It’s the Islam, Stupid
16th May 2016
The professional journalists covering the trial of the “Minnesota men” before Judge Michael Davis include the Star Tribune’s Stephen Montemayor. I rely on his work, as well as that of MPR’s Mukhtar Ibrahim and Laura Yuen, even when I am sitting next to him in court. Montemayor is a good and indefatigable reporter. If you want to know what’s going on during the day at trial, follow him on Twitter. He tweets everything of interest. He misses almost nothing.
Today, however, Montemayor presents as a case study in overlooking the obvious. He is unduly concerned by the racial composition of the jury. He thinks it’s a big deal that, while the three defendants are all black, the jury is all white. He has thus produced today’s Star Tribune story on the trial with Randy Furst: “Black defendants, white jurors: Does race make a difference in the courtroom?”