I am dismayed. We all hear of media biasness, and we have come to expect it from national media sources, be that MSNBC, CNN, ABC or FOX, but somehow we the people expect better when it comes to media outlets close to home.
This is not the case in the article written by (Brownsville Herald) staff writer Kaila Contreras which ran on page A6 of the VMS on Dec. 8, 2017. The headline was “Four residents talk about Davis memorial at parks committee meeting.”
I was at that meeting and I spoke.
What I expected to read was a well reasoned article showing both people for and against the removal to a museum of the Jefferson Davis monument.
What I in reality read was a biased article focusing on only four of those who attended and supported removal and destruction of the monument.
In fact the article went into detail presenting the
hate filled views of those bent on only destruction, no matter who is insulted or hurt by their actions.
I was entitled to hear how I should feel as a Veteran toward the suggestion that the monument be removed to Veterans Park for safety and that I should feel insulted.
I was enlightened to how the United Daughters of the Confederacy, who placed the monument in the 1920s, were only wishing to present “a white supremacist in a positive light.
What was not presented in the article is how in a recent poll 68% of the local people wished the Jefferson Davis Monument to stay.
What the article did not mention is that Veterans by a large majority came to the commission meeting on Nov. 29 to support the placing of the Jefferson Davis monument in Veterans Park in Brownsville.
We are speaking of one Veteran on hand who volunteered to fight with the Royal Air Force in Britain prior to the United States entering the conflict and later served with US Bomber Command upon American entry to WWII.
What was not mentioned in the article in question was that those opposing the destruction and removal from public sight of this monument
represented Hispanic, Anglo, and Native American races and were in unison defending Jefferson Davis.
What was not mentioned is how the Brownsville Police had to intervene when one of those in attendance, who wished to see the monument destroyed, broke the rules of the meeting and tried to retake the microphone against repeated warnings not to do so by the good park commissioners.
This was a “news” article and not an Editorial. If this story was an Editorial I might expect this blatant censorship by omission to be present, but in a “news” story?
Is this what we call news in the Valley?
Is this what unbiased reporting is, an article that tells only half the story?
Do we as residents of the Rio Grande Valley not deserve better?
I for one believe the good residents of the Valley should expect just a bit more fair, complete, and unbiased coverage from our local news sources.
Christopher Brush Harlingen
