8 ms·

Using your theory as a lens to observe current events in Baltimore (Ferguson, etc.), where the media is really responsible for fanning the flames of outrage to

Using your theory as a lens to observe current events in Baltimore (Ferguson, etc.), where the media is really responsible for fanning the flames of outrage to riot proportions -- it seems that the government is either ineffective at this refocusing of media and not really an issue, or so diabolically effective that we should all be shitting our pants.

mschuster91 12y ago
> or so diabolically effective that we should all be shitting our pants. Buncha rioters looting cities. Nothing better to prove your "tough on crime" attitude or to activate military powers... (yes, I know, calling in the National Guard is commonplace in the US, but virtually unthinkable in Germany)
- maxerickson 12y ago
  Someone from the Maryland National Guard was in front of cameras this morning emphasizing that their presence was not under a declaration of martial law (which is a perhaps pedantic interpretation of "activate military powers", but there you go). The situation in Baltimore (a city of 600,000, a metro of several million) looks to me like it is limited to at most a few thousand people. The idea that the media fanned these people into action is silly. They see large crowds of people (that are not rioting or looting) engaging with the police and see it as an opportunity to do whatever they want while hiding in those crowds. The most common type of small riots in the US are sports related, those riots are certainly not the result of the media fanning flames, they are a result of small numbers of people feeling like they can hide in a crowd.
- dangerlibrary 12y ago
  Baltimore is a city that has extreme poverty, very poor social services, and a tax structure (city/county border) that prevents regional economic growth from benefiting the poorest residents. As a result, there are a lot of opportunistic criminals. The protests just tied up enough of the police force to create an opportunity.
Zigurd 12y ago
Civil unrest brings out the propaganda machine: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/toronto/why-were-police-cruisers-left-to-burn-at-g20-summit/article572789/ http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/toronto/why-were-police-...
teddyh 12y ago
The initial events in Baltimore, Ferguson, etc. happened independently of journalists. Any “fanning” done by journalists is presumably done because because it’s probably easier to do that than to find other, juicer, stories (where such stories might also be of such a nature to attract government interest).
- mhuffman 12y ago
  380 such events have happened so far this year, however only a few have had national reporting. Journalists are very clear what makes a story "juicy", I think. [1] http://killedbypolice.net/ http://killedbypolice.net/
  - dragonwriter 12y ago
    > 380 such events have happened so far this year 380 killings of unarmed people by cops under circumstances similar to those that existed in the stories that have been widely covered aside from the issue of race?
    - mhuffman 12y ago
      Not all 380, but certainly some[1]...and I can find many more, but leave that as an exercise for you. Linked story is of an unarmed teen, with hands outstretched being killed by police. Also there was a video. However, teen is white officer is black. Officer cleared of charges. Very similar to Ferguson, but no riots, no fanning of the social injustice flames by the media, etc. No national story. I point this out to show that police are doing this sort of thing all the time, however the media (defined as TV news, online news) are very selective of the ones they promote because they know they will get a reaction. [1] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/11/gil-collar-shooting-video_n_1958480.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/11/gil-collar-shooting...
