On the morning of January 6, at approximately 10:45 am, an as of yet unidentified bomber detonated an improvised explosive device outside the Colorado Springs chapter of the NAACP. If you didn’t hear about this, it is probably due to the mainstream media’s focus on the Charlie Hebdo shooting in Paris. Although the bombing occurred a day before the Charlie Hebdo shooting, little to no attention was paid to it by mainstream media news sources during that time.
Everyone immediately recognized the Charlie Hebdo shooting as an act of terrorism. While the NAACP bombing may appear on the surface to be a hate crime, the FBI is investigating it as an act of domestic terrorism. The FBI have few leads in the case but have released a sketch of the suspect, who was observed by a single eye witness. A pipe bomb type device made from a road flare was believed to have been left by a balding white male in his forties seen driving away from the scene in a dirty pickup truck. Henry Allen, Jr., the local chapter President, told the media that he believes the NAACP was targeted for this bombing, although the actual blast site was in an area shared with a neighboring hair salon. If the NAACP was the target of the bombing, it would be the second act of violence toward the organization in as many months. An NAACP bus was reportedly shot at last month during the week long march from Ferguson to the capitol in Jefferson City.
Not all news outlets have ignored this story. Some have attempted to belittle the situation, like the conservative online news paper, National Review. The article, NAACP Bombing…or Barbershop Bang, crudely attempts to discredit the FBI’s domestic terrorism investigation by emphasizing statements made by an unnamed “top local law-enforcement official” who stated “this in no way looks like anything that can be called ‘targeted.’” The article continues to attempt to obscure the fact that an act of violence was intentionally perpetrated against the African-American community by a white male subject. The article reads, “But the so-called NAACP bombing…isn’t. There is simply no evidence yet to label it as such.” While it is clear that additional investigation is needed and surely forthcoming, the National Review article chooses to insert their own agenda and downplay the incident, even after admitting that there is not enough evidence to draw conclusions.
The Charlie Hebdo shooting happened 24 hours after the bombing at the Colorado Springs NAACP building. That gave the media 24 hours to report the story before the eyes of the world would be drawn to Paris. The story was covered once by CNN at 6:34 in the morning and ignored by MSNBC and Fox news entirely. If not for an outcry from a grassroots campaign on Twitter, #NAACPBombing, the story may have gone completely off the radar by major news sources. Why was it that a story of this caliber would be ignored by so many news outlets? Is the media tired of reporting violence against the black community? Have incidents of violence directed toward African-Americans become so commonplace that big media didn’t even notice? The failure to adequately cover this story by mainstream news sources is also an indication of their tendency to sensationalize violence committed by radical Muslims and to downplay similar acts of violence committed by other ethnic or religious groups. As so adeptly stated in a tweet directed to the mainstream press, “even if you don’t cover #NAACPBombing, it still happened.”
Sources:
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/396797/naacp-bombing-or-barbershop-bang-michelle-malkin
Personally I do not know much about Paris but much more is going on in the world that demands MORE ATTENTION than the Muslim Paris thingy. My eyes are NOT fixed on Paris lol please stop telling the world what were doing when were clearly NOT doing that!
Because the entire point of the American media system it to promote fear, and there is very little fear to be had about a bombing against the black community. Especially with recent events. However in attempt to distract the American population, the local news chose to ignore local events in favor of high tension internal political event.
An article about a bombing with no mention of whether or not anyone was harmed, that’s just second rate journalism. IF nobody was harmed in the bombing then an attack which saw 12 people hunted down and executed with automatic weapons seems to me like the obvious headline, not fear mongering propaganda. I admire Anonymous and all it stands for however I don’t appreciate intellectual dishonesty making things seem worse than they are. Leave that to the right wing oligarchs please.
Lets get this straight.
1. Nobody was injured.
2. The “bomb” was a gas can and a flare that failed to do any damage to the building.
3. The “bomb” was placed next to a beauty salon.
4. Witnesses witnessed generic white guy in a pickup truck.
Yes this story was mostly ignored because nothing happened. I’d be willing to bet somebody from the AA community planted the thing for sympathy.