A Chicago TV station now says it made two ethical mistakes when it aired an interview with a 4-year-old boy last month.
The first mistake was interviewing a child at a crime scene. But things grew even worse when the station edited the boy’s interview in a way that made it seem as though the African American child idolized guns and criminals.
In fact, the child told the photographer that he wanted to be a police officer. The station edited out that part of the interview.
A story published last week on the
Maynard Institute for Journalism Education’s website first raised questions about the interview. Dori J. Maynard, president of the Institute, said, “We have long been worried about the ways in which the media helps perpetuate negative stereotypes of boys and men of color, but this appears to be overtly criminalizing a preschooler.”
4-year-old boy: “I’m not scared of nothing.”
Photographer: “When you get older are you going to stay away from all these guns?”
Boy: “No.”
Photographer: “No? What are you going to do when you get older?”
Boy: “I’m going to have me a gun!”
In describing the story on the 4:30 a.m. news, WBBM anchor Steve Bartelstein called the boy’s reaction “disturbing.” After the clip aired, he commented, “That was scary indeed.” Co-anchor Susan Carlson responded, “Hearing that little boy there, wow!”
Another video of the interview tells a different story. Poynter.org and The Maynard Institute got an email from a source who identified himself only as The Chicago News Watchdog that included another portion of the interview with the child.
That version makes it clear that the interview with the child was taken out of context. Here’s the complete exchange, with the deleted portion in bold:
Photographer:“Boy, you ain’t scared of nothing! Damn! When you get older are you going to stay away from all these guns?”
Boy: “No.”
Photographer: “No? What are you going to do when you get older?”
Boy: “I’m going to have me a gun!”
Photographer: “You are! Why do you want to do that?”
Boy: “I’m going to be the police!”
Photographer: “OK, then you can have one.”
