Baltimore Riots

Did national media news outlets ignore to report the initial death of Freddie Gray and the peaceful protests and merely pay attention and cover the violence in Baltimore? On April 27th, when the peaceful protests turned violent in Baltimore Fox News, CNN and MSNBC jumped on the footage. During the two days of violent riots, coverage by these networks grew 162 percent compared to when the Baltimore protests were peaceful a few days earlier. In addition, according to the Nielsen ratings “on the night of the violent protests on April 28, the ratings of all three channels surged in the key news demo...Compared with the previous Monday, CNN experienced a 574 percent increase, Fox News a 121 percent increase and MSNBC a 77 percent increase.” The

News mediums tend to focus and highlight darker stories. On CNN, the footage of the looters and fires continuously played in a montage which gave the viewers the idea that this event in Baltimore was merely negative. Furthermore, the consistent updates of injuries, arrests, and fires by news stations like CNN made the coverage an endless cycle of violence. News media consistently has focused on the negative aspects of what’s happening rather than balancing with positivity. In the case of the Baltimore riots, news media should have balanced out the violent riots with footage of community members cleaning up the city, protesting peacefully, voicing their opinions and ministers preaching nonviolence. News audiences also “love heroes, and throughout the day Monday, the heroes were marginalized in lieu of showing burned out cars and drugstores on fire.” (Cesca) Moreover, the mainstream media was criticized for using labels when describing the rioters as well as ignoring the real issue behind the riots; poverty, race and police misconduct. Fox News hose Geraldo Rivera was bombarded when he arrived in Baltimore by protestors. They expressed that they were unhappy with Fox News’s coverage of the Baltimore riots saying that they lied and ignored the peaceful protests that had occurred. MSNBC interviewed Danielle Williams, a Baltimore protestor, who expressed that “when we were out here protesting all last week for six days straight peacefully, there were no news cameras, there were no helicopters, there was no riot gear, and nobody heard us. So now that we've burned down buildings and set businesses on fire and looted buildings, now all of the sudden everybody wants to hear