A Chicago television station is being slammed by journalists and civil rights leaders after it took a 4-year-old's quotes out of context in a report about a shooting in his neighborhood.

CBS local station WBBM reenforced negative racial stereotypes in its editing of a June 29 interview with a neighborhood kid about the shooting of two teens in the Park Manor section of Chicago, the NAACP and the Maynard Institute for Journalism charge.

In the story, a freelance photographer working for the station asked the boy about the shooting. When it aired, the boy said, "I'm not scared of nothing."
The photographer followed up with, "When you get older are you going to stay away from all these guns?"

The boy replied "no" and that's when the quote got edited on the aired version.

On the clip that aired, the freelancer asked "No? What are you going to do when you get older?" and the boy simply replied "I'm going to have me a gun!"

The anchors then commented in horror and the story moved on.

But, according to a clip of the whole interview, the freelancer asked "You are? Why do you want to do that?" and the boy then added, "I'm going to be the police!"

The discrepancy was first pointed out in a report by the Maynard Institute - and has since earned condemnation from the NAACP and professional journalism groups.

"Airing a video of the boy saying he wanted a gun that edits out the context simply reinforces stereotypes that African American males are violent, even preschoolers," Dori J. Maynard, President of the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education, said in the article published by the institute.

Late last week, Jeff Kiernan, WBBM vice president and news director Jeff Kiernan apologized in an email to Poynter.org about the sound bite.

"We accept responsibility for the mistakes that were made, both in the reporting and editing of the story," he said. "The video of the child should not have aired. As soon as news management identified the problem, they took immediate steps to ensure that the video would not air in subsequent newscasts. In addition, we have followed up with our employees to make sure that we all have learned from the mistakes that were made."

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2011/08/01/2011-08-01_chicago_tv_station_takes_fouryearolds_quote_out_of_context_in_story_about_shooti.html#ixzz1TsW1Ov7W