While browsing today's online Minneapolis Star-Tribune I came across the following headline: "Rage Against the Machine to play during RNC" (!). My first reaction: how much money did they get to sell out!?! As it turns out, though, the actual story is about RATM playing at an event unrelated to the Republican National Convention, but held during the same week. I wonder if the editors intentionally mislabeled the headline in order to attract more eyeballs?
Hey Walt--
I don't know if you saw another misleading Strib headline. A few weeks ago, a father was beaten by a group of men at Valleyfair after he tried to defend his daughter from their sexual advances. The Strib printed a letter from an angry reader a few days later who complained that the Strib wasn't covering it enough, and conjectured that the paper was negligent because "the victim was white and the assailants were black."
Cut to a week later, when a headline says "No hate crime charges for valleyfair incident" or something to that effect. Turns out there has been a minor firestorm on talk radio where hosts and callers have said there is reverse racism in operation here, because there are no hate crime charges. Well, turns out that the talk show hosts, their callers, and the Strib's letter writer are ALL WRONG about the race of the victim. As with most crimes, both victim and perpetrator were the same race.
Now, did the Strib print an apology for its part in fueling the flames? Did they bother to check the letter writer's assertion? Nope. Just let it go out there.
Sad, sad, sad.....
Posted by: Cat at August 5, 2008 9:24 AM