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.

You can listen to the wounded mother's 911 call here:
As Terry Greene Sterling at the Daily Beast reports, Shawna Forde's trial finally opens this week, having been briefly delayed by the Giffords shooting.
Already, we're getting some fascinating details about that riveting 911 call:
Gonzalez testified Tuesday she recognized Forde for several reasons. It was the first time she'd seen her in person since the incident, she wasn't wearing makeup (the women in the photo lineup were wearing makeup), she had the same smile and her hair was styled the same way.
As for the smile, Gonzalez said that after the shootings, the home invaders ransacked her house and then left. However, when she was on the phone with 911, she looked up and saw the woman standing on the threshold, smiling.
"She saw me standing there and her face dropped and she said 'Oh, (expletive)," Gonzalez said.
The woman went back outside and a few seconds later Gonzalez said she and the tall man exchanged shots. (Prosecutors think the tall guy was Jason Bush.)
We've been following the Forde case closely from the day it was first reported, in large part because it tells us so much about the mindset and behind-the-scenes operations of would-be border vigilantes.
Indeed, one of the things we look forward most to learning from this trial is the extent to which Minutemen cofounder Jim Gilchrist was involved: there is a considerable likelihood it will turn out he tipped off Forde that federal authorities were looking for her in connection with the murders.
We're also looking forward to perhaps finally seeing some coverage of the case in the mainstream media -- perhaps even Fox News, which has been assiduous in refusing to do so. I have to admit I'm baffled that, in a cable-TV business that prizes riveting audio snippets, it's gotten so little attention elsewhere.
But then, this case always cut against everyone's favorite "neighborhood watch" narrative. It's about time we laid that one to rest for good.



As I always say: If the M$M can find a way to blame it on Obama or progressives - it will be on 24/7 if not - it'll be crickets.
I would not have heard of this and I'm in NM.
More real "news" here on C&L than on cable.
THNX!
"I know that there are people who do not love their fellow
man, and I hate people like that! " ~ Tom Lehrer (1928 - )
I only heard this story ONCE on CNN, Ali velshi showed the 911 tape. That was the LAST time I ever heard about this story.
It gets worse when you see the stories that CNN is running - that's when you see what's going on.
I wonder what AC360 will run in place of this story...
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
Hal Turners trial and they ignored the Hutaree militia trial, so why not ignore this one too?
audit-prosecute-incarcerate
Maybe. But no thanks. Those poor poor people. What a nightmare.
Corruption favors the wealthy.
I do not want to hear that.
We had a local case similar to this one. No militia type thing. Just a neighbor murdering his neighbors. The 911 call was horrible.
He shot the woman while she was speaking to 911. You could here the gun clicking and the shots. It really is horrible. I don't want to hear that kinda stuff again.
They do have the DP in Zona, right? Shawna is gonna get that.
What is your conceptual, continuity?
In it, you hear the mother successfully drive off Forde and Bush with gunfire. Indeed, Bush was wounded in the exchange, a critical factor in their being caught.
But when she cries: "Why did they kill my family?" to the operator -- that's quite a kick in the gut.
No.
Here in San Diego County we have a whole lot of these supremacist assholes. It seems like the authorities are playing "Whack a Mole" - whenever they bust a group of them another group pops up a few miles away. They periodically go down to the border to play soldier. Haven't been any incidents in awhile. Boy, do they hate Obama. But, that's to be expected I guess.
I grew up in East county San Diego and know what you're talking about. I regularly saw KKK posters nailed to telephone poles showing "dirty" Mexican "illegals" and the other usual right-wing targets (Jews, Africans, etc.)
Animosity toward undocumented migrants in my hometown was strong and often lead to open hatred of the Latino population in general. These are the laborers: Avocado pickers, chicken ranch hands, etc.)
Fact is, without them, there would be no CA agriculture industry. No cheap wine, lettuce, tomatoes, grapes, almonds, etc.....Artificially low prices are subsidized by these people and their near-slave wages.
The whole religious complexion of the modern world is due to the absence from Jerusalem of a Lunatic Asylum. -Havelock Ellis
...and somehow ends up covering this story, it will only be to "trumpet" how Gina Gonzales successfully used a firearm to defend herself.
audit-prosecute-incarcerate
Arizona really has become a miserable hell-hole. Is there any provision in our Constitution for voting a state out of the Union?
Seriously, the entire state should be place under quarantine and the few sane ones who live there should be allowed to emigrate somewhere safe.
I don't know, the people of Arizona really turned out in great numbers to show that they aren't all gun crazy loons after the recent tragedy. Maybe the right wingers get all the attention? I don't know. I just think that those folks showed a lot of heart is all.
Sure Navy, there are good people there. But Pope is not too far off base. It's a right-wing paradise and it's also a police state. Lots of meth-heads. Lots of guns. Lots of cops....Lots of paranoia.
