How the media reacts to footage of the arrest of Tyre Nichols

A protester watches a video of Memphis police beating Tyre Nichols.

Oliver Darcy

News organizations across the country faced a dilemma Friday night when Memphis police released a video showing police brutally beating Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old black man, after stopping traffic.

The ethical question facing newsrooms is how to balance the need for public transparency while also being careful when airing disturbing footage of violence that will eventually lead to murder charges against five police officers.

On Friday night, major television news networks decided to air the violent footage of the clash that sparked outrage and roiled the city of Memphis, with news anchors warning their audiences of the graphic nature of the footage they were about to see.

“It’s not going to be easy for anyone,” CNN host Erin Burnett said before showing the footage to the network’s audience. “Like we said, it’s graphic and brutal, and you should know that if you decide to watch it.”

But Burnett stressed that CNN believes this is a matter of “great public importance” that the world needs to see.

In addition to showing the footage, the news anchors clearly described to viewers what was shown in the video. At times, journalists became more emotional. NBC News reporter Antonia Hilton, for example, broke down on live television covering the story.

“Sorry, I covered this all day and thought I could get through the day without getting emotional about it,” Hilton said.

The footage, which has been compared to the infamous video of the horrific beating of Rodney King in 1991, aired on three major broadcast networks in addition to CNN, MSNBC and Fox News.

Margaret Sullivan, a Guardian columnist and Egan Visiting Professor at Duke University’s DeWitt Wallace Center for Media and Democracy, told CNN that news outlets need to exercise discretion when making coverage decisions.

“To the extent possible, the media should give people the ability to see at least some of it and give them the option not to see it — or parents and guardians to hide it from children if they see fit,” Sullivan said.

Sullivan added: “I would be wrong to show the public what happened – with proper warnings about its graphic nature, of course, and possibly limited editing. However, you cannot opt ​​out of this; it is a matter of great public interest and an important part of holding the police accountable. Think of Darnella Fraser’s world-changing documentation of the killing of George Floyd.”

As a general rule, news organizations treat such stories with caution and only do so when they are extremely newsworthy. In such cases, the decision is often made to show uncensored graphic footage for a limited time and then broadcast more limited portions of the incident.

Decisions by news organizations to later restrict the rebroadcast of graphic material are usually made for a variety of reasons, including to avoid traumatizing the victims’ families by constantly watching footage of their loved ones’ last moments.

Bill Gruskin, a distinguished professor at Columbia University’s School of Journalism, told CNN that when deciding whether to air graphic footage, such as Nichols’ video, news organizations must determine whether it is newsworthy and whether it has adequately prepared its audience for viewing the footage.

Just hours before Nichols’ footage was released, a graphic video depicting the gruesome attack on Paul Pelosi, husband of former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, was also made public. On Fox News, the footage aired without warning viewers, prompting host Harris Faulkner to later apologize to the network’s audience.

“We had no idea what it would look like and it had to have a warning and a graphical warning before we show it and then on the screen,” Faulkner said.

Gruskin added that when evaluating whether footage should be broadcast, producers may decide to “pixelate parts of the video” for other reasons, such as “hide the identity of the child victim to avoid too gruesome details that add nothing meaningful to the public’s understanding of the incident.” “.

On the web, major news organizations such as CNN, The New York Times, and The Washington Post have also decided to release the video. Content warnings were applied to emphasize to the audience that the footage is graphic in nature.

YouTube and Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, have allowed the video showing Nichols’ death to be uploaded to their platforms, citing the footage as newsworthy. But both companies have introduced restrictions to warn viewers about the graphic content.

The-CNN-Wire
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The post “How the Media Handles Tyre Nichols Arrest Footage” first appeared on KION546.

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