August 18, 2014

Joe Concha appeared to be auditioning for a future gig with Fox News on Sunday. His appearance on Howie Kurtz' show even managed to rile up Howie, which isn't an easy thing to do.

Concha began by blaming Wes Lowery and Ryan Reilly for their arrests, saying they were provoking the police by not moving fast enough. He then went on to say that Wes Lowery in particular was just hamming it up for the media appearances he made the following day. That didn't sit well with anyone except Concha.

Chastising Lowery, Concha said, "This was a media tour, Howie, only rivaled by Hillary Clinton's, all in the effort to give Wes Lowery's byline a microphone and a future career and nothing more."

Those of us actually following Lowery's arrest and media appearances know he was quite uncomfortable being the story instead of reporting the story. Even Howie had to step into that, saying "I think that's unfair. Wes Lowery is a good solid reporter. He was deluged with requests to appear on TV, including from me. He only did a few of those. So I don't think this is as self promotional as you do."

Keli Goff then gets a turn at defending the reporting from Ferguson and pointing out that intentional gassing of reporters was eerily reminiscent of Birmingham in 1963. That elicited a real tirade from Concha.

"You know, the bottom line is that it's now a cottage industry when a white cop shoots a black kid or what we saw with Trayvon Martin last year." Concha continued, "CNN, HLN, quadrupled their ratings because of these sort of events and ISIS and Gaza's happening you know overseas. This is the cheap and domestic and that's why we're seeing the coverage go where it has Howard."

In other words, all of the coverage isn't because this is newsworthy. It's just for ratings. He should say that to Tim Pool, CREDO Mobile, WeActRadio, and those reporters who got a face full of tear gas on Sunday night. It's just amazing what they'll do for ratings, isn't it?

Keli Goff was incensed and let him know his white privilege was something the black community didn't have the luxury of relying upon.

"You call it a cottage industry, but those of us who have African American men in our families consider it a crisis Joe," Goff chided. "And I think that it must be nice to have an experience in this country where you can dismiss it as simply coverage."

Which is exactly what he did, right? It's not racism when white privilege is called what it is, but Concha did not take it well and blew a few gaskets while castigating her for calling him a racist on national television, which she didn't. He was also incensed that her remarks suggested he was insensitive, which he was.

Ultimately it all got wrapped up in a tidy bow with Concha offering a classic non-apology for overreacting.

"Keli, I'm sorry if I overreacted, perhaps I did, at least now the police can't control the narrative in terms of everything that's coming out, so there are positives to social media. I don't want to say that. And I apologize to Keli for overreacting."

It would have been nice if he had apologized to Wes Lowery for calling him a media whore, but he didn't. I assume that means he still thinks the coverage of events in Ferguson are just whoredom for ratings rather than covering any 'real news.'

That's some heavy white privilege right there. Way to go, Joe.

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