FLASHBACK: Reporters downplayed or dismissed claims of rising crime stats
Federal report this week found 29-percent rise in murders in 2020
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The New York Times reported Wednesday a 29-percent rise in murders for 2020, which marked the largest spike in the murder rate since the United States began recording it in 1960.
The Times suggested "various pandemic stresses, increased distrust between the police and the public," and "increased firearm carrying," as possible factors in the increased murder rate. Although there were signs of rising crime throughout 2020, many news anchors, reporters and media pundits sought to downplay or even dismiss the notion that crime was spiking.
Most recently, NBC News sought to hide the rising crime rate in their report on September 12. The article, titled "'Overall crime decreased in 2020' in the U.S., report finds," claimed that "overall crime" actually decreased compared to 2019. Charles Fain Lehman, who works on the Policing and Public Safety Initiative at the Manhattan Institute, told Fox News that their statistics were "misleading at best" by combining various crimes ranging from theft, to assault, to murder under one number.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}MCENANY ON REPORTERS UPSET WITH BIDEN: ‘WHERE WERE YOU WHEN HE WAS HIDING IN THE BASEMENT?’
In addition, the NBC report still acknowledged that murder and assaults were rising.
NBC’s cable arm MSNBC also frequently dismissed the crime rate despite reports to the contrary. In June, MSNBC's "The Cross Connection" with Tiffany Cross hosted former Los Angeles police officer Cheryl Dorsey, who suggested that the rising crime statistics were actually being "manipulated" by police departments.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"I don't necessarily think that there's an uptick in crime. And I can tell you that I know firsthand, you know, statistics can be manipulated," she claimed.
NBC News legal analyst Neal Katyal agreed the claims of rising crime rates were part of a "silly narrative."
"Factually, the idea that the Attorney General of the United States is furthering this silly narrative about our cities calling them anarchist is preposterous to me," Katyal said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Most notably, CNN hosts Chris Cuomo and Don Lemon openly mocked the concerns of rising crime rates in 2020.
CUSTOMER PULLS GUN ON PHILADELPHIA CHIPOTLE CASHIER, DEMANDS SHE SPEAK TO MANAGER: ‘GIVE ME MY FOOD’
"’Democratic cities are in chaos right now. Is this what you want from Joe Biden? And they’re gonna take your country away. And they’re taking down the statues,'" Lemon joked.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"’Crime is rising!’" Cuomo mocked.
The dismissal of crime rates even extended to the New York Times originally. In 2020, the paper responded to Trump’s claims about rising crime in New York claiming that the "reality is more complex."
"But the truth about crime — in New York and other urban centers — is complex. Overall crime remains at a generational low across the United States, despite the surge this summer in shootings and murders, criminologists say, and the underlying causes of the wave of gun violence are hard to pin down," the article said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Despite the spike, the national murder rate is still about one-third below the rate in the early 1990s, according to the Times.