Media Plays With Fire, Profiles Chauvin Jurors

Media Plays With Fire, Profiles Chauvin Jurors

Media Plays With Fire, Profiles Chauvin Jurors

The trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin for the death of George Floyd is the media’s single biggest story.

Notice I said that this is the MEDIA’S biggest story. After all, George Floyd is their chosen cause, and either way that the trial goes, the case fits all of their priors. The narrative of “white supremacy” and “police officers are bad” are the ones being pushed here. And because the narrative is so well served by the death of George Floyd, other cases like the death of Mohammad Anwar at the hands of two black teenage girls, or the mass shooting in Boulder by a Syrian immigrant, or the brutal beating of an Asian woman by a black man out on parole in New York City, can be ignored. The Chauvin trial is THE most important story to the media. Other crime that doesn’t serve the narrative gets ignored on a national level, all thanks to the racial demographics of the perpetrators.

The Chauvin trial has already run into its own sets of problems. Seating a jury was a problem to begin with, as so many prospective jurors were rightly concerned with being doxxed either during or after the trial. Then, the settlement given to the Floyd family by the city of Minneapolis created more chaos because it got splashed all over the news.

The defense, rightly, had problems with this news being prejudicial against their client. This resulted in another jury shakeup, with two jurors and then one alternate being dismissed from the trial.

So, you would think that media outlets would be a little more careful about how they are talking about the jury, right?

The New York Times says, hold my beer.

The jury is a demographic mix: three Black men, one Black woman, and two women who identified themselves as multiracial. There are two white men and four white women. They are urban and suburban, ranging in age from their 20s to their 60s. The two alternates are white women.”

The jurors bring to the table a range of views about Mr. Chauvin, Mr. Floyd, race and policing, some forged by long life experience and some formed after the video of Mr. Floyd dying under Mr. Chauvin’s knee started a new civil rights movement.”

And yet they remain invisible, unseen by all but the very few people allowed into the courtroom. Because of the many threats against people involved in the case and the potential for outside pressure, the 12 jury members and two alternates remain anonymous and their faces cannot be shown on camera.”

They’re invisible, so let’s talk about them, says the New York Times!

A white intensive care nurse who said if she saw someone on the street who needed help, she would feel obligated to step in. A Black grandmother who said she had no personal experience with the police or the criminal justice system.”

A white widow who rides a motorcycle in her spare time and said she believes that “all lives matter.” A Black man who works in banking and said he was eager to serve on the jury of “the most historic case of my lifetime.”

As John McEnroe might have said, you CANNOT be serious.


And isn’t just the New York Times. Both CNN and the Washington Post decided that speculative profiles about the jurors would be a splendid, not at all dangerous idea. It’s as if the media is playing with fire, and they are just waiting for a spark to start an inferno that they can’t control.

Just imagine the ratings!

We already have such noted legal minds like Chelsea Handler wondering out loud why a trial is even necessary because there’s video, so we totally know what happened. This seems to be much the same stupid take by most of the media. They are presenting the case as if it is a foregone conclusion, because the truth is much more complicated. But that works in the media’s favor. The more that they inanely simplify what are actually pretty ill-fitting charges, the better off they will be when the verdict does or does not conform to their pre-determined narrative. Either way, Minneapolis goes up in flames, and they get GREAT videos and pictures that will be instant clickbait.

And if any of the jurors ends up being outed to the New York Times – or one of the other major outlets – by a “friend” or family member for their 15 minutes of fame or infamy, how do you think that will go? Can the press absolutely guarantee that the identities of the jurors will be a closely held secret, and that there will be no jury intimidation? The media is playing a dangerous game, and the cost might be paid in lives ruined.

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Featured image via Pixabay, cropped, Pixabay license

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6 Comments
  • John C. says:

    Anyone remember Rodney King? Everyone saw, ad nauseam, the videotape of him being beaten by police, so it came as a shock when the police were found not guilty. Of course, the ENTIRE tape, which was only shown to the jurors until the trial was over, had a good deal more on it, including one instance of King apparently making a lunge at one of the policemen’s holstered pistols.

    And naturally racism was screamed when the police, who were all white, were found not guilty, by a jury with no black members. What no one wanted to talk about was that the local branch of the NAACP sent a delegation that buttonholed every black member of the jury pool, who were quite properly rejected by the court as contaminated.

    We do not yet know what evidence the jurors will be shown in this trial, but you can be certain that whatever the outcome, the riots are already organized.

    • GWB says:

      Actually, we do know some of the evidence (via Andrew Branca’s posts at Legal Insurrection). And it’s not looking good for the prosecution. The one witness is a use-of-force “expert” because he fights MMA, the firefighter was very unprofessional and hostile (she refused to look at a transcript of her police interview to refresh her memory of a statement, until the judge ordered her to), and the prosecution put a 9yo on the stand just so they could make her cry for the jury. And the videos don’t really support the prosecution’s PoV.

      And totally concur on “the riots are already organized.”

  • GWB says:

    and then one alternate being dismissed from the trial
    Deanna, that juror was always going to be dismissed. They need 14 people (12 jurors, 2 alternates) to seat the jury. They chose 15, just in case something happened before the first day of the trial, intending to dismiss one of the 3 extras on the first day.

    “Here’s what we know about them”
    Well, all that is public knowledge, since it came out in voir dire. Maybe readers of the NYT don’t know about it, but that’s because they’re low information, relying on whatever the NYT tells them.

    and they get GREAT videos and pictures that will be instant clickbait.
    Well, yes. That’s a good deal of their motivation (even above their Progressive religious values).

    how do you think that will go?
    I think it will depend entirely on how they think the juror is going to vote. Or, afterwards, how they did vote.

    If you’re not reading Andrew Branca’s analysis on Legal Insurrection, btw, then you’re missing out. He’s doing a daily live blog, and a summation post at the end of each day. He also did extensive posting on the jury selection. I don’t always agree with Branca, but he’s one of the best danged use-of-force defense attorneys out there.

  • Extra light bulbs says:

    The names of the jurors will eventually be released to the public. Expect the press to argue that since this was inevitable, what difference does it make if the public learns about it sooner rather than later?

  • […] Media Plays With Fire, Profiles Chauvin Jurors. Deanna Fisher — “the cost might be paid in lives ruined.” […]

  • talgus says:

    the media is in every town/city. If any of this goes south, they are due for some of the fire bomb/breakage that other innocent businesses have endured. they are not innocent.

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