I’m incarcerated in a women’s prison. So-called “true crime” shows prey on us, alter our stories, and take advantage of our trauma. I would know—I’ve been the subject of at least three docudramas.
The stakes for getting reporting on abortion right are very high, but it costs nothing to call out politicians on their BS.
Personal narratives can help the public understand the benefits of bail reform, but telling these success stories presents its own share of challenges.
In February, Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón became the latest local Democratic politician to fold to conservative critics when he walked back two major campaign promises that had swept him into office just over a year before.
There’s a growing business crafting law enforcement narratives about police shootings and officer misconduct.
It’s Giving Tuesday! And a generous donor has pledged to match the first $5,000 we receive today. If you love this newsletter and The Appeal’s reporting, now is the best time to give. With your help we can make major headway toward funding more vital journalism in 2022. Photo by Joseph Ngabo at Unsplash Police […]
That one of the nation’s premier newspapers still uses such police-centric language more than one year after the international uprising following the murder of George Floyd is a microcosm of the sad state that American media finds itself in at the moment.
With few exceptions, news outlets in Harris County, Texas, spotlight singular instances of crime to allege that legal reform policy is a threat to the public.
There’s a cynical local-to-national news pipeline designed to mock the powerless under the guise of “odd” news stories.
Stories that uncritically blame child welfare agencies for the deaths of children at the hands of their parents can contribute to increases in child removals—with devastating consequences for families.
A close examination of a poll backed by a business group reveals loaded questions, undisclosed conflicts of interest, and the shortchanging of very real privacy concerns.
The New York Post used a tragedy to target bail reform activists, rather than point to the challenges of a failed mental health system and poverty.
The Charlotte Observer built a narrative on gun crime that relies almost exclusively on police and prosecutors, ignores the violence of incarceration, and offers zero non-carceral solutions.
WJLA’s Kevin Lewis selectively reports on immigrants arrested for sex crimes to paint a misleading picture of violence in Montgomery County.
In a rare case of local media nuance, a Boston TV news station provided a humane and health-focused segment on safe drug use.
A Pittsburgh public radio piece lacked critical reporting about the many problems with jailing children in adult facilities.
Kansas City news outlets called scores of people ‘violent criminals’ based solely on the word of police and the federal government.
How high or low bond is isn’t a measure of how severe the state considers a crime.
Murder rates are at an all-time low in Brooklyn, but one would hardly know it reading the New York Times.
The New York Times’s coverage of the one-off case of a 77-year-old man omits key facts about how older adults are treated by our punitive legal system.
Dozens of reports about an indigent man in Bradenton, Florida, showed the cruel excesses of local news’s homelessness coverage.
The backlash is underway against a recent wave of prosecutors who champion criminal justice reform. Here are some methods of attack.
With Appeal contributor Maia Szalavitz
Nineteen academics published a letter to the newspaper over its coverage of the Suffolk County DA.
Outlets ran over 200 articles covering the vandalism. The outsize attention will likely damage young lives.
ABC News claims anti-police violence is on the rise but offers no data.
Reality shows like ‘The First 48,’ ‘Live PD,’ and ‘Cops’ are interfering in legal cases, exploiting people of color, and threatening lives.
CBS 2 Chicago relied on police voices and irrelevant data to question efforts to end cash bail.
The sensationalist coverage of a handful of fights highlights local media’s misplaced priorities.
Josie and Clint discuss the power and pitfalls of crime reporting with Wesley Lowery of the Washington Post.
On September 15th, a Missouri judge found white former St. Louis police officer Jason Stockley not guilty of the 2011 slaying of black motorist Anthony Lamar Smith. The second the verdict was announced and activists poured into the streets to protest, local police and government officials with the help of local and national media began framing the […]
In a speech last week to a group of law enforcement officials in Suffolk County, New York, President Trump suggested that America was under threat “because police [aren’t] allowed to do their job.” He decried laws that he sees as “heavily stacked against [police]” and “made to protect the criminal.” In the face of this perceived […]