One of the things to watch in the aftermath of MPD murdering #GeorgeFloyd is the extent to which local media aid and abet the police coverup. When the police kill someone, it is journalistic malpractice to run an initial story that only includes the cop's story (1/X)

But this is exactly what @WCCO did this morning. They made two journalistically indefensible errors here: 1) They provide only the police version of events, and 2) they don't even attribute that version to the police! (2/X)

The @WCCO story says MPD "found a man, believed to be in his 40s & under the influence" but they don't name the source of that info. We can infer it's the cops bc they have no other sources, but they state it as though it's as undisputed as the fact that it was Monday (3/X)

Then @WCCO quotes MPD spokesman John Elder giving a description of events that is absolutely ludicrous when compared to the video evidence. He says "officers noticed the man was going into medical distress." (4/X)

We have seen police generally, MPD in particular, and Elder specifically, lie about police brutality enough to know they cannot be given credibility without corroborating reporting. @WCCO should never have run this version of the story. (5/X)

I keep hoping local news will learn how to better report stories when police kill people. And to be fair, some have gotten better. But this example by @WCCO is just terrible. When police kill people, you CANNOT publish their version of events without more reporting. (6/X)

George Floyd should be alive today. He was killed by MPD Officer Derek Chauvin. The entire department is complicit in his death, as are all of us who have so far failed to end white supremacist terrorism in our police force. And @WCCO helped them advance their narrative. (7/7)

Sorry, one last thing to note. Based on Elder's statement that is so blatantly divorced from reality, I suspect someone may have filed a fraudulent police report. Chauvin needs to be arrested, but others also need to be disciplined (8/7)

This is sadly not new for Minneapolis local news, and I've written about it before: http://www.questionthepremise.org/new-blog/2015/12/2/dominant-narratives-white-media-and-jamar-clark