Hasan and Destiny debate breaking news
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On January 7, 2019 Hasan and Destiny debated the ethicacy of reporting on breaking news and the roles of journalists and commentators in shaping public perception.[1] This was among one of the first major on-stream disagreements the two would have, and was met with an overwhelmingly negative response from youtube comments (primarily criticising Hasan).[2]
| Discussion timestamps | |
|---|---|
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The shooting
On December 30, 2018, 7-year-old Jazmine Barnes was shot in a Houston, Texas parking lot while sitting in a car with her family. The initial description of the suspect was a white male in his 40s, which led to widespread speculation over the shooting being potentially racially motivated. The racial aspect of the case was heavily emphasized in media coverage, with public figures and activists calling for justice under the belief that Jazmine was targeted because of her race.
However, the case took a significant turn when the actual suspects, Eric Black Jr. and Larry Woodruffe, both African American males, were arrested following a tip-off. They were charged with capital murder, and it was later revealed that the shooting was a case of mistaken identity; the suspects had believed they were attacking individuals from a different vehicle due to an ongoing gang-feud. Following this revelation, much controversy arose over the initial media coverage and public discourse, which had strongly focused on the racial angle based on the first description provided by witnesses.[3] Hasan was among the individuals who took part in this media coverage.
Debate
The conversation begins with a discussion on right-wing political commentator NuanceBro, and a video he had made in response to Hasan's coverage over the death of Jazmine Barnes being a potential hate crime. Hasan goes on to describe how the eventual revelation that the shooting was in fact gang-related (and not a hate crime), resulted in his channel being brigaded by individuals accusing him of "race-baiting" and condemnations because he did not wait for more information to come out. Hasan informs Destiny that he felt this criticism was unfair, arguing that he was merely parroting what major news sources at the time were stating. Destiny took issue with Hasan's perspective, and argued Hasan was irresponsible with his covering of the shooting, asserting he should have waited for all information relating to the event to be released. Moreover, Destiny argued that Hasan should have avoided constructing a narrative around hate crimes, pointing to the hypocrisy Hasan would show if a right-leaning commentator speculated about Arabs following a bombing.
| "Here's my position on this...There's literally absolutely never ever ever ever...This is why I hate breaking news... There's never any value that comes out of covering these types of things, before all the information is released... Knowing about it a day or two or whatever earlier, it never gives you anything better, and there's so much potential harm that can come from doing it early, that's why I just try to avoid making any comment" |
| — Destiny |
By the conversation's end, Hasan conceded that framing a racial narrative around the shooting so early was irresponsible. However, he maintained that his job is to "opine", insisting he was justified in reporting on the story with the available facts at the time.
Destiny and Hasan's positions
Hasan's position
| Timestamp | Position |
|---|---|
| 0:44 | Hasan recounts the shooting, stating four eyewitnesses gave their testimony about a white individual shooting Jazmine. Police officers disseminated this information to the public. He continues, explaining that the police officers had not ruled out hate crimes as a motive. According to Hasan, when police departments issue statements like this, they more often than not identify the incidents as hate crimes. Using this early information, Hasan tells Destiny that he created a video detailing all the early coverage. He informed his audience that the police had not dismissed the possibility of a hate crime as the motive and decided to educate his audience about hate crimes in America. |
| 2:09 | Shortly after releasing his video, Hasan describes enduring brigading when new information about the shooting surfaces, identifying the shooters as black, which rules out the hate-crime motive. People accuse him of "race-baiting" and criticize him for not waiting for "all the facts to come out." Hasan defends himself by arguing that he was working with the information available just as any news organization would. Hasan goes on to state the criticism he receives is unjustified as he issued a correction and deleted the video of his coverage. |
| 8:40 | Hasan argues that if "the information wasn't solid" he would not have worked with it. Destiny rejects this characterization, arguing Hasan "did not work towards anything to get to the hate-crime". Hasan counters, stating he did not assert anything in the situation was a hate-crime, and merely decided to speak on the issue at the time. Destiny tells Hasan to chill, and states he's doing what NuanceBro does when he decides to discuss African American crime statistics. |
| 11:57 | Hasan states he has never been in a situation where the police officers and all eyewitness testimony was incorrect, and argues once more he was justified in covering the video. |
| 25:33 | Hasan asserts he cannot wait for all the facts to come out, as it would be at a detriment to his job. Destiny disagrees, and posits a hypothetical to Hasan:
"Let's say you report the facts about some story, the facts are all true... let's say that from those facts, you could draw three or four likely scenarios that could have happened. Do you think it would be responsible to talk about any of those scenarios without having further facts to confirm them... You're speculating based off incomplete facts on a narrative you can't support." - Destiny Hasan responds once more that his job is to "opine", and he was justified in covering the story with the facts he had. |
| 28:40 | Destiny describes a hypothetical scenario where an arab was accused of a terrorist attack, and right-wing pundits decided to discuss arab extremism as a whole. Hasan agrees the pundits would be justified. |
| 38:55 | Hasan states his job isn't to report the news uncritically and flow a narrative around it. Destiny, not paying attention to what Hasan was saying, is incredulous by a bold poker move linked to him by a chatter. |
Destiny's position
| Timestamp | Position |
|---|---|
| 3:06 | Destiny disagrees with Hasan's perspective, arguing that even talking about the situation potentially being a hate-crime is irresponsible, given that so little information was available. Destiny then points to the example of performing similar coverage if a bombing had occurred and the police had not ruled out an Arab person. Hasan then argues that this analogy does not sufficiently encompass the situation, pointing to the various witnesses identifying the shooter (shortly after, a chatter points out that witness-id is rarely accurate). |
| 4:31, 8:29, 10:46, 12:34, 15:50 | Destiny routinely asserts that there was no reason for Hasan to cover this event before any more information had come out, and there was no value to be gained from doing so. |
| 18:45 | Destiny argues Hasan could have covered the immediate news regarding the shooting without framing a narrative and should not have decided to leverage the situation to discuss hate-crimes. |
When is the right time to cover news stories?
| Timestamp | Position |
|---|---|
| 14:57 | Hasan asks Destiny what the right time to cover news stories is. Destiny argues that he hates breaking news, and the dangers around breaking news are too great to risk covering it. Destiny goes on to assert that narratives can be formed very early on when a story is covered too soon, and retractions are woefully ineffective in reframing said narrative. |
| 35:28 | Hasan states he has a very limited window to get a message across and must cover facts pertaining to breaking news immediately. |
References
- ↑ I F#%*ING HATE BREAKING NEWS FT. HASAN PIKER. (Jan 9, 2019). www.youtube.com. Retrieved March 22, 2024, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FcDO7jYQQ8
- ↑ Media:HasanBreakingNewsComments.png
- ↑ https://www.vox.com/identities/2019/1/10/18175589/jazmine-barnes-shooting-houston-texas-race
