“I think she’s more affected by the verbal abuse than the physical abuse. She’s really shaken up….,”
Three people upset that a news crew was reporting on the arrest of a relative attacked the television reporter and yelled racial slurs at her and a photographer, authorities said Tuesday.*
The family members, all white, began yelling and charged at black WSPA-TV reporter Charmayne Brown while she was standing in the street near the family’s home in Union, said news director Alex Bongiorno.
Brown was punched in the head, and black cameraman Ti Barnes was also struck as he tried to pull family members off Brown, Bongiorno said. A video of the attack shows Brown, who wasn’t seriously injured, defending herself.
The fight was taped by a white crew from a second television station. They were not attacked.
Tousha Smith, 31, Billie Joe Taylor, 31, and Trina Vinson, 48, were being held at a Union jail Tuesday evening on assault and battery charges, authorities said. South Carolina has no law allowing a hate crime charge.
Attempts to contact the family were unsuccessful; messages left at several numbers were not immediately returned, and authorities said they weren’t sure whether the three had attorneys.
Charges are pending against a fourth person, authorities said. The reporter and photographer were not charged.
Brown was reporting on the death of 73-year-old Tommy Howell, who was killed by a blow to the head after an argument, authorities said. His body was found Tuesday in his home. Police arrested his grandson, Shane Howell, and charged him with murder, Union Police Chief Sam White said.
Shane Howell remains in jail, and it is unclear whether he has an attorney.
“These people were very upset,” White said. “I guess they just took it out the wrong way.”
*As reprehensible as this incident is, and as capable as we know the readers of Western Voices World News are to perceive the obvious, a few important illustrations concerning media manipulation need to be made:
1] Note the headline in the original AP report: Charmayne Brown, Black Reporter, Attacked On Camera By White Family In SC. By this title the public is served up a virtual white on black lynching at the hands of racist white people in South Carolina. Descriptive racial identifiers are liberally used to ensure the proper “context” in this incident with the entire report becoming a racial morality lesson. However, where was this template when the AP’s affiliates (in this case the Huffington Post) reported on the recent southern murders of two white college students?
Where was: Eve Carson, White College Student, Allegedly Murdered By Black Assailant?
Or how about: Was Lauren Burk, White Sorority Sister, Victim of Negro Criminal?
On overseas reporting could they not have said: Karl Taylor, Black, Convicted For Murder of White Business Woman Kate Beagley.
2] Also note how Charmayne Brown and her “colleagues” was more upset over the “racial slurs” than the physical attack, especially since she bore no obvious injuries after the fact as seen in the ensuing interview. It is our educated guess that racial animosity would have still been the sole reason Ms. Brown was attacked by the white family even if no racial slurs were used.
3] Note the observation in this article that says the incident was filmed by a “white news crew” who was not attacked; an obvious play that conjures up racial motivation for the attacks. Is this to say a white reporter would have NOT been attacked?
While we are certain our readers can come up with even more graphic instances of hypocrisy and malice, the anti-white double standards in what passes for “reporting” can make one breathless. –Editor