News Media Bias? Say It Aint So - GoFuckYourself.com

Captain Kawaii · 11-27-2014, 04:32 AM

10 writers and editors contributed to this piece. - Its worth the read.
First, the article, then JAMES R comments then his comments are followed by 9 others.

In Ferguson, mundane choices lead to tragedy - Yahoo News

In Ferguson, mundane choices lead to tragedy

Michael Brown spent part of his last morning chatting with some workmen about Jesus. Police officer Darren Wilson got a call to help a feverish child. Dorian Johnson got up at 7 a.m. with the intention of getting breakfast for his girlfriend.
Related Stories

It was a mundane start to a Saturday, but by noon, all three had made a series of wrong turns that led to Brown's death in a burst of gunfire.

There are still parts of their story the public may never understand. People looking for clear answers won't find them in the thousands of pages of testimony, interviews and other records released by prosecutors after a grand jury decided not to indict Wilson in Brown's death.

But the trove of documents offers the most complete picture yet of the key moments where things went so wrong.

Brown, 18, and Johnson, 22, had only known each other a few months when they bumped into each other in a parking lot outside their Ferguson, Missouri, apartment building, but they had awoken Aug. 9 with the same bad idea: Let's get high. All they needed were cigarillos to make a blunt.

"When I told him I was going to get cigarillos, he was like, 'I need one, too. Let's walk to the store,'" Johnson recalled in testimony.

It took them awhile to get moving. Brown ? who'd recently taken to rapping about God ? stopped to speak with a landscaper who had been cursing about a chain saw that wouldn't start.

"He told me that the Lord Jesus Christ would help me with my anger problem," the worker later told the grand jury.

It got to be late morning before Brown and Johnson started toward the market, about a half-mile away. Johnson said they talked about their lives as they walked.

"He was telling me he was going off to college," Johnson recalled.

Not far away, Wilson, 28, was partway through his 12-hour shift.

During his five years as a police officer, he had never fired his weapon at another person. He had shot someone once with a Taser, but he almost never carried one. It was too bulky, he told the grand jury.

A dispatcher relayed a call for help with a sick 2-month-old baby.

"I'll be en route," Wilson responded. It was 11:47 a.m.
Minutes later, Brown and Johnson walked into Ferguson Market & Liquor.

Johnson told the grand jury that, at first, he thought he was being pranked when Brown leaned over the counter and grabbed a handful of cigarillos without paying. The clerk intercepted Brown as he headed for the door. Brown, who weighed 289 pounds, shoved him away.

"It shocked me a lot," Johnson said. "So I was asking him, I was like, you know, 'Hey, I don't do stuff like that. What's going on?'"

Brown told him to relax, Johnson said.

"But in my head I'm like, I can't be calm. I can't be cool. Because I know what just happened, and we were on camera," Johnson said.

A Ferguson police dispatcher radioed officers at 11:53 a.m. that a theft was in progress, saying "He took a whole box of Swisher cigars."
Johnson testified that Brown held the stolen cigarillos in plain view in his hands as the two walked in the center of the street.

Wilson finished his call to assist the sick baby. He radioed to fellow officers: "Do you guys need me?" He got no reply. But as he drove down Canfield, he spotted the two men and pulled alongside.

"I told 'em, 'Hey guys, why don't you walk on the sidewalk,'" Wilson told an investigator the day after the shooting.

Johnson said it was a ruder exchange: "Get the f--- on the sidewalk!"

Wilson said he started to pull away, but shifted into reverse when Brown cursed at him. He also radioed for help.

Wilson told the grand jury he said, "Hey, come here," to Brown, and tried to open his door. The officer said Brown shoved it closed. The two men began grappling through the window.

Watching from a few feet away, Johnson said he felt paralyzed.

"At the time I couldn't open my mouth, I couldn't speak. I wanted to say, 'could someone calm down,'" he said.

Wilson said Brown punched him in the face.

"I felt that another one of those punches in my face could knock me out or worse," the officer testified.

