Tuesday, October 18, 2005

Isn't this interesting?

Rambix has previously published posts showing beyond the shadow of a doubt that the Red Star has scrubbed articles of any racial references, particularly when blacks are involved and the subject matter is negative.

What they don't count on is Rambix to offer side-by-side comparisons with articles from responsible news organizations, thus exposing their censorship.

Here is a very interesting case. First read the Eyewitness 5 News story of a Minneapolis charter school teacher who has pled guilty to criminal sexual conduct with minors. The story on the Channel 5 news website is titled "Alexander pleads guilty to sex with minors".

Twenty-seven-year-old Leonard Tyrone Alexander of Minneapolis was sentenced to more than nine years in prison, followed by five years of conditional release. County Attorney Amy Klobuchar said he must also register as a sex offender.

He taught hip-hop in an after-school program at the school, and officials said he would sometimes have girls come to his apartment to practice.
Now read the Red Star story about Mr. Alexander. The Red Star titles the story "Former teacher pleads guilty to sex with 2 girls".

Leonard T. Alexander, 27, was sentenced by Hennepin County District Judge Heidi Schellhas to nine years and two months in prison for first-degree criminal sexual conduct. Alexander taught dance and was a detention monitor at ChironSchool, which is now closed.
Rambix will try to be sensitive to the racial aspect of this example, but the racial component lies at the heart of the matter.

Here's the story within the story. When you read the Channel 5 story, you get a pretty full idea of who the criminal is. In fact, they include a photo, which appears to be the mug shot (see below). Even without the mug shot, the Channel 5 story contains two specific clues to Mr. Alexander's race: A name most typically associated with the black community: Tyrone, and the fact that he was a "hip-hop" teacher, an activity mostly associated with the black community.

The Red Star stripped the identifying racial information. They shortened "Tyrone" to "T". They took out "hip-hop" and used only the word "dance".

The Red Star appears to be conducting social engineering and misleading readers. By deleting certain identifying characteristics of predatory criminals, they place the public at risk. The public has the right to know who these people are, and yes, race is one component of identification. Did the Red Star do this on purpose? You can decide, but the evidence of willful alteration seems overwhelming.