I have also felt like this about the Jena case:
"What The Hell Happened in Jena? I haven't commented because, frankly, I am still unsure of all the details of the case..."
Writes Andrew Sullivan, expressing my thoughts exactly. I keep reading the news stories and intending to blog, but each time I end up searching in vain for the facts I need to understand it enough to begin to write about it. The reporting on this story is atrocious. It's all updates with no background. So, I'm wondering not only what happened in Jena, but why is the press reporting it this way?
It's just become another vehicle for all of us to throw our racial baggage into. So we get Jesse Jaccskon and Al Sharpton rushing in to play the role of Neil Young, who favored us all with his wise Canadian take on Southern American racism. And we have people like this guy, doing the Lynyrd Skynyrd, "Sweet Home Alabama," Neil-Young-isn't-the-boss-of-us rebuttal. In the process, Jena becomes the symbol of Jim Crow America. I heard a minister from Jena on NPR the other day lamenting the reputation his town now has.
You remember the Vernon Jordan incident. When he got shot here, Fort Wayne's reputation took a bit of a beating. It in today's Internet-driven climate, we'd be getting trashed in like fashion.
