Media Diversity Institute

By Tanya Sakzewski 

Depending on your media of choice, the protests in Los Angeles and the violence that followed either engulfed the entire city and required a military presence or were mainly peaceful, and clashes were restricted to certain areas. 

With misinformation, disinformation and fake news about the protests going viral, it’s hardly surprising that so many people believed in conflicting narratives.  

So, what role did the media play in either countering or promoting those false narratives? 

While there was some good reporting and fact checking, according to Rob Leavitt, President of ABM for Good and a former media educator, the media attention was generally what he calls “bad”. He points to coverage by the conservative right-wing media ecosystem, including influencers, which was “extremely biased” and mainly focused on incidents of violence. He says they framed it as an uprising in Los Angeles that required Trump to bring in troops, as opposed to a set of protests, which then were escalated by Trump bringing in the troops.  

“On the right, you had this very distorted coverage with a lot of deliberate misinformation. There were fake images that were flooding social media and mainstream right-wing media,” Leavitt told MDI. 

One of those fake stories, which fact-checkers have highlighted, focused on images of police cars ablaze in LA, which were posted on X. Those pictures were actually from a 2020 protest. 

David Tuller, senior fellow in public health and journalism at ...Read more