Jezebel 
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New York, 10:15 AM
Sun Nov 22
23 posts in the last 24 hours
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11/12/09
However, if a misreporting of the facts continues (and I predict it will) then that will be entirely based on racism in my opinion. #forthood
11/12/09
That's called business as usual - they never admit mistakes. #forthood
11/12/09
This woman was shot in the line of duty while behaving heroically. Now that you've bungled the PR on this, it's less likely Angelina Jolie will play the role, but if you had thought about it more carefully and waited to reveal the true, confirmed story, you might have been able to get Angie and added in Brad Pitt to play the equally heroic partner! #forthood
11/12/09
11/12/09
11/12/09
Also, the press is going to bark along after whatever they get and the public only remembers the first thing anyone says to it, so I take that silliness as default behavior. #forthood
11/12/09
11/12/09
But life is not an action movie, and what matters is he got stopped. And the media's handling of this narrative is really pissing me off. "You're so short and little, why not call for help Sgt. Munley?" "Well, Ann Curry, I consulted our LadyCop Help Matrix and while I am short and petite, I was not on my period and therefore felt I could handle it." #forthood
11/12/09
I'm hope both officers get the credit they deserve. Well done by all. #forthood
11/12/09
They're both heroes, none the less, but yeah, wish the media would stop trying to create the narrative so quickly. #forthood
11/12/09
Then the other side is that a story about a black man winning the battle against another not-white man isn't as heroic and picturesque. Black men with guns are scary, right, and so to tell the story of a black man with a gun would bring to mind too many scary associations for the story to be worthwhile.
So highlighting the white woman's role and at the same time downplaying the black man's role play into the same whirlwind of racist and sexist associations that the media inevitably buys into and perpetuates. But it certainly isn't conscious--I doubt anyone heard the whole story and adjusted it for their own reporting. I think probably there were indications that the reported story wasn't the whole truth, but those gaps weren't questioned or pushed because the half-truth fit into an already conveniently formed narrative.
Whatever. Both of these people are bad ass. #forthood
11/12/09
11/12/09
1. Almost all of the initial reports from the Fort Hood shootings were wrong. There were reports that Hasan was dead, that there were two or three shooters, and that his name wasn't even his name. I am not surprised that reports on who actually took down Hasan would be all mangled as well. It would actually be par for the course.
2. It made for a cool narrative. The image of a physically small, highly trained woman hunting down and shooting an armed and dangerous mass murderer gave me a bit of a thrill, I'll admit, especially as it is not the kind of story we are used to hearing about. I can see why news people have run with it, because it seems to be one of those man-bites-dog stories with a bit of a girl-power (as much as I hate that term) sensibility tossed in. Of course, as cool as we might find a narrative to be, if it's not what actually happened, it should not be reported as fact. Unfortunately journalists all too often see narratives they like or understand, then will turn and try to cram the facts to fit those storylines rather than letting the storyline unfold organically. (I see this all the time in my own newsroom.) If we want to only write and talk about cool shit, then we need to go write fiction or something and leave the reporting to actual reporters. #forthood
11/12/09
11/12/09
11/12/09
Size doesn't matter asshat Curry. #forthood
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11/12/09
Only Lynch was a soldier in combat in Iraq, and Munley's a cop.
TOTAL media play, IMO. (No offense, Army) #forthood
11/12/09
The questions the media asks in these situations are the stupidest fucking questions I have ever heard. The dude was yards away from her, and she was armed. Who the fuck would think about how much they weigh, and how tall they are in that situation? Was her train of thought supposed to travel from dude shooting people in front of her to her stature before she made the decision to act because she is a woman? No one EVER asks men these questions. It's like people honestly feel that women in law enforcement, and the military think of nothing besides their gender and size all day.
11/12/09
11/12/09
11/12/09
*sigh* Ann Curry is such a disappointment. #forthood
11/12/09
Isn't Todd is a civilian cop?
And Munley an MP?
As attractive as sexism and racism are, it would be difficult, I think, for the military to get behind that a civilian cop brought down a shooter when an MP/ battalion could not.
That said, I imagine that it all likely happened so fast that it actually is difficult to determine who brought the guy down. #forthood
11/12/09
Edit: Yeah, she's a civilian, too. Here's the link: [www.msnbc.msn.com]
11/12/09
09/01/09
09/01/09
When my friend hit her mid 60s, instead of getting a facelift or becoming invisible, she went back to school to get her Masters degree in gerontology. She spent the last 25 years of her life as a social worker and activist for the rights of elders.
The one theme I saw in most of the clips above, as well as in many of the comments was that people did not want to look old because being old equals being irrelevant.
In honor of my friend, I would like to call ‘bullshit’ on that idea.
Don’t want to become irrelevant as you age? Stop trying to pretend that ageing doesn’t happen…
Maybe if our culture didn’t have such a deep seeded phobia about ageing, we could rationally discuss a health care reform bill that includes a provision that offers senior citizens access to counseling on how to plan for their care as they age without people crawling out of the woodwork saying that Obama wants to euthanize the elderly.