Blue Mass Group

London’s Daily Mirror has this story and photo in yesterday’s edition. The headline tells of a “Dramatic Moment When Man Stabbed at Notting Hill Carnival”. Here’s what happened. Some punk stabbed most likely another punk at a Caribbean street festival across the pond. The stabbing had an audience including some bobbies who eventually gave chase to the knife wielding chap. But the hero was an old timer who came out of nowhere and, with a camera in one hand and a couple of plastic shopping bags in the other, stuck his left foot out and bloody thwarted the escape.

What makes this great is a that a news photographer from Getty pictures got the perfect shot showing the guy running with knife in hand, the old guy and his shoe about to finish the trip, the victim in the background standing with apparent stab wound on his side, an English cop with hands on hips watching as the culprit sprints away and another starting to run towards the victim. The face of the culprit was edited so he could not be identified. (Crazy code of British journalists I guess) The stabbing probably happened literally, and I mean literally, three seconds before the pic. Pulitzer stuff.

Yesterday’s Globe ran another photo of the same event in the Daily Briefing section on page A3. I have a copy of it in front of me now. It was taken by the same photographer about a half-second after the one in the Daily Mirror. I cannot find it online.

Okay, finally, the punch line. The Associated Press story that ran with the photo centered on increased police presence at the Carnival resulting in fewer arrests than expected. No mention of the stabbing. The photo published in the Globe showed the guy’s face but did not show the knife. It’s there, but not noticeable. The photo caption reads

“A man sidestepped someone trying to trip him at Notting Hill Carnival yesterday in London. More officers translated into fewer arrests this year at the Caribbean festival.”

Hey, what’s going on here? The Globe and the AP, names we can trust in journalism. Right? Just ask them. Did I mention the guy with the knife was black? The victim was black. Everyone else was white. What does that mean? I do not know. Just wondering if someone at the Globe or AP thought the photo conjured up too many racist images. Not sure.

But talk about seeing what you want to see regardless of the evidence.

Next up the Boston Herald. According to the police report Obama’s uncle got arrested down the street from a joint called the “The Chicken Bone”.  This was after the cop saw him come to a rolling stop at a corner a block or two away. When the officer saw this he, as he states in his report,  ”activated the lights and siren and pulled the vehicle over just passed the Chicken Bone Saloon”

Well the Herald thought this was an important detail to the story so they splashed a big picture of the restaurant in the paper a mentioned the name as often as possible. Chicken Bone. Chicken Bone. Chicken Bone. Shit, what if it was a white guy who got pulled over down the street from King Arthur’s or some other local nudie bar.

Ahh, the Chicken Bone. Makes me think of Chicken George from Roots. Man those darkies luvs their chicken. Right Pat Purcell and Howie Carr and David Wedge and…?

What dicks.