The officer drew his gun and threatened to shoot. He said Brown grabbed the firearm.

Wilson squeezed off two shots. One struck Brown's hand.

Brown bolted.

Witnesses offered divergent accounts as to what happened next. Some said the officer chased Brown, firing his gun as he ran. Others said the officer held his fire and yelled at Brown to stop. By all accounts, the chase was brief. Brown stopped and turned to face the officer.

According to Wilson, Brown charged, paused briefly when he was hit by the officer's fire, then kept coming. That account was backed up by some witnesses.

"He has his arms bent towards his chest and he's running like, you know, almost like a tackle running," said one witness. "The officer was backing up as he kept coming closer to him and he didn't stop."

But other bystanders said Brown simply took a wobbly step or two toward the policeman, and never posed any real threat.

When Brown turned "he had the weirdest look on his face and he started coming forward. Not like he was going to attack him. It's like he's coming to him like to (plead) with him to stop," said another witness. "The officer did say 'stop, stop, stop.' Well after that third time, he let loose. He kept firing. Until he hit the ground."

By the time Brown went down, twelve discharged cartridge cases lay scattered.

Arriving on the scene a few minutes after the shooting, a police sergeant testified that he found Wilson sitting behind the wheel of the Tahoe, staring at the dashboard.

"I had to shoot him," Wilson told him.

Ordinarily, the sergeant said, Wilson would have been instructed to wait at the scene until he could be interviewed. But as a crowd massed, the sergeant told him to go to the station.

Wilson said he went into the bathroom, washed Brown's blood off of both his hands and sealed his gun in an evidence envelope.

___

Associated Press writers Catherine Lucey, Garance Burke, Michael Kunzelman, David A. Lieb, Nomaan Merchant, Paul J. Weber, Holbrook Mohr, Jeff Donn and Phillip Lucas contributed to this report. Adam Geller can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/AdGeller

JamesR 3 hours ago

Let's look at how media bias works with the two writers of this story, Adam Geller and David B. Caruso.

1) Our two writers use the following paragraph:

"Witnesses offered divergent accounts as to what happened next. Some said the officer chased Brown, firing his gun as he ran. Others said the officer held his fire and yelled at Brown to stop. By all accounts, the chase was brief. Brown stopped and turned to face the officer."

So what are the two writers doing? They have just given moral equivalency to two sets of witnesses. One set said one thing, one set said something else. What did they leave out? The set of witnesses that stated Wilson was firing his gun at Brown as he ran were discredited by the forensic evidence which supported Wilson's account, an account that was supported by the other set of witnesses. Wilson's account was also supported by audio tape of the gunshots. The writers decided to leave that fact out and present this as two equal stories. In other words "Who knows what happened?"

2) Dorian Johnson's statements are taken at face value. What did the writers leave out? Dorian Johnson's claims that Michael Brown was shot in the back while surrendering were discredited by the forensic evidence, the autopsy reports, and the other witnesses. Dorian Johnson later changed his story. By then it was too late and the the false narrative of "Hands up, Don't shoot" had been established in the public's mind. It can be argued that but for Dorian Johnson's false statements, that directly led to the other false statements from people who heard him and also claimed they had seen events in which they hadn't, led directly to the unrest.

Dorian Johnson has a history of lying to the police. Dorian Johnson also had to worry about being charged as an accessary to the strong-armed robby and to making false statements to the police. With Michael Brown dead it's in his best interest to claim that he was shocked, shocked that Michael Brown committed this robbery. That he had no idea Brown was going to do what he ultimately did--I didn't notice Johnson in the store video throw up his hands and say "Hey buddy, I'm out of here. What the hell are you doing." Johnson didn't go up to the store owner and say "Hey, I'm sorry for what my friend did. Let me pay for what he took. I don't want him to get into trouble." When Darren Wilson spotted the pair Dorian Johnson wasn't walking in the opposite direction in order to get away from this robbery suspect. Yet we are supposed to believe Johnson's story that Brown was talking about Jesus and how he was starting college--while at the same time wanting to get high and robbing a store. The writers present Johnson's version of events unchallenged.

