Purple people eaters set white teen on fire
posted at 11:37 am on March 5, 2012 by Howard Portnoy
In linguistics, hypercorrection is over-applying a perceived rule of grammar. The phenomenon has led more than one “educated” speaker of English to use the subjective form of a personal pronoun in the object of a sentence (e.g., They invited my wife and I).
A companion of this practice, journalistic hypercorrection, has led to news articles like one reported on Sunday at the website of the Kansas City ABC affiliate KMBC. The story’s headline is “Police: Pair Set 13-Year-Old Boy on Fire.” Here are the opening three paragraphs:
It happened Tuesday at the teen’s home on Quincy Avenue, just down the street from Kansas City’s East High School. The boy lives less than two blocks away from the school and was walking home when the attack happened.
Melissa Coon said her son turned from the school’s stadium onto Quincy Avenue and noticed two teenagers following him. She said the teens followed her son home and attacked him outside his front door.
‘And they rushed him on the porch as he tried to get the door open,’ she said. ‘[One of them] poured the gasoline, then flicked the Bic, and said, “This is what you deserve. You get what you deserve, white boy”.’
Notice that the writer, who is unnamed, does not reveal until the third paragraph that the crime has a race component to it. A description of the assailants, moreover, is not furnished until paragraph 9:
Police said the two suspects are male and have facial hair. Police said one was wearing a blue hat, blue jacket, and shoes with the number 23 on the side. The other wore a blue hat, a black jacket, and wore glasses.
But the most vital detail of all—the race of the suspects, which it turns out is black—is not mentioned ever. That detail is hypercorrected out of the article.
Could it simply be that KMBC is colorblind? Not quite. On February 13, the website ran an article picked up from CNN with the headline “Why Jeremy Lin’s Race Matters.” Here is the opening sentence:
A week ago, on feel-good Superbowl Sunday, TV viewers in the U.S. state of Michigan were subjected to a racist campaign ad sponsored by former Representative and now-Senatorial candidate Pete Hoekstra.
KMBC, like much of the mainstream media, is race-conscious, but only when it supports the narrative that racism is unidirectional—from whites to [fill in the target]. If a remark by a white person is not overtly racist, then he is using “code” (which conveniently is apperceptible only to the people over whose heads it is meant to fly).
The 13-year-old victim, in case you’re wondering, was treated at a local hospital’s burn unit and released. Whether he will have scars, emotional or otherwise, remains to be seen.
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“Hypercorrection”? Don’t make me laugh. Quit prettying it up and call it what it is…racism.
creeper on March 5, 2012 at 11:55 AM
Only whites can be racists, didn’t you get the memo?
TABoLK on March 5, 2012 at 12:04 PM
PC dogma.
the_nile on March 5, 2012 at 12:16 PM
Being badly burned turns your skin black. Therefore not wanting to be burned alive is de facto racist.
RachDubya on March 5, 2012 at 12:24 PM
Well, we don’t want to further enflame the white community.
Love, the MFM
NoDonkey on March 5, 2012 at 12:35 PM
The press is disgraceful. Wait that’s redundant.
clippermiami on March 5, 2012 at 12:53 PM
KMBC takes their cues from Eric Holder
HoosierStateofMind on March 5, 2012 at 1:01 PM
I’m skeptical of this story and won’t be surprised if it turns out that the kid was trying to spit fire like he was in the band KISS and accidentally burned his face and then decided to blame a couple of Black kids to get out of trouble.
OxyCon on March 5, 2012 at 1:08 PM
FIFY
Marcola on March 5, 2012 at 1:09 PM
Coon, really? Racist!
rbj on March 5, 2012 at 1:21 PM
Missing sarc tag?…..Dear God I hope so…
StompUDead on March 5, 2012 at 1:34 PM
Rbj launches another one out of the park!
Howard Portnoy on March 5, 2012 at 1:46 PM
That’s it, in a nutshell. A particularly disturbing example of left-wing hypocrisy.
cicerone on March 5, 2012 at 2:04 PM
Time to arm up.
Thicklugdonkey on March 5, 2012 at 2:35 PM
But then again he’s white, so who cares? /
squint on March 5, 2012 at 3:27 PM
What a horrible horrible crime. And terribly unsurprising that the race of the accused perps wouldn’t be mentioned. I think a newspaper should either always mention race when dealing with crime, or never mention it. Just be consistent.
But it should probably always be mentioned when race is a key element in the crime.
theblackcommenter on March 5, 2012 at 5:12 PM
This is an alledged crime right now. People are taking the word of a 13 year old boy without considering the possibility that this anonymous kid may have made up the story.
The Police need to investigate both possibilities.
jpmn on March 5, 2012 at 5:26 PM
Did the kid also make up the voices his mother heard on the front porch?
Siddhartha Vicious on March 5, 2012 at 6:27 PM
well Howard…appears I may have offended (again)…was a funny post too…(sigh)…
teejk on March 5, 2012 at 6:58 PM
I’ll see your sigh and raise it, teejk. I just took a peek and your comment was indeed funny.
Howard Portnoy on March 5, 2012 at 7:23 PM
I don’t see where the story says the Mother heard any voices. She might just be relaying the story her son told her.
jpmn on March 5, 2012 at 9:38 PM
They called him what, they called him “white” boy? Oh I see, they probably thought his surname was “White”. You know, like Mr. White on “Breaking Bad”. Phew, I’m sure glad they was no racism involved. Burning good, racism bad.
SpiderMike on March 5, 2012 at 9:38 PM
I’m sorry, but can we break this story down a little bit?
First, this kid suffered a horrible injury and I hope he gets better.
