Friday, July 15, 2016

Well, Now, That's Not Very Nice

Google News search results for "Nice Bastille Day truck attack" (not as a phrase, as disconnected words): 1.11 million.

Google News search results for "Baghdad market bomb attack" (again, not as an exact phrase): 149,000.

Death toll in the Nice Bastille Day truck attack: 84

Death toll in the Baghdad market bomb attack: More than 200

And the media has had mere hours to react to the Nice attack, while it's had nearly two weeks to cover the Baghdad attack.

Given the likely ethnic composition of the targeted crowds, I think the search pairing stands up fairly well as a measurement of the relative value western media places on the lives of brown (mostly) Arabs versus the lives of white (mostly) Europeans.

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