Having grown up in Oakland, maybe I'm more sensitive, but I have never seen such shoddy "reporting" and downright sensationalistic coverage of an evening of relatively peaceful demonstrations hijacked by a hundred or so self-described anarchists, jerks, troublemakers, who took advantage of an opportunity and seized upon it.
More disturbing was the mob had unintentional allies like a few media affiliates that seemed none-to-thrilled that their hoped-for mega-riot and siege was nowhere to be seen.
This is not just about KRON and its shameful performance following the Mehserle verdict; they had company, including the normally respected Huffington Post, which ran a massive most ill-intended headline and story devoid of any real factual account of just who and what took place in Oakland Thursday night.
Not to be outdone, the normally reliable and respected TV reporter, Joe Vazquez, of CBS5/KPIX, wrote a first-hand account of what he experienced. Joe, rough night and all, was all to gleeful to be right smack in the middle of it:
"Wednesday night's riot in Oakland developed quickly like a spark into a wildfire, and I was right in the middle of it., " gushed Vazquez. He went further and further invoking the all-too familiar evolution of a story that seemed quite so, "damn, this is NOT a story, but I'm going to write a first-hand account come hell or high water.
The media loves riots. They make for compelling, if not at times, scary local TV news at its best, but when they try feverishly to manipulate the various details and use inflammatory headlines, they further erode whatever little credibility they have left with their diminishing viewers. The story? What story?--to borrow a phrase, "There's no there, there!"
I watched and covered the entire Mehserle verdict and subsequent events and violence that erupted late into the night. I listened too on radio and wanted to gauge the coverage because I wanted to see and hear how this all would play out.
Other than KRON, which was not only lambasted my me, but other media observers, the local TV coverage was not only restrained, but fairly accurate and in lieu of all the emotional elements that take place when these things occur, pretty decent and spot on.
The demonstrations, although heated and passionate, were, for the most part, violence-free and fairly nothing unusual or out of the norm. Police presence was obvious, but from many people on hand who made comments, they seemed to have control of the situation.
Only when darkness ensued and the lunatics using masks and black face paint start to loot and smash windows and paint graffiti, did trouble occur, but the bulk of these opportunistic terrorists weren't even from Oakland--they are well-known groups that look for trouble and spew their criminal behavior at a moments notice. They wouldn't know Oscar Grant from Oscar Meyer, yet the KRONvicts, the HuffPosters, and a few reporters made it sound as if the "Oakland crowd" were the chief instigators when they were not.
This isn't about chamber-of-commerce propaganda/boosterism, or having sympathy for my beloved city. This is about sheer irresponsibility among some media outlets and its accompanying members doing a piss-poor job of REPORTING, plain and simple. Lazy journalism means lazy reporting.
Those who watched late into the night saw what happened. It would have been nice to have a form of reason injected into some of what we saw, and what we saw, endlessly, was many, many blocks of "clearly calm and non-violent visuals", while dopes like Darya Folsom were disappointed that their hoped-for mayhem was nowhere to be seen. The fools.
This was not even a smidgen of Rodney King and LA circa 1992, yet some of our lame-stream media wanted so much for just a sliver of it, when in fact all they got was a rusty thorn. And I'm being kind.
Makes you wonder what would happen if real riots were to break out. Spare me the thought.
Now, back to regularly-scheduled programming.
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