The Ghost of Paley
Posts: 1703
Joined: Oct. 2005
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Faid:
| Quote | | If not, then how does simply pointing to all those various examples (and deserving of different coverage, respectively) help you make your point? If you want to demonstrate a bias in the media, showing any number of supposedly neglected incidents is not enough- shouldn't you compare incidents of equal severity? Shouldn't you, for example, prove that a white kid hitting a black one with a newspaper would get more publicity than a black kid doing the same to a white one? |
Eric:
| Quote | Do you have a Lexis-Nexis account? Because if not, you're not going to convince anyone of the amount of reporting on the issue just by doing Google Searches, because Google searches by their very nature aren't an accurate presentation of how many stories are actually out there.
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Ok guys, here's an example of exactly what you asked for; but now that you have it, why do I suspect you won't really like it?
| Quote | Analysis of press coverage of alleged police brutality cases strongly argues that the media’s portrayal of police brutality focuses on racism as a central issue rather than simply reporting on the abuse of law enforcement. A comparison on the coverage of five recent cases: Patrick Dorismond, Amadou Diallo, Timothy Thomas, Thomas Jones, and Gideon Busch clearly reveals the role that race plays in the media’s selection of cases portrayed in the United States. Each one of the five individuals stated above was a victim of police overstepping and abusing their authority and each case has been referred to as an example of police brutality. While the cases share a common thread, their differences might be more important to note. Dorismond, Diallo, and Thomas were Black men brutalized by White police officers, Busch was White and was shot by White officers, and Jones is Black and was abused by a group of mostly Black officers. The media tends to focus on racism as the sole reason for the abuse of Diallo, Dorismond, and Thomas.
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Media coverage of the following case defied logic. Recently in Philadelphia, Thomas Jones, a black male was severely beaten by police. A television helicopter caught the scene on tape. Police fired fifty shots at him, grabbed him out of his car and beat him. The beating was all too familiar and reminiscent of the King incident. The Washington Post expressed a sense of deja vu on July 14, 2000 stating , “what was shown on tape…was enough to bring to some minds the 1991 beating by Los Angeles Police of Rodney King, an incident that has become a rallying point against police brutality.” If the media’s responses to Rodney King’s beating were unprecedented, and the sensationalized video became a rallying point against police brutality, attention drawn to the recently taped Jones beating would be insurmountable. Analysis of his coverage, however, tells a different story. His did not follow the same path in major newspapers that King’s had. During the first six months after each respective episode, newspapers wrote over 1000 articles on Rodney King and only 161 on Thomas Jones. In order to get a clearer understanding of the issue, a Lexis Nexis search for articles containing each victim’s name and police brutality showed the same disparity. The first six months revealed only seventy-six articles on Jones and 368 documents on King.
As both cases had almost identical circumstances, including the race of the victims, what could the difference be between these cases? The difference lies in the race of the police officers. White officers beat Rodney King, while those who beat and shot Thomas Jones were both black and white.
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Using the Lexis-Nexis system, the number of articles written in mainstream newspapers was revealed for each victim. Because the amount of coverage for Diallo was staggering, including thousands of newspaper articles, a comparison of articles is best observed using only the first month’s coverage. Newspapers reported on Amadou in 988 articles in the northeast, fifty-nine in the Midwest, fifty-seven, in the southeast, and forty-three in the west. One year later, Patrick Dorismond was shot by the NYPD in a controversial drug bust. He was covered in 516 articles in the northeast, twelve in the Midwest, fifty-three in the southeast, and twenty-two in the west. Last month, Timothy Thomas was shot to death in Cincinnati as he was fleeing from police. He was covered in ninety articles in the Midwest, twenty-two in the northeast, fifty in the southeast, and seven in the west. The sheer number of newspaper articles demonstrates how the media brought each victim’s ordeal into the forefront of the nation’s consciousness.
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Notably, some victims such as Gideon Busch, do not receive as much consideration. He was a mentally ill Jewish man who held a hammer and was shot to death by police on August 31, 1999. The shooting occurred just five months after the highly publicized Amadou Diallo incident. Given the media’s obsession with police brutality coverage, one could assume that Gideon Busch’s story would sweep the nation. Because police had crossed the line and shot an American, his story would probably have struck fear in the hearts of many more Americans than had Amadou. That is not to justify senseless violence motivated by xenophobia and hatred, rather it is an example to show that Busch, a native born citizen rather than immigrant, might have logically made the story of wider interest. The threat of police brutality might have become more tangible to the broad swath of the population. Gideon Busch could have created a national epiphany on the subject of police violence.
If Gideon Busch’s story had followed the trajectory of Amadou Diallo, it would have been a national outrage, with coverage matching or exceeding the more than 1000 stories on the Diallo case. Revealingly, Gideon Busch’s coverage paled in comparison to Diallo. The mainstream media ignored Busch. In the northeast, forty-six articles were written, two in the southeast, zero in the west, and zero in the midwest. The first month’s forty-eight national articles were less than what Amadou had received in the southeast alone. And a majority of the articles came from local newspapers such as The Daily News and The New York Post.
The United States was not alone in minimally covering Busch. Worldwide he received minor attention in the first month after his death. Canada and South America didn’t write any articles on him. They wrote forty-seven for Diallo, thirty for Dorismond, and twenty-one for Thomas. Busch inspired only two articles in Europe. Lexis-Nexis revealed the grand total for the first month of each victim’s international coverage, including Europe, Asia/Pacific regions, Africa and the Mideast, and North/South America. Amadou had 109 articles, Dorismond sixty-nine, Thomas 101, compared to Busch’s paltry four. Patrick Dorismond, shot a year after Busch, received more media attention abroad than Busch received in the United States and the world combined.
