{"id":33251,"date":"2013-04-18T07:51:36","date_gmt":"2013-04-18T13:51:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/04\/18\/guess-we-can-stop-suspecting-dark-skinned-males-for-the-moment.html"},"modified":"2013-04-19T08:19:37","modified_gmt":"2013-04-19T14:19:37","slug":"guess-we-can-stop-suspecting-dark-skinned-males-for-the-moment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/04\/18\/guess-we-can-stop-suspecting-dark-skinned-males-for-the-moment.html","title":{"rendered":"Guess we can stop suspecting\u00a0dark-skinned males … for the moment"},"content":{"rendered":"
So everyone makes mistakes in the journalism biz. And when you're dealing with "sources" that are passing on what their "source" know, and there's time pressure to Make The Announcement First, then mistakes are more likely.<\/p>\n

So I don't blame CNN all that much for blowing it that there had been an arrest made in the Boston bombing case. I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt that they thought the info was credible enough to raise it for discussion. \u00a0Fair enough.<\/p>\n

But this whole "dark-skinned" thing? \u00a0Horrible, horrible judgment. (Emphasis mine)<\/p>\n

'At around 1 p.m. ET, CNN\u2019s John King came on the air to say […] \u201cI was told they have a breakthrough in the identification of the suspect, and I\u2019m told \u2014 and I want to be very careful about this because people get very sensitive when you say these things<\/b> \u2014 I was told by one of these sources who\u2019s a law enforcement official that this was a dark-skinned male,\u201d<\/b> King reported. \u201cThe official used some other words, I\u2019m going to repeat them until we get more information because of the sensitivities.<\/b> There are some people who will take offense even in saying that. I\u2019m making a personal judgment \u2014 forgive me \u2014 and I think it\u2019s the right judgment not to try to inflame tensions,\u201d<\/b> he added.'<\/i><\/p>\n

So King was aware that the words he was going to use might cause offense, might be sensitive, and he wanted to not "inflame tensions" … but he felt fine saying, based on one law enforcement official "source" that the suspect was a "dark-skinned male".<\/p>\n

And what, precisely, did that add to public knowledge? \u00a0Was it an Islamic jihadist? An African-American nationalist? A Mexican illegal immigrant? A Puerto Rican liberation fighter? An Australian Aboriginal Assassin? A well-tanned vacationer just back from wintering in Florida? Barrack Obama?<\/p>\n

Calling the suspect "dark-skinned" didn't tell us anything — but would certainly send all the usual suspects running around with still more baseless conversation.<\/p>\n

Reporting on an arrest? \u00a0Fine. Reporting on a single-source, who used "other words" (and one wonders what that<\/i> means), on something focused solely on the skin tone of the accused? \u00a0Doltish.<\/div>\n

\n

\n \n <\/div>\n

CNN bungles report of \u2018dark-skinned male\u2019 arrested in Boston bombing case | The Raw Story<\/a>
\n CNN on Wednesday backtracked after badly botching a report that a \u201cdark-skinned male\u201d had been arrested in connection with the Monday bombings of the Boston Marathon. At around 1 p.m. ET, CNN’s John K…\n <\/p>\n

View this post on Google+<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So everyone makes mistakes in the journalism biz. And when you're dealing with "sources" that are passing on what their "source" know, and there's time pressure to Make The Announcement First, then mistakes are more likely. So I don't blame CNN all that much for blowing it that there had been an arrest made in … Continue reading “Guess we can stop suspecting\u00a0dark-skinned males … for the moment”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts","category-fourth-estate"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10081,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/09\/07\/quote_of_the_we.html","url_meta":{"origin":33251,"position":0},"title":"Quote of the Week","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 7-Sep-06 12:33pm","format":false,"excerpt":"As I was finishing, I heard a crashing noise. A horned and tusked purple thing went racing along the ridge to my right pursued by a hairless orange-skinned creature...","rel":"","context":"In "Personal"","block_context":{"text":"Personal","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/personal"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":131623,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/09\/25\/the-los-angeles-times-endorses-clinton.html","url_meta":{"origin":33251,"position":1},"title":"The Los Angeles Times endorses Clinton","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 25-Sep-16 5:34pm","format":false,"excerpt":"With a succinct lede:American voters have a clear choice on Nov. 8. We can elect an experienced, thoughtful and deeply knowledgeable public servant or a thin-skinned demagogue who is unqualified and unsuited to be president.'The Times piece is open to Clinton's flaws, but declines to see this as a \"lesser\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13571,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/11\/12\/obamas_first_foreign_poli.html","url_meta":{"origin":33251,"position":2},"title":"Obama’s first foreign policy crisis","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 12-Nov-08 12:38pm","format":false,"excerpt":"How to tell the Peruvians they have ugly dogs. Completely bald and older than the Incas, the Peruvian hairless dog seems like an odd fit for the White House. But...","rel":"","context":"In "Pets"","block_context":{"text":"Pets","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/personal\/pets"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16427,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/12\/14\/unblogged-bits-for-monday-14-december-2009.html","url_meta":{"origin":33251,"position":3},"title":"Unblogged Bits for Monday, 14 December 2009","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 14-Dec-09 5:00pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries .... Back In My Day - Huuuuuge disappointment ... SMBC - December 12, 2009 - VICTORY! First Amendment Does Not Protect Criminal Activities By Staff At Religious Organizations, Says AU | Americans United - Freedom\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Potpourri"","block_context":{"text":"Potpourri","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/potpourri"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":17008,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2010\/04\/01\/tweets-from-2010-04-01-2.html","url_meta":{"origin":33251,"position":4},"title":"Tweets from 2010-04-01","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 1-Apr-10 12:30am","format":false,"excerpt":"Some things I do at the office require creativity, fortitude, brainpower, diplomacy. Others are just frelling Kafkaesque busy-work. Rrg. # RT @mabjustmab Obama is not a brown-skinned anti-war socialist who gives away free healthcare. You're thinking of Jesus.\" - John Fugelsang # Gosh I love political push polls. They make\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~Tweets"","block_context":{"text":"~Tweets","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/tweets"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12658,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/03\/03\/recently_read_2.html","url_meta":{"origin":33251,"position":5},"title":"Recently Read","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 3-Mar-08 8:02am","format":false,"excerpt":"I've been using a system by BlogFuel to list \"recently read\" books in my sidebar. Alas, the service seems to be not working (at least it's not showing up on...","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging - Technical"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging - Technical","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/blogging-technical"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33251"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33251\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33266,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33251\/revisions\/33266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}