Category: Media

BY WILLIAM H. FREIVOGEL// An article of faith among those protesting Michael Brown’s death and among much of the media writing about the protests in Ferguson is that young African-American men are far more likely to be shot by police than young white men.

Much of the national media – The New York Times, USA Today, Christian Science Monitor, NBC, Daily Kos, Daily Beast and Vox among others – have quoted an October ProPublica study of FBI data showing that black males 15-19 years old were 21 times more likely than white males that age to be killed by police between 2010 and 2012.

What hasn’t gotten attention is that leading criminologists criticize the ProPublica findings as exaggerated. It’s true that black youths are killed more often than white youths, the critics agree, but the disparity over the past 15 years is much lower than over the three years featured by ProPublica. The longer period is more statistically accurate, they add.

BY BENJAMIN ISRAEL// Tony Scott is back on the radio in St. Louis six months after iHeart Radio fired him from his 26-year gig as a disk jockey and commentator. On Saturday Nov. 22, he started a show on Old School 95.5 on Saturdays from 2 to 7 p.m. and Sundays from 3 to 7 p.m.

BY TRIPP FROHLICHSTEI// If there is some good that can be found out of all the bad related to Ferguson, part of it comes from Channel 5 (KSDK).

Apparently, it was the first local station to promote a healing effort in the community, well before the grand jury decision not to indict officer Darren Wilson for the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson.

The station launched its “STL Together” effort on August 25. Among other things, the station aired related stories, public service announcements (PSAs) and promoted the idea on social media.

It clearly garnered interest as the station received inquiries about the program from several national media outlets including NBC, ABC and CNN.

BY TERRY GANEY// In the hours leading up to the announcement of whether or not a Ferguson police officer would face charges for the fatal shooting of Michael Brown, NPR’s Cheryl Corley listed all of the possibilities facing officer Darren Wilson.

Among them, Corley said, was the possibility he could be charged with first-degree murder or murder in the second degree. She listed other potential charges, too, and then went on to list what kind of sentence Wilson might have to serve if he were convicted.

Corley’s report ran parallel to the many narratives being repeated by national reporters that began soon after that August day when Brown was killed: Wilson was at fault, and if a St. Louis County grand jury would pursue justice, he would be brought to trial for what had happened.

BY WILLIAM A. BABCOCK// Just when you thought it safe to follow the news without yet another Ferguson-related story, the New York Times and Fox News have entered the mud-fighting fray.

Fox’s Howard Kurtz, hardly an unbiased Fox News Channel journalist, accused the Times of making a “reckless move” in publishing the approximate address of Darren Wilson, the police office who shot and killed Michael Brown in August.