Mayor criticizes ‘sensational’ news coverage of violent crime in Macon-Bibb County
In the wake of a weekend shooting that resulted in Bibb County’s 52nd homicide of the year — a modern-day high — Mayor Lester Miller at press conference on Monday stressed that all the slayings were not “murders” and that “this (violence) problem did not just start today.”
Miller blasted news outlets, though not by name, for sensationalism and for what he considered their mischaracterizing of some killings as “murders” when the incidents were deemed accidental or justifiable homicides.
So far this year, there have been 42 deaths that sheriff’s officials have categorized as murders.
While some of the 10 other violence-related deaths or homicides here have resulted in criminal charges — including one in a bar fight and another in which a child playing with a gun killed a little girl — they do not fit the legal definition of murders. Six such shootings are listed as justifiable or self-defense homicides.
The mayor intends to unveil a Macon Violence-Prevention plan Wednesday morning. But before doing so he apparently wanted to, at a gathering that included Sheriff David Davis and Coroner Leon Jones, clarify the semantics of the county’s violent crime rate. Miller said, “We have to have the same shared language,” later adding, “If you’re gonna do a count, let’s do a proper count, based on data.”
He opened his remarks — though it was not clear what news coverage he may have been referring to — by saying, “Macon-Bibb County has not had 53 murders. I’ll repeat that again: Macon-Bibb County has not had 53 murders this year.”
The Telegraph reported on Saturday that with the shooting death that morning of a 31-year-old man on Napier Avenue the county had eclipsed its annual record high for homicides of 51, a mark set last year — the most in a year since 43 people were slain in 1992.
The mayor said Macon is “not unique” in its problems with violent crime and he seemed to suggest that some local news outlets were piling on in their coverage of bloodshed here while other municipalities in the region might get a pass.
“We must be judged accordingly. Just like those other communities that people like to compare ourselves to, you must have some uniformity about how we classify certain crimes in our community,” Miller said.
“Let me be clear,” he said, “we appreciate the fact that we have a lot of media in Macon-Bibb County. But what we’re asking you to do is report facts and not sensationalize the crime that we have in our community.”
Miller mentioned perusing an unnamed outlet’s social media feed and seeing an apparently violent episode “that happened several weeks ago” that was listed as “sponsored” content.
“That means you paid money to run those ads so people will see them,” Miller said. “Or something as innocent as putting a terrible, terrible, tragic loss there, disregarding the fact that that problem happened in Kansas or Colorado or California. Hoping that people are gonna click on that so you can get a ‘like’ or a comment.”
The root causes
Miller said his upcoming prevention plan will look to address “root causes” of violence, causes he believes have “been ignored for the last 20 years.”
“This problem did not just start today,” the mayor went on. “It didn’t start this year. But when you don’t properly fund the sheriff’s department, and you don’t provide the resources they need, and when you don’t adequately fund mental health treatment, when you don’t get to the root causes to find out why students are leaving high school early and getting into crime and going to jail, then you haven’t done your job.”
Miller, speaking of violent-crime coverage by news outlets, said, “We don’t want people to over-sensationalize articles.”
He asked, “Why ... (if a) business is looking to come to Macon-Bibb County, would you sabotage our community for good economic development?”
He later clarified the remark when asked by a reporter if he was implying that news outlets intentionally sabotage Macon’s growth.
“I’m saying that the media does a good job of sensationalizing crime in Macon-Bibb County. ... It’s mostly a benefit and a curse to have so many media here. As a matter of fact, when we had this shooting, which may have been self-defense, at a mall here in Macon there was four or five people live streaming. I saw three articles every day for a week on that,” Miller said.
“We have some good positive news, you run it one time and it’s gone.”
This story was originally published December 7, 2021 at 5:00 AM.