60 Minutes Conveniently Leaves One Crucial Fact Out Of Its Report On Chicago Violence
By Tyler Durden
On Sunday, CBS’s 60 Minutes aired a report on the surge of murders and violence in Chicago. When describing the increase in violence as a “surge”, 60 Minutes is certainly not exaggerating; this year’s homicide total in Chicago is up by 56% from last year, and up almost 75% from 2013.
However, CBS is certainly exaggerating when it compares Chicago to a “war zone” – in Afghanistan, for example, US forces have averaged 300+ murders per 100,000 since the 2001 invasion. With a 2016 homicide rate of ~29 per 100,000, Chicago’s homicide rate hasn’t reached the 1992 peak of ~32 per 100,000. Can anyone recall CBS comparing Chicago to a “war zone” in the 1990s?
60 Minutes centered its coverage on a drop in stops and arrests by police, with a focus on blaming the police for creating a crime-filled environment, with scarce mention of the perpetrators behind the increase in violent crime. They also mentioned low police morale, new policies on racial profiling and police reporting, gang members posting video of confrontations with police, and “fear of becoming the next viral video” in their piece. What was conveniently left out of the entire report?
Any mention whatsoever of Black Lives Matter, or any of the other nationwide protests against police that are primarily driven by race. Of course, these protests almost always occur when the “victim” is black, regardless of whether or not the perpetrator in question was wrongfully shot or not.
Its not as though 60 Minutes didn’t have ample opportunity to mention BLM in their report. Featured in the piece was an interview with former Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy. 60 Minutes made sure to discuss how McCarthy was dismissed following the release of the Laquan McDonald shooting video and the subsequent protests. However, the same day that CBS aired its report, McCarthy blamed nationwide protests for creating a “political atmosphere of anti-police sentiment.”
“So what’s happening, and this is ironic, is that a movement with the goal of saving black lives at this point is getting black lives taken, because 80 percent of our murder victims here in Chicago are male blacks,” McCarthy said. “Less than half of 1 percent of all the shootings in this city involve police officers shooting civilians.”
McCarthy directly cited BLM as responsible for creating an atmosphere of fear in police departments the same day this report was released, yet none of this was in the report on 60 Minutes. Since McCarthy has been singing the same tune since he was dismissed, it is reasonable to believe that CBS deliberately edited any mention of nationwide protests or BLM from the portions of their interview with McCarthy that they chose to air.
The closest CBS came to mentioning BLM was their commentary regarding Officer Veronica Murillo. Remember that bit about becoming the “next viral video”? …read more
Source: 60 Minutes Conveniently Leaves One Crucial Fact Out Of Its Report On Chicago Violence
