If you open a new tab in the Microsoft Edge browser, by default, it will load a “news page.”
I noticed a curious pattern while scrolling through this page: When reporting murders, if the perpetrator is white, then the featured photo will show the white perpetrator. For example:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/portland-man-gets-life-in-prison-for-killing-woman-in-rural-marion-co/ar-BB14inG9?ocid=spartanntp
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/mckeesport-stabbing-suspect-charged-with-homicide/ar-BB14dMdC?ocid=spartanntp
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/ingolf-tuerk-massachusetts-doctor-charged-in-wifes-death/ar-BB14gW1A?ocid=spartanntp
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/2-month-old-baby-dies-in-hospital-after-hes-found-unresponsive-and-mom-is-charged-with-murder/ar-BB14fww9?ocid=spartanntp
If the perpetrator is black, then Microsoft will show either a photo of the victim, or of nobody. For example:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/grandmother-80-is-stabbed-to-death-in-a-texas-parking-lot-by-a-career-criminal-who-was-out-on-bond/ar-BB14inXP?ocid=spartanntp
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/key-figure-questioned-in-2018-murder-of-teacher-rachael-deltondo-now-accused-of-killing-friend/ar-BB14gwNH?ocid=spartanntp
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/18-year-old-charged-with-murder-in-shooting-death-of-15-year-old-at-east-charlotte-apartment-complex/ar-BB14gOBW?ocid=spartanntp
If you continue to scroll down the page, eventually the news stories turn into celebrity gossip and other trivial things. In all, there were 7 murders reported on the Microsoft News Feed today.
3 of them were by black perpetrators, and for two of them, the non-black victims were shown, without any images of the murderers. For the third one, where the race of the victim is unknown, neither the perpetrator, nor the victim, were shown.
4 of them were by white perpetrators, and photos of those white perpetrators were featured in all of the stories.
This is the bias that we can see, and quantify – but bear in mind that Microsoft is exceedingly selective about which murders it reports, and how long such articles remain on the feed. Ahmoud Arbery has had his face featured for several days, as a victim of “white racism.” In contrast, Sheldon Francis, who murdered two elderly white people as they visited their son’s grave, was either not shown at all, or was shown for only one or two days; I can’t remember which.
Black victim? Feature his photo for as long as possible. Black murderer? Don’t feature it at all, or only for one day.
I’ve noticed that the BBC does this, too.
Yeah. Unfortunately, it’s standard practice, but it’s still good to bring attention to it.
The news active tile in Windows 10 was constantly displaying headlines that were so obviously propagandist that I finally wrote Microsoft calling them out for their bs and asking how I could edit the sources that they use for it or disable the tile entirely… shortly afterwards, the tile was disabled. It’s always disgusting just how open and in-your-face the propaganda is nowadays; for example, look at the coverage between the black-on-white nursing home abuse compared to that of the dog-walking Karen vs gay black bird-watching Karen… needless to say the white woman was quickly fired.