The Media is Not Your Partner!
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It is Journalism 101 and it is one of the first things good J-School professors teach their students. The media is not an arm or a partner of law enforcement.
In Tulsa, the media says that the police seemed to be targeting the media at protests, as much as they are targeting the protestors.
Tulsa Police Chief Wendell Franklin says that is not true and then said this, “We're not trying to target the media. We have used the media to our advantage throughout this,” Franklin said during a Tulsa World virtual town hall. “I've already talked about the media being our partner in law enforcement, and what we're trying to do, what I'm trying to do, as we try to show transparency in our department.”
The police chief is not a Journalist, if he is using the Journalist to the department’s advantage, then shame on the Journalists.
If the Journalist is the department’s “partner” then someone needs to be fired.
Your job is to report and document what is going on, you are not an arm of the police. A Journalist is not on anyone’s side, they are there to document the story and do so without bias.
Seeing a tweet like this from WZTV (Nashville) Anchor Stacey Case and it shows how some Journalists do not understand their job:
I’m sorry, but it is not Case’s job to bring looters to justice.
If you want to be a cop, go to the academy. If you want to protest, grab a sign and start marching.
But as a Journalist, you should know that you can’t be either-or. Your job is to report, give all sides and tell your viewers what happened.
A true Journalist is impartial and is there to write the first draft of history.
Despite what the Tulsa Police Chief thinks.
Somehow the role of a Journalist is getting lost right now.
