Race Lens
Demonstrators in Ferguson, Missouri, stepped up the pressure in October. But corporate media had largely moved on to ISIS and Ebola.
During the first few weeks of protests in Ferguson, Missouri, corporate media paid attention. The powerful images of residents facing off with police after the shooting death of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown forced corporate media to show the country and the world the extent of America’s militarized police state.
Those media have largely moved on—even as demonstrators have organized and even escalated their tactics.
The initial three weeks of the actions between August 9–30 produced 230 mentions on the Big Three broadcast networks combined—ABC, CBS and NBC —according to a search of the Nexis news database. By the first three weeks of October (1–21), however, coverage had been reduced to 41 mentions. Even CNN, which at least momentarily (FAIR Blog, 8/19/14) produced some decent reporting in its 24-hour news coverage, saw mentions drop from 458 to 99 during those same timespans.
The first three weeks of October, moreover, were arguably the defining and key moment in the ongoing unrest. “Ferguson October,” a series of actions organized by a diverse and evolving group of activists, included a “Weekend of Resistance” on October 10–13.
“Ferguson October” was largely overshadowed by coverage of Ebola and ISIS. But some were clamoring to move on back in August. Fox News’ Megyn Kelly (8/20/14), during those initial weeks, was already growing weary of her own network’s Ferguson coverage getting in the way of ISIS news. As footage of live clashes between people and Ferguson police flashed onscreen during an ISIS segment, Kelly protested: “The protesters and the police are clashing again, all right, they’re clashing again. But we’re talking about the death of an American who was beheaded.”
Prioritizing news is something we all naturally do. The finite amount of attention paid to current events is ultimately divvied up in order of relevance to our lives. But while losing interest might be a natural progression for most stories, mass demonstrations that expose deep racial divides and systemic abuse of power by police aren’t most stories—and don’t have expiration dates.
It wasn’t only network TV that underestimated the tenacity of organizers and the staying power of those issues. In late August, National Public Radio’s Morning Edition (8/27/14) reported “As Ferguson Protests Wind Down, Residents Want Outrage Channeled”; the same week, Media Bistro (8/29/14), examining media coverage of Ferguson, also described the protests as “winding down.” In September, PBS (9/26/14) held an “After Ferguson” town hall.
October’s “Weekend of Resistance” faintly recaptured media’s attention, as high-profile civil rights figures like Cornel West and the head of the NAACP joined unions to peacefully march and hold panel discussions on race in America, but direct actions the following Monday organized by lesser-known (mostly) young activists were barely reported. Protesters in St. Louis occupied a college campus and shut down a mall and two Walmarts (extending protests to include the recent shooting death of a black man carrying a toy gun in a Walmart aisle).
Much reporting on the Walmart actions echoed local KMOV’s focus (10/15/14) on Walmart’s fear of a black mob reaching its ammunition shelves. Coverage of confrontations between demonstrators and St. Louis Rams football fans a few weeks later similarly focused on who started the fights there, with a potentially symbolic picture of people fighting over an upside-down American flag seen simply as the disputed point of a public altercation (CBS, 10/19/14).
Pundits asked whether Ferguson would be a “moment” or a “movement,” but as I’ve heard some activists returning home from the “Weekend of Resistance” tell it, the stories taking place in Missouri are going unnoticed by the press precisely at the time when a movement is beginning to really take off.
The stories of coordinated actions and the emerging leaders that are planning them are told through social media, now that the traditional media circus has left town. That might not be such a bad thing; freelance journalist Ryan Shuessler left town in disgust over the behavior of members of the media in the first few days in Ferguson (Daily Caller, 8/21/14), with TV crews “yelling at residents in public meetings for standing in way of their cameras” and “making small talk and laughing at the spot where Mike Brown was killed.”
Ultimately, however, corporate media’s moonwalk away from the movement is the predictable action of both a media and society that wanted to enter the post-game phase of race relations in America after the election of Barack Obama. We aren’t in the “after” Ferguson stage, just like we aren’t post-racial. So let’s get the marching band off the field, because the action is still going strong.
