Media Bias

I was cleaning out my newspaper file and came across this one from the week of the Presidential election. Relegated to page 16 was a little 2-paragraph item in the "Briefs" column. Hours after the election was decided, a church made up of a predominantly black congregation was destroyed by arson in Springfield, Massachusetts. Officials said there was no evidence it was a hate crime. Here's how the same story would have been reported had the church been in, say, Paris, Texas:

Newspaper Page 1 Headline: Racists in NE Texas Burn Black Church!

CNN crawl: The racist town of Paris, Texas, "dragged" another black church down today in retaliation for the nation electing a black President.

Report in The Chicago Tribune: Investigators say a fire that destroyed a church being constructed for a black congregation was set by racist whites. However, the racist DA refused to acknowledge it was a hate crime, and he will not prosecute because the defendants are white. The New Black Panthers will rally for justice on the courthouse lawn tomorrow at 4 p.m.

But there is no bias in the media!

"Arson blamed in fire at black church." The Dallas Morning News; November 9, 2008; p. 16A.