The Crime Report (https://thecrimereport.org/category/media/)
Mass shootings, the special counsel’s Russia investigation, immigration, and sexual assault charges against powerful men in the worlds of entertainment, media and business dominated the news media coverage of criminal justice in 2018. But the most significant development, as it was in 2017, was the continued drop in coverage of local justice issues.
After a year of concentration on national politics, much coverage of crime and justice in 2017 in the U.S. news media shifted to a discussion of the presidential election’s aftermath and of a topic given new prominence by Donald Trump’s presidency: immigration.
The verdict is mixed, according to The Crime Report’s annual survey released Friday. Despite some bright spots, continued layoffs and closures have forced many smaller news outlets to reduce their coverage, leaving millions of Americans in the dark about the practices of local courts, law enforcement and justice agencies.
The Columbia Journalism Review says a “growing chorus of voices” is urging the media to rethink the way they approach mass shootings. One media critic says journalists should work to minimize the possibility of copycat shooters.
As the first anniversary of the Parkland, Fl.,school massacre nears, two researchers offer some suggestions for how media coverage of mass shooting can avoid the “copycat” phenomenon.
Critics complain about widespread media reports that federal inmates had special Christmas meals while guards were unpaid during the shutdown. A former inmate says, “If you had stopped the meals, it would have had no impact on the shutdown.”
Seth Freed Wessler of Type Investigations and ProPublica’s Hannah Dreier earned top honors for their work in the nation’s most prestigious annual competition for criminal justice reporting. They’ll receive the awards at a dinner Feb. 21.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ pardon of four young black men wrongly accused in 1949 of raping a white woman recalls the insidious role played by the media at the time.
In an editorial, the Orlando Sentinel apologized for its coverage 70 years ago of four black men accused of raping a white woman. The newspaper said, “We’re sorry for the Orlando Sentinel’s role in this injustice. We’re sorry that the newspaper at the time did between little and nothing to seek the truth.”
Koenig and Packnett will be honored for their separate achievements in utilizing the new U.S. media landscape to enhance the national debates over criminal justice reform at a Feb. 21 dinner at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.