The New York Post and the Drudge Report suggested early Friday morning that members of the Black Lives Matter movement were responsible for the deaths of five police officers in Dallas, even though authorities had not yet identified who carried out the attacks or their motives.
“Black lives kill,” read the Drudge Report’s front page at around 1:30 am ET. “4 cops shot dead in Dallas. City in shock.”
This headline. Wow. pic.twitter.com/0ALYFLdC9T
— Michelle Fields (@MichelleFields) July 8, 2016
A few hours later, the New York Post revealed its Friday morning headline: “Civil War: Four cops killed at anti-police protest.”
Friday’s cover: 4 cops killed in Dallas tragedy https://t.co/NpUskqqtLt pic.twitter.com/tlqx0P721y
— New York Post (@nypost) July 8, 2016
These headlines were published despite the scarcity of information regarding the chaos in Dallas, when 12 police officers were shot and five killed in a series of apparently coordinated attacks.
The slayings, which police said were carried out by multiple shooters, took place during a downtown protest march following the police shooting deaths of two black men in separate incidents this week.
By 8:00 am Friday morning, authorities in Dallas still had not revealed the names of the suspects. They also reported nothing about the shooters’ motives.
Nevertheless, the Post, which presented no new information on those responsible for the attacks, and Drudge ran with headlines pointing the blame at anti-police brutality demonstrators.
