Media Coverage & Diversity across the Fault Lines

Hi Sally,

Here's the clip of Matt Lauer interviewing author and commentator Michael Eric Dyson and WPHT-Philadelphia radio talk show host Michael Smerconish that made me a little crazy last Thursday morning.So much time had passed that I was going to let it go. But with today's revelations that the police report erroneously stated that Lucia Whalen reported two black men breaking into the home of Henry Louis Gates, Jr., I thought it was worthy of revisiting.

Two things concerned me about the Lauer interview. One, Lauer quotes verbatim from the police report, never mentioning that Skip Gates gave a conflicting account of events. I'm Ms. Fault Lines, so I certainly understand how one account might resonate with you more than the other. But as journalists, isn't it our duty to presents all accounts? And of course, my Fault Lines perspective has shown me that the police reports have been found not to be the most reliable.The other thing that concerned me was his line of questioning. It seemed as if Lauer only wanted to hear his guests repudiate Obama for saying the police acted stupidly. It appeared as if he in no way wanted to understand WHY Obama may have said what he said. Again, I guess this goes back to my work with our Fault Lines framework, in which we teach journalists that understanding the "why" behind people's actions can help us give the public greatest insight into events. Wouldn't the viewers have been better served if Lauer actually listened to Michael Eric Dyson?

Djm

Hey Dori -

Gotta say that my first reaction is to wonder why you think that one account or another would resonate with me personally. Michael Smerconish, who appears to be white, seems to think the public is reacting by racial lines. Yes, I believe it's true that black people generally have a more sophisticated and experienced knowledge of racial profiling by the police. But I don't think it's fair or accurate to assume that white people will reactively believe the police officer's account more readily than the esteemed black scholar's account, particularly if they've been watching the world around them. Black, white and brown commentators have all reacted with outrage to Gates' arrest. Plus there may be other fault lines at play. We can get to that later.I, too, found it frustrating that Lauer seemed to have no interest in the bigger issue that Dyson was trying to explain. By latching onto Obama's characterization of the Cambridge police officer as "acting stupidly" instead of probing the president's reasoning, Lauer and so many others missed a valuable moment to explore racial justice issues and racial profiling more generally. It's interesting how Lauer -- and many other journalists -- repeatedly pointed to Obama's admission that he did not know the facts of the case. True enough, Obama did say that, twice. And the second time, Obama added a very important point: The history of disproportionate arrests and racial profiling by police in this country "casts suspicion even when there is good cause" for arrest. That's where I take issue with Lauer, not with his quoting the police report. (Any decent journalist knows not to trust the police report, but that's different from quoting it.) In a story and moment like this, it's a journalist's responsibility to dig into the broader issues, not resort to some sort of "he said, she said" false balance in reporting.

Sally

Dori J. Maynard wrote:

Hi Sally,Oops, the "you" was meant to be the collective you, not the specific you as in you, Sally Lehrman. I agree with you that it's not accurate to think that all white people believed the police account --that's clear just from looking at the conversation about this on my Facebook page. But I do think it is accurate to say that to some extent people's reactions about this did break down around racial fault lines. Why that might be is something that I think Lauer could have spent more time discussing. That conversation, the one I think both Michaels wanted to have, is one that might have actually helped the American public understand the impetus behind Obama's words. It's the bigger picture that often fuels our individual acts, as I think was true of Obama's comments, along with almost everyone else's actions involved in this case. My problem with Lauer quoting the police report without a response is that he made it appear as if everyone agreed with the facts as stated in the report. Gates immediately, and very publicly, challenged the report, something I think Lauer was journalistically required to mention. As you said, every journalist knows not to trust the police report. The same is true for many people of color. By not acknowledging the conflicting accounts, Lauer both lost credibility with members who knew that Gates disputed the official chain of events. He also did a disservice to the members of his audience who rely on him for the full picture of what is going on in the world. That doesn't mean he had to give a "he said - she said." He could have simply slipped in a mention of the fact that Gate's refutes portions of the report. While I admit I do tend to start my day watching the Today Show, I'm not so naive as to expect it to be the last world on the day's events. But I do believe it has something of an obligation to give me enough fact and nuance to have some real understanding about what is happening around me.

Djm

Dori, There certainly could be some interesting fault lines perspectives to discuss when it comes to interactions with the police -- from the point of view of race, of course, and also geography and class. Gender, too, in light of complaints about the way that sexual assault crimes are often handled. But to me, that's not the story here. It would have made more sense to follow up with Dyson when he pointed out the frustration felt by "all Americans" that something must be done to reverse the problem of police profiling of black and brown men and the unequal application of suspicion and arrests. Instead Lauer, without any evidence, went so far as to assume that the police officer, who gives trainings on the matter, would not agree with that statement. Maybe it's clear that the officer did not agree on the circumstances of Gates' arrest, but who knows what he thinks about the criminalization of black and brown men? Did any journalist think to ask? This is a great example of journalists cultivating divisions on race issues in the U.S. that may not even exist. It's a racial sort of "he said, she said" that serves no one. It's one reason why we find it so hard to talk about race as a nation.Lauer certainly should have done more to explain Gates' perspective than to make a generic reference to "accusations of racial profiling." But to make the time for that, he could have spent a lot less time on the circumstances of the arrest and more on delving into why a black man arrested while trying to enter his own home might consider the situation racial profiling.Got to feed a hungry Saint Bernard.Sally