Jack & Jill Politics

(Thanks Dr. Marc Lamont Hill for representin’ well against Hannity & Colmes’ nonsense.)

I watched 60 Minutes last Sunday making me unusual in my demographic. 60 Minutes’ viewers tend to skew not just older but old. The oldest of any show on broadcast TV. Which is why they are trying to bring on some fresh new faces, like the red-hot Anderson Cooper. Hey, if he’s good enough to do stories on CNN and Oprah, he must be good enough for 60 Minutes!

Cooper became a hero during Katrina for his passionate, unflinching coverage. Since he hooked up with Oprah, he’s got supposed cred with the colored folks, especially the poor ones.

“I think you are the new breed of reporter … it’s so interesting to me that you are the most feeling reporter on TV today.” — Oprah

Yet his Stop Snitching story which purported to be a compassionate look at the black underclass and its pathological anti-police culture was so distorted as to be nauseating. It’s a false anti-hero credo pumped up by record labels looking to make money through the systematic degradation of the black community. If you really want to hear what everyday black people think about “Stop Snitching”, check out the comments here about Cam’ron such as:

I heard about this IGNORANCE….He wasnt even aware of how bad he made black ppl look, not just hip hop artists…They knew who to pick to interview n he fell for the trap… Normally I would say that ‘’he doesnt represent all black ppl, thats just him’’ but this no snitchin foolishness has to stop! *Smh*

And yea, he should be the last person talking about bein ‘’Gangsta!’’

Davey D on MySpace has a good analysis of how wrong 60 Minutes and CBS got this story:

Cooper and the 60 Minutes crew interviewed NY Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and somehow forgot to ask him about the ‘No Snitching’ ethos that exists within the police department. We didn’t hear about the infamous Blue Wall of silence. Nor did we hear about the unsavory practices used by police to get confessions and flip informants. Torture, Blackmail and other manipulations are commonplace. We didn’t hear how oftentimes its the police themselves who will snitch on snitches. As we learned in the Atlanta conference that far too often its the police who will dime you out when you try to do the right thing and be a witness to a dangerous criminal. The other irony is that often times its those dangerous criminals who will dime out their crew after the police apply illegal tactics.

Also we didn’t hear about the No Snitching ethos that seems to be practiced by our very secretive Vice President Dick Cheney and Presidential aid Karl Rove. We can talk about the lack of snitching around important issues like the War in Iraq, the firing of Federal Judges. Hell let’s look at 9-11. Also we shouldn’t forget how Cheney went into Stop Snitching mode after he shot his homeboy in the face. The Cheney bunch are the epitome of ‘Stop Snitching’ . They hold that position much harder then Cam’ron or any other rapper. And yeah try getting too deep into some of these guy’s illegal business and you might wind up missing like anyone else.

During the 60 Minutes interview we heard conversation about how big corporations profit off of rappers like Cam rapping about people to ‘Stop Snitching’. They mention his Cam’s record label Asylum but they never named the executives. They never mentioned the label being founded by David Geffen who is Presidential candidate Barack Obama’s biggest supporter. Nor did they mention it currently being headed by former Def Jam CEO and now Warner Music Group head Lyor Cohen.