Jeffrey Wang 06 December 2013 A5 Bias and Sensationalism: Why 24-Hour News Is No Longer News

Wang 1

It is time the American people, of any race, let neighborhoods and workplaces, rather than the press or net or media, determine racial attitude. Clark McDuffie, Yahoo! Voices contributor At 7:16 p.m. on February 26, 2012, George Zimmerman shot and killed Trayvon Martin. Martin, an African American teenager, was visiting his fathers fiance in Sanford, Florida. At that particular time of the day, he was returning home from a nearby Seven-Eleven, having just purchased a can of iced tea and a packet of Skittles. Zimmerman, a white neighborhood watch volunteer, was driving by on a personal errand when he saw Martin. He then proceeded to call the Sanford non-emergency number to report what he considered a real suspicious guy. Of his own volition, Zimmerman stated that the guy look[ed] black, coloring his description with the racial slur fucking coon. One minute after Zimmerman terminated his call with the Sanford police department, a gunshot was heard in the background of a witnesss 911 call. To those following the tragedy on the news, it was a cut-and-dried case of racially-motivated murder. A hate crime. Everyone knows this story. But to those who researched past it, there was one problem. Zimmerman wasnt white. He was Hispanic. Due to a need to preserve ratings and maintain a viewer base, the 24-hour news cycle must market to watchers biases, and one of the major social issues along which our society is splitripe for media exploitationis that of race. As a result, news sources have become more sensationalistic, often bending or falsifying facts. Critical reasoning is becoming increasingly valuable and necessary in ascertaining the validity of news reports and the conclusions they imply. To pierce media sensationalism around racism, viewers must accept the responsibility of informing themselves, whether by doing their own research or by using multiple news sources.

Wang 2 The phrase 24-hour news cycle denotes the investigation and reporting of news during all 24 hours of the day, with a single news cycle referring to the process of providing news coverage of an event and subsequently reporting on public reactions to this earlier coverage. The arrival of CNNthe Cable News Networkin 1980 heralded the beginning of this style of news. No longer limited to only the most important stories, CNN soon covered markedly different events from more attention-seeking angles in order to present 48 times as much news as half-hour shows such as the CBS Evening News; for example, viewers could tune in live to see if a schnauzer could be pulled from a truck stuck in floodwaters (Sundem). This new mode of journalism reached a peak during the Gulf War, as the physical presence of CNN reporters such as Peter Arnett and Bernard Shaw in Baghdad while the [a]nti-air weapons fired outside the window of their hotel room gave CNNs reporting an immediacy and freshness that established it as the standard for what the public wanted from its news (Hansen and Folkenflik, Sorensen). Recognizing its potential, two more cable news stations emerged to jump on the 24-hour news bandwagon in 1996Fox News and MSNBC, forming the trifecta of networks that would eventually dominate the news scene. In the early 2000s, the attacks on September 11 and the subsequent War on Terror provided the fuel necessary for these two fledgling channels to firmly establish themselves as CNNs competitors; competition for ratings soon joined the existing need for more news, viewers, and schnauzer rescues as a factor behind a growing need to attract attention. This desire for attention quickly manifested itself as what has been termed journalism of assertion; the networks realized that the easiest way to get ahead was to be the first to deliver news to the public, and began to shift their focus from fully researching a story to getting it into the public discussion (Kovach and Rosenstiel). As the quality of reporting droppedfirst from an influx of less important news, and then from decreased attention to verification of factsa

