A Huffington Post journalist captured a heated moment at a protest Sunday night in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in the aftermath of the Alton Sterling shooting on July 5.
In the video by David Lohr, Baton Rouge resident Byron Cole calls out a Fox News journalist who appeared to be “covering” his press badge while reporting. Cole confronts the man and tells him that the media is profiting from the suffering of Black people.
“The officer has tons of discretion and he can decide to shoot a man down in the parking lot of a gas station,” Cole says about police patrolling Black communities. “Whereas where white people live, it’s operating under a legalistic system, which has to go by the book.”
Cole berates the man for being part of a network that constantly misinforms its viewers.
“I know that. You know that. Fox News knows that. CNN knows that,” Cole proclaims. “And what the deal is, y’all won’t have no more room to air anything in our neighborhoods and benefit off our tragedies, unless we gonna talk about what the hell we want to talk about.”
The Baton Rouge protester points out that people are independent of the media and can inform each other via social media.
“We are empowered and we don’t have to rely on any of your institutions to spread any of the words because, first and foremost, y’all mitigate everything and you spin everything from your perspective,” Cole states. “All Black people now have smartphones and we’re all aware of the contradictions and the double standards. The cat’s out the bag, man. We understand.”
