According to a report from watchdog and lobbying group Media Matters, television stations in New York cover crimes featuring Black suspects disproportionately. The report revealed that Black suspects were featured in coverage at a far higher rate than the actual occurrence of the crimes that group was arrested for historically.
The report was published Monday morning (Mar. 23) and featured the findings of a four-month study of TV coverage in 2014. Between August 18 and December 31, Media Matters analyzed the coverage of so-called Black crime on the four major networks. Between the networks, WCBS, WNBC, WABC, and WNYW, WABC showed the highest number of Black suspects involved in crimes while WNYW showed the least.
More from Media Matters:
In stories where race could be identified, the percentage of African-American suspects in murders, thefts, and assaults covered by WCBS, WNBC, WABC, and WNYW (Fox) was well above the percentage of African-American suspects who have been arrested for those crimes in New York City. According to averages of arrest statistics from the New York City Police Department (NYPD) for the past four years, African-American suspects were arrested in 54 percent of murders, 55 percent of thefts, and 49 percent of assaults. However, between August 18 and December 31, 2014, the suspects in the four stations’ coverage of murders were 74 percent African-American, the suspects in coverage of thefts were 84 percent African-American, and suspects in assaults were 73 percent African-American.
Media Matters also found that New York isn’t the only city who practiced disproportionate reporting as Pittsburgh news outlets also have a record of doing so.
As noted in the report, this manner of coverage could come across has biased and have overall effect in how people of color are seen in society.
Click here to see the report in full.
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