Does crime-happy local TV news perpetuate racism?
One professor argues yesand suggests some drastic measures to fix it. By Christopher Shea | May 22, 2005 EARLIER THIS MONTH, police in Long Beach, Calif., gunned downon live televisiona man who had led them on a high-speed 40-minute car chase which concluded with the driver stumbling out of his car, drawing a gun, dropping it, and seeming to reach for another. Two LA newscasts rode the chase, and the climactic shooting, to dizzying ratings heights in the 5 p.m. time slot. And the star of the grim show was a 37-year-old Hispanic man named Angel Galvan. After Galvan’s on-air death, there was the usual tsk-tsking from media critics about the voyeuristic coverage, followed by a quick return to the “if it bleeds, it leads” school of TV news. But at least one observer in the LA area says the trouble with such spectacles goes beyond mere tastelessness: Local news shows, he argues, are doing nothing less than blocking progress in race relationsand the Federal Communications Commission is unwit
One professor argues yesand suggests some drastic measures to fix it. By Christopher Shea | May 22, 2005 EARLIER THIS MONTH, police in Long Beach, Calif., gunned downon live televisiona man who had led them on a high-speed 40-minute car chase which concluded with the driver stumbling out of his car, drawing a gun, dropping it, and seeming to reach for another. Two LA newscasts rode the chase, and the climactic shooting, to dizzying ratings heights in the 5 p.m. time slot. And the star of the grim show was a 37-year-old Hispanic man named Angel Galvan. After Galvan’s on-air death, there was the usual tsk-tsking from media critics about the voyeuristic coverage, followed by a quick return to the “if it bleeds, it leads” school of TV news. But at least one observer in the LA area says the trouble with such spectacles goes beyond mere tastelessness: Local news shows, he argues, are doing nothing less than blocking progress in race relationsand the Federal Communications Commission is unwit
