The New York Times story on the Baltimore protests was illustrated, appropriately enough, with a photo of police and paramilitaries that erased protesters from the scene. (photo: Mark Makela/Getty)
For readers who turned to today’s New York Times site (4/28/15) this morning for news of the ongoing Baltimore protests following the death in police custody of Freddie Gray, they found a terrifying tale of rioters throwing cinder blocks at firefighters trying to put out arson fires, as the city was beset by people with “no regard for life.”
Whose tale was it, though? Here’s the first six citations from the Times story:
- “police said”
- “police said”
- “police also reported”
- “police said”
- “state and city officials said”
- “police acknowledged”
Not until the 12th paragraph does the paper get around to quoting someone who isn’t a police or government official. (UPDATE: At shortly after noon, the Times edited its story to include a quote near the top from a local resident cleaning up after the night’s violence. It still included no quotes from demonstrators or anyone else actually on the scene last night. The original story lives on at other sites via the New York Times News Service.)
Taking official sources at their word is all too common in US media coverage, of course — especially when reporting on conflicts taking place in distant lands. But Baltimore is a bit more accessible to Times reporters than Afghanistan; indeed, at least one of the two authors of the Times piece, Richard Oppel and Stephen Babcock, conducted some on-the-ground reporting that appears later in the story—well after the main narrative has been laid out by the Baltimore police.
In fact, plenty of other news outlets are doing good reporting from on the scene. The Baltimore City Paper‘s Brandon Soderberg (4/28/15) recounted how sports bar patrons helped spark Saturday’s violence outside the Baltimore Orioles stadium, shouting racial epithets and tossing beer bottles at protesters. And Wall Street Journal technology columnist Christopher Mims reported after Saturday’s protests that they were “overwhelmingly peaceful” — though Journal readers would have to turn to Mims’s Twitter feed (4/26/15), not the actual paper, for this news.
The Times, meanwhile, has stuck mainly with government sources, even for a story that cries out for original reporting to cut through the official line. The front-page story in today’s print edition (4/28/15), which mostly focused on yesterday’s establishment of a curfew and calling out of the National Guard, cited, in order, Baltimore’s mayor, the Maryland governor, Baltimore’s police commissioner, “the police” (cited as the source of a “credible threat” that gangs were plotting to “‘take out’ law enforcement officers”) and a police captain–all before citing the pastor at Gray’s funeral as appealing for calm.
Somebody needs to remind the Paper of Record that government officials don’t have a monopoly on the truth.
You can send a message to the New York Times at letters@nytimes.com, or to public editor Margaret Sullivan at public@nytimes.com. Please remember that respectful communication is the most effective.
All the news that’s printed to fit
A police state of mind
New York Times coverage of murders by police officers has been woeful, and their reporting on the Freddie Gray case is the worst yet. A horrible murder participated in by six police officers who have not been indicted, and the Times focuses on the rioting, not the reason for it.
Oh, and by the way, if you mention such journalistic deficiencies on any Times blog, you’ll be blocked thereafter from making any comment whatever on any subject on any Times blog without any explanation. Your efforts will simply evaporate in cyberspace.
If you’re a reporter with a deadline and a social life, which path would you take: Attend the press conference and take the government “informational” handouts….or go out into distressed, angry neighborhoods to interview actual witnesses to events, and ask those in authority (police, police commissioner, Mayor, Governor) why running is a crime–and continue asking, rhetorically, so that the public doesn’t forget the reason the man was killed–until there’s an answer?
Of course, the editorial management could demand something different, but it’s doubtful that being different is part of the NYT’s business plan. On the contrary, the NYT cares primarily for the financial interests of the paper, and those of its readership.
Take a look at a Sunday NYT to gauge whom the paper and its print advertisers consider its readership–the ads are aimed at those who, at minimum, earn in the middle six figures. Condos priced from $1,900,000, BNY Mellon, First Republic Private Wealth Management, Waldorf Astoria, HSBC, jewelery and leather items priced beyond most people’s annual salary.
Is it surprising that the “news” reflects the values and financial interests of those to whom the paper is marketed? The wealthy need an army of militarized police and that need will grow with every passing neo-liberal development–TPP, TTIP, privatizing the USPS, IRS, public schools, military, prisons–which events create more and more economic stress on those who can’t afford the NYT and who look upon gangs of roaming police as something from whom to run.
But the Times says the chief of police said that FaceBook posters were goading protesters to riot leading into Monday. Of course the Times can’t be bothered to quote any single post to FBook or Twitter encouraging a riot.
So in the vein of only talking to police, but worse because the Times can’t even be bothered to find a post that would buttress the cop claims.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/29/us/baltimore-riots.html
The Times has completely revised the story on its site like five times today, and each time has included different unchallenged police claims.
The New York Times and most other major media outlets appear to have large sections of their dictionary missing. Words like truth, honesty, honour and fairness are gone, seemingly replaced by words like corrupt, sellout and media whore. Much like television, mainstream media is providing the rope for it’s own execution and the only people who will miss it are lying politicians, lying cops and the lying staff who work there.
“police said”
“police said”
“police also reported”
“police said”
“state and city officials said”
“police acknowledged”
–This is what we call Government propaganda. China did it, now USA does it.
NYT Really Loves Post-Riot Baltimore Cops…And Certainly Gloria Allred (Cosby Accuser Representative) Does Too.
I am a Brit. I have been watching the News from Baltimore on TV and online. I am appalled at the horrible death of Mr Grey. The video of this poor man being dragged with a broken spine and his legs trailing on the sidewalk was shocking; he was conscious and it was obvious there was no care, respect or humanity shown towards him.
May I suggest that Baltimore sends its high ranking police officers to the UK to learn how to be OF SERVICE to the people of that city?
My thoughts are with his family and friends. So sorry this should not have happened.