"Jena 6" News Coverage Called "a Disgrace."
October 24, 2007
Craig Franklin. a reporter from Jena, Louisiana, blasts the national media's coverage of the Jena 6 affair in a piece for the Christian Science Monitor. Franklin, who says he may be the only reporter who has covered the Jena 6 story from the very beginning, declares that he has "never before witnessed such a disgrace in professional journalism."
What caught my eye were not only the disputed facts of this case but the line about journalists being seduced by a powerfully appealing but false narrative…
Beyond whatever the truth is in the Jena 6 case, what Franklin alleges does in fact happen too frequently in the news business. Fact checking falls of a cliff because the story line sounds right or because a stereotype seemed to be met or because some big newspaper did the story. Richard Jewell is another example of this. There are lots of them. Left and Right are both suckered by stereotypes or by something that sounds right.
Speaking of getting suckered, The New Republic, one of the most influential liberal magazines inside the beltway, has another mess on its hands. The New Republic's so-called "Baghdad Diarist", Scott Thomas Beauchamp, an Army private turned war correspondent, is reported to have made up some things about alleged atrocities committed by U.S. soldiers in Iraq.
This sort of thing happened before at The New Republic, when writer Stephen Glass was caught making things up.
If you want to see a horror film for editors, or would enjoy watching big media types squirm mightily, rent Shattered Glass, about the Stephen Glass affair at TNR. It's well done and quite enjoyable.
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