cross-posted at skippy and a veritable cornucopia of other community blogs.
via jon swift guesting at c&l, we find pam's house blend having a quite astute realization that none, that would be zero, zip, zilch, nada, goose egg, null set, absence of anything, of the big box blogs have had anything to say about the jena 6:
chris kromm of the institute for southern studies and its blog facing south, is appalled, rightfully so, at the sparse coverage of the historic march for justice in jena, lousiana.
it's not to say that it isn't being covered in the blogosphere at all -- black bloggers have largely been responsible for the high profile of this case, picking up the ball where the melanin-challenged blogs of influence have dropped it. you'd think that the events today, which are being covered by the msm, would mean that the story is now mainstream blogworthy, but you would be wrong. chris:
dailykos features a handful of posts about injustice in iraq today -- but not a single entry on its main page, or even its user-generated "diaries," about this important case.
talkingpointsmemo, a favorite of the dc wonk set, is similarly incensed about foreign policy, but apparently not about racial justice in the south -- nothing there either.
long-time progressive blogger atrios doesn't have a lot of posts up,but found time to touch on paul krugman, iraq and the state of the euro -- but not this major issue.
surely talkleft -- which has positioned itself as the leading progressive blog about criminal justice issues -- would have something? think again -- not a single mention, not even in the quick news briefs!
what about another progressive favorite, firedoglake? a rant about republicans being "little bitches," but nothing on the jena 6.
when the jena 6 does make an appearance on progressive blogs today, it's little more than a passing nod. huffington post has a blog post buried below the fold; thinkprogress gives it a two-sentence news brief.
[ed. note: the today pam refers to is last thursday, the day of the huge march and demonstration in jena]
however, many of these blogs are eagerly pointing to news stories which suggest the republican candidates don't care about black issues.
[btw, nothing's up at americablog either, to be fair. my guest blogging stint is by and large up.] what is the explanation? oh, i could think of several, but overt racism isn't one of them. i have a couple of theories.
her theories are not kind (not that they should be), but worthy of thought. we suggest you go read her rant en toto (and dorothy, too), and the comments left thereon.
we admit we were late to the party ourselves, at first employing the instapundit excuse (duh! too complicated fer our little brains! hyuk! hyuk!), but then we found (via susie madrak) the great background piece by gil kaufman on mtv news, which was succinct, thorough, well-laid out, and easy to follow.
(commenters on pam's blog also point out msnbc's piece, also quite comprehensive.)
now, it is, to be fair, 4 days after the massive march, but some of those big box blogs have jumped on the bandwagon:
talkleft has three posts, including one "jena six thread";
c&l, our fav bbb, has seven posts, three of which are blog round-up compilations, all guested by non-staff members [ed. note: it turns out blue gal has been promoted to front page status at c&l, making our assertion of "guested by non-staff members" wrong, and our congratulations to her overdue];
tpm has one, count 'em, one story, about how fred thompson is out of the loop on the jena six (hello, pot? this is kettle...)
tpm cafe has one;
dkos (aside from the facing south cross-post pam alluded to) has three front page stories which include the words "jena six," two of which are open threads (but several, upwards to 50, diaries by members, including some asking why blogtopia* is so lax about this story);
fdl has one story, but at least it is from the ground at jena, and pam reports that jane told her there were technical difficulties getting the report from the blogger in jena;
huffpo cross-posted susie's piece, and had another post;
way down at the bottom of the list, americablog has zero, still; and, to a lesser extent, duncan.
go back to the comments section on pam's house blend and there you will find plenty of smaller blogs plugging their own efforts. it does seem to us that here the smaller entities in blogtopia* have picked up the ball dropped by the bbb.
another reason to keep clicking those links to the esoteric blogs you've never heard of before.
now, we're not about to accuse anybody in blogtopia* of unconscious bigotry. that would be easy. and we hate unconscious bigots. we'll never rent to them, or let them into our schools.
but it seems to us, that if we are to call ourselves progressives, it behooves us all to make the extra effort to be inclusive. and for god's sake, how hard can that be in this case? all you have to do is do some reading, and make a frickin' link, and voila! your readers become a little more aware of a tragic situation that the mmm is refusing to delve deeply into.
*and yes, we coined that phrase!
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