White man’s murder makes front page, black man’s murder doesn’t
CVK
I just read an interesting column by the ombudsman of The Washington Post, attempting to shed some light on how the paper handled two equally horrific murder cases. A reader had written in to note that the murder of the white man, Alan Senitt (pictured), landed on the front page of the paper, while the murder of the black man, Chris Crowder, only made the front of the Metro section. The reader asked:
“Can you think of a reason why the white man would get front-page treatment while the black man wouldn’t? Why does the white man merit a photo with the story but the black man doesn’t? Did geography and skin color have any impact on where these two stories were placed in the newspaper? I don’t see anything about the Senitt story that would merit front-page treatment over that of Crowder.”
more after the jump…
The ombudsman explained that the decision to run Senitt’s story on the front page had to do with the fact that they had more information about the motive than they did for Crowder’s case:
Both murders were shocking. Senitt’s throat was cut, and Crowder, who was paralyzed from the waist down and used a wheelchair, was shot seven times…
Both stories could have been on Page 1, played comparably. Why they weren’t goes to editors’ decisions and what was known on deadline about both stories. Interestingly, the Senitt killing was first scheduled for the Metro front and moved to Page 1 as details became clear. The Crowder death was originally scheduled for Page 1 and was moved to Metro when the motive did not become clear…
It was an easy call to put Senitt’s killing on Page 1. The victim’s throat was cut — very brutal for a street robbery. There was an attempt to rape his female companion. And there were quick arrests and charges against two men, a woman and a male juvenile. The three adults, all black, were pictured in the next day’s paper. And, yes, it was in affluent Georgetown. A police commander in that district was temporarily reassigned after making this public comment: “This is not a racial thing to say that black people are unusual in Georgetown.”
Crowder’s death also was brutal. Why shoot someone in a wheelchair seven times? There was no evidence of a robbery, and police still are puzzled as to suspects and motive. The reward for information in the case has risen to $50,000…
eric wrote:
This is the media status quo.
Its particuarly visible when eihter
a) A white girl goes missing
b) A white wife is killed by her crazy husband
Posted 19 Jul 2006 at 4:09 pm ¶
dcase wrote:
What’s new? As a person who knew, personally, 14 people (13 black and one latino) who have been murdered in my lifetime, I cannot think of one who ever made it on front page; at most, a brief in the local news section and several never made any news source.
Posted 19 Jul 2006 at 6:07 pm ¶
gatamala wrote:
I live in the DC area & work downtown. It’s sad the way the media is going nuts over this. It boils down to he’s a Georgetown White guy. There is nothing unique [sadly] about the way he was murdered, nor is an attempted rape big news in DC.
A couple of years ago, a toddler disappeared w/ his babysitter from NE DC. After a couple of early evening news shows I heard nothing more. No, of course there was no Amber Alert. I guess this little black boy was too far from “Amber” to be worth the alarm.
Look how this guy has twisted himself into a pretzel to explain why the murder of a community activist is NOT important. They could at least do the human interest background bit that was given to Sennit.
Posted 19 Jul 2006 at 7:17 pm ¶
Sara R. Anderson wrote:
First and foremost, my love and condolences to the entire family and friends of the African American that died.
People all over the world with skin darker than the white man,
is automatically assumed of no importance.
The media, globally refuse to acknowledge the darker skinned
race in this world.
If anyone should be ashamed of their existance, the media should and those who refuse to tell the truth about the pain and suffering of all nationalities.
Posted 19 Jul 2006 at 11:47 pm ¶