Captain Kawaii · 11-27-2014, 04:33 AM

Comments to the JamesR media bias analysis

Comments to this post

Johnson needs prison time
More
[michael]
michael 1 hour ago

We need to drop a friggin bomb on LA, Detroit,New York, Atlanta, Miami and Ferguson too.. That's what we need to do, pave right over their dead black bodies, they'll blend in with asphalt.
More
[RobertP]
RobertP 1 hour ago

Johnson also stole a FedEx package from a yard in Jefferson City. He was identified by a witness to the crime, and lied to the police by giving a false name. The story quotes Johnson as telling Brown in the convenience store " 'Hey, I don't do stuff like that. What's going on?'". This, of course, is complete b.s.
More
[Godless Heathen]
Godless Heathen 58 minutes ago

One fact that cannot be denied, the world is a better place without Michael Brown in it.
More
[Josh]
Josh 51 minutes ago

Amen. I would rather have an award winning, never done anything wrong before cop than a two bit, good for nothing, robbing thug. Anyone would. Regardless of race.
More
[Charles]
Charles 30 minutes ago

Thanks, JamesR, the media often fails to report the truth in favor of a he said/she said narrative where we don't know what to believe or "who" to believe, as you said. Another media failure is the innuendo about alleged white "racism", but when you look at the crime statistics it's white people that have reason to fear blacks, and not the other around, but the media fails to report the truth again.
More
[Michael T]
Michael T 15 minutes ago

Johnson is a lying sack of #$%$. He was happy brown rob the place so they can get high. He never stopped Brown from stealing also.
More
[Bender]
Bender 11 minutes ago

I'd just like to add that I read much of the report .a lot of the witnesses that supported Brown had bad experiences with Ferguson police.Justified or not there testimony would always in my opinion leave out key details of Browns actions when pressed.
More
[GinnyH]
GinnyH 6 minutes ago

"Hands up Don.t Shoot!" The LIE heard around the world.

