I’m reasonable sure that between 9:45 and 9:55 pm, CNN’s Joe Johns interviewed a chaplain thinking he was the fire chief at the scene of a fire in Baltimore. I say this because the person he interviewed was wearing a helmet that said “Chaplain” and because the guy had no answers to rudimentary questions.
For Posterity
by John Cole| 58 Comments
This post is in: Our Failed Media Experiment
Hal
Sigh. Another round of white people lamenting property damage and those poor baseball game attending folks in Baltimore. Oh, and that guy whose spine was severed was bad too.
Now for a quote from Martin Luther King.
Joel
The old folks home getting burned is pretty bad. Things aren’t as simple as some want them to be.
dubo
Guy Goma is still my hero
lamh36
@Joel:
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
Christ on a cupcake, can’t the media idiots do better than that?
Amir Khalid
I hope someone has video of this adorable little oopsie.
beltane
The chaplain is in communication with the FSM who is the chief of all fire chiefs.
max
I say this because the person he interviewed was wearing a helmet that said “Chaplain” and because the guy had no answers to rudimentary questions.
And that’s why (as CNN suggests) you not watch cable TV news. You’re supposed to turn to Twitter.
max
[‘Why you *are* supposed to watch CNN is a mystery.’]
Botsplainer
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q):
No. The mediots CANNOT do better than that. To do better requires full staffing, and full staffing does not lead to multimillion dollar annual contracts for Brian Williams, Anderson Cooper, WolfBlitzer and the like to tell us what stories mean.
Howard Beale IV
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): Nope.
Now it’s State of Emergency, National Guard and Nighttime Curfew in Baltimore.
Shades of 1967 Detroit.
Hello, NRA? Can you provide some individual help for the majority of the innocent Baltimore citizens who aren’t looting ?
What? You’re not equipped for such crises situations? Then what good are ya then?
lamh36
@lamh36:
But…
Basically no one knows so would be nice to wait for more accurate info rather than running with attributes
Howard Beale IV
@max: http://www.breakingnews.com/ (an NBC product)
Available as an Apple, Android and Windows Phone apps.
Randy P
Due to taking some courses at Johns Hopkins, I’m on their text alert system. People have been ordered to shelter in place. Campus shuttle closed for the night
khead
Yeah, that’s right about the time I decided to watch something else on my teevee. Anything else.
fuckwit
There’s no way to delay that trouble coming every day.
srv
@Randy P: Well, there won’t be any alerts from here:
How many Solyndra’s are left?
NotMax
Chaplain, Captain.
Potato, tomato.
skerry
@Randy P: There is a city-wide curfew in place tonight.
Villago Delenda Est
Ted Turner weeps at his ranch in Montana.
Villago Delenda Est
@Botsplainer: Also, too, full staffing cuts into hookers and blow slush funds for execs.
satby
@srv: It would be excellent if they would cancel the student loan debt I and my son still carry from his attendance at Wyotech. Unless I win a lottery, which I don’t play, I’ll still owe money when I’m 70.
srv
@Villago Delenda Est: Bar None, Snowcrest, Red Rock or the Flying D?
Or one of the five ranches in Nebraska maybe? Or the three in New Mexico or Argentina?
MattR
Not sure if this is a good place to drop this or not, but I recently came across this piece/graphic from Bloomberg News that shows the rate of change for various societal issues.
lamh36
media just repeating narratives without actual confirmation but still reporting it by saying “there are reports” or “allegedly” so bad info gets out and widespread so that when truth is not quite that. It’s too late..
Case in point…from BPD…Baltimore Police
In fact I saw Maddow showing a clip of what was allegedly police carrying away am injures colleague and there haa been all kinds of repOrting about injured officers
Mandalay
Somewhat but not completely OT, regarding the 73 year rich white guy who wanted to play at being being a cop and ended up accidentally shooting someone dead…Recall how we were assured that he was fully trained, and qualified to do anything that a regular cop could do? Turns out that not only did he not complete the training, but a police sergeant was ordered to falsify data, and reassigned to another department when he complained:
Apparently nobody will be facing any prosecution over this, while black people get fined, go to jail and get killed for having broken tail lights.