Wang 3 third development rounded out the transition from research journalism to fast-paced headline reporting: opinion commentary. Like candidates in a political race, the networks realized that despite their journalistic dutiesthey could not succeed purely through reliance on impartiality. Politically speaking, for example, Fox News and MSNBC tend to lean conservative and liberal, respectively, and while CNN is generally intermediate even it is slightly liberal in its opinions (Cable). Having noticed the polarizing effect that news could have, 24-hour news channels began adding commentary, interviews, and talk shows in order to market themselves to more specific groups. Ultimately, greater news volume, journalism of assertion, and reporting bias converged into a need for sensationalistic newsnews that could be run for hours on end, created schisms in public opinion, and could be tweaked to further inflame tensions. The issue of racism fits the bill perfectly. Race is a highly polarizing topic, due in no small part to its historical freshness. Slavery, for example, was outlawed in the United States in 1865, over thirty years after the British Empire had already abolished it. Additionally, the United States legally allowed racial segregation until the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964a stark contrast to the UK, which never had any such practice to begin with; in fact, further highlighting the recentness of the issue, the last Civil Rights Act was passed in 1991 (Civil Rights Timeline). The American struggle with racism is also distinguished from those of other countries by the sheer magnitude of the race movement it experienced. Called the largest mass movement for racial reform and civil rights in the 20th century, it spanned a decade and a half and included now-famous stories such as those of Rosa Parks, the desegregation of Little Rock Central High School, and the legendary speech by Martin Luther King, Jr. (Marable). This chronological proximity combined with the cultural and educational emphasis placed on the civil

Wang 4 rights movement have resulted in a society thatwhether consciously or notplaces great significance on issues of racial division. Such a society is in a perfect position for the news media to manipulateand manipulate it has. In fact, news sources did this as early as 1991, when CNN was still the only 24-hour news network on TV; the other channels, ABC News and NBC News, had begun sensationalizing their reports in order to better compete with CNNs success (ABC News would make the conversion to 24-hour news in 1995, and NBC would follow in 1996 with the creation of MSNBC). In March of that year, African American construction worker Rodney King was heavily beaten by four police officers after a high-speed chase on both the freeway and surface streets. Fully aware of the frustrations of the Los Angeles African American community, TV networks capitalized on a video of the beating shot by a man named George Holliday (Gray). The excerpts of the Holliday video that were shown, described as a frightening videotape of white police officers beating a black man, were broadcast repeatedly, drumming into viewers the notion that the incident was a clear case of white violence against a defenseless African American (Prager). What the networks did not report, however, was that from the perspective of the four LAPD officers involved in the incident, King was anything but defenseless. His arrest report listed him as an imposing 63 tall, weighing 225 pounds; his blood alcohol concentration was 0.19, more than twice the legal limit. He refused to comply with orders to lie prone on the ground, and when an officer tried to subdue him King almost knocked him off his feet (Report). He was hit with a Taser twice but somehow ignored the effectsleading the sergeant present to believe that King was under the influence of the hallucinogen PCP, which had been found to impart some degree of resistance to the weaponand moved toward the officers. Only thenwith a large, drunk, noncompliant, and possibly hallucinating suspect heading their way

Wang 5 did the officers begin to use their batons, and the beating only continued in response to Kings continued attempts to rise in direct defiance of orders. None of this was ever evident to viewers; for months, news programs deliberately and repeatedly showed only the most brutal seconds of the tape, thus removing all context from the video in order to make it as sensational as possible (Prager). Just how sensational it wasespecially in the highly race-sensitive society of Los Angelesbecame evident a year later, when the acquittal of the four officers pushed the pent-up resentment past the breaking point and ignited the LA riots, which killed 53 and caused over 1 billion dollars in damages (Gray). There is little doubt that had the public been fully informed about the events and circumstances of the incident, tensionsand the accompanying risk of violencewould have been lowered. More recent, of course, is the now-infamous case of George Zimmermana case that by rights should not have become infamous, but was made so thanks to a collective effort by 24hour news networks that made the edited Holliday video seem like childs play. A mere two weeks after the incident, the Martins family attorney Benjamin Crump stated on MSNBC that Zimmerman was white. That same day, an ABC News reporter stated that Martin was shot [because] he was black (Nolte). As the story began to heat up, claims became increasingly ridiculous. CNN reported that Zimmerman had used the racial slur fucking coon to describe Martin during the 911 call. NBC News cut and pasted bits of the call transcript in order to show its viewers that Zimmerman had said This guy looks like hes up to no good. He looks black. And both ABC and NBC News claimed that Zimmerman was not injured when taken into custody after the shooting (Nolte). All of these were, at best, blatant defamation and fabrication of information. Zimmerman was Hispanic, not white, although the New York Times deserves some credit for attempting to

