President Obama on Ferguson Decision: ‘The Media is Going to Have a Responsibility As Well’

Source: 
Coverage Type: 

After the decision by a Missouri grand jury not to issue an indictment against a Ferguson police officer in the shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown, President Barack Obama called on news media to be sure to balance coverage of potential violence with more positive responses to the questions spurred by the Brown case. There were large gatherings of people reported in New York City, Los Angeles and other cities but there were no immediate reports of looting or other dangerous behavior.

“We have to make sure that we focus at least as much attention on all those positive activities that are taking place as we do on a handful of folks who end up using this as an excuse to misbehave or to break the law or to engage in violence,” President Obama said. “I think that it’s going to be very important -- and I think the media is going to have a responsibility as well -- to make sure that we focus on Michael Brown’s parents, and the clergy, and the community leaders, and the civil rights leaders, and the activists, and law enforcement officials who have been working very hard to try to find better solutions -- long-term solutions, to this issue. There is inevitably going to be some negative reaction, and it will make for good TV. But what we want to do is to make sure that we’re also focusing on those who can offer the kind of real progress that we know is possible, that the vast majority of people in Ferguson, the St. Louis region, in Missouri, and around the country are looking for.”


President Obama on Ferguson Decision: ‘The Media is Going to Have a Responsibility As Well’ Media Part of Ferguson Story (Broadcasting&Cable)