Ferguson Brings Out Worst In Cable News
The long day of build-up to the grand jury verdict in Ferguson, Mo., and its aftermath brought out the worst in cable news, from partisan scorekeeping to chaotic images with very little context. Ferguson — and the decision not to indict officer Darren Wilson in the killing of Michael Brown — hardly marks the first instance of a high-profile and tragic killing of an African-American youth, following the Florida shooting of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman. But it continues a trend of Fox News Channel and MSNBC immediately retreating to their ideological corners, while CNN – despite seeking to remain even-handed – again fell into its more lamentable habits, filling time for hours with a “Breaking News†headline that became increasingly absurd the longer the channel went without any additional news. On Fox News, Sean Hannity’s had a cozy chat with former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, there to push his familiar pro-law-and-order mantra, having already triggered anger in some quarters for comments he made the day before regarding black-on-black crime on “Meet the Press.†That’s our Rudy: eternally tone-deaf.
