Racist! Made ya look!
That might as well have been the headline in a recent AP article. The article was titled “Black TV Crew Attacked While Filming.”
On Tuesday, WSPA-TV reporter Charmayne Brown and her photographer Ti Barnes were attacked while covering a news story in Union.
It sounds horribly racist, doesn’t it? After all, here are a black TV news reporter and a black photographer doing their jobs, and a bunch of stereotypical Union redneck bigots just come along and beat them senseless.
Paraphrasing Paul Harvey, do you know the rest of the story?
See, this was a murder scene. Specifically, it was the murder of a 73 year old grandfather allegedly by his 33 year old grandson. When the suspect’s relatives arrived on the scene (remembering that some of them are also related to the deceased), cameras were there rolling.
The relatives told crews from both WYFF and WSPA to “shut the camera off now.” WYFF’s crew walked down the street to do more interviews and get more footage. Ms. Brown informed the suspect’s/victim’s family members that WSPA’s crew was on the sidewalk — which is public property — and that she had a right to be there.
Probably not the smartest thing to say in a volatile situation to mama and sissy when grandiddy’s dead and Junior’s the one who dun did it.
As you could probably figured out, mama made the unilateral decision to open a can of Whup-A$$ on Ms. Brown.
After being called by WSPA’s satellite truck operator, Union’s finest arrived and made the appropriate arrests.
Don’t get me wrong. There could easily be some white hoods hanging in the offenders’ closets, but to say that this incident was racially motivated is a stretch.
When emotions are high, you don’t increase a situation’s volatility by telling the angry/grieving rednecks (paraphrasing again), “It’s a public sidewalk, and you can’t do anything about it.” If you do, those same angry/grieving rednecks will prove you wrong.
What’s just as bad is the national media’s treatment of the story, though.
By turning it in to another South Carolina race piece, these sanctimonious media types who equate their existence with Gandhi continue justifying their paychecks.
The physically assaulting parties clearly had issues with the increased melanin coloring the WSPA crew’s skin as some of the audio illustrates, but Ms. Brown and Mr. Barnes weren’t attacked because of it. Ms. Brown was attacked because she didn’t use proper judgment to get the shot from another location like WYFF did. Mr. Barnes would have escaped completely unscathed had he not done the right thing and tried to protect Ms. Brown. Only then did he get poked.
Should the suspect’s/victim’s family members have been arrested for assaulting Ms. Brown and Mr. Barnes? You bet. Should Ms. Brown and Mr. Barnes have been assaulted for doing their jobs? No way. Did Ms. Brown and Mr. Barnes use poor judgment by aggravating the situation instead of finding another location to meet their desired objective? Absolutely.
All I’m saying to the AP and any other holier than thou press types is this. Tell the truth. Be honest and unbiased in your reporting. Don’t create a story on racism in Union that doesn’t need to be created. Aren’t they easy enough to come by as it is?
As fight witness Mr. Jermaine Hill noted, “Crazy.”
– Bo Burdette
Add comment March 13, 2008
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