Seconds ago, I just heard a guest on CNN—I didn’t notice his name, and I don’t want to know his name—tell Carol Costello that not only was church shooter Dylann Roof (above, and now in custody) sick, but that there was a great “sickness in a country that could produce a Dylann Roof,” who could pray with a congregation and then slaughter the people he just prayed with.
Carol Costello, true to her shameless, unthinking, knee-jerk jerkish soul, just nodded in agreement. Heaven forbid that she might contradict a solemn African-American race-baiting hack who had just impugned an entire nation based on the conduct of a single deranged man among 319 million.
Why stop with judging the nation by this act? Surely it proves the vile attitudes of the white race, the toxic values of males, and the inherent evil of gun owners. It proves that churchgoers are hypocrites, and that 21 year-old males are the violent, potential rapists that college campuses are now being urged to so treat them.
This CNN guest was succeeded by Costello favorite Michaela Angela Davis, daughter of the infamous Berkeley Sixties radical (and criminal) Angela Davis, who proclaimed that Roof was typical, that before this administration such crimes went unnoticed—gee, I wonder how many church massacres were covered up by those racists in the Bush Administration?— and that the attack was definitely racist terrorism, particularly because this Charleston church was important in civil rights history, and the oldest African American church still standing in the South.
Again, Costello uncritically went along with these ideological leaps.
How did Davis know that Roof chose that church for its historical significance, or was even aware of its significance? She didn’t; nobody did. Do we know that he was only interested in shooting blacks, or that when he reportedly stated that he wanted to kill blacks, he wasn’t planning on visiting other churches to announce, “I want to kill Hispanics/Asians/Catholics/Jews/ Whites”? No, we don’t.
Airing such inflammatory, premature, evidence-free assumptions is incompetent and irresponsible journalism. Endorsing an unconscionable anti-U.S. culture, history and values cheap shot like that of Costello’s previous guest is a breach of citizenship as well.
To be fair, though, CNN is getting faster at inflaming public opinion following race-related tragedies.
Practice makes perfect.
UPDATE: CNN’s John Berman just interviewed an African-American pastor in Charleston who said, “If you can’t be safe being black in a church, where can anyone be black in the country?”
What the hell does that mean? Berman’s awkward response:
“Good point.”
No, John, it is an emotional, incoherent, inflammatory, fear-mongering point.
Ethics Alarms 
Perhaps, if it could be shown that such a broadcast was the proximate cause of some over the top reaction (say a shooting or a riot) and CNN suffered a huge (by which I mean multi-million dollar verdict), they would start understanding the concept of consequences. Right now, either the media apparently doesn’t understand or they just don’t care.
“Never let a good crisis go to waste.” -Rahm Emanuel.
Where can anyone be safe being black in this country?
Well,Spokane seems to be a great place to be black.
Despite the fact that there are very few blacks who actually live there.
That’s what makes them safe, Jack. Nothing is more deadly to a black person in America than another black person. Crimes by whites against blacks are so rare that when it DOES occur, it’s big news. It also conveniently covers up the record violence that the promotion of race hate has engendered in big cities across America. Given that, it was inevitable that some unstable white guy would eventually go nuts and do something like this.
That was, of course, exactly what the race hucksters were waiting to happen so they could pounce on it. Well, they’ve gotten their wish… on the bodies of nine innocent people. The “bonus” for them was that they were all Christian people. There are too many black pastors and Christians “breaking ranks” against the promotion of race hatred.
I think what we were seeing is Christians were standing with fellow Christians. My hope it that this incident will not stop that. Wouldn’t it be great if all Christians would stand together, not “white” Christians and “black” Christians? Of course, the far left would see this as the ultimate nightmare.
Some of the finest Christian leaders in America today are black men of faith. This tragedy COULD backfire on those who have worked to instigate it if the pastors stand together for their values. But remember, the leftists in Washington have been laying the groundwork for this for a long time.
Kind of my point, Steven. You’d think the whole Christian thing would have both black and white standing together. While it is too early to tell, I’m guessing that the totally artificial construct of “race” is somehow going to trump Christianity. Sad.
I don’t know, Dragon. Already, a prominent black pastor has declared that the attack was an attack on all churches, black and white. Some ministers get it. But will enough? And will their voices be heard over the shrilling from the usual sources? The Obama Brigades are poised, as I said, to make the most out of this.
Good questions, all, Steven. I’m planning on forting up and hoping I get through the summer. We’re rural, so we may be good.
Salon just posted that all white people have to answer for this. Anyone know what time the plane for Europe leaves? I am strongly considering a return to Italy (it was that or Ireland, and there’s no gay marriage in Italy – yet).
