CNN was dragged over the coals Monday for its report on the first day of trial of the first of six defendants for the death of Baltimore drug dealer Freddie Gray.
Some people were upset that CNN chose to report the facts.
In the original report, CNN writers Ann O’Neill and Aaron Cooper described Gray as “the son of an illiterate heroin addict.”
It didn’t take long before people began crying foul.
Lauren Galik, director of Criminal Justice Reform at the Reason Foundation tweeted:
CNN…really? https://t.co/kA92JOjL1x pic.twitter.com/juGp9AGrfE
— Lauren Galik (@lauren_galik) November 30, 2015
Others soon joined the chorus, including this one:
@lauren_galik @SabrinaSiddiqui Classic delegitimizing of someone & people with a grief. Oh, his father was an addict… Classic propaganda — Chase Winter (@chaseawinter) November 30, 2015
Excuse me, but it’s not propaganda if it’s true; it’s simply a fact.
Galik also objected to CNN’s reference to Gtay’s lengthy arrest record.
In the same CNN article: #journalism #CNN pic.twitter.com/Q4GtEMnKOB
— Lauren Galik (@lauren_galik) November 30, 2015
Although Gray was only 25 at the time of his death, he managed to rack up at least 19 drug-related charges, ranging from possession, to distribution to the manufacture of narcotics. All of which may be explained, in part, by having a mother who was “an illiterate heroin addict.”
Another CNN reporter tweeted:
@mehtatheory @lauren_galik that line has been corrected. And for the record, I did not write it. — Miguel Marquez (@miguelmarquez) December 1, 2015
Corrected? There was nothing to correct — everything CNN reported in its original story was true. All CNN did was to delete some of the facts.
It’s another case of the tail wagging the dog.
Are Gray’s arrest record — or that of his mother — relevant to the guilt or innocence of the six Baltimore law enforcement officers who are charged with his death? Absolutely not.
But a media outlet isn’t a court of law, and should not be held to the same rules of evidence that are used in a criminal trial.
The media’s purpose is to report the facts — plain and simple.
The late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan once said, “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts.”
If the complainers want a different set of facts, they’re going to have to find a different Freddie Gray.
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