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Tonya
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Tonya
Post Number: 5623
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, May 29, 2007 - 06:24 pm: | 
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Murder victims lost in the furor
Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom's slayings have become the subject of racial tension, falsehoods
Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom
By JAMIE SATTERFIELD, satterfield@knews.com
May 27, 2007
In the blogosphere, Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom are an indictment of mainstream media.
On the Internet, they are a Wikipedia entry. Among white separatists, they are a tool. Within a racially divided America, they are a cause.
That they are murder victims in a horrific Knoxville crime has gotten lost in all that noise.
"There are people out there that just want to make something even worse than what it already is," Christian's father, Gary Christian, said in a recent interview.
It has been nearly five months since Newsom, 23, and girlfriend, Channon Christian, 21, were slain. Four suspects were charged in the January slayings while a fifth faces federal charges of helping one of the suspects hide out.
The victims were white. The suspects are black.
Authorities said the case began as a carjacking but wound up a kidnapping, rape and murder. They have said little else, however, tightlipped on every aspect of the case, from where it occurred to how Christian died.
It didn't take long for details -- horrific ones -- to eke out. The problem is, many of them are wrong.
False information, bad information
The first major dose of misinformation in the killings came from a deputy U.S. marshal in Kentucky, where three of the five suspects were arrested.
He insisted Christian was held captive and repeatedly gang-raped for four days before her body was found inside a garbage can in one of the suspect's Chipman Street rental house.
Mainstream media reported the marshal's statements for at least two days. The stories and broadcasts were posted on the Internet and sent out over The Associated Press' news service.
As it turned out, Christian, though repeatedly raped, was dead within 24 hours of her abduction.
Some media corrected the earlier accounts in follow-up stories. But the claim kept surfacing -- and it remains out there today on the Internet and even among traditional outside media.
That was just the beginning of misstatements about the crimes, although the source or sources behind later falsehoods is largely unknown. Those misstatements included claims that Newsom and Christian were sexually mutilated.
They weren't, authorities say.
There also have been persistent claims that Christian was dismembered. As late as last week, a local television station on its Web site reported that Christian's body had been dismembered and found in "five trash bags." The fact is, Christian's intact body was wrapped in five trash bags.
But real details were slow in coming and largely remain cloaked in secrecy. Authorities insist they're trying to protect a case. Pundits and media experts contend they instead stoked the fires of conspiracy theorists.
Here's what is known from court records and relatives:
On the night of Jan. 6, Christian and Newsom were leaving a Washington Pike apartment complex when gunmen confronted them. The pair, inside Christian's Toyota 4Runner, were taken to a rental house on Chipman Street near Interstate 40 and Cherry Street.
Both repeatedly were raped, according to authorities. Within a few hours, Newsom was shot, his body wrapped in bedding, set afire and dumped alongside nearby railroad tracks.
Christian remained alive for several more hours. She was raped and strangled, and her body was discarded in a trashcan, according to investigators.
All five suspects, including the four accused in the slayings, have given statements about the killings, most implicating each other. Authorities have amassed a mound of evidence, from fingerprints to DNA.
They have unearthed nothing to suggest Christian and Newsom were targeted because of their race, according to law enforcers.
"There's nothing whatsoever that indicates any hate crime," said John Gill, special counsel to Knox County District Attorney General Randy Nichols. "There are things that really, coincidentally, would prove just the opposite."
As is typical in this case, he would not elaborate.
Race and volatility
The lack of evidence signaling a hate crime has not stopped white supremacists from using the case to advance their cause. Alex Linder, operator of the Vanguard News Network and an admitted supremacist who organized Saturday's rally in Knoxville to protest "black-on-white crime," said in an e-mail to the News Sentinel that the case is being "covered up" by mainstream media, "which intends white genocide."
Knoxville police arrested Linder at the rally's start, charging him with disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, assault on a police officer and vandalism.
Using the Internet and e-mail, the white-supremacist groups began a campaign of complaints to and about the mainstream media's coverage.
Suggestions of a racial bias by the media haven't been limited to fringe groups.
Conservative syndicated columnist Michelle Malkin is among those weighing in on the issue.
"This case -- an attractive white couple murdered by five black thugs -- doesn't fit any political agenda," she said. "It's not a useful crime. Reverse the races and just imagine how the national media would cover the story of a young black couple murdered by five white assailants."
The case has tapped into themes of racial tension and media liberalism, University of Tennessee law professor Glenn Reynolds noted.
Reynolds operates www.instapundit.com, one of the country's most popular blogs.
"You've got three things going on here," he said. "First, not that much information has come out, which always fuels speculation. Second, you've got plenty of public places for people to speculate. Third, you do have some people who are trying to milk it politically, and you have suspicion of the media."
Once the blogging furor began, often fueled by false information, Fox News took note, airing a couple of stories. CNN followed with coverage.
