Sigh...

Aug. 30th, 2005 03:18 pm
pecunium: (Default)
[personal profile] pecunium
What's wrong with these pictures?





Nothing, right?

Well, if you go and look at them here and here you will see that the couple in the first picture are just grabbing needed food, where the kid in the second has looted a grocery.

The only differences I can see between them are the color of their skin, and the bag of food the kid has (and the guy has a knapsack, so it's possible they have more than a "bottle of milk, a loaf of bread and come home right away." Absent knowledge of what's in the bag, and of how many people the kid might be taking it too; or of when he might be rescued, I'm willing to cut him the same slack the ones in the top picture get.

The food in those groceries is doomed. The perishables will perish and the semi-durable (canned goods) will probably be unsalvageable by the time they get the waters out of the city for not only are the pumps not capable of more than an inch an hour (as I recall reading) but they put the water into Lake Ponchartrain, which would be, until they repair the levee breaches, a Sysiphean task, since it will just run right back into town, charging anyone with looting; for food, is pointless, but the distinctions made here... sigh.



hit counter

Date: 2005-08-30 11:09 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] spimby.livejournal.com
"She looks non-white but one can not judge by the picture."

Well, that is what we're all doing, isn't it?

Date: 2005-08-30 11:10 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] batagur.livejournal.com
I don't know. Are you?

Date: 2005-08-30 11:14 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] spimby.livejournal.com
"I don't know. Are you?"

Uh, no. I'm not the one suggesting that one of these pictures was tagged "looting" simply because it's the one with the darkest skin in it.

Date: 2005-08-30 11:16 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] batagur.livejournal.com
No body in either picture 'bought' those groceries. Why aren't they all looters?

Date: 2005-08-30 11:18 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] spimby.livejournal.com
I have no idea. Absent knowledge, I'm not going to start inventing theories about it that fit my biases.

Date: 2005-08-30 11:33 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] batagur.livejournal.com
Very true. And yet, the editors of the news service did not catch the fact that they have allowed the labeled of looter to go on one lone individual while allowing the other individuals (one obviously white and the other most likely not) to be spared such labels perhaps fitting their bias.

I can see this. Perhaps you cannot. That doesn't mean there is anything wrong with you. Perhaps one could say that you are less cynical of the press than the other people commenting here. Nevertheless, because it can be perceived as a biased portrayal by a large segment of the audience, it should have been seen as inappropriate by the editors.

Date: 2005-08-30 11:47 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] pecunium.livejournal.com
Well, I don't know that they came from the same agency. To be fair to Yahoo they may not check cutlines.

CNN did (most likely because this is, prima facie a libelous cutline) and Yahoo should have.

TK

image sources

Date: 2005-08-31 10:37 pm (UTC)
ext_481: origami crane (Default)
From: [identity profile] pir-anha.livejournal.com
i saw these images first on flickr, with the text attached in a screenshot (http://flickr.com/photos/firewall/38725768/in/photostream/). they didn't come from the same agency; one came from AP, the other from AFP.

Re: image sources

Date: 2005-08-31 11:17 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] pecunium.livejournal.com
No, but AFP ran a picture with a black woman, and called her a looter.

So it still applies.

TK

Re: image sources

Date: 2005-09-01 12:21 am (UTC)
ext_481: origami crane (Default)
From: [identity profile] pir-anha.livejournal.com
FWIW, i wasn't disagreeing with you, just providing information.

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