Our media business has fallen into the trap of taking sides. Many people throw heat at media outlets now for excessive WOKE coverage. As a result, lots of stories that may spotlight minority missteps are reduced in scope or ignored altogether.

Media managers fear being labeled racist for prolonged reporting on stories involving crimes allegedly committed by minorities.  That’s a tricky measurement in today’s WOKE culture.

So many media outlets find themselves overplaying to the WOKE crowd to avoid blowback from Twitter bullies. The Cancel Culture is always ready to pounce on stories involving race.

This week gave us two stark examples. SOHO Karen’s first stories appeared 4 days ago. It’s only a cell phone dispute but since there is a racial component IT’S BIG NEWS! Keep reporting on this MAJOR story! 🙄

We are now on Day 5 of breathless media stories about a white 22-year-old woman who accused a Black teenager of stealing her cell phone. It was a false accusation because the woman actually left her phone in an Uber.

She has now been identified as Miya Ponsetto of California (pictured above). Cue the Cancel Culture. Expect weeks of coverage of this faux “news” item.

Ponsetto was photographed in California several days after the phone brouhaha. “I don’t know what the problem is here,” she said to photogs. “I’m also Puerto Rican, so thank you.”

The New York City mayor is outraged! Outraged, I tell you!

This is racism. Plain and simple.

It would be horrific at any age, but it’s especially offensive that it happened to a child.

To Keyon Harrold Jr. and his family: I am so sorry this happened to you. Her behavior was an affront to our city’s values. https://t.co/xuWRyHTJmW

— Mayor Bill de Blasio (@NYCMayor) December 29, 2020

Bill de Blasio and all WOKE people are enraged. Racism is running wild! Never mind that the woman minutes earlier accused someone else of stealing her phone. But that’s not important because there was no racial narrative in that false accusation. Meh.

WAIT! The kid’s dad is some jazz musician that a few New Yorkers have actually heard of? MAJOR STORY: race + angry Karen + New York City. This deserves weeks of breathless BREAKING NEWS UPDATES!

Seemingly every media outlet in America has been flogging SOHO KAREN as if this is a major racial crisis. She says the teenager attacked her first but all we’ve seen in media stories is hotel lobby security footage showing her lunging at him.

OK. We get it. She is a hothead. The kid didn’t take her phone. Let’s move on. Not every confrontation between two people is rooted in race. Sometimes it’s just a crazy raging nutball who lashes out at people. No one cared when she accused the first guy.

New video shows woman tackling son of jazz musician during phone dispute in hotel https://t.co/KnYAlVtLgx

— TODAY (@TODAYshow) December 31, 2020

NBC’s TODAY Show has done multiple segments this week on the cell phone false accusation. They gave it 5 more minutes today in the ratings heavy 7:30 block, a major time commitment on a network morning show.

Then there’s this.

Local New York station WCBS reported on the these teens terrorizing New York City drivers but the Today Show gave it all of 22 seconds this morning.

Mayor de Blasio has said this incident is “not acceptable” but he didn’t proclaim it to be “an affront to our city’s values” like he did in the cell phone argument.

So terrorizing people sitting in their cars at an intersection is not an affront to the city’s values.  Okaaaaaaaay.

No one has identified any of the street punks so ethnicity is not the issue. Security is. And this is VERY bad news for New York City and any other destination seeking tourists when the pandemic eases.

“COME BACK TO THE BIG APPLE!” they’ll soon be advertising. “We love tourists!”

Americans will cast a wary eye and ask, “Is it safe?” Who in the hell is dumb enough to visit an under-policed New York City?

No one. Mayor de Blasio is all about DEFUND THE POLICE, diverting money from policing to causes aligned with Black Lives Matter and other WOKE pursuits.

This giant font headline is from dailymail.com but many media outlets like NBC have given this story a glancing mention and then moved on.

It’s dereliction of media duty to sidestep news stories involving roving gangs of punks threatening the lives of commuters on Fifth Avenue in broad daylight. Shouldn’t the 8.399 million residents of New York City see regular reports and updates on callous thugs who could maim or kill you in your own car?

Hey @NYCMayor, nothing to see here.

Just keep up your good work. pic.twitter.com/yyoHO4Nbwu

— Joel Fischer (@JFNYC1) December 30, 2020

¯\_(ツ)_/¯  But…but…but SOHO KAREN (the “white” Puerto Rican) is out there accusing teenagers of stealing her phone!

Shouldn’t news outlets prioritize stories about general community safety in a era of diminishing policing? Many cities just like Louisville have seen increases in major crimes during 2020. Murder, carjackings, and assaults are setting new criminality records.

So here’s my question. If media companies are granted broadcast licenses and claim that their mission is to inform the public and hold public officials accountable, why is Mayor de Blasio lauded for wokeness but not challenged over roving street gangs? How about prioritizing stories about murders in New York City. Wouldn’t that serve the public more than some squabble about a phone?

Make no mistake. Racism is real. Racism is a scourge in societies around the globe. But elevating pissant stories like Soho Karen, a 22-year-old hothead accusing a teenager of thievery is a one time story. Media pumping it out like it’s a Trayvon Martin parallel is ridiculous. (Sidebar: the media labeled George Zimmerman a “white Hispanic” in order to keep the racial narrative active).

Open the floodgates on protest worthy injustices like the killing of Breonna Taylor, not the disruptive convo of two young people arguing about a phone.

America has serious safety and security issues resulting from skittishly challenged anarchy in Portland, Seattle, Minneapolis, New York, Philadelphia, and here in Louisville.

