Thread by @thrasherxy

1. There’s been a media reckoning of the Uvalde PD, but only bc the horrors of that case led to natl scrutiny.

But copaganda goes on unquestioned.

Here’s a line-by-line breakdown of a routine example from yesterday by @SamBaderNews @CameronKiszla @KTLA ktla.com/news/local-new…

2. We will start by examining the tweet @KTLA sent out (the very same day even copagandist national news reported knew the UPD was lying) invoking the Ontario PD. Note:

✔️ “ended with their death” = passive langauge

✔️ “police said” = are the police the only source?

3. The lede: "At least one Ontario Police Department officer opened fire on a person, killing them after a pursuit that ended in Pomona."

OK, at least there's active language, but notice "killing them" comes after abstract "opened fire on a person."

But how do we know this?🚩

4. "The pursuit began at about 7:37 p.m., when police tried to execute a traffic stop near Mission Boulevard and Magnolia Avenue, according to Cpl. Lee of the OPD."

🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩

UH OH. Our first source is the police. The party who did the killing (possibly a homicide)

🚩🚩🚩🚩

5. Who is Cpl. Lee? Does he have a first name?

Since someone was killed (who???), why are we hearing first from the agency who killed them?

Is Cpl. Lee going to be the only source in this story?

🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩

6. "The vehicle failed to yield, and the pursuit traveled through Montclair and into Pomona, where the driver collided with a civilian vehicle, Lee said.

The driver then left their car and at least one officer opened fire."

Again, why is the only source Lee, the cop?

🚩🚩🚩

7. "Lee did not detail what led up to the shooting, how many officers fired their weapons, how many bullets were fired or how many times the person was struck."

🛑 STOP 🛑

The only source so far "did not detail what led up to the shooting"—then WHY is this a NEWS story?!

8. "The subject of the pursuit was pronounced dead, though it remains unclear if they were pronounced dead at the scene or if they were taken to a hospital." Note:

✔️ "was pronounced dead" = passive

✔️ "it remains unclear" 🛑 STOP ! Your job is to FIND OUT what's unclear!

9. The kicker: "No officers were hurt, and it remains unclear if the driver of the civilian vehicle was injured in the crash." Wait, what? That's the "news story"?

✔️ How/why do we know "no officers were hurt"?

✔️ "it remains unclear if the driver" was injured? How? Why?

10. The entire "story" is just 165 words, and took two bylines?

What @SamBaderNews @CameronKiszla and @KTLA have done is not just copaganda, it's journalistic malfeasance. I'll lay out what they did wrong, then explain what's going on systemically.

11. @ktla could cover anything in LA. But they put two journalists, @SamBaderNews and @CameronKiszla, on this, while failing:

✔️ to get more than one source

✔️ to talk to anyone other than the killer's employer

✔️ to find out who died

✔️ to identify the cop who shot

12. They failed to find:

✔️ a single witness from near Mission Boulevard and Magnolia Avenue,

✔️ a single witness who saw the deceased when they crashed into a civilian vehicle

✔️ the person who owned the civilian vehicle that was crashed into (were they a witness?)

13. They failed to find:

✔️ "what led up to the shooting, how many officers fired their weapons, how many bullets were fired or how many times the person was struck"

✔️ who pronounced the victim dead or "if they were pronounced dead at the scene or—taken to a hospital."

14. So, to recap, @ktla assigned 2 journos, @SamBaderNews @CameronKiszla, to write abt a very serious matter—a person was killed— who only used 165 words, interviewed one source (the agency of the killer), didn't report where or when the death happened & interviewed no witnesses.

15. This isn't "news," so what's going on?

In the Chomsky/Herman Propaganda Model, this is filter Three: A reliance on official sources.

