Topic: NewsBusters
We've previously noted the complaint at NewsBusters that news reports on the Jena Six case didn't focus sufficient attention on Justin Barker, the (white) victim of a beating by other (black) students. We wonder if NewsBusters will be so eager to draw attention to this:
No sooner did tens of thousands of African-American demonstrators depart the racially tense town of Jena, La., last week after protesting perceived injustices than white supremacists flooded in behind them.
First a neo-Nazi Web site posted the names, addresses and phone numbers of some of the six black teenagers and their families at the center of the Jena 6 case and urged followers to find them and "drag them out of the house," prompting an investigation by the FBI.
Then the leader of a white supremacist group in Mississippi published interviews that he conducted with the mayor of Jena and the white teenager who was attacked and beaten, allegedly by the six black youths. In those interviews, the mayor, Murphy McMillin, praised efforts by pro-white groups to organize counterdemonstrations; the teenager, Justin Barker, urged white readers to "realize what is going on, speak up and speak their mind."[...]
Barker's father, David, said his family did not know the nature of [Nationalist Movement leader Richard] Barrett's group when they agreed to be interviewed, adding, "I am not a white supremacist, and neither is my son."
But Barrett said he explained his group and its beliefs to the Barker family, who then invited him to stay overnight at their home on the eve of last week's protest march.
NewsBusters hasn't mentioned it yet. Wonder if they ever will...
UPDATE: David Neiwert has more on Barrett.
