At Least SOMEBODY is covering the Headless Bodies

I've been  working on some "Best of/Worst of" posts and my award for Most Shameless Display of Media Herd Mentality goes to the mocking that the local media provided in response to Governor Brewer's discussion of headless bodies. 

You will recall that when Governor Brewer expressed concerns about the level of violence in Mexico and the possible spillover into the United States she mentioned "headless bodies in the desert".  Unfortunatly, she  misspoke and implied that some of the headless bodies had been found in the Arizona desert.  Rather than ignore the gaffe and focus on the story, the media ignored the story and focused on the gaffe. 

Of course, now Mexican cartel violence is escallating in Arizona and authorities are finding the cartel trademark headless bodies in the desert.  Still no local coverage.  But here's an interesting story from a TV Station in Texas that has gone national becuase it is linked on Drudge.

Part of the herd mentality of the media is to ignore major stories simply because no other local reporters are covering them.  The other side of the same coin is the reporters' tendency to continue to ignore stories that they missed originally and then got much bigger.  That's why the Republic waited months to cover the Tea Party or Fast and Furius.

Here's the link to the story out of Texas. (Notice that it's dateline is Tucson.)

Three beheadings in two different states and they happened here in the United States, not Mexico.

Former DEA supervisor Phil Jordan says all three beheadings have cartel written all over them. They happened in Arizona and Oklahoma in the past year.

A murder mystery is now unraveling on a stretch of North Reservation Road in Tucson, Ariz. County workers found a headless man lying on the side of the road Jan. 6. The man's hands and feet were reportedly missing, too.

"It would lead me to believe the message wanted to be sent. This is one of the ways they do it in Mexico, Colombia and other places," says Jordan.

Jordan says the cartels are getting bolder in carrying out their beheadings across the border. He says we only used to see these crimes in Mexico.

"They don't have any borders," says Jordan.

 

 

Comments

[dave72]

Prediction for 2012: Eventually, the Republic will write a comprehensive "study" of the U. S. beheadings, just as they did with their review of "Fast and Furious" six months after the gun-running scandal was first discovered right under their noses. Linda Valdez will claim the deaths are due to the discontinued race studies in the Tucson school district.

With the dumbing down of their hiring policies The Republic now has more historians than investigative reporters.

[exurbanDoug]

Bu-bu-but Present Obama told the media that the border is more secure than evah. Don't the cartels know that killing is illegal? Maybe we need to pass some more laws, but get rid of SB1070 because its racist or something.

snark off

Unless the War on Drugs ends or Americans stop demanding the Cartel's products, expect this to continue. Its a sad commentary on corruption on both sides of the border. That said, the current Administration and Congress don't think there is a problem that needs to be addressed. Expect this to continue, especially if the victims continue to be Mexican nationals.

[RonJ]

"the media ignored the story and focused on the gaffe." No surprise there. The story doesn't fit their agenda, after all, the border is secure, only good illegals are crossing, anyway (uhh, wait, no one's crossing). And the gaffe--well, of course, all Republicans are just buffoons. Just ask two buffoons who would know what to look for: Valdez and Montini.