No, there’s an easy solution: we all need to self-identify as black. Of course, the danger will still exist of our shooting ourselves, which would presumably be a hate crime.
I’m waiting—begging, wishing, in fact—for a commenter, hopefully a new one so I don’t have to toss a regular contributor to the sharks—to declare that THIS post is in any way “conservative” or redolent of any bias on my part whatsoever. Because anyone who regards general, blanket assumptions about any group, race, nation or anything else based on one demented maniac as something other than unethical, no matter who they condemn, is a fool.
I’m not. I have completely lost faith in this country, this government, and this people’s ability to achieve anything unified.
With the kind of morning I’m having I’d volunteer for the sharks, but no one would be believe my comment to be anything but satire.
This is true. We all have a pretty good idea where you stand on most things.
Really?
Do they apply the same rationale to Muslims and 9/11?
I agree that there is a “sickness in a country that could produce a Dylann Roof”, but it’s probably not the sickness the speaker had in mind. You identify and argue against examples of the sickness almost every day. Unfortunately, the same sickness infects every country. And, without perfectly ethical behavior worldwide, people like Dylann Roof will continue to squirm their way into the news.
The great thing about our race-baiting media and the current administration is that it is utterly reliable. As I passed a soundless TV this morning and saw Obama speaking above a “Church Shooting” headline, I immediately knew: 1. White shooter 2. Black church 3. Days of racially charged nonsense to follow.
The liberal narrative loves a ‘great white defendant’, as Tom Wolfe put it.
Jeez Jack, You’ve really jumped the shark on this one. OBVIOUSLY this is indicative of your flaming conservative bias. It DOESN’T matter whether or not 319 million people are impugned by the actions of one boy! That boy is male! And WHITE! And we all know the statistics right? Even if he wasn’t racially motivated, white on black crime like this draws attention to a very real problem in America, and so it REPRESENTS the problem even if the facts of the case don’t quite line up. You racist.
I’m waiting for confirmation that he is heterosexual.
He might even be CIS! *hiss*
What’s sad is that this incident is going to be used for a variety of purposes, from limiting the rights of lawful gun owners and NOT affecting the illegal guns in Chicago, Detroit in the hands of black gangs to somebody and we know who asserting that all white people are racists all the time. None of the efforts or actions suggested will in any way alleviate the probability of this happening again. Given the absolute hatred and vitriol being spewed by the race-baiting hacks like Al Sharpton and Barack Obama, if rather expect an escalation of racial violence probably promoted by both sides, and, as the movie says, a long hot summer.
Boy, you folks are awfully pessimistic today!
Just call me Deacon Blues…
It always surprises me how young men commit these horrible, inhuman acts of cruelty, and we immediately go to conversations about the murder weapon. Am I the only one who finds that strange?
Why do we care about the weapon of choice THAT much? It goes right to being the focus. It can’t be just some kind of bias of mine; it really seems off that everyone wants to talk about guns at times like this. Not the killer’s motivations, not the victims. It’s like, “welp, a bunch of people died, and it was a gun this time, so…I guess we’re going to talk about guns for a few weeks now.”
In CA we had the Santa Barbara spree killer, who fomented hatred towards women, good-looking men, and anyone more popular than him, for years…and then he murdered several people in carefully premeditated fashion, with knives, guns, and his car.
But it wasn’t politicized as much as you’d suspect (possibly because of the knives and the car, and possibly because he and his family were Hollywood Leftist atheists, and not rednecks.)
Something’s happening to everyone’s empathy levels (I’ve read about this being borne out in social studies as well.) I don’t think it’s any particular ideology that’s the problem as much as a narcissism/social detachment that can be ignited by just about any bad ideology (or even just by being mad at the world.) I wish we’d dive into the hard questions of what an impersonal, fame-worshipping youth culture where teens spend 8 hours a day consuming media might be doing to us…instead of just saying “Keep them away from guns, or maybe drug them up.”
Some spree killers are racist, the Santa Barbara kid was sexist, some are motivated by politics, some by their religion, some by anti-religion (disproportionately really), some just seem to want to be infamous and don’t care how, some just hate certain groups that they have a grievance with (cops, government, etc.) I often get caught up in reading writings by spree killers, especially the younger ones. They share certain qualities. I don’t believe that they are necessarily “crazy” in that most of them would never have been locked up anywhere prior to killing, even if the laws were there for that. They often seem smarter than usual or at least articulate.
There’s a set of characteristics that match up to Crowleyan magick/satanism that turns up. Use of drugs (bordering on ritual), sexual deviance, exaggerated self-importance, belief that one is superior to everyone around them, hatred of “average” people, mocking of religious beliefs or identifying themselves as godlike, into fantasy-worlds, pursuit of fame and notoriety as a life goal.