There Are No Angels — What The New York Times Won’t Tell You [View all]

[deminks]

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/2014/08/25/there-are-angels-what-the-new-york-times-won-tell-you/zycFsD9vQFVGqNVb3m4cSM/story.html

Michael Brown is dead, shot multiple times by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. On the day he is to be buried, The New York Times profiled the 18-year-old. Included in the 1300-word piece are references to Brown’s taste in music and his poor grades.

“He occasionally smoked marijuana and drank alcohol, according to friends.”

I attended Malden Catholic High School in Malden, MA. I graduated in 2006 and went on to attend Northeastern University on a generous scholarship. During my second year, I got into a bad car accident and dropped out, eventually finishing my degree at Rutgers in New Jersey. If I got shot by a cop, the aforementioned facts might matter to The New York Times, but not nearly as much as some others.

“He began producing rap songs with friends … He collaborated on songs that included lyrics such as, “My favorite part is when the bodies hit the ground.”

I’m black, but my closest friends in high school were all white. All but two of them drank. All but one listened to rap music, everything from the vulgar to the high-minded. Most of my friends smoked weed. A few of them sold it. At senior prom, two of my friends offered me ecstasy. Our freshman year, we had a day of mourning to reflect on the death of our hockey team’s goalie, who’d overdosed on prescription meds. But if any of my white high school friends got shot, none of this would matter to The New York Times.

“Brown was not the best student.”

During college, I dated a beautiful, intelligent, funny girl. She was a pastor’s daughter from northern New Hampshire. She was blond with light eyes, a winning smile, great grades and a good head on her shoulders. She played sports, volunteered in church, and brightened the lives of the people around her. We broke up because her parents and grandmother completely objected to her dating a black man. But then she moved down south and had a baby with a black man. She was no angel. She drank, listened to vulgar rap — I taught her most of the words to Too $hort’s “Freaky Tales”. She is the proud mother of one of the absolute most beautiful little girls I have ever laid eyes upon. If she were shot dead in her tracks today, The New York Times wouldn’t write about her taste in music, or her drinking. None of that would matter.

(end snip)

The New York Times needs to stop being the news and start reporting it. I am sure their public editor is getting a little tired of apologizing.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/2014/08/25/new-york-times-public-editor-calls-angel-line-regrettable-mistake/BB41eLFPDOXumCOBkaHvvN/story.html

New York Times’ Public Editor Calls ‘No Angel’ Line a ‘Regrettable Mistake’


http://publiceditor.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/08/21/a-ferguson-story-on-conflicting-accounts-seems-to-say-trust-us/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0

A Ferguson Story on ‘Conflicting Accounts’ Seems to Say ‘Trust Us’

IMH non-angel O