When Police and Journalists Become “Media Partners”
By Prof. James F. Tracy
Global Research
December 10, 2014
Close to three weeks have passed since the mass shooting incident at Florida State University where three individuals were injured and Attorney Myron May perished in a hail of police gunfire.
Major news media consider the FSU shooting more or less a closed case. After all, journalists appear to have been spoon-fed a story that includes its own sort of “The End” moment. A madman with a gun showed up in a public place. Terrified witnesses were interviewed and their fearful testimony publicized. The shooter’s bizarre online statements were duly noted. Then, official pleas for “unity,” “strength,” and “healing” were unquestioningly parroted, and less than two days later the entire affair was capped off with a photo op candlelight vigil.
With the notion of a full scale, coordinated media production in mind, it should be unsurprising that law enforcement and news media now consider themselves to be “partners” in such a tragedy’s public presentation. A November 21 press statement from Tallahassee Police Public Affairs Officer David Northway to select news media reads:
As the investigation into the tragedy at FSU continues, the Tallahassee Police Department is releasing the original report written on the night of the event. This report is short in nature as it was written to be a “starting point” as the crime scene was very large and the multiple officers on scene that evening had many duties, including identifying victims, evacuating the students and maintaining scene security …
TPD would like to thank our media partners for their patience with the incident, in particular releasing the identity of the victims. This has allowed TPD to conduct interviews with some of them and begin to piece the facts of the case together.
The Rest…HERE
