Dear Media: Quit Fanning Racial Tension and Find Out #WhyBlackChurchesAreBurning

Dear Media: Quit Fanning Racial Tension and Find Out #WhyBlackChurchesAreBurning July 1, 2015

#WhoIsBurningBlackChurches is currently trending on Twitter.  Most major media outlets are leading with headlines claiming seven predominantly black churches have burned across the South in the aftermath of the Charleston shooting. Many headlines imply that racist arsonists are to blame for the fires.

But Michelle Malkin at National Review Online reports:

Buried beneath the sensationalized social-media avalanche of panic: the more judicious and careful observations of Los Angeles Times reporter Matt Pearce that the feds have made no official determinations that any hate crimes have taken place and that “it’s unclear whether any of the fires are linked.”

It was observed that one of the half-dozen church fires was most likely “accidental” and had “no element of criminal intent.”

Another “was likely touched off by an electrical short” after a tree limb fell on the property, yanking the electrical service line with it.

And yet another alleged “black-church arson” actually involved a white church “struck by lightning.”

So sorry that fact checking might get in the way of your deadline NBC, Daily News & all the other mainstream media outlets that took this story and ran.

There are real racists out there.  Racism has even led to attacks on churches (see the recent Charleston attack).

But by spreading misinformation and making claims with no foundation in facts, you are disrespecting true victims.

Stop crying wolf!  You haughtily cry for peace and unity, while you recklessly (or perhaps deliberately) rile up race-wars with stories of burnings across the South regardless of what facts are known.

True racial reconciliation must be built upon solid facts, not the sands of a liberal media frenzy. True hate crimes must be punished when the facts are clear.

But facts are stubborn things.

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