PART 1 - "RACISM AT THE DOOR"
The initial idea was to put a hidden camera on a few black or asian guys and watch them try to get into some of the hottest nightclubs downtown. If they get turned away, well, it must be racism, musn't it?
They go to the first bar. One of the young black men is denied entrance because his shirt is "too baggy". This sounds like a silly excuse to deny entrance, but perhaps the bartender has a legitimate concern that the young man could be concealing a weapon under his shirt (which was quite baggy). Or, perhaps the bouncer is an unabashed racist - this one is too close to call.
They go to the second bar. One of the young asian men is denied entrance because he is wearing running shoes, and the bar has a somewhat more upscale dress code. Racism or routine dress code enforcement? Could be either, or both - again, too close to call.
Third bar. This time, two young men are denied entrance because they are under 25, and the bar has an age policy of 25+ in place. Racism?
Here's the problem - in each case, these "journalists" are not doing enough to make the case that the bouncers are employing racist policies. Why not see if a white guy in a baggy shirt can get into the first bar? Why not get footage of a white guy in sneakers getting into the second bar? Why not see if some white 22 year olds can get into the third bar? If so, then they've got a pretty strong case for racism, but the way it was shown, in each case it could simply have been a routine policy enforcement with no racism whatsoever. To further sensationalize things, the anchorwoman laid out an incredibly heavy-handed guilt trip on the viewers by implying that we should all be ashamed that such racism exists in our city.
PART 2 - HIDDEN CAMERA ON A BLACK GUY
In part two, the news crew selected a black guy seemingly at random from the city's general population and slapped a hidden camera on him so that we could see with our own eyes the racism that he must endure every day. Problem was, there was absolutely nothing in any of the footage shown to indicate anything of the sort. We saw him get onto a train downtown, get off the train and walk around for a while, then go into a city park, all without incident. The narration during these scenes was particularly egregious: "What do these people see when they look at me? Do they think I'm a doctor or a scientist, or do they just assume that I'm a black athlete?"
With heart-wrenching music in the background, they cut to a photo of this guy a few years earlier when he had a weight problem (caused by racism, of course - that's seriously what they implied). The "reporter" intoned that the man bravely overcame his weight problem despite the racism in our city and somehow managed to get into quite decent shape. A heroic triumph over racism.
Part 2 ended with some viewer feedback regarding part 1, and despite the anchorwoman's claim that people all over the city were reacting with "outrage" and "shame" over racism, more than half the comments were from people taking them to task for their poor journalistic effort. There was a particularly poignant comment from a bouncer who pointed out that they turn people away all the time, including white people, but that the news crew had been unusually selective in what footage they chose to show, to give the appearance that only minorities were being turned away.
PART THREE - HIDDEN CAMERA ON A WOMAN WEARING A BURQA
In part 3 they go from bad to worse when they slap a hidden camera on some random woman dressed in traditional Muslim female garb. They show the woman walking around downtown, and once again, entirely without incident. The narrator explains that the woman was afraid that if she went into a store, the sales clerks would just ignore her - yet even as the narrator is saying this, the footage clearly shows her walking into a store and receiving a warm, smiley greeting from the sales clerk.
During the interview at the end of part 3, the burqa woman states that apart from the odd curious glance, she saw no overt evidence of racism at all. This was followed immediately by the anchorwoman admonishing us that racism exists everywhere in our city and we must all be aware of it and work to stop it.
MY THOUGHTS
I have no journalistic training or expertise, but even I could do better than this piece of crap. There was absolutely no attempt whatsoever to provide a sense of balance or fairness in this report, and the conclusion that racism is rampant in our city is completely unsupported by the evidence provided. This is pathetic sensationalism, and political correctness taken to absurd extremes. If I had a camera crew and a public outlet, I would make such a mockery of these morons. However, I have neither, so I'm left impotently moaning on K5 for the mild amusement of a few hundred random kurons. C'est la vie.