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Orlando Tragedy Pushes Multiple Buttons

richard

Story Covers Loss, Terrorism, Gay Issues, Politics

Court Backs Sweeping Change: Net Neutrality

N.Y. Tabloids Play to Competing Ideologies

Trump Rescinds Washington Post Credentials

‘Biggest Mass Shooting in U.S. History’ — Not

Univision Shows Inside of Mateen’s Apartment

Courier-Journal Apologizes for Late Change to ‘Ali’

Jonathan Camuy moved from Puerto Rico to Florida to work for Telemundo, where he was a producer for a popular children’s talent competition. (Credit: Facebook)

Story Covers Loss, Terrorism, Gay Issues, Politics

The devastating massacre in Orlando that left 50 dead early Sunday dominated news coverage Monday. News outlets ferreted out more details about the shooter, hustled to produce profiles of the victims and even took viewers on a tour of the shooter’s residence.

Many referred to the tragedy as “the deadliest mass shooting in American history,” even though more had been killed in attacks on African Americans and Native Americans before what is sometimes referred to as “recent memory.”

The Orlando story became all at once one about terrorism, Muslims, guns, LGBTs, Latinos, immigration and national politics.

Because it was less than a week after the identities of the presumptive presidential nominees were clear, Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump weighed in. Trump, annoyed by a Washington Post story headlined, “Donald Trump seems to connect President Obama to Orlando shooting,” took the additional step of withdrawing credentials for the Washington Post to cover his campaign.

In one example of the empathy television journalists sought to convey, “Anderson Cooper opened his show tonight with an incredibly moving 7-minute reading of the names of all the Orlando terrorism victims,” Josh Feldman reported Monday for Mediaite.

“Cooper not only read the names of all of the victims, but he provided information about as many of them as he could from the people who loved them.

“And multiple times during the entire segment, Cooper was choking up and doing his best to hold back tears. . . .”

The National Association of Hispanic Journalists mourned one of its members.

“Jonathan Camuy moved to Florida to work for a Spanish TV network, where he was a producer for a popular children’s talent competition,” Annie Martin reported in a story dated Tuesday in the Orlando Sentinel.

“Camuy worked for La Voz Kids, similar to the NBC show ‘The Voice,’ according to a statement from Mekahlo Medina, president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. The show is produced in Orlando and airs on Telemundo.

“Camuy is listed as Jonathan Antonio Camuy Vega on the city of Orlando’s website, but Telemundo’s site refers to him as Jonathan Camuy.

“The 24-year-old was [a] member at one of the journalism organization’s student chapters in Puerto Rico before moving to Florida to work for Telemundo, Medina wrote. . . .”

Philadelphia’s WTXF-TV announced on its website Monday, “We are sending our thoughts and prayers to our own 20-year-old Patience Carter, who was in the Pulse nightclub when Omar Mateen started shooting.

“The gunman shot her in the leg. According to FOX 29 HR Director Megan Young, Patience was in surgery until 12:30 a.m. early Monday morning. When Megan spoke with Patience she sounded very weak.

“We’ve gotten to know Patience because as an Emma Bowen Foundation scholar, she is interning here during all four years of school, and this is her second summer. She is currently a student at NYU.

“We look forward to a speedy recovery and Patience’s return to FOX 29.

“Sadly, Patience’s friend, Akyra Murray, did not survive the shooting.”

Court Backs Sweeping Change: Net Neutrality

“A federal appeals court has voted to uphold a series of strict new rules for Internet providers, handing a major victory to regulators in the fight over net neutrality and ensuring that one of the most sweeping changes to hit the industry in recent years will likely remain on the books,” Brian Fung reported Tuesday for the Washington Post.

“The 2-1 court ruling Tuesday forces Internet providers such as Verizon and Comcast to obey federal regulations that ban the blocking or slowing of Internet traffic to consumers. The regulations from the Federal Communications Commission also forbid carriers from selectively speeding up websites that agree to pay the providers a fee — a tactic critics have said could unfairly tilt the commercial playing field against startups and innovators who may not be able to afford it. . . .”

In February 2015, when the net neutrality rules passed the FCC on a 3-2 vote, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists rejoiced.

“NAHJ has been the leading voice in journalism supporting Net Neutrality over the past decade,” it said in a news release then.

“The National Association of Hispanic Journalists has supported network neutrality since the beginning to preserve a free and open Internet and to ensure that all Internet users can access content or run applications and devices of their choosing without manipulation or discrimination.

