Jesse Dirkhising

“Who is Jesse Dirkhising?

We all know who Matthew Shepard is. Why has the National media ignored Jesse Dirkhising?”

“Court TV has been covering this trial, and Brown deserves worse than what's coming to him! His accomplis Carpenter should fry very slow also.

They won't make it very long in jail when inmates find out what he did to the little boy. The sex lies they told about the kid in the trial, and then the murder...makes me sick!”

“I agree Buddur, this is terrible. I don't think the media is ignoring it Bacpac. This may not get as much air time as Shepard's death because it isn't a 'hate crime'.
I hope you aren't trying to relate the two cases in some way though as that would just be trollish.”

“barlo, This story has been ignored. Court TV isn't exactly the National media. I think you hit the nail on the head when you said this wasn't a hate crime. How have we allowed ourselves to be brainwashed into thinking one kind of murder is worse than another?”

“barlo, you say this was not a hate crime. Was it a 'love crime'? Just because Jesse is not a member of a specially protected victim class does not mean that hate was not involved in his death. I think the whole notion of hate crimes is ridiculous. When someone is brutally tortured to death, the penalty for their killer should not be dependent on the victim's race, gender, or sexual orientation.”

“Here's a new link to the archived article if anyone's interested:

Link to Friday's Article”

“Wow, I couldn't remember the kid's name....... I just mentioned this in the "Best Adventures" thread, which had me checking that Arkansas Democrat Gazette for another reason. JUST mentioned it........ how totally frickin' warped the whole crime was. Just unbelievable!!!!

If you really wanted to get some open dialogue and comments on this, you woulda posted something other than "Jesse Dirkhising" as the thread title. I read the story just yesterday and couldn't remember the kid's name to link it to this.

So bacpac, are you saying when straights killed a gay guy everyone went nuts (you're gonna say MEDIA) and when gay guys kill a boy, that it is then left alone, well, for reasons you're implying??!??

I got into a debate on "hate crimes" in a journalism newsgroup after Christmas sometime. Another crime that really wasn't covered: I think it was five people were shot (believe one survived), run over with a vehicle in a sports field, raped, etc. etc. in WICHITA! I had heard nothing on that and couldn't believe it (although I have no TV and don't follow national news that much)........

Someone called me a racist on there and accused me of calling something a "hate crime" when it wasn't. Geez, I said, there is a frickin' nationwide defition of "hate crime" that is known to all media? Could they share that definition of "hate crime" with me from Webster's dictionary??

Ends up the accused were black. I had to laugh. Hell, in my mind I had pictured ratty, backwoods, types of "Deliverance" mentality!! White trash (kinda like the screwed up ex-cons in the movie "Boys Don't Cry," about a small town in NEBRASKA........ they ended up killing a gal, Tina, who lived her life pretending she was a guy. It's a true story. The town is in SE Nebraska, Fall City, I think?? Guess this was another story that was ignored until it hit the big movie screen.)

So anyway, after my long rant touching on so many things in bits and pieces, get off the "hate crime" kick! I don't know why some things make the national media and others don't. Perhaps it all has to do with how MEDIA SAVVY any protesting groups might be. And they were definitely out there in the Matthew Shephard case.”

“Hi, I?m Johnny Knoxville and this is ?If it Bleeds it Leads??

The simple fact is that the media?s whole goal is to insight emotions. If they can fire up your passion you won?t want to miss a single scrap of information about said story. If some a@@bag talking head can get a double story out of something like say, create the double victim scenario we have with school shootings (the victims who are shot and then the poor, poor misguided youth who shot them), hey, they get twice the bang (huh, huh, huh?he said ?bang?) for the buck! They will be able to drag it out twice as long because not only do they get to examine the travesty of the shooting and what we need to do about it but they get to sit around and speculate as to why the shooter was nuts. And the whole time John Q. Morbid is GLUED to CNN and the other a@@bag media outlets.

Kind of like when I do a stunt in the nude. That stunt wouldn?t be half as funny if I had clothes on, would it?”

“So you would be saying they are trying to explain those emotions by showing "insight??"

Or would that be trying to "incite?"

Get on the stick Johnny Knoxville... you need Webster's Dictionary, too............ 8-)”

“Bacpac, Obviously one murder isn't worse than another. They are all bad. That said, it's foolish to expect the 'media' to cover every story with equal time. You asked why the Shepard case got more attention though, and my suspicion is that it's because Shepard's murder was a hate crime. This case is just as sad, but there is less to say about it.

Omahiker,
The term 'hate crime' has a legal definition in many states and IMO this case doesn't fit that legal definition.”

“...and in the end it doesn't mater if the media treats the two cases with equal justice, as long as the courts do.”

“barlo, What is a hate crime? A druken homosexual killed during a robbery? I think that is abhorent, but no more so than two homosexuals torturing, sodomizing, and killing a 13 year old boy.

Face it. None of you heard of this when it happened. I heard of it because I live down the road from it. Now that the trial is underway there is a sprinkling of news.

The National media largely reports news that supports the liberal agenda. Homosexuals killing kids isn't reported because the National media is pro homosexual.

What other explanation could there be?

Why hasn't the National media launched investigations into the Jesse Jackson financial scandal?

Duh!?!”

“All murders are rooted in hate.”

“Ok. I'm not a lawyer, nor do I play one on the web. But I do know that the term 'hate crime' has a well defined legal meaning in many states. The gist of it (as I understand it) is when a crime is committed against a member of one of the designated groups, because of who they are, it is a hate crime. It doesn't make the crime any worse (how can such a thing really be measured?) It does hopefully increase the chance of successful prosecution though.

As far as I can tell Bacpac, we are in agreement. We both agree that both murders are equally sad. I don't get how this ties in with Jackson though.

I don't usually feed off topic trolls, so this is all you'll get from me. :)

-Peace”

“National media doesn't play up Wichita murders....... national media doesn't play up Nebraska murder....... gee... could it just be that we're in the Midwest??? OH!! And there aren't any little girl beauty queens involved in this one, either.............”

“Barlo, then would rape be a hate crime against women? How about carjacking a hate crime against fat lazy middle class white folks? Murder is already illegal, the fact that someone was singled out for a lifestyle choice or cooler doesnt make em more dead, or make the crime more illegal, but unfortunately it can and does make the penalty higher for the perpetrator. IMHO this demeans the crimes done to others (those not labeled hate crimes).”

“Sorry bout the misspell...that should be color not cooler.”

“For interesting collection of material on hate crimes, including official definitions and FBI stats, as well as various viewpoints, go to policy.com and search its archive of past topics. Almost any policy issue you can think of is researched and archived by this site. A great resource for background/argumentation.”