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Introduction
This exhibition examines how the NewsHour approached its coverage of civil unrest and focuses on methods used by the NewsHour to create a more nuanced narrative than was typical in media coverage. Though this exhibition highlights events of civil unrest birthed from racial injustice and incidents of police brutality, it also includes the coverage of events with political or economic motivations, such as the Seattle WTO Protests and the Madison Occupy and the Occupy Wall Street Movements.
In 2021, NewsHour anchor and managing editor Judy Woodruff described the importance of looking back at these protests and the ways they had been covered in the past:
In the news business, we're always focused on what's next, what's today, what's tomorrow, what's next week.... Including Rodney King coverage is such a perfect example of a way to look at what's happening today with racial reckoning, the relationship between police and Black Americans. It's such a perfect point/counterpoint to look at what happened then, what's happened over time versus where we are now…. We approach things so differently today and that's why to me it's critical to be able to contrast that with the way we used to do it, to put it in context, and help you understand how much progress we've made and how much progress we still have to make. We still have a long way to go in how we cover so many of these difficult issues.1
A Note on Terminology
The term “riot” is used repeatedly in this exhibit to reference incidents of civil unrest that occurred in Los Angeles following the announcement on April 29, 1992, of the verdict in the criminal trial of Los Angeles Police Department officers for beating motorist Rodney King. “Riot” was used most frequently in contemporary public broadcasting programs and newspaper coverage, and in later historical accounts. We also use “riot” for a few later incidents. We acknowledge that other terms, including “uprising” and “rebellion,” also have been used to identify similar incidents of civil unrest and that cogent reasons have been offered for using each term.
Highlights Reel: Explanations and Justifications for Unrest
Next: L.A. Riots
