Editor&Publisher: Local Papers Report More Anti-Obama Incidents

[DeepModem Mom]

Local Papers Report More Anti-Obama Incidents
By Dexter Hill
Published: November 14, 2008

NEW YORK Earlier this week we started covering anti-Obama, often racist, incidents taking place around the country, generally overlooked in the national media -- but covered by local papers. This seemed to strike a nerve with many readers so we will continue regular updates. Local stories show that anti-Obama incidents (including physical and verbal abuse, KKK outfits worn, flags burned on front lawns) are occurring on both sides of the Mason-Dixon line.

From the Orange County (Ca.) Register, concerning an incident in Fullerton: "Two gang members pleaded not guilty Thursday to hate crime and attempted robbery charges in connection with the beating of a black man who was trying to buy cigarettes at a Fullerton liquor store." The two men shouted racial and anti-Obama epithets in the attack.

In Idaho, the Secret Service is investigating a “public hanging” sign erected by a man upset with the election outcome, the Bonner County Daily Bee (Sandpoint) reported Thursday. A handmade sign posted on a tree reads “FREE PUBLIC HANGING” written in large letters beneath a noose fashioned from nylon rope. The sign then names former Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, current U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and civil rights activist Al Sharpton. The most prominent name on the sign is “OBAMA,” according to the Bee. "That's a political statement. They can call it whatever they want, a threat or whatever," the creator of the sign, Ken Germana, told the Bee. Germana denied any intentional racial tone to his sign but admitted he would not lose sleep if harm did come Obama’s way, according to the Bee.

In Mississippi alone, the American Civil Liberties Union has received more than 10 calls since the staff first reported anti-Obama incidents last Friday, according to the Jackson (Miss.) Free Press. One call was from a middle school vice principal, who claimed that teachers at the school had banned students from talking about the election in class, threatening any student who violated the rule with after-school detention, according to the Press. The school administrator had taken care of the situation but called the ACLU about the legality of the teachers’ censorship.

At the University of Texas in Austin, a racist post on Facebook has cost one student his place on the university football team, according to the Houston Chronicle. Buck Burnette, a sophomore offensive lineman for the fourth-ranked Texas Longhorns, was dismissed from the team on Nov. 5 after posting a racist remark about President-elect Obama as his “status” on the social networking Web site. Burnette posted: “All the hunters gather up, we have a (slur) in the White House,” the Chronicle reported....

AP reports today: "While the world watched a Grant Park celebration heralding the election of the first black U.S. president, some white Chicago police officers committed hate crimes against black residents cheering Barack Obama's victory elsewhere in the city, attorneys alleged Thursday."

In Oswego, New York, police are investigating whether a fight outside a pizza shop that left a SUNY-Oswego student hospitalized was sparked by remarks said about Obama....

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003891304

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Previous E&P Report:

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003890511

[bdamomma]

1. again, the national media is just not doing its job, and reporting on

this, dangerous. These people need to be reported to the authorities if they are advocating harm to an elected official.

[AspenRose]

2. Time to send the SPLC some money

*sigh*