OUTRAGE – AT 8:46 A.M. ET:  In what is becoming a huge news story, nine innocent people, all black, were murdered last night in Charleston, South Carolina.  The gunman, caught on surveillance video, is apparently white.  From Fox: 

A frantic manhunt was on in South Carolina, hours after a "horrible scoundrel" opened fire in a historic African-American church in downtown Charleston, killing nine, including the prominent pastor and state senator, during a regular prayer meeting.

Police immediately branded the shooting spree, which began just after 9 p.m. Wednesday, a hate crime, and released surveillance images of a white man fleeing the scene at 180-year-old Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church after the horrific incident, which left six women and three men dead.

"This is an unspeakable and unfathomable act by somebody filled with hate and a deranged mind," Charleston Mayor Joseph Riley said in a Thursday morning press conference. He vowed that authorities were "committed to finding this horrible scoundrel."

COMMENT:  The role of the media in the face of this awful crime is to report the news, not to make matters worse.  It may well have been a hate crime, but branding it as such is probably a mistake.  We don't know the facts.  It could have been a personal grudge, or a revenge killing.  Nothing justifies it, but this is not a time for press hysteria, especially at outlets like CNN.

The usual suspects, the Sharptons, will be out there, trying to make gains out of this enormous personal tragedy.  The media should impose the greatest discipline in keeping the story straight.

June 18, 2015