Busch’s less than stellar attention abroad might be attributed to the fact that he was armed. But such an explanation for the media’s silence presumes that the Busch story was understood as a legitimate police response to an armed assailant, rather than an episode of police brutality. When in fact, many of the Busch news accounts that covered the episode alluded to Busch’s death being an example of police violence.
While mainstream media ignored Busch, it would be easy to assume that he’d receive more attention in ethnic and religious newspapers. Suprisingly, Busch, a Hasidic Jew received less publicity in Jewish newspapers than did Diallo. The Jewish Week wrote six articles on Busch – nine on Diallo. Forward, another Jewish newspaper wrote seven articles on Busch and fourteen on Diallo. The Jewish Advocate wrote one article on Diallo but did not advocate for Gideon. New Jersey Jewish News published six articles on Diallo- zero on Busch. Was that because he was not from Jersey? It is unlikely, as Diallo was not either. Other papers from the New York region are guilty of the same offense. El Diario/La Prensa, the largest circulation Spanish newspaper in the area, wrote sixty-five articles on Diallo and a measly five on Busch. The disproportion is evident in other ethnic papers as well such as Filipino Reporter, The Italian Voice, and Irish Voice, all of which published between one and five articles each on Diallo but did not follow suit for Busch. Perhaps both mainstream and ethnic newspapers find matters that don’t sensationalize racism as arbitrary or unnewsworthy. Media gives more publicity and attention to police brutality cases that can be attributed to racism. Cases such as Busch’s are essentially ignored.
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The media’s compulsive chase after white on black police violence reveals the beginning of what can arguably be a racial panic. The media’s creation of a racial panic is best shown through a former moral panic created by the media in regards to drugs. Philip Jenkins’ research published in Justice Quarterly reprinted in The American Drug Scene, shows the influence that the media has in creating a drug epidemic. He warns that a moral panic regarding a particular drug actually advertises it to many Americans. In other words, the media has the capacity to create a problem that may not be as problematic as the coverage maintains it to be. For example, Jenkins suggests that in the 1980s, “Newspapers assigned journalists to cover such stories as their sole responsibility, …the papers had a vested interest in the constant generation of newsworthy items in the area.” Journalists worked solely to cover drug stories. They pursued and covered the so-called drug epidemic. Newspapers were purposely over extending their coverage on particular drugs, sensationalizing an epidemic, which resulted in a moral panic and increased drug use. Could the media be exploiting America’s struggle with racism in order to create a crisis that generates news? Jenkins’ research demonstrated another interesting media trend, the disappearance of a crisis. The media had created a methamphetamine, or ice, national crisis. Unfortunately for the media, “the ice danger did not materialize as a national crisis, and the prospective ‘plague’ faded rapidly in early 1990”. If a real epidemic does not result from the coverage, the issue is quickly dropped. The media then moves on to another topic that it can manipulate.
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And like the impact that the media’s moral panic had on increasing drug use, the media’s racial panic may have had an impact on racial tension. So much so that people’s reactions to media coverage could have resulted in violent behavior. Busch and Thomas protests best exemplifies how the media may have influenced people. After Gideon Busch’s death, a small group of Hasidic Jews held a demonstration in his neighborhood. The Daily News criticized protestors for their voiced discontent with the police. Robert Gearty and Dave Goldiner, wrote, “The Busch shooting sparked angry street protestors in Borough Park, a heavily Orthodox Jewish neighborhood. But only a few Hasidic Jews were present at yesterday’s services” . The protestors were questioned as to what their motive was for reacting. Their credibility was challenged because they didn’t go to Busch’s funeral. Their ideals and anger toward excessive force was not considered.
Unlike the demonstrations in Borough Park, Cincinnati was subjected to violent riots. It is possible that the exaggerated coverage of Diallo and Dorismond had an impact on public behavior when Timothy Thomas was shot last month. The press couldn’t criticize small protests; instead it could only antagonize riots. On the subject, The Chicago Times wrote, “ A white police officer pleaded not guilty Wed. to misdemeanor charges in the fatal shooting of an unarmed black man that prompted three nights of riots in Cincinnati in April”. The riot was three nights long. The rioters’ motives were not questioned. They were not criticized for their anger nor were they chastised for not attending Mr. Thomas’ funeral.
It is possible that the media has a “vested interest” in covering brutality that could be manipulated into a racially motivated crime. These sensational stories can manipulate the audience and may create increased racial tension throughout the country.
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No less unjust, however, is the media’s extensive coverage of certain instances of brutality and not others. The media must remain true to what they are reporting about. In instances of police brutality, skewing the topics at hand serves less to objectively inform the public and more to perpetuate racism. We as a society should focus on relieving the social and racial stereotypes that minorities have to live with. This includes the racial sensationalism brought forth by the media. By not addressing the real issue, police brutality, and revealing it only in terms of racial beatings, police are able to continue to abuse their power. Police brutality remains brutal regardless of the shade of skin color the victim or the perpetrator has. The injustice lingers. Police abusing their power should always be brought to light, therefore biased accounts of the incidents should not be the media’s focus. Newspapers should not write emphasizing only those subjects they feel would bring them more profit. Profit should not be gained as a result of bloodshed.
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This is backed up by a search of newspaper archives. If you check the Washington Post, for example, you'll see that they extensively covered the Diallo shooting before the major marches and candlelight vigils.
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Dey can't 'andle my riddim.
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)
) you finally found something remotely relevant. A student essay from a criminal justice college, but still.