Cross posted to the MRC's NewsBusters blog
Over the past several days, the media have been displaying a classic example of their double standard in which police shooting stories receive attention. If it bolsters the liberal narrative that police violence is motivated by racism, it is much more likely to receive attention than if a questionable case of police violence involves a white victim.
Last Friday, an apparently unarmed 13-year-old autistic boy was shot by Salt Lake City police after his mother called them for assistance in getting her son to a hospital because he had a mental breakdown.
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After they arrived, the boy, Linden Cameron, was shot several times allegedly while he was running away, receiving serious injuries.
In spite of the fact that a number of major online news publications have covered the tragic story -- like The Washington Post, CNN.com, CBSNews.com, and New York Times -- it has received very little coverage from the broadcast and cable news networks.
On Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning, all three broadcast news casts ran full reports updating viewers on the case of Daniel Prude -- a black man who died after Rochester, New York, police officers tried to assist him during a mental breakdown. The police chief and several ranking police officers announced their resignations Tuesday in response to public pressure over how the incident was handled.
But none of those shows mentioned the Cameron case. And, while CBS's main morning news show, CBS This Morning, did not carry the Cameron story, the same network's early morning show, CBS Morning News, did find time to give the story 43 seconds buried at 4:12 a.m. Eastern. Anchor Ann Marie Green informed viewers:
ANN MARIE GREEN: The Salt Lake Tribune reports that the city's mayor is promising a swift investigation after a police officer shot a 13-year-old boy with autism. The boy's mother says that she called police Friday night and asked for a crisis intervention team to help take her son to the hospital. The police say that they were called with a report of a boy threatening people with a weapon. When police arrived, the boy ran and was shot. His mother says he ran because he was scared.
Then came a clip of Golda Barton, the boy's mother:
GOLDA BARTON, MOTHER OF 13-YEAR-OLD: Why didn't they shoot him with a rubber bullet? He's a small child -- why don't you just tackle him? You are big police officers with massive amounts of resources. Come on, give me a break.
A number of show's on CNN and MSNBC also covered the Prude story, including CNN's New Day and MSNBC's Morning Joe.
On Wednesday evening's The Beat show, MSNBC host Ari Melber notably spent 18 seconds on the Cameron story during a 10-minute piece on police violence that mostly focused on the Prude case.
As the segment made clear that Prude was African American, Melber did not bother to clarify that Cameron is white, which would have helped illustrate that questionable police violence effects people of all races, and is not as much an issue of racism as the liberal media suggest. Here's Melber:
ARI MELBER: (Joe) Prude made that fateful phone call -- the brother you just heard from -- because he was in a situation that he didn't think he could solve himself, his own brother acting erratically, struggling with mental health. And Prude believed police would still help him. Just like a Utah mother who called police in an incident this week because she said her 13-year-old autistic son was having a mental crisis. Police ended up shooting the unarmed child as he ran away. He's now in serious condition with injuries to his intestines, bladder, shoulder and ankles.
Univision's afternoon show, Edicion Digital, actually gave the story significantly more attention than English language American media as a two-minute piece was presented at 12:17 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday with anchor Carolina Sarassa introducing a report by correspondent Aylen Del Toro.
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Telemundo also ran a couple of briefs on Tuesday -- one at 7:30 a.m. and one at 12:37 p.m.
GREEN: The boy is hospitalized in serious condition.
(…)
MSNBC
The Beat
September 9, 2020
6:45 p.m. Eastern
ARI MELBER: (Joe) Prude made that fateful phone call -- the brother you just heard from -- because he was in a situation that he didn't think he could solve himself, his own brother acting erratically, struggling with mental health. And Prude believed police would still help him. Just like a Utah mother who called police in an incident this week because she said her 13-year-old autistic son was having a mental crisis. Police ended up shooting the unarmed child as he ran away. He's now in serious condition with injuries to his intestines, bladder, shoulder and ankles.
CAROLINA SARASSA: Y escuchen bien esta historia. Un nino autista de 13 anos recibio varios impactos de balapor parte de la policia de Utah. Su madre dijo que el menor tuvo colapso mental, por lo que ella llamo a los autoridades, como nos cuenta Aylen Del Toro es algo preocupante.
AYLEN DEL TORO: Asi, es, dijo que llamo a la policia y que pidio una intervencion para ayudarla a manejar esta situacion. Este joven se enojaba, que comenzaba a gritar, cuando llego la policia su hijo se habia escapado, ya dice que eschucho a alguien gritar "Tirate al Suelo!" Seguido de varios disparos. La policia dijo que estaban respondiendo a un episodio de psicologia juvenil. Hay informes que el joven habria amenazado con un arma. La policia no ha confirmado que se recogio algun arma en el lugar. Pero su madre asegura que no tenia ninguna idea es consolada se pregunta por que no le disparon con balas de Goma o pistola electrica porque lo cierto es que este jovencito esta despierto pero su recuperacion va a ser extremadamente lenta y larga como dicen los doctores porque tiene lesiones en el hombro, en los tobillos, intestina y en la vejiga. La familia de este chico, en apenas dos dias lleva cerca de 70,000 dolares recaudados. El alcalde de Salt Lake City dice que este incidente es una tragedia y espera una investigacion rapida y transparente. Nosotros se las daremos a conocer.