Does anyone go to MSNBC for news anymore?  Thought not.  Why bother?  Last week was a prime example.  It didn’t matter what time of day you tuned in there were only a few stories being “covered” …  Sarah Palin’s resignation, Michael Jackson (ad naseum), Governor Sanford and his Argentinian girlfriend.

Here’s the news MSNBC failed to cover.

File this first story under, It’s not Racism When We Do It.  H/T Flopping Aces

Akron police say they aren’t ready to call it a hate crime or a gang initiation. But to Marty Marshall, his wife and two kids, it seems pretty clear.

It came after a family night of celebrating America and freedom with a fireworks show at Firestone Stadium. Marshall, his family and two friends were gathered outside a friend’s home in South Akron.

Out of nowhere, the six were attacked by dozens of teenage boys, who shouted ”This is our world” and ”This is a black world” as they confronted Marshall and his family.

The Marshalls, who are white, say the crowd of teens who attacked them and two friends June 27 on Girard Street numbered close to 50. The teens were all black.

”This was almost like being a terrorist act,” Marshall said. ”And we allow this to go on in our neighborhoods?”

They said it started when one teen, without any words or warning, blindsided and assaulted Marshall’s friend as he stood outside with the others. When Marshall, 39, jumped in, he found himself being attacked by the growing group of teens. His daughter, Rachel, 15, who weighs about 90 pounds, tried to come to his rescue. The teens pushed her to the ground. His wife, Yvonne, pushed their son, Donald, 14, into bushes to keep him protected.

File this second story under, “HEY there’s still a war going on in AFGHANISTAN and that we have troops that are dying.”   News busters reported

Two days after Sunday’s Washington Post carried a letter from a woman who asked “where was the coverage of my nephew or the other soldiers” who were killed in the days after Michael Jackson died, attacks in Afghanistan took the lives of seven U.S. soldiers, but their deaths earned a total of less than one minute combined on the ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts on Monday night — 1/20th the time devoted to Jackson a week-and-a-half after he passed away.

On CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360, news reader Erica Hill and Cooper spent nearly 40 seconds discussing the “Wife-Carrying World Championship” in Sonkajarvi, Finland and how the winner got his wife’s weight in beer, but allocated just 15 seconds to Afghanistan. (The Situation Room aired a full story on the challenges in Afghanistan.)

Emblematic of the disparity in priorities, CBS anchor Katie Couric read her 13-second item on the deaths in Afghanistan as she sat in Los Angeles with the Staples Center, the venue for Jackson’s memorial, in the background. Those 13 seconds were squeezed in around just over 13 minutes, more than half the newscast’s 22 minutes, dedicated to Jackson — a disparity of 60-to-1 (790 v 13 seconds). ABC and NBC allocated about eight times more time to Jackson than Afghanistan (2:50 v 20 seconds on ABC; 3:00 v 23 seconds on NBC).

File the third story under, “You had no problem reporting these numbers when Bush 43 was President.”  This is from UPI

KABUL, Afghanistan, July 9 (UPI) — There were 736 attacks on coalition forces in Afghanistan using roadside bombs in June, a monthly record, the U.S. military says.The Pentagon reported Taliban use of improvised explosive devices has escalated, USA Today said Thursday. There were 234 IED attacks in June 2007, 308 in June 2008 and the numbers rose to 361 in March, 407 in April and 465 in May.