Blue Lives Matter, a law enforcement organization, is accusing CNN of deceptively editing the cellphone video taken by Keith Lamont Scott’s widow, Rakeyia Scott, the day her husband was shot by police in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Here’s CNN’s edited version of the Scott video:
And here’s the unedited version (WARNING: Graphic Content):
In the unedited version, police officers can be heard telling Scott to “drop the gun” a minimum of 11 times. In the edited version, every single call by the officers to “drop the gun” is omitted.
Blue Lives Matter released a statement that reads in part:
“The editing was clearly intended to give viewers the impression that Scott wasn’t armed. By intentionally excluding information to promote the false narrative that the officer-involved shooting of Keith Scott was unjustified, CNN directly contributed towards inciting violence and destruction in the Charlotte riots. Innocent citizens were hurt during the Charlotte riots, but editing like this also incites violence against police officers long after the riots are over.”
This isn’t the first time CNN has been accused of selective editing as it relates to race issues.
In August, following the shooting death of Sylville Smith in Milwaukee, CNN played a clip of Smith’s sister “calling for peace“:
In reality, CNN left out a critical part of Smith’s words:
This type of bias by omission isn’t uncommon. Other media outlets have made similar edits to serve a racism-based narrative.
After George Zimmerman shot Trayvon Martin in 2012, NBC selectively edited Zimmerman’s 911 call, making him appear racist:
NBC fired three employees after the edit was caught, and Zimmerman filed a defamation lawsuit against the network. The suit was eventually dismissed.
Top image (Getty Images): Protesters march in Charlotte, North Carolina, on September 23, 2016 following the shooting of Keith Lamont Scott by police three days earlier and subsequent unrest in the city.