For those who haven’t heard of this story, which is likely to be a huge number of people, Gaylyn Morris, 26, of Indianapolis, Ind., allegedly placed an Apple AirTag somewhere in a car belonging to her boyfriend, Andre Smith, also 26. She then used it to stalk him under the suspicion that he was cheating.
Morris tracked Smith’s car to a restaurant called Tilly’s Pub, which is located in the 3900 block of East 82nd Street in Northeast Indianapolis, Indiana. This all occurred at about 12:30 a.m. on the morning of June 3.
On information, Morris was heard asking patrons if they’d seen her boyfriend, and described him as having dreadlocks and said he was there to beat up the woman he was with. After locating Smith, Morris saw that he was there with another woman, and a conflict ensued. In what’s being called a domestic dispute, Morris, who’s claimed to be the aggressor in the incident, was seen swinging a wine bottle at Smith’s alleged date. Thankfully, Smith was able to catch the object before it struck the unidentified female. Nevertheless, Morris was thrown out of the the restaurant by the staff.
Smith and the other woman stayed behind to finish their date. Once they left, however, witnesses say Morris sped toward Smith in a blue Chevy Impala, and clipped Smith, knocking him to the ground.
She then apparently backed up, put the car back into drive, and drove into Smith a second time – this time, by witness’ descriptions, apparently driving completely over him. If Smith was not dead at that time, he was killed when Morris then put her car in reverse and backed over him, hitting him a third time and pinning him under the vehicle.
Smith’s body was still being crushed under the car by the time the police arrived, where he was pronounced dead at the scene. The Marion County Coroner’s Office confirmed that his death resulted from intentionally being struck by a car. That declaration, in congress with Morris’ statements to witnesses at the bar that she had stalked him using the Apple device, and that she was attempting to catch him cheating on her, fomented in murder charges. Morris is currently being held without bond.
By all accounts, Morris stalked Smith, committed attempted assault on his date, and when that didn’t work, Morris ran Smith down with her car. She then drove back and forth over his body until she was sure he was dead.
That is what you call a scorned woman.
Now, beyond the obvious conclusion that, if true, this points to a troubling pattern that women have of allowing jealousy to control their emotions to the point of murder, there’s also the issue of how it will be handled by law enforcement. Women typically get much lighter sentences for the same crimes as men. But this does not represent the context for the issues I take with this story.
Are you enjoying this article? Consider becoming a supporting member.
The first issue I have with this story is that I don’t see much of it anywhere online. For a murder that happened in the middle of a crowded restaurant, it’s got so little attention that it didn’t even hit social media platforms, and only one major publication, The Insider, reported this story two weeks after the incident (see highlighted area of the screenshot below) had taken place.
Per a Google search for “Gaylyn Morris,” The only major American news network to cover the story at a relevant time was The Washington Post. All other publications were either local papers and stations, or crime-only publications.
That’s just one problem with the extreme lack of reporting on this story. The second issue is that both Morris and Smith are black. Smith’s date, too, is also alleged to be black.
Now, I don’t have an issue with these people being black. And I’m not making any claims that readers should just assume that violence in the news always equates to black violence. I’m not a racist, and I don’t naturally draw those conclusions. But when a story of this scope is so sparsely reported, I start paying attention – as you should be doing as well.
But this was just my first issue. and if it were alone, that would be enough. But the second issue was that not one, single American publication used the word black or African American anywhere in their articles.
In case you’re new to the concept of ethical journalism, this is a huge problem for mass media who claim to be reporting balanced news.
Of all that coverage, no American news stories went into any detail about how long Morris had been stalking Smith before she confronted and killed him at Tilly’s Pub. But another British paper, The Mirror, seemed to able to acquire more details, and noted that Morris had stalked Smith at the same bar several times over the previous three weeks.
In addition to failing to report any of the warning signs that surfaced in the wake of the incident, not a single paper published the fact that Morris and Smith were black.
And this is the important point here, they also reported the Morris and Smith were black. This fact was never mentioned in a single publication that I read about the story.
U.S. papers had more to say about how the confrontation got so raucous that restaurant staff asked her to leave than reporting who was actually involved.
Does this say anything about white killers whose headlines are quick to decry the lack of action when “the signs were all there?” Or does it say more about the idea that, by publishing the obvious lack of journalistic balance in mass media, authors can count on being cast down as racists, troublemakers, or those hoping to fuel a race war?
This brings me to my second point: the media has not just refused to report on the race of those involved (three people in total, all black), in the image above, only two white males appear in the stock image chosen to represent the story. And in that example, no other images were published in the article.
