Tuesday, August 26, 2014

HuffPost ignores white Marine beaten into coma by gang of African Americans upset over Michael Brown

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HuffPost ran five straight days of top-line coverage to elicit sympathy for a "homesick jihadi."

It gave front-page splash headline treatment to an allegation that a Palestinian filmmaker who was detained for several hours at LAX.

And it ran two straight days of front-page coverage to elicit sympathy for its female staffers who allege (without any proof) they were spoken to unkindly by men on New York streets.


U.S. Marine Ralph Weems, IV
Yet HuffPost has completely ignored the story of a white U.S. Marine, Ralph Weems IV, who was beaten into a coma by a gang of African Americans in Mississippi, allegedly because they were upset over the Michael Brown death.

The first version of the story was reported three days ago, on August 23, by WCBI, the local CBS-TV affiliate.  An excerpt:
A West Point man undergoes emergency brain surgery following a serious beating at a West Point restaurant. Ralph Weems the IV was airlifted to North Mississippi Medical Center in Tupelo following the assault at the Huddle House between 1 and 1:30 a.m., Saturday.Friends and relatives tell WCBI that Weems and a friend, David Knighten, were at Waffle House, and got into an argument with as many as seven men. It involved some racial slurs.
The story was then reported by the AP - HuffPost's most-cited news source - at 12:07am on August 25, and described Weems' injuries as "life-threatening."  An excerpt:
Weems serving with the
Marine Corps in Iraq.
West Point police said a man received life-threatening injuries in what they are investigating as an aggravated assault at a restaurant.  Ralph Weems IV, who was injured early Saturday, was in fair condition Sunday at North Mississippi Medical Center, hospital spokeswoman Genie Causey said without elaborating. [...] 

A relative, Bradley Barnes of Madison, told The Associated Press by telephone on Sunday that his brother-in-law was in a medically induced coma following brain surgery. "They're going to try and wake him up tomorrow and see what damage was done," Barnes said, describing Weems as a 32-year-old former Marine who had served in Iraq.

David Knighten of West Point told AP earlier by phone that he and Weems had gone to a Waffle House early Saturday. He said a man waved him over outside the restaurant and told him politely that people were upset by the killing of 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and it wasn't a safe place for whites. When he went in, he said, Weems was inside and was arguing with other men.
USA Today is covering the story.  Many other news sources and blogs are covering Weems' plight.

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So how much coverage did HuffPost give to Weems' beating? 


None.

How do we know?  Just do a search at HuffPost of the name "Ralph Weems."  Three days after the story broke, the search results were zero, zilch, nada.  This mirrors HuffPost's complete blackout of coverage concerning the plight of Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi, another U.S. Marine who has been languishing in a Mexican jail for nearly six months.

So what types of stories did HuffPost decide were more newsworthy, and deserving of front-page coverage, than what happened to Ralph Weems? A sampling, from August 26 - starting with the second straight day of HuffPost cheering on its front page a fat girl who wears revealing clothes:


 
 

HuffPost is pretending it doesn't know about Ralph Weems - yet somehow, magically, it is able to find a "news" story about a squirrel who passed out after eating - and plaster it on its front page?




If you still haven't reached the limits of outrage, here's a little more: This is what Arianna Huffington said on August 21 about HuffPost's coverage of the Michael Brown incident, and what makes the "newspaper" that she oversees and edits better than its competitors (emphasis added):
We also know that what the media choose to shine a light on matters. The phenomenon of copycat crimes and the contagion effect of suicides are well established. So perhaps we'd see more than glimpses of our better angels if the media decided to include them as the vital part of the story that they in fact are. I'm not asking for depictions of utopia or a Pollyanna filter on the news. At The Huffington Post we're relentless in our coverage of corruption, injustice, poverty, joblessness, inequality and racial discrimination, but we are equally relentless in giving our readers and viewers a full and accurate idea of the entire human story. [...]

Giving only one side breeds cynicism and a sense of hopelessness. The divisions and inequities exposed in Ferguson are real and formidable.[...] And we are definitely going to keep the focus on Ferguson long after the national spotlight dims -- both on the conflicts and divisions and on the acts of compassion and giving that bring the community together.
Will anyone in a position of influence ever hold Arianna Huffington to account for HuffPost's pathological bias and incitement against the U.S. military, and Israel, and Jews?

Doubtful. This is just one more example of the fundamental clash of the lies that Arianna Huffington has been telling the public, and her advertisers, since HuffPost launched in 2005 --- that it is a "nonpartisan" newspaper, only interested in "ferreting out the truth" in journalism --- and the reality of HuffPost is, and does, under her direction:
“[T]oo many reporters have forgotten that the highest calling of journalists is to ferret out the truth, consequences be damned.”
- Arianna Huffington
But who knows.  This is America, land of promise, innovation, and initiative.  Maybe someday, someone in a position of influence will start to hold Huffington to account.
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