FAIR: 'To Tell Stories of Communities That Are Authentic and Genuine, You Have to Have a Conversation'

View article on FAIR's website 'To Tell Stories of Communities That Are Authentic and Genuine, You Have to Have a Conversation' Janine Jackson Janine Jackson interviewed Free Press’s Alicia Bell about police attacks on journalists for the June 6, 2020, episode of CounterSpin. This is a lightly edited transcript. MP3 Link Janine Jackson: Human rights, civil liberties and journalist groups are joined in outrage at US police targeting members of the media covering protests sparked by the police murder of African-American George Floyd. “Targeting,” because journalists are not being swept up in assaults by police on protesters, which are themselves horrific, but are being individually shot at with rubber bullets and pepper balls, tear-gassed and beaten, even after showing credentials. Well over 100 of such violations of press freedom have been collected, as of June 3. CNN (6/1/20) How is being treated as the “enemy of the people” that Trump and his supporters have long labeled them affecting reporters' relationship to the issues and the people they're covering? Though it seems to have subsequently shifted tone, CNN was still issuing headlines like “Protesters Face Off With the Forces of Order,” even as its own reporters were being wrongfully arrested. What's clear from these violent, unconstitutional attacks is that some “forces of order” will fight to prevent media amplification of voices protesting their brutality. That could chill reporters—or bring them into closer solidarity with overpoliced communities, whose stories so obviously need telling. Alicia Bell is organizing manager with the group Free Press, working on the News Voices project. She joins us now by phone from North Carolina. Welcome to CounterSpin, Alicia Bell. Alicia Bell: Hi, Janine. Thanks so much for having me on. Cincinnati police swarm Cincinnati Enquirer journalist Pat Brennan (recorded by ABC affiliate WCPO, 6/1/20). JJ: People are talking about First Amendment rights, as well they should be. But it isn't just that reporters have a legal right to cover protests from up close. They have a journalistic responsibility to do so, you could say. AB: Absolutely. I think one of the common expectations of journalism, both from journalists and from people engaging with journalism, is that the journalists are speaking truth to power. I've heard a lot of different journalists in newsrooms talk about amplifying voices of people who are not often given a platform. And so it absolutely makes sense that they would be doing this work right now, and have a duty to be covering and telling the stories of these protests and different organizing efforts that are happening in cities across the world. JJ: The particular violation—and it really is shocking to see police attacking journalists, and it's important, I think, to talk about that in itself, and respond to it on its own—but we know that this now is not a story about reporters. You know, we know that reporters covering a Tea Party protest or a Trump rally would not be beaten up or shot at. So it's clearly about who they were trying to give voice to. Alicia Bell: "It does make sense that for the people who are trying to amplify the voices of people who are resisting police violence, that the police might not be too happy about that." AB: Absolutely. I think it absolutely has to do with the fact that they are amplifying voices and showing the faces and showing video and lifting up demands from communities of color, from working class communities, from queer and trans communities, all the different identities that black and brown people hold. Those are the folks who are showing up on the streets, that are showing up in protest of police brutality and of police violence, which is a centuries-old issue in the United States. And so it does make sense that for the people who are trying to amplify the voices of people who are resisting police violence, that the police might not be too happy about that. JJ: Right AB: And would want to try to shift that and shut that down, as opposed to someone who's protesting and is wanting to give more power to policing, give more power to various government bodies. But for the people who aren't doing that, which is people right now, then the police have a stake in shutting that down. JJ: Folks talk about building relationships between the police and the community. And they can mean all kinds of things by that. You've said this moment underscores the importance of relationship-building between newsrooms and communities. I wonder if you could talk a little about the value of that, and how do you facilitate that? AB: There's often conversations about the future of journalism and the future of news. And when we think about journalism and news as an institution, and an infrastructure in our community, then what we know is that when our communities are stronger and our communities are more powerful, institutions and infrastructure within our communities are also stronger and more powerful. And the same thing goes for news and for journalism. Photojournalist Christopher Rusanowsky arrested by a Dallas police officer (photographed by Tom Fox, Dallas Morning News, 5/30/20). But in order for journalists to really be accurately