Three Shootings in One Week. The Press Made a Curious Decision on Which One to Devote Coverage.

First, a word please — Fox News has settled the case with Dominion for $787.5 million. The truth sets one free. The lie costs so much. What I find interesting is the reaction from many who are angry at Dominion for settling. Many wanted to see the courtroom sketches of Fox personalities. Others argued that justice was denied.

Dominion is a private company that sued to protect its company and shareholders. It was not out for justice, but for damages due to defamation. The anger expressed by those who wanted Fox taken down speaks more to the religious zeal some on the left have towards those they oppose.

I am in the camp that believes this situation would not have occurred under Roger Ailes. Regardless of his faults, Roger fundamentally understood that profit centers that undermine their audience are ultimately bad for shareholders. The fiefdoms now at Fox have more independence due to ratings than when Roger ran the shop and everyone was in his shadow. I cannot imagine we do not see some curiously timed retirements to spend more time with family coming from this.

Also, and again, 2020 was not stolen and Fox would not have shelled out $787 million had it been. The only person, to this point, who has not paid a price for Trump’s lies about 2020 is Trump himself.

While the rest of the media looks at Fox, I want to look at the rest of the media.

In Kansas City, MO an eighty-five year old white man shot a black teenage boy who showed up at his home. The boy had gotten streets mixed up and had gone to gather some family.

In Hebron, NY, a sixty-five year old white man shot and killed a twenty-year-led white girl who attempted to turn around in the man’s driveway. The girl and her friends had gotten their address mixed up. The man came out of his house with a gun and opened fire on them.

In Dadeville, Alabama, four people were killed and thirty-two injured in a hail of gunfire on Saturday night. The national press is camped out in Kansas City. They covered the Dadeville mass shooting and even the Hebron shooting, but have poured more energy into the white on black single shooting in Kansas City than the mass shooting at a birthday party in Alabama.

No AR-15s were used in Alabama. Police have only collected handgun shells. We do not have a suspect in Alabama yet, which should draw more media intrigue, but it has not.

I have friends in the media who get really defensive when I say this, but I continue to believe it is true. If the races of the victim and shooter in Kansas City were the same, the story would get little coverage. Just look at Hebron, NY. Likewise, if the Dadeville, Alabama shooter turns out to be a Trump supporter, the local Heart of Dixie Travelodge is going to do more business in the next week than it has in the past decade. If, however, the shooter is black, a local reporter will handle coverage for the national feeds, assuming they might give it two more minutes of coverage.

The intersectional dynamics of critical theory have invaded even the shaping of news. If a shooter is black and the victim is white, the news will be mentioned in passing. If the shooter is white and the victim is black, it becomes a national story. If an AR-15 is used, it is a bigger story. If the attackers wear MAGA hats, just ask Jussie Smollet how much coverage that can generate.

But black-on-black mass shootings happen constantly in the country and a media obsessed with race in America cannot stomach that coverage. And, let’s be honest, if Fox News covered that beat the rest of the media would scream racism.

By the way, are we going to see the Nashville shooter’s manifesto?