A police station in Minneapolis was torched last night as looting and rioting continued in that city. The escalating violence and looting has magnified controversies over how networks are describing the scenes.
Earlier, Craig Melvin, an MSNBC host and co-anchor of “Today,” shed some light as to how his network is framing its reporting.
Melvin tweeted a “guide” that the images “on the ground” are not to be described as rioting but rather “protests.”
That framing has been used on other networks, including some segments where the reporting seems bizarrely out of sync with the scenes in the background.
On Thursday morning, Melvin tweeted “This will guide our reporting in MN. ‘While the situation on the ground in Minneapolis is fluid, and there has been violence, it is most accurate at this time to describe what is happening there as ‘protests’ — not riots.’”
It is not clear where that “guide” originated but Melvin is quoted for a source.