It's Your Call

It’s Your Call

by

Burt Sage

“You just don’t get it, do you,” Josh said, shaking his head. “We’ve argued about this almost every day. If this journalistic malpractice continues, we’ll have another Civil War.”

“You’re tilting at a windmill,” Trevor responded. “It’s not that bad.”

Once again Josh’s concern became heated. Josh and Trevor were two young journalists who had graduated from the same Journalism school five years earlier. They had been room mates then; they now shared an apartment. Upon graduation, Trevor immediately took a job with one of the major news outlets. Josh decided to go independent, and put up his own site on the internet. Trevor has established himself as a key reporter for the outlet. Josh had struggled at first—it had been hard to get a following. But his following was now growing. His followers admired the depth and accuracy of his postings.

“I agree that the news cycle is getting shorter and shorter,” Trevor admitted. “And print media is dying. No one reads a newspaper any more. Even TV news is suffering. Now we all get our news from feeds on our cell phones. Everyone seems to be happy with what they get. At least they keep clicking.”

“But they aren’t happy,” Josh rebutted. “Poll after poll indicates the media is dividing the country into two camps—each camp only clicking on what they want to read, posts that support their particular views. And the outlets know this, so they tailor their posts to get those clicks. Yes—it is giving the customer what they want in the best tradition of capitalism. But it stifles debate, and consensus rarely emerges.”

“And you think you can change that?” Trevor scoffed.

“I can try. I have boiled my views down to three basic trends where I see journalistic malpractice. To illustrate these points, I have made up an example,” Josh said.

“This oughta be good,” Trevor sighed, and settled back to listen.

“A small city will hold an election in a few weeks,” Josh began. “One of the more hotly contested offices to be filled is the Chief of Police. One of the local newspapers, the Herald, has endorsed the incumbent. The other local newspaper, the Tribune, has endorsed the challenger. One week before the election, the City Attorney’s office releases the crime statistics for the prior year, comparing those statistics with statistics from the preceding year. The morning after the crime data is released, the newspapers publish special editions with the following headlines: Crime Rate Doubles shouts the Tribune. Sheriff Parker halves crime rate, the Herald claims.”

Josh pauses. “Surely one of them is publishing a lie, right?” he asks Trevor.

“Seems that way,” Trevor admits.

“So, let’s look at the data,” Josh says. “In the most recent year four people were murdered. In the prior year, two people were murdered. Using this data, twice as many people were murdered in the most recent year. Hence the Tribune would be right.”

“Pretty logical,” agrees Trevor.

“Over at the Herald, the publisher looked at the data differently,” continues Josh. “In the most recent year, there was one murderer who killed the four people. In the prior year, there were two murderers who each killed one person. Hence the number of murderers was cut in half. And since crimes are committed by people, the number of people committing crimes was cut in half, from two to one. Thus the Herald is correct. Right”

“Well, at least I can handle the math,” Trevor joked.

“Come on, Trevor. This isn’t a joking manner. This kind of stuff is in the majority of postings every day.”

“This kind of stuff?” Trevor interjected. “You have to be more specific than that.”

“You always were the perfect straightman,” Josh joked. “You have led me right to where I wanted to be—the three trends of journalistic malpractice. Here they are:

1. Inappropriate use of information. I define information as material that is objectively correct, as opposed to opinion and propaganda. Opinion is biased, and propaganda is purposefully incorrect.

2. Publishing opinion as fact. Opinion certainly has its place in journalism, but it should be labeled as such, and should never be a banner unless attributed.

3. Lack of verification. To me, this is the worst of the three. The publisher puts out a post without checking to see if it is factually accurate.”

“That’s a pretty good list,” admitted Trevor.

“Thanks for noticing,” said Josh. “Now, let’s see how these trends relate to my example. First of all, there is no way that any statistically significant crime rate could be established using such a small data set. Second, each has used data on murder to extrapolate to all crime. Burglaries, assaults, and others are not included.”

“In my opinion, each of the papers should have run a headline such as Attorney releases crime statistics. The data would then be published for the readers to draw their own conclusion about crime in their city. Then, on the editorial page, each paper could have given their opinion about the relative qualifications for managing crime of the two candidates.”

“I think I just listened to an excellent example of good journalism,” Trevor admitted. “You have never been so clear on your point of view. And for the most part, we are in total agreement. I think the world would be a better place, and have a better future, if this practice disappeared. But, and this is a big but, what can be done about it?”

