CBS, NBC Tout Hill Staffers' 'Powerful' Protest; Omit 'False Narrative' of 'Hands Up, Don't Shoot'

Matthew Balan | December 12, 2014
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[More in the cross-post on the MRC's NewsBusters blog.]

The 12 December 2014 edition of CBS This Morning and NBC's Today both spotlighted the walk-out protest on Thursday of a group of congressional staffers, who gave the "hands up, don't shoot" gesture of the groups protesting the grand jury's decision in the Michael Brown case. NBC's Tamron Hall trumpeted the "powerful statement without words" on the steps of the U.S. Capitol. CBS's Jeff Glor noted that the participants "stood with their hands in the air."

Neither morning show mentioned, however, that the pose forwards an inaccurate portrayal of the Brown shooting. Ten days earlier, on the December 1, 2014 edition of CNN Tonight, former police officer David Klinger underlined that "all the forensic evidence indicates that it wasn't Brown with his hands up standing still. All the evidence indicates that he was coming back at Officer [Darren] Wilson."

Klinger also asserted that "it's unfortunate that people are getting behind the 'hands up, don't shoot,' as opposed to we have grave concerns about the way that policing operates in the United States." Host Don Lemon replied to this by wondering, "So the question is, this 'hands up' rallying cry has – is it a false narrative that people are using to fit their own agenda?"

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