Ok, so here's what I know about the Chapel Hill shooting. There was an email sent out to students around 6:30 eastern time yesterday evening. The names were released at 2:44 eastern time this morning in another email from the police. The national news picked up the story early this morning, I don't know when, but I know it wasn't immediately after the email with the names was sent out. Today I woke up to this story. I woke up at 9am central standard time and 10 am eastern time. I know that the man who committed the shootings turned himself in, and claims he shot them over a parking space. He is a self proclaimed atheist and the victims are Muslim. I also know that everyone is upset with the news stations for not covering the story as soon as the very first email to students was sent out.
Here's what I think: I think that there was no way the national news had enough information to cover the story yesterday evening. They didn't have the names of anyone. I also realize that in almost every other case, the national news has picked up school shooting stories immediately after they break, which would mean that the National News does not actually care how much they know about a story as long as they know it really did happen. So why wouldn't they report on this story?
A number of reasons. The first and most glaringly obvious is that the victims were Muslim and the man is an Atheist. This is not as sexy or exciting as the black versus white stories we have been hearing, nor is it as romantic as the Christian/ and or/ Jew versus Muslim stories we have also been hearing. Who are they to blame exactly? Second, the shooter turned himself in. Well that's just no fun for them. When the police continually denied the unjust killings of black men they had something to discuss, something to get all hot and bothered over. With this guy who said he killed them over a parking space and turned himself in less than twelve hours later? What is there to argue about? Even if it was a hate crime... he turned himself in already. Third and finally, if it was in fact a hate crime, they would never want to broadcast the killing of Muslims over an airspace that is constantly monitored by extremists. That's a bad reason not to report it. But it's true.