Media Were Already Running With Police Fantasy When Video Exploded It

[jakeXT]

In all police killings, one side–the victim–is, by definition, dead. So the “both sides” type of reporting we’re so often used to almost invariably becomes a one-sided airing of accounts, facts and selective details from the police side that the corporate media repeats without question. Indeed, Charleston’s local ABC affiliate would begin their report with, what turned out to be, an outright lie:

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCIV) — A man involved in a traffic stop that turned into a physical altercation with a North Charleston police officer died Saturday after being shot by the officer.

But the New York Times video shows there was no “physical altercation.” There was someone being shot in the back eight times while trying to run away. The report would go on to mix up police assertion with fact again, seemingly inventing witnesses who weren’t there:

Police and witnesses say Scott tried to run from Slager before turning to fight for the officer’s taser. It was during that scuffle that the officer fired his service weapon, fatally wounding Scott.

http://fair.org/blog-entries/media-were-already-running-with-police-fantasy-when-video-exploded-it/

[Novara]

1. Blaming the victim

Chris Cuomo on CNN just asked if Walter Scott would be alive if he had just followed the cop's orders and stayed in the car.

Yeah, sure. He'd also be alive if the cop wasn't a trigger-happy asshole.

[Fred Sanders]

2. CNN has been very busy trying out different defences and smoke screens for the killer, but the video is crystal clear.