Wang 6 strike a compromise between truth and sensationalism by describing the man as a white Hispanic (a feat for which, Joe Concha sardonically writes, it should be granted a patent) (Alvarez). Nor did he utter coon, and although CNN retracted the falsehood a month later, the damage had already been done; additionally, NBC News is currently facing a lawsuit regarding the defamation inherent in its edited call transcript (Graham, Concha). And despite the claims made by ABC and NBC, Zimmerman suffered two black eyes, a fractured nose, and cuts to the back of his head, according to medical records used in the court case (Court records). Viewers could have easily discovered the falseness of this reported information had they bothered to look past what the news networks were feeding them; a number of articles, such as those by Graham and Concha, were written with intent to expose false and fabricated material. Instead, blinded by both their trust in the news and their subconscious sensitivity to race issues, they allowed the media to gin up racial tensions where none needed to exist (Nolte). Had they been fully aware of what had transpiredthat Zimmerman had suffered injuries at Martins hands, that he did not bring up race until prompted, that he was not even white to begin withthere is no doubt that public reception of the case and verdict would have been drastically different. In both the Rodney King and Zimmerman-Martin incidents, better critical reasoning would help facilitate more productive perspectives of the cases by rectifying the defining features of the publics susceptibility to news manipulation: lack of information and lack of opposing opinions. Being informed is paramount to forming a viewpoint; while it is certainly true that all individuals are entitled to their own opinions, perspectives predicated upon inaccurate information are inherently flawed because their unreliability decreases their usefulness and productivity in deciding on a course of action. In the case of the Rodney King beating, for example, a perspective formulated after consideration of all the facts is clearly

Wang 7 superior to a perspective created based only on the news edit of the Holliday video because regardless of what either viewpoint isthe former is a choice that takes into account the full breadth of data, while the latter is led to a conclusion by incomplete information. In order to allow for more constructive action, it is necessary to break free of blind trust in the information given by news media and to realize that the best opinion is an informed one; critical thinking is thus required to effectively and thoroughly gather and evaluate research. Just as important as exposure to balanced information is exposure to a balanced mix of opinions. Should an individual listen only to those who share his perspective, he will have no reason to consider anything else. This is especially evident in the Zimmerman-Martin case; as expected, the majority of those who believed that Zimmerman committed a hate crime were liberals and Democrats, and indeed most of the false information originated from NBC and CNN, the two left-leaning networks. Because what they saw on the news so closely matched their beliefs, liberal viewers had no reason to doubt the truth of what they were toldeven if it was blatantly falsified. The key point here is that to facilitate more beneficial discussion of the issue at hand, it is crucial to consider alternative perspectives; here, too, critical reasoning is necessary to properly evaluate opposing viewpoints as well as to compare them to ones own opinion and ultimately decide which is the most suitable. As journalism becomes increasingly sensationalistic and manipulative, blind trust in news media often leads to unnecessary tension and hysteria, as evidenced by the uproars created by 24-hour reporting over the Rodney King and Trayvon Martin incidents. A productive atmosphere can be restored simply through the application of critical reasoning to carefully evaluate all available information and possible perspectives before formulating an opinion or deciding on a course of action. The optimal choice is always the most informed and objective.

