Late Monday afternoon, my colleague Matthew Balan astutely wondered in a post on this site whether or not any of the major broadcast networks would cover that evening the arrest of an African-American teen for allegedly making threats on social media against white male students at the University of Chicago in retaliation for the shooting death of Laquan McDonald.
Turns out, we got our answer hours later as both the CBS Evening News and NBC Nightly News omitted this angle from their coverage out of Chicago and the release on bail of the police officer accused of fatally shooting McDonald. Somewhat miraculously, ABC’s World News Tonight and correspondent Alex Perez did find time to allude to this arrest in its report.
In a 15-second aside, correspondent Alex Perez explained that 21-year-old Jabari Dean had been arrested for threatening to “execute 16 white male students” at the University of Chicago to correspondent with the 16 shots that killed McDonald on a Chicago street back on October 20, 2014:
At the University of Chicago today, that arrest for that online threat that brought the campus to a standstill. Federal investigators say 21-year-old Jabari Dean made that threat, posting on social media, “I will execute 16 white male students. This is not a joke.” 16, the same number of times McDonald was shot.
Taking this situation into consideration (as my colleague did), one has to wonder whether or not this served as the latest example of the liberal media’s persistent behavior of censoring stories that do not match their agendas.
The relevant portion of the transcript from ABC’s World News Tonight with David Muir on November 30 can be found below.
ABC’s World News Tonight with David Muir
November 30, 20156:38 p.m. Eastern
ALEX PEREZ: At the same time, in downtown Chicago, more protests calling for the city's top brass to step down. At the University of Chicago today, that arrest for that online threat that brought the campus to a standstill. Federal investigators say 21-year-old Jabari Dean made that threat, posting on social media, “I will execute 16 white male students. This is not a joke.” 16, the same number of times McDonald was shot.
