The Tragedy To Risky To Cover...Evidently

Shawna Forde: Guilty of all eight counts in the Flores family murders, including two counts of first-degree murder, one count of attempted murder for the shooting of the nine-year-old's mother, and an assortment of burglary, robbery and aggravated assault charges.

The bigger question is, how many people even know what I'm talking about? I haven't yet seen a single cable-network report on the story -- not MSNBC, not CNN and certainly not FNC.

Here's the short version. According to what the Arizona Daily Star reported, prosecutor Rick Unklesbay told jurors last week, Shawna Forde thought so highly of herself she believed she could create a new world, decide who was a drug dealer and who wasn't and who should live and die. Unklesbay spent approximately 90 minutes Thursday going over the evidence he says proves Forde, 43, was the mastermind behind a May 30, 2009, Arivaca home invasion that left Raul Junior Flores, 29, and his 9-year-old-daughter, Brisenia, dead of multiple gunshot wounds. The prosecutor reminded jurors that at least four witnesses testified Forde bragged about her plan to fund her Minutemen American Defense organization by robbing drug-cartel associates during home invasions. Among those witnesses were her sister, two FBI informants and Oin Oakstar, an Arivaca drug smuggler.

For two weeks, we watched non-stop coverage of the other Arizona tragedy, the one leaving Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords with a bullet shot through her brain and six dead, including nine-year-old Christina Greene. Certainly a tragedy that deserved the coverage it received, but what's up with not covering a right wing militia madam who masterminded the execution an innocent man and his 9-year-old daughter? Is it because the media does not want to report anything that reflects poorly on the right wing or is it because Brisenia Flores was Hispanic. I suspect a little bit of both, but I lean more towards the former as several under-reported attacks incited by right wing media, particularly Glenn Beck have been mostly buried. Off the top of my head: A cop killer in PA, church killings in TN, murder at the Holocaust Museum in DC, doctors who perform abortions, Carlsbad, CA where a shooter yelled "Death to Obama" while firing his gun on a playground, etc... Luckily the police pulled over a crazed heavily-armed Beck fan on his way to the Tides Foundation in an attempt to assassinate the progressive organization's employees based on his Becktrination. On the other side of the coin, a young right wing punk set up ACORN with heavily edited videos to make them look like they were trafficking prostitutes, Fox ran the story on a 24/7 loop, CNN and other MSM picked it up and ACORN was defunded by our Democratic led House. By the way, they were later cleared of wrong doing once the video was proven to be edited. Too late for them though. Right Wing mission accomplished.

Getting back to the story at hand. Now that the verdict is in with the Forde case, I wonder of any of the so-called liberal media (so says the right wing) will touch this now? I'm afraid this is just another example of what our corporate owned media does. We're only allowed to see what they want us to see. If a left wing group had been accused in any organized illegality of any kind, this would be getting 24/7 coverage, led by Fox, but with the others joining in. I'm really frustrated at the direction this country is going. The pendulum should've swung back after the Bush Debacle, but instead, the right is doubling down and getting a foothold. Another tragic reminder of how Ronald Reagan began dismantling this country with deregulation. Best of luck to Keith Olbermann on Current TV with no corporate backing.