Faith in Action

On Saturday, July 14, 2007 CNN aired a piece on surveillance cameras and focused on Baltimore City, Maryland.  Utilizing footage provided by Charm City; CNN revealed its bias by making a case for the use and expansion of so-called “security cameras”.  During the 3 min 8 sec feature, CNN interviewed Police Commissioner Leonard Hamm and Police Intelligence Commander, Major Dave Engel.  A measly 30 seconds was given to two community residents who expressed their opinions of the cameras not being effective at all, a belief that I sense to be more in line with the feeling of a significant portion of Baltimore’s citizens.  CNN’s, Joe Johns, goes so far as to even state that community residents should agree with Baltimore Police on the issue of the cameras.  (My opposition to this crime fighting strategy is well documented on this blog.  I feel that my commentaries provide a better sense related to why many of us Baltimoreans don’t have an ounce of faith in these “security” cameras.)

It’s quite interesting that CNN would air this piece about the effectiveness of these cameras while this city is in the midst of a surging homicide rate and a so-called “gang problem”.  And yet, neither of these issues were raised in the piece.  How does one cover security cameras in Baltimore and not say one word about our murder rate that is on pace to top 300 homicides? 

It makes me wonder about the intent of this “news” item.  Can this feature on CNN really be considered “news“?  Or would a better classification for it be “propaganda“. 

I’m leaning toward the latter.