“I am working on something, but I don’t want to end this discussion with a made up example. Here are some real life examples. For failure to verify, there are the cases of Nick Sandman and Michael Brown. Some of the media admitted their mistakes. In the case of Nick Sandman, it look a lawsuit before the mistake was acknowledged.”

“For opinion published as fact, the Administration stated ‘if you take the Covid vaccine, you will not get Covid and you will not spread it.’ That was an opinion. There was no data to back that up. Nor could there ever be. You can’t prove a negative.”

“A third example is the claim that increased concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is the cause of climate change.”

“It’s just not science,” Josh continued. “You have science when the hypothesis correctly explains previous events and predicts future events. The theories of these advocates fail to do this. You would expect to see the carbon dioxide level fall before an ice age and rise before an interglacial period. The data doesn’t show this.”

“Even more striking is the failure to predict future events. For the past 40 years or so, ever since Al Gore had his epiphany, catastrophic collapse of the worlds climate has been predicted within the next decade. Each prediction has proven incorrect or been retracted.”

Finally Trevor had a chance to comment. “You have done exactly what a good journalist would do. You researched your hypothesis, collected the data, and formed an opinion. You do realize, however, that what you have is an opinion, not a proven fact, don’t you?”

“Of course.” Josh responded. “I understand that perfectly. But it is also my opinion that something must be done. We have reached the point where voicing an opinion contrary to certain other views is actually dangerous. Who would have thought that saying something as innocuous as ‘all lives matter’ would result in someone losing their job? Opposing views used to be respected. Now they are disparaged.”

“You really care, don’t you,” Trevor added. “I mostly agree with you on everything but the urgency. Anything I can do?”

“Not right now,” Josh said. “But when the time comes, you will know.”

Looking at his watch, Trevor said, “It’s getting late, and I have a long meeting with my Chief in the morning. I better get some sleep.”

“You’re meeting your Chief tomorrow?” Josh asked, suddenly interested. “What time?”

“We start at 9:00. Why?” Trevor asked.

“Just curious,” Josh shrugged.

The nest morning Trevor and the Chief were seated at a small round table in the Chief’s office and had been hard at it for about an hour when the call came in. Reluctantly, the Chief looked at his phone to see who the caller was. Seeing it was from Kevin, their photographer, he took the call and put the phone on speaker so Trevor could hear.

“Hi, Kevin,” the Chief said. “What’s up?”

“I’m at the city park,” Kevin said excitedly. “Something big has happened. A white cop just stabbed a young black man.”

“You’re kidding,” the Chief automatically reacted.

“Nope,” Kevin replied. “Got it all on video. When I hang up, I’ll shoot you a copy.”

“Send one to Trevor, too,” the Chief said, quickly recovering from the shock of the news. “Good job. I’ll handle the posting on this end. You interview some of the witnesses, OK?”

“Is the black guy OK?” Trevor tried to ask. But the Chief had hung up.

“Hot Damn,” the Chief muttered as he went back to his desk to retrieve the video. “We get to strike another blow for racial justice. And the Sentinel will lead the way on this one. This is going to be a good ride.”

“I’ll run the verification test,” Trevor volunteered. “It could be a deep fake.”

“Can’t waste the time,” the Chief said. “It’s from Kevin, our guy, not some kid with a cell phone or some huckster. We’re going to be first with this. Do you know what that means in terms of clicks?”

“Now, I want you to prepare a followup piece with all the details, you know, the who, what, when, where, etc.” the Chief continued. “I’ll do the breaking news bulletin.”

Trevor went back to his office and opened the video on his computer. He stared in disbelief. Sure enough, a white cop had stabbed a young black man. And the young black man was Josh.

Trevor rushed into the Chief’s office and hollered, “Get someone else to do the followup. The victim is my room mate. I’ve got to go to him.” And he ran out.

There were policemen and reporters and health professionals all over the place by the time Trevor found out where the ambulance had taken Josh. He could get no information from the hospital on Josh’s condition. The only information available was on the web.

The Chief was right. His was the first report of the incident. It was a single frame selected from the video Kevin had sent. It showed the officer standing over a slumping Josh with a blood stained knife in this hand. The single banner blared AGAIN?.

Trending was not the right word to describe the flow of postings on this incident. It was explosive! Speculation ran rampant. Was the young black man dead or alive? Who was he? Why had the cop stabbed him?

Sister pieces were appearing with regularity, comparing this incident to the George Floyd incident, the Michael Brown incident, and of course pieces about systemic racism.

