Excellent to see this in Philly’s major newspaper: an at-length attack on pervasive police agency dishonesty and on the need for the media to treat police claims w far more skepticism and to demand accountability when lying is revealed.
Think of this as De-Wolfification and re-PerryMasonification of how we view policing:
Older police shows, like Perry Mason and Matlock, made the defense the hero, thus wariness of the police was a good thing.
The Wolf empire—all the L&Os and Chicago shows—takes a… diff tack.
I think the media is increasingly realizing that the police are not objective narrators of “what happened,” but rather political interest groups themselves, and ones that are facing intense, generational political pressure—and reacting accordingly.
Honestly, think this growing media skepticism—from pieces like this, to growing resistance to using terms like “police-involved shootings,” to refusing to print uncorroborated police allegations—may be the chance with the biggest long-run implications of most things we’re seeing.
Change, not chance. But also chance, I guess. But was actually being more hopeful w change.
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