Time to recap the biggest news stories of the week with BIN news anchors Doug Davis and Esther Dillard.
It's been another busy news week and we like to review the major stories of the week here on the Black Information Network. Today, we are joined by Black Information Network news anchors Esther Dillard and Doug Davis to discuss this week's major stories. This is the Black Information Network Daily Podcast and I am your host, ramses Jah. All right, Esther and Doug, welcome back to the show.
How you been, hey doing great? How are you? And great?
I love it, I love it. I was always good to hear from you too. All right, Well, let's get to the news. First up, Public outrage is at an all time high in the black community over the shooting of sixteen year old Kansas City teen Ralph Yarl. Esther, let's get the latest from you on this story. And then Doug, I want to hear from you as well well.
Ralph y'arl is a sixteen year old. According to his mom, he loves music and she asked him to go pick up his two siblings from a house. And she told Gail King on CBS this morning that she gave him the address and he got it mixed up and he went to the wrong house. He rang the doorbell and waited outside. Because you know, the kids were just supposed to come out and get in the car, So he just stood outside the door, like you know he was told because he was told not to go in the house. Well, CNN reports that police say eighty four year old Andrew Lester came to his door with his gun because he was heading for bed and didn't know who was at the door. And reports are he says he fired through a locked glass door. The bullet hit ralph In above his left eye, into his head, and then another bullet into his arm. Lester, according to reports, says that the young boy pulled on his door and he and but it's from what the mother says. He didn't touch the door at all. He just rang the doorbell like he was told to do. After he was shot, he he went to three different houses to get help. No one would help him until they get to the third house, and that person pretty much told him to put his hands above his head and lay on the ground and that's when he passed out. So the next information I have is that he went to the hospital. His mom basically explained on CBS this morning that she's a nurse and two other relatives are on medical professionals they have been working helping him at home. That's why he's home.
You know.
They released him from the hospital not long after he was shot, and he's home being kind of twenty four hour care with all three of those professionals that are from his home, and apparently he has a very long recovery ahead. There's a fundraiser that has been set up on his behalf. According to People magazine, it's around three point three million dollars right now to go toward his medical bills and therapy. The President called him and his mom, inviting them to the White House, and Lester, who's alled shooter, was charged with assault in a first degree and he was allowed to go home after posting bond that was said at two hundred thousand dollars. He had to pay about ten percent of that. So that's basically it in a nutshell what happened to him as of now, what's happening now is that he's recovering at home. A lot of people are in shock, and it's a nightmare for you know, a lot of black mothers who are concerned about their black sons. You know that they would send them out just to do something that is simple and Erin and according to the lawyer that's representing them, she has a number of lawyers, but one of the lawyers said, which really stuck with me, is that he believes that the son's blackness was a threat, just his blackness him itself, and that is what the alleged shooter pretty much was afraid of. But we'll never know what exactly was going through the mind of that shooter as of yet. I mean, the prosecutor pretty much says there is a racial component to this, with air quotes around that racial component, but he would not elaborate on that. And that's really all where it is right now.
Doug. I'm gonna get your thoughts absolutely.
I want to piggyback off of that comment Esther, you know, I want to talk about why Andrew Lester decided that a black male team knocking on his door was a threat to his life. I'm sure if Ralph was white. We all know a sixteen year old kid, it would not have probably happened that way. Black skin has always been seen as a weapon, and my big question is how has the media framed black men historically. I was doing some research online recently on a site, digging for some storys and I won't name the site, but as I look through all the stories that were highlighted on the homepage, I looked at all of the images of African Americans, and most of the stories surrounding black men were negative, and most of the stories of black women were positive.
Perception, big deal.
At times it supersedes the truth, like in this case, Lester feared that. And this is an alleged statement that I'm saying, but Lester allegedly feared that, you know, Ralph was a criminal, automatically off the bat and felt scared. So, in my opinion, in order to eradicate the perception of black males, America needs to do better, the messaging on media must change. I mean, it's an eighty two year old guy. I don't know how many interactions he's had with black youth, but a lot of people frame opinions by what they see, and so again, media needs to do a little bit better.