      - dragonwriter 12y ago
        > Not all 380 So the claim was false, so why did you make it? > and I can find many more, but leave that as an exercise for you. Its not really my job to support your argument. If its not important enough for you to present evidence, its not important to me to go look on the off chance that you might not be exaggerating again.
fineman 12y ago
It's not a media-generated event. People are upset about having their friends shot and automatic rifles pointed at their faces as they protest.
- mhuffman 12y ago
  In my mind "protesting" involves more of getting your point across as a group and less stealing pringles from the CVS and burning down afterwards.
  - fineman 12y ago
    I see, so all the protestors were stealing pringles? And thus the race problem in America is the blacks' fault.
classicsnoot 12y ago
Fuck. I can deal with it at family reunions. I can deal with it at bars. Most times i can deal with it in the bedroom. But here on HN? This i cannot abide. When you say "the Media" what in gods' name do you actually mean? The Media made me do it. I would have known but for The Media. Why does The Media always [x]. I am not that smart; i make a lot of mistakes in a lot of different ways. But i learned long ago that blaming my parents, my gender, my race, etc. for MY STUPIDITY is a huge waste of time and resources. People are rioting because they are frustrated, or insidious, or bored, or despicable, or bored, or passionate, or bored. They are not rioting because a TV told them to.
- mhuffman 12y ago
  There are absolutely some people looting and raising hell because they are seeing others do it without consequence on television or online. When I say "the Media", I (in god's name) mean the television news, the online news, twitter, and facebook. Do you honestly think that people just independently thought to go burn some shit up (in a hive mind sort of way) all at the same time, for no reason other than they were bored? The TV didn't tell them to do it, it showed them that other people were doing it (stimulating people swaying that way to join in for whatever the reason). Further, "the media" have been purposely making a habit recently of showing black men killed by white police officers, when in fact, so far just this year 380[1] people have been killed by police -- only a fraction have been black, with the rest mostly while and latino. Also, you will note that some of those black people killed must have also been killed by black officers -- but crickets on the TV and online. Realistically, why do you think that is? Do you not at least suspect that it is because "they" (tv news, online news, etc) know how people will react? If it was just the act of the police killing someone, how come all the police shootings haven't been front-page news nation-wide? It is very naive to think that modern day journalists do not know if printing certain stories with sensationalist headlines, or focusing on certain stories will have effects on people. It is also very naive to think that people seeing and hearing these (very focused) stories would not react to them[2]. [1] http://killedbypolice.net/ http://killedbypolice.net/ [2] They certainly knew back in the day! See the Spanish-American War as a well-known example of the media "making" people do somthing
Lawtonfogle 12y ago
Those riots are a great way to increase racial tensions and racial divides. When you have the races blaming each other for all their woes, it is much harder for them to get together and notice where their economic trouble is really originating. I see most 'us vs. them' clashes in much the same light. Take the notion of the wage gap. It focuses on a relatively small wage gap with far more attention than that which is given to the gap in economic gains post recession.

