When The Washington Post wanted local perspective on the publication of leaked reports from the autopsy of Michael Brown, the 18-year-old shot and killed by a police officer in Ferguson, Mo., they turned to community newspaper editor Chris King.
King is managing
editor of The St. Louis American, the largest weekly newspaper in Missouri and
one of the best African-American newspapers in the U.S. Over the last two
weeks, he has been an outspoken critic of the Post and The New York Times,
both of which published the autopsy leaks in late October. The leaks seem to suggest
that Darren Wilson, the police officer who shot and killed Brown in August,
will not face criminal charges. The protests and riots touched off by Brown’s shooting
have received international media attention.
King told the Los Angeles Times a law enforcement source had offered him the autopsy
reports, but he decided not to run them. In the Post article, King was
quoted as saying he suspected the publication of the leaks could touch off more
violence on the streets of Ferguson, an idea that was echoed in an American
editorial the same week. That editorial read, in part:
The Times and Post ran with this anonymous third-party hearsay regarding a high-stakes case that has our entire region on edge. Tensions are so high that preparations for riots, if Wilson walks free, are discussed in sober terms in local and national media and on street corners. The editors of these powerful publications have shown a lapse in judgment and ethics that is not only shameful, but actually dangerous.
This week
the American covered protesters upset with the St. Louis
Post-Dispatch’s publication of the leaked autopsy details.
Aggressive
reporting and public commentary on matters such as the leaked autopsy reports are nothing new for the
American. The newspaper has provided pointed, comprehensive coverage of the
social unrest in Ferguson, Mo., since Brown’s shooting.
