Why does the media focus on looting?

[Travis]

This is something that always bugs me. Once again our nation's police murder someone and a city rises up against them. But all the media wants to talk about are looted stores. That's like covering the Warsaw uprising and only talking about how much it will cost to clean up all the bricks laying scattered about.

Is the media just lazy here or is this part of an agenda?

 

[TragicMonkey]

This is something that always bugs me. Once again our nation's police murder someone and a city rises up against them. But all the media wants to talk about are looted stores. That's like covering the Warsaw uprising and only talking about how much it will cost to clean up all the bricks laying scattered about.

Is the media just lazy here or is this part of an agenda?

Because the middle class doesn't care about another minority dead at the hands of the police, but weeps in sympathy at the sight of a burning CVS.

 

[Gawdzilla Sama]

If it bleeds, it leads.

 

[Axiom_Blade]

Because the middle class doesn't care about another minority dead at the hands of the police, but weeps in sympathy at the sight of a burning CVS.

Dingdingdingdingding! Exactly. They can't identify with African-Americans, but they can identify with material loss, so property damage strikes a chord with them.

The media sure do love to talk about looting whenever African-Americans are involved, though. Remember Katrina? Looting, looting, looting. When white people do it, it's for survival purposes; when black people do it, it's because blacks love to loot! But they're telling us that because that's what so many of us love to hear! It's shameful.

 

[fuelair]

Because the middle class doesn't care about another minority dead at the hands of the police, but weeps in sympathy at the sight of a burning CVS.

Maybe, but I do care about the dead - especially when it is clear it was a crime by the police BUT I loathe mobs that act randomly/vilely/ and cause harm. Mobs are dangerous purely because of their numbers and feeding off each others anger/hatred - the burning is just part of the potential problem.

 

[Darth Rotor]

Dingdingdingdingding! Exactly. They can't identify with African-Americans, but they can identify with material loss, so property damage strikes a chord with them.

Funny, almost, coming from a member of the middle class.

 

[xjx388]

This is something that always bugs me. Once again our nation's police murder someone and a city rises up against them. But all the media wants to talk about are looted stores.

Its like the President said: they aren't making a statement, they're stealing. The thieves also stole the coverage of the important message the actual protesters were trying to get across. The media are going to cover the bigger story: looting is a bigger story than the protest.

That's like covering the Warsaw uprising and only talking about how much it will cost to clean up all the bricks laying scattered about.

Horrible analogy, absolutely not equivalent in any way shape or form.

Is the media just lazy here or is this part of an agenda?

Nope. As Gawdzilla Sama pointed out: if it bleeds, it leads. IOW, the most violent/sensational story is always going to get more coverage.

 

[The Big Dog]

This is something that always bugs me. Once again our nation's police murder someone and a city rises up against them. But all the media wants to talk about are looted stores. That's like covering the Warsaw uprising and only talking about how much it will cost to clean up all the bricks laying scattered about.

Is the media just lazy here or is this part of an agenda?

literally everything you just wrote is false. why do you make up stuff that pisses you off?

Oh never mind.....

 

[Travis]

literally everything you just wrote is false. why do you make up stuff that pisses you off?

Oh never mind.....

You're gonna abort demonstrating what I said is false or just leave it with an unsupported assertion?

 

[Foolmewunz]

Is the media just lazy here or is this part of an agenda?

The answer to the above is a mixture of the two. There are some media outlets, magazines, blogs, radio and television stations with an agenda that is political. For many of those, just as many of the comments in the threads on the topic(s) on these forums, the story is "******* Out of Control, Again".

There are many more outlets, however, where the agenda is selling cornflakes or subscriptions to the channel.

Violence and bad news SELL. People tune in. It's hard for a white collar (not necessarily white-skinned, let's not read that into it) reporter to stand in the midst of a riot and not report on the rioting. The time for pensive reports as to the causes is before and after that. When the rioting, looting, beating are ongoing, the story is the rioting, looting, beating. Most on-site reports that I've seen that are not "we now cut to the scene of the latest whatever..." do give the background and some explication of where all of this came from, or at least the immediate causes including the current case and the history of such incidents in Baltimore. BUT... they still get to "and now, some exciting footage of cops beating on people" or "here's some more thugs acting up".

It's what the media does.

 

[Wayward son]

The thieves also stole the coverage of the important message the actual protesters were trying to get across.

Right, this important message the actual protesters were trying to get across was going to receive a ton of media coverage....

 

[Cain]

Dingdingdingdingding! Exactly. They can't identify with African-Americans, but they can identify with material loss, so property damage strikes a chord with them.

I'm just throwing ideas here, but maybe we should go back to halcyon days when African-Americans were property.

 

[The Don]

I'm just throwing ideas here, but maybe we should go back to halcyon days when African-Americans were property.

[in the same spirit]In this case, in the event of a riot would they burn each other ? [/in the same spirit]

 

[angrysoba]

If it bleeds, it leads.

If it burns, it earns!

 

[sarge]

literally everything you just wrote is false. why do you make up stuff that pisses you off?

Oh never mind.....

That's not fair. His leading sentence seems accurate. He seems to be bothered by something. The cops do appear to have murdered someone. A city has protested.

Now, the whole Warsaw uprising analogy is bizarre, and I can't imagine why he's upset that thousands of violent, criminal looters are news, and I don't see how reporting this newsworthy event makes the media lazy or agenda-driven.....but that's Travis for you.

 

[DavidJames]

If it bleeds, it leads.

If it burns, it earns!

That pretty much sums it up. Burning buildings, burning cars, mobs of people standing off against lines of cops, throwing rocks at each other.

Or talk about dead guy and the surrounding details.

If we try and put aside our personal biases and realize what the news is these days. It's a no brainer.

 

[phiwum]

While I sympathize with those who worry that the media has moved the focus off of the original issue, I'm having trouble imagining a situation in which fairly large scale violence in an American city doesn't count as national news.

And looting is a part of that story.

 

[The Big Dog]

You're gonna abort demonstrating what I said is false or just leave it with an unsupported assertion?

This is something that always bugs me. Once again our nation's police murder someone and a city rises up against them. But all the media wants to talk about are looted stores. That's like covering the Warsaw uprising and only talking about how much it will cost to clean up all the bricks laying scattered about.

The hi-lited parts are false. the "all the media wants to talk about" is ludicrously false.

the stricken sentence is grossly inappropriate hyperbole.

 

[crescent]

This is something that always bugs me. Once again our nation's police murder someone and a city rises up against them. But all the media wants to talk about are looted stores. That's like covering the Warsaw uprising and only talking about how much it will cost to clean up all the bricks laying scattered about.

Is the media just lazy here or is this part of an agenda?

Looting and arson can have a significant, long term economic impact to an area. The unemployment rate will go up, and some of those businesses may never rebuild, leaving areas with even fewer services than they had before.

 

[ponderingturtle]

Because as we learned after Katrina it is something only black people do, and how else are we supposed to feel superior?

White people merely find things they need in stores, blacks loot what they want from stores.