How journalism failed Ferguson by framing Michael Brown as a villain from day one

Cody Prudhomme

As the sun stood stout in the sky over Ferguson, Missouri at just past noon on the 9th of August 2014, 12:03 PM, Michael Brown lay dead in the middle of a working class, predominantly African American neighborhood. The first of what would be thousands of hours of ongoing news coverage on the event was a tweet from a neighborhood resident.

In the months that followed, when a grand jury of 12 Missouri residents, nine white, and three black wrestled with the question of whether or not to charge officer Darren Wilson with the murder of an 18 year old black man they listened to the officer testify to his version of events for over four hours. This was far from par for the course of a typical grand jury investigation where the defendant rarely is present for questioning, but then again nothing about this case was typical. By the time it was revealed months after the shooting occurred that Officer Wilson was not to be charged with a crime for his role in the death of Michael Brown that damage to the community and race relations in Ferguson, MO was already done, damaged past the point of what ostensibly may be a point of no return. While the rest of the world watch on, the late summer of 2014 turned a small Missouri city into a real life scene from Gene Hackman’s Mississippi Burning a far cry from the progressive society we like to think of ourselves to be, and the media was responsible for helping fuel the proverbial fire every step of the way.

By examining the coverage of local and national news media outlets immediately after and in weeks/months after the shooting occurred we can see how the media failed their basic service of objectivity by presenting the shooting through a frame of conflict, more specifically playing on the negative African American stereotypes when describing Michael Brown.

Police Say Mike Brown Was Killed After Struggle for Gun in St. Louis Suburb

In this initial piece of coverage we turn to the media outlet regarded as the industry leader in the the United States, The New York Times. Published less than 24 hours after the death of Michael Brown the story is simply serving as a means of gathering facts surrounding the case and does not delve into a detailed analysis, however it was apparent that this article set the foundation for all future Time’s pieces to be framed through a lens of racial injustice. The first sentence of the article begins with “the fatal shooting of a black teenager” a point clearly moot were both officer and suspect were the same race, whether black or white. As of August 10th the publication date for the article above ,the identity of Darren Wilson, the white officer that shot Brown had not been made public, indicating a clear speculation and attempts toward fueling racial conflict through the frame of conflict, in this case black versus white.

The New York Times has often been viewed as the moral compass or old guard of news, not plagued with the same accusations of partisan biases of networks such as FOX or MSNBC and when they recklessly apply this sort of frame to the story the more vocally opinionated networks are sure to follow. Later on in the article there is a strong play on the traditional African American stereotype of lesser-intelligence and lac of formal education, Brown’s mother is quoted as saying “ Do you know how hard it was for me to get him to stay in school and graduate? You know how many black men graduate? Not many.” Outside of maybe providing insight into the emotionally devastated relatives of the victims this statement is completely counter-productive in serving to the reader that events that had taken place. From the onset of coverage as national media descended into Ferguson it did so with the intent of making Michael Brown the cog in a larger discussion of race.

New York Times defends Michael Brown Jr. 'no angel' characterization

In the weeks following the shooting as more background information came out surrounding Michael Brown the media intensified its framing of the situation as one of purely a racial conflict, not choosing to analyzing through the lens of police officer/citizen or any other less combative approach. As more was revealed about the past of the victim, major news outlets led by again The New York Times and also The Washington Post took information regarding a teenager’s love for rap music and past experimentation with marijuana and alcohol and turned what could certainly be seen as a generational coming-of-age issue and turned it into a a question of race. The most controversial of these was a quasi-obituary that coincided with the burial of Brown where within was the quote “Michael Brown, 18, due to be buried on Monday, was no angel, with public records and interviews with friends and family revealing both problems and promise in his young life”

The news media sought to delve into every facet of Brown’s life failing to accept the lethal altercation with Officer Wilson as an isolated incident that got out of hand, regardless of who the investigation would place at fault and instead painted a picture of a notorious, violent youth whose collision course with the Ferguson Police Department was inevitable. The Washington Post published rap lyrics authored by Brown detailing crime, riches, sex, and drugs and automatically applied the “black criminal” stereotype to him instead of being able to subjectively link Brown’s songs as those that closely mimic Top 40 rap of artists such as Kendrick Lamar, Nicki Minaj, Tupac Shakur, and Eminem among countless others. Freedom of Information Act records revealed that the media ran witch hunt of Michael Brown was far greater than that of those investigating the case who simply sought to determine the link between a reported convenience store robbery involving Brown and his death minutes later. In an investigation with this many moving parts, journalism did a disservice to its check and balance designed by putting pressure on government officials to absolve Officer Wilson of responsibility based on convoluted background information gathered by the press. This reckless style of Hollywood reporting was almost certainly used to further help fuel the racial violence and violent protests that were taking place in Ferguson by this point.

Ferguson Verdict Explodes Media's Lying Racial Narrative - Breitbart

On the evening of November 9th as the nation awaited the verdict of the grand jury indictment, officials in Ferguson as well as other major cities throughout the country were prepared for the worst. National Guard troops littered the streets of the 20,000 person suburb of Saint Louis ready to combat violence in the wake of a lack of an indictment against Officer Wilson, this climax built irresponsibly to a fever pitch by all forms of media large and small for the four months prior. Even as the results were being presented in a made-for-TV special, the influence of the news media on the case was blatantly obvious, revelations of grand jury findings do not call often call for a New Year’s Eve special level of production.

Most telling was the candidacy of the lead investigator Robert McCulloch, “ The most significant challenge encountered in this investigation has been the 24-hour news cycle and its insatiable appetite for something, for anything, to talk about, followed closely behind with the non-stop rumors on social media.” While there is no way to control the unpredictable trends of social media, it can not be overlooked how strongly the media attempted to manipulate this investigation by forcing investigators to allocate resources to combat rumors and speculation rather than devoting a full effort to the circumstances around the tragic death of an 18 year old.

If at the most basic level journalism is regarded as service to the people, a necessary presence in a democratic society to inform citizens, this case is a nutshell of how perilous the path we have taken is. It is not the place of journalists to strive and construct a social movement or uprising based on how they frame a story but instead report the facts and allow events to unfold from there. In a complex system of checks and balances the media failed the people of Ferguson as much as their police department of city officials did, and leaves a dangerous question unanswered. If the media is only looking for the answer they want to find and ignoring the facts, who is the balance to their majorly influential check on our society?