Murder agendas

In response to Christopher Lane (White) Hunted Down And Killed Like A Dog By 2 (Black) Youths:

I agree with your sentiment to avoid political drama in this horrible atrocity, David, but I’d also note that everything is a political drama these days.  It comes with the Big Government territory, and with rise of advocacy agenda journalism.  

The muted reporting on this Oklahoma murder is remarkable for the same reason the insane media circus of the Trayvon Martin case was remarkable.  Agendas were imposed on the Zimmerman-Martin coverage.  Activists were driving journalism, highlighting details of the case that were useful to them, and burying inconvenient facts.  The national breakout of the Martin story was entirely driven by rip-and-read journalism; activists sent emails to reporters who pretty much read them on the air.  You could watch reality mutate right before your eyes, especially if you heard some of the initial, more blandly accurate reports filed by local media, before the national machine rumbled to life.

What’s really striking about Chris Lane’s murder is that it does have national significance, far more than the hysterically exaggerated menace of white homeowners killing for sport and invoking Stand Your Ground laws to get away with it.  Gang violence and the growing influence of groups like the Crips are real threats.  Black teens are often the targets.  Gang culture is widespread and toxic, unlike the phony threat of “gun culture” ginned up by media-connected liberal activists primarily concerned with taking the air out of the Republican-leaning NRA.  There are no symbolic laws to agitate for, no easy setups for Al Sharpton to arrange a protest and rake in some donations.  It’s an agonizing, horrifying problem, and it deserves a spotlight… but it’s not terribly useful to our overbearing but lazy political class, so it hasn’t gotten one.