Chapter 10: Failure to Follow Facts: Short Falls in News Media Practices That Inhibit Abatement of Institutional Racism in the United States

Mainstream news media coverage of the 2018 arrest of two African-American men inside a Starbucks restaurant and the 2016 protest by an African-American professional football player revealed failings in news coverage cited in the seminal Kerner Commission report issued in March 1968. Those news coverage failings inhibited public understanding of volatile dynamics of institutional racism driving the 2016 protest and the 2018 arrest. Those failings undercut the constitutional Press Freedom Right mandate of the news media to provide information to the public and serve as a watchdog on power. That 1968 Kerner report had criticized news media deficiencies in coverage regarding African-Americans. That report faulted the news media for having “not communicated to whites a feeling for the difficulties and frustrations” of being black in the United States. Despite commendable implementation of Kerner recommendations to increase employment opportunities for African-Americans and integrate “Negro activities into all” facets of media presentation” from commentary to comic strips, blind spots in coverages on “being black” in America remain. Those “blind spots” exist in news media coverage practices in traditional print, broadcast and now digital platforms. This commentary examines the continuing failure of mainstream media to listen and learn.