Tom Rosenstiel, director for the Project for Excellence in Journalism, said compelling video imagery can often help a local news story "leapfrog into national conversation." He cited the Rodney King case as a prime example.
But while anchors for the nation's 24-hour cable news outlets repeatedly have referred to the BART shooting in recent days, the story has received only minimal attention from the major network newscasts.
That probably comes down to timing, said Rosenstiel, pointing out how the national mainstream media is currently fixated on the economy, a new Congress, a new president and a new war in the Middle East.
Not to mention a political scandal involving the Democratic governor of the state of Illinois. That's four topics at one time, quite a balancing act. Besides, it's not really news that police officers kill minorities. Happens often enough. And if the national msm were to feature this story, they'd also have to get into the stun gun phenomenon and that might bring up some issues that local law enforcement agencies might not want debated.
But Rosenstiel also said that, in some cases, news stories gain more national exposure over time.
"Sometimes a story has to have someone who champions it — someone who can command the media," he said. "If Barack Obama suddenly talks about it, it would be everywhere."
Barak Obama had an opportunity to comment on police shooting 50 bullets into an unarmed Sean Bell in New York City. A judge found the police not guilty of anything, and by extension, that they were innocent victims of Sean Bell's crime of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Obama said this:
"Well, look, obviously there was a tragedy in New York. I said at the time, without benefit of all the facts before me, that it looked like a possible case of excessive force. The judge has made his ruling, and we're a nation of laws, so we respect the verdict that came down," he said in response to a question at a gas station in Indianapolis, where he was holding a news conference.
"The most important thing for people who are concerned about that shooting is to figure out how do we come together and assure those kinds of tragedies don't happen again," he continued. ... "Resorting to violence to express displeasure over a verdict is something that is completely unacceptable and counterproductive."
We're a nation of laws, so we respect the verdict that came down.
Not really true for the last eight years anyway, not with torture, extraordinary rendition, Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, presidential signing statements being the orders of the days.
There's no reason to believe that Obama does not believe what he is reported to have said. But if he thinks the republicans believe we are a nation of laws, and respect the verdicts that come down, that they care about anything except returning to power and making Obama and the democrats look inept at governance, don't expect his term(s) in office to produce any substantive change.
