As President-Elect Donald Trump (R) demonstrates daily, the new electronic media is changing the news, adding diversity to ways the public consumes news, and even allowing newsmakers to deliver news directly to the public without intermediaries interpreting or deciding what is news.  

Thursday, four black youths, two males and two females (and isn't gender equality wonderful?) allegedly (innocent until proven guilty, of course) committed a truly evil deed.  Although the broadcast and even the dead tree media minimized its disgusting nature, bloggers and tweeters discovered the event and publicized it on their sites.  Well, it wasn't too difficult to find it, as the alleged perps gleefully streamed the event in real time for about a half an hour on Facebook.  Apparently, this did not violate Facebook's sensibilities, although the victim was gagged, punched, knifed, and forced to drink from a toilet by the four  "youths" shouting repeated racial slurs – against whites and Trump – in the background.   

After finding the victim, dressed only in shorts and a thin shirt, wandering the streets of a black neighborhood on the sub-freezing 10-degree night, the police took him to a hospital but couldn't decide at the time if a hate crime had occurred.  And so, following along, the mainstream media trivialized the incident.  In the past, that would have been sufficient – nothing to see here, move along.  But no more.  The many conservative websites exploded; tweeters engulfed Twitter.  And so, finally, late Thursday afternoon, hours after the events, the Chicago police finally decided, well, yeah, this was a hate crime after all.  As they were forced to admit on their Twitter feed: 

CPD Arrested and Charged all four offenders with Hate Crime, as well as other charges.

They didn't specify if it was a hate crime based on race or one based on disabilities.  Or both.  But they did admit that the Facebook video was disturbing.

Regarding the disturbing video that surfaced on social media of a battery: Incident is under investigation/suspects are being questioned

 As the Chicago Tribune reported:

Jordan Hill, 18, of  Carpentersville, Tesfaye Cooper, 18, of Chicago, Brittany Covington, 18, of Chicago and her sister, Tanishia Covington, 24,  of Chicago were all charged with aggravated kidnapping, hate crime, aggravated unlawful restraint and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.

Hill was also charged with robbery, possession of a stolen motor vehicle and residential burglary, and both Cooper and Brittany Covington were charged with residential burglary.

Police said Hill was with the victim when police found him on the street.

All four suspects have given statements admitting to their roles in the attack, police said. They are due in bond court Friday.

Asked about the video that helped in the arrests, Duffin (of the Chicago Police Department) said, "I can't understand why anybody puts anything on Facebook."

Even the Tribune didn't understand that this evil deed was important enough to put anything newsworthy on their front page, going with this for their evening edition.   

Don't try to express your opinion of the crime to the Tribune's comments section; even if you subscribe, the comments section has been blocked.  They might be racist, apparently. 

Others have commented, however.  Chicago's mayor, Rahm Emanuel (D), a former aide to fellow Chicagoan President Barack Hussein Obama (D):

... called the acts on the video "sickening," adding that anyone who views it is "sickened by it." He declined further comment, citing the criminal charges, but also said "there is more to our city than that."

That's true.  There are many murders.  And beautiful, accessible beaches.  And taxes.  And gorgeous architecture.  And crime.  

Emanuel's friend, the president, agreed, stating that despite the incident, race relations are fine, and the next generation "have smarter, better, more thoughtful attitudes about race."

The torture of a teenager streamed live on Facebook is "despicable" but not a sign of worsening racial tensions, President Obama said Thursday in an interview with CBS 2 Special Contributor Jay Levine. (snip)

Obama said he doesn't believe racial tensions have gotten worse, but that the public exposure is more prevalent in the digital age.

"In part because we see visuals of racial tensions, violence and so forth because of smart phones and the Internet," the president said.

"What we have seen as surfacing, I think, are a lot of problems that have been there a long time.

"Whether it's tensions between police and communities, hate crimes of the despicable sort that has just now recently surfaced on Facebook. (snip)

However, the president remains hopeful about the future.

"I take these things very seriously."

"The good news is that the next generation that's coming behind us … have smarter, better, more thoughtful attitudes about race.

"I think the overall trajectory of race relations in this country is actually very positive. It doesn't mean that all racial problems have gone away. It means that we have the capacity to get better."

Sir, Dylann Roof, the white teenager who killed nine black churchgoers, and these four are of the "next generation" and certainly don't have "smarter ... more thoughtful attitudes about race."

Maybe things will get better.  Can they get any worse?