Why are criminals so emboldened? Because any act of policing is quickly lensed through race instead of criminal intent.

Crime is crime. Consequences must be applied to perpetrators or the streets become a shooting gallery for citizens protecting the lives of their loved ones.

Why isn’t Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer, currently the leader of U.S. Conference of Mayors, offering solutions to outrageous homicide rates, carjackings, and assaults of drivers here in his city?

Because he is beholden to the WOKE crowd as though their voices supersede all others. Louisville Urban League CEO Sadiqa Reynolds is the main voice behind A Path Forward for Louisville, a singular plan for government to fund Black citizens first.

That, as they say in philanthropy, is a Big Ask.

But is that fair to the broad taxpayer base? The entire city needs operating roads, lights, infrastructure, school buildings, government services, and security for ALL of its people. That’s why they pay taxes.

Sadiqa stands above all others in passionately voicing the concerns of Louisville (and America’s) Black people, particularly Black women.

There seems to be abundant money rolling in to address racial equity.

Major corporations, small companies, churches, civic groups, and individuals are donating billions of dollars to Black Lives Matter pursuits, although BLM does not have to publicly declare how they spend the money. Other groups with similar sounding names (Black Lives Matter Foundation) have collected millions of dollars with unknown beneficiaries.

It’s fantastic that adidas is donating $120 million to eradicate racism. Put Walmart down for a $100 million gift toward  anti-racism. God bless General Motors for throwing $10 million more into the racial equity treasure chest. (Imagine how many WOKE people asked “Is that all?”).

Big Tech threw in a billion more dollars but some BLM advocates scoffed at such a paltry sum, claiming the gift wasn’t large enough. Huh?

In this Sinclair Broadcast Group news story (They’re conservatives so it must be FAKE NEWS if they say anything critical toward BLM!), reporter Steven Loiaconi dismisses Republican claims that Black Lives Matter redirects donations to Democrat candidates.

But Loiaconi does spotlight the hazy nature of BLM’s accounting practices, and the massive amount of money spent on administration, salaries, and those always obscure “consultant fees.”

Billions of dollars are going into Black Lives Matter coffers. That’s fantastic. The massive majority of people want racial injustice rubbed out for good.

Taxpayers understand that society is multi faceted and cannot use all of its tax resources to focus on just one of its problems. Racism is horrible, but so is murder. So is armed robbery. So is rape. So is assault. So is terroristic threatening. So is carjacking. So is home invasion. So is destruction of property.

If diminishing police power is such a wise idea, why do you lock your door at night? Why do you lock your car as you walk away toward the store? Why do you have an alarm on your home? Why do you never visit an ATM after dark?

Because a significant number of our fellow citizens are wretched criminals who fearlessly murder, assault, steal, maim, and destroy property.

Security for everyone has to come before anything else. Otherwise, why live together in a community if criminality is not met with strong policing and certainty of judicially delivered consequences?

Through the summer of Breonna Taylor protests in Louisville, multiple people were shot at the protests by embedded thugs. Others were shot near the memorial set up for Taylor. Two Louisville police officers were shot by a protester. Some protesters threw Molotov cocktails at the Hall of Justice where over 200 people are incarcerated.

None of those media stories had staying power because they did not rise to the WOKE narrative involving a white protagonist (BBQ Becky, Soho Karen, etc.) accusing a Black person.

Meh. The media shrugged.

Others will say that “people need to check their privilege” instead of questioning who gets Black Lives Matter money. Virtue signaling doesn’t care about fraud. Virtue signaling is the momentary self-promotion of a supposedly pure heart. Just let them see how good you are.

To the WOKE crowd, privilege is the sin and flaunting purity is the absolution.

Never mind that money doesn’t grow on trees and “The trouble with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.” (Margaret Thatcher)

Math isn’t emotional. Math is immune to sentiment. Math has no privilege. Math isn’t biased. The numbers tell the story. Millions of donors giving billions of dollars have the right to know where and how that money is spent.

What about it, media? Follow the money? We are talking billions of charity dollars with no apparent accountability. That’s a massive story.

How about more stories on heightened murder counts and out-of-control armed robberies, carjackings, assaults, and rapes that affect all of society?

Not very interesting. Not a racial grandstanding opportunity. Just some people catching bullets without a WOKE narrative. Just some peaceful protesters throwing fire at a building where people in cells could be burned alive. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Hey news directors, when a white Puerto Rican 22-year-old accuses a Black teenager of stealing her phone is it really MUST SEE TV for days on end? Can we get more follow ups on Jussie Smollett and Bubba Wallace?  Have any more New York cabbies passed by Al Roker and picked up someone else 50 yards down the street? What a tragedy! The Roker Cab Snub generated two weeks of WOKE conversations on race.

Let’s report on real crimes, like the 22-year-old UofL student found dead in a car alongside a dead man that her family doesn’t recognize. Like three-year-old Trinity Randolph being assassinated as she played in her “Frozen” themed dollhouse. Like the 173 other people murdered in Louisville during 2020 and nearly 700 more who were shot and survived.

Criminals come in all colors, ethnicities, and ages. They must be arrested, tried, and corralled into cages or they become the cancer that kills the entire community body.

Media managers should never stuff or diminish a story because it doesn’t fit a  WOKE standard.

Tell the truth. The whole truth. The community wide truth. Bad people are creating the division that rational people seek.

Activist journalism is neglectful journalism. Get to work telling everyone’s story. It’s called broadcasting, not narrowcasting.