By R. Cort Kirkwood
October 1, 2002

(AgapePress) - Despite the obvious truth, a few boobs in the news media cling to the notion their profession is free of liberal bias.

Preposterous it is, and the coverage of two recent events belies the preposterous belief: the forthcoming murder trial of the Carr Brothers in Wichita, Kansas, and the child-abuse charges against Madelyne Toogood, the mother caught on videotape beating her child.

Of the second you have heard, no doubt. Of the first, well, it's doubtful. That's because the national news media has ignored it, unlike the first, and they have ignored it for a very good reason, at least to them.

The Carrs
The rapes and murders of which the Carrs stand accused, known as the Wichita Massacre, are nearly unspeakable in their brutality, something a New York novelist might travel to Kansas to write about.

During three hours of mayhem on December 14, 2000, authorities allege, the Carrs broke into a home and forced two men and two women to have sex with each other. They raped the women and robbed ATM machines, then took the four to a field and executed them, Soprano style. One woman survived to tell the tale.

Their trial will begin soon, and jurors are now being chosen.

The key fact you don't know, if you haven't read anything about the massacre, and likely you haven't, is this: The Carrs were black and the victims were white.

Toogood
On the other hand, the media could not resist the story of Madelyne Toogood, the most notorious child abuser in American history.

Caught on tape beating her child in a department-store parking lot, the national media went gonzo. For three or four days, the videotape, which didn't reveal all that much, played and replayed. Stories ran in The New York Times and Washington Post.

The pundits and headshrinkers debated spanking, and Toogood turned herself in under a spotlight you'd think would be reserved, well, for crimes such as those of which the Carrs are accused.

And here's the key fact in the Toogood case, which you know from the two dozen times you've seen the tape: Her child was unharmed.

The Bias
So over the past two weeks, we've had a minor case of child abuse caught on tape, and the beginning of a trial for the most grisly murders in Kansas since the those of the Clutter family, which drew Truman Capote to Holcomb to write In Cold Blood.

One was a national sensation, the other wasn't.

A search of the Washington Post, New York Times, MSNBC and CNN website databases turns up nothing on the Carrs. Type in Toogood and you get a page of hits for the Times, Post, MSNBC and CNN, not including wire stories.

The reason is this: Two blacks raping and murdering three whites does not the fit the media's scripted view of society (evil whites, good blacks), and the Toogood case does. Murdering and raping whites is not politically incorrect; child abuse is, even when the child is unharmed.

Spiked
Toogood is the villain from central casting; the Carrs are, well, what? Victims?

One wonders just how many whites they would have had to rape and murder for the ballyhooed watchdogs of justice in the press to bark. Better yet, one wonders how heavy coverage of the Carr trial would be, and what coverage of the murders would have been so far, if the Carrs were white and the victims were black.

No answer necessary.

R. Cort Kirkwood is a syndicated columnist and managing editor of the Daily News-Record in Harrisonburg, Virginia. He can be contacted at kirkwood@shentel.net.

© 2002 AgapePress all rights reserved.

 

E-mail this page to a friend Printer-Friendly Version