The White Media Defends Racist Reporter Wendy Bell - well worth watching

[malaise]

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[Rex]

1. Wow, she must endorse racial profiling. You think she even knows what that is?

Dullards sometimes think the worst idea, is something genius to be shared with the world. They make normal folks wince when they open their mouths.

Good catch malaise!

[daleanime]

5. +1

[MyOwnPeace]

2. Er....... not so fast, there, friend.

This is from an editor at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. I'll point out that he is not white (just to confuse the issue for some!):

Some snips:

"I don’t believe WTAE fired Wendy Bell solely because she wrote an ill-informed Facebook post about the unsolved mass shootings in Wilkinsburg in early March. I doubt that one post, as clueless and glib as it was about racial issues, ended the 18-year career of an Emmy-award winning television reporter and anchorwoman with a big following in this town."

"I don’t believe WTAE fired Wendy Bell solely because she wrote an ill-informed Facebook post about the unsolved mass shootings in Wilkinsburg in early March. I doubt that one post, as clueless and glib as it was about racial issues, ended the 18-year career of an Emmy-award winning television reporter and anchorwoman with a big following in this town."

It's worth the read.

http://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/tony-norman/2016/04/01/Tony-Norman-Why-firing-Wendy-Bell-was-all-wrong/stories/201604010063

[OneGrassRoot]

3. I'm from Pittsburgh originally so I saw friends post the same link...

I appreciated his take. According to others (I'd have to look it up), I believe she got into similar trouble previously as far as writing things perceived as racist or bigoted on social media, so her firing may have taken that into account -- not this one post.

Mr. Norman also wrote:

Ms. Bell ditched the aura of objectivity to engage in idle speculation about the socio-economic status of the killers. That was an inappropriate and stupid move for an anchorwoman. If she were a columnist or a commentator, that would be different. She’s supposed to read the news, not engage in hackneyed sociology. Her anecdote about encountering a hardworking black teenager at a South Side eatery is even more annoying because it never occurred to her how patronizing it comes across. She never considered the possibility that the teen’s industry is the result of good home training. Why would he need validation from a random white woman impressed by his work ethic? Would she have written the same thing about a white kid?

He was very diplomatic in not labeling her patronizing post as racist in tone.

I'm not surprised that many black people in the Pittsburgh area didn't want her fired. The backlash against the AA community (or any "othered" community) can be brutal when a white person is fired for racist, bigoted behavior.

[malaise]

6. Indeed and as Trumad points out

it's whitesplaining.

[trumad]

4. Whitesplaning.

[xocet]

7. Is Democracy Now! the "white media"? n/t