The Retreat to Identity
by Ross Douthat
NOV. 29, 2014
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/30/opinion/sunday/ross-douthat-the-retreat-to-identity.html?comments#permid=13464112
We can, and unfortunately, will have endless discussions about which policy bias will be more successful in easing and ultimately removing the black/white bias in our society. That's fine.
But to me the Ferguson dilemma points to another, much more serious problem preventing serious political discussion: the inability to talk honestly and factually about issues and the explicit and implicit pressure to be "politically correct".
There are, without a doubt, enough valid examples of racial bias in policing and law enforcement to allow better policies to be developed. But in the case of Ferguson the politically correct slant on the story - that the police acted irresponsibly, illegally and with racial bias - was immediately adopted by the media.
The initial reports (e.g. on CNN) reported that an unarmed black teenager had been shot and killed by police - so far, completely correct. But then when the videos of the robbery appeared, the media immediately, and without verification, reported (complete speculation) that the police involved in the shooting could not have known about this robbery, thus reenforcing the FALSE, but politically correct tale that the shooting was completely unprovoked and based on racial bias. This set the stage for the entire media coverage on the shooting, and as usual in our wonderful American journalism, once an unverified (and false) report is made, all other media feel free to quote and perpetuate this initial false report. Fiction trumps facts.
But to me the Ferguson dilemma points to another, much more serious problem preventing serious political discussion: the inability to talk honestly and factually about issues and the explicit and implicit pressure to be "politically correct".
There are, without a doubt, enough valid examples of racial bias in policing and law enforcement to allow better policies to be developed. But in the case of Ferguson the politically correct slant on the story - that the police acted irresponsibly, illegally and with racial bias - was immediately adopted by the media.
The initial reports (e.g. on CNN) reported that an unarmed black teenager had been shot and killed by police - so far, completely correct. But then when the videos of the robbery appeared, the media immediately, and without verification, reported (complete speculation) that the police involved in the shooting could not have known about this robbery, thus reenforcing the FALSE, but politically correct tale that the shooting was completely unprovoked and based on racial bias. This set the stage for the entire media coverage on the shooting, and as usual in our wonderful American journalism, once an unverified (and false) report is made, all other media feel free to quote and perpetuate this initial false report. Fiction trumps facts.
No comments:
Post a Comment