NBC News’s Lester Holt really meant it when he said, “Fairness is overrated.”
The news anchor this week omitted the important context while reporting on former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin’s request for a retrial. This is the second time in two weeks that Holt has withheld relevant information on this topic from his viewers.
Chauvin, who was convicted last month of killing George Floyd, has asked for a retrial over possible jury misconduct.
On Tuesday, a photo from August 2020 surfaced online. It shows Brandon Mitchell, who was one of the 12 jurors who convicted Chauvin, decked out in Black Lives Matter-branded gear. Mitchell’s T-shirt reads, “Get your knee off our necks.” His hat reads, “BLACK LIVES MATTER.” The photo shows Mitchell attended a rally in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 28, 2020, where members of Floyd’s family and victims of police-involved shootings addressed the crowd.
“I’m marching for George,” Floyd’s brother, Philonise, said at the rally.
The photo raises obvious questions about Mitchell’s impartiality as a juror. The photo also suggests Mitchell may have misled the court last year during the jury selection process. He told the court specifically he had not participated in demonstrations about police use of force.
A questionnaire sent out before jury selection asked two specific questions.
The first question asked: “Did you, or someone close to you, participate in any of the demonstrations or marches against police brutality that took place in Minneapolis after George Floyd’s death?” Mitchell said he answered, “No.”
The second question asked: “Other than what you have already described above, have you, or anyone close to you, participated in protests about police use of force or police brutality?” Mitchell said he answered, “No.”
Jury selection for the Chauvin trial did not end until late March of this year. Mitchell maintains the rally was “100%” not a march for Floyd. He told the Minneapolis Star Tribune the march he attended was related directly to Martin Luther King Jr.’s march in the ’60s. Mitchell also told a local CBS News affiliate he went to Washington to participate in a “voter registration rally,” not a protest.
If a juror lied about activism in this case, that’s kind of a big story, but NBC’s Holt again mentioned none of it in his coverage this week of Chauvin’s request for a retrial. Holt made no mention of the juror’s BLM-branded clothes or the rally he attended. Instead, the NBC News anchor had only this to say: “And just in this evening, former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin has filed an appeal for a new trial, two weeks after he was convicted of murder and manslaughter charges in the death of George Floyd. His lawyer says Chauvin’s ability to have a fair trial was affected by pretrial publicity.”
The Mitchell-related information was available before the newscast. NBC and Holt had plenty of time to prepare. ABC and CBS News had zero problems including details of the photos and the march in their respective reports on Chauvin’s retrial efforts. So, what’s NBC’s excuse for not mentioning what may end up being the biggest factor working in the former police officer’s favor?
Imagine Chauvin’s request is granted and you’re an NBC viewer. You’re going to be awfully confused trying to figure out what happened between his conviction and the court granting his request. It’s not as if anyone on the network has told you.
If you’re getting your news from NBC, maybe now is the time to stop.
