I have been involved with the preservation and education of Southern Heritage for as long as I can remember and have had numerous encounters with the media and with these encounters one gains much experience in the art of how the media operates. Still, even with experience the level of bias shown by media outlets today is shocking. Legitimacy to those of the far left is freely given while the same courtesy is not extended to conservatives (especially those of the Southern variety).
Recent years have seen the unthinkable, the tearing down of monuments to those who fought for the Confederacy. It happened in St. Louis, Missouri , New Orleans, Louisiana, Dallas, Texas , Baltimore, Maryland and other sites throughout the South spurred on by Dylan Roof’s 2015 shooting spree of an African-American church in Charleston, South Carolina. The reason for the backlash? A photo of Roof on a social media account posing with a Confederate flag.
This in turn inspired the attempted removal of the statues of Robert E. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson in Charlottesville, Virginia by Charlottesville Councilman West Bellamy resulting in public backlash opposing his attempts. While the media wasted no time in giving Bellamy a platform to promote the destruction of historic monuments, they had little to say about the discovery of Bellamy’s racist comments on social media.
All of this combined with Bellamy’s treatment of local citizens at council meetings created the perfect environment for a political wildfire that was lit on August 12, 2017 when organizers of “The Unite the Right” rally met that day with their supporters.
While those on the “right” had legally obtained a permit to hold a rally, the “left” decided to crash the party and brought with them items such as pepper spray and bags of urine to hurl at those they did not agree with.
As usual the media did not focus on those breaking the law, deciding to stick to the script of blaming the Confederate flag.
Recent years have seen the unthinkable, the tearing down of monuments to those who fought for the Confederacy. It happened in St. Louis, Missouri , New Orleans, Louisiana, Dallas, Texas , Baltimore, Maryland and other sites throughout the South spurred on by Dylan Roof’s 2015 shooting spree of an African-American church in Charleston, South Carolina. The reason for the backlash? A photo of Roof on a social media account posing with a Confederate flag.
This in turn inspired the attempted removal of the statues of Robert E. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson in Charlottesville, Virginia by Charlottesville Councilman West Bellamy resulting in public backlash opposing his attempts. While the media wasted no time in giving Bellamy a platform to promote the destruction of historic monuments, they had little to say about the discovery of Bellamy’s racist comments on social media.
All of this combined with Bellamy’s treatment of local citizens at council meetings created the perfect environment for a political wildfire that was lit on August 12, 2017 when organizers of “The Unite the Right” rally met that day with their supporters.
While those on the “right” had legally obtained a permit to hold a rally, the “left” decided to crash the party and brought with them items such as pepper spray and bags of urine to hurl at those they did not agree with.
As usual the media did not focus on those breaking the law, deciding to stick to the script of blaming the Confederate flag.
So let me get to the point and offer some examples of how to deal with the media.
All of the examples I noted previously in the article have been incidents which happened in cities and made national news. This does not mean that local media and small town newspapers have not been handed the talking points on how to handle news regarding Southern heritage.
Allow me to share two examples which happened to me recently.
The Sons of Confederate Veterans camp I belong to planned a Confederate Memorial Day service at a local Civil War cemetery. I created an “event” on Facebook for it and was contacted by a reporter from KFVS news.
The reporter asked me to tell her about the event. Suspecting something more than curiosity as her motive I informed her that I would answer her questions if she agreed to my stipulations which included:
It was at this time the reporter revealed that a “concerned caller” had contacted the TV station about the event. When I asked why she had not been forthcoming with this information she replied that she was just “curious” and thanked me for my time.
I also posted a link to our event on The Banner Press (my local paper) Facebook page. A few days ago I sent a group photo from our event to the editor for publication. I received a reply stating that my link to the event was removed because “someone” had called the paper and stated that our camp had “declared war” on the United States in a post on our Facebook page.
I demanded she show me where we did such a thing , at which time she stated she was busy and saw the post herself and she would “get back with me later”.
I can only assume that both the editor and the concerned citizen saw a posted quote describing the reasons for Missouri’s secession. I can also assume that since this was a particularly long quote that neither the editor nor the upset party failed to click on the “more” link for if they had they would have realized the quote was from Missouri Governor Claiborne Fox Jackson in 1861 and that the post was nothing more than our camp sharing a piece of Missouri history.
This is the extent to which the media is willing to go. If they can not misrepresent us in their coverage they will silence us through omission and insult us privately. Here is one of the many messages I received from Banner Press Editor Julie Pruitt:
That's right. The editor of The Banner Press newspaper compared Confederate descendants to ISIS.
All of the examples I noted previously in the article have been incidents which happened in cities and made national news. This does not mean that local media and small town newspapers have not been handed the talking points on how to handle news regarding Southern heritage.
Allow me to share two examples which happened to me recently.
The Sons of Confederate Veterans camp I belong to planned a Confederate Memorial Day service at a local Civil War cemetery. I created an “event” on Facebook for it and was contacted by a reporter from KFVS news.
The reporter asked me to tell her about the event. Suspecting something more than curiosity as her motive I informed her that I would answer her questions if she agreed to my stipulations which included:
- No denigrating of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.
- No denigrating of Confederate Veterans
- No cherry picking individuals to interview after the coverage of our event
It was at this time the reporter revealed that a “concerned caller” had contacted the TV station about the event. When I asked why she had not been forthcoming with this information she replied that she was just “curious” and thanked me for my time.
I also posted a link to our event on The Banner Press (my local paper) Facebook page. A few days ago I sent a group photo from our event to the editor for publication. I received a reply stating that my link to the event was removed because “someone” had called the paper and stated that our camp had “declared war” on the United States in a post on our Facebook page.
I demanded she show me where we did such a thing , at which time she stated she was busy and saw the post herself and she would “get back with me later”.
I can only assume that both the editor and the concerned citizen saw a posted quote describing the reasons for Missouri’s secession. I can also assume that since this was a particularly long quote that neither the editor nor the upset party failed to click on the “more” link for if they had they would have realized the quote was from Missouri Governor Claiborne Fox Jackson in 1861 and that the post was nothing more than our camp sharing a piece of Missouri history.
This is the extent to which the media is willing to go. If they can not misrepresent us in their coverage they will silence us through omission and insult us privately. Here is one of the many messages I received from Banner Press Editor Julie Pruitt:
We are devoted to preserving history , while she has taken a stand to erase it.
So who is the real traitor? Who is more like ISIS?
It is time that we as descendants of honorable American soldiers demand the media accept OUR terms before granting any interviews. If they choose the omission option that is fine because there are many other outlets in which we can share information. We are no longer confined or dependent on traditional media. For the record, I still have not heard from the Banner Press.
So who is the real traitor? Who is more like ISIS?
It is time that we as descendants of honorable American soldiers demand the media accept OUR terms before granting any interviews. If they choose the omission option that is fine because there are many other outlets in which we can share information. We are no longer confined or dependent on traditional media. For the record, I still have not heard from the Banner Press.
This is the post in question. For the record it is a quote from Claiborne Fox Jackson, Governor of Missouri at the outbreak of the War. Nothing more, nothing less. It is merely an historical quote:
Oh so typical. Posterity will curse these traitors for the Judas-Goats that they are, but in the mean time, we can still avail ourselves of every opportunity to get the message out, and be more savvy about handling presstitutes with each act of censorship and libel they commit.
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