Pulitzer Prize winning American historian and journalist Frank Luther Mott defined yellow journalism in terms of five characteristics:

1.  scare headlines in huge print, often of minor news

2.  lavish use of pictures, or imaginary drawings

3.  use of faked interviews, misleading headlines, pseudoscience, and a parade of false learning from so-called experts

4.  emphasis on full-color Sunday supplements, usually with comic strips

5.  dramatic sympathy with the “underdog” against the system.

NBC6 reporter Willard Shepard’s latest “news” story, Family Outraged After North Miami Beach Police Use Mug Shots as Shooting Targets, managed to employ four out of five of those characteristics.  The only thing NBC6 hasn’t done yet is create a comic strip (although that would really be fitting).

If Willard was looking to create a story where none existed, he pushed the all the right buttons.  Knowing full well that stories about “racists” and “cops” are all the rage these days, he just couldn’t resist replaying the now tired “racist cop” narrative.  Never mind that his latest “news” story is full of hot hair, manufactured by an attention seeking black African American (Oops! That was un-PC!) woman, whose ex-con brother’s mug shot happened to be one of HUNDREDS used to train police snipers.

If Willard Shepard’s intention was to fan the flames of racial tension, it was a huge success.

Let’s all give him a standing ovation!

Despite the fact that his “exposé” exposed nothing but stupidity on the part of the media, his bogus story went viral.  Now the entire world actually believes that every single police officer in the North Miami Beach Police Department uses mug shots of BLACK MEN for target practice.

Truth be damned, the narrative lives on.

National Guardsmanwoman (Oops! That was SEXIST!) Sgt. Valerie Deant deserves an Honorable Recognition for being picture-perfectly “outraged” that her brother’s fifteen year old mug shot was used in a lineup with pictures of five other criminals upstanding-but-arrested-anyway citizens, who were also black similar in appearance.

Never mind that the sniper team was also using mug shots of men and women homo sapiens that weren’t black of color, the fact that Deant’s brother’s photo just happened to be included in the lineup of black men cisgender (but really male) homo sapiens of the negroid race.  (Oh crap! Is it still okay to use the words “homo sapiens?”  Or is that ANTI-GAY now?  I can’t keep up with all this PC shit!)

Never mind that the NMBPD’s LEAD SNIPER just happens to be a BLACK MAN!

Willard charged right ahead and created problems where absolutely none had existed.

In any event, just like the false “hands up, don’t shoot” narrative out of Ferguson, which Mike Brown NEVER GESTURED OR SAID as he was attacking a police officer and wrestling him for his gun, the latest “news” that the North Miami Beach Police Department is using photos of BLACK AFRICAN AMERICAN MEN for target practice is also fiction.

The worst part of Willard’s despicable misrepresentation of the facts, which he posed as a “news” story, is that since he (inadvertently?) chose to play the race card, this fable has gone viral.  News organizations around the entire world have now picked it up and are running with it as if it were the gospel truth.  Newspaper headlines are screaming false narratives such as, “NORTH MIAMI BEACH POLICE USE MUG SHOTS OF BLACK MEN IN TARGET PRACTICE!”

Thanks, Willard!

One of the worst headlines I’ve seen so far is called Video: North Miami [sic] Police Reinforce Negative Cop Stereotypes By Using Black Mugshots As Target Practice.

Thanks, Willard!

If it’s not bad enough that Willard brought such UNNECESSARY negative attention to the North Miami Beach Police Department, another unintended consequence is that many headlines are claiming it’s the North Miami Police Department, causing that city almost as much grief as NMB is dealing with.  As a result of this mass confusion, the North Miami Police Department had to send out a Media Alert Correction.  As if its Public Information Officers have nothing better to do.

Thanks, Willard!

Until now, North Miami Beach has been largely unaffected by the insanity of the media-fueled circus that started in Ferguson and spread across the country.  The NMBPD has always had a good working relationship with the black community, which makes up at least 50% of NMB’s population.  This stupid story has unnecessarily invited trouble for the entire city.

Thanks, Willard!

But most importantly of all, did it ever once occur to Willard that the police officers he attacked are real live human beings?  Does it even phase him that these individuals are now being forced to defend themselves against false charges of racism and police brutality?

Those police officers are the real victims of this entire bullshit drama!

Yet, Willard merely brushed them aside as collateral damage in his quest for glory.  He is shameless and HEARTLESS!

Congratulations, Willard Shepard.  You are now the dishonorable recipient of the VotersOpinion.com’s First Annual Award for Yellow Journalism, (Yeah, screw all that PC shit. It’s called YELLOW Journalism for a reason!), suitable for framing.

Mazel Tov, Willard.  You just got a free trip down the Faux Journalism Walk of Shame!

Stephanie Kienzle
“Spreading the Wealth”