Just watch this. Listen to this man talking about the [white] media that only visits Baltimore when there’s a riot.
He say: “You’re not here reporting about the boarded-up homes, and the homeless people under MLK.”
He says: “You can’t tell me to move off my street. I pay the tax dollars for this. I’m not moving.”
He says: “You’re not here for the death of Freddie Gray.”
Damn. Though the man said this is not for YouTube, I’m very glad it’s there. And this is not, as reported elsewhere, just a take-down of Geraldo Rivera and Fox News. It indicts all of us.
Dating Jesus 
Geraldo Rivera. The Rushbo Legacy is Alive and Well.
He’s a complete tool, but we were talking about how this afflicts all media, really, in their hesitancy to go into Certain Neighborhoods to cover the neighborhoods on some event other than crime. It’s not just Fox. It’s local media, too.
Speaking of tools: Saw this featured on a Pew feed this morning.
I wish there was mainstream news coverage, every day, on exactly what that man described. No more distractions from the every day reality! No more minimizing! No more walking away! That man full of passion? His story needs to be told. People need to hear him. I don’t watch Fox News, but Rivera’s reactions make me sick.
That shit-eating grin is kind of embarrassing, isn’t it? And his walking away and saying the man was yelling. I don’t know what kind of environment Geraldo inhabits, but in my house? That’s not yelling. That’s speaking passionately. This is a message for all of us in media, as far as I’m concerned.
The good thing about YouTube and social media is that it can shed light on real conversations, instead of giving control of a conversation to a news source. The way some of those right-wing (especially) TV & radio hosts cut off anyone who doesn’t add to their fabricated stories irritates me to no end. But, you’re right. It’s not just how stories are covered or by whom, it’s also about which stories are covered and ignored. That shapes public views, too.
Go to another video in that same series — where Rivera is annoyed by “these vandals here.”
It shows up in the lower right corner when the posted video ends.
I wouldn’t exactly characterize Geraldo as white. But I absolutely support what that guy is saying about the media only coming to see riots and not caring about the suffering of the community. I feel an echo in regard to the absolute indifference of the media here in CT to the suffering of family court victims and the manner in which the CT Judicial Branch is exploiting and harming people in the legal system.