And I just hope that when this.
Comes to trial that the jurors that are picked don't possess the same type of perception about black men as Lester us, and if so, he's doomed. Whether his bias is implicit or not. He shot a sixteen year old black kid, and implicit bias, I believe is something that really needs to be addressed in this country.
Sure, sure, you know, there's to your point, there's this guy Andrew Lester, his grandson did an interview saying that yes, indeed his grandfather was racist and was radicalized in recent years by Fox News.
And that had.
Pushed him further right and made him more afraid. This is me putting it kindly. You know what we're here, I want to say it hateful. I made it more hateful. And so you're absolutely right. In media, especially right wing media in this country definitely is one place to look at in terms of like the source of this kind of festering resentment that is found in ultra conservative circles. And then I want to add a couple of notes to the story. So you know, obviously he was going to go pick up his brothers at a house, and I think that how was shown to me on the news was that it was he went instead of like one fifty five Cherry Tree Lane, he went to one fifty five Cherry Tree Street or whatever the address was, but it was like that street versus lane, sort of mix up that he made. That's how he ended up at the wrong house. He had the right numbers, just the wrong end of the address, and so that kind of put him on a different block not too far from where he was supposed to be. So it was an honest mistake and the police should have known that, you know. But what happened was initially Andrew Lester was taken in for questioning and release right there was no accountability and it wasn't until after we made a bunch of noise and and you know, credit where it's due, there were some media outlets that were carrying this story very early on. We've been one of the media outlets that was carrying the story, and it was because of that mounting pressure that they ultimately charged Andrew Lester with whatever this nonsense is. But you know, we know that this is a tempted murder, this is assault on a on a child. You know all that this this should be a lot more charges than just these these two that we've seen so far. But we're certainly going to keep following this story as it as it continues to develop, and hopefully there will be some justice and a lesson learned from people who have succumbed to that hate and have let it fester, and they think that, you know, black life is something that you can just snuff out for ringing your doorbell. Because again, all the evidence so far points to he rang the doorbell, he stood outside and waited, and thank god he lived to tell that version of the story, because had he died, we'd just be listening to Andrew Lester, or indeed, we might not even hear about this story.
So again, yes, sir, I'm so sorry.
If I could just add, I mean, I just feel that there's a polarization with white people's perception of black folks. I mean, you've got one side. I'm just going to say, maybe more liberal. You know, I've spoken to a few of my friends who happened to be white about what happened. And I've got some Republican leaning white friends, right, and they both have two different opinions of what happened, you know, the more liberal white friends of mine. That's just horrible, man, It's I can't imagine what it would be like to be black in America. And then on the other side, well, what do you expect the guy to do? You know, he sees someone at is door knocking that he doesn't know, he got scared, He did his best to protect himself, much of what I believe the police initially thought of when the situation came up, right, they were obviously saying, hey, you know, you had to do what you had to do.
You know, go ahead, We'll let you go. We'll talk to you later, you know.
So you know, how can we bridge the gap or how can America you know, bridge the gap and make sure that again this simplicit bias. Man, It's just we got to start over. That's all I got to say. We got to start over.
Man.
You got to start over at whip you you know black people, Yes, sir.
Well, speaking of starting over, that kind of brings us to the next story. So this week Fox News agreed to settle his defamation lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems, And it was nearly a billion dollars seven hundred and eighty seven and a half million dollars if I'm not mistaken. So let's talk about this because there's some accountability and there might indeed need to be a reset in terms of Fox's approach to covering the news quote unquote and their journalistic integrity. Quote unquote, So this time, let's talk for Let's talk to you first, Doug, and then Estra willo here from me afterward give us more on the story.