mschuster91 12y ago

> or so diabolically effective that we should all be shitting our pants. Buncha rioters looting cities. Nothing better to prove your "tough on crime" attitude or to activate military powers... (yes, I know, calling in the National Guard is commonplace in the US, but virtually unthinkable in Germany)

maxerickson 12y ago
Someone from the Maryland National Guard was in front of cameras this morning emphasizing that their presence was not under a declaration of martial law (which is a perhaps pedantic interpretation of "activate military powers", but there you go). The situation in Baltimore (a city of 600,000, a metro of several million) looks to me like it is limited to at most a few thousand people. The idea that the media fanned these people into action is silly. They see large crowds of people (that are not rioting or looting) engaging with the police and see it as an opportunity to do whatever they want while hiding in those crowds. The most common type of small riots in the US are sports related, those riots are certainly not the result of the media fanning flames, they are a result of small numbers of people feeling like they can hide in a crowd.
dangerlibrary 12y ago
Baltimore is a city that has extreme poverty, very poor social services, and a tax structure (city/county border) that prevents regional economic growth from benefiting the poorest residents. As a result, there are a lot of opportunistic criminals. The protests just tied up enough of the police force to create an opportunity.

Zigurd 12y ago

Civil unrest brings out the propaganda machine: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/toronto/why-were-police-cruisers-left-to-burn-at-g20-summit/article572789/ http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/toronto/why-were-police-...

teddyh 12y ago

The initial events in Baltimore, Ferguson, etc. happened independently of journalists. Any “fanning” done by journalists is presumably done because because it’s probably easier to do that than to find other, juicer, stories (where such stories might also be of such a nature to attract government interest).

mhuffman 12y ago
380 such events have happened so far this year, however only a few have had national reporting. Journalists are very clear what makes a story "juicy", I think. [1] http://killedbypolice.net/ http://killedbypolice.net/
- dragonwriter 12y ago
  > 380 such events have happened so far this year 380 killings of unarmed people by cops under circumstances similar to those that existed in the stories that have been widely covered aside from the issue of race?
  - mhuffman 12y ago
    Not all 380, but certainly some[1]...and I can find many more, but leave that as an exercise for you. Linked story is of an unarmed teen, with hands outstretched being killed by police. Also there was a video. However, teen is white officer is black. Officer cleared of charges. Very similar to Ferguson, but no riots, no fanning of the social injustice flames by the media, etc. No national story. I point this out to show that police are doing this sort of thing all the time, however the media (defined as TV news, online news) are very selective of the ones they promote because they know they will get a reaction. [1] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/11/gil-collar-shooting-video_n_1958480.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/11/gil-collar-shooting...
    - dragonwriter 12y ago
      > Not all 380 So the claim was false, so why did you make it? > and I can find many more, but leave that as an exercise for you. Its not really my job to support your argument. If its not important enough for you to present evidence, its not important to me to go look on the off chance that you might not be exaggerating again.

fineman 12y ago

It's not a media-generated event. People are upset about having their friends shot and automatic rifles pointed at their faces as they protest.

mhuffman 12y ago
In my mind "protesting" involves more of getting your point across as a group and less stealing pringles from the CVS and burning down afterwards.
- fineman 12y ago
  I see, so all the protestors were stealing pringles? And thus the race problem in America is the blacks' fault.

classicsnoot 12y ago

Fuck. I can deal with it at family reunions. I can deal with it at bars. Most times i can deal with it in the bedroom. But here on HN? This i cannot abide. When you say "the Media" what in gods' name do you actually mean? The Media made me do it. I would have known but for The Media. Why does The Media always [x]. I am not that smart; i make a lot of mistakes in a lot of different ways. But i learned long ago that blaming my parents, my gender, my race, etc. for MY STUPIDITY is a huge waste of time and resources. People are rioting because they are frustrated, or insidious, or bored, or despicable, or bored, or passionate, or bored. They are not rioting because a TV told them to.

mhuffman 12y ago
There are absolutely some people looting and raising hell because they are seeing others do it without consequence on television or online. When I say "the Media", I (in god's name) mean the television news, the online news, twitter, and facebook. Do you honestly think that people just independently thought to go burn some shit up (in a hive mind sort of way) all at the same time, for no reason other than they were bored? The TV didn't tell them to do it, it showed them that other people were doing it (stimulating people swaying that way to join in for whatever the reason). Further, "the media" have been purposely making a habit recently of showing black men killed by white police officers, when in fact, so far just this year 380[1] people have been killed by police -- only a fraction have been black, with the rest mostly while and latino. Also, you will note that some of those black people killed must have also been killed by black officers -- but crickets on the TV and online. Realistically, why do you think that is? Do you not at least suspect that it is because "they" (tv news, online news, etc) know how people will react? If it was just the act of the police killing someone, how come all the police shootings haven't been front-page news nation-wide? It is very naive to think that modern day journalists do not know if printing certain stories with sensationalist headlines, or focusing on certain stories will have effects on people. It is also very naive to think that people seeing and hearing these (very focused) stories would not react to them[2]. [1] http://killedbypolice.net/ http://killedbypolice.net/ [2] They certainly knew back in the day! See the Spanish-American War as a well-known example of the media "making" people do somthing

Lawtonfogle 12y ago

Those riots are a great way to increase racial tensions and racial divides. When you have the races blaming each other for all their woes, it is much harder for them to get together and notice where their economic trouble is really originating. I see most 'us vs. them' clashes in much the same light. Take the notion of the wage gap. It focuses on a relatively small wage gap with far more attention than that which is given to the gap in economic gains post recession.