I don’t know where this concept first started but I assume it’s from one of the Usual Suspects:

The Media is to blame for all the hype in the Trayvon Martin the case

This is a gateway concept to further idiotic constructs about the mainstream media and how it’s racist and the root of all evil. The Media and The Government are pretty much The Evil, that’s all you need to know, right? I don’t wish to delve further into that derp as it misses my point.

Blaming the media for the Trayvon Martin case is a subtle yet insidious concept precisely because it’s just about the safest criticism one can levy without directly blaming the victim, stereotyping, or being overtly racially insensitive. If not outright racist. It does immediately come off as condescending to all black and white people who view this case as a travesty, as if we’re all stupid dupes who got worked up by the media machine when there’s really no there there. That’s what all the white people in the right wing media are telling us.

I’ve seen the recent outpouring of this Blame the Media idiocy from various channels, almost entirely by white people and in many cases from people who I don’t think are racist. Just ignorant and insensitive. Though they may not be racist themselves they give racism safe harbor.

When I’m in a more humorous mood I’m inclined to say White People, LOL. But this quit being funny a few days ago.

Now we have a black man advocating the same idea. And because he’s a black man, it’s supposedly more powerful Teh Truth! because a black dude said it.

I haven’t touched on the Trayvon Martin issue because race matters in this country are the paralysis of the American people. To constructively discuss Trayvon would require empathy, introspection and an understanding of America’s social and economic history. This is why the open forums we have seen thus far seem to fuel more ignorance and bias than reasonable debate.

Way to come out swinging dude, hear hear! You have my attention.

To be brutally honest, the only reason people are even aware of Trayvon Martin is because it became a topic within mainstream news and pop culture. Meaning: News directors saw it as a profitable, sensational story. Hundreds of blacks die annually in South Side Chicago without even a blurb. Trayvon isn’t in the mainstream news for any reason other than ratings and profit. The news coverage on the Zimmerman case almost implies that the killing of this young black man is somehow an anomaly and I resent that.

Full Metal Wingnut in the second paragraph. To be brutally honest this is the best encapsulation of this idiotic concept I have seen so far, with a bonus ‘But Chicago?’ slice of cheese in between the beefy slices of Wingnut Spam. No less from an African American man, which therefore means he will be on right wing radio and Hannity within the next few days. I won’t delve further into his blog post where he basically blames black people for their problems because parenting and gansta culture and the media.

Blaming the media is extremely effective at shutting down discussions of race because it does not address the victim or racial issues directly. It takes a common villain and applies blame to it changing the subject to that villain. It’s very easy for people not ascribing to racist ideals or ideology to accept and propagate the idea. This is why it’s so insidious.

It’s a similar construct to combating the acceptance of climate change: subtly infer that climate science is corrupt or not to be taken seriously because they’re a bunch of liberal do-gooders or busy bodies trying to control us, or worse, a bunch of totalitarians trying to control us. Or at least a bunch of money grubbers trying to make some dough with huge government grants. This message has been brought to you by a bunch of money grubbers selling an ideology based on hating the government and liberals. But that’s not the point, liberals and government suck because they suck because we’re a think tank so shut up.

The media can be blamed for certain things or certain events. All the media, NBC and the right wing media. Romany Malco got it wrong, just like everybody else believing this canard got it wrong: the media, the nefarious Obama loving Mainstream Media, did not cause the hype in the Trayvon Martin case. Outraged members of the new social media caused the hype in the Martin case as they should have. The Martin case was outrageous and completely different than the multitudes of young black men murdered in Chicago everybody else suddenly seems concerned about. In fact, I first heard about Martin on LGF and followed up on Twitter and Facebook where many new media types and bloggers were tracing the story.

Then the mainstream media followed suit, playing catch up, sometimes sloppily or even scandalously. The right wing media followed suit with their racial agitation and invocation of their favorite villains, Outspoken Black Men Jackson and Sharpton, who I’ve been informed are the real racists here. I’ve not seen any reports of firings in the right wing media over the Martin case.

The mainstream media did not cause the Martin case by hyping the story, they followed just as the right wing media did. Social media hyped the story.

As they should have.