11-27-2014, 04:32 AM	#1
Captain Kawaii So Fucking Banned Industry Role: Join Date: Oct 2007 Posts: 6,748	Media Bias? Say It Aint So 10 writers and editors contributed to this piece. - Its worth the read. First, the article, then JAMES R comments then his comments are followed by 9 others. In Ferguson, mundane choices lead to tragedy - Yahoo News In Ferguson, mundane choices lead to tragedy Michael Brown spent part of his last morning chatting with some workmen about Jesus. Police officer Darren Wilson got a call to help a feverish child. Dorian Johnson got up at 7 a.m. with the intention of getting breakfast for his girlfriend. Related Stories It was a mundane start to a Saturday, but by noon, all three had made a series of wrong turns that led to Brown's death in a burst of gunfire. There are still parts of their story the public may never understand. People looking for clear answers won't find them in the thousands of pages of testimony, interviews and other records released by prosecutors after a grand jury decided not to indict Wilson in Brown's death. But the trove of documents offers the most complete picture yet of the key moments where things went so wrong. Brown, 18, and Johnson, 22, had only known each other a few months when they bumped into each other in a parking lot outside their Ferguson, Missouri, apartment building, but they had awoken Aug. 9 with the same bad idea: Let's get high. All they needed were cigarillos to make a blunt. "When I told him I was going to get cigarillos, he was like, 'I need one, too. Let's walk to the store,'" Johnson recalled in testimony. It took them awhile to get moving. Brown ? who'd recently taken to rapping about God ? stopped to speak with a landscaper who had been cursing about a chain saw that wouldn't start. "He told me that the Lord Jesus Christ would help me with my anger problem," the worker later told the grand jury. It got to be late morning before Brown and Johnson started toward the market, about a half-mile away. Johnson said they talked about their lives as they walked. "He was telling me he was going off to college," Johnson recalled. Not far away, Wilson, 28, was partway through his 12-hour shift. During his five years as a police officer, he had never fired his weapon at another person. He had shot someone once with a Taser, but he almost never carried one. It was too bulky, he told the grand jury. A dispatcher relayed a call for help with a sick 2-month-old baby. "I'll be en route," Wilson responded. It was 11:47 a.m. Minutes later, Brown and Johnson walked into Ferguson Market & Liquor. Johnson told the grand jury that, at first, he thought he was being pranked when Brown leaned over the counter and grabbed a handful of cigarillos without paying. The clerk intercepted Brown as he headed for the door. Brown, who weighed 289 pounds, shoved him away. "It shocked me a lot," Johnson said. "So I was asking him, I was like, you know, 'Hey, I don't do stuff like that. What's going on?'" Brown told him to relax, Johnson said. "But in my head I'm like, I can't be calm. I can't be cool. Because I know what just happened, and we were on camera," Johnson said. A Ferguson police dispatcher radioed officers at 11:53 a.m. that a theft was in progress, saying "He took a whole box of Swisher cigars." Johnson testified that Brown held the stolen cigarillos in plain view in his hands as the two walked in the center of the street. Wilson finished his call to assist the sick baby. He radioed to fellow officers: "Do you guys need me?" He got no reply. But as he drove down Canfield, he spotted the two men and pulled alongside. "I told 'em, 'Hey guys, why don't you walk on the sidewalk,'" Wilson told an investigator the day after the shooting. Johnson said it was a ruder exchange: "Get the f--- on the sidewalk!" Wilson said he started to pull away, but shifted into reverse when Brown cursed at him. He also radioed for help. Wilson told the grand jury he said, "Hey, come here," to Brown, and tried to open his door. The officer said Brown shoved it closed. The two men began grappling through the window. Watching from a few feet away, Johnson said he felt paralyzed. "At the time I couldn't open my mouth, I couldn't speak. I wanted to say, 'could someone calm down,'" he said. Wilson said Brown punched him in the face. "I felt that another one of those punches in my face could knock me out or worse," the officer testified. The officer drew his gun and threatened to shoot. He said Brown grabbed the firearm. Wilson squeezed off two shots. One struck Brown's hand. Brown bolted. Witnesses offered divergent accounts as to what happened next. Some said the officer chased Brown, firing his gun as he ran. Others said the officer held his fire and yelled at Brown to stop. By all accounts, the chase was brief. Brown stopped and turned to face the officer. According to Wilson, Brown charged, paused briefly when he was hit by the officer's fire, then kept coming. That account was backed up by some witnesses. "He has his arms bent towards his chest and he's running like, you know, almost like a tackle running," said one witness. "The officer was backing up as he kept coming closer to him and he didn't stop." But other bystanders said Brown simply took a wobbly step or two toward the policeman, and never posed any real threat. When Brown turned "he had the weirdest look on his face and he started coming forward. Not like he was going to attack him. It's like he's coming to him like to (plead) with him to stop," said another witness. "The officer did say 'stop, stop, stop.' Well after that third time, he let loose. He kept firing. Until he hit the ground." By the time Brown went down, twelve discharged cartridge cases lay scattered. Arriving on the scene a few minutes after the shooting, a police sergeant testified that he found Wilson sitting behind the wheel of the Tahoe, staring at the dashboard. "I had to shoot him," Wilson told him. Ordinarily, the sergeant said, Wilson would have been instructed to wait at the scene until he could be interviewed. But as a crowd massed, the sergeant told him to go to the station. Wilson said he went into the bathroom, washed Brown's blood off of both his hands and sealed his gun in an evidence envelope. ___ Associated Press writers Catherine Lucey, Garance Burke, Michael Kunzelman, David A. Lieb, Nomaan Merchant, Paul J. Weber, Holbrook Mohr, Jeff Donn and Phillip Lucas contributed to this report. Adam Geller can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/AdGeller JamesR 3 hours ago Let's look at how media bias works with the two writers of this story, Adam Geller and David B. Caruso. 1) Our two writers use the following paragraph: "Witnesses offered divergent accounts as to what happened next. Some said the officer chased Brown, firing his gun as he ran. Others said the officer held his fire and yelled at Brown to stop. By all accounts, the chase was brief. Brown stopped and turned to face the officer." So what are the two writers doing? They have just given moral equivalency to two sets of witnesses. One set said one thing, one set said something else. What did they leave out? The set of witnesses that stated Wilson was firing his gun at Brown as he ran were discredited by the forensic evidence which supported Wilson's account, an account that was supported by the other set of witnesses. Wilson's account was also supported by audio tape of the gunshots. The writers decided to leave that fact out and present this as two equal stories. In other words "Who knows what happened?" 2) Dorian Johnson's statements are taken at face value. What did the writers leave out? Dorian Johnson's claims that Michael Brown was shot in the back while surrendering were discredited by the forensic evidence, the autopsy reports, and the other witnesses. Dorian Johnson later changed his story. By then it was too late and the the false narrative of "Hands up, Don't shoot" had been established in the public's mind. It can be argued that but for Dorian Johnson's false statements, that directly led to the other false statements from people who heard him and also claimed they had seen events in which they hadn't, led directly to the unrest. Dorian Johnson has a history of lying to the police. Dorian Johnson also had to worry about being charged as an accessary to the strong-armed robby and to making false statements to the police. With Michael Brown dead it's in his best interest to claim that he was shocked, shocked that Michael Brown committed this robbery. That he had no idea Brown was going to do what he ultimately did--I didn't notice Johnson in the store video throw up his hands and say "Hey buddy, I'm out of here. What the hell are you doing." Johnson didn't go up to the store owner and say "Hey, I'm sorry for what my friend did. Let me pay for what he took. I don't want him to get into trouble." When Darren Wilson spotted the pair Dorian Johnson wasn't walking in the opposite direction in order to get away from this robbery suspect. Yet we are supposed to believe Johnson's story that Brown was talking about Jesus and how he was starting college--while at the same time wanting to get high and robbing a store. The writers present Johnson's version of events unchallenged.

