Anti-police activists and sympathetic reporters often complain — rightly, in some cases — about an over-reliance on police sourcing in stories involving police shootings or alleged misconduct.
But they are more than happy to rely entirely on the official police account when reporting a detail that supports the officer’s course of action. In that case, the cop-skeptical reporter will cite law-enforcement officials rather than doing further reporting that might confirm their account. By ensuring that the exonerating detail comes from a fellow cop, the reporter nudges his readers toward skepticism.
This NPR report published Tuesday night is a classic of the genre, in that it relies entirely on Columbus chief of police Michael Woods’s description of body-camera footage showing the shooting of 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant, rather than simply describing the contents of the video.
“Woods said the video shows Bryant holding a knife as she pushes two girls. He said police believe she is attempting to stab both girls during the fight.” (Emphasis added).
And, as the article notes, Woods explained what was on the tape after showing the footage to a room full of reporters, so it’s not as if they were forced to rely on his account.
So, rather than simply reporting that Bryant was holding a knife at the moment she was shot (as is obvious to anyone who views the freeze-frame body-camera images proliferating online) or asking bystanders, one of whom could presumably confirm that fact, NPR is content to leave that detail in the mouths of police officers as a subtle hint to readers that it should be met with skepticism. It’s a rather short-sighted plan, though. What happens if a particularly adventurous NPR reader decides to watch the footage himself?