It’s one thing to not report all the facts – which is not balanced journalism in the first place. It’s entirely another to misrepresent facts, even with misleading imagery. In this instance, the murder took place at 12:30 a.m. in the middle of an urban city where a majority of the people were dressed in nighttime attire and were likely comprised of a mix of backgrounds.
In the image under this headline, only two white males can be seen (with an obscure body in the unfocused area), who appear to be located in a college campus lounge or upscale office building, overlooking a daytime scene in a metropolitan area.
The natural question that comes to my mind as a journalism professor is, ‘what kind of a response am I hoping to receive from my readership with an image like this?’ Another question might be, ‘how comfortable is an audience reading a story of aggression and murder when looking at this image compared to an image of a night club, and involving black citizens?’
The answer to questions like these are the ones you, as responsible media consumers, should be seeking. Think about it: if you had to give the police a description of an incident using only the details of that photo, which was the only piece of visual media in the article, who would the police be looking for, where would they be looking, and what are the chances of locating the victims, the perpetrators and the witnesses?
The point is not that this story is about black assailants and victims. It’s that the tragedy of one man’s death is being (and excuse the expression here) whitewashed to shroud the issue of race in violence. And by purposefully excluding race in stories of violence around the nation, conversations like the one I’m having right now, are the lasting impact of the story itself. Not the victims that need healing. Not the perpetrators that need justice. Not the resources expended on this crime, or the horrors that the emergency response team experienced, or the cops that probably did a fine job of mopping up the mess.
The suspect and victim appear below.
And let’s be very clear on another point. This story is not being whitewashed to soften the blow of the tragedy for readers, since Indianapolis sits at only 5 out of 100 on the safe cities index for violent crime. It’s not being used because no other media was available, as evidenced by Morris’ and Smith’s mugshots being printed in a newspaper 4,000 miles away. And it’s not being used to espouse adequate race relations between the publisher and its readers, since the story was one of the most underreported sensational murders in the nation. It’s a part of a greater narrative that’s quietly being stitched into the mass media’s unspoken objective to mute the issue of race in American culture.
And here’s the mind-blowing reality: this course of action is making the issue worse!
Are you enjoying this article? Consider becoming a supporting member.
Need proof that this is really happening – that soft-censorship is a real thing? Try this exercise: open up a Google page and search for the term “race coverage today.” You’ll see page after page of stories covering the latest NASCAR stats, AutoWeek’s TV listings, outdated stories on political “races” and even repairs planned for the track at the Indy 500 Speedway planned for next year.
What you won’t see is actual news ‘coverage‘ that discusses human ‘race‘ in the media ‘today‘ – which, as I understand it, are all more hot-button items than fixing divots in asphalt 12 months into the future.
If the mass media at large stopped treating the American public like ignorant sheep that need their news tube-fed through a fact-strainer that services a liberal agenda, they might realize that a more educated public is more critically thinking public, which, in turn, is beneficial to them as responsible journalists. Being open, honest, balanced and depicting the true reality of issues facing Americans, is the only way to have the discussions we need to learn from our hurdles and get along better in the future.
Main stream media simply needs to return to a willingness to publish a story about black violence. And what’s wrong with that? Nothing. It’s the truth. And the same problem exists with Asian violence, Mexican violence, Native American violence and on and on. The problem is certainly not limited to blacks in this country. They seem to have no problem adding pictures from the scenes of violence perpetrated by Caucasians – and more frequently, male Caucasians. But we in America are being soft-censored with missing information in our news coverage for any stories that traipse outside of that increasingly unique demographic.
I am just as big a fan as the next person for treating everyone equally. Which is why I feel that the only good solution in a news culture that declines to report on all the facts for fear of upsetting one demographic over another, is abolishing those media outlets.
In that, there is a solution. The next time you come across an article that represents all but certain facts, be an engaged citizen and send a letter to the editor that points out the facts that they missed. If they keep up the pattern of sidestepping those same types of facts, stop reading the publication. Stop visiting their apps and websites, which will bring the advertising CPM sales indices down. Start reading something else that passes the test of balanced journalism that I’ve talked about before (click HERE and to a page search for “sniff test”).
We, as the vast majority, have the power to shape the media we consume. But until we think critically about what we’re being told and put our actions behind our thoughts, we will never see that shift in the media machine.
Useful links include The Insider article, court documents, The Indiana Star article, and a statement released by the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Dept. about the incident.
Did you like what you read? Consider becoming a supporting member. For just $3 you can get access to members-only, unreleased articles and podcasts, case files on our latest investigations, updates for events and conventions, and discounts on merch.
Send any questions, feedback or story ideas to masculistpocast[at]gmail[.]com.
Tags:
andre smith, asian violence, black violence, gaylyn morris, murder, race in news, violence, violence race issues, warning signs
Share this post