Neither focused on the slayings themselves but instead on plans for rallies and claims of media bias.
CNN correspondent Rusty Dornin came to the News Sentinel last week as part of her story coverage.
"We, like you, started getting all these e-mails," Dornin said.
Bob Steele, a media ethics expert at the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla., isn't surprised.
"The issue of race is so tension-filled and so volatile in our society that when there is a crime involving different races (and) when individuals spray some gasoline around that case, new flames emerge, and that prompts the national media to cover it," he said.
Reynolds said those who complain that the national media would have reported on the case sooner had the victims been black and the assailants white could be right.
"I think it would have gotten a lot of national play faster if it had been a black couple kidnapped and killed by five white people," he said.
That's because the national media has a "template" for covering white-on-black crime but not the reverse, he said.
But Steele said he doesn't think it's that simple, citing a mix of factors that fuel media coverage.
"The uniqueness of the crime, the brutality of the crime, what the police and prosecutors say or don't say can significantly drive what's being published," he said.
"What you hear from family members or families of the accused. If there are individuals speaking out freely and significantly, there are interviews and sound bites to be had. Inevitably, the amount of coverage is dictated by what else is going on in the news."
At the center of the storm
Knox County Public Defender Mark Stephens finds himself a bit mystified at the notion that the slayings, though horrific, should have rated as national news.
"I refuse to believe these guys were laying in wait. It seems to me unlikely that the race of the victims had anything to do with this crime," he said. "It seems to me when we read about a black defendant shooting a black person in the projects, nobody gets upset about it.
"Why is this (case) worthy of national news coverage?" Stephens asked. "Unfortunately, this probably happens in major metropolitan areas every month."
The Rev. Ezra Maize, president of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said the case has been hijacked by agenda-driven outsiders with no regard for the survivors of the slain couple.
"The NAACP wants equality and justice for everybody," he said. "If these families reached out (for help, support or advocacy), we would be just as eager, just as demanding to see that equality reigns. It's about equality and justice for everybody. We stand behind the Christian and Newsom families 100 percent."
Gill agreed.
"The DA's office is outraged they have tried to abuse the victims by using the death of loved ones for racist purposes," he said. "The things that are being seized on by these hate groups are things that never even happened."
Knoxville Police Chief Sterling P. Owen IV and Knox County Sheriff Jimmy "J.J." Jones have said they're worried that the storm surrounding race and media will cause a judge to move trials for the suspects out of Knox County.
"I haven't seen any evidence to indicate this is a hate crime, and I interviewed two of these suspects," Jones said. "I don't believe if they'd been Mexican, Chinese or Japanese it would have mattered. I believe these people were evil. I believe it was a plan.
"These two kids just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time," the sheriff said. "The only worry I have is to be able to secure a fair and capable jury in Knox County."
For veteran civil-rights leader and local minister Dr. Harold Middlebrook, the race-baiting dialogue is sad proof that although strides in race relations have been made, America remains a country divided.
"People have not yet learned to live together as fellow human beings," Middlebrook said. "I really hope in my lifetime to see the day when people will really look at trying to build a community where people can love and share in brotherhood."
Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam said he believes Middlebrook might just get his wish -- locally at least.
"I think we have a lot of people here working to make relations better," Haslam said. "We're trying to solve problems while these outside groups are ... just trying to cause problems."
Copyright 2007, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
Copyright 2007, KnoxNews. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/local_news/article/0,1406,KNS_347_5557685,00.html
AP May 18, 2007
http://www.wkrn.com/nashville/news/ap-media-criticized-over-tenn-slayings/96126.htm
Christopher Newsom's family speaks out (supposedly)
http://www.wate.com/Global/story.asp?S=6548984&nav=menu7_2_1
http://www.wate.com/Global/story.asp?S=6542849&nav=E8Yv |
Serenasailor
Veteran Poster
Username: Serenasailor
Post Number: 1605
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, May 29, 2007 - 10:32 pm: |
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Now lets here it from the "hoebag" Moonsigns. She going to tell us that if all the Black men in the world were with White women this wouldn't happen. One way to cleanse our "gene pool".
Go on Moonsigns!! Educate us more on the teachings of your plantation-owning daddy. |
Chrishayden
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 4529
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: 
Votes: 3 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, May 30, 2007 - 11:25 am: |
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Some who post here will probably want me to hang my head in shame but I ain't. I didn't know these guys. I didn't know what they had done or that they were going to do it. I am not responsible in any way.
Do white folks hang their heads in shame about Ted Bundy?
I feel sympathy for these victims. But black victims are slain by black criminals everyday and nobody really gives a damn. I am not getting excited about this because these guys were apprehended and since they screwed up and killed some white folks they are going to be punished within the full limit of the law.
