Is Your News Source Primarily Reporting Movement of ISIS or Misconduct of Law Enforcement?

The Media Research Center (MRC) analyzed media coverage for the entire month of April from the ‘Big Three’ – ABC, NBC, and CBS – and found that these networks devoted 6x more coverage to alleged instances of police misconduct than the terror activities of ISIS.  Allegations of police misconduct accounted for one out of every 7-minutes of broadcast evening news airtime, or 3-hours, 43-minutes.  That’s three times more airtime than the next-most-covered topic – the 2016 presidential campaign (1-hour, 18-minutes), and nearly six times more airtime than the ‘Big Three’ devoted to the ISIS terror threat in April (38-minutes, 45-seconds).

The NBC Nightly News devoted the most airtime to the topic of police misconduct (1-hour, 27-minutes), followed by the CBS Evening News (1-hour, 8-minutes) and ABC’s World News Tonight (1-hour, 5-minutes).

Protests over the death of Freddie Gray in police custody, including the subsequent riots in Baltimore, attracted the most coverage, with 1-hour, 48-minutes of broadcast airtime.  The shooting of a suspect by a Tulsa reserve deputy garnered 29-minutes of airtime, followed by the videotaped shooting of a fleeing suspect by a South Carolina police officer (24-minutes).

Despite the relative lack of network news interest, there was no shortage of news involving ISIS during the month of April.  On April 2 and 3, 3-American women were arrested for trying to join ISIS; later in the month, more U.S. and British citizens reportedly tried to join ISIS.  On April 16, NBC reported an Ohio man had returned to the U. S. after receiving terror training from ISIS.

Of course, the police are not as big a threat as ISIS.  While instances of alleged police misconduct are newsworthy (given the events in Ferguson and Staten Island) threats to national security rank just as high in terms of importance.  It should be interesting to see how the media continues to cover ISIS – and other terrorist threats – as 2016 approaches … given that trust on foreign policy has swung back to the Republicans.

It’s unknown if the ‘security moms’ are back.  If they are, it’s unknown if they’ll break for Hillary.  The 2016 election is shaping to be potentially more focused on foreign policy than usual.

If you watch one of the ‘Big Three’ for your news coverage: Which would you rather be made more aware of – alleged instances of police misconduct or the facts of terrorist activities of ISIS now in the U.S.?  Don’t foolishly think that by putting your head in the sand regarding the real threat of ISIS in America makes your head less likely to be cut off.  It just means you won’t see the blade coming.  As for me, I’ll put my trust in law enforcement.

In the aftermath of the Garland shooting in Texas … where no one was killed except for the two would-be attackers who sought to kill attendees of a Muhammad cartoon drawing contest hosted by Pamela Geller (blogger and president of the American Freedom Defense Initiative) … I’ll put my trust in law enforcement who took out these ISIS players who are clearly in the U.S.

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

Chaplain (Colonel-Ret), U.S. Army

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel