Two days ago (March 16, 2021) a man walked into three massage parlors near Atlanta, Georgia. Robert Aaron Long, 21, shot and killed eight people, six of them Asian women.
Yesterday and today, the front pages (electronically, speaking) of the New York Times (NYT) and the Washington Post each presented several stories that multiplied the message that the shootings were racially motivated.
Among many stories about the shooting, another described how Asians frequently live in fear of racist attacks. The Post even ran a photo of Japanese Americans being herded into internment camps 80 years ago, during WWII.
In today’s NYT, it was reported “The House held its first hearing on anti-Asian discrimination in three decades after a gunman killed eight people at spas in Atlanta. President Biden will meet with community leaders there on Friday.”
All well and good, except for one minor issue. There is no evidence (so far) to indicate the shooter was motivated by racial hatred.
Robert Aaron Long claimed he has a sex addiction. The NYT quoted a CNN article that Long told police that he had a “sexual addiction” and the spas were “an outlet for him, something that he shouldn’t be doing.”
Long actually spent “about six months at a rehab center in Georgia… seeking treatment for sex addiction,” according to The Post.
But these facts about the killings were swamped by stories about the race of most of the victims. Has there been one story yet asking why Asian women predominated in the massage parlors where the shootings occurred, or if similar parlors nationwide have the same racial skew?
Both major papers seemed invested in the idea that the murders were racially motivated. Note that in the fourth paragraph above, the NYT left out that not all eight victims were Asian. The NYT also implied fault that there haven’t been more hearings on anti-Asian discrimination the last three decades…
In a wanton display of confirmation bias, The Post interviewed a Los Angeles psychiatrist who refuted what the shooter claimed was his motivation. The psychiatrist substituted as evidence his belief that sex addicts may destroy lives by their behavior, “But they’re not killing people.” Um, unless they are.
Okay, my conservative friends, while I had no trouble with the “lame stream” media when they were reporting on Trump, I have to admit that they sometimes shape our “dialogue” in ways that, even if just sloppy, can feel intentionally unfair.
Almost like they're pushing an agenda or something...