Dial MSNBC for Murder . . . The Lean Forward network is the place to go if that's the way you want to hear the death of Michael Brown described. On August 12th, NB'S Ken Shepherd noted that Chris Hayes didn't utter a peep of protest when a Missouri state senator called Brown's death an "execution-style" killing. Three days later on MSNBC, Luke Russert called Brown's death "murder" before catching himself.
It's happened again. On today's Up With Steve Kornacki, guest L. Joy Williams pointedly called the Brown death "murder." Did Kornacki challenge his guest's assertion in any way? Of course not. At the end of her statement, Kornacki blandly posed a question to Williams about poll results. Courageous journalism, Steve! View the video after the jump.
At the very least, shouldn't Kornacki have challenged Williams to cite evidence refuting the report from multiple news agencies to the effect that Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson suffered serious facial injuries and was badly beaten by Brown before shooting and killing him?
L. JOY WILLIAMS: What these incidents and sort of what this tragic incident of a young man losing his life through, you know, I say murder, right? It kind of shows nationwide, again, this problem, this different view that different people have based on race of how they are treated in this country. And particularly what enrages me and I use that word very carefully but it is very accurate about the response has been the sort of over use of the police officers against people peacefully protesting and how for African-Americans when we protest, when we do anything, we're all lumped together. Right? There is no separation. So the protesters then become looters and everyone is looting. Everyone is committing violence. There is no separation.
STEVE KORNACKI: When you see that poll number, did the protesters go too far, do you think that those things are being merged?
WILLIAMS: Absolutely.
