Carroll: Gates Case Brings Out The ‘Most’ In Media

July 28, 2009

Cambridge Police Sgt. James Crowley listens to questions from members of the media at his home in Natick, Mass., the day after he arrested black Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. on disorderly conduct charges. (AP Photo)

Cambridge Police Sgt. James Crowley listens to questions from members of the media at his home in Natick, Mass., days after his controversial arrest of black Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. on a disorderly conduct charge. The charge was dropped, but the news coverage has continued full blast. (AP Photo)

Of all the ridiculous statements made in the news coverage of Gates-Gate, perhaps the most ridiculous is what Henry Louis Gates Jr. himself said to the Associated Press this past weekend.

“In the end, this is not about me at all,” Gates told the AP. No disrespect, Professor Gates, but this has been entirely about you. And that’s exactly the way the news media wanted it.

Across the media spectrum, Gates’ journey from his house to the Big House has turned into a Chinstroker Full Employment Act. It opened the floodgates for umpteen legal experts, academics, political pundits and furrow-browed news anchors to go around the maypole over the implications, ramifications, and teaching moment-ications of what all agree was “a regrettable incident.”

But that’s not what’s really regrettable, according to a New York Times op-ed piece by Brown University professor Glenn Loury about the news coverage of the Gates story.

“The ubiquity of this narrative shows that we are incapable of talking straight with one another about race,” Loury wrote. “And this much-publicized incident,” he added, “is emblematic of precisely nothing at all.”

The real talking point, Loury wrote, should be “the plight of the millions of black men on society’s margins who bear the brunt of police scrutiny and government-sanctioned coercion.”

And the first topic of discussion should be: Is that true? Do millions of black men bear the brunt of police scrutiny and government-sanctioned coercion? Discuss among yourselves, please, at length and in detail.

Instead it’s been Gatesapalooza festooning the front pages for the past two weeks. By now, thankfully, the chin-strokerati are down to seeds and stems. Last Sunday’s Times actually failed to run a Gates update on Page 1, although a thumbsucker on the story did sit atop the Week in Review’s front page.

Can’t we all just agree that at this point, it’s “Katie, bar the Gates.”

Lynne Weiss

What is a “thumbsucker” as in, “a thumbsucker on the story did sit atop the Week in Review’s front page.”?
David Kimball

The issue here isn’t about Racism, but rather Conflict Management. The policeman did act stupidly. So did Gates. And so did Obama. All of them violated the principles of Conflict Management. However the policeman should be trained in Conflict Management – especdially in dealing in situations where another person has not been trained. Did the policeman flagrantly violate the principles? Or was the Cambridge Police Department derelict in providing Conflict Management training?
Nina

Racism will end when people like Mr. Gates find something other than their skin color to define themselves by. This is becoming increasingly out of vogue; Mr. Gates should move into the new millenium where people are no longer defining themselves in this way.
Steve

The police managed the conflict. They asked him twice to calm down and he didn’t and went to jail for it. End of conflict. Seems to me that is the way to handle someone that won’t listen to authority. Kinda like when you were a kid and would not listen to your parents. You were sent to your room and grounded. If you don’t want to act like an adult expect to get grounded at the crowbar motel.
Heather Cole

e voila! James Carroll and his very thoughtful commenters, among them all, have said just what I wish had constituted the entirety of discussion of this non-news event. I’m sorry I have come to this story/comment sequence so late. It would have saved me many hours — most of them spent in too much involuntary listening time — had i found it earlier. Thank you.
Liberaltarian

Since when do we get arrested for not being calm? Take race away for a moment. The question at hand is whether we are losing our liberties to the police. There are many examples of citizens being arrested or detained for no good reason other than that they attracted the negative attention of the police – even Bob Dylan was not immune! Some have been framed in order to cover up misdeeds of the police or to punish them. A common thread in these incidents is the sense on the part of the officers involved that we, the people, owe them complete deference; and that they can get away with anything. Law and order conservatives ought to be concerned about more than just the 2nd amendment right, and the American people should not be afraid of their police forces!