The New York Times was forced to issue an embarrassing correction Saturday after issuing a “breaking news alert” describing Charlotte police shooting victim Keith Scott as an “unarmed black man.”
Whether or not Scott was armed at the time he was fatally shot by police is a matter of dispute. The Charlotte Police Department recovered a gun at the scene, and claims that Scott was holding the weapon during a confrontation with officers prior to the shooting. Scott’s family and others insist he was not armed during the incident. Video of the incident released by the police is inconclusive.
For the past week, the Times has been criticized for exhibiting unseemly, anti-law enforcement bias in its coverage of the Charlotte police shooting. The lapsus calami in its erroneous breaking news alert will not inspire more confidence in the Times‘ objectivity.
After a long ten minutes Saturday afternoon, the Times corrected its initial mistake of describing Scott as “unarmed” to note that “it is unclear whether [Scott] was armed.”
Um… pic.twitter.com/hLm4GZk9Hv
— Rob Long (@rcbl) September 24, 2016
The Times noted the correction on its official Twitter page. However, the story itself does not include a formal correction at the bottom.
Charlotte police will release videos in the shooting of Keith Scott. It is unclear if he was armed. https://t.co/pkwV5SxXye [Correction]
— The New York Times (@nytimes) September 24, 2016
Charlotte police release images of a gun, holster and a blunt they said Keith Lamont Scott had on him pic.twitter.com/8ryPDDdINt
— BuzzFeed News (@BuzzFeedNews) September 24, 2016
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