Today in Cincinnati, Hamilton County prosecutor Joe Deters announced University of Cincinnati police officer, Ray Tensing, had been indicted on murder charges for the "senseless" killing of Sam Dubose.
In a remarkable press conference, the likes of which I and most observers have never seen, Deters compassionately expressed his heartbreak for the Dubose family and assailed Tensing for both his incompetence as a police officer and the horror of his act:
Ray Tensing should never have been a police officer ... Sam Dubose did nothing violent. He wasn’t dealing with someone who was wanted for murder. He was dealing with someone who didn’t have a front license plate. This was, in the vernacular, a pretty chicken-crap stop.
[...]
It's just horrible ... when you see [the video], you won't believe how quickly he shoots him in the head.
After the press conference, it was clear to everyone which of these two individuals was the perpetrator, and which was the victim. It was also clear, at least to the Dubose family's counsel, that a central factor which contributed to the senseless murder of Dubose was racism.
Which brings us to how major media outlets chose to break this story online of Tensing's murder indictment. While they mostly got the story right, how they chose to visually represent each man in the aftermath of Deter's press conference is stunning.
Not surprising, mind you, but stunning nonetheless. Here is a look at how NBC initially broke this story, using a mug shot for Dubose and a smiling, professional image for the murderer:
Immediately, people reacted with horror at the dehumanizing image used for the murdered victim, and the more-than-humanizing photograph used to represent the cold-blooded killer. Rigel Robinson was one of those who noticed the racism bleeding from NBC's Tweet, which inspired him to "
do better" on their behalf:
Unfortunately, NBC wasn't the only outlet to make a monstrous choice with regard to their imagistic representations of each party. Witness
CNN:
Receiving a similar level of backlash, CNN decided to change its image choices on its next update, once Tensing's mug shot had been procured:
The institutional racism which leads—among so many other things—to black men and women being murdered by white police officers is sick, and must be countered in all corners, including in mainstream press.
That such racism was subtly propped up by media outlets in the wake of this story? Outlets which have a responsibility to expose endemic racism in our country, and a social role in fighting it?
I have no words.
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David Harris-Gershon is author of the memoir What Do You Buy the Children of the Terrorist Who Tried to Kill Your Wife?, recently published by Oneworld Publications.