Its a slow news Sunday and Monday is beckoning. What great timing, then, for the local TV/radio gahennim to fan the flames in Downtown Oakland.
Yohannes Mehserle the ex-BART cop; every man's gift to cameramen and fawning asshole news reporters, is set to leave the LA County jail on Monday after serving about a year and a half for the killing of Oscar Grant on New Years day in Jan. of 2009.
Mehserle's various activities, his subsequent court proceedings, his involuntary manslaughter conviction last July, et al, has been met with minor to all-out bigtime rioting and looting in various parts of Downtown Oakland.
Most of the rioting and overall bad behavior by a majority of misfit anarchists has been helped by the almost comical coverage of the local TV schleps, notably by always reliable albatross, KRON, and its band of breathless doofus reporters and anchors.
KTVU, who should know better, will never live down its fanning-the-flame coverage last July, led by an almost breathless reporter, Mike Mibach, dealt the lovely assignment of following about 50 or so "demonstrators" who were so disgusted by the Grant injustice, they decided to burn cars, break windows of innocent homeowners, and act like utter hooligans. The Oakland cops outnumbered them 20x over.
Look, the Mehserle/Grant conundrum is largely a yesterday story.
The TV people have a right to cover this story. It IS a legitimate event. About six months ago.
There comes a time when assignment editors have to be responsible too. It couldn't hurt. Repeated, ad nauseum "reports" and relentless promo-type alerts that Mehserle "will leave an LA prison," (Slow news week--rioting is always good local TV) makes for questionable news judgement.
I can only hope the onslaught of a gazillion news choppers over Oakland and the ensuing non-stop baseless coverage and exposure of a group of the rent-a-mob thugs, gets muted out by editors and local viewers alike.
But I tend to doubt it. I get the feeling I'm not alone.
*Follow me on Twitter
