This might seem like a minor quibble. It is not. As a newsperson, I’m sure you understand that framing is everything. Our initial impression of an event colors everything that follows. Because of this, nobody accused of a crime should have to wait 10 paragraphs — ten! — for their version of the story to enter the picture painted by a news article. That principle is universal, but in a country whose criminal justice system routinely targets and convicts Black people without just cause, I would think a responsible news organization would be doubly careful about this problem of initial framing when the accused is Black. I realize it is a vexing problem these days for news organizations to figure out how to cover bullshit without amplifying it. The Guardian failed in that task today. Simply reordering the paragraphs of a story would have prevented that failure.
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