Ferguson focuses left-wing media on racism — and Fox

But for Salon, incidents such as the one in Ferguson, where an 18-year-old African-American, Michael Brown, was shot and killed last year by former police officer Darren Wilson, make the president’s words fall flat.

“[F]or a generation of us confronting the rollback of Voting Rights laws and the killings of young black men every time we turn around, it is not entirely clear to us whether the long awaited change has come,” Salon lamented in one article.

“For any who hoped to call the practices in Ferguson an isolated incident, the president invited them to ‘look around’ and draw another conclusion,” it continued. “Given how much virulent right-wing language policing has hobbled racial discourse in this country, particularly from our first black president, admitting that the events in Ferguson are not isolated is a hugely important intervention.”

In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, a narrative was concocted that Brown, who was unarmed, tried to surrender peacefully to Wilson, giving rise to the “Hands up don’t shoot!” protest movement.

Eyewitness accounts and evidence produced later show that Brown and Wilson had been in a physical altercation at the time of the shooting. But certain media outlets continue to cite the “Hands up, don’t shoot!” phrase without qualification.

CBS News’ Dean Reynolds, for example, during a March 9 newscast filmed in the Wisconsin state capitol referred to the protesters repeatedly saying, “Hands up, don’t shoot” as a “familiar chant.” He failed to note that the familiar chant is based entirely in a fabricated account of what happened. Similarly, ABC News and NBC News that same week featured protesters chanting “Hands up don’t shoot!,” again without noting that the phrase was born of a false narrative.

Wilson was not charged with a crime and the Justice Department has announced that its investigation found no reason to bring civil rights charges against him. Wilson left the police force in 2014. Ferguson’s police chief has also resigned.

Salon is critical of conservative media’s take on Ferguson, especially of remarks made by Fox News hosts and guests.

“Sean Hannity tries to humiliate Ferguson protester in stunningly condescending interview,” read one headline, referring to a contentious interview Wednesday evening with a protester named Ivory Ned.

Meanwhile, Mother Jones has focused mostly on how Ferguson represents a larger issue of racial inequality.

In an article titled “Ferguson Official Stated President Obama Wouldn’t Last Long ‘Because What Black Man Holds a Steady Job for Four Years,'” Mother Jones underscored some of the more troubling findings in the Justice Department’s investigation into alleged racial discrimination in Ferguson.

Another article, titled “More Racist Things Ferguson Officials Did,” emphasized more of the same.

And like Salon, Mother Jones has also taken issue with Fox News’ coverage of the Ferguson issue, publishing one article titled “How Fox News Ran With Bogus Testimony Given to the Ferguson Grand Jury.”

“On December 8, St. Louis County Prosecutor Robert McCulloch released additional details about the grand jury documents his office made public last month after no charges were brought against Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of Michael Brown,” Mother Jones reported. “As a result, more details have come to light showing that the testimony of one particular grand jury witness was a sham — testimony that was repeatedly touted by Fox News’ Sean Hannity and other pundits who defended Wilson and the grand jury’s decision.”

Likewise, Talking Points Memo also criticized Fox News’ coverage this week of the wounding of two Ferguson police officers who were shot during a demonstration. The online news group flagged remarks made by Fox hosts in an article titled, “Fox Ties Holder’s Ferguson Criticism To Cop Shootings: ‘Is This What He Meant?'”

Fox News’ Megyn Kelly, retorted in a monologue Wednesday that it’s not Fox but other outlets that have failed in their reporting on Ferguson.

“Enough is enough!” she said. “Institutional racism is a real problem, but fanning the flames, rushing to judgment and failing to provide context is also deeply problematic and dangerous. And it needs to stop. Everyone needs to be more responsible in how they approach this issue.”

Vox, a so-called “explainer” news website, has worked like Mother Jones to underscore that there are bigger implications to Michael Brown’s death.

It referred in one article to the investigation that brought no charges against Wilson as “deeply flawed” and “biased.” In another it suggested that Ferguson officials “fix its race problems” and “stop letting officers arrest whoever they want.”

One Vox article even targeted the Second Amendment as one of the key problems in towns like Ferguson.

On cable news, MSNBC has used the recent unrest in Ferguson to renew several points made last year, namely, that race problems are deep seated and policing needs reform in the small Missouri town.

“What about disarming the police?” MSNBC’s Ed Schultz asked this week during a discussion on the Justice Department’s Ferguson findings. “What about just having them carry nightsticks and the authority to arrest? It would take a brave person to do something like that. But there are places on the face of this earth where there are police officers that don’t carry firearms.

“I know the right wing’s going to think I’m crazy for saying that but if you really want change, you have to institutionally show it to the people that you want to do this.”

Ferguson was linked by MSNBC’s Chris Hayes to a recent video showing members of the University of Oklahoma chapter of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity chanting a racist rant, and worried about deep-rooted racism.

He said one-off moments where what appears to be blatant racism result in a few expulsions or firings, but fails to get at the heart of the matter.