The Ruling Class Media in Ferguson: Accomplices to Murder
August 20, 2014 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
The ruling class or “mainstream” media is running 24-7 coverage of Ferguson Missouri ever since the murder of Michael Brown, an unarmed Black teenager. They are doing that ONLY because people there stood up. Courageously. Defiantly.
So now they claim—at least for a minute—to care about Michael Brown's death at the hands of the police.
But what is the media ACTUALLY doing? Over and over again diverting attention from the REAL issue—the MURDER of Michael Brown by the police, and the need to charge and arrest the murderer.
Attempting to Slander and Vilify Michael Brown
The major media is contributing to the attempts to slander Michael Brown and divert attention from the real issue: his murder by police. Here’s how:
- CNN, for example, has repeatedly aired that surveillance video, allegedly showing Michael Brown shoplifting some cigars, literally scores if not actually hundreds of times already—even making a point of showing it in the background when ostensibly discussing how it is infuriating people to have this video being made public! This video has nothing to do with Michael Brown’s murder! Meanwhile, CNN has refused to relentlessly demand that the police release evidence that DOES have everything to do with their murder of Michael Brown—like their autopsy and incident reports.
- Meanwhile playing over and over—totally unsubstantiated, blatant lies of the pig and those aligned with him. They are treating an anonymous call to a talk-radio show as legitimate credible “evidence” while ignoring, silencing, or dismissing the courageous real-life eyewitnesses who have described this police murder.
- They attempt to create "confusion" and "mystery" where the essential facts are blatantly clear. CNN keeps asserting that there are wildly different accounts of what happened when Michael Brown was shot—NO!! There are eyewitness accounts from a number of people who clearly saw that he was shot with his hands up in a submissive posture, after already having been shot several times and wounded while fleeing away from the pig. And the autopsy commissioned by the family is consistent with this testimony.
- All this is an effort to attempt to cover up the actual, clear and stark reality and once again indicting the victim for his own murder.
August 14 hundreds rallied against the murder of Michael Brown, demonstrating at CNN headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, to protest CNN coverage. Photo: AP
Replaying the Trayvon Martin Script
CNN and the rest of the system’s media are already beginning to repeat, yet again, the "script" we are all too familiar with, which was in full effect around Trayvon Martin:
- First, pretend for a short while to sympathize with the loved ones of the latest person murdered in cold blood by pigs or racist vigilantes, and even allow people outraged by this to "blow off some steam," verbally.
- Second, while doing so, work to channel this righteous anger and outrage into meaningless dead-ends—like telling people to let the system to work, that justice takes time, that this is a “tragedy”—not a crime!—that they should let their elected representatives take the lead.
- Third, they promote divisions among the people. They endlessly promote bootlickers and enforcers loyal to the system who are working to contain, sidetrack and derail any serious resistance. They pontificate about who is a “good protestor” (and who is not). All the while supporting the forces of state repression in moving against those who refuse to fall in line with the demanded docility.
Claiming to Be About Truth, While Covering Up and Distorting It
The media claiming to be all about being truthful and “objective,” while they are actually working to cover up and distort the truth. Some of the ways this is done include:
- One, promote the idea of "letting all the facts come out," while the essential facts are already abundantly clear.
- Second, reworking the “facts” and burying the most important facts, focusing on things that are irrelevant (like the surveillance video purportedly showing Michael Brown in a convenience store) or only of secondary importance. This includes, in the Trayvon Martin case for example, making the essential question things like: what happened when there was an "encounter" between Zimmerman and Trayvon? Who initiated the "skirmish?" Whose voice was yelling "help"? This is a part of providing a platform for the spreading of slanders against the victim.
- Third, to the degree they talk about any larger context for the system’s latest horror, the fixate only on the particularities of the given locality, divorcing that from and diverting attention from the systematic, systemic brutality and murder of Black, and Latino, youth, time and time and time again, with the same lies and cover-ups, all over the country.
Think about all this? What is the effect of it? What does it add up to—in Ferguson, and time, after time, after time?
Accessories to Murder!
THEY MUST NOT BE ALLOWED TO GET AWAY WITH THIS, YET ANOTHER TIME!!
Don’t tell us you are fair, “democratic,” and independent when in reality you censor voices and refuse to allow the truth to be heard! All this shows that the media is an essential part of the whole machinery and system of oppression. They are just as much a part of this system as the police and the armed forces of the state, and government officials on all levels: from the local prosecutors and officials up to the major politicians and functionaries of the political power structure, including Obama, Holder, and all the rest, whether Republicans or Democrats. This is why it will take revolution—nothing less—to end these lies, and these crimes!
Hundreds protested in Atlanta denouncing this on August 18. It has been very righteous that people have not allowed this lying bullshit to stop the protests. The media manipulation should be relentlessly exposed, as part of strengthening and building the over all battle for “Justice for Mike Brown” and to “Fight the Power, and Transform the People, for Revolution.
Does all this mean we should not talk to the ruling class’s media? No. There is actually a moment here to seize to try to get some truth on the air. Right now the media has to make some pretense of "airing all sides," including what some of those outraged and protesting have to say. OK, then people who have been victims of police brutality and terror should get to tell their stories. Revolutionaries and fighters against the whole system of mass incarceration and police murder should be interviewed. The media claims to be airing all sides—well then, include voices of those standing with the people, exposing the root cause of these murders after murders after murders, and who have a real way out of this madness.
But let’s not get fooled by their nature.
WHAT DOES THIS SHOW… REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS!
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