An Oregon newspaper included the race of a white man who was fatally shot by police in its coverage, then clarified it felt his race was important “in light of social unrest prompted by police shootings of Black people.”
“Recent shootings include Daunte Wright, who was killed by police in a Minneapolis suburb earlier this week, and two killings in Clark County in recent months,” the newspaper explained, nodding to the fact that those fatal shootings sparked rioting, looting, and other destruction.
Hours after it was published, however, The Oregonian deleted the paragraph and the tweet quoting it after the paper claimed the original statement was “poorly worded.”
“We included information in an earlier tweet about why we identified the victim’s race that was poorly worded. It was not intended to minimize what happened, only to provide context. We generally do not identify race in news stories but often do when reporting police shootings,” the newspaper’s clarification tweet stated.
Hellbound and Down 