Daily Archives: March 27, 2012

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The national news media was criticized for allegedly ignoring the Christian-Newsom murder story because the victims were white and the suspects black. The media defended their choice, saying the perps were known to have socialized, even dated white people, and that the choice of victims appeared to have been random, so there was no racial angle, so what was the big deal?

Are they kidding?!  Read what the medical examiner said the autopsies showed:

Newsom was repeatedly sodomized with an object and then blindfolded, gagged, arms and feet bound and his head covered. Barefoot, he was either led or dragged outside the house to a set of nearby railroad tracks. He was shot in the back of the head, the neck, and the back, and his body then set on fire.

Channon suffered horrific injuries to her vagina, anus and mouth. She was not only raped but savaged with “an object,” possibly a broken chair leg, the doctor testified. She was beaten in the head. Some type of chemical was poured down her throat, and her body, including her bleeding and battered genital area, likely scrubbed with the same solution – all while Channon was alive. She was then “hog-tied,” with curtains and strips of bedding, her face covered tightly with a small trash bag and her body stashed inside five large trash bags, then placed inside a large trash can and covered with sheets. She died slowly of suffocation.

So. Did you ever hear of this crime via any news source? Me, neither.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murders_of_Channon_Christian_and_Christopher_Newsom

Ever hear of the Manson family? Me too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Manson#Family_crimes

I have yet another very up-close and personal reason for not buying the media’s shrugging the Christian and Newsom murders off as “not news.”

In 1996, our small community suffered through the kidnapping, murder and mutilation of two high school students by the man who lived next door. It was salacious and gory, with attractive victims and lots of pathos, just like what the media loves. But the victims and the perp were white.

So tell me … if a local murder isn’t Big Fat News, why is it that our little bitty murder was reported so extensively in the national news that when I called a catalog company in another state to order something and gave the lady my address, she gasped and said, “Oh my dear. I am so sorry. Are you okay?”

Two girls. One perp. No gory details or long, messy legal battle because the perp cut the bodies up and spread the bits all over the state forests, then committed suicide.

Yet it was not merely reported nationally. We heard from people in at least five different nations who read about it in their papers. The story was covered in such detail in the UK that a pianist there came here to give a benefit concert for the tuition fund that was set up in the girls’ memory. He wept on stage and told us how much the people in Great Britain had hurt for our community.

So excuse me for not buying the line that the media ignored the Christian-Newsom murders, because they weren’t interesting enough.  As for their claim that there were no racially-based reasons behind their apparently joint decision to spike this story … puh-leeze.

Ever hear about Tawana Brawley? Me too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tawana_Brawley_rape_allegations

Ever heard of the Duke lacrosse team?  Me too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duke_lacrosse_case

Nobody died. Nobody was even tortured. They were both just black girls claiming white guys had done bad things. And, oh wait, they BOTH turned out to be very probably UNTRUE.

If all the participants in the Christian-Newsom murders had been white, the sex and violence alone would’ve ensured it was in the news every day for weeks. If the victims had been black and the perps white, Al Sharpton would’ve been ALL over it. There would’ve been non-stop coverage, marches, protests, maybe a riot or two, some books, a few movies.

Either way, it would’ve been in the news every day for months and the names of the victims would be as familiar to us as Rodney King’s is.

I can’t say if there was a racial motive in the Christian-Newsom murders. But fordamsure there was a racial motive in the media’s collective yawn over reporting on them. IMHO, Michelle Malkin hit it on the head:

“This case – an attractive white couple murdered by five black thugs – doesn’t fit any political agenda. It’s not a useful crime.”