No thanks. I'll visit if I have to and I have. Beyond that, forget it.
The whole religious complexion of the modern world is due to the absence from Jerusalem of a Lunatic Asylum. -Havelock Ellis
covered by MSNBC. Everyone seems to be on the Jared Loughner is crazy and shouldn't have been able to purchase a gun...how about, these racist mofo's shouldn't be allowed anywhere near a firearm, let alone own one.
Oh yeah, we live in the U.S. It's o.k. for everyone to own a gun. The more the better.
ABC's Jonathan Karl who used Rep Cohen as proof that both sides are "uncivil"
Those murderous militia had help from outside the state, the one shot got first aid from a visiting militia member or two from outside Arizona, it was briefly mentioned in passing at the time about the coincidence of the 'visitors'. My moneys on them planning something but the murders ruined whatever they were going to do.
The MSM would be all over the story and we'd be listening to it 24/7 on the news if it had been a group of hispanic immigrants who executed a white man and killed the white daughter as she begged for her life. The trial would have been followed by all the cables and Fox wold be demanding front row seats.
Glen Beck's Shoot them in the head video.
He actually said it.
We have.
are loudly saying that he didn't mean shoot normal people in the head, just radicals, if that makes his advocacy of violence any better...
And yet at the same time we have an out of control police state emerging. The most alarming part of which is that they are ignoring the Glenn Beck type elephants in the room:
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mike-friend...
The FBI is raiding the homes and offices of peace 'activists'. Why has the FBI not raided the offices and home of this domestic violence activist Glenn Beck?
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
There is no reason to think the GOP or the right wingers in America are violent...
The answer to that is no. It might offend some tea bagger somewhere. They'll mention it only if Dick Armey says it's okay.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5Xl0Qry-hA
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Do a google search. Amazingly you'll find next to nothing from our so called MSM on this. Both the murder and the coverage is sickening. IF this was a white family murdered in cold blood it would be a story for months. It was in that rich CT's family's killing (can't remember who it was). Shame on this country and the media.
is intended to be a factual statement
If it was a white family murdered by a group of non-whites, the story would be plastered everywhere.
NOBODY 2012
It's so obviously that's all thats ever been down her pants.
I hope they put Forde under the god damn jail.
NOBODY 2012
It just makes you wonder how many more innocent people these thugs might of killed.
Sadly, Forde's mindset is all too common here in southern AZ. JT Ready, and his band of neo-nazis have been down here for months, supported by Arpaio, and others in law enforcement. The Oath Keepers, The American Third Position, and a couple of other groups no ones even heard of have been trying to gain a foothold here. I think, at their core, these are people desperately searching for a way to murder someone, and not be held criminally liable. And when those in authority give them tacit approval with a wink and a nudge, they become all the more dangerous.
of what Beck said, instead of repeating a snippet of an entire show. You folks on the left hate it when "right-wingers" take the words of Obama, Piven and Jones "out of context", why do you insist upon doing the same thing? Take the time to watch the entire show before making asinine, knee jerk responses. I have taken the time and I'm not going to do your homework for you. I listen to his show and while I don't agree with everything he says, I have never ONCE heard him advocate violence. Not once. Just the opposite in fact - Beck constantly (and emphatically) states that violence (on either side) is unacceptable and not the way to change anything. Listen for once instead of simply pushing your one sided paradigm.
But that doesn't make you right.
Now, if you have any intellectual honesty, you will read this.
What is your conceptual, continuity?
undying love on Beck's part. Precious, coming from one of the 'up is down, black is white, ignorance is strength, war is peace' crowd.
Reminds me of Ghandi, you too, parsec? I thought so. Oh I know--it's out of context. No doubt Beck started this by saying "The last thing in the world I would ever think is:" and evil lefties dropped it, just to make the odious fucker look bad.
me-oww!
This crime by anti-immigrant, Nativist Shawna Forde was a horrific crime. The cold-blooded murder of a nine yr old girl ( Brisenia Flores ) in her home by intruders who pumped two bullets into her head for no reason other than racial hatred.
Yet the media has ignored this story. I have scoured the internet in vain to find stories or coverage of the trial but there is zero. The first place I found a mention was here with this article - even other progressives blogs and webstites are ignoring the story.
It is obvious the life of a 9 yr hispanic girl is not worth covering or even mentioning. The media is very aware t of the story. Reporters know about this but obviously producers and editors are choosing to intentionally bury it.
This is blatant racism from the media and the progressive websites and netroots are just as guilty.
