NYT, NPR: Reports on Knockout Game 'Overblown,' 'No Big Deal'

Writing in Real Clear Politics, Larry Elder says the New York Times (NYT) and National Public Radio (NPR) are ignoring the black-on-white crime taking place in the “Knockout Game”–that the NYT and NPR view reports on the game as “overblown” and “no big deal.” 

The papers claim these attacks “do not represent a trend.” 

As Breitbart News reported on November 21, the “Knockout Game” is a game in which teens walk up to an innocent bystander on a sidewalk or in an alley and try to knock him or her out with one sucker punch. It has been going on in New Jersey and New York City for some time and has now spread to Chicago, Washington, DC, and Philadelphia, among other cities. 

Elder observes that “the perps [in the game] appear to be male people of color, mostly blacks.” And he cites reports on other black-on-white crimes to show that the NYT and NPR aren’t really that interested in reporting the current knockout craze. 

He showed that these outlets have a track record for ignoring such crimes by showing how NPR has handled black-on-white crime in recent years. 

According to Elder: “From a distance the media can spot some lone idiot holding up an offensive sign at a tea party rally. But when it comes to black perp/white victim crime, there is a different attitude.” 

He cites a 2006 incident in Long Beach, CA, where “a mostly black mob of 30 to 40 teens and adults brutally kicked, punched, and pummeled three white women, slamming them to the ground, ripping earrings from their lobes and beating them with a skateboard.” He said that when NPR decided to cover the story–“a month later”–their coverage consisted of asking whether a black person can even commit a “hate crime… given America’s history of racism.”

It should be noted that while the NYT and NPR look the other way, MSNBC’s Al Sharpton says the “Knockout Game” needs to stop. And after a 78-year-old Jewish woman in Brooklyn was targeted for a knockout earlier this month, Sharpton described such behavior as “racist” and said the game will not be tolerated. 

Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter @AWRHawkins.