MSNBC has done it again.
As the nation’s largest newsrooms turned their attention to Baltimore Thursday morning to report Officer Caesar Goodson Jr. had been acquitted of all charges in the death of Freddie Gray, a Baltimore man who died in 2015 of a spinal injury while in police custody, MSNBC played old riot footage from 2015.
MSNBC’s Ron Mott, who was on the scene in Baltimore prior to the verdict’s announcement, explained to viewers what was going on, and what a guilty or not guilty verdict would mean. As he spoke, MSNBC’s producers played footage of last year’s riot with the headline “Happening Now.”
The riot was not “happening now,” and the scene in front of the courthouse Thursday morning was calm and orderly.
“I just stepped outside the courthouse. Very few demonstrators out there – maybe half a dozen,” said Mott, who has no control over what is shown on-air, said during the broadcast. “Obviously there’s a lot of interest in the case … but there are not a lot of people demonstrating.”
The entire segment lasted for about two minutes.
Baltimore’s police spokesman, T.J. Smith, was furious with MSNBC’s broadcasting decision.
“That is absolutely irresponsible looping last years coverage. Shameful,” he said on social media.
That is absolutely irresponsible looping last years coverage. Shameful. https://t.co/HBbMPOYP5f
— T.J. Smith (@TJSmithMedia) June 23, 2016
The Baltimore Sun’s David Zurawik was also unhappy with MSNBC’s misleading broadcast.
“Some news operations just can’t let go of that riot video from last year after the death of Freddie Gray,” he wrote Thursday. “Since TV journalism is both words and pictures, those seeing and hearing the full report might think MSNBC’s sins are less egregious than would those who saw only a screengrab widely circulated on Twitter showing Mott, the images of rioting and the banner ‘HAPPENING NOW.'”
“Without defending MSNBC, I will say that hearing the audio context provided by Mott is necessary for a fair assessment of what the channel did,” he added.
The riot footage played for approximately 33 seconds of the two-minute report, making it a integral part of Mott’s coverage.
“In my opinion, the worst sinners were the producers who ran so much riot footage and then failed to remove the ‘HAPPENING NOW’ banner under it once they saw how it could be misinterpreted by viewers who didn’t have the audio — people in an airport, bar or restaurant where screens are often shown carrying cable news images without sound,” Zurawik wrote.
“But, of course, this is part of a larger problem I have been writing about for more than a year now: out-of-town news operations running images of conflict and violence even when they are not representative of what is really happening in Baltimore,” he added.
This isn’t the first time that MSNBC has done this. In May, when another officer was found not guilty in Gray’s death, the cable news network’s coverage included old footage from 2015’s Baltimore riots.
