In the immediate aftermath of the decisions not to indict police officers in the respective deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, CNN sent out news alerts to smartphone users that identified to all parties involved directly by their race.
CNN referred to Brown as “an unarmed black teen” and Garner as an “unarmed black man,” with each alert referring to Officers Darren Wilson and Daniel Pantaleo as “white police officers.”
Meanwhile, those sent out by Fox News simply stated the decision not to indict in either officer.
The smartphone alerts were initially noticed by Truth Revolt and Newsbusters.
CNN did not use the same language when it tweeted out the breaking news announcements of both decisions from the network’s breaking news account, while Fox used similar language in its breaking news tweets, while adding more details than the smartphone alert.
New York police officer not indicted in Eric Garner’s chokehold death, officials say. http://t.co/kSDIIl4q9S
— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) December 3, 2014
Grand jury has decided not to indict Ferguson police Officer Darren Wilson. #FergusonDecision http://t.co/n4rHuvhASS pic.twitter.com/ujmSRdeu6a
— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) November 25, 2014