Hours passed while Trevor waited. He watched the video several more times, trying to understand what had happened. Each time it was the same. Josh was just sitting on a park bench holding a knife. The officer came up, there were words that he couldn’t make out, then a “No! Don’t!” from Josh, and then the stabbing. It was all over in less than three minutes. It seemed clear that the officer had stabbed Josh. But why? And why did the officer appear so surprised as Josh slumped to the ground. And why did Josh have the knife? He had never shown any interest in knives. The whole incident just made no sense.

The news when it came was bad. Josh did not survive. It was now officially a homicide. Immediately there was a clamoring for the arrest of the officer and that he be charged with murder.

It was late when Trevor finally got back to his apartment. By habit, he took the mail from the mail box and threw it on the breakfast table. Dead tired, he just crashed.

The next morning came too fast. Trevor needed a second cup of coffee to fully waken. Casually he scanned the mail. His attention was immediately drawn to the large manila envelope near the bottom of the pile. The only lettering on the envelope was his name, Trevor. There was no address, no postage. Inside was a handwritten letter from Josh, and a thumb drive. He was shaking by the time he reached the third paragraph.

Dear Trevor,

First and foremost, I apologize for not sharing my plans with you. You would have tried to stop me from doing what I had to do, and you might have succeeded. So I didn’t.

By now you know what my plan was. I was so angry and tired of reading opinion that’s now sold as fact. Being first and maximizing clicks is what the business is about these days, not factual accuracy. I had to do something.

My plan is to survive, but if I don’t, what I am leaving behind will serve the purpose well. My only regret is for the young white officer who unwittingly played the crucial role.

The city has an ordinance about brandishing weapons in a public space. So I knew that if I came to the park with a long knife, I would attract his attention. He would see the knife and ask me to either sheath it or remove myself from the park. I would decline, still showing the weapon. He would approach me and again make his demand. Again I would decline. He would then say that it was his duty to remove me from the park himself. I would say ‘Do what you have to do’.

He would then approach me with his hand out for the knife. I would stand to meet him and appear to offer the knife to him with the handle towards his right hand. He would then place his hand on the handle. As he did so, I would shout “NO! DON’T!”, place my left hand behind his right elbow, and with both my hands thrust the knife into my belly. I would then slump to the ground, leaving the officer with a blood stained knife in his hand. The scene would be long enough and noisy enough that several bystanders will have recorded the whole incident on their cell phones. Digital media, in their rush to be first and to sensationalize their posting, will select an appropriate frame and post it under the heading of “Breaking news”. Hopefully it will be as sensational as the George Floyd frame. Only later will they view the entire video. I doubt if any will notice that my left hand is behind the officer’s right elbow. You can’t deflect a blow with your hand in that position. If I wanted to deflect the blow, my left hand would have been on his right forearm or bicep—any part of his arm facing me, not a part of the arm facing away from me. This fact, the contents of the thumb drive, and this letter and similar letters now on their way, will exonerate the young officer.

By the time you read this, a dozen copies of a letter very similar to this and the thumb drive are on their way to various media outlets. A separate letter and thumbdrive have been sent to my parents. All are copies. The original letters and thumbdrive are in a safety deposit box and my parents will have the key.

The other copies of the letter and video on the thumbdrive are on their way, but have not arrived yet. I have no idea what your coverage of the incident will be, but given the history of your outlet, I strongly believe that no doubt will be cast on this being another “White cop kills black youth” example. You now know that it wasn’t. I trust that you will share this letter and the material on the thumb drive with your Chief. You asked what you could do? Do your best to see that my previous postings get as much circulation as possible.

BFF

Josh

“Damn,” the Chief said angrily. The palms of his hands were face down on his desk, his head bent down facing Josh’s letter between his hands. His whole body slumped as the significance of the evidence sank in. He looked up at Trevor, his eyes pleading for some sign as to what to do.

“You have to do something, Chief,” Trevor said. “Fox News has a copy. The police union has a copy. The fact that it was staged, that Josh cared enough about honesty in journalism to risk his life will become common knowledge. And the young officer’s family is sure to sue. You can’t just ignore it.”

Silence from the Chief.

“You have the chance to be first,” Trevor continued. “The other copies are only arriving as we speak.”

“Do you have any idea what this will do to the racial justice movement?” the Chief finally countered “Every incident of police activity in the black community will now be open to scrutiny. The guilt of the police will no longer be assumed. It will set our movement back at least a decade.”

“You might have thought about that when you made the first posting,” Trevor said. “The video and the frame that you published contained all the information you needed to correctly understand the situation—if you had only taken the time to examine them. It’s your call, Chief.”