They shoot journalists, don’t they?

Lately, the world is realizing that ‘freedom of the press’ is becoming a mere catchphrase, not a guarantee for receiving news at any cost.

Interesting, however, is the fact that there is no outrage from American corporate media when their neighboring country keeps losing media workers at a much rapid pace than normal. The recent France terrorist act on journalists there, however, may help focus attention on Mexico’s open season on our unfortunate colleagues.

And so it is. Keeping track of how many and where these atrocious acts are being committed is like trying to keep track of the many distractions corporate media slaps together and calls its product, “news.” (i.e. the NFL’s bad boys like (Johnny Football) Manziel or Ray Rice, Ms. (Millie) Cyrus crazy dances or Ms. (Kim) Kardashian’s booty close-ups, etc.)

Meanwhile, real and hard news are hard to come by. Stories showcasing true acts of human bravery or compassion are buried next to new car ads or the latest hearing-aid product miracles.

Timely reports on how courageous Mexican journalists are threatened and assassinated while reporting on relationships between senior police and political figures and transnational narco gangs seem to appear without any merit for the editors and managing editors of U.S. dailies.

Some fellow Chicano freelancers go as far as telling me that corporate media is silent because the lives of people of color aren’t seen to be as valuable as the lives of white reporters.

“In the American psyche there’s always been racial hierarchy in terms of importance assigned to certain lives over others. That’s the inescapable and undeniable reality of how our media covers things,” stated. Dr. Antonio Gonzalez, University of Houston professor of Chicano Studies on a recent radio show.

He went on to say, “It seems that here In America it’s not terrorism if people of color are the targets and white people are the suspects, some media executives say it’s not newsworthy.”

Adding fuel to the seemingly non-caring corporate media fire, is another recent fact. On the same week of the French terrorist tragedy, the Colorado Springs NAACP building was firebombed. Luckily, there were no casualties, just a few frayed nerves for its vile intent made the incident a throwback to the 50s and 60s, when terrorism against the NAACP and other civil rights activists was common and front-page news. Guess it wasn’t, eh, newsworthy.

Most media print or electronic staffs, for example, would react if law enforcement officials uncovered tortured and dismembered bodies stuffed in garbage bags dumped in some drainage ditch of their city or area. Imagine if farther investigations reveal remains to be that of media workers. It’s similar when a cop is fatally shot. How much faster is their response time in comparison to a Joe Shmoe being riddled with bullets from a gang-banger?

You can bet a newspaper’s yearly subscription rate that the media folks are going to give you detail after detail in a series of front page stories. Not to mention daily editorials complete with cartoons warning you that killing an innocent journalist is a one-way trip to hell for the guilty party.

Unless some of these fine media labor force members have been taking refuge under their desks or behind their cameras, they never heard, for instance, of three journalists killed in five days in the Mexican state Veracruz where the Zetas criminal gang is battling rival gangsters and the Mexican military to retain control of vital narcotics smuggling routes.

They also were not aware that Regina Martinez, a correspondent for Proceso, Mexico’s leading news magazine, was found slain in her apartment in the Veracruz state capital, Xalapa.

They would’ve also learn that in that Gulf state alone, in a matter of two years, seven of their colleagues south of the border would never again meet a deadline. In fact, in 2012 there were 67 journalists killed by assasins and in 2013, 71 were murdered.

For 2014, there are still no exact figures being released. Hopefully, that doesn’t mean they’re still uncovering bodies.

Maybe we need to come up with a phrase like “Je suis Charlie” for the Mexican periodistas.