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Equal parts outrageous and sad.
Desperate for some footage to accompany a story about a shooting, CBS Chicago interviewed nearby neighborhood children to get sound bites and reaction. The video first shows the segment as it aired, then the full footage. Note that the first child interviewed is only four years old.
In the footage that airs, the clip ends with the four-year-old saying “I’m gonna have me a gun!” After another child reacts to the violence, the anchor does a head-shaking, pseudo-remorseful “that is very scary indeed” that would put Jack Aerneke to shame.
As the upload on YouTube shows and is apparent by the fact that in the aired clip you can hear the beginning of the reporter’s follow-up question (nice editing, folks), the child wants to be a police officer.
Child: “I’m gonna have me a gun!”
Reporter: “Why do you want to do that?”
Child: “I’m gonna be the police!”
Reporter: “Oh, that’s okay then!”
So what could have been a moment of brief respite, with the idea that this violence is possibly laying the foundation for this child to pursue a dream in law enforcement or somehow fight back against the criminal element in his community, is twisted and distorted to make it look like this innocent four-year-old is a little gangbanger in training.
I wish I was surprised that any news organization would stoop to this level, but the mantra has become that ratings are ratings and sales are sales. This is the sort of thing that happens when you compromise things like journalistic ethics and higher standards for the sake of numbers. Many newsrooms of various media would give no shortage of excuses (“the state of the industry made me do it!”) or cry “logical fallacy” at the inference of a slippery slope. But it’s not a slope, it’s a dam. Putting entertainment and narrative ahead of truth and journalism in any way puts a crack in that dam, and eventually that leak becomes a flood.
And we’re the ones left drowning in misinformation and an almost cartoonish disregard for standards and decency. This was inexcusable, but it was not isolated, and any outfit presenting itself as a news organization – regardless of the form it takes or its presentation – needs to be held to a much higher standard.
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Local readers will note that in the beginning there’s mention of “South Albany” – there’s a lot of fun connections between New York’s capitol and the pride of Illinois. There’s also an Albany Park neighborhood which has a street named…Troy.
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9 Responses to CBS Chicago words of 4-year-old to make him look like an aspiring gang-banger
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STALK ME
Coming from CBS2 Chicago this is not surprising in the least. In a town where the media is generally pretty awful, they are always the sleaziest of the bunch.
To borrow an idea from CBS Chicago, let me fix your statement.
“The idea that this violence is possibly laying the foundation for this child to pursue a dream in law enforcement or somehow fight back against the criminal element in his community, is twisted and distorted”.
Is it really that better a world where the kid equates guns with police? That he either wants to be a policeman to get the gun, or that this young mind places so much value on the gun aspect of the profession that his internal thought order is (1) gun, (2) be a policeman.
Irony Police – He comments on the gun first because he’s asked if he’s going to stay away from guns by the reporter. “No,” he answers. “I’m going to have my own gun.” Then, in a follow-up, he says because he’s going to be police. The order – gun, then police – was dictated by the interviewer, who is in charge of the conversation, and not the child. This is the mind of a four-year-old being asked a series of questions in front of a camera. How he says things is not going to be meaningful and shouldn’t be read too much into, no matter how much more honest and forthright it may be. Maybe if he was a little older, but not at 4 years old.
This is just plain WRONG. Thanks for bringing this to everyone’s attention.
Irony Police,
Fair-ish point on the surface. But please understand also that many low-income areas are littered with illegal firearms in relation to illegal trades people without legitimate employment sometimes pursue. So lots of young folks in these neighborhood live in a more pervasive gun culture than a kid whose parent hunts seasonally. That gun culture may also espouse different values related to guns than some hunting households. Put that all together with a 4-YEAR OLD(!!) just having witnessed gun violence where the only folks around for the press to talk to are children. All told, I think the idea of positively associating police as an antagonist to violence, unlawful behavior, and chaos is incredibly sane regardless of what violence it may assert as potential solution.
Bottom line, good for the kid. He’s got a clear idea of which side of the law he wants to be on. And he’s proactive about it and up-front about confronting violence and crime. Good for him.
There is bias and subjectivity in most news stories — just some people do it with more subtlety than others.
Whew! You set my mind at ease because now I’m going to believe that every dumb quote out of a politician or public figure’s mouth has been scandalously edited. That kind of denial will let me sleep easier.
You mean the media will occasionally edit things to sound scandalous?!
Hogwash, I say!!
“If guns are outlawed, only 4 year olds will have guns….film at 11…”