As I type this, the lead story on the Web sites of channels 4, 5, 7 and 25 is about the white woman in a wheelchair on the Cape who was run down earlier this week. Not one of the stations has yet to even identify the black man shot in the head in Dorchester on Thursday, unlike the Globe, which talked to neighbors, including the one who lent Jihad Watters the barbecue grill he was about to use when he was murdered.
Neighborhoods:
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Comments
Some people just love to racebait.
By Eric
Sat, 05/22/2010 - 11:11am
n/t
Yea, just like the following
By anon
Sat, 05/22/2010 - 11:33am
Yea, just like the following story only mentions the black rapist in the Back Bay. What's up with that?
hit and run crashes always get a lot of attention though.
By Pete Nice
Sat, 05/22/2010 - 3:30pm
And now it looks like the girl charged skipped out on her arraignment.
It's a bit more complex than race
By anon
Sat, 05/22/2010 - 3:28pm
To start off with, I feel bad for the Watters and White families, who lost loved ones needlessly.
That said, the issue of what the media is chasing is a bit more complex than race. On the one hand, you have a person who someone tried to kill before. The Globe is using the phrase "gang related" to describe the killing, so people would tend to gloss over the tragedy. On the other hand, you have a death that would have warranted perhaps the third or second story in the half hour news jump up to shark attack level with one twist- the accused walked out of the court to "grab a smoke" and became a fugitive from justice. And come on, Channel 7 tried to interview her during her escape, so of course they are going with it.
To flip the race angle, if this were cases of an elderly black women who is the "grandmama" to everyone in the neighborhood and the suspect was a white college student who bailed during the arraignment versus an Irish punk from Southie buying it the second time someone shot him, the coverage would greater to the woman than the punk.
That's my 2 cents.
The story is not "white woman
By NotWhitey
Sat, 05/22/2010 - 4:52pm
The story is not "white woman in wheelchair" - it's the perp doing a runner. How much coverage did the original accident get?
Quite a bit, actually
By adamg
Sat, 05/22/2010 - 6:23pm
That the alleged perp went on the lam was just the lagniappe on the story. Channel 5 story from Tuesday.
Race bating is standard
By anon
Sat, 05/22/2010 - 8:38pm
Race bating is standard procedure on this site. I guess Adam feels the need to assuage his great white guilt. Stick to bitching about the T and covering pillow fights - at least there you have some semblance of credibility.
Racism denying is common here too
By eeka
Sat, 05/22/2010 - 10:15pm
Some people refuse to recognize race/class privilege and immediately start screaming about how something couldn't possibly be about race rather than actually stopping and thinking about how, say, race played a part in why this man ended up a drug dealer in the city and why this woman ended up a middle-class person on the cape. And the privilege-deniers can take this however they want; I'm just saying that this woman started life out with a lot more privilege simply because of her race.
Not so quick
By anon and on
Sat, 05/22/2010 - 10:19pm
I find Adam's postings track more closely to what is actually happening in the city (especially on crime matters) than other media who are focused on the bottom line and cover crime based on the vicarious victimhood standard for their readers. Regular UH readers will find the race baiting charge pretty ridiculous.
This isn't Tuesday.
By NotWhitey
Sun, 05/23/2010 - 12:07am
This isn't Tuesday.
I agree... race doesn't seem
By anon
Sat, 05/22/2010 - 7:56pm
I agree... race doesn't seem to be the issue here. Perhaps it was the fact that it was a person in a wheelchair that garnered the extra coverage.
They're BOTH in wheelchairs
By Brett
Sat, 05/22/2010 - 9:27pm
However, I think it boils down more to who they were. And, by the way, I don't think the Globe did much "talking to neighbors"- there's quite a few quotes which sound suspiciously like they were read off a police report (something about "so and so said to police...")
Jihad was a drug dealer in the state's largest city, where there have been almost 30 murders this year. Lillian was a fixture in her small community, in one where any sort of homicide is very unusual.