Sure, well, you know, the company's lawyer, Justin Nelson and a meeting dominion, said that lives have consequences, and I agree with another statement he made, also saying that truthful reporting in the media is essential to our democracy. But former President Trump truly challenged that statement while in office, and he's been caught in a ton of lies, and those lives have permeated, like we said before, not only into the halls of Fox News, but into America and those that may you know, prescribe to his views. So and when it comes to its viewers. It also said that Fox knew basically or their hosts really really didn't agree with some of those conspiracy theories, but supported them anyway. Why my only thought would be for ratings, it would yeah, I mean, it would have to be, yeah, it would have to be, you know, and I would love to have seen Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson and the box anchor team score them under pressure on the stand. But hey, it is what it is, and I will say that even though there is polarization within the Republican Party, I believe this decision will not hurt the brand.
I believe people believe.
What they want to believe, and die hard Fox News viewers they're not going to stray away. I mean, I just can't see them saying, no, We're just going to start watching MSNBC. I just can't imagine that happening. And so, but the latest though, Fox News still faces a two point seven billion dollar lawsuit from another company, Smart, which is another voting technology company. It says that's Fox newspread lives that disseminated its business. Itchsuit was filed back in February of twenty twenty one, alleging that Fox shared false information from former President Trump and his supporters that the company played a role in his twenty twenty election loss.
So that's the latest esther I got to hear from you too.
Well, I you know, after looking at this story and watching many of the media analysts on air on various different networks, it appears at least media analysts believe that Fox did not want to have their hosts or their reporters testifying in court because, again, like Doug said, it would damage their brand, and the main reason is because a lot of what they found with these texts and the emails and such is that the anchors and the head of Fox News were saying one thing in public or on the air and then another in private. So it was showing that they were being really two faced about everything that they were doing and their truth central I you know, being truth central, you know, for Fox News, that's kind of what their their brand is, that they were not being truthful at all. So many are saying this is probably the largest payout in an entity by an entity, a media entity for a settlement, And to me, when I saw those numbers, I was like, this shows to me that Fox News has very very deep pockets and it's interesting to see, you know what other things that there may have to pay out to to try and protect their brand. But it's obvious that they're they're going to keep still making money.
Oh yeah, you know. The the interesting thing about this is that first off, Rupert Murdoch is a billionaire, So seven and a half million dollars there's a check not a guy like that could write. And indeed, if Fox settles this other suit, it's smart maatic again it's another check. And I don't quote me on this, but I believe they're annual. Their yearly revenue is somewhere in the neighborhood of like one point six billion dollars. So it's consequences. It's not the accountability that a lot of us would have hoped for, but it's not nothing, you know. And so again our hope is that, you know, because they don't exist in it in a vacuum. You know, there's there's shareholders, there's there's you know, chair people, there's all kinds of other folks that are involved here that are watching now and making sure that mistakes like this don't happen again. So granted, it's not again, it's not everything, but it's not nothing. So my hope is that we'll continue to see a little bit more journalistic integrity. Again, they're never going to say that they had to settle this suit because then that would be admitting that they were culpable. And so their listeners are none the wiser, and they don't tend to stray far from Fox. You know, Fox has been number one or near number one for nearly twenty years in the news space because they cater to one audience very well, and that's a not insignificant amount of the country, whereas more left leaning news outlets are more plentiful, and so they split the remaining viewership. So Fox is again it's not everything, but it's not nothing. So we'll continue to watch and see how the Smartmatic situation plays out, and the Mike Lindell situation, and all the other lawsuits that are up in the air surrounding January sixth insurrection, and of course the big lie that was told by Donald Trump that was echoed by these right wing media outlets. Black Information Network news anchors Esther Dillard and Doug Davis are here with us discussing this week's major stories. All right, Protests are broken out in the city of Akron following the grand jury decision in the death of Jaalen Walker. Doug give our listeners a quick summary of this case and share with us the latest details.
Sure well, you know, the grand jury nack in Ohio, decided not to bring charges against the officers involved in the shooting death of Jalen Walker. The shooting happened last June. Eight officers, seven of them white, were involved in shooting more than forty rounds at the unarmed Walker, who was black. Of course, this after Walker fled from an alleged traffic stop and police say they found a loaded handgun on the driver's.