11-27-2014, 04:33 AM	#2
Captain Kawaii So Fucking Banned Industry Role: Join Date: Oct 2007 Posts: 6,748	Comments to the JamesR media bias analysis Comments to this post Johnson needs prison time More [michael] michael 1 hour ago We need to drop a friggin bomb on LA, Detroit,New York, Atlanta, Miami and Ferguson too.. That's what we need to do, pave right over their dead black bodies, they'll blend in with asphalt. More [RobertP] RobertP 1 hour ago Johnson also stole a FedEx package from a yard in Jefferson City. He was identified by a witness to the crime, and lied to the police by giving a false name. The story quotes Johnson as telling Brown in the convenience store " 'Hey, I don't do stuff like that. What's going on?'". This, of course, is complete b.s. More [Godless Heathen] Godless Heathen 58 minutes ago One fact that cannot be denied, the world is a better place without Michael Brown in it. More [Josh] Josh 51 minutes ago Amen. I would rather have an award winning, never done anything wrong before cop than a two bit, good for nothing, robbing thug. Anyone would. Regardless of race. More [Charles] Charles 30 minutes ago Thanks, JamesR, the media often fails to report the truth in favor of a he said/she said narrative where we don't know what to believe or "who" to believe, as you said. Another media failure is the innuendo about alleged white "racism", but when you look at the crime statistics it's white people that have reason to fear blacks, and not the other around, but the media fails to report the truth again. More [Michael T] Michael T 15 minutes ago Johnson is a lying sack of #$%$. He was happy brown rob the place so they can get high. He never stopped Brown from stealing also. More [Bender] Bender 11 minutes ago I'd just like to add that I read much of the report .a lot of the witnesses that supported Brown had bad experiences with Ferguson police.Justified or not there testimony would always in my opinion leave out key details of Browns actions when pressed. More [GinnyH] GinnyH 6 minutes ago "Hands up Don.t Shoot!" The LIE heard around the world.