Media Myths About The Jena 6

Christian Science Monitor:

By now, almost everyone in America has heard of Jena, La., because they've all heard the story of the "Jena 6." White students hanging nooses barely punished, a schoolyard fight, excessive punishment for the six black attackers, racist local officials, public outrage and protests - the outside media made sure everyone knew the basics.

There's just one problem: The media got most of the basics wrong. In fact, I have never before witnessed such a disgrace in professional journalism. Myths replaced facts, and journalists abdicated their solemn duty to investigate every claim because they were seduced by a powerfully appealing but false narrative of racial injustice.

I should know. I live in Jena. My wife has taught at Jena High School for many years. And most important, I am probably the only reporter who has covered these events from the very beginning.

Read the whole story: Christian Science Monitor

Comments

[PartyPartyParty]

The U.S. Attorney's handling of this incident is still under investigation by Congress. Here's part of the transcript of Rep. Jerrold Nadler's interview with Amy Goodman on Democracy Now! yesterday:

REP. JERROLD NADLER: Well, this case is a case where the local authorities -- the local DA, in particular­... now, these were, in one way, unconnected. I mean, you had the biased -- what I would call the biased crime of the nooses being hung under the tree...by a bunch of white kids, and a few months later you have this white kid beaten up by a bunch of black kids.

Now, what was notable, what made this a major case, is that, on the one hand, the local authorities do essentially nothing. I think the kids who hung the nooses were suspended from school for a day or two. On the other hand, the black kids who are involved in -- or allegedly involved in this are charged with serious crimes, initially attempted murder, when their only weapon -- in attempted murder there has to be with a weapon, and here they're saying the weapons were their hands, which is not the way they normally do things in Louisiana.

AMY GOODMAN: I think it was their sneakers.

REP. JERROLD NADLER: Sneakers, alright. They didn’t come there with weapons, with objects designed to be weapons, which is the intent of the statute. So the point is, they were very clearly throwing the book, and then some, at the black kids, but doing virtually nothing -- letting off with a slap on the wrist -- the white kids. And it’s just disparate treatment and an example. Instead of trying to calm racial tensions, they're acting in every way to inflame racial tensions..­.and that shouldn’t -- that obviously shouldn’t be.

.....

Now, the US attorney could have stepped in, and he could have said, “Hey, wait a minute,” -- he could have used, if nothing else, the power of his voice to say this is a very disproportionate use of state power... ... Instead, he did nothing.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/24/1525252&mode=thread&tid=25

[cowboyjerkface]

Lets line up the Jena 6 and the 6 white students and shoot them all....wou­ldnt that be considered equal justice in the eyes of the law? No race factor there!

[carsick]

I find it hard to believe the white kids were surprised that nooses had any affiliation to the South and were merely mimicking a TV mini series from before they were born.
I don't think anyone here was an angel but to completely deny the racial atmosphere as just kids foolin' with each other requires a gullibility I can't muster.

[PartyPartyParty]

Wow. Look at everyone join in on the "put those thugs in jail" chorus.

[newunderground]

Once again, we have the spectacle of the black community rushing in to aid thugs, before determining the actual facts of the case. Like the Tawana Brawley and the Duke Lacrosse scandal, this only makes legitimate civil rights defenders look foolish. This reflexive backing of thugs, elevating them to some kind of hero, is at the heart of the crime problem in the community.­Quit tolerating the criminals and you'll have less crime.

[Ping]

First, let me say that racism is human nature. When humans see another human that resembles them, they are more inclined to trust that person instead of another human who is of different color or has different features. They are also inclined to distrust anyone who looks different from them. Thus in order to overcome this basic human instinct, one has to acknowledge their own failings and make a conscious decision override that racist streak that is in all of us.

Having said that, this is a simple case of 6 kids jumping and beating another kid. No matter what the circumstances may have been, there is no justification for the 6 kids beating up on the victim. And kicking someone in the head is attempted murder.

[zull2]

This particular section:

Myth 5: The Fair Barn Party Incident. On Dec. 1, 2006, a private party – not an all-white party as reported – was held at the local community center called the Fair Barn. Robert Bailey Jr., soon to be one of the Jena 6, came to the party with others seeking admittance.

Was interesting to me. Does he mean to tell us that when someone goes about holding an "all-white" party, they would advertise it as such? I'd think that detail would be implied and enforced quietly rather than boldly advertised on a flyer placed around town, but hey, who knows how those Southern folk go about doing things, other than themselves, right?

