**Some Monday thoughts while contemplating the notion that the state of Mississippi is at the center of the college football world and the Kansas City Royals are the best team in baseball, and wondering what alternate universe I’ve wandered into…
One of the many valid criticisms of the American media that I spent a long time being a part of in my life is that the first incident of something controversial gets a huge amount of attention, and hours of television coverage and analysis, reams of newspaper ink and untold amount of Internet web hits.
Then, a few weeks later, a very similar incident happens … and almost no one cares. Everyone’s moved on, having used up their outrage, and no one seems to mind that the second victim is worth our attention just as much.
That’s what’s happened in St. Louis right now. The Michael Brown murder deservedly provoked anger and a furious response from African-Americans and whites alike, as a white police officer fired six bullets into an unarmed black teenager.
The police response to the ensuing protests was overblown and awful, and of course plenty of media attention was used on that.
Except now the Brown attention has died down and we had another awful St. Louis-area police shooting, you’re hearing very little about it.
Vonderrit Myers was an 18-year-old African-American killed last Wednesday by a 32-year-old off-duty police officer who was working a shift as a security guard. Myers walked out of a sandwich shop, and was shot at 17 times by the police officer.
The police say he had a gun. Witnesses, and Myers’ family, say he didn’t. There have been multiple versions of what happened told by the St. Louis police, as documented here, with details changing all the time.
And the security firm that employed the police officer in question has a history of being involved in police brutality cases.
And there are protests ongoing in St. Louis, people once again outraged… and the media coverage seems to be nowhere.
The New York Times is barely covering it, and CNN, MSNBC, etc. seem awfully preoccupied with Ebola and other matters right now.
And it’s a damn shame. Myers’ life was just as valuable as Michael Brown’s, and deserves just as much attention.
**And now, something a little more fun: little kids quoting some of our political leaders who don’t believe in climate change. Hilarious, and sad, because it really only takes a fourth-grader to understand that climate change is real.
**Finally, some thoughts on an NFL Sunday that surprised, enthralled, and of course, enraged if you’re a Jets fan:
— Gang Green actually didn’t play that badly Sunday in the loss to Denver; Geno Smith did OK, and the defense did a pretty decent job on Peyton Manning. But fumbles, mental mistakes, and an inability to get one final defensive stop did ’em in. So the Jets are 1-5, with a trip to the Pats on Thursday night looming. I’m sure that’ll be fun.
— No fan base had to be happier Sunday than Cleveland’s, and that’s just not a sentence you get to write very often. After 15 years of getting their butts kicked by the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Browns got a bit of revenge, destroying Pittsburgh 31-10. Only the second time since 2004 Cleveland beat the Steelers, and this Brian Hoyer kid looks pretty good, huh?
— Hell of a win for the Dallas Cowboys. Going into Seattle and winning is the hardest thing to do in the NFL these days. Cowboys are for real, and we all have to watch Jerry Jones gloat for a while. Also, heard a lot of Cowboys fans at the game making noise, how is that possible in Seattle?
Still, we all know Dallas is headed for 8-8 again like the last 3 years, so it’ll be fun watching them collapse.
— Bengals-Panthers was a hell of a game. No idea how Cincy can be a Super Bowl contender with such a leaky defense.
–And finally, if you watched Jacksonville vs. Tennessee, those are three hours of your life you’ll never get back. Yeesh.
Wide World of Stuff 