” ‘This is a historic day. It’s the result of hard work of Latinos committed to open access without obstacles’, said NAHJ’s President Mekahlo Medina. . . .” [Added June 14]

N.Y. Tabloids Play to Competing Ideologies

“The political ideologies for the New York Daily News and the New York Post are well-documented,” J.D. Durkin reported Monday for Mediaite.

“While the right-leaning Post has largely used snark to speak to the millions of conservative New Yorkers, the more liberal Daily News has used its bully pulpit in recent years to target gun ownership and the NRA. In fact, the executive vice president of the NRA — Wayne LaPierre — has become public enemy number one, and the News has gone as far as to label him ‘Jihadi Wayne.’

“On Monday morning, each of the New York dailies predictably focused their cover stories on the Orlando massacre from early Sunday morning that left 50 people dead in a gay night club. However, given the many layers of the tragedy, the Post and Daily News took two very different approaches. . . .”

Trump Rescinds Washington Post Credentials

“Donald Trump is rescinding the Washington Post’s credentials to cover his campaign events, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee said Monday in his latest attack on the press,” Nolan D. McCaskill and Joe Pompeo reported Monday for Politico.

“ ‘Based on the incredibly inaccurate coverage and reporting of the record setting Trump campaign, we are hereby revoking the press credentials of the phony and dishonest Washington Post,’ Trump posted on Facebook.

“Trump had posted to Facebook nearly 20 minutes earlier ‘to show you how dishonest the phony Washington Post is.’

“ ‘I am no fan of President Obama, but to show you how dishonest the phony Washington Post is, they wrote, “Donald Trump suggests President Obama was involved with Orlando shooting” as their headline,’ Trump said. ‘Sad!’

“In a statement, Washington Post editor Marty Baron said the decision would be damaging to a free and independent press.

“ ‘Donald Trump’s decision to revoke The Washington Post’s press credentials is nothing less than a repudiation of the role of a free and independent press,’ Baron wrote. . . . ‘When coverage doesn’t correspond to what the candidate wants it to be, then a news organization is banished. The Post will continue to cover Donald Trump as it has all along — honorably, honestly, accurately, energetically, and unflinchingly. We’re proud of our coverage, and we’re going to keep at it.’

“The Trump campaign has banned a number of news outlets from attending his events and press conferences over the past year, including POLITICO, Univision, The Des Moines Register, Buzzfeed and The Huffington Post. . . .

” ‘The Washington Post article Trump appeared to be balking at now has the headline “Donald Trump seems to connect President Obama to Orlando shooting.” The report includes a series of comments the candidate made on the morning news shows about Sunday’s mass shooting in Orlando that left 49 dead and at least 53 injured. It originally had the headline “Donald Trump Suggests President Obama Was Involved With Orlando Shooting.” . . .’ ”

[On Tuesday, the American Society of News Editors echoed the Post’s position, adding, “We urge the Republican Party to return to its historical support for openness and transparency and call on both the party and its presumptive nominee to reverse course on these undemocratic sanctions and attempts at censorship. In the meantime, we encourage news outlets to ignore, reject and oppose all unconstitutional restrictions that any party, candidate or government official attempts to impose.”]

 

Frederic Remington’s illustration of the Wounded Knee Massacre. (Credit: Yale Collection of Western Americana/Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Yale University)

‘Biggest Mass Shooting in U.S. History’ — Not

As journalists including the evening news anchors and reporters on the scene described the Orlando massacre as “the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history,” black and Native American journalists with more than the average knowledge of history begged to differ.

“I can’t help but notice that virtually all the broadcast media coverage quickly labeled this atrocity ‘the worst mass murder in American history,’ ” Roger Witherspoon, a black journalist who sits on the board of the Society of Environmental Journalists, wrote to colleagues Monday. “The statement is both racist and false.

“It completely ignores the wholesale murder of civilian blacks by white groups. The Tulsa, Ok riot is one. but for the record books, there is the Colfax Massacre of April 13, 1873, when a group of armed whites attacked black freedmen trying to vote and gunned down more than 100. Two of them were brought to trial in a case called US v Cruikshank, named for the lead plaintiff. . . .”

The Twitter feed of Howard W. French, an associate professor of journalism at Columbia University, listed others: “The 1917 East St. Louis Massacre, 100-200 killed. http://ow.ly/74eU301e0NF . . . The Elaine Massacre, Arkansas 1919, as many as 800 killed. ow.ly/H1Or301e0xc . . . .”

Doug George-Kanentiio, a Native American activist who is vice president at the Hiawatha Institute for Indigenous Knowledge at Syracuse University and a founding member of the Native American Journalists Association, wrote on indianz.com:

“The murder of 50 people on June 12 in Orlando, Florida where a single man armed with an assault rifle and pistol has become a tragic continuance of massacres in US history, most of which were directed at Native people.

