Episode 488 - #IfTheyGunnedMeDown

[JulyDiaz 2797]

Andrew Ti and special guest Baron Vaughn finish the week off by discussing the #IfTheyGunnedMeDown movement, which begged the question, “if you died, which picture would the media use?” As always, leave us a message about anything you think is racist at (323) 389-RACE.

[DirkBender 31]

One of the best of your "serious" topic shows (yeah, they're all serious at heart). Just one unexplored point to share--I think that despite the best efforts of folks like this apparently righteous news producer, what winds up becoming the iconic image of a murder victim is what rises to the top of a news feed, which is based on click thrus, which is going to wind up depending on what the majority culture wishes to see. So if they're clicking on a lot of news stories with a thuggish photo, that's what winds up getting shown over and over again.

 

Part of that institutionalized racist-ass culture, of course. Shaped too by what decent people--like your caller--decide they won't run. And like she implied, it takes some courage not to run with the one photo you've got, to wait until you have something to which the family approves. How many would put their job on the line to do this, I wonder.

[wakefresh 689]

I kinda call bullshit on this call. There is always a discussion on what photo to run of a person in regards to a story. I used to work as a reporter and whenever you run art with a story there is discussion about it -- technical and aesthetics and how the photo fits within the story. What I'm saying is that it is a conscious choice to run one photo over another; there is hardly ever a lack of choice.

 

There is also the need to find the "right" photo that drives this shit as well. The "right" photo being whatever the angle the editors want to play up. We had a former county commissioner that was arrested for child abuse. He is slowly starting to make the news again, and the photo that is used is not his mugshot -- it's the portrait he took while in office. The news around here could have used that mugshot photo, but CHOSE not to. Apparently, his mugshot wasn't the "right" photo for the story.

 

With Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown newsrooms across America were not satisfied with the photos provided by the family. That wasn't the "right" photo for their story. The "right" photo was a picture that made them look scary and intimidating because white people in this country are scared of black men, black women and black children. And as long as they didn't have those "scary" photos, they could be accused by Howard Kurtz of not being objective and telling both sides of the story.

[AndyPacheco-Fores 437]

Milwaukee is the most segregated city in America.