Seat of the car.
How many times have we heard that protesters erupted, or I should say protests he erupted all over the country after Walker's death last summer and even of course now, you know, local officials been urging for the protests to remain peaceful, which they have, but that didn't quite happen, I believe. Wednesday night, Akron police say that that peaceful protest turned sour. Apparently, according to the City of Akron, marchers began throwing rocks, bottles at the cops and businesses, and then soon after Akron police determined that the march was unlawful and use pepper spray to disperse the crowd.
No rest were made. I want to give a shout out if I.
Can, to black Ohio Congresswoman Amelia Sykes, who was urging the Department of Justice to investigate the Akron police department. Sykes represents Akron, and you know, she says, you know, people in her district no longer feel like they're being served, that you know, the people that were you know, hired to you know, protect and serve the community are not doing their job, and so.
I want to give big shout out to her.
I really hope something comes about from her request. Evidence has been released that was used in court which led to the grand jury decision. The ballistic for port shows that among the eight officers involved in that shooting, ninety four bullets were fired at Walker, and of those shots fired forty six at Walker, seventy were fired by four of the officers in less than seven seconds. Mike has dropped.
Esther as, Yeah, I was gonna say that just what he said in regard to the shots. I mean, people have people are upset that the fact that there were ninety more than ninety shots deployed by eight officers in that short period of time killing Jalen Walker. I think that's one of the things that sticks with a lot of people that that were talked to by different media outlets. They're just upset about how that is okay and that this could have been any of their brothers, their fathers, their sisters, their mothers that you know, could have been in this line of fire. One thing that has to be said is that. Prosecutors say that Walker had pulled the gun while he was in the car and shot at officers before exiting the car, so they believe the shooting was justified. However, when he was shot while running away from officers, he had no gun in his hand. The gun was found in the car, so many are questioning justification in regard to this whole shooting. I say, it's a sad situation. I you know, it's sad because apparently this man had recently lost his fiance, probably about I think about a month ago before this shooting. He allegedly was depressed as well, so there are a lot of questions regarding to a state of mind everything else. So it's it's it's a story that I don't think is even though this has happened and people are protesting that, I'm sure there's a lot more things that will come out from this particular situation.
Sure, sure, you know it's really sad because death is so final. You know, you can't ask Jalen Okay, what was going through your mind? Or why did the gun go off? Did you shoot it? Was it an accident? You know, were you aiming at anyone? You know, anything like that?
And one of.
The realities of sitting here day after day, week after we covering these stories is that you know, I've reached the conclusion that you have a criminal justice system in this country that treats you much better if you're white and guilty than if you're black and innocent. Right, we have a criminal justice system in this country that affords you the right to bear arms if you're not black, because again, carrying a gun is not illegal. Having a gun in the front seat of your car is not illegal, but that's often used to justify the narrative that's being chronicle, and then the Second Amendment right is completely overlooked provided that you know the subject at the center of the conversation is black, and you know, we have a criminal justice system in this country that assumes that you're innocent until proven guilty. And I use this assumes you're innocent until proven guilty in air quotes when you're in court, but when you're interacting with the police, it assumes that you're guilty until proven innocent if you're black. And these are just some base level conclusion.
Obviously, I had to cover this story when it we talked about this on Civic Cyperoo with Jalen when the news first broke, and so we examined all the details, and I think you nailed it right on the head.
It's a sad story all the way around. It's just very unfortunate that we don't get to tell the rest of the story because we don't know the rest of the story because again, death is so final, which is why I think a lot of us are so happy that Ralph Yarrel made it through his attempted execution, because he can tell us I wasn't jiggling the door handle. I rang the doorbell, and I stood there. This is America, look at yourself, and so yeah, yeah, moving on. Finally, Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt is calling for the resignation of four officials after leaked audio recordings uncovered racist comments and other disturbing language from the group. I'm going to play a little bit the audio here and then we'll talk about it.
First.
