NBC News has some explaining to do.
The network omitted crucial context this week from its coverage of the death of Ma’Khia Bryant, a 16-year-old black teenager who was fatally shot by a white police officer in Columbus, Ohio, as she swung a knife at two unarmed teenagers.
On Wednesday, during a segment hosted by anchor Lester Holt, NBC aired audio of the 911 phone call that drew law enforcement officials to the scene of an altercation in which Bryant was a participant. For some reason, however, the network declined to air the part of the call in which a frantic woman can be heard saying, “These grown girls over here trying to fight us, trying to stab us!”
Rather, NBC played only the part when the woman says, “We need a police officer here now!”
NBC likewise aired only a small portion of the police body camera footage, leaving out the part in which Bryant is seen clearly lunging with a knife at an unarmed woman. The network aired only a photo of the knife as it lay on the ground — after the shooting.
The rest of the report is also couched carefully in “police say” language, ignoring all the audio and visual evidence suggesting the Columbus police officer did indeed successfully thwart a stabbing attack.
In fact, if you relied solely on NBC for your news, all you know is that a white cop killed a black teenager and that a knife may or may not have also been present at the scene of the shooting. However, footage of the incident shows Bryant had a knife in her hand and that she appeared to be in the process of stabbing an unarmed woman when a responding officer shot her. The 911 audio would appear to corroborate this. None of this was included in NBC’s coverage.
In contrast, ABC and CBS News had no problem including details of the knife in their respective coverage of the shooting incident.
CBS played the portion of the audio when the caller mentions specifically they are in imminent danger of being stabbed. CBS also made sure to air the bodycam footage, pausing and zooming in on the image of the knife in Bryant’s hand.
ABC covered the story in the exact same manner.
NBC’s omission of the relevant details of the Bryant shooting comes not long after Holt drew applause for claiming “fairness is overrated.”
“The idea that we should always give two sides equal weight and merit does not reflect the world we find ourselves in,” he said during a journalism awards ceremony in March.
Holt, who got his current job after anchor Brian Williams was demoted for lying, added, “Decisions to not give unsupported arguments equal time are not a dereliction of journalistic responsibility or some kind of agenda, in fact, it’s just the opposite.”
He continued, saying, “Providing an open platform for misinformation, for anyone to come say whatever they want, especially when issues of public health and safety are at stake, can be quite dangerous.”
OK, but what’s the line on when a news network intentionally omits crucial context from a major story?