[truthyguy]

If Al Sharpton said it, it must be true.
And the good Rev will lead us to the promised land where we all have $3000 suits and limos and private jets - just like him.

[nomobull]

THE NOOSE STORY BS EVERYONE IN THE SOUTH THAT HAS STUDIED SOUTHERN HISTORY KNOWS WHAT THE NOOSE STANDS FOR. THE SHOTGUN STORY BS WHAT DID THE KID NEED A SHOTGUN FOR. THAT BEING SAID AS A MEMBER OF THE BLACK RACE THE BOYS SHOULD HAVE BEEN PUNISHED AS LONG AS IT FIT THE CRIME. BUT WHERE I AM FROM THOSE WHITE BOYS WOULD HAVE EITHER BEEN EXPELLED. AND SENT TO ALTER=NATIVE SCHOOL FOR THE REST OF THE YEAR.

[ADVOCATE4ZPG]

Purely apocryphal speculation from "nomobull.­" He wasn't anywhere near this town, fabricates his own facts based on completely unsubstantiated speculation, draws illogical conclusions based on his speculation, and this conjures a non-existent, judicial system solely based on his memory of sensation FILMS!

[Ping]

Yup.

Everyone seems to forget Tawana Brawley. It's exactly the same play. By the way isn't Sharpton a convicted felon?

[Fletch17C]

This journalist conveniently leaves out a few things. Anyone who believes a word that comes out of that redneck Justin Barker's mouth is a fool. Barker claims he didn't know why anyone wanted to beat him up, yet he apparently knew he couldn't leave the location through the front door. Perhaps he had a guilty conscious about something. On yeah, he was good friends with the noose hangers and continued to jibe the black kids about them. Did he deserve to get jumped? Legally, no, although the more I learn about this cracker bonehead, the less sorry I feel for him. Our Jena journalist forgets to mention that Barker's alleged beating and so-called "attempted murder" turned out to be so benign that his injuries didn't even require an overnight hospital stay. On top of that, only 2 hours or so later, Barker bopped into the school building to participate in a ring ceremony and show off his bruised eye. Wait! There's more. Barker got caught smuggling a loaded gun into Jena High School. Did our journalist mention that? Since then, cracker boy has quit school, making him a functionally illiterate, gun-toting, rap-sheeted, unemployable redneck with a mullet. The hard-working people of the state of Alabama might as well get to know him. Dollars will be taken out of their paychecks to fund this loser's white trash welfare checks for the rest of his life.

[baylaw73]

"he hard-working people of the state of Alabama might as well get to know him."
Um, Jena is in Louisiana.­..

[Ping]

You have no credibility. You weren't even there. You like the right wing trolls just repeat what you hear.

[Ping]

"Since then, cracker boy has quit school, making him a functionally illiterate"

That line alone makes you a card carrying racist.

[1will]

Do you have a link to any of these 'facts?'
I'm a little leary of believing half of what you've written. The media was all over this story and consistently pumped it up. They milked every minute they could from the story and I doubt they would have conspired to cover up those new revelations that only you seem to have heard of.
Link please?

[Vernondelray]

"Our Jena journalist forgets to mention that Barker's alleged beating and so-called "attempted murder" turned out to be so benign that his injuries didn't even require an overnight hospital stay. On top of that, only 2 hours or so later, Barker bopped into the school building to participate in a ring ceremony and show off his bruised eye."

Would you not agree that if Bell had taken a shot at Barker and missed, that would probably constitute attempted murder, although no injuries to Barker would have resulted? The seriusness of the injuries (or lack thereof) are not the mitigating factor in the charge, intent is. The prosecutor decided that the intent was murder, probably based on the defendant's rather sordid past (if the article is to be believed).

I admit, at first I felt a miscarriage of justice had occurred in Jena. After looking deeper, I am inclined to believe that these young men, whether motivated by a perceived racial threat or in response to an ignorant redneck's stupid comments, took the law into their own hands and retaliated using violence. That CANNOT be tolerated, except in cases of self defense, which clearly is not the case here.

[Sargoth]

Well, we now have both sides of the story. The truth is probably somewhere in between.

Parts of this article sound like pure bullshit though.

[ADVOCATE4ZPG]

....but you tend to give full credibility to the original montage of poss. disconnected events?

