Media
coverage of the Buffalo, N.Y., mass shooting proves that some
journalists and reporters cannot handle the truth about racism in
America, do not understand what is going on and cannot report on
racism in a fair and responsible manner.
Payton
S. Gendron, 18, allegedly shot 13 people, killing 10—all
of them Black—with
his AR-15 rifle in a Tops supermarket in Buffalo. It didn’t
take long to identify bias in the news coverage of the shooting.
For
example, voices on social media have taken the news media to task for
refusing to call racism by its name, which is racism. For example,
Uché
Blackstock tweeted
on the Buffalo coverage: “Media, stop using “racially
motivated”. Stop using “racial slur”. Call it what
it is. It’s “racist”. It’s “racism”.
It’s “white supremacy”. Stop trying to sugar coat
it.”
While
some journalists are reluctant to identify racism and racial violence
in their reporting of the Buffalo shooter, others identified the
alleged killer as a
“white
teenager,”
as
AP did before correcting it. This, even as reporting from Ferguson,
Mo., referred to the unarmed Michael Brown as an “18-year old
Black man,” even though the two were the same age. Media
narratives of Brown not only robbed him of his youth, but painted
him, the victim, as a
criminal
and
a “thug.”
Similarly,
like the coverage of other white mass shooters, reporting on Gendron
has referred to him as a “lone
wolf,” which
portrays him as acting in isolation and not part of a larger
phenomenon or popular movement that forces others to bear
responsibility. As Talia
Lavin wrote
in Rolling
Stone, Gendron
is not a lone wolf, but actually a mainstream Republican, one of
those who, “fed a steady diet of violent propaganda and
stochastic terror, take annihilatory rhetoric to its logical
conclusion.” In his manifesto, the Buffalo assailant said that
he is a white supremacist and an antisemite who drew inspiration from
white supremacists on the internet. An
online
movement agrees
with the shooter and his ideas.
Some
news reports on Gendron have discussed the possible role of mental
illness in
the massacre. And yet, in his manifesto he relies on mainstream
GOP talking points
such
as the “great replacement theory,” the idea that
Democrats, liberals and Jews are conspiring to replace white people
with Black and brown immigrants. The great replacement theory is
embraced by
one-third
of white Americans
and
Republican Party leadership, including Rep.
Elise
Stefanik
(R-N.Y.)—the
third-ranking Republican in the House—and Fox News host Tucker
Carlson, who promotes the theory and urges viewers to
take
action.
Carlson
and others have complained about the falling
white birth rate
as
people of color, who are reproducing at higher rates, are “invading”
the country and replacing white people. Once again, Gendron repeated
this common Republican talking point when he
wrote:
“White birth rates must change…people must achieve a
birth rate…that is about 2.06 births per woman.”
Gendron’s preoccupation with white fertility echoes Supreme
Court Justice Samuel Alito’s evil draft
opinion
overturning
Roe
v. Wade. Making
the case for eliminating a woman’s right to an abortion, Alito
wrote: “the domestic supply of infants relinquished at birth or
within the first month of life and available to be adopted had become
virtually nonexistent.”
Right-wing
media have attacked Wyoming Republican Rep.
Liz Cheney for
accusing the House GOP leadership of enabling white nationalism,
white supremacy and antisemitism in a tweet following the Buffalo
massacre. Tristan
Justice at The
Federalist said
Cheney had transitioned “from a center-right lawmaker to a
full-blown collaborator in the left’s cultural revolution.”
And,
of course, there is the effort to humanize white supremacists and
feign surprise when they go on a rampage. The
New York Post
reported
that residents of Gendron’s “quiet
hometown” of
Conklin, N.Y., were “stunned” following the Buffalo
shooting, with one resident saying he came from a “close-knit”
and “fantastic” family. Gendron’s kinfolk even
suggested he snapped due to the COVID
pandemic,
and they did not know he was a white supremacist. Meanwhile, online
messages suggest Gendron spent
months planning
the attack. Meanwhile, The
Guardian reported
that “signs
of trouble had
surrounded the shooter for some time,” as he was the subject of
a police investigation, and he allegedly had done a reconnaissance
of
his target area 200 miles from his home.
These
examples of biased reporting point to the power of the media in
shaping what we believe. For all the talk about the news media
striving for objectivity, objectivity itself is a loaded term. As
Wesley
Lowery noted
in an op-ed in The
New York Times,
objectivity
reflects the worldview of white reporters and editors, whose
“selective truths have been calibrated to avoid offending the
sensibilities of white readers.” In other words, whiteness is
the standard form through which everything flows. Rather than seek
objectivity, why don’t we strive to tell
the truth and
be fair about it?
And
how will journalists seek truth and fairness on coverage of white
supremacist violence and domestic terrorism in an all-white newsroom?
How do reporters lacking any racial justice training or experience
inform the public on these issues? What is the responsibility of the
news media to educate readers on racism, in a country where some
states have banned the teaching of racial history to schoolchildren?
If
we aren’t careful with these media narratives, Payton S.
Gendron will become the next Kyle Rittenhouse, a hero off to the big
party with Trump at Mar-a-Lago.
This
commentaryis also posted on The
Grio