Our policing system is completely corrupt, and rotten to the core.
Steeplejack (phone)
On a lighter note, Arthur Penn’s Night Moves (1975) is on TCM at 12:15 EDT tonight. Southern noir. Private detective (Gene Hackman) goes looking for runaway girl (Melanie Griffith), bad things ensue. I haven’t seen it in 40 years, but my dim recollection is favorable. Especially a screen door with an ornate crane pattern, nicely framing Jennifer Warren in a key scene.
Mandalay
@lamh36:
He is one story that they are very conspicuously not repeating:
The mainstream media simply won’t report that a public figure in a position of authority thanked Louis Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam.
srv
@Mandalay: I shot the undersheriff, but I did not shoot the underdeputy…
fuckwit
@Mandalay: Theyre not in positions of authority..They ceased to have any authority when they started killing civilians without due process. This is the whole point. The police, the government, the mayor, they have NO AUTHORITY,, they forfeited that authority when they started murdering people in large numbers, and the word started getting out about it. Their authority is over, and so there is chaos. And now they’re looking to the people with real authority to save their ass. In this case, looks like NOI has been tapped to perform this vital function. Because they can.
The Ferguson PD, the NYPD, the Darryl Gates era LAPD, and the Baltimore PD, have lost their authority by being corrupt and no worse than thugs. Until they straighten their shit out, they will not have any say over anything.
If you can be shot and killed for nothing, then you might as well do something to make it worthwhile. There’s no deterrent effect if there’s no due process. It’s nihilistic anarchy. I can’t make this point strongly enough or often enough. The fault for all this rests solely on the corrupt police departments and their political enablers. They abdicated their authority by abusing it.
Cacti
@Hal:
If the talking heads ever lamented minorities getting killed by cops as much as they lament shopkeepers’ broken windows, there probably wouldn’t be any riots.
kc
@Steeplejack (phone):
I was just wondering if I should try to stay up for that.
Cacti
While I can’t support wanton violence…
I’d be lying if I said I was sad that a Checking Cashing/Payday Loan store got razed.
J.D. Rhoades
@lamh36:
David Simon (yes, “The Wire’s” David Simon) is watching the fire and live blogging it, while dealing with a bunch of armchair revolutionaries egging on the rioters in the comments section of his blog.
“…if you think it is white or middle-class people who are exclusively hoping for a restoration of order, you might consider the fact that I am watching the rear of a string of homes at Federal and Gay streets afire. The wind changed direction and the set fire turned against the residents of a poor, African-American neighborhood that has only partially recovered from the 1968 riot that burned it.”
More here.
Steeplejack (phone)
@kc:
I’m recording it. Probably worth at least a look to see if it pulls you in. My memory is good acting, good cinematography.
askew
I am not sure of much, but I am sure that the reporters on CNN are a bunch of dumbshits.
ABC isn’t much better they were trolling twitter trying to say that Hillary spoke out on Baltimore before O’Malley, which wasn’t true. O’Malley has been talking about Freddie Gray for days. He also released a statement tonight earlier than Hillary by about 3 hours and cancelled his trip to Ireland to give policy speeches to come back home to Baltimore. I don’t know that he’ll be able to do much to help but he can’t be any worse than the current Mayor who has been a complete fuck-up on this.
For those who want to blame O’Malley for today, during his time as Mayor:
He doubled the # of minority police officers
Police-involved shootings dropped, civilian oversight of police increased, and excessive force complaints dropped.
The crime rate dropped dramatically
And let’s not forget that he was re-elected Mayor with huge margins by AA voters who were happy that their neighborhoods were no longer being ignored by police and that their neighborhoods were safer.
That said, there is clearly still serious issues in Baltimore that need to be addressed. The cops who killed Gray need to be tried for murder at bare minimum.
kc
@Steeplejack (phone):
I’ll check it out. It’s got Gene Hackman; it can’t be bad.