Sometimes, I wonder if we in America will ever learn the most important lesson Howard Zinn tried to teach us: that no government acts in the interests of the people over which it has power. To the degree that no government is our friend, we would do well to remember what NYU law professor and civil rights attorney showed us in 1989 by way of declassified FBI documents: that the FBI tacitly condoned during the 1960s the campaigns of torture and terror perpetrated by white supremacists against African-Americans, and that these illegal activities have all been made legal (even more so by laws and policies enacted since the publication of his pamphlet by every Commander-in-Chief since Reagan).
http://dontfearyourfreedom.blogspot.com/2010/...
There are many decent people in America today who can vote but don't because the slate of candidates proferred to us is so consistently ignominious. Of those who do, not many understand that voting alone does not fulfill an American citizen's civic responsibility. Nor does posting comments on social media websites, or wasting time in front of the TV worshipping Jon Stewart, or Stephen Colbert. While I am in no way an anarchist, I am desperate to see one, some, or all liberal leaders acknowledge the fact that a vast and ineluctable (meaning, our work fighting it will never be finished) right-wing machine is what gives us only dubious candidates for which we may vote and no appropriate offense against it - only a tiny reactionary brigade that may not even be operating "to promote the common welfare."
We need our own machine - first and foremost to throw ALL of the fascists in office that have closed American society and turned it into a police state (that's every member of Congress) out of public office. This should be a day-in, day-out campaign of RECALL and REPLACE federally, state and locally. Then, with the Jan Brewers and Joe Arpaios out of office, we should demand an end to the police state of which Shawna Forde is a part. To do anything other than this is to dishonor the memories of Brisenia and her father. If the ACLU and the Unitaria-Universalists and the Quakers and the Center for Constitutional Rights aren't collectively on board with supporting this campaign - especially, first, in the border states - they are not using their vast interest in your best interests, and you should find people of similar influence who can lead you.
Good luck.
"I am the reason you live in a closed, police state in America today, and I am not a terrorist."
www.dontfearyourfreedom.blogspot.com
We the People ARE the government, or we should be. Those who have USURPED our government, and who run it like it's their personal piggybank, are definitively NOT our friends. The vile corporatists, devoted like zealots to Uncle Miltie's economic theory, will tell you that 'we' will have to suffer initially--extreme pain and discomfort--before the free market settles, like a fragile leaf on the surface of a placid lake, floating peacefully in our inevitably balmy economic future. That a significant percentage of the hoi polloi will be dead or destitute is not a problem--it's to be expected. Eventually, we'll all come to see the merit of Milton's grand vision.
What a crock! If you haven't already, read Naomi Klein's "Shock Doctrine." Virtually all of the discord we see in our nation can be traced back to the voodoo economics being forced down our throats by the very government we've been told exists to protect us.
One of my art students recited for me the Preamble to the Constitution (which she had been required to memorize for her social studies class). I could recall most of it (having been required to memorize it by MY social studies teacher), and I remember thinking "if all US citizens would take these words to heart"--
Why is it so hard for so many to be true citizens of these United States?
Yes, she has "many" supporters.
This woman decided to fund her border vigilante group by raiding the properties of supposed illegal alien drug dealers, and her first raid turned out to be the home of perfectly legal - and drugless - US citizens, who she then proceeded to gun down without compunction. And this woman has supporters? It's a sick nation!
I read this thread and I hate to say it but it looks like pretty much everybody misunderstands a crucial aspect of the mainstream media: Coverage of something, even very negative coverage, almost always results in more of whatever gets covered. Want more militia-types running around the border shooting people? Wall-to-wall coverage will do it. Want more school shootings? Give them (and their perpetrators) wall-to-wall coverage. Want more Glen Becks and Sara Palins? Keep them in the news, even negatively.
People in the media know that, so if they cover something it falls into these categories. They want more of it, or they think it'll up ratings and they don't care if it causes more of it, or it's such a huge story they can't keep a lid on it.
If you keep that principle in mind as you look at what the mainstream media covers it's pretty informative. They want more Glen Becks and Sara Palins. They appear to be okay with more killed or injured congresspeople. I saw stories on CNN playing up threats to congresspeople a few months before the shooting and thought 'some poor congressperson is going to get shot and the people behind CNN don't care.' They are apparently okay with more workplace and school shootings. They want a big nutcase movement on the right, but they apparently don't want it to go after Hispanics in a big way or to get big enough or violent enough to pose a real threat to the government.
They (surprise surprise) don't want more violence against business and especially business media leaders. Have you ever seen anything in the mainstream media about threats against media leaders (actual owners) or against leaders (CEOs, major stockholders) of outsourcing conglomerates? Do you really think there aren't any? Things the mainstream media don't want more of are handled quietly.
I suppose that all sounds incredibly cynical, but it's true. If something makes a splash in the media it does inspire copycats, and people in the news media have to know that.
If something makes a splash in the media it does inspire copycats, and people in the news media have to know that.
