MSM Hypocrisy: #BaltimoreUprising #TwinPeaksShooting
The hypocrisy is chilling. But it's not new. It seems as if not a single day goes by without the Establishment's duplicity on broad display. A young private in the U.S. Army is now serving a 35 year prison term for the same behavior (disclosing state secrets) that a four-star general received probation for. Black people are being gunned down by police literally every day; meanwhile the first half-Black president signs a bill to protect the police. Clearly, there's no shortage of hypocrisy among the powers-that-shouldn't-be.
Corporate media coverage of recent events most certainly fits this pattern. When ongoing state terrorism sparked the #BaltimoreUprising last month, mainstream news outlets roundly condemned the protesters (mostly Black) as thugs, as criminals and the like. Though in the aftermath of the #WacoShooting earlier this week, such language from the media has been absent. A double-standard is also reflected in the actions and verbiage of law enforcement. White "bikers" congregate freely after their "brawl" - even allowed to use their cell phones - while Black "rioters" are met with tears gas.
Such double-standards are egregious indeed and may very well warrant outrage, but not surprise. For as long as the United States has existed, it has had a severe race and class problem. This disparity in police treatment and media coverage is but an extension of those problems. What's most troubling though, from where I sit, is the time and energy spent criticizing such mainstays of American society. After all, it's not as if the Establishment will be shamed or even pressured into treating its subjects equally and respectfully. Not to discount the need for independent voices and alternative news sources - that's painfully obvious. What I’m saying is that they’re already here and at our service! Ironically, the same Twittersphere that exploded into an uproar over all this, consists of the very unfettered and alternative voices of which I speak. Though the power bestowed upon the individual through modern technology is all but neutralized when said power is squandered by denigrating what we hate instead of elevating what we love.
So yes, highlight the egregious behavior of governments and corporations. Yes, poke holes in the facade of external authority. This helps to liberate the minds of would-be comrades. But if we're to continue expecting, requesting, demanding our enemies treat us fairly, then we should likewise expect disappointment. On the other hand, if we're ready to "be the change" we wish to see, if we realize the new decentralized nature of media given the advent of camera phones and Twitter accounts, if the Establishment's hypocrisy can compel us to completely withdraw our consent . . . then the power that has been stolen from the people shall return to the people.
