Video Loss #1: The New Crisis
Framing the protests, growing attacks on the media, and a look ahead at a defining week in America
Hello and welcome to Video Loss, a newsletter about the intersection of progressive politics and media. You’re reading the first issue of this newsletter. For more information about what I’m hoping to accomplish with this project, check out my introductory post. (LINK TKTK)
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How the media covers unrest
The senseless state-sanctioned murder of George Floyd last Monday has kicked off a stunning wave of protest across the country. Over the weekend, cities from Oakland to Chicago to Minneapolis burned as militarized police forces crashed down on protests. Last night, a Black Hawk helicopter hovered over protestors in Washington DC, executing a maneuver that, according to the Times, is “often conducted by low flying jets in combat zones to scare away insurgents… as a show of force.”
The response to all of been predictable and depressingly nonpartisan; public figures from Donald Trump to Barack Obama have condemned the violence seen over the weekend while at best only halfheartedly acknowledging the police violence that often pushed peaceful protests into something more primal. Mayors like Bill De Blasio of New York and Eric Garcetti of Los Angeles criticized protesters for disrespecting the police and forcing officers to respond violently, as if unarmed masses pose any actual threat to groups of armed units in riot gear. We’re used to this in America: a belligerent and power-crazed mass of police tear-gassing peaceful protesters, and politicians standing sternly at a lectern and scolding the people who get angry.
Usually, the media follows the signals of these politicians, framing protests as a violent confrontation between barbaric looters and good-intentioned if sometimes overtly violent peacekeepers. The blame for destruction is generally on the protestors.
Make no mistake, this is still the norm in media coverage of the George Floyd protests. Monday’s headline in the Washington Post said the protests pushed America to the “precipice.” A New York Times dispatch from a protest in Brooklyn gleefully followed the narrative pushed by Trump that outside agitators are responsible for looting, flattening an important debate about the role of property destruction in moments of desperate protest and allowing for a easy (and state-administered) line to be drawn between “good” and “bad” protestors. A CBS News Twitter video catalogued various police officers knelling in solidarity with protestors. One of the officers featured, Denver Police Chief Paul Pazen, reportedly authorized using tear gas on protesters fifteen minutes after kneeling with them.
Yet important cracks are showing in the media’s knee-jerk condemnation of protest, reflecting a growing nuance over who is ultimately responsible for public unrest. Charles Blow’s newest piece in the New York Times rejects the blanket condemnation of rioting that the Times so frequently publishes, instead casting the looting as a reflection of the violence so many Americans live under. His argument has its limits, but its still remarkable to see something so multifaceted published in a newspaper that historically treated the civil rights movement with civility-minded caution. Speaking of mainstream institutions, David Remnick’s lead column in this week’s New Yorker acknowledges “the human capacity for patience and endurance, in the face of blatant injustice, is not without limits,” before ending on a scene of Martin Luther King Jr quoting Victor Hugo: “If a soul is left in the darkness, sins will be committed. The guilty one is not he who commits the sin, but he who causes the darkness.”
Better yet, Slate’s early morning dispatch was headlined “Police erupt in violence nationwide.” And surprisingly, the technology site The Verge has been framing the protests nearpitch-perfectlyas well.
Unfortunately, none of these examples represent the entrenched narrative around protests and police response in American media. The bias towards police—and the bias against agitated protestors—remains a consistent and disappointing theme in the mainstream media’s coverage of these protests. It’s a manufactured reality out-of-touch with the lived experiences of countless participants in the events being described, one that can be broken by anyone seeing the endless examples of citizen journalism documenting provocation and barbaric treatment perpetuated by the police. Baby steps are being made against this prevailing media narrative, but much more work is to be done.
Washington Post reporter Gene Park said it best on Twitter: “some reporters are really struggling with the idea that police might lie to them.” For many Americans, that’s been the reality.
Attacks on journalists
Perhaps another reason for the shift in the media narrative around these protests: you can’t go anywhere online without seeing a video of a cop being a violent asshole. The reality of how cops engage with protestors is impossible to ignore. And that behavior is often extending to members of the media.