Punchy
Postponing the O’s game probably smart….although it’s hurting my fantasy team.
Violet
Did the Chaplain perhaps know where the Malaysia Airlines airplane was? Or did he know someone with Ebola?
Mandalay
@fuckwit:
A beautiful and righteous rant, and I’m with you all the way with regard to the police, but a couple of points:
– Whatever one might think about the recent performance of the Mayor of Baltimore, she is still someone in a position of authority.
– The Mayor of Baltimore is not responsible for the police killing people (unless she is simply “guilty” by association).
Let’s not lump the Mayor in with the police.
Regardless, my original point was that the media avoided reporting on the Mayor thanking the Nation of Islam. Its leader, Louis Farrakhan, is a powerful and persuasive speaker, with some highly volatile rhetoric [Here’s video of him calling Giuliani a “privileged cracker”], and he will increasingly find an audience if the slaughtering of blacks by the police continues. This killing shit is really close to reaching a critical mass now.
Ridnik Chrome
@fuckwit:
Amen. If the people in power can get away with murder (literally!) then all bets are off. How do they not understand this?
fuckwit
@Mandalay: Agreed, I hijacked your point without acknowledging it or agreeing with it, sorry, my bad. Yes indeed the media will bury the NOI and not report on it., and that is likelly due to its long-term hostility towards Farakkhan. It’ll also bury my point as well, which is that the government has lost its authority due to its corruption and abuse of power,, and now is looking for someone with real authority to re-establish order– and that appears to be the NOI. If we had a media that was functioning, it’d report the fact, you mention and also maybe comment on the implications, which is that the government has lost its authority and needs to bring in the NOI to try to do its job for it.
jl
Very sad day in Baltimore. But, I too hope there is a video of that moment of CNN glory.
When he talked about Baltimore and interviewed Cummings on Face the Nation, ol’ man Shieffer wanted to talk about anything but what seems to be obvious police misconduct in this case. He seemed more upset that Orioles fans were asked to stay in the stadium during unrest last week. Interesting that Orioles COO Angelos has more perspective than pretty much any of the people in the corporate press.
Not that UK cops are perfect by any means, but interesting to compare what has become of policing in the US to what the founders of the modern police force had in mind.
Peelian Principles of Modern Policing
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peelian_Principles
Freemark
I’ve noticed that the same people who break their own golf club after a bad tee shot can’t seem to understand why a small minority of people damage their own community after being abused and murdered by the people who are supposed to be protecting them.
fuckwit
@Ridnik Chrome: Yeah, this is the problem. A society needs order and authority in order to function. If the police can’t obey their own fucking laws, you can’t expect anyone else to take them seriously in enforcing them, and then order breaks down and you have chaos. I do not want chaos. This in Baltimore is what chaos looks like. This shit has got to stop, and for that to happen, these corrupt police departments have to be cleaned up…. yesterday! Sadly I’m stumped for ideas on how to do that quickly enough to stop the chaos in Baltimore. The whole thing might have to burn itself out first. Maybe it’s not too late for other departments and municipalities to fix their shit, before they become the next Baltimore, the next Ferguson. Maybe there’s a way to prevent this in some places where it’s primed to blow but hasn’t yet.
Matt McIrvin
About “rough rides”:
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/04/the-rough-ride-and-police-culture/391538/
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
I understand why people are rioting. I understand that it’s human nature to respond to official violence this way. The reaction of the media to this is horrible, completely ignoring the underlying issues. And the amount of hypocrisy on the part of people who never seem to be as outraged about white people rioting about sporting events as they are about black people rioting about oppression is staggering.
Nevertheless, this is still awful and I can’t believe that there are people in these threads who go beyond understanding to actually sympathizing with the impulse to riot or even defending it as a good idea. It’s not. On pretty much every axis you can name, rioting like this is both counterproductive and morally wrong.
Those who will bear the direct cost of the damage are not not the well off or the oppressors. Overwhelmingly they will be the oppressed locals.