Not too long ago a manhunt was launched for this guy who lived in my neighborhood. I ain't really up on who is who in the streets so I had never heard of him.
When the citywide manhunt was launched was after he had shot a white cop. Turns out that he was supposedly wanted for slaying a black woman before that in broad daylight but, according to the woman's mother--he came and went as he pleased even though she called the cops every time she saw him.
Turns out he is a suspect in several other murders he will probably never be charged with.
I bet these guys had a string of crimes with black victims on them and they were still walking around.
Too bad. |
Latina_wi
Regular Poster
Username: Latina_wi
Post Number: 372
Registered: 08-2006
Rating: 
Votes: 1 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, May 30, 2007 - 02:48 pm: |
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What chrishayden said basically. Their killings were horrible and my heart goes out to the victims and their families that have to deal with the aftermath.
I understand that when crimes happen and the black person are the perpertrator this reflects upon the black community. But this makes me more nagry than anything else, I'm a law abiding citizen, why should I have to feel guilty about someone else's crime who has NO connection to me whatsoever? White people do not feel guilt for Ted Bundy or even racist killings, and rightly so. So why should we? |
Latina_wi
Regular Poster
Username: Latina_wi
Post Number: 373
Registered: 08-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, May 30, 2007 - 02:51 pm: |
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It's weird though; I look at the picture of those two young people smiling and it is hard to believe they are dead. I am not even thier family so I wonder how their real families feel. It is sad that someone took away their right to life like that, disgusting. |
Americansista
Regular Poster
Username: Americansista
Post Number: 369
Registered: 09-2006
Rating: 
Votes: 2 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, June 01, 2007 - 10:05 am: |
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Hmph, I wonder if these same white peckawood trash were horrified and angry when that pedophile raped and strangled that beautiful, little black girl in a casino bathroom while his FRIEND watched and was never charged with ACCESSORY TO MURDER?
Were they sickened and ready to go a huntin' when those inbred hicks in Jasper TX dragged that black man from their hee haw wagon, decapitating him in the process?
What about that imfamous sodomy of the black man by a white police officer with the pig's nightstick? I hear he has to use a colostomy bag now to shyt.
And what about that sick, twisted BYTCH would drowned her children and she accused a black man of car jacking? Everyone was ready to get out their rifles and whatnot to go n1gger huntin' but when they found out the truth----they were silent ON THAT PART.
Yall get my point? PECKAWOODS do devious, cruel, devilish shyt ALL THE DAMN TIME AND ARE RARELY CALLED ON IT---unless their victim is young, white, "pretty" or rich.
WTF ever. Oh well. They're dead and died horribly. So did Emmitt Till and countless of other blacks at the hands of whites.
Now does it make it right? No--but am I outraged? Shiiiit, about as outraged as a white person when something bad happens to a black person at the hands of a white person.
Fuk outta here with that crap.
NEEEEEXT! |
Chrishayden
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 4559
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, June 01, 2007 - 01:55 pm: |
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There is absolutely no excuse for this crime--
But why do I keep thinking somehow dope was involved? |
Grind
Regular Poster
Username: Grind
Post Number: 187
Registered: 04-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, June 03, 2007 - 08:41 am: |
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It's weird though; I look at the picture of those two young people smiling and it is hard to believe they are dead. I am not even thier family so I wonder how their real families feel. It is sad that someone took away their right to life like that, disgusting.
For reals. |
Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 9371
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, June 03, 2007 - 10:22 am: |
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Chris: "When the citywide manhunt was launched was after he had shot a white cop. Turns out that he was supposedly wanted for slaying a black woman before that in broad daylight but, according to the woman's mother--he came and went as he pleased even though she called the cops every time she saw him."
We had a similar incident here in Chicago.
Last December Black cable installation guy rapes/kills young blond White woman. So, of course, the city is all a tither. And, OF COURSE, dude was summarily captured, arrested and charged.
Well. Turns out the same dude had done the very SAME thing to a young BLACK woman a few months prior. The cops spoke to dude immediately after the sistas was killed but let him go.
And the police CLAIMED that they could not match the first killing to dude because they were waiting for MONTHS to obtain the results of DNA testing - which, btw, would have PROVEN dude had killed the sista and likely elicited actions that would have prevented the murder of the White woman - they CLAIM had been sent to some lab on the east coast (even though the FBI has a spanking new, state-of-the-art forensic center just 2 miles way from Chicago's police main headquarters).
We know dayam well there had been no DNA testing done UNTIL they found that White girl's corpse. |
Renata
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Renata
Post Number: 2242
Registered: 08-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, June 03, 2007 - 12:09 pm: |
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The city of CHICAGO has no DNA center of their own and has to wait months while tests are sent out of town.
LOL....couldn't they at least TRY to tell a not-so-OBVIOUS lie? Shyt, say the stuff got lost or stolen or something. Damn! |
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