stories of racism involving Republicans and then run as fast as they can in the other direction when the racism involves not just Democrats, but reverse racism.
Steve Cohen just might lose his re-election not because he is white. And a number of black members of Congress are happy about that. Either the media and Barack Obama really care about this issue, or they use it just as a political weapon against Republicans.
The silence is deafening.
[highly referenced piece demonstrating the glaring historical double standard here - Recommended > ]
READ MORE
Monday, October 13, 2008
Media's Double Standard on Race-based Voting
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Actually, the race-baiting came from Cohen's primary opponent, Nikki Tinker. That race ended in early August when Cohen trounced her 79%-19%. The voters of Memphis, black and white alike, showed an intelligence and sophistication that Ms. Tinker simply did not expect. Cohen ran a spotlessly clean campaign and won by an overwhelming majority, moving on to a general election that is all but a foregone conclusion (No Republican opposition, three independents, none of which are making any noise).
Perhaps the reason there is currently no media coverage of the racist tactics employed against Cohen is that those same tactics were repudiated over two months ago.
Regarding your allegation that the media is silent about such matters, The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, MSNBC, and NPR all covered the campaign. In fact, Keith Olbermann did a piece on Countdown the day before the election naming her "Worst Person in the World". So the double standard that you are talking about did not exist in this campaign, and I have my doubts as to whether or not it exists at all.
Post a Comment