Wang 8 At 7:16 p.m. on February 26, 2012, George Zimmerman shot and killed Trayvon Martin. Martin, an African American teenager, was visiting his fathers fiance in Sanford, Florida. At that particular time of the day, he was returning home from a nearby Seven-Eleven, having just purchased a can of iced tea and a packet of Skittles. Zimmerman, a Hispanic neighborhood watch volunteer, was driving by on a personal errand when he saw Martin. He then proceeded to call the Sanford non-emergency number to report what he considered a real suspicious guy, clarifying that although it was raining, M artin was just walking around, looking about. When the dispatcher asked about Martins race, Zimmerman replied, He looks black. One minute after Zimmerman terminated his call with the Sanford police department, a gunshot was heard in the background of a witnesss 911 call. When police arrived on the scene Zimmerman had a bloody, swollen nose and a gash on the back of his head. Martin had engaged him in a violent confrontation, and Zimmerman had been obliged to draw his gun. Self defense.

Wang 9 Works Cited Alvarez, Lizette. "City Criticizes Police Chief After Shooting." The New York Times. 22 Mar. 2012. Web. 01 Dec. 2013. <http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/22/us/police-chief-drawsfire-in-trayvon-martin-shooting.html?_r=0>. "Cable Three Different Networks, Three Different Perspectives." Pew Research Centers Journalism Project RSS. Web. 01 Dec. 2013. <http://www.journalism.org/2008/10/29/cable-three-different-networks-three-differentperspectives/>. "Civil Rights Movement Timeline." Infoplease. Web. 01 Dec. 2013. <http://www.infoplease.com/spot/civilrightstimeline1.html>. Concha, Joe. "From Serious to Sensationalism: Zimmerman Trial Shows Where Journalism Has Gone Since O.J." Mediaite. 14 July 2013. Web. 01 Dec. 2013. <http://www.mediaite.com/online/from-serious-to-sensationalism-zimmerman-trialshows-where-journalism-has-gone-since-o-j/>. "Court Records Show George Zimmerman Had Two Black Eyes, Broken Nose." CBSNews. 16 May 2012. Web. 01 Dec. 2013. <http://www.cbsnews.com/news/court-records-showgeorge-zimmerman-had-two-black-eyes-broken-nose/>. Graham, Tim. "CNN Walks It Back: Oops, Zimmerman Didn't Say 'Coon,' He Said It Was 'Cold'!" NewsBusters. 06 Apr. 2012. Web. 01 Dec. 2013. <http://newsbusters.org/blogs/tim-graham/2012/04/06/cnn-walks-it-back-oopszimmerman-didnt-say-coon-he-said-it-was-cold>. Gray, Madison. "The L.A. Riots: 15 Years After Rodney King." TIME. Web. 01 Dec. 2013. <http://content.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1614117_1614084,00.html>.

Wang 10 Hansen, Liane, and David Folkenflik. "The Power of the 24-Hour News Cycle." NPR. Web. 01 Dec. 2013. <http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4671485>. Kovach, Bill, and Tom Rosenstiel. Warp Speed: America in the Age of Mixed Media. New York: Century Foundation, 1999. Print. Marable, Manning. Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention. New York: Viking, 2011. Print. Nolte, John. "Timeline: How the Press Prosecuted Zimmerman While Stoking Racial Tensions." Breitbart News Network. 13 July 2013. Web. 01 Dec. 2013. <http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Journalism/2013/07/13/Media-Zimmerman-CoverageRap-Sheet>. Report of the Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department. 1991. Police Assessment Resource Center. Web. 01 Dec. 2013. <http://www.parc.info/client_files/Special%20Reports/1%20%20Chistopher%20Commision.pdf>. Sorensen, Jeff. "24 Hour News Killed Journalism." The Huffington Post. 20 Aug. 2012. Web. 01 Dec. 2013. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeff-sorensen/24-hournews_b_1813081.html>. Sundem, Garth. "How Have 24-hour News Stations Affected Society?" HowStuffWorks. Web. 01 Dec. 2013. <http://people.howstuffworks.com/culture-traditions/tv-and-culture/24-hournews-stations-affected-society1.htm>. "Transcript of George Zimmerman's Call to the Police." Mother Jones. Web. 01 Dec. 2013. <http://www.motherjones.com/documents/326700-full-transcript-zimmerman>.