Tyranny of the Ignorant

I've run across a couple of things these past weeks that has convinced me we live under the TYRANNY OF THE IGNORANT aided and abetted by our news media.

The Beaumont Enterprise ran with a story today about a political message on the sign in front of Nederland realtor Bob Costilow's office that said the following: "A taxpayer voting for Barack Obama is like a chicken voting for Colonel Sanders."

That is funny and more so than the unintended humor you find on the marquees of certain churches around here. Most people get the gist of the Mr. Costilow's idea, except for one lady who was offended by the sign and presumably called the Enterprise to report what she thought was a racist slur being committed by Mr. Costilow against blacks and Obama. She was quoted in the Enterprise as saying: "I'm an African-American, and it looks like (Bob Costilow Realtors) is comparing black folks to chickens." Mr. Costilow was put in the position to explain himself like he had done something wrong.

Why did the Enterprise run with this story? Good question.

It's the same question you might ask KFDM who aired a story about graffiti spray painted on a wall at a construction site in Lumberton that stated Obama is a " liberal" and he should go "to hell". To make the situation seem even more sinister they reported that it was across the street and visible from the Lumberton High School. While it was illegal to spray paint it on a wall it is political speech. There was nothing racist about the comments. But that didn't stop the IGNORANT from calling the IGNORANT media hounds like KFDM that went out and videotaped the graffiti and then interviewed the Police Chief of Lumberton who accommodated the news media on how grave the situation was and stated that it was a felony (?) graffiti incident because it was going to cost the contractor at the work site over $500.00 in paint to cover the graffiti on a concrete wall that is going to be covered up with some other material when the project was finished anyhow. KBMT was a day late and a dollar short when their news crew showed up and the graffiti was already covered up but still videotaped footage complete with amused construction workers and aired it anyway.

Why didn't someone at the Enterprise or KFDM inform these offended people that there was no story and at they were at the very least misguided in their indignation over essentially nothing. I can understand some green reporter not "getting it" but higher up the chain you would think a news editor or news director would see this as the nonsense it it.

Why do we as a society coddle people that seem so easily offended?

Why is the media a willing tool of the ignorant?