The Crime Report (https://thecrimereport.org/category/media/)
Acknowledging that the release of individuals’ identities in stories of arrest that command only a brief amount of attention can cause irreparable harm, the news organization vows to change its practices.
Eyewitness videos have been helpful in bringing awareness of police brutality and racism against Black Americans, but they also may make it harder for future victims to be believed without visual documentation, while adding to the trauma experienced by families, according to a USC journalism professor.
As more and more of the COPS-style programs fall under the knife amid protests against police violence that some argue the shows promote, Texas passed a bill that would make it illegal for law enforcement agencies to authorize reality television crews to film officers on duty.
The Texas execution of 41-year-old Quintin Jones by lethal injection was the state’s first in modern history to take place without requisite witnesses from the news media. State officials say it was a mistake, but anti-death penalty advocates are not so sure.
Disproportionate media coverage of African-American and white crime victims has meant that Black victims rarely get the institutional and legal recognition given their white counterparts, according to a forthcoming 10-year study of murder cases in the Washington, D.C. metro region by a Villanova University law professor.
The mind-boggling conspiracy theories peddled by the QAnon movement are being fanned by countries with a vested interest in destabilizing the U.S., says a former U.S. terrorism official.
A recent study published in the journal Sociology of Race and Ethnicity about shooting victims in Chicago found Black people killed in predominantly Black neighborhoods in the city in 2016 received roughly half as much news coverage as white people killed in majority white neighborhoods, and were less likely to be discussed as “multifaceted, complex people.”
Tony Plohetski of the Austin-American Statesman, a finalist for this year’s Harry Frank Guggenheim awards for Excellence in Criminal Justice Reporting, has won the inaugural Dan Rather Medal for News and Guts. Plohetski won the award for his multimedia investigation into the operations of the Williamson County Sheriff’s Office.
Prosecutors are generally prevented by DOJ rules from speaking publicly on investigations that are ongoing.
Andrea Sahouri of the Des Moines Register was the first working U.S. journalist to face a criminal trial since 2018. She had been pepper-sprayed and arrested by police while covering a protest.