I guess NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt practices what he preaches. A few weeks ago, Holt said, “fairness is overrated,” and journalists don’t have to be objective.
Holt and his program came under fire after airing edited versions of the 911 call and video of the Ma’Khia Bryant shooting in Columbus, OH.
Kevin Tibbles provided the story for NBC Nightly News:
KEVIN TIBBLES: Police bodycam video shows Ma’khia Bryant’s final moments. When a Columbus, Ohio police officer responding to a call gets out of his car and, seconds later, fatally shoots the 16-year-old girl.OFFICER NICHOLAS REARDON: Get down! Get down! Get down! [ Gunshots ]TIBBLES: Authorities say Bryant was threatening two other girls with a knife.MICHAEL WOODS (Interim Police Chief]: It’s a tragedy. There’s no other way to say it. It’s a 16-year-old girl.TIBBLES: Officer Nicholas Reardon, who joined the force in December of 2019, was responding to a 911 call.911 CALL: We need a police officer here now.TIBBLES: Video shows Reardon approaching a group of young people in this driveway.
Tibbles and Holt showed the knife on the ground, but not in Bryant’s hands.
“Threatening.” “Holding.” The caller told 911, “These grown girls over here trying to fight us, trying to stab us.”
The video shows Reardon taking action because Bryant was seconds away from stabbing a girl.
Nicholas Fondacaro at NewsBusters noted ABC’s World News Tonight and CBS Evening News included the key parts in the video and 911 call:
In stark contrast, not only did ABC correspondent Trevor Ault play the important part of the 911 call in his report, he also froze the footage and highlighted the knife in Bryant’s hand just inches away from her would-be victim. “It appears Ma’khia Bryant, in the black t-shirt and jeans, swings a knife at the girl in pink, Officer Reardon then firing a burst of shots,” he described to viewers.For CBS’s part, correspondent David Begnaud reported on the scene in the video by noting “Bryant appears to be chasing one girl, before threatening another.” Adding: “Slowed down, police say the video shows 16-year-old Bryant raising a knife.” The video then zoomed on the hand holding the knife.
*WARNING: GRAPHIC VIDEO*
AG Hamilton (you need to follow him on Twitter) retweeted a video from a different angle. Ma’Khia Bryant screamed, “I’m going to stab the f*** out of you, b****!”
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