Jihad's neighbors are too terrified, complacent about violence, or just can't be bothered to care about a drug dealer. They didn't give police any help in tracking down the killer, and I'm willing to bet a lot of doors were shut in the face of the media. Police don't have a killer, nor do they have the murder weapon with open-and-shut evidence.
People came out of the woodwork to help with information about Lillian's murder, there was clear physical evidence, and everyone has a pretty solid idea of who did it.
So, yeah. Let's wave that "media doesn't give a shit about black people" card around. Or do you have proof, Adam? After all, all you Jews are in a worldwide media conspiracy, right? *rolls eyes*
The proof is in the pudding
By adamg
Sat, 05/22/2010 - 9:58pm
Show me a single report on any TV Web site around here that even mentions Watter's name.
I do agree with you - Watters doesn't sound like the most savory of characters (going back almost five years), and I'm sure if a TV crew had shown up in the neighborhood, yeah, people would've refused to talk to them.
But you know what? Tough. If they can't report a hard story, they should go back to Scranton or Duluth or wherever they're from.
As somebody who lives in Boston - for that matter, as somebody who drove by the murder scene twice today (we were looking for the Ashmont Hill neighborhood garage sale) - I'm more immediately concerned about a guy getting shot in the head on a porch on a major street in the middle of the day than somebody getting run over on the Cape. I'm not trying to downplay the severity and awfulness of what happened to that poor lady, but it's not a story that directly affects me or anybody I know. By not following up at all on a story that happened in Boston's largest neighborhood, Boston TV stations have made a value judgment. It's not one I agree with them on, but no, I don't run a TV station, so what do I know?
Well put
By eeka
Sat, 05/22/2010 - 10:12pm
Yeah, there's no need to blame the victim here and say "oh, he was a drug dealer." This should be a bigger story since it's right in Boston.
Also, why is the media deciding that both of them are "in a wheelchair" rather than "using a wheelchair?" Why bring it up at all? If these were crimes targeting people with disabilities, then yes, it's relevant. Most of those stories don't make any mainstream news though. But why are they making a big deal of how people get around? Oh, right, they're not wording it in such a way that it's a descriptor of how these folks got around; they were using the pity-seeking "in a" phraseology. By some accounts they were even bound or confined to it. Must be hard to sleep or shower!
Oh, and yeah, it's also relevant as a descriptor of the circumstances -- person was sitting outside in a chair or using a chair to get somewhere, sure. But the person doesn't need to be referred to in every headline as "personinwheelchair."
"in wheelchair"
By Ron Newman
Sat, 05/22/2010 - 11:17pm
I'm assuming (maybe wrongly) that these two people were in fact physically IN wheelchairs when they were killed. Had they been on rollerskates instead, that fact also would have been worth noting.
Yes but...
By eeka
Sun, 05/23/2010 - 8:51am
Sure, it's fine for physical location. "Where's Bob?" "In the living room sitting in his wheelchair." But to describe how a person gets around, you call them someone who uses a wheelchair. They're not permanently attached to it. And even when describing location, it's probably better to say that they were using it, just to avoid the patronizing guyinawheelchair as if it's his entire identity.
Ex...
By anon and on
Sat, 05/22/2010 - 10:21pm
xactly.
Media Coverage caucasion or minority
By Terri
Mon, 05/24/2010 - 1:01pm
Adam, you are right on the mark! Thank you for speaking up and crystalizing the matter. People... NO TV news media covered the Watters story!! Repeat... NOT ONE STATION!! I'm sure Jihad has a mother and family that loves him dearly. I'm sure Bostonian have a right to be informed about occurances of shootings that may take place in any/all neighborhoods in Boston. Please open your heart, show a bit of humanity and take off the blinders. If the race card does not effect you, well... lucky you. That does not dismiss the fact that it is played daily. You have to live it to know it. But it is no excuse for your denial and blatant dismissal of a life you know nothing about.
