News Media Blinded by Their Own Reflection

The dominant medium of my lifetime no longer seems up to the task of covering the stories that really matter to people. These days, folks would just as soon go to Twitter to find out what is really happening.

Here's what happened on the streets of Baltimore: On Saturday, more than 1,000 people voiced their anger at the death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray, whose spinal cord was nearly severed while in the custody of police officers. That evening, some of the protesters threw rocks and piece of metal at police, shattered windows, looted stores and vandalized police cars. In what has become a familiar pattern, most of the protesters appeared to be African-American while most of the police officers appeared to be white. Forty thousand baseball fans who had gone to Camden Yards to watch the Orioles play were told not to leave the ballpark.

Does any of this sound newsworthy to the smart folks who run major news networks in New York and Washington? If so, why not cover it instead of devoting air time to a narcissistic "nerd prom" where Hollywood's world of entertainment rubs elbows with Washington's world of infotainment?

In this case, there is an additional irony given that -- during the coverage of last year's protests in Ferguson, Missouri -- many in the media did their best to portray themselves as especially enlightened on race issues and deeply empathetic with those inner-city residents who are fed up and furious over their treatment by police. Where was that enlightenment and empathy when protesters took to the streets of Baltimore?

On Monday night, when the violence escalated, the TV networks finally found their way to the besieged city. Many of the reporters couldn't believe their eyes. One journalist expressed surprise that the city is so "diverse." Meanwhile, CNN's Wolf Blitzer clearly needs to get out of the studio more. He was noticeably out of his comfort zone as he expressed shock that people were looting stores. "I don't remember seeing anything like this in the United States of America in a long time," he declared.

And with that, some of the same news correspondents who, two nights earlier, had been yukking it up over jokes suddenly became the punch line.

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Ruben Navarrette's email address is ruben@rubennavarrette.com.