Fox news just referred to refugees in Louisiana as thugs

[Squirt]

Fox also called the people shooting at the helicopters thugs even though nobody saw the perpetrators, or their race.

I've seen Fox news reporting about the situation in terms of rapes and murders, as well as thuggery, trying to make it seem like these people deserve what's happening to them and helping them is difficult because they are such animals. Has anyone else picked up on this as well? Other news agencies are referring to them as gunmen, or snipers. Do you think this has to do with the racial makeup of the area and racism on the part of Fox News? I haven't noticed any black folks on Fox News, has anyone else? And if so .. has it been more then one or two? :francais:

After searching Fox News online.. some links to thug comments:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,168112,00.html

http://search.foxnews.com/_1_2MEFTIC...168248,00.html

http://search.foxnews.com/_1_2MEFTIC...168123,00.html

[Tristin]

I would not call anything FOX airs news.

[BDBionic]

"thug" has nothing to do with race. If any characteristic of the individual is implied through the word, it's the person's age. "Thug" usually refers to a young male.

They are thugs. Amidst all that's taking place their, roaming the streets shooting at rescue personnel, robbing people, raping women, and engaging in outright lawlessness? That's thuggery.

Fox News could call them "shitheads" and they'd still be right.

They are thugs.

[Squirt]

My reference for thugs is African American gangsters.

The over 100,000 people displaced are not thugs, the few that rape and murder are criminals. Those that loot food and supplies to survive in the current condition there are doing exactly what I'd do, if it came to that, which it has for them. Police have broken windows of shops to let people in to get supplies to survive. Surely the police aren't thugs.

What would you do to survive after three days of no food or water? Would you kill to live? Obviously you wouldn't rape to survive, but would you hurt someone else who wouldn't give you what you needed to live? Would you be angry at the government that takes a percentage out of every dollar you've made since you started making money, then isn't there to provide emergency services when you need them most?

[basschick]

it's only recently that i've heard thug used racially - and only on the internet. thug was always used in my hearing as a non-racial word.

from good ol' dictionary.com -
Thug: A cutthroat or ruffian; a hoodlum.

Thug: One of a band of professional assassins formerly active in northern India who worshiped Kali and offered their victims to her.

[BDBionic]

Of those 3 links to FOX in which the word "thug" appears in the linked-to news story... in the first one the writer uses "thugs" to refer to a group of people that stole a nursing home bus after threatening the driver.

In the second, it's a woman quoted in the story who says "thugs". A women interviewed by the reporter. Not even the reporter or writer themselves. And she's even praising the "thugs". Calling them heroes.

In the third link, it's Lynette from Austin - a FOX viewer - who used the term thug in a comment she submitted to that story's feedback portion.

Hardly FOX running about tossing racial slurs upon people.

I do think there are a lot of desperate people just doing all they can to survive. But I also think there are a lot of shameless people taking advantage of the situation. I don't think robbing and raping and shooting and hurting and killing is excused by desperation. "Looting" batteries, foodstuffs and inflatable mattresses from the local Wal-Mart is all well and good. But the tv set and wallet of the guy you just shot is shameless opportunism. Thuggery.

[Squirt]

it's only recently that i've heard thug used racially - and only on the internet. thug was always used in my hearing as a non-racial word.

from good ol' dictionary.com -
Thug: A cutthroat or ruffian; a hoodlum.

Thug: One of a band of professional assassins formerly active in northern India who worshiped Kali and offered their victims to her.

I read the same definition, that's why I created this thread, to see if others identified with it the same way I did. LOL It must be cultural and/or age related.

[Corey Bryant]

I have seen them being called insurgents. This is the time that I really wished I stayed involved with the Red Cross, but I distanced myself from everything when I was discharged from the Air Force.

The thing is - I do not (of course) agree with the murders / rapes, but every time I hear the word looting - I watch the TV to see what the people are actually "looting". I see food, I see diapers.

We all know that rescue efforts are hampered and people need to eat and clothe their children. Am I wrong though to actually think this is OK? I mean, no one is in the store to 'check them out' and they are trying to take care of their family the best way they can. I would like to think that if I was in that situation, I would be able to take care of myself any way possible.

[SLS]

The "thugs" are the looters who are in it for themselves. I've seen coverage of about every race besides Asians doing this. If they have no personal loyalties toward anyone stranded there, they should be helping strangers, taking food and water, wherever they can find it, to people with children, etc.

If instead they are axing open ATMs, breaking into jewelry stores, pushing shopping carts of electronics and expensive clothing down the street and being caught on camera doing it, they are definately thugs. They are definately shameless looters. People are getting angry about prejudice in the media, white people being shown as people trying to "find desperately need supplies" and black people being shown as "looters ravaging storefronts."

The difference is definately in what any individual is taking, and who it is helping. Any media group that calls any person of any race who is trying to survive and feed their family a "shameless looter" is disgusting.

[Squirt]

Of those 3 links to FOX in which the word "thug" appears in the linked-to news story... in the first one the writer uses "thugs" to refer to a group of people that stole a nursing home bus after threatening the driver.

In the second, it's a woman quoted in the story who says "thugs". A women interviewed by the reporter. Not even the reporter or writer themselves. And she's even praising the "thugs". Calling them heroes.

In the third link, it's Lynette from Austin - a FOX viewer - who used the term thug in a comment she submitted to that story's feedback portion.

Hardly FOX running about tossing racial slurs upon people.