Those who bear the indirect costs will overwhelmingly be those that are trying to reform and improve things. The only winners will be those justifying the oppression. If you think that this in any way harms those in power, you’re a fucking moron. Rioting empowers the oppressors by providing justification for their oppression without ever damaging anything important to them.
Ask yourself, did the riots around the country in 1968 lead to anything positive? Anything at all? No. They caused physical damage to the inner cities that has never been repaired, accelerated white flight that eroded the tax bases of the cities, and led directly to the election of Richard Nixon on a law-and-order platform.
The outcome of these riots won’t be any better.
Mandalay
@fuckwit:
Maybe you are right, but I’d be astounded if that happened. I was suggesting that if the police keep on murdering blacks then NOI will automatically find a wider audience with black people.
All powerful politicians, and virtually all presenters in the media, either stay silent, or just tut-tut the existing situation, or advocate for minor changes to the existing system. They don’t want to rock the boat too much, or lose their job.
Farrakhan is different; he isn’t committed to changing the system from within. He talks about retaliation and Molotov cocktails. And more people are going to listen to him if the police continue to get away with murdering people.
MattR
@Freemark: I like that analogy and may steal it
jl
@Matt McIrvin: Thanks. Interesting article. I can see why Baltimore PD has had to pay out damages. One of the first things I learned in first aid class was that if a person has any evidence of spinal injury, they should be immobilized until extent of injury is determined or qualified medical people can give adequate care.
A seemingly small injury can turn into paralysis or death with seemingly trivial movement.
So, looks like the police lied about the initial arrest, and then, if it is true that a cop kneed the guy in the back of the neck with extreme force while he was on the ground, and he was injured, should have called paramedics, so they were negligent. And this stuff goes on every day.
Horrifying.
Edit: Of course, I am assuming the police get first aid training. Right? I think that is a safe assumption.
MooMoo's Clean-Up Detail
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym: You crystallized everything I tried to tell my wife, only you said it better. Well said.
Aleta
@Freemark: exactamente
Death Panel Truck
@fuckwit: Blow yer harmonica, son…
JordanRules
From The Other America 1968
by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Aleta
I’ve been watching a reporter for Vice who’s been streaming live on youtube while talking to people on the street. The same street has police and an armored car on one end, fire trucks near the other end, and she’s interviewing the people who live on or near that street. Impressive, esp. compared to the self-insulating networks, for whom doing anything that simple is way too radical.
Cervantes
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym:
I agree, but have you tried convincing a volcano not to erupt?
Another Holocene Human
@srv: What the fuck does that mean, dipshit? For those not paying attention, Obama is the one shutting the private college party the fuck down. While Solyndra was one company going tits up in a large grants program, comprising well under 5% of all grants.
I guess for a very, very stupid person, Obama is just like Bush.
Another Holocene Human
@satby: Some decent inflation would fix that problem. We can’t have inflation because we made labor too weak to increase their wages to match and the government is too slow and inconsistent to act. We also screwed up COLAs for those on entitlements or assistance so inflation screws them as well. It’s too bad, as the Progressives 125 years ago were wrong about a lot of things but they knew one thing for certain–deflation always always always fucks the little guy but a nice inflation is the debtor’s friend.
A bit of healthy inflation would ease our housing market woes AND save our youth from their debt load, but you HAVE to bring up wages while you’re at it. (And sadly, a lot of people who lived through the 70s falsely believe the 1980 recession had something to do with workers striking for wage increases … it didn’t … the high inflation was caused by a WAR … the only class suffering was the upper class … to get their own back they caused a deflation by having the chair of the Fed fucking tie up the money supply … presto, worst recession (at the time) since the GD. The only way in which it was the result of workers getting paid was in the reactionary fervor of the inheritance class and their lackeys.)
CONGRATULATIONS!
Black folks have been locked out of the American dream for all of American history.
If you don’t own it, why the fuck wouldn’t you burn it down?
PROTIP FOR CONSERVATIVES: People don’t burn buildings that they, or their neighbors, own.