Winona and the Wichita massacre

TownHall.com ^ | 11/08/02 | Michelle Malkin

[kattracks]

Here is a story of two trials and how they were covered in the news. Or not covered. You tell me what it says about the media's twisted values.

The first trial was held in Beverly Hills. The accused was Hollywood starlet Winona Ryder, charged with shoplifting at a Saks Fifth Avenue store. A Nexis search turned up more than 500 stories on the trial published over the past week alone. Television, news and radio reporters from around the world breathlessly described Ryder's daily court attire -- her hairbands, her coatdresses, her shoes, her bra straps, her lipstick.

We learned the all-important details of how she appeared "pale" one day, "chipper" the next. Crack news reporters informed us that she is "doe-eyed" and "petite." Talking heads endlessly scrutinized the trial evidence, tapes and testimony. Psychologists explained the motivations of kleptomaniacs. Entertainment insiders parsed Ryder's film career for clues.

On Wednesday, the cable shows provided "breaking news" coverage of the guilty verdicts and wall-to-wall analysis of What This Means For Winona. The New York Times and Washington Post followed up with bylined news articles.

This, you see, was news that mattered. News fit to print.

Meanwhile, in unglamorous Wichita, Kan., the eight-week trial of Jonathan and Reginald Carr came to a close. The brothers were found guilty of four counts of capital murder, along with numerous charges of rape, aggravated robbery, burglary and theft, committed during an unspeakably brutal killing spree in December 2000.

The perpetrators were black. The victims -- including friends Jason Befort, Heather Muller, Bradley Heyka and Aaron Sander -- were white. The Carrs were convicted of murdering these four young people, execution-style, on a frozen soccer field after a night of terror in Befort, Heyka and Sander's townhouse. After breaking into the residence, the Carrs forced Muller and Jason Befort's unnamed fiance to perform sexual acts on each other; the men were then forced to participate. Next, the Carrs raped the women, drove all five victims to an ATM machine, forced them to withdraw money from their accounts, and headed to the soccer field.

The five victims were forced to kneel in the snow and beg for their lives before sustaining gunshots to the head. The Carrs then ran over their victims with their truck. Befort's fiance miraculously survived. She walked more than a mile, bleeding and naked, in the snow, before finding help.

When such senseless, evil savagery takes place against politically correct victims, the mainstream media is quick to make national news of such crimes. "If this had been two white males accused of killing four black individuals, the media would be on a feeding frenzy and every satellite news organization would be in Wichita doing live reports," wrote Trent Hungate of Wichita in a letter to the Wichita Eagle after the killings two years ago. Indeed. The horrific James Byrd dragging case in Texas and the Matthew Shepard murder in Wyoming, for example, garnered front-page headlines and continuous coverage.

But with the exception of local Kansas newspapers, the Associated Press, The Washington Times, Fox News, Court TV and conservative Internet sites, the Carr trial made almost no news.

If you read The New York Times or The Washington Post or watched the evening news this week, the Wichita Massacre never happened. Not to worry, though. The latest investigative report on where Winona Ryder got that Hermes handbag is coming up next. Stay tuned.

Contact Michelle Malkin | Read her biography

©2002 Creators Syndicate, Inc.

[archy]

I hope you have the death penalty in Kansas

Happily, yes, capital punishment by lethal injection was reinstated in 1994 under certain circumstances, several of which appear to apply clearly in the Carr cases. See #4 and #6, in particular.

Pity they don't still use the old gallows at Lansing with it's 13 steps. It was possible there to use a long enough rope that the fall would snap the necks of the condemned victim as the knot slapped them aside the head and stunned them, providing a relatively painless way to go, or a shorter rope could be used, as in the military hangings of prisoners from Leavenworth military prison, offering an excellent chance of slower strangulation.

[Republic of Texas]

Michelle Malkin lays out the most egregious travesty of media coverage in last 10 years. The media in this country actually thinks it's ok for minorities to slaughter white people.

[Neo_objectivist]

The same people who complain about the lack of publicity here are the very same ones who complained about the excessive publicity in the Shepherd murder.

That is why your insistent opposition to "equal time" for black on white hate crimes is even more suspect. Given that you are aware of the media-hyped case of Shepherd and I can assume .. Bryd as well .. then it should be fairly obvious why whites should expect equal "concern" by the media when alas . . whites are brutally murdered in an apparent hate-crime.

And BTW .. sometimes as a matter of debate . . it is prudent to play devil's advocate . . and set aside your own past views merely to argue the inconsistency of your opponent's viewpoint or behavior. This does not make your view inconsistent as well.

Now you ar probably going to argue that whites should be concerned about all crimes . . and I agree.. but you dont win the national discourse by remaining silent . . You must hold the media to the flames and demand consistency in their reporting. Maybe next time . . they will be less inclined to exploit victims of hate for political purposes.

[Cindy]

"Michelle Malkin lays out the most egregious travesty of media coverage in last 10 years. The media in this country actually thinks it's ok for minorities to slaughter white people."

Actually to expand on your comment, "Republic of Texas", the main-stream media, generally speaking, is politically correct. I have stated for years that political correctness can be a killer.