I do think there are a lot of desperate people just doing all they can to survive. But I also think there are a lot of shameless people taking advantage of the situation. I don't think robbing and raping and shooting and hurting and killing is excused by desperation. "Looting" batteries, foodstuffs and inflatable mattresses from the local Wal-Mart is all well and good. But the tv set and wallet of the guy you just shot is shameless opportunism. Thuggery.

I said "I've seen Fox news reporting about the situation in terms of rapes and murders, as well as thuggery, trying to make it seem like these people deserve what's happening to them and helping them is difficult because they are such animals. "

Then I said "After searching Fox News online.. some links to thug comments:"

I saw Fox news continually referring to people as thugs, rapists and murders in New Orleans, as well as referring to them as "acting like animals" After watching these reports on TV I searched their site to see what they put in writing.. the results are what I posted.

When watching coverage of disasters I've never seen coverage of people being called rapists, thugs, murderers and animals. Not even the dirt poor in Asia, struck by the tsunamis, were referred to this way.

I'm seeing more coverage now, as we speak, covering the animal like behavior, and violence, then I am about the majority of the thousands of people who need food and shelter. Why is this? I have a feeling this is a slant to lessen the severity of what's going on there.. almost a kind of "look what kind of people they are they deserve it" subtext.

[Squirt]

Any media group that calls any person of any race who is trying to survive and feed their family a "shameless looter" is disgusting.

I agree with this 100%

Instead of identifying the people breaking into the stores to feed their family that hasn't eaten or drank for day as "desperate victims" they are "shameless looters"

Yes there are opportunists, and criminals out there, as there are in every city in every nation of the world. For some reason the focus seems to be shifting now from victims and dead bodies everywhere, and people with no food/drink, to thugs, rapist, murders, looters, and "people acting like animals"

Here in Australia the local news had a hay day showing the carnage, lack of control and supplies. They interviewed two Australian tourists "trapped" in new Orleans that complained about our governments lack of response. They were asked about why people were being labeled "looters" and they confessed "We are looters too then. We had no food, no water, and we need to survive. A local police officer broke the window to a storefront and told us all to take what we needed. Is he a looter too?" Good point I think.

[BDBionic]

FOX very well could be continuously referring to looters as thugs and unfairly assigning people that label.

All I'm saying is the articles you cited were pointlessly cited (except the first perhaps) because they had nothing to do with that. Citations presented to back a point should at least do that. And that the term "thug" has never meant, to me, suggestion of the person's race. Nor does it to its dictionary definition. Unless you meant that people quoted in FOX news articles who used the word "thug" were calling everyone Indian assassins.

I do agree that it's unfortunate so much coverage has been focused on the looting when there's so much else going on and surely stories that would reaffirm someone's faith in humanity and admire the people of New Orleans - stories of rescues and heroism and bravery and resilience. I thought the same to myself several times over the last week watching these news stories. That the perception one could gain from watching news coverage is that there's no one doing anything in New Orleans beyond looting. And I don't watch FOX. I was watching CNN and MSNBC. Nonetheless, a major metropolital area descending in to anarchy and lawless chaos is a big story. But certainly not the only one.

If ya want latent racism, check out the AP and AFP's different takes on quite similar images. White people having "found" groceries and the black guy having looted them. Mind you, the AFP has since requested that photo be removed from Yahoo!'s news slideshow. And that wasn't even FOX.

[basschick]

words have power. call someone a desparate victim, and we feel sorry for him. call him a shameless looter, and even if he is stealing food to feed his family, we shoot him on site and feel we did the right thing.

i'm not saying the murderers and rapists are great guys, but most of these people have lived together for years - some their entire lives - without this behaviour. it's easy to simply write them off because they are guilty of heinous behaviour, yet new orleans hasn't been awash in massive rapes and murders.

there is something going on with some of those people that we don't necessarily understand, but at least some of them are victims even as they victimize. panic and starvation is hard to understand as most likely none of us here has ever been 3 days without food or water, trapped in sweltering heat and knowing we will NEVER go home again.

and some are fucking wannabe gansters who want to take over, and should probably be locked up for life.

[basschick]

one more thing - a lot of the people trapped in NO are the poor - the real poor. people who have not ever had a break, and now know that their homes are gone, and they are being left to starve - and they are probably extremely angry.

i'm not saying what they are doing is right, but i am saying that when you abandon a large group of people to starve and maybe die, you have to expect that anger will lash onto the nearest people. unfortunately the people who may deserve their anger are not available, and if they were, the thug types i've met don't really know any way to deal with their anger except to explode.

[Squirt]

I thought the same to myself several times over the last week watching these news stories. That the perception one could gain from watching news coverage is that there's no one doing anything in New Orleans beyond looting. And I don't watch FOX. I was watching CNN and MSNBC. Nonetheless, a major metropolital area descending in to anarchy and lawless chaos is a big story. But certainly not the only one.

If ya want latent racism, check out the AP and AFP's different takes on quite similar images. White people having "found" groceries and the black guy having looted them. Mind you, the AFP has since requested that photo be removed from Yahoo!'s news slideshow. And that wasn't even FOX.

I wish I didn't have to watch Fox for news back home but unfortunately CNN International is the other choice here and they are VERY international and you just get bits and pieces now and again of the hurricane coverage.. Fox is nonstop.. I just have to go online and filter the shit they spew to find the real truth.

It's a sad situation