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On The Media

Western news organizations treat situations in Paris, Nigeria differently

By Ron Wynn

The nation's major media organizations were dominated last week by news about the tragic and horrific crime committed by Islamic extremists against the satirical French newspaper Charlie Hedbo. More than 16 people in total were killed in two Paris incidents, many of them cartoonists. There were 12 people killed at the magazine, and another four hostages murdered by a gunman at a kosher supermarket in a separate attack. Al-Qaida later claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Some broadcast networks, notably CBS,interrupted their regularly scheduled programming to show extensive coverage of the events in Paris. Cable news outlets CNN, MSNBC and Fox News had almost non-stop coverage for days, culminating in a full spotlight given to a huge mass demonstration over the weekend that drew millions.

But what wasn't covered nearly so extensively, at least by the major American media outlets, was an attack in Nigeria by another group of Islamic extremists, Boko Haram. They ran amok through the town of Baga, attacking and firing grenades and using rocket launchers on a place largely populated by women, children and elderly people. The carnage was horrible, and the final body count exceeded 2,000. More than 30,000 others have been displaced in continual attacks by this group throughout Nigeria, as well their kidnappings of numerous young girls who in many instances are later forced into marriage.

While such organizations as "The Guardian: Africa," "The BBC," and Black websites like "News One" and "The Grio" had regular and ongoing coverage, other larger, mainstream companies were slow to get on the story. In fairness, later "The New York Times," "The Washington Post," "USA Today" and even "CNN" ran stories or distributed them from other sources like Reuters as it became more and more evident how much slaughter had occurred.

Still, the lack of immediate media reaction, coupled with the equally slow response to the bombing of an NAACP office in Colorado Springs, raised new questions regarding the disparity in response and coverage for slaughters and tragedies where the majority of the victims are not white. Also noticed has been the lack of comment or reaction from political leaders, both in America and abroad, about the Baga atrocity.

An estimated 3.7 million people marched in Paris Sunday in a demonstration of solidarity for Charlie Hedbo. While legitimate questions can be raised about the sincerity of world leaders known for welding a dictatorial stick in their own nations lamenting the fate of a magazine with a pronounced anti-Islamic slant, no sane person considers murder a suitable reaction to satirical excesses or cultural arrogance.

But the question must be raised why there's not equal outrage expressed about the death toll in Baga and the surrounding area. Likewise, when Boko Haram used three 10-year-old girls to blow up markets in the towns of Potiskum and Maiduguri, leaving more than 20 people dead, there were no marches and little coverage outside the African, Black American and alternative press.

“This marks a disturbing and bloody escalation of Boko Haram’s ongoing onslaught,” said Amnesty International’s Daniel Eyre several days after the bloody attacks.

It also didn't go unnoticed that liberal allies had a chance to proclaim “Black Lives Matter” at the Golden Globe Awards on Sunday, but instead chose to express their solidarity with a wildly offensive satirical magazine halfway across the world. That was left to folks like rapper/actor Common, who took time during his acceptance speech to mention and discuss the continuing protests against police brutality and misconduct.

Mainstream publications and news outlets were also behind regarding the story of Lassana Bathily, the Black Muslim who saved the lives of several shoppers when Amedy Coulibaly burst into Parisian kosher market Hyper Cacher. He was mistakenly called an "African American" on CNN, where Anderson Cooper corrected a colleague (he was an African and Yemeni). Later stories revealed that Bathily was not initially viewed as a hero, but a suspect due to his skin color.

The right-wing media response to this outcry has been to label it an overreaction, and insist mainstream organizations were right to spotlight an attack on a magazine in one of the world's media capitals as opposed to the latest in a long series of brutal incidents conducted in an isolated area. They insist the fact no one was killed in the NAACP bombing justifies the relative lack of coverage, and that the key issue is Islamic fundamentalism on the rampage, not selective attention or coverage.

But for Blacks and other people of color, who've seen issues and events that affect them the most marginalized for centuries, what happened last week in regards to both Nigeria and Colorado Springs, is simply the latest in a long series that reveals how little corporate media cares about their communities, either in America or abroad.

On Wednesday, January 14, 2015 11:48 AM, ronald jefferson <ronaldjefferson795@yahoo.com> wrote:

From a bombed NAACP office in Colorado to the decimated town of Baga, Nigeria, acts of terrorism against black people and institutions have failed to generate much attention in the United States this past week.

Most of the Western world and its political leaders have, instead, turned their eyes to No. 10 rue Nicolas-Appert, Paris, France—the location of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. As most of the world now knows, an al-Qaida-led terrorist attack left 12 people dead there last Wednesday. And in a separate, related terrorist attack on Friday in Paris, four hostages were killed by a gunman at a kosher supermarket.

Following in the footsteps of civil rights marchers in the United States on Sunday, world leaders, such as Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Gabon’s President Ali Bongo Ondimba, linked arms in unity and led an estimated 3.7 million people in a march to show solidarity with Charlie—a magazine whose Islamophobic bent has been largely underplayed in a broader debate about free speech.

The hypocrisy of certain world leaders attending the march, while maintaining a vise grip on free speech in their own countries, has been well-documented. But the relative silence surrounding the horrific, nearly contemporaneous attack that took place in Baga has been deafening.

In Baga and the surrounding area, it’s estimated that 2,000 people were killed last week—mostly the elderly, women and children—when Boko Haram, the same terrorist organization responsible for kidnapping more than 200 schoolgirls last April, methodically massacred them and set the town on fire. And this weekend, Boko Haram also used three 10-year-old girls to blow up markets in the towns of Potiskum and Maiduguri, leaving more than 20 people dead.

“This marks a disturbing and bloody escalation of Boko Haram’s ongoing onslaught,” said Amnesty International’s Daniel Eyre several days after the bloody attacks.

Yet the silence continues.

It’s almost willful at this point, this blatant disregard and unconcern for black lives, both here and throughout the Diaspora. After months of social and racial unrest sparked by the state-sanctioned killings of unarmed African Americans across the country, so-called liberal allies had a chance to proclaim that “Black Lives Matter” at the Golden Globe Awards on Sunday. Instead, Hollywood heavyweights from George Clooney to Kathy Bates proclaimed, “Je suis Charlie,” choosing instead to show solidarity with a wildly offensive satirical magazine halfway across the world.

Hip-hop artist, actor and activist Common was the only person who even made mention of simmering protests around the country. But even still, his remarks were framed as “all lives matter,” when the loud silence on black deaths both in America and abroad shows the very opposite to be true.

At the same time that black and brown victims around the world are made invisible, we simultaneously see a perpetuation of the myth of black and brown criminality: Fox News correspondent Shannon Bream claimed after the Charlie Hebdo attacks that it’s difficult to tell who the “bad guys” are if you “can’t see what color they are.”

Not surprisingly, Lassana Bathily, the black Muslim who saved the lives of several shoppers when Amedy Coulibaly burst into Parisian kosher market Hyper Cacher, was not hailed as the hero he is; in fact, he was initially considered a suspect because of his skin color.