Is the news media stoking racism?

The State Journal-Register published the following story:

Police, CWLP investigating noose hung in water plant workstation

It was immediately implied that the noose was hung in place as a racist statement simply because of the race of the person who found it and the race of the people suspected of placing it.

The newspaper will claim no racist implication other than race was mentioned in the story as a normal method of describing people in the news.

So far the issue of race in this and other instances has only been implied by journalists and not the facts of the case. This report, and so far the news media alone is responsible for stoking and reinforcing racism. Because there are no facts or statements by any people described in this story who directly make racist remarks, we have only to look at reporters and writers who use circumstances to drive the public to make racist inferences.

Race is falsely inferred because the meaning of the noose has been inflated as racist by the media, even though the noose is a generic historical symbol of capital punishment that in reality has wider implications that includes racism as a part of it's utility.