On January 2nd a news article by Wonkette.com began circulating on social-media that exposed/questioned the language used by the media when it came to police misconduct. The article shined light on an incident that occurred in New York on December 23, 2014, where an ”individual” later to be identified as a member of the NYPD, physically assaulted a Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) employee.
The initial story broke on December 31st on NYDailynews.com with the title “Thug attacks female MTA employee at Bronx train station: cops (VIDEO)” were the NYPD asked for the public’s help to find the culprit. The article continued on to write a lede that said, “A hulking brute grabbed a 28-year-old MTA employee up in a bear hug at a Bronx train station, shoved her onto the platform and began choking her in an unprovoked attack – then ran away smiling…”. The rhetoric used in this sentence portrays a pretty graphic picture of what the individual looks like and what happened. However, the following day after the individual turned himself in and happened to be a “cop,” the language was cleaned up.
Following the cop turning himself in NYDailynews.com re-published the article containing a new title and lede. The new title read, “NYPD cop turns himself in for attacking female MTA employee,” where the lede was changed to “Police Officer Mirjan Lolja, 37, was suspended after the assault in which the Metropolitan Transportation Authority worker — who was on-duty and in her uniform — was allegedly put into a bear hug, thrown to the floor and choked, cops said.” The difference between the two written pieces are quite drastic in not only the words used, but also the tone and sentence structure.
For instance, when it comes to the difference between these two articles, the title has removed the word “thug” and in the re-written lede, the words “hulking brute” are taken out along with the sentence focusing more on the MTA employee. The other interesting language added to the lede was the use of the word “allegedly.” The first article presumed the individual was already guilty, but after finding out the culprit was a “cop” the article had to use “legal terms” instead of the more derogatory remarks. This type of rhetoric just goes to show that when the media is dealing with a story that revolves around a “cop,” there is a double standard that is different than dealing with a “normal individual” of society.
After Wonkette.com published their article pointing out the noticeable differences, other websites began picking up the story; one of them being AddictingInfo.org. AddictingInfo.org pointed out the same differences Wonkette.com did. However, they elaborated on an additional incident that occurred with the NYPD on November 21st of last year.
The incident on November 21st dealt with a boyfriend and girlfriend who were waiting for an elevator in a Brooklyn, New York apartment complex. After waiting for the elevator for some time, the two entered the stairway where the boyfriend was accidentally shot and killed by police who were on the stairway floor above them.
Following the shooting, the NYTimes.com published an article about the incident. The part of the article that is interesting is how the author described the shooting. “Two police officers prepared to enter the pitch-black eighth-floor stairwell of a building in a Brooklyn housing project, one of them with his sidearm drawn. At the same time, a man and his girlfriend, frustrated by a long wait for an elevator, entered the seventh-floor stairwell, 14 steps below. In the darkness, a shot rang out from the officer’s gun, and the 28-year-old man below was struck in the chest and, soon after, fell dead.”
In the previous sentence, the author chooses words like “frustrated” to describe the individuals entering the stairway, which attracts a negative connotation and completely lacks to say anything about the cop shooting the boyfriend. In fact, in a sense, the author almost treats the gun as an individual itself in how the article reads, “In the darkness, a shot rang out from the officer’s gun…” it is as if the gun fired on its own.
After reading the articles written by Wonkette.com and AddictingInfo.org, I thought it would be interesting to see how the Los Angeles Times used their rhetoric to describe the cop’s actions who initiated the police pursuit that left me the way I am today. After checking out the articles written about my family and I, the one that struck my attention the most dealt with talking about the lawsuit we filed against the city of Laguna Beach’s police department.
Some of you know we lost our lawsuit with the police department, due to California vehicle code 17004.7, (For more information, please read my blog posts 19 Years And Counting…, 21 Years And Counting… and 22 Years And Counting…). Anyway, the article printed in the Los Angeles Times stated, “In their lawsuit, the McGees alleged that [name withheld], never should have started the chase and was ‘an imminent hazard . . . to innocent citizens’ because he was on a motorcycle with a broken police radio. Although off duty and on the way to Santa Ana to have the radio fixed, [name withheld] was in uniform at the time.”
The part that I found interesting was how the newspaper wrote, “Although off duty and on the way to Santa Ana to have the radio fixed, [name withheld] was in uniform at the time.” To me, this rhetoric used emphasizes although the officer made three critical mistakes in how he was off-duty, out of his own jurisdiction and on his way to get his radio fixed, it gives credit to the officer by implying what he did was “okay” just because he was “in uniform.”
Overall, what these few examples mean is when it comes to newspaper articles written about cops or anyone in general, you must remember that regardless whether the rhetoric used tries to be objective or subjective, there is always a reason behind the words chosen. However, if the story happens to be about a cop, the media will treat it very differently than a “normal individual” in the fact that regardless of what a cop does, the media will use rhetoric to support their actions.
I highly recommend you check out the articles written by Wonkette.com and AddictingInfo.org that I referenced here, they are quite an interesting read.
Trent McGee 