News that is inconvenient to print

 I find this fascinating.  

I have commented before that it is a measure of mainstream media failure when Americans have to go to fringe sources or overseas media to get basic information about an important issue in the US because the American mainstream media are refusing to cover it.  

Two different stories reinforce that to me this morning.

George Floyd's death in Minneapolis is of course extraordinarily topical.  There are at least six, if not seven, different movies running.  1) The movie about systemic police violence against African Americans (undermined in this instance by the racial make-up of the four arresting officers, two white, one Asian-American, one African-American.)  2) The movie about the  drug-fueled violence of arrestees and the dangers faced by police officers in their daily duties.  3) The movie about the difficulties of communication in stressful situations.  4)  The movie of mainstream media deliberate bias and manipulation of stories to support preferred partisan or ideological beliefs.  5) The movie of mainstream media preference for emotional representation over factual reporting.   6)  The movie about police training and policies for deescalation and how to deal with excited delirium syndrome.

And there is a seventh - The movie about how hard it is becoming to get unfiltered objective information in the US.  

The police officer body cam video has been known about but hardly discussed for at least a couple of months.  MSM led with videos from the crowd, focusing primarily on the knee-to-neck restraint (an approved restraint).  But what about the officer video?  What did it show?

The Attorney General of Minnesota, already in hot water for his handling of the case, chose to not release the video as possibly prejudicial to his case.  Having now seen it, you can see why.  He apparently did do a private viewing to a group of journalists a month or two ago.  They knew about it and have seen it but I haven't noticed any reference in routine reporting which mentioned that.

So how did the public finally come to see this significant evidentiary video which substantially calls into question the current media representation?  From the British tabloid Daily Mail of all places.  It was leaked to them and they published the 8 and half minute video of Officer Lane and the 18 minute video of Officer Keung.

The bare facts remain the same.  He passed a counterfeit bill in a store.  He acted agitated.  He hung around the storefront until the police arrived.  He was agitated and non-compliant for the entirety of the encounter.  The officers conveyed their concern about his agitation.  They asked if was on drugs.  The two passengers in Floyd's car were calm, compliant and cooperative.  Both indicated that he was acting irrationally.  Floyd's prolonged physical resistance led to the knee-on-neck restraint.  The postmortem confirmed high levels of fentanyl in his system and death by heart failure and not asphyxiation.

But the context is now more complete.  I can not see Keith Ellison bringing a successful prosecution.  This comes across as an echo of Trayvon Martin - one story in the media in advance of the trial and an entirely different story once the evidence was presented.  

But what was most striking to me was this.  I saw these videos a couple of days ago.  I commented to someone how much more information the fuller context conveyed.  They asked for a link.  I went back to find the videos.  Searching Google for all sorts of permutations of "George Floyd leaked body cam video".  I would have thought that would get me there pretty quickly.  But no.  All I got were links to CNN edited clips or to transcripts.  Took me five or ten minutes to finally get back to the full originals.  

Why is highly pertinent video evidence about about a very topical issue issue not fully obtainable across the major mainstream media platforms instead of short edited versions or even just transcripts? 

Very odd.  OK.  I have a pretty low opinion of mainstream media and their unwillingness to respect their viewer's capacity to absorb information.  

But almost immediately after, I saw something even more consequential.  US manufacturing soars to a 15-month high by M. Dowling.  In the midst of the economic devastation arising from our policy responses to Covid-19, and amidst the disruption in global economic activity, we have a manufacturing boom?  Who knew?

Manufacturing in the USA is measured by a key business activity gauge. And it has soared to a 15-month high in July. This exceeded all expectations.   

The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) business survey, published on Monday, shows that its topline manufacturing activity indicator, called the Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), surged to a reading of 54.2 in July. Readings above 50 indicate expansion while those below mean contraction.  

Economists polled by Reuters predicted the manufacturing gauge to rise to 53.6 in July, so the higher-than-expected number is encouraging, particularly in light of April’s 11-year low of 41.5.

“In July, manufacturing continued its recovery after the disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic,” said Timothy Fiore. He is the chair of the ISM Manufacturing Business Survey Committee in a release.

 We are not out of the woods by any means and there are many bumps in the road before full recovery but when you layer a 15 month manufacturing high on top of a drop in unemployment to 10.2% versus the high of 14.7% in April, that is heartening news.  

I barely saw the improving unemployment numbers, but they were there if you searched.  There but masked as it were.  Almost like Twitter's habit of shadow-banning non-conformist opinions.

But the manufacturing boom?  I have seen nothing about that.  The reporting is from the Sentinel.  Who are they?

 We report the news the media won’t. 

The Sentinel provides news, opinion and commentary, analysis, factual and original content, mostly political, usually right-of-center, for a Conservative, Libertarian, Republican audience.

OK.  Could be usefully accurate but I don't know them and therefore, an asterisk.

I search Google with the generic "manufacturing soars to a 15-month high".  On the first page of search results, the closest I find to a mainstream media report of this good news is a brief piece in Yahoo news, nine search results in.  I went a further 50 results without finding anything from a mainstream media source. 

A three month growth spurt in manufacturing is great news.  A rapid fall in unemployment is great news.  Why isn't it reported?