Oakland survived. The anarchists got a unlikely ally: KRON.
Infomercial, inflammation-central, KRON went wall-to-wall with "coverage" that can be best described as "let's incite the mob."
KRON's gushy, gleeful video arcade, co-hosted by that noted journalist, Darya Folsom, was tantamount to assisting the lunatic asylum. They themselves took the time, many times, to tell viewers that "well, looks as if there's relative calm here", (5x, I counted) uh, hell yes, stupid KRON reporter at 14th and Broadway, only if your damn cameras and high-school, amateurish reporter, Jeff Bush, who made himself a part of the news and had gushy anchors around to ask him about his adventure. Shameful, KRON! Even by your standards.
--Rioting isn't pleasant and seeing it first-hand is disturbing and not fun. It makes good TV. But clearly, when a "riot" is orchestrated by self-described anarchists who saw an opportunity and went for it. An OPD buddy of mine noted that most of the lunatics weren't from Oakland and only wanted to cause trouble and loot. They're nuts.
Bill Mann, the noted writer from Huffington Post was more to the point:
Looks like the Black Bloc has struck again--NOT a group, but a mob tactic. I wrote about this 2 weeks ago in my Canada blog at MarketWatch when a BB mob showed up at the G20 in Toronto in black hoods. In defense of Oakland, it's important the public know about this...the tactic has been around for 20 years."
Or this, from Henry Lee, from SFGate:
"Many of those arrested were "anarchist" agitators who were not from Oakland and wore bandannas, hoods or black face paint, police said."
While other stations that could have gone wall-to-wall with coverage of the events in Oakland had the editorial savvy to see who were really the majority of the instigators, KRON, in its blatant attempt to create a sense of mayhem, false urgency; with reporters acting as if they were in the midst of a firefight in Gaza, went completely overboard. They themselves IGNITED and FANNED the flames. Mob gets assist from the lawn furniture station. Should we be surprised? No.
All we need now is Henry Tannenbaum doing an hour-long infomercial on Footlocker.
**Follow me on Twitter
I've seen public access tv stations with better studios KRON is the joke of tv stations
ReplyDeleteI -and everybody else- thought it curious that the rioters looted a jewlery store. They didnt hit the butcher shops or the wig shops.
ReplyDeleteAnd when did the media remind that Grant had a criminal record and only because he was acting up on the Bart station did the police even notice him?.
Speaking of wigs-John Burris's is just too obvious-you stare at it when he speaks his baloney...