True. The media completes a feedback loop. That's why i sometimes agree with their decisions to not headline some stories that are widespread on the internet.
If you keep that principle in mind as you look at what the mainstream media covers it's pretty informative.
Yes, unfortunately they don't mind covering anything that helps with corporate profits.
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
Memo to article's author:
You forgot to mention Shawna Forde's associations with William Gheen's ALIPAC in North Carolina, the now defunct organizations like Jeff Schwilk's San Diego Minutemen, Chris Simcox's Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, and Robert Crooks' Mountain Minutemen, or any of the many other immigration reform groups scattered about the country at the time. Ms. Forde interacted with all of these groups and more, including various newspaper reporters.
According to your thinking, if Forde had also emailed you "border reports," then, by simple association, you, too, would be "deeply involved" in whatever alleged actions of which she is accused. Not too bright.
Fortunately, we have a system of jurisprudence in the United States that prevents propagandists, "dirty" journalists, and other witch-hunting predators from using the vagueness of guilt by association to hang the innocent.
You would be well-advised to let the Arizona court system determine the guilt or innocence of the defendant(s) in the case at hand, rather than use your editorial talents to arbitrarily make that decision. You are not a lawyer, a jury, or a judge. Accordingly, you should not bogusly assume that authority and attempt to interfere with the concept of "equal justice for all."
I rest my case.
Jim Gilchrist, President, The Minuteman Project - a multi ethnic immigration law enforcement advocacy group
I remember you sharing a stage with Shawna up here in Everett, too.
If you had bothered to, you know, click on the link with your name attached, you'd have found this to read:
I guess old Jimbo forgot about things like archives.
me-oww!
1) THIS WAS NEVER SHOWN ON THE NEWS, SO LET'S BRING IT UP 3 YEARS LATER TO OVERSHADOW THE TUSCON TRAGEDY:
I live in Arizona. I have seen this on the news, it was all over the news here in 2009 & 2010. It was talked about on talk radio (which I do not regularly listen to, I just happened to hear someone talking about it on my way driving to college one day), it has been shown all over the internet, and I have seen it covered on the local news. Why bring this up though, and act like it is news? This happened years ago. A little 9 year old girl got shot weeks ago in the Tuscon shooting, but you are overshadowing this with another little girl from years ago? I don't understand. You are making this political when it is not. These people who did this should be accountable for their crimes, do not make this into politics or race wars. People wanted to make the Tuscon shooting political. But you know what? It isn't about politics, just like this murder that happened in 2009 wasn't about "race" or the "Minutemen" or the "militia". This is about stupid/crazy people who did something completely out of line and should be held accountable for their crimes. That is it, period. Stop making this a political blame game. The Democrat vs. Republican BS is done, get over it please.
2) IF IT WAS WHITE PEOPLE THAT GOT KILLED, IT WOULD HAVE BEEN ALL OVER THE NEWS:
False. Look up the carjacking murders of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom.
A white couple, carjacked, raped & murdered by a group of black people.
The national news media did not cover this story at all as far as I am aware of.
Once again that is because they were smart enough to know that there was no direct evidence that this was racially related, but people will put anything they want together to create a reasoning behind the story they want to create in their minds.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murders_of_Chann...
3) BLAME THE "MILITIA":
The term "militia" is commonly used today to refer to a military force composed of ordinary citizens to provide defense, emergency law enforcement, or paramilitary service, in times of emergency without being paid a regular salary or committed to a fixed term of service. The "militia's" job is not to attack people and raid their homes. The "militia's" job is not to murder innocent people and shoot children. While the United States is not in wartime, and we are not currently being invaded, there is no reason to initiate force against non-hostile civilians. To attack unarmed civilians is a breach of wartime law and the Geneva conventions, in common Article 3 which states "Persons taking no active part in hostilities should be treated humanely (including military persons who have ceased to be active as a result of sickness, injury, or detention)". Therefore, if it was the "militia" they are not following the laws and protocols of the lands, and are going against the United States, thus NOT a real "militia". To blame this on the "militia" is to blame it on people who misuse the word "militia" and do not know what it actually means, as the real "militia" would not do anything like this and if they did then they are not a "militia".
From the HEADLINE:
"The Shawna Forde trial: Will the mainstream media bother to notice?"
Because the trial is starting, stupid. So it comes up again and the info is restated for people with short term memory problems, like you. And May 30 of 2009 is less than 2 years ago, not "Years ago" as you hysterically and hyperbolically state.
So you signed up to complain about revisiting the cold blooded murder of a Latino little girl, bitrching it happened years ago, and bring up a case of black on white crime that literally did happen years ago (January 7, 2007) off topic to the thread. And it's 3 days since the thread dropped. Your late w/ you hysteria. You should figure out the purpose of a website before you comment. If you did that, you wouldn't look like such a dumbass.
me-oww!
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