Yup, I called it!

So, since an “innocent” was killed, the @PhillyInquirer will cover the story, right?

— Dana Pico (@Dana_TFSJ) September 22, 2022

I’ve said it before: The Philadelphia Inquirer doesn’t care about homicides in the City of Brotherly Love unless the victim is an ‘innocent,’ someone already of some note, or a cute little white girl. I noted how the Inquirer covered the murder of Temple University student Samuel Collington, and I pointed out that, growing up poor as I did, #WhitePrivilege was not something I saw as real, but that the Inky taught me one heck of a lesson about it.

Thus, it was easy to predict that the Inquirer would cover the murder of this innocent Temple University graduate:

A recent Temple graduate was fatally shot in West Philadelphia in a potential robbery

Everett Beauregard, born and raised in Chester County, had just graduated from Temple in June and was working as an operations processor for Wells Fargo Bank.

by Ellie Rushing and Dylan Purcell | Thursday, September 22, 2022 | 4:24 PM EDT

Everett Beauregard, 23, was fatally shot in the Powelton section of Philadelphia in the early morning hours of Sept. 22 in what police are investigating as a robbery. Photo provided to The Philadelphia Inquirer by the Beauregard family. Click to enlarge.

A recent Temple University graduate was fatally shot early Thursday in the Powelton section of the city in what detectives are investigating as a robbery, police said.Just before 12:30 a.m., Everett Beauregard, 23, was shot once in the neck on the 400 block of North 35th Street. He was rushed by officers to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, but died a short time later, said Deputy Police Commissioner Frank Vanore.

Vanore said detectives believe the shooting was part of a robbery — a crime that has risen starkly across the city in the last few years. He said police are in the early stages of pouring over video collected from the scene, and the investigation remains ongoing.

Beauregard, born and raised in Chester County, had just graduated from Temple in June and was working as an operations processor for Wells Fargo bank in Philadelphia, according to his LinkedIn. He was involved with political organizing for the area’s Democratic Party, and in 2018, interned for U.S. Rep. Brendan Boyle.

There’s a good deal more about Mr Beauregard, and a long section noting how armed robberies have greatly increased in the City of Brotherly Love.

While the story in the Inquirer doesn’t mention it, notifications on Twitter tell us that Mr Beauregard was attempting to flee when he was shot. At near the intersection of North 35^th and Spring Garden Streets, this isn’t the normal combat zone in Philly, but is near Drexel University.

It was only a couple of hours earlier that columnist Helen Ubiñas published this gem:

In Philly, every day is National Day of Remembrance for Murder Victims

As we approached a day meant for us to remember, I reached out to an ever-growing list of mothers whose stories I’ve yet to fully tell.

by Helen Ubiñas | Thursday, September 22, 2022

They remember. On the day that their loved ones were born, and on the day that they died.

They remember. As they release balloons into the sky, and place fresh flowers on well-kept graves.

They remember. In their private thoughts, in public displays, and, of course, on Sunday’s National Day of Remembrance for Murder Victims, a day to pay tribute to those lost, and also those left behind who will never forget.

As the day neared, I heard from mothers whose heartbreak I’ve long chronicled — those who’ve received some justice for the deaths of their loved ones, and even more who are still waiting.

It’s been six years since Yullio Robbins’ 28-year-old son, James Walke III, was shot and killed on a Germantown street in broad daylight.

Her son’s case recently took a bitter turn: She received a text from the detective who had committed himself to trying to solve Walke’s murder. After more than 30 years on the job, it was time for him to retire and turn the case over to another investigator. She wept at the news.

A few more paragraphs down:

In my own effort to make sure none of us forget, I regularly share many of the stories behind those numbers. But the truth is that I could share the story of a murder victim every day, in any given year, and still fail to scratch the surface of the collective toll that all of this pain has taken on our city.

Yes, I am a subscriber, who checks the Inquirer every day, but no, I don’t read Mrs Ubiñas’ column every time. She has, as we have previously noted, given us at least the names of some of Philly’s murder victims, but she also admitted that, for most of the dead, that was the most they’d get.

Not so for Mr Beauregard! He was a white guy, a Temple University graduate, and “was involved with political organizing for the area’s Democratic Party, and in 2018, interned for U.S. Rep. Brendan Boyle.” He gets his picture in the paper, and he gets at least a brief bit of his life story told, because he wasn’t a drug addict in Kensington or a gang-banger in North Philly. Mrs Ubiñas may be mentioning some of the black victims and their families, as part of somewhat of a mission to make their stories better known, but the Inky in general is taking care of publicizing Mr Beauregard’s killing.

What do I see in the Inquirer, a newspaper which publisher Elizabeth Hughes vowed to make “an antiracist news organization”? I see that the paper paid more attention to the accidental killing of Jason Kutt, a white teenager shot at Nockamixon State Park, an hour outside of the city. That’s five separate stories, a whole lot more than the two or three paragraphs most victims get.

There was the murder of the previously mentioned Mr Collington, a white victim, allegedly murdered by a black juvenile in a botched robbery. The Inquirer then published 14 photographs from a vigil for Mr Collington, along with another story about him. Five separate stories about the case of a murdered white guy.

The Inquirer even broke precedent when it came to Mr Collington’s murder by including the name of the juvenile suspect in the case, and delving into his previous record.

Compared to the coverage the Inquirer gives concerning black victims, that’s some real white privilege there!

#BlackLivesMatter we are told, in all seriousness, and the Inquirer made a big deal out of a series of stories it called Black City, White Paper, when it comes to crime in the City of Brotherly Love, it mostly goes unmentioned, because those stories about black victims really shouldn’t be told, not to the very, very politically correct newspaper.

So, what lesson about white privilege has the nation’s third oldest continuously published daily newspaper taught me? It has taught me that if you’re an innocent white guy and you get murdered, the Inky will cover it, and it will be helpful if you family provide a nice, usable photograph as well. If you’re a black guy, well, too bad, so sad, die in obscurity.