Media Coverage and the L.A. Riots

The sources consulted for this study indicate clearly that there was substantial bias in the coverage of the rioting. That bias involved reporters' assignments, the power over who wrote the words of the stories filed, the description of the rioting and its participants, and, most importantly, an almost total absence of meaningful analysis of the deeper socioeconomic issues which gave rise to the rioting.

Ishmael Reed, in Airing Dirty Laundry, posits the theory that the media is rife with subtle and not-so-subtle racial bias in general, and that this bias emerged blatantly during the riots:

My comments about the Los Angeles riots . . . include observations that were not made by the number of op-ed pieces that blamed the whole thing on blacks (Joe Klein's Newsweek carried the incendiary cover BLACK VS. WHITES). Very few media outlets commented about white participation in the riots. The media successfully squeezed this complex social catastrophe into their flat and lazy White Hats/Black Hats perspective (Reed xiii).

Reed's argument is supported by the other sources consulted for this study. Reed argues in the paragraph above and elsewhere that much such stereotyping is indeed

. . .
erences to a 'rebellion' were changed by an editor to civil disturbances" (Fitzgerald 20). These complaints are not frivolous, but instead go to the heart of the issues of power and socioeconomic differences which led to the rebellion in the first place. Those in power who adjudged the police officers not guilty were white. The police officers were white. Finally, those who decide what stories go out through the media, and how those stories are written, and the slant and wording and intent of those stories, are white, while the reporters sent into the rioting are black. One fascinating aspect of the rioting and the roles and attitudes of media reporters is examined by Stephanie O'Neill in "Get the Hell Out of Here!" from Columbia Journalism Review. O'Neill writes that both white and black reporters were victims of the rioting, some being robbed, others being beaten. While one white reporter notes that he wanted to kill his attackers, a black reporter is able to keep in mind the deeper causes of the rioting: Some of the reporters who were chased or beaten express sympathy for their attackers; others don't. Haywood Galbreath . . . is one of several African-American journalists who were targeted by rioters. Galbreath was sh
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2034
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)

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