NR West: NBC Plays the Race Card

NBC PLAYS THE RACE CARD

ON February 15, Dateline NBC broadcast a story called “The Wrong Man.” Billed as a “six-month investigation,” it purported to be an exposé of the 1992 murder conviction of Offord Lee Rollins IV, a renowned high school athlete, in Kern County, California. Rather than report the facts leading to Rollins’s conviction, Dateline NBC attempted to recast the Rollins case into a 1992 version of the O. J. Simpson case, complete with insinuations that an innocent black man had been victimized by an overzealous and likely racist female prosecutor. The attempt was reckless and the facts have backfired on NBC.

JS

About the Author

James F. Sweeney

NBC PLAYS THE RACE CARD

ON February 15, Dateline NBC broadcast a story called “The Wrong Man.” Billed as a “six-month investigation,” it purported to be an exposé of the 1992 murder conviction of Offord Lee Rollins IV, a renowned high school athlete, in Kern County, California. Rather than report the facts leading to Rollins’s conviction, Dateline NBC attempted to recast the Rollins case into a 1992 version of the O. J. Simpson case, complete with insinuations that an innocent black man had been victimized by an overzealous and likely racist female prosecutor. The attempt was reckless and the facts have backfired on NBC.