ABC Nightly News Presents 3 "different" stories featuring black people

The ABC evening news presented several stories one evening this week.  The stories all related to black people.  The first story was related to the discovery of a “compound” allegedly built by or with the help of a black couple.  Somehow the story line turned to a comment that children were being taught to conduct school shootings.  The inference was black people were somehow being taught to target European American schools.  As far as I recall none of the school shootings have involved a black person as a shooter.  So why is someone now trying to tie in black people to school shootings?  It was as if someone was purposely trying to move the discussion on the causes of school shootings into the “black” lane.

A second story was related to a video of a couple of teens harassing and kicking an older foreign man.  One of the teens was black.  Ironically the father of the teen was a black police chief.  The story closed with a comment that the black teen’s actions were being investigated as a hate crime.  Another reversal.  A black person being investigated for a hate crime.  Hate crimes were designed to protect minorities.

The last story was about a white man saving a black teenager from drowning.  A white male coming to the rescue of a black person.

The sequence of stories and the fact that there were three stories featuring black people seemed strange.  Producers of the news make decisions on which stories will be featured in the 25 minutes or so allotted.  Each story appeared to have a theme.  Blacks overseeing the training of kids to become school shooters.    Black people perform hate crimes.  White people are the saviors of black people. 

  We know that the truth normally is that school shooters have been white males and typically have attacked European American middle class and upper class schools.  Minorities are normally the victims of hate crimes.  White people typically do not worry about the lives of black people.

What the news shows viewers has great influence.  It influences thought, beliefs, and follow up actions.  The producer of the news apparently had a story that he wanted to be told.  Another viewpoint related to black people that he wanted to present.  So viewers just understand that people also have underlying reasons for showing certain stories with a different view.  It could be that people are trying to divert you from the truth.