Taylor Lorenz’s Power User How the Media Tricks You Into Loving the Police
17 snips
May 8, 2025 
Alec Karakatsanis, an award-winning civil rights lawyer and author of 'Copaganda: How Police and the Media Manipulate Our News,' dives into the pervasive influence of pro-police narratives in media. He discusses the distinction between media's focus on minor crimes like shoplifting versus significant issues like wage theft. Alec reveals how fear-driven narratives contribute to mass incarceration and authoritarian policies. He also highlights propaganda tactics that distort the public's understanding of safety and justice, urging a critical engagement with media narratives.
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Core Functions of Copaganda
- Copaganda narrows our perception of safety by focusing fear on marginalized groups while ignoring harms caused by powerful entities.
- It pushes the false solution that more policing and prisons solve societal problems, ignoring root causes like poverty and inequality.
Disproportionate News Coverage Example
- A single viral theft video in San Francisco resulted in 309 national news articles, while wage theft cases against the same store were largely ignored.
- News selection heavily favors sensational crimes over systemic harms without media PR machinery.
Misleading Reform Language
- Terms like "major overhaul" in news framing exaggerate minor criminal justice reforms.
- This conditions the public to accept insignificant changes as sufficient, limiting calls for substantive reform.
