ephemera

thesimplebest:

Dishonesty in the Media

Read the headline. Now read the subheadings. See the disconnect?

If not, let me clarify some things for you. Violence didn’t ‘erupt’; the protesters did not assault police in any way. Instead, police officers used unnecessary force to restrain and remove protesters and dispossess them of their own belongings. You’ll notice there are no reports listed of police officers injured—just protesters. That’s because the ‘violence’ was entirely one-sided.

If you’ve been paying attention, you’ve seen this before in coverage of the Days of Rage in the Middle East. The use of unnecessary force by those in power is covered as “Violence Erupts”, which implicates the protesters as participants in the violence. This is consistent behaviour on the part of the media, and it’s time we questioned it.

Where are the headlines that read “Police Assault Protesters”? Or how about “Police Dispossess Protesters”? Or “Police Use Force On Peaceful Demonstrators”? Those are honest headlines; they tell the story that actually happened. They indicate that those in power have taken advantage of their position to get away with behaviour that those not in power would be censured or imprisoned for.

Broken teeth and bloodied bodies are not the inevitable results of police action. Police action is not the inevitable result of protest and demonstration. The media is feeding us a false narrative of protester culpability and the inevitability of police violence.

Don’t let it blind you to what’s really happening.