Post by bistro on Jun 23, 2015 8:13:51 GMT -5
In Boston, Media Again Trash a Police Shooting Victim by Uncritically “Reporting” Police Accusations
[Yet in any negative report about a killed cop is quickly and vehemently met with cries of unfair accusations where the accused cannot defend and cruelty to the family of the deceased. bistro]
Jun 03, 2015 By Glenn Greenwald firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/06/03/media-trash-character-police-shooting-victim-reporting-anonymous-smears/
In the Boston area yesterday, the FBI and Boston Police Department (BPD) shot and killed a 26-year-old black Muslim man, Usaamah Abdullah Rahim, after they stopped him at a bus stop at 7:00 a.m. in front of a CVS drug store in order to question him. Media reports originally claimed that Rahim wielded a “machete” after he was approached by the agents. But after photos emerged showing how laughable that description was, the weapon was changed in subsequent reports to a “military-style black knife” — not just any knife, but a black one.
Literally within hours of the killing, both the Boston and national media had uncritically published multiple, wholly uncorroborated accusations about Rahim based solely on the claims of the law enforcement agencies that had just killed him. Some law enforcement officials were even granted anonymity by these journalists in order to smear their victim. Rahim was almost instantly convicted by the media of being a dangerous terrorist preparing to carry out an ISIS-inspired attack.
The smearing party was started by a local TV reporter, Cheryl Fiandaca, who bills herself as an “investigative reporter” for Channel 7 News. Here’s how she “investigates” and “reports”:
Prior to joining Channel 7 News last year, guess what Fiandaca’s job was? She was the official spokeswoman for the Boston Police Department, and is also the ex-wife of former Boston Police Commissioner Bill Bratton. [NYCity] Now, in the immediate aftermath of the fatal shooting by her former employers, she’s giving anonymity to “sources” to smear Rahim as “radicalized by #ISIS social media” — whatever that means — and as someone who “may have been planning to attack police.”
The national media predictably joined in the fun. Leading the descent into hysteria and recklessness was, as usual, CNN, which all but depicted the shooting as necessary for fending off an ISIS invasion of the homeland: <more at the link>
[Yet in any negative report about a killed cop is quickly and vehemently met with cries of unfair accusations where the accused cannot defend and cruelty to the family of the deceased. bistro]
Jun 03, 2015 By Glenn Greenwald firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/06/03/media-trash-character-police-shooting-victim-reporting-anonymous-smears/
In the Boston area yesterday, the FBI and Boston Police Department (BPD) shot and killed a 26-year-old black Muslim man, Usaamah Abdullah Rahim, after they stopped him at a bus stop at 7:00 a.m. in front of a CVS drug store in order to question him. Media reports originally claimed that Rahim wielded a “machete” after he was approached by the agents. But after photos emerged showing how laughable that description was, the weapon was changed in subsequent reports to a “military-style black knife” — not just any knife, but a black one.
Literally within hours of the killing, both the Boston and national media had uncritically published multiple, wholly uncorroborated accusations about Rahim based solely on the claims of the law enforcement agencies that had just killed him. Some law enforcement officials were even granted anonymity by these journalists in order to smear their victim. Rahim was almost instantly convicted by the media of being a dangerous terrorist preparing to carry out an ISIS-inspired attack.
The smearing party was started by a local TV reporter, Cheryl Fiandaca, who bills herself as an “investigative reporter” for Channel 7 News. Here’s how she “investigates” and “reports”:
Prior to joining Channel 7 News last year, guess what Fiandaca’s job was? She was the official spokeswoman for the Boston Police Department, and is also the ex-wife of former Boston Police Commissioner Bill Bratton. [NYCity] Now, in the immediate aftermath of the fatal shooting by her former employers, she’s giving anonymity to “sources” to smear Rahim as “radicalized by #ISIS social media” — whatever that means — and as someone who “may have been planning to attack police.”
The national media predictably joined in the fun. Leading the descent into hysteria and recklessness was, as usual, CNN, which all but depicted the shooting as necessary for fending off an ISIS invasion of the homeland: <more at the link>