16. I expressed my rage at @brianstelter this week, who acted like media have a passive role in what "facts" circulate, rather than interrogating how journalists turn to police as the sole "reliable sources" and CREATE a this problem

https://twitter.com/brianstelter/status/1529910650574602240

17. As usual, @PatBlanchfield said it better than me. Police are not "reliable sources." NO ONE should be a sole source for ANY story! If a student turned in a single source story, I'd return it for revisions. Our job is find things out, not be parrots!!!

https://twitter.com/PatBlanchfield/status/1529936091415035917?s=20&t=tqeddxvYuCJgqtHra8LtSg

18. What happened in Uvalde is horrific. But as @The_Law_Boy wrote last night, the police lies are quite ordinary. They only collapsed under national scrutiny & the weight of 19 dead children and 2 dead teachers (God rest their souls).

https://twitter.com/The_Law_Boy/status/1530277957532532736?s=20&t=FLDtsa9GKmexrMyRV0BwFg

19. Let's return to the person killed this week by the Ontario PD.

✔️ Who were they?

✔️ How and when did they die?

✔️ Who was the officer who shot them dead?

✔️ Was there anyone in the crashed car? Who were there? Are they OK?

✔️ WHY did they die? Was it "justified?"

20. When the state executes someone (without charges, trial, jury or appeal), these are important questions! @KTLA @CameronKiszla @SamBaderNews didn't only fail to answer them — they used news media as COVER to keep such questions from ever BEING asked in service of the police.

21. Indeed, @juliegoldberg. From charge to execution, it takes an average of 15 years. The suspect would not have been sentenced to death for running from cops. But @KTLA has engaged in copaganda justifying on sight execution, w/o doing any REPORTING!

https://twitter.com/juliegoldberg/status/1530561712272941056?s=20&t=wbRAYN-6p6jLRJ3zo1HG3g

22. To wrap up for now: Got to hear @equalityAlec speak yesterday & 2 things stayed w me: Our jobs as professional curious ppl (researchers, scientists, journos) is to ask important questions. Not to be on the sidelines. What's the point it not?!

https://twitter.com/thrasherxy/status/1530291489745604609?s=20&t=FLDtsa9GKmexrMyRV0BwFg

23. Also, copaganda gets us to be afraid of a narrow set of things.

Here @KTLA @SamBaderNews @CameronKiszla want us to be afraid of...the person killed? And not of cops who kill 1200 ppl a year?

ON THE SAME DAY EVERYONE LEARNED THE UPD LET 21 PPL DIE?

https://twitter.com/thrasherxy/status/1530289027462615041?s=20&t=FLDtsa9GKmexrMyRV0BwFg

24. Here, there is a craft failure to ask basic questions (who, what, when, where, why) of anyone other than a single source. But that's reflected in a failure to think abt the bigger questions.

This happens in local "crime" reporting ALL THE TIME.

That's all (for now)

25. Related: The market will bear two journalists writing a 165 word “news story” that is a rewrite of a police press release, but it will not bear (even in a non-profit, public media setting) a methodical team or just 6 or 7 audio journos who get a man off death row via SCOTUS

https://twitter.com/thrasherxy/status/1530512534859563008

26. I do not publish anything until it’s ready to be ethically be published. If someone else “scoops” me with an irresponsible story, fine. Many rags ran “Tiger Mandingo” stories for months before I wrote on Michael Johnson 8 yrs ago. Ppl remember my stories, not the rags.

https://twitter.com/ajzionts/status/1530595601041309696

27. There are ethical ways to cover breaking news, and I’ve done it rarely. But generally there is no point on repeating press releases. If it’s news, it has to take as long as needed. Let hacks regurgitate. If you’re a journalist dealing w serious life and death matters,

28. Give them all the attention a life and death Matter deserves.

29. Apologies — meant to put Alt text of the screenshot of the entire story in tweet above

https://twitter.com/thrasherxy/status/1530555107150012417?s=21&t=frqXlFViICJ6NQmXVae8FA

30. Remember @Ajzionts, it is *your* name on every story you file, and readers will believe it reflects your values.

31. Another way to think about it: if there’s nothing more you can report than what’s in a press release, then it’s not “news.” There is no story. Ppl can get the info from the press release. finance.yahoo.com/news/oreo-cook…