New York
CNN
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News organizations across the country faced a dilemma Friday evening when Memphis police released video showing the brutal police beating of Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, following a traffic stop.
The ethical question facing newsrooms: how should they balance the need for public transparency while also exercising caution in airing disturbing footage that captured acts of violence that would ultimately lead to murder charges against five police officers?
On Friday evening, major television news networks opted to air the violent footage of the encounter that has sparked an outpouring of anger and roiled the city of Memphis, with news anchors warning their audiences about the graphic nature of the footage they were about to see.
“This will not be easy for anyone,” CNN anchor Erin Burnett said before playing the footage for the network’s audience. “As we have said, it is graphic and brutal and you should know that if you choose to watch it.”
But, Burnett stressed that CNN felt it was a matter of “great public importance” for the world to see.
In addition to airing the footage, news anchors described in clear-eyed terms to viewers what the video showed. At times, journalists grew emotional. NBC News reporter Antonia Hylton, for instance, broke down live on air covering the story.
“Sorry, I have been covering this all day and I thought I could get through the whole day without getting emotional about it,” Hylton said.
The footage, which drew comparisons to the infamous video that captured the gruesome beating of Rodney King in 1991, aired across the big three broadcast networks, in addition to CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News.
Margaret Sullivan, a columnist for the Guardian and the Egan Visiting Professor at Duke University’s DeWitt Wallace Center for Media and Democracy, told CNN that news outlets must be prudent while making decisions on coverage.
“To the extent possible, the news media should give people the opportunity to see at least portions of it and give them the opportunity not to see it — or for parents and guardians to withhold it from children if they deem appropriate,” Sullivan said.
Sullivan added, “I would err on the side of showing the public what happened — of course with due warnings about its…
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