The Double Standard in the Media

Diamond Jeune
dj415715@ohio.edu

static1.squarespace.com

The media has a way of informing us as the audience at times, but sometimes the media has a way of rearing its ugly head. Whenever there is a huge tragedy that rocks the nation to its core. In cases such as 9/11, it is known as a terrorist attack, but when mass shootings such as those in Las Vegas, Charleston, and Sandy Hook it is defined as a tragic, unfortunate event.

The definition of a terrorist is a person who unlawfully uses violence, especially against civilians in pursuit of political aims.  We may not know the intentions behind such attacks and one does not take away from the other. The goal is to simply inform. We live in a world that humanizes white males after they commit horrific crimes.  After the shooting that killed more than 50 people and injuring about 500 individuals in Las Vegas, Stephen Paddock was still seen as the victim rather then the perpetrator.

The same thing occurred with Dylan Roof who killed nine people in a church in Charleston. He wasn't seen as a horrific monster he was seen as someone who was mentally ill after admitting to the judge that there was nothing wrong with him and that he did not feel an ounce of remorse for killing 9 men and women.

The reaction that is given to those men is not given to those who tragically lose their lives because of someone's evil intention. Case in point, Trayvon Martin. He was a 17-year-old boy who was shot and killed in Florida by a man who felt his life was in danger by an unarmed black man. Martin was portrayed as a thug, and his image was tainted by the sole reason that he smoked weed. It was brought up maybe once or twice that Martin was an honor student, who had dreams of being an astronaut.  It also occurred with Eric Garner a man who was killed after selling loose cigarettes. After his death a detailed description of his criminal history was center stage for everyone to see, rather then having the audience acknowledge that this man was murdered on camera for nothing.

The media is meant to inform and help us get the answers, but one question still remains unanswered, when it be okay to name a killer as what they are, a terrorist.