The media made no secret that race was a huge factor. Even after the black stripper was proven to be lying from the beginning, the media continued to crucify the boys, desperately clutching to the belief that 'they were guilty of something', in hopes of vindicating their nauseating coverage.
Nope. They were guilty of being white and privileged. Only when the lying D.A. was convicted did the media back away from the story, but luckily enough they had Don Imus and now Jena to sink their fangs into.
The vicious TN racially-motivated torture and murder of a young white couple could simply not be covered. After all, bringing attention to that might harm the self-confidence of the African-American community. That would run counter the liberal objective of 'uplifting' them, an inherently racist and colonialist view of the world.