Editor's Blog: An Open Letter to CNN’s Fredricka Whitfield

Editor's add in:  Ms. Whitfield has since actually voiced an apology. See THIS VIDEO.  Now I'm waiting on her commitment to go on some ride-alongs and see what our work is really all about.

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Ms. Whitfield:

This past Saturday morning, June 13, 2015, one James Boulware carried out an attack on the Dallas PD Headquarters using an armored vehicle, explosives and firearms.  Quite thankfully, no police officers or civilians were killed in the attack.  Unfortunately, Mr. Boulware, due to his own actions, was killed during the police attempts to neutralize the threat Mr. Boulware presented to the community and the law enforcement professionals tasked with keeping it safe. In your comments during coverage of this attack on that same day you referred to Mr. Boulware as “courageous and brave, if not crazy as well.”

Watch Video of Whitfield's Comments

Watch Video of the "Apology"

The reaction from every law enforcement professional in our nation and a huge portion of the non-police population must have been overwhelmingly negative indeed if you were compelled to follow that up with a correction, saying that you ‘misspoke’ when you made that statement about Mr. Boulware’s courage and bravery.  “Misspoke” – the new politically correct, gentle word for “said something stupid that’s now biting me in the ass and that I have to retract in some way that saves face, so I won’t say I was wrong, just that I misspoke.”  Politicians use “misspoke” in place of “lied.”  I guess now it’s okay for news anchors to use “misspoke” to cover “I admire this criminal but don’t want police officers to think I actually sympathize with the criminals or prefer criminals to police.”

Tell me, did you even really think about what you were saying before you said it?  Were those words yours? Or, like our president, were you simply reading off a teleprompter and got held responsible for what someone else wrote but you spoke?  Either way, I’d like for you to take into consideration a new reality that I had assumed all news anchors lived with for the past couple of decades:  anytime you’re in front of a camera, and even a lot of times when you don’t even realize a camera is on and recording, you’re responsible for everything you say.

As a writer, I take responsibility for everything I write.  Sometimes what I write angers or frustrates people and I have to write a clarification.  I am proud to say that I’ve never written a retraction BECAUSE I VERIFY FACTS BEFORE I START TYPING.  As a news anchor, shouldn’t you exercise that same level of responsibility?  As a news anchor on a channel dedicated to news reporting, shouldn’t that responsibility carry even greater weight for you?

Setting that aside, I have an additional conundrum: in saying that Mr. Boulware was courageous and brave, did you realize that you were essentially praising the man?  When we call someone “courageous and brave” we are paying them a compliment.  Complimenting a criminal who attacks the police in retribution for the actions of his own parents and the courts is tantamount to supporting his actions.  Supporting his actions – as he commits crimes – is… contemptable.  Tell me, if there had been no public lashback in response to your statements, would you have gone to Mr. Boulware’s funeral and offered up comments celebrating his courageous and brave death?  Would you have condemned the police for doing their job? Would you have condemned them for even defending themselves?  In what world is it even remotely acceptable for a ‘news anchor’ to glorify a criminal and, in the same breath, vilify police officers?

Ms. Whitfield, I don’t know what your day to day life is like.  I don’t know what the requirements of your job are. I don’t know if you have to read copy or are free to voice your own thoughts but I DO know that you will forever be immortalized in a video recording where you essentially sing the praises of a criminal and identify yourself as one who has no appreciation for and gives no support to our law enforcement professionals.  And since we consider ourselves one big family – the Thin Blue Line – all over this country, you can’t simply relocate and start over.  We don’t forget easily.  Forgive? To some extent, yes.  Forget?  No.  That’s just dumb.  Every day we live a job where if we forget someone who presented a threat we might get killed.  We don’t forget.

That said, I will offer this:  I will lead the charge in the law enforcement community to legitimately forgive you if you can do two things.  These aren’t complicated, but they may be difficult and prove more than you can handle.

First thing:  Get back on CNN and make this clear statement:  “I accept full responsibility for what I said with regard to Mr. Boulware.  I was wrong to say it and I apologize to law enforcement professionals everywhere for having even implied that what that criminal did was even remotely laudable.  To all police officers and deputies in our nation, I apologize for the insult I voiced and assure you I will do all I can to avoid such a mistake again in the future.”

Second thing: Go get in the passenger seat of a cruiser in Dallas and do 30 ride-alongs.  No camera.  No recording devices.  No makeup. No glorifying the risk you’d be taking.  Just you.  Not the news anchor personality. Just YOU.  Go do 30 ride-alongs and watch what the officers have to deal with.  See how they get treated.  Watch them risk their lives for people LIKE YOU who have no appreciation for the risk taken and sacrifices made.  Observe firsthand what these heroes do, day in and day out, and then see how you feel about Mr. Boulware.

In the meantime, until you build up the courage and bravery to do those two things, I’d appreciate it if you’d stop ‘reporting’ on anything law enforcement related.  You obviously don’t understand the term ‘impartial’ and have no clue about journalistic integrity.

Respectfully yours,

Frank Borelli, Editorial Director, Cygnus Law Enforcement Media