Second, this story is a perfect example of the wussification of america. Not becasue they kid should take being assaulted. But because just about all readers have no idea gasoline lit on fire looks like, smells like, or how it behaves.
Third, lets go through the elements of this story. The kid was walking home from school which means this was at 2:30-3:00, in broad daylight. The weather forcast called for an inch of rain, which does not support the posibility of people hanging out outside. The two assailants follwed the boy home one carrying a gas can. I have yet to see any eye witness accounts of two black males with a gas can on a rainy tuesday in the middle of the afternoon. Just from these facts of this incident, the explination is suspect.
Fourth, the Kid had gasoline poured on him from a gasoline, gasoline coats everything and when it’s spread thin enough it vaporizes almost immediately. This means that there had to be some substantial amount of gasoline in that can to pour on the kids head.
Fifth, the kid said he had his arms held behind his back, by one, got gasoline poured on him, and then the other flicked a bic lighter and set him on fire Out side the door to his house as he tried to get in. So he has his arms infront of him, that makes two arms to grab him, and hold him far enough away that gasoline doesn’t splash on the asailant. One hands to lift and pour the gasoline on his head with out the other assailant splashing himself, and another hand to light the gasoline.
Sixth, like I said gasoline coats everything and will immolate clothing and hair almost instantly. He had singed eye brows, and was released the same day.
Seventh, it was raining and 68 degrees this kid was walking home from school in a tee shirt? No Jacket? And he put a gasoline fire out with a what is probabley a jersey stitch cotton tee shirt. I say jersey stitch beacause a jersey stitch traps air that’s why it’s soft, and it’s very flamable. If the shirt was polyester it would go up in flames, it’s a petroleum derivative.
so walking through the assault again, this kid, had gasoline, poured on his head, gasoline that didn’t soak his shirt, didn’t soak the assailants and was substantial enough to come out of the can quickly. He used his magically unsoaked flamable teeshirt to put out a gasoline fire, a fire you can’t use water to put out becasue it just spreads it. There is no reported burn damage to his home or porch. He was treated at the burn unit for a day, and released. and the asailant’s left the gas can they carried while following the claimant for the world to see with no finger prints? and left it there?
Gasoline is no joke it burns quick and the temperature is so high that it sets everything else around it on fire.
Furthermore, There was only one shoe with the number 23 on it, that’s a nike Air jordan from 2008. a 4 year old sneaker, worn by a 16 year old.
This kid was huffing and then had a cigarette he lit him self on fire and did not want his mother knowing. He was high and made the story up.
Mbolic on March 6, 2012 at 8:55 AM
Mbolic on March 6, 2012 at 8:55 AM
Very plausible, but they aren’t all that skeptical when it goes the other way (e.g. Tawana Brawley).
NoDonkey on March 6, 2012 at 9:33 AM
NoDonkey on March 6, 2012 at 9:33 AM
Tawana brawley was BS, and two decades ago. The way this story was written is dishonest in its description in the facts as reported, yes. But instead of going into the weeds about the motivation of the reporters, we should show why conservatives are better than liberals, becasue we look at infrormation logically with out emotion. There has been alot of news, statements from the left, and other infromation that has baited conservatives into looking like hot blooded racist, mysoginists. Attack with logic not emotion and thier narrative falls apart. As soon as we start playing by thier rules of emotionalism and relativism we lose, and our message becomes undone.
Mbolic on March 6, 2012 at 9:42 AM
Every day in every way, the media proves its utter worthlessness.
Marxism is for dummies on March 6, 2012 at 2:12 PM
Enjoyed your reconstruction; it will be interesting to see if it pans out.
I’m borrowing from another thread here, which reiterates your closing point (emphasis added):
However, the reason, I think, that this story was posted before any details are confirmed, is that the news article “described” the assailants without mentioning their most obvious physical characteristic, which makes the description essentially useless.
AesopFan on March 6, 2012 at 7:35 PM
In the articles on this that I have read, the boy has had trouble with these kids before. And the gas can was there on the porch, not carried to the scene by the attackers.
I too am surprised that the kid was treated and released. My father who was a good mechanic had the bright idea of cleaning an engine in place by just pulling the head off and was using gasoline with a trouble light above so he could see. Trouble light was a good name for it when it fell into and lit off the gasoline in the engine compartment and on my dads arms. While I don’t think he spent alot of time in the hospital, he did have areas on his arms that did not tan and had a splotched look all the rest of his life.
I would think this teen would have something like that if he really was attacked.
I detest when someone plays the race card. Lets make sure that this is not a case of crying wolf the bad black boys (BBB) were mean to him again.
NTxOkie on March 7, 2012 at 4:38 AM
AesopFan on March 6, 2012 at 7:35 PM
I totally get that often times, the media leaves out the race of minorities that commit crimes. They just do not think it is important. ButI think it also has another function and that is to make conservatives look like racists. White skin almost equals conservative to a liberal unless you produce your diploma from Barnard or something. I’m not saying it’s not important to point that fact out, but I don’t think it’s important to conservatives, I think it’s important to black people. The african american comumunity needs to realize there is a problem and white washing (no pun intended) the facts does not help that. But jumping to point out the assailants were black before adressing the content of the story just sounds like your saying I knew them blacks did it! It’s a trick to get you to disparage blacks it’s way of liberals reinforcing Conservatives=racists meme. I think the better way to go about it is to keep a running tally of every story edited by a particular editor and ask why he included the race of one assailant and not the other. The answer is rooted in sensitivity for sure.
If liberals want to paint us as cold and souless, let them. I say we give them cold souless unemotional logic. They can’t stand it.
Mbolic on March 7, 2012 at 1:51 PM