For Immediate Release

Contact: Kayla Keller, kayla@fitzgibbonmedia.com, 281.682.6212

Madison Donzis, madison@fitzgibbonmedia.com, 210.488.6220

*See Report Here: www.colorofchange.org/newsaccuracyratings*

New York, NY — Today, ColorOfChange released NOT TO BE TRUSTED: Dangerous Levels of Inaccuracy in TV Crime Reporting in NYC, a report detailing how local news coverage in New York City distorts the picture of criminal justice, and the negative impacts this inaccurate imagery has on Black communities. ColorOfChange partnered with Media Matters to study the representation of Black people in nightly local TV news reporting on crime.

“Over the course of our study we found that the four major network affiliates in New York City consistently over report that Black people are involved in murder, assault and theft- and that is without factoring in the equally outrageous over-targeting of Black people by police,” said Rashad Robinson, Executive Director of ColorOfChange. “Not only are these stations over-reporting Black crime, they’re systematically under-reporting white crime. Local news in New York City has failed the most basic responsibility of journalism: to report the news accurately.”

ColorofChange issued a “report card” for their findings that showed that WNYW/FOX5 scored a “B,” WCBS and WNBC each scored a “D,” and WABC actually scored an “F”.

Key findings include:

– News Accuracy Report Card:

• • WABC (ABC): F
  • WNBC (NBC): D
  • WCBS (CBS): D
  • WNYW (Fox): B

– On average, 51% of the people the NYPD arrest for murder, assault and theft are Black, according to NYPD crime data from 2010-2013.

– 75% of the people newscasters present as perpetrators of those crimes in New York City are Black, exaggerating the image of Black people as criminals by 24 percentage points. For WABC, it’s 82%.

– Research shows that repeated exposure to distorted images creates both explicit and implicit bias against Black people. People in everyday situations—personal and professional—act out their biases, treating Black people as if the media’s stereotypes are real.

ColorofChange.org has reached out to all four local news stations over the past few months and is committed to working with them to ensure that the local news in New York City is reported accurately. The organization’s intent is to affect real change in the country’s biggest media market by calling attention to the discrepancies between what is actually happening and what is being reported. They are hopeful these stations will make clear and tangible progress toward change by no longer disproportionately targeting Black people in crime coverage, and by being more transparent about the diversity of news station staff.

See full report at: www.colorofchange.org/newsaccuracyratings.

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With more than one million members, ColorOfChange.org is the nation’s largest online civil rights organization.