AnJamison Authors Alec Karakatsanis

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Alec Karakatsanis
Alec Karakatsanis
@equalityAlec
THREAD. I've been studying how the New York Times uses sources. If you look at many of its articles together, something disturbing emerges: NYT relies on police and corporate sources to subtly shape how we see social problems and solutions. I try my best to lay it out below.

First, some background. Reporters and editors are constantly making choices about who to speak with to get story ideas about what to cover, who to interview to describe a problem, who to interview to tell us about the universe of potential solutions.

Importantly, sources ultimately quoted in an article often played a vital role behind the scenes. Many people don’t realize that the people quoted in articles explaining what happened and what could be done about it are often the same people who brought the story to the reporter.

In this process, many reporters rely on police and allies (prosecutors, pro-police officials, punishment bureaucrats, consultants, and corporate profiteers) to decide which stories to cover and to tell us "the facts." But when you look across articles, the pattern is striking:

Let's take a look at a few examples from the New York Times. Here's one about "perceptions" of rising crime:
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Alec Karakatsanis
Alec Karakatsanis
@equalityAlec
THREAD. I was invited to give a lecture at Oxford last week about police and prisons in the United States. After my talk, a student from Europe asked me if there was any hope to avoid fascism in the U.S. given the state of U.S. police and corporate media. A few thoughts.

The student’s question is urgent, and I hope prominent journalists will at least think about it. The below image is from a New Yorker article this weekend. Things like this are happening all over the U.S., (and much of the world). The threat of fascism is imminent.


In the face of existential threats like fascism—and to the ecological survival of our planet—many U.S. journalists in outlet after outlet are running story after story about whether a few types of narrow police-reported crimes are up or down by a number of a few dozen per city.

This coverage is absurd on its own terms. Crime is near *historic lows,* and fluctuations (up or down) discussed in crime stories are small on any objective view of total harm. They don’t compare to death/illness/injury from poverty, pollution, traffic, lack of health care, etc.

I want to say this clearly: Safety is important. I do this work and I write these threads because I care about everyone’s safety, including the most vulnerable people in our society.
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