ABC Ignores Leaked Video of George Floyd Arrest; CBS & NBC Caught Editing Out “Stop Resisting”

It's not uncommon for the media to edit soundbites and to run those on the air.

What is unusual about the George Floyd police body cam video, however, is what the media chose to edit out.

According to Newsbusters:

Monday was the first chance the liberal broadcast networks had at giving their viewers a fuller understanding of the day George Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis police officer as two body camera videos were leaked to the U.K.'s Daily Mail. The videos show officers struggling to get Floyd into the cop car with an officer telling him to “stop resisting” at one point. ABC’s World News Tonight skipped the videos entirely, while CBS and NBC aired highly-edited soundbites and omitted the order.

In the video Daily Mail posted on YouTube, Officer Thomas Lane had Floyd out of his vehicle and was trying to get him into handcuffs. At the 2:13-mark, Lane can be heard telling Floyd to “stop resisting,” to which Floyd said: “I’m not.” “Yes, you are,” Lane replied.

That exchange was edited out by both the CBS Evening News and NBC Nightly News. Instead, they chose to mislead. The included video below shows how both networks used the leaked video for selectively edited soundbites.

The media have seen these videos before when officials allowed the media to watch them, but not broadcast them. But CBS anchor Norah O’Donnell hid that fact from viewers. Telling them, “Tonight, we're getting the first look at body cam video from two of the Minneapolis police officers who were on the scene the night George Floyd died in custody.”

At the top of the report, CBS chief Justice correspondent Jeff Pegues used a clip from the leaked footage showing Lane’s initial contact with Floyd. But it cut off before Lane could be heard saying “stop resisting.”

At one point, Pegues admitted the video “shows Floyd resisting the officer’s attempt to place him in the squad car.” But again, he never played the audio of Officer Lane.

There are always two sides to any story.

The body cam footage leading up to the famous knee-on-neck video ads more context to this disturbing case.

Again, we would like to emphasize that this footage leaked from BRITISH media, not American media.

This should tell you a lot about the SAD state of the American news media today!

Don't you think it's strange how George Floyd was the BIGGEST story for weeks and for months?

It was all the media could talk about...

Yet... the moment that body cam footage is released, the media chose to ignore it.

Why?

Shouldn't they be interested in covering the facts?

Here's how the Daily Mail described the body cam footage:

Bodycam footage from two cops accused in the murder of George Floyd is revealed exclusively by DailyMail.com today — and it shows a rookie officer terrifying Floyd by pointing a handgun at his head and another callously picking a pebble from the squad car tire just inches from the dying man and seconds before he draws his last breath.

The tapes show in minute detail how a very distressed Floyd begs 'Mr. Officer, please don't shoot me. Please man,' before the struggle that ended with his death on May 25.

It also shows how belligerent cops cursed at and manhandled the sobbing suspect, ignoring his pleas for compassion.

Floyd resisted as the cops tried to force him into the back of the car, telling them he suffers from claustrophobia and anxiety and how Officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes, leading to his death, ignoring Floyd’s repeated cries of ‘I can’t breathe.’

Floyd is even heard predicting his own death. 'I'll probably just die this way,' he says.

Transcripts from the videos were released in mid-July but a judge in Minneapolis had ruled the video could only be viewed in the courthouse, meaning few people have had the chance to watch the powerful images.

But the footage has now been leaked to DailyMail.com so the world can finally see the tragedy of Floyd’s last minutes as the cops were mindless of Floyd’s anguish.

The footage includes more than 18 minutes from Officer Alex Kueng's bodycam and 10 minutes from Officer Thomas Lane. They were the first two cops to arrive on the scene after a complaint that Floyd had attempted to pass a fake $20 bill to buy cigarettes at Cup Foods, a store in the Powderhorn Park section of Minneapolis.

Chauvin and a fourth officer, Tou Thao, were called in to assist. All four were fired the day after Floyd's death.

Chauvin, 44, has been charged with Floyd's murder and the other three face charges of aiding and abetting murder. The events have led to months of Black Lives Matter protests throughout the country over police racism and brutality.

The two officers' bodycam videos have been filed with Hennepin County District Court by Lane's defense attorney.

It is clear from the video that Floyd was not trying to run away - he had plenty of time to leave the scene before police arrived. But instead he decided to sit in his car with two friends, giving the cops the opportunity to approach.

It is no question that Floyd's death is a tragedy.

However, this video does NOT indicate that the police acted based on racial prejudice.

The whole video suggests that at the very worst, this was a case of police brutality.

But it could also prove that Floyd was on drugs and that the police did what they had to.

We must let the courts, law, and justice decide.