Ramesh: You’re quite right about Obama’s comments about the riot coverage. But the problem with the “distraction” canard — trotted out this week, and also when events turned violent in Ferguson — goes even deeper.

As I wrote today, the rioters were not (pace various apologists) seeking to “communicate” anything about the myriad social ills that plague Baltimore. You don’t show your disgust with structural injustice by stealing Air Jordans. And you certainly do not show it by mobbing and robbing a defenseless female reporter. That is not “activism”; it’s plain and simple criminality.

That is no doubt partly the result of years of structural problems — discriminatory policing, miserable schools, etc. But it also indicates a serious moral collapse, which will not be resolved simply by increasing investment in blighted urban areas.

Put simply: Baltimore’s riots have not “distracted” from the “real” problem. They have exposed another problem, one that may be as bad or worse.