Where Is the American Media???

By John Ballard

WHY IS THIS STORY GETTING BETTER COVERAGE IN THE UK THAN IN THIS COUNTRY?

 

David Neiwert asked the question last week:
?The Shawna Forde trial: Will the mainstream media bother to notice?

There's another infamous shooting of a nine-year-old girl that is making headlines this week in Tucson. This time, we wonder if the rest of the media will bother to cover it. The little girl's name was Brisenia Flores. She lived near the border with her parents and sister outside the town of Arivaca, Arizona. On May 30 of 2009, a woman named Shawna Forde, who led an offshoot unit of Minutemen who ran armed border patrols for patriotic "fun". Forde's gang had decided to go "operational," which meant they concocted a scheme to raid drug smugglers and take their money and drugs and use it to finance a border race war and "start a revolution against the government". They targeted the Flores home, which had neither money nor drugs, based on dubious information. They convinced Flores to let them in by claiming to be law-enforcement officers seeking fugitives, then shot him point-blank in the head when he questioned them and wounded his wife, Gina Gonzalez. And then, while she pleaded for her life, they shot Brisenia in cold blood in the head. (Her sister, fortunately, was sleeping over at a friend's.)

Bob Christie reported the incident when it happened in June, 2009.
? Shawna Forde, Minutemen Leader, Arrested In Double Killing In Arizona

Two of three people arrested in a southern Arizona home invasion that left a little girl and her father dead had connections to a Washington state anti-illegal immigration group that conducts border watch activities in Arizona.

Jason Eugene Bush, 34, Shawna Forde, 41, and Albert Robert Gaxiola, 42, have been charged with two counts each of first-degree murder and other charges, said Sheriff Clarence Dupnik of Pima County, Ariz.

Does that name Sheriff Dupnik ring a bill? Isn't he the other Arizona sheriff who spoke candidly about the atmosphere of insanity feeding the madness of the crazy man responsible for the Tucson tragedy? Unlike his colleague who makes headlines by other antics, Sheriff Dupnik was essentially slapped down for his first response.

?Kim Smith is on the case. At the Courthouse: Gaxiola's attorneys want prosecutors removed

I don't know anything about Kim Smith but it's clear from her file at the local paper that she has been following this story from the jump, along with whatever else comes across the courthouse beat. And she seems to be doing a helluva job, too. She has the backstory down in spades.

You can be sure that with or without media coverage plenty of Latinos are watching this story unfold. There is not an immigrant family or individual in the country without knowledge of a similar case, if not involving murder, then close enough to the overall shape and tenor of the case to resonate deeply with some experience by them or someone they know.

When Kat sends me links to stories like this one I cannot let them pass without putting in my two cents worth. I wish I didn't feel so alone. This is not news. And it is not exceptional. But it sure pisses me off when I read it.