I'd like to start with you, Esther, and then follow you with Doug. Let's play this audio and.
The day what does sea we're talking about at and hung them up with the mam bro you can't talk about it. I got more rocks than we got.
So that's just a little bit of the audio. The full audio is up online. But again, Esther tell us a little bit more about this story, and uh, I want to follow.
Up you well from my research.
According to different accounts, County Sheriff Kevin Clardy and three other county officials, they were in a meeting back in March, and a journalist from the Mercayton McCurtain Gazette was recording the conversation because he really wanted evidence that they were violating open public meeting laws. That was the reason for the recording in the first place. But instead he recorded them talking about the fact that they knew hitmen that could kill him, the guy who was recording the conversation and his son, and hide the bodies and holes that had already been dug. So the guy was just like floored when he was listening to it. The recording has also captured them talking about black people that you just played and how they wish they could go back to hanging them because they have more rights than us meeting white people. The audio is disturbing. NBC News says they cannot confirm whose voices are on the recording, and the network is reporting that those from the Sheriff's office wrote in a statement that the recording had been quote illegally obtained, appeared to have been altered, and they may have violated state law by prohibiting secret recordings by third parties. However, the law firm which represents the newspaper and says that the recording had not been tampered with and that the reporter, Bruce Willingham, whose family owned the newspaper for like forty years, did not break the law in making it, so that whole thing is there. They say. The entire recording has already been turned over to the FBI and the Oklahoma Attorney General's office. So that's where that stands. And the NAACP leaders in Oklahoma are calling for the FBI and the Department of Justice to investigate. As you said, Governor Stitt has called for the shaff to and those who were at that meeting to resign. And meantime, a lot of people, especially in the black community, are extremely upset and they've been holding protests.
Jug talk to me, I just found out that the uh, the Oklahoma official, I literally just got this, but I understand he has resigned and so the county commissioner has resigned after that, you know, the backlash of what's happening.
But I can just get back to my original point that I was going to make, is that.
Why is it always that the Department of Justice has to investigate what we heard departments? Well, not just that, but police departments themselves, right, which lets me feel that, like I've always said, police departments are inherently racist. I'm sorry, I mean, a majority stand but I'm not saying every cop is a racist, But I believe the institution itself permeates racism against black people, period, and so I feel police unions need to be restructured, period. I mean, I just feel like the whole system needs to be cleaned out. Racism is a disease that is tearing our country apart.
Black folks know it. White folks are starting to see it a little bit. But it's just a recurring story.
We're probably gonna hear a story something like this or you know, another DJ investigation within the next three weeks from another situation where uh, you know, white police officers, you know, continue to brutally attack and kill black people. So police unions, uh, they are the ones who protect these police officers, and so when these cases come up, law enforcement has to go to the union first to find out what there's those rules are, you know, and and how to proceed forward.
I believe that is not democratic at all, and I believe that in order to eradicate this and move forward, we've got to flesh sh out the system, and we've got to put some new information in or new people, new culture, new mentalities that promote equity. You know.
I know it's tough out there on the streets, man, but I just can't see this stopping anytime soon. I'm sorry that I didn't have a more canned response, but the emotions that I feel like most black people when we hear about these stories, it's just disheartening and it bothers me every day.
I understand, I understand well. As always, we'll continue to keep tabs on this story and around here, we're always going to hope for a positive outcome and accountability. So we do what we can, which is not nothing. So once again, i'd like to thank you both very much for your time and your insight. Today's guest again our Black Information Network News anchors Esther Dillard and Doug Davis This has been a production of the Black Information Network. Today's show is produced by Chris Thompson. Have some thoughts you'd like to share, use the red microphone talkback feature on the iHeartRadio app. While you're there, be sure to hit subscribe and download all of our episodes. I'm your host Ramsey's job on all social media, and I'll be hosting another episode of Civic Cipher this weekend on a station near you. For stations, showtimes, and podcast info, Jackciviccipher dot com and join us Monday as we share our news with our voice from our perspective right here on the Black Information Network Daily podcast