Amid the countless comparisons between Trayvon Martin and Australian jogger Chris Lane’s death, reports have erroneously identified the accused teen killers as black males – two with brown skin, one with light skin.
However, 17-year-old Michael Jones isn’t even what people would consider “light-skinned.” In fact, he’s not even black.
But in making a case that Rev. Al Sharpton and President Obama are illustrating a “double standard” by not advocating for Lane as they had Trayvon, a Fox and Friends segment described the three teens as black males, even though the photograph to accompany the segment showed two black teens and one white teen.
But the Daily Caller went even further, posting a fabricated line up of the “three black males” that shot and killed Lane. After realizing that the photograph of Michael Jones was incorrect, they showed viewers the real Jones, but still made a point to mention that he was “light,” not white.
Here’s what they had to say about the now “racially ambiguous” teenager:
This, of course, changes everything. Edwards and Luna are being charged with first-degree murder, whereas Jones is charged with “using a vehicle to facilitate the discharge of a weapon and accessory after the fact of murder in the first degree.”
There’s your angle, Rev. Al. The one with the lightest skin got the lightest charge. The one who looks the least like Obama will get the least punishment. Let the racebaiting begin.
Confusing, huh? Just to clear things up, a Duncan police source confirmed to Mediaite on Wednesday that Michael Jones is indeed a white male. So there you have it.
But theories about why the boys committed the crime (despite their race) are even more interesting. While we’re all infuriated by the senseless murder done out of “boredom,” Fox News is offering their own theory on why the boys chose to kill – too much abortion and Facebook, according to contributor Keith Ablow.
“We do have an epidemic of disconnectedness,” Ablow said, responding to a leading question from anchor Shannon Bream. “We have people saying they have hundreds of friends on Facebook, when those aren’t friends and we have people text messaging when in fact they are not reaching out to anybody, because they are sending their thoughts and feelings in the air, if you will”:
We have people on SecondLife.com simply adopting new identities and so we have a culture that is cheapening life, real life. And if in general, if you can’t outlaw third trimester abortions in every state, then you have part of the answer to why people don’t take life that seriously […] Facebook is the final common pathway for those people who are acting out in life and some of the people who are there are acting out their sexuality, other people are acting out how happy they are by posting all of these ridiculous pictures, where one is competing against the other to seem more content.
Interesting.
But the truth is, we may never know what triggered the killing. Maybe the gun violence culture in America, maybe the boys were misguided. Whatever the case, we do have this Vine, posted by one of the teens, that shows that he was obsessed with guns. And that may have been all the reason he needed to go out and shoot an innocent person.
As always, we send out condolences and prayers to Lane’s family and friends.
SOURCE: Mediaite | Think Progress | YouTube