“Some say what happened in Orlando was the worse in American history but that is not so.

“The first large, organized assault in the colonial era took place in May of 1637 when Captain John Mason directed a force of militia and Natives to surround and attack the main Pequot town in southeastern Connecticut, set it afire and killed every elder, child, woman or man who tried to escape. Over 700 died. . . .”

After listing other mass killings of Native people up until 1871, George-Kanentiio concluded, “The Orlando killer is dead. But for the Native victims who were also deprived of their lives in the most profound, horrible manner the murders escaped punishment and in many instances have had their acts of depravity sanctioned by having streets and towns named in their perverted honor. Such is what passes as ‘history’ in the US.”

In March, the Native Sun News published a longer list, urging that a museum be built at Wounded Knee to honor all Native Americans massacred in America.

In an essay Monday for NPR, Eyder Peralta said some listeners complained that NPR was whitewashing history when it decided to call Orlando “deadliest mass shooting in the U.S.” To the atrocities listed above, listeners added the “Mountain Meadows Massacre,” in which Mormons slaughtered 120 civilians in southern Utah on Sept. 11, 1857.

The network consulted Grant Duwe, the director of research and evaluation at the Minnesota Department of Corrections, who “wrote one of the most exhaustive histories of mass murder in the United States.

“He says he sees two distinctions between mass murders that occurred before and after the 20th Century. Before 1900, most mass murders were perpetrated by the ‘haves’ against the ‘have nots.’ After 1900, mass murders began being perpetrated by the ‘have nots’ against the ‘haves.’ Another difference is that before the 20th Century few mass murders were perpetrated by a single person. . . .”

Peralta said that NPR concluded, “in service of precision, history and what we may not know, what happened in Orlando on Sunday was the deadliest mass public shooting in modern U.S. history.”

Unfortunately, NPR journalists continued to declare Orlando “the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.”

And its “List Of The Deadliest Mass Shootings In U.S. History” goes back only as far as 1966.

Univision Shows Inside of Mateen’s Apartment

Univision reporter Fernando Peinado took viewers Monday on a tour of the apartment used by Omar Mateen, the perpetrator of the Orlando massacre.

“Family photos and drawings of his three year old son decorate the walls (Spanish) . . .” Peinadoreported.

“On a blackboard in the kitchen, a message recalled that Mateen and his wife Noor had an appointment at the school of their son on July 13. In another slate Arabic phrase Al Hamdullillah (Praise God) . . . was written.

“Univision News had access to the house Monday Mateen in Fort Pierce, Florida, on the morning after the FBI recorded for evidence. The apartment had not been protected by safety belts.

“On the living room table, a document listing the objects that had been requisitioned: 9 mm cartridges, an Ipad mini Apple, Samsung phone, a Dell computer, a CD with a label Omar Mateen . . .”

The scene was reminiscent of the media scrum created last December in Southern California when dozens of reporters and TV news crews entered the home of the two shooters in the San Bernardino massacre. Then, people on social media complained in real time, accusing journalists of voyeurism or worse. MSNBC later apologized for briefly showing images of photographs and identification cards that it said should not have been aired without review.

Jose Zamora, a spokesman for Univision, said that the FBI and police had finished their work in the apartment and that anyone could walk in. Peinado shot his own footage.

Meghan Keneally reported the Univision story for English speakers on ABC News.

Courier-Journal Apologizes for Late Change to ‘Ali’

“For years after boxing great Cassius Clay adopted the Muslim faith and changed his name, his hometown paper refused to call him Muhammad Ali,” the Associated Press reported on Monday.

“Fifty years later, The Courier-Journal, Louisville’s daily paper, apologized for continuing to call him Cassius Clay after he changed it in 1964. It did not consistently refer to him as Muhammad Ali until 1970.

“Ali died June 3 and an estimated 100,000 people lined the streets of Louisville to say goodbye to the city’s most celebrated son during his funeral Friday.

“Executive Editor Neil Budde wrote Monday’s editorial that chronicled how the paper for years either ignored Ali’s preferred name or outright mocked it.

” ‘We won’t even try to speculate what the motives of the editors in that era were,’ he wrote. ‘The CJ was certainly an early champion of civil rights and desegregation. Yet we took what in today’s light is an oddly hostile approach on the specific issue of Ali’s name, which did little to help race relations in a turbulent time.’

“The paper was among many newspapers and magazines across the country that continued to call him Cassius Clay for years after he changed his name in keeping with his Islamic faith. . . .”

 

 

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