and adequately informing community needs and information needs, and in order for them to tell the stories of communities in ways that are authentic and genuine—you have to have a conversation; and you're going to have a deeper conversation, you're going to have a deeper reporting, when you're in relationship with someone. And the same thing goes with any kind of relationship, right? If we walk up to someone randomly on the street, and want to ask them about some of the most intimate moments, most important political moments of their lives, we're less likely to get really rich, deep conversation. But when we're in conversation with people that we have relationships with, that we've established relationships with, there's going to be so much more variety, so much more nuance. And the way that we build those relationships, the way that we are encouraging journalists to build those relationships, is really the same way that you build and sustain any relationship. If somebody only comes into your house and eats food out of your refrigerator and doesn't say hello, doesn't ask how you're doing, doesn't give anything back, you’re rightfully going to be frustrated. So if journalists are only coming into communities, especially communities of color, black and brown communities, who have often been marginalized by newsrooms, and are only taking information and taking quotes from people, instead of asking how they're doing, being present in different community spaces, then the relationship is not going to happen. So right now, in this immediate moment, those are some of the ways that journalists can be building relationships. They can also be asking different people on the ground, from various community institutions, organizations, non-organizations: “What do you need? What questions do you have right now? What can we get answers to that you might not get answers to?” And do the work of answering those questions and providing that information. Journalist Linda Tirado lost an eye to a rubber-jacketed bullet fired by a Minneapolis cop (5/29/20). JJ: Yeah, yeah, and the depth and the complexity of the understanding seems to me like it's going to be so especially important going forward on this case, when we know that folks will be trying to divide community against itself, you know, by saying, “These people are good protesters. These people are Antifa.” And for reporters trying to navigate that, you have to have some footing, you have to have some grounding within the folks that are going to be talked about. The parachuting in, you sometimes hear about journalists “parachuting into a problem,” which is what you're talking about with, when you just walk up to somebody, you don't get the full story. And I think also, from the point of view of the reader, it truncates the timeframe, it distorts the story, by making it an arc, with a beginning and a middle and an end. There's a protest and there's a police response, then maybe there's a legal response, and then it's over. But of course we know that racial injustice is an everyday story; it doesn't arise and peak and then dissipate. But in a way, sometimes it's just the way journalists approach a story, or the tools they're given to get at a story, that seem to work against really getting that complex understanding that you're talking about. AB: Absolutely. And I think it's worth thinking about some of the things that folks are protesting right now. When folks are protesting policing and police violence and state-sponsored violence, it's really a protest of extraction, of “how have you extracted people and power from my community?" And so for journalists, I think it's important to not continue that same habit of extraction—because that extraction, that puts you in solidarity and an alignment with folks who are perpetuating state- sponsored violence with the same kind of tactic, just in a different shape and a different form—but instead to think of, “How can this be generative for this community? What kind of follow up can there be? How can I collaborate with journalists and newsrooms that are on the ground all the time? What does that look like?” That starts to shift that extraction to being really relational. JJ: Let me just say, finally, we do see reporting that does that, I take it. You know, we're talking about a movement we want to see, but it's not like it hasn't started yet. This is work that's ongoing. AB: Absolutely. JJ: So in terms of folks who are doing the work, there are also folks who are producing resources for journalists to use, correct? AB: Yes, the organization Press On has created a guide for journalists on reporting on protesting. Right now, City Bureau, the organization that's in Chicago, has created some resources for journalists to reimagine how they cover crime and criminal justice more broadly. And then Free Press  is also distributing some more resources throughout the week, and has been throughout the past few weeks, to help reporters and journalists who are thinking about ways to shift their reporting right now. JJ: Thank you very much. We've been speaking with Alicia Bell, organizing manager with the group Free Press. They’re  online at FreePress.net.  Thanks very much, Alicia Bell, for joining us today on CounterSpin. AB: Thank you.

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