Yes, we're scared! Its
By anon
Sun, 05/23/2010 - 9:31pm
Yes, we're scared! Its gang-related. Have you ever heard of retalliation?! None of our names needed to be divulged to the media. Any information we had, we gave to the police, and that is all we could do. It has nothing to do with being complacent about violence, and we certainly DID care about the man who was murdered. Drug dealer or not. You have to sit and ask yourself what YOU would do in a situation like Jihad's murder.
White woman not using wheelchair recaptured
By fenwayguy
Sun, 05/23/2010 - 12:48am
The cops had to chase Gina Giovangelo through the Wareham woods to bring her back to justice.
Man, this one's a piece of work.
Sunday night update
By adamg
Sun, 05/23/2010 - 11:41pm
Channel 5 just ran another story on the alleged hit-and-run escapee (breaking: She's still in jail). Nothing about Watters (of course), but also nothing about the mother of four shot to death in Dorchester. Coming up: Sarah Ferguson says something in a British accent.
Adam, I am Jihad's cousin and
By NBF
Tue, 05/25/2010 - 11:24pm
Adam, I am Jihad's cousin and I want to thank you for highlighting the issue of race as it relates to his story. Jihad was a son, brother and father and although he did have a troubled past and made mistakes, his death was unnecessary and devastating to both my family and our community. Race has definitely played a HUGE part in the coverage of his murdered. The sad part about this is so many are quick to dub my cousin as a "drug dealer", thus assuming this was gang related and he "got what was coming" but his past, while checkered, was just that, HIS PAST. People turn their lives around everyday. One mistake doesn't define your whole life. While I am not excusing his actions, they occurred years ago. The mere fact that he was in a wheelchair, on a porch, in broad daylight, bothering no one but still got shot in the head speaks to the state of our communities and, therefore, should be addressed on all local media outlets.
Adam, I met Jihad during his
By anon
Wed, 05/26/2010 - 7:05pm
Adam, I met Jihad during his physical therapy and he changed my life. He was an amazing person to me and I will always remember him for who he was to me, despite where he said he had been earlier in his life and the mistakes he had made years before. I was shocked and saddened to hear of his death. Rest in peace - such a ray of sunshine, always with a smile for me!
adam, i'm glad someone spoke for jihad
By anon
Thu, 05/27/2010 - 9:55pm
Adam,
I also met Jihad through his course of physical therapy and he was one of the best patients to ever come through that hospital. It angers me that the paper said it was gang related and tried to portray as if it were something that he had coming to him. I find it funny that so many people are making comments about the situation and referring to him as a "drug dealer" when I'm sure not one of these people knew him, even briefly. If you want to talk about race maybe all these people that are writing calling him a "drug dealer" or saying that he was in a gang should be addressing themselves and not the media. I bet if it was some white kid that was shot on his porch they wouldn't be so quick to say the same things about him. Everyone should have a little more respect for someone when they are killed considering that they cannot speak for themselves. Everyone needs to remember Jihad has a family that deserves to be treated with respect, especially at a time like this when they have lost someone who was working to hard to make a good life for himself and his family. His smile will be missed everyday.
Yea Im an ex girlfriend of
By anon
Fri, 08/20/2010 - 10:26pm
Yea Im an ex girlfriend of Jihad and might I add that he was an exceptional man. Did he have his faults? Raise ur hand if u dont... At the end of the day u can say wat u want but if u dont know him u cant speak bad about him and thats excatly wat the media always does to our urban society. It doesnt make sense. When people pass away they should b remembered for the good things. This is not the time to point the finger and depict wat Jihad did bad in his time on this earth. Instead this society should be coming together to unite as one and figh for justice in our communities. Here we have a young man that will never be able to watch his son grow into a young man. He will never be able to get married. Hug his mother or embrace his sister. This man was bruttaly mudered by some senseless coward. Look at the bigger picture, its not about black or white. Man or woman. color or creed. At the end of the day its about justice for both of these precious lives.