Jackson Free Press

The folks at WJTV must have been particularly bored April 16. In what was presumably an attempt to localize the Virginia Tech tragedy, WJTV reported live from the Jackson State campus and paralleled the 1970 school shooting that occurred at JSU to the recent Virginia Tech massacre. The two have nothing in common, other than the fact that they both occurred on college campuses, and bullets were involved. Other than that, the WJTV correspondents played a masterful game—or not—of connect-the-dots.

Anchor Byron Brown introduced the segment by saying JSU was in the national spotlight more than 35 years ago when two people were killed in a riot. (He never said who killed them.) He said rather quickly that police opened fire, killing two students, and that there are conflicting reports on what led up to the students deaths. During the segment, reporter Carole Carr talked with a couple JSU students who expressed how the Virginia Tech incident caused them to stop and think about the tragedy had it happened on their campus, and then she concisely reiterated that two students had been killed on the university's campus. She never said who killed them, why or how they were killed—basic information in story gathering.

On May 4, 1970, Kent State students gathered to protest President Nixon's decision to bomb Cambodia "for the purpose of ending the war in Vietnam" and gaining a "just peace." Members of the Ohio National Guard shot into the demonstrators 67 times, killing four students and wounding nine more. Ten days later, on JSU's campus, some 100 students gathered to protest their peers' tragic deaths, the war and the racial intimidation they continued to suffer so soon after the Civil Rights Movement and Jim Crow ended. To add to that, rumors buzzed around the city that civil rights leader Charles Evers and his wife had been killed.

During the riot, students set several fires on the campus. The fire department came to extinguish the fires, and called for back-up from police. Seventy-five armed Jackson Police Department officers responded, as did the Mississippi Highway Patrol (who showed up armed, without ammunition).

From here, details vary, but one thing is for sure: Police officers opened fire on unarmed students. When the shooting stopped, two students were dead—21-year-old Phillip Lafayette Gibbs and 17-year-old James Earl Green—and several were injured. Allegedly, after … yes, after … officers gathered their shell casings, they called ambulances. When all was said and done, city authorities denied that the city police had anything to do with the deaths and injuries.

OK. There's that history lesson. I assume there isn't a need for me to recap any of the gory details of the Virginia Tech massacre. They're everywhere.

Both school shootings were tragic, but they aren't similar. One isn't any more tragic or heinous than the other, but to compare them to each other is not only a far reach, it cheapens each calamity. How does a deranged and depressed student crying out for attention by ending 32 of his classmates' lives (and his own) parallel with students reacting to social injustices being killed by an institutionally racist system? I understand attempts to "bring stories home" and normalize them so it's easier for us to wrap our minds around large-scale tragedies so we can empathize, but come on. At worst, this seemed like preposterous propaganda by the news station to get a knee-jerk reaction from its audience. At best, the news crew found themselves on Lynch Street, and needed justification for being there. Eureka! "A school shooting happened here one time. This is perfect," I imagine one of them said. Either way, it was not OK.

What's more is that the connect-the-dots media game didn't end there. At the end of the report, to remind viewers that we're in the capital city where crime is always the order of the day (as so many people seem to think), WJTV anchor Brown reminded us about a JSU shooting in August 2005 where one graduate student shot another. In that case, the attorney of Ryan Mack (the perpetrator) and the prosecutor are still at odds about whether Mack acted in self-defense.

If local media are going to start playing connect-the-dots with contemporary issues and those from the past, they had better get a history tutor.

Previous Comments

ID

74797

Comment

WJTV humph is all I can say. Same news station that went to somewhere that was NOT Metrocenter to get someone who would cuss a lot and show her ass on TV to talk about Metrocenter. THANKS WJTV. I can say that since I don't work there anymore. The gag has been lifted! ;) Yes I have a grudge. But my therapist has encouraged me to purge. Great one Natalie. And something we need to think about. What has happened to our critical thinking skills. Glad you've got them :) And it's frustrating that local news stations have to "localize" national news stories when we've got enough of our own news to tell.

Author

emilyb

Date

2007-04-25T15:31:03-06:00

ID

74798

Comment

WJTV is way too sensationalistic for me. They are the classic "if it bleeds, it leads" station. And don't say sexual predator--they can't get a story on it quick enough. But it's all about "safe families", so I guess that makes it OK.

Author

golden eagle

Date

2007-04-25T18:38:09-06:00

ID

74799

Comment

Natalie, I didn't get that connection either. I think talking about Pearl High and Luke Woodham would have made more sense. They were really reaching on that one. I think the whole "To The Point" concept has had a negative effect on their reporting. Not enough details, interviews too short, etc. It seems like the reporters aren't allowed to express their personality anymore. They just read the teleprompter and grin. Too robotic for me. I'm not saying it has to be like Regis or something, but they could lighten up a smidgen. Does anyone remember that morning show they used to do when Erin Pickins first got there? That's the kind of stuff I miss. I think that being the C-L's media partner has brought them down somewhat. Seems like the only difference between the two is that instead of a cut and paste of The Associated Press, they do a cut-and-paste of CNN. They are also very pro-burbs. They'll report two or three incidents of crime in Jackson and report on Madison's growth or a new business in Pearl right after that. It's like a gentle brainwashing. Urban bad. Suburbs good.

Author

LatashaWillis

Date

2007-04-25T19:08:50-06:00

ID

74800

Comment

I think that being the C-L's media partner has brought them down somewhat. Seems like the only difference between the two is that instead of a cut and paste of The Associated Press, they do a cut-and-paste of CNN. They are also very pro-burbs. They'll report two or three incidents of crime in Jackson and report on Madison's growth or a new business in Pearl right after that. It's like a gentle brainwashing. Urban bad. Suburbs good. Another thing, too, is that whenever something new comes to Jackson, it doesn't get top-story treatment like the suburbs do. When it was announced that an outlet mall was coming to Pearl, it was the top story on WJTV. But I don't recall Burlington Coat Factory coming to the Metrocenter getting the same treatment. It's as if the media doesn't want Jackson getting the attention that our surrounding brethen get when it comes to good news.

Author

golden eagle

Date

2007-04-25T21:11:36-06:00

ID

74801

Comment

It's as if the media doesn't want Jackson getting the attention that our surrounding brethen get when it comes to good news. Yes, and that irritates me to no end, but that's alright. I'm expecting a Jackson Cinderella story in the next decade or so.

Author

LatashaWillis

Date

2007-04-25T21:23:06-06:00

ID

74802

Comment

too often local media feels the need to localize a national story so that their viewers can "identify" with the story. See CL's use of fablechat on its editorial pages. This was a gross attempt to do so.

Author

Kingfish

Date

2007-04-25T22:18:48-06:00