Another hopeful sign for Jacksonville: the local media’s pathetic bias is becoming evident to readers and viewers.
See this piece from News4Jax.
To begin with, this is not an investigation. The Florida Highway Patrol compiled the database, in an effort to be transparent. Also, the FHP inspector general already had analyzed the data and concluded that the data showed no bias by troopers.
All the reporter did was sift through the figures provided.
He concluded that more people with a certain skin color commit traffic offenses.
Why that should matter to the station’s viewers is not clear.
If he had done an investigation he would have tried to determine why those people commit more offenses, and whether it is related to their skin color, if that is even possible.
Also, how many are left-handed? Or what political party do they belong to?
Police officers who stop people for traffic offenses don’t know any of these things. All they know is that the person is speeding, running a red light or doing something else prohibited by law.
Is the reporter suggesting that people should be exempt for punishment for those offenses if they have a certain color skin?
It is all a mystery. It seems the reporter was trying to make a point, using information collected by the highway patrol and publicly available, but what and why isn’t clear. Also, why did editors allow such a piece to run?
The most important part about the story is the comments. Read them.
The viewers were not fooled.
One typical comment: “Propaganda disguised as journalism, distorting the truth by twisting how facts are presented. What makes this propaganda is that facts are cherry picked and skewed to paint a predefined narrative. Just look at the difference in “journalism” when they go out of their way to not identify certain criminals over others, redirect blame for violent crime in the city by focusing it on the Police and never the criminal or culture. It’s astounding how the “reporting” only goes one way and that way is telling you what to think.”
The media should either eliminate its bias or do a better job of hiding it. They might be surprised to find that objective journalism is popular with readers and viewers.
