CBS 2 Manipulates Video of 4-Year-Old

A news story run by WBBM-TV on June 29 is receiving criticism for the way the video in the story was edited.

The story on a shooting in the Park Manor neighborhood that injured two children, ran with video of a four-year-old boy who said that he "wasn't scared of nothing" and that when he grew up, he was "gonna have me a gun." Former morning anchorman Steve Bartelstein said the footage was scary

What CBS 2 didn't run were follow-up comments from the boy in which he said he was going to have a gun because he was going to grow up to be a cop. This deliberate manipulation of the video, taking the boy's comments out of context, is a gross violation of the most basic of journalism ethics. Not to mention that the way the video was edited seemed to criminalize the boy and perpetuate negative stereotypes of men and boys of color in the media.

The Maynard Institute for Journalism Education posted the original CBS 2 story, followed by raw footage of the excised comments from the boy and comment from NAACP President Ben Jealous, raising further questions about the video, including whether WBBM had the boy's parents' permission and saying that "when you tell half the truth, you're, in effect, lying."

(Video Credit: Maynard Institute for Journalism Education)

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By Chuck Sudo in News on August 1, 2011 10:34 AM

Comments [rss]

Patricio "Aggie" Aguilar

Guns can kill, no matter whose hands they're in. 13 years old... 35 years old... 6 years old (Flint, Michigan)... Thus, as the police, there's really no choice.

However, I think there was something lost by the edit, in that the 4 year-old did have a genuine point. It really could have turned a bad event into somewhat of a happy story by essentially backing up the cops that risk their lives day in and day out. "I'm gonna be the police..." from a 4 year-old is touching.

On another note, I'm not quite sure what the NAACP has to do with anything in this situation. It seems like they're, yet again, making a race issue out of thin air when their really isn't anything brought up about race AT ALL. I think about it this way... Close your eyes ("see it as a blind person") and then listen to it. I don't believe there's anything said about any race until the NAACP gets in and says "NAACP".

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
-Martin Luther King Jr.

(This 4 year-old kid seems to be showing character.)

Mimihaha

On the flipside, know what's equally as bad? That 13 year old that was shot 8 times by police last week.

Actually, that's not equally as bad. That's horrendous. He had a BB gun. He didn't need to be shot 8 times.

ChicagoD

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. If the picture I saw of the gun is the actual gun there would have been absolutely no way to know that it was a BB gun without inspecting it. He's extraordinarily fortunate he's not dead.

TheUltimateCurmudgeon

On the flipside, know what's equally as bad? That 13 year old that was shot 8 times by police last week for pointing a BB gun at them was shown in a cropped photo by some news outlet, to just show his face. The media portrayed him as this good kid, the parents portrayed him as some good kid, As and Bs in school, yet he was in sixth grade at 13 years old.

Curious what they cropped out of the photo? Oh, just the 13 year old with a blunt in one hand and the Vice Lords gang sign with the other hand. The kid later confessed to having the BB gun, and to shooting out windows.

I agree with you 100% about the video above.

ChicagoD

What's funny is that you know what the uncropped photo looks like because (a) the family released it to the media (!) and (b) the media ran it uncropped in the morning. Glad to know that every kid who grew up in the city can spot people throwing signs, but the family doesn't see a problem with it, and the "local" media doesn't understand what they're looking at.

The good thing is he should be able to drive the high school when he's a freshman . . .

magooisim

so... it's not only fox that lies to us?

ChicagoD

Wow. Never let the truth stand in the way of a good story. By the way, there is really nothing of value a four-year-old can bring to a story about a drive-by shooting. At all.