When it comes to reporting race, the media’s bias, or fear, is black and white

Try this search in Google – Black Police Officer Kills White Man.  In the first 50 search results, no story from the mainstream news media of a black police officer killing a white man can be located (Search completed on 6/25/21).  Yet we know that in the line of duty, black officers occasionally shoot and kill white people in the same way they shoot and kill black people.  Within the top 10 search results, Google jumps right into links to stories of white police officers killing black men.  Whether killed by a black or white police officer, if the officer’s life was not in danger and deadly force was not justified, the resulting death was criminal and tragic.  Yet the news media in the United States only magnifies and amplifies stories involving white police officers killing black people, with news coverage of white civilians killing black civilians coming in a very close second.

When a white police officer kills a white man, the race of the officer, or the man killed, is most often not mentioned in the press.  Stories of this type of police action might be reported by local news networks and in local newspapers, minus race references.  But the story will not become national news unless a sensational video of the incident is available.  In 2021, for such a news story to grow legs and go national, officer misconduct, or the victim doing or saying something silly or absurd, is required for the story to trend.

Also in 2021, when a black male opens fire on a crowd of white people, as happened recently in Austin, Texas on June 12, 2021, the race of the shooter and the victims were purposely omitted by news media. Without a doubt, if the shooter had been white, and the crowd of victims black, this story would still be in the news cycle.  Radicalized criminals disguised as protesters would have quickly blended in with peaceful protesters, and when the sun went down, all hell would have broke loose.  In the name of social justice – arson, looting, vandalizing, assaults, and even murder would have turned Austin into Portland, Minneapolis, or Washington DC if it were not for the strong probability that Texas Governor Greg Abbott [R] would have put down the rioting with a strong law enforcement response. 

Now try this search in Google or any other search engine – White Police Officer Kills Black Man.  The links to stories of a white police officer killing a black man appear endless.  When a police shooting involving a white police officer and black man results in the death of the black man, almost always, regardless of circumstances, this story is going nationwide within 24 hours.  Pundits will quickly conclude that this most recent police killing is the result of systemic racism within our police forces and justice system.  It doesn’t matter if the suspect had a butcher knife in his or her hand and was ready to plunge the blade into someone’s heart, the police officer will be held in contempt while trolls on social media seek out family history, addresses, phone numbers, and any other information that can be used to harm, harass, intimidate, and even make death threats against the police officer and his loved ones.  It doesn’t matter if the white police officer most likely saved another person’s life.  The police officer is white.  The knife wielding suspect is black, and now is dead.  That’s all that matters to the news media.

What are the consequences of this selective media coverage when reporting, or not reporting the races of perpetrators and victims?  The editors, reporters, newscasters, commentators, and pundits who provide what they call news cannot be so naïve as to think their audiences don’t see the inconsistencies. It might sound old-fashioned, but most people just want their news to be reliable, factual, and consistent.  When the news is factual and consistent, it doesn’t need to be concerned with whether it hurts feelings. Facts are stubborn and tough.  When the news is shaped, as almost all of it is nowadays, it’s nothing more than gooey muck. 

Unfortunately, a police shooting on Thursday night (6/24/21) that resulted in the death of a reported suicidal man, further demonstrates how unjust our news media has become in this country.  On the property of a Motel 6 located at Northeast Holladay Street and Sixth Avenue in Portland, Oregon, Officer Curtis Brown, an 18-year veteran of the Portland Police Bureau, encountered a distraught male.  The male was sitting in an outdoor stairwell at the motel. Brown, another police officer and four firefighter medics were speaking to the male when the suspect retrieved a weapon from his person, stood with the object in his fist, and aggressively moved towards the officers.  While backing up, Officer Brown shot the suspect.  It has since been reported that the object in the man’s hand was a screwdriver.  The suspect was transported by ambulance to Legacy Emanuel Hospital where he later died. 

As has been the case for over a year in Portland, radicals within the community that have been violent towards government, and especially law enforcement, quickly assembled to protest this latest shooting that resulted in death.  Portland Police Chief Chuck Lovell reported that the agitated crowd sprayed officers with an unknown substance, vandalized a police car, assaulted police, and attempted to enter the protected crime scene.  Police fired rubber bullets and sprayed mace at the crowd to repel the assault. 

The Oregonian, Portland’s daily newspaper reported the story but failed to mention the race of Officer Curtis Brown.  If you have read this far you already know why. Portland Police Officer Curtis Brown is black.  The man shot was white.  Sadly, if Brown was white and the man killed was black, Portland would be on fire. Storefronts would be smashed.  Shards of glass would be everywhere.  Entire city blocks would be covered with graffiti.  Mobs would be setting up roadblocks and assaulting people based on their skin color.  The Motel 6 would be forced to close because it would be “occupied” and deemed a sacred place / memorial for the fallen comrade.  National news anchors, pundits, and activists disguised as reporters would be on the scene commiserating with the sorrowful.  We’d all now known the man’s identity because it would be headline news and the “top story” nationwide. 

Chief Lovell released video footage from the crime scene within 48 hours in an effort to squash false information he said was spreading on social media.  It seems the mob thought the victim was black.  Just pause for one moment and let that marinate your brain!  The police chief released a video of the shooting death of a distraught, reportedly suicidal, young white male to prove to the angry mob that the police didn’t kill a black man charging at them with a screwdriver.  Essentially Lovell was saying to Portland, ‘nothing to fear tonight folks…it was only a white man’.  And guess what?  It worked.  The pitchforks and torches in Portland were set aside for another day.  And the rest of America knows nothing about this latest incident of a police officer killing a civilian. The color of the officer and suspect do not fit the news media script, so there was no outrage or national news coverage.

All members of the press that engage in this level of deceptive, selective news coverage should be ashamed of themselves.  The harm they are causing and the hate they are inflaming is inexcusable. With the level of hypersensitivity America is currently experiencing in all things related to race, the news media is doing a great disservice by not being consistent when reporting the race of victims and perpetrators.  Either consistently report the races of all persons involved at crime scenes, or never report the race of perpetrators and victims.  To continue with their biased reporting on race, the news media is rousing resentment, deepening racial divisions, and hurting the causes they claim to support.  Actually, their selective coverage of race is endangering lives.  Either they are too blind to see it, or simply don’t give a damn.