Baltimore

Two Videos of the Same Arrest in Baltimore Shows How MSM Does Not Give You the Whole Truth

the Free Thought Project,

3 May, 2015

Baltimore, MD — Just minutes after the police state curfew went into effect in Baltimore Saturday night, the brutality began. However, the actual coverage of that brutality varies depending on who is telling this story.

The first video of the arrest is put out by CNN. It begins with a semi-conscious man laying on the ground with a reporter speculating on the possibility of the man faking his unconsciousness.



The reporter then describes how bottles were being thrown at police and that this arrest could be related.

The second video of this arrest comes from Russia Today. Despite lacking any commentary, it depicts the actual story magnitudes more accurately.

RT has a camera rolling as an apparently angry, but non-violent and unarmed protester begins yelling at police. He is then met with a pepper spray blast at near point blank range, directly in his face.

Amazingly enough, he takes this blast of spray seemingly without reaction. The lack of reaction by this man seems to anger the officers as one of them runs behind him grabbing his dreadlocks and slamming him to the ground. When the man goes down, it becomes apparent that the pepper spray is indeed, taking its toll.

After the crowd sees this unnecessary escalation of force by police, they become angry, and many of them were then sprayed as well. At this point, the bottles begin to fly at officers; after the police, not protesters initiated conflict.There is no such thing as “unbiased reporting.” No matter the outlet, bias is an unavoidable facet to journalism. Here at the Free Thought Project, we are completely open about our bias in being anti-war, anti-corruption, and against the war on drugs.



Knowing that all journalism advocates an agenda, we can see that the MSM’s agenda happens to be one diametrically opposed to the principles of a free society as they perpetually cheerlead for the status-quo. War, brutality, and corporatism are all but ignored by the mainstream as covering these things could be damaging to the establishment.

As MSM is part of the establishment, their agenda advocates for the preservation of that establishment. They would not want to shoot themselves in the foot by helping people to break free from their dependency upon the two-party corporatocracy that pretends to keep order in society.

All journalism is a form of activism. Every journalistic choice necessarily embraces highly subjective assumptions — cultural, political or nationalistic — and serves the interests of one faction or another.


But ultimately, the only real metric of journalism that should matter is accuracy and reliability. I personally think honestly disclosing rather than hiding one’s subjective values makes for more honest and trustworthy journalism. But no journalism — from the most stylistically “objective” to the most brazenly opinionated — has any real value unless it is grounded in facts, evidence, and verifiable data.

-Glenn Greenwald