There's a reason why I love reading The Onion. There has been a bit of a...mild controversy...over some news photos published on the web relating to the mess in New Orleans. The gist of it all is that the news seems to be depicting those in the Big Easy with a somewhat darker shade of skin as "looters", whereas those with a paler skin tone have been put in much nicer tones.
I actually emailed Yahoo, on whose site some of these photos appeared; their boilerplate response was their own absolution of responsiblity towards it, saying that they don't review the photos they receive and if I'd like to lodge a complaint I should do so with the news agency who provided the offending photos and captions.
Thanks, Yahoo.
Apparently the Onion picked up on this and pointed it out in their own cynical way:
White Foragers Report Threat Of Black Looters
NEW ORLEANS—Throughout the Gulf Coast, Caucasian suburbanites attempting to gather food and drink in the shattered wreckage of shopping districts have reported seeing AfricanAmericans "looting snacks and beer from damaged businesses." "I was in the abandoned Wal-Mart gathering an air mattress so I could float out the potato chips, beef jerky, and Budweiser I'd managed to find," said white survivor Lars Wrightson, who had carefully selected foodstuffs whose salt and alcohol content provide protection against contamination. "Then I look up, and I see a whole family of [African-Americans] going straight for the booze. Hell, you could see they had already looted a fortune in diapers." Radio stations still in operation are advising store owners and white people in the affected areas to locate firearms in sporting-goods stores in order to protect themselves against marauding blacks looting gun shops.
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