[groucho]

Please Craig, you loose all credibility when you try and convince me that the nooses weren't racial. Blacks have been hung in trees in the South for hundreds of years, even kids are exposed to that fact on TV or movies or books by the time they are in 3rd grade. A committee (by definition several people)that comes up with that notion is incredible.
You can convince the rest of the racists of your story, but you haven't changed my mind a bit. And after reading the comments of your supporters on this page, I'm glad I'm not in your camp.
I am a middle aged blonde and I am so sick of racists who think it's ok to tell me one of their racist jokes, assuming I'm as ignorant as them. I'm sick of these pathetic racist acts that tear America apart.

[ADVOCATE4ZPG]

More apocryphal, race-baiting non-history. You have NO specific, credible evidence. You may find confort in preserving biases that little town would like to leave behind, but to use them to construct your own history is little less than intellectual masturbation.

[Ping]

AL Sharpton has done this before. If you are not old enough look up Tawana Brawley. I am disappointed that you would believe a convicted felon, before a working journalist.

[groucho]

That's another tired racist rant. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson are always quoted in a derogatory manner and as if they alone speak for all black people. Your lack of imagination is equaled only by your ignorance. Of course, NO white guys ever did anything they wish they hadn't. Never on a grand scale as Twana Brawley. Like going into Iraq on a lie. Like preaching family values and antigay stuff, and then having sex in a bathroom or in diapers.
What a tool

[thankulord13]

Shows how much you know there were hangings in the South as late as the 1950's, so get your facts straight..­. secondly what makes any one think that this man is legit... maybe he is lying... What makes him the authority on what is true... People from Jena have been interviewed and they tell a different story and if you want to get the facts just go to Youtube and put in Jena 6 and it will give you hours of interviews­... As for the racist comments coming from both sides is ridiculous. Can't you people have a debate with out getting personal..­.

[Traitorpolice]

I don't like good or bad racism, or in other words approving or not approving based on race. Both reveal a bias based on race and are equally offensive. Simple logic. The biggest racists involved here are the ones who brought color into the picture in the first place. Who were they ?

You can't approve or disapprove of six people pulverizing one unconscious person based on color. If you do then go take a long look in the mirror at the racist.

[Libsrule]

That was the lamest excuse of a so called "Myths about the Jena 6" crap I have ever read. The racism was beyond belief. The white studens had NO IDEA that nooses were a symbol of racism?

And he expects us to believe that crap? That it was aimed at another group of WHITE students?

That all sorts of minorities all hung around the tree when there has NEVER been a dispute about the fact the tree was for white students only.

The bullshit that everyone stood around and had a good ol' hearty laugh about the question?

I'm not saying Bell is a model young man, but the 20 year sentence was beyond all normal reason. That he has anger issues is one thing but we throw the word "assualt" around like candy these days.

You can be charged with "Assualt" simply by haranging someone verbaly and loudly. Pat a girl on the butt and you are brought up on "sexual assualt" charges. The word assualt has taken on a life of it's own and no longer means what it was supposed to once upon a time.

Once upon a time you actually had to attack someone physically and violently to get an assualt charge, now you just have to call him a bad name while yelling at him/her to get the charge.

Just amazing what can be called assualt these days.

Nonetheless this so called myth exposing was pure bullshit and racist as hell.

[Libsrule]

Whoops typed too fast. ASSAULT.

By the way, this bit about Jena being a wonderful place for all minorities was also pure bullshit.

During the days of the protest, interviews with the black and white populations showed the blacks saying racism was very much a part of that town. As well the whites were so condescending as to be laughable.

There were those who tried to downplay the racism, but it was out there. Even the old timers and young blacks said it was there.

The article was such a load of bullshit.

[Ping]

I guess you don't remember Tawana Brawley. It's a shame because Sharpton did the same thing then. Racism cuts both ways.

[STORMATSEA]

i think knocking someone out from behind and then kicking them in the head being called assualt is a pretty legitimat use of the word. further more if you knock some one out and continue to kick them in the head, seems closer to attempted murder than it does trying to get thier attention

[GoodwithWood]

I don’t know who too believe. But I just want to make one point. Regardless of whether or not a victim is seriously injured, kicking a downed man in the head IS attempted murder. And it don’t matter how the law interprets it. It just is.

[ADVOCATE4ZPG]

....possib­ly a "HATE" crime--at least, a CRIME abetted by HATE? (Of course, hatred of non-minorities does not warrant special sanction, esp. to the race-baite­rs/mongers of Huffpo!)

[GoodwithWood]

I was just making a point and you pop in to become a prejudice divider. I think you’re a liberal hater.

[thankulord13]

It does matter because we are a nation of laws....