It started Friday morning, with the now-infamous video of CNN reporter Omar Jimenez and his team being arrested live on television in Minneapolis. Jimenez, who is black, was released after CNN head Jeff Zucker called the Minneapolis to complain. In a statement, the police department claimed the arresting officers didn’t know Jimenez and his producers were members of the media. This—as anyone who watched the video could tell—was a lie.
Incidents continued throughout the weekend. A police officer in Louisville equipped with rubber bullets opened fire on a local news camera crew. A Vice News reporter was pepper sprayed by a NYPD officer. When he identified himself as media, a cop told him “I don’t care.” Freelance photographer Linda Tirado is now permeninatly blind in her left eye after being struck in the face with a rubber bullet. The US Press Freedom Tracker identified over 100 instances of press freedom violations since Friday.
Two important caveats. Police responding to protesters with violence is, of course, not a new thing. Nor is it new for police to crack down on reporters. Dozens of reporters were arrested covering the Ferguson protests in 2014. Yet, as The Intercept co-founder Jermey Scahill pointed out on Twitter, many were with smaller, independent outlets. Arresting a CNN reporter live on cable news certainly has a different impact.
Over the weekend, CNN Chief Media Boy Brian Stelter retweeted a passage from a Washington Post column: “When [Omar Jimenez’s] camera hit the ground, America saw the world through George Floyd’s eyes.” That’s ridiculous. But it may have given reporters —especially those who aren’t use to living a life threatened by the state—a more visceral window into what protesters are facing across the country. Let’s hope that bleeds into their coverage.
What I’m following this week
The military question: According to this useful history lesson from New York Magazine, the last time American troops were deployed on domestic soil was during the Las Angeles riots in 1992. Before that, Johnson used them to control a DC protest following Martin Luther King’s assassination in 1968. Trump threatened in a speech yesterday to use the military to quell protests; we’ve already seen military helicopters in DC. As of writing on Monday night, no governors have taken Trump up on his offer. Does that change later this week? Could Trump send troops into the states anyway? And what on earth does that look like?
Does Twitter keep fighting? Twitter spent most of last week engaged in public feud with the president. It started after Twitter applied a content warning to one of Trump’s tweets, saying that the statement violated their terms and conditions. Over the weekend, Trump tweeted “when the looting starts the shooting starts,” a phrase coined by a deranged Miami police chief at the height of the civil rights movement. Twitter did nothing. If Twitter wants to hold their ground, they need to be consistent with enforcing their policies. Do we see that this week? Or does Trump’s threat of less regulatory protection make them back down?
Where are the Democrats? Enabling bad cops cuts across party lines. George Floyd died in a blue city in a blue state. I say this to reinforce the obvious: these protests are not just about Trump. However, I have been shocked by the absolute non-response from Democratic leadership in the House and Senate. Yesterday, in Delaware, presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden proposed a federal ban on police chokeholds. More importantly, he implored Congress to pass legislation “this month.” Do Pelosi and Schumer follow his lead? Early indications leave little hope, but we should know more by the end of this week.
What happens to the pandemic? There are a lot of people out on the street right now. Because of our ongoing failure to provide the public with PPE, many of them do not have masks. It takes one sick or asymptomatic person to create a super-spreading event. At The Atlantic, Robinson Meyer has a preview of what the protests could mean for the ongoing coronavirus pandemic: a spike in infection rates in the next two weeks, one that may become even worse as states continue their dangerous push to reopen.
Here’s some other stuff
9to5Mac has a early look at Apple News+’s new audio feature.
The New Republic rolled out a major redesign of its website on Monday. The redesign includes four new verticals. The Soapbox is a home for opinion and politics, Apocalypse Soon covers climate change, Sold Short focuses on inequality, labor, and Indian Country issues (great!), and Critical Mass has cultural criticism. It looks good! Here’s a good Study Hall article from a few months ago about The New Republic’s slow march to essential reading.
Two good stories from The Intercept: a study on the failure of police reform and a look at the history of police infiltrating protests.
That’s it for the first edition of Video Loss. If you have any feedback or comments, please don’t hesitate to leave a note below. I’m also available at tom@tombunting.net or through Twitter. If you liked this newsletter, please consider subscribing or telling a friend.