The Nieman Foundation for Journalism was set up at Harvard. Like everything touching old foundations and journalism, it’s a toxic disaster. And this one is right up there with In Defense of Looting. 

This should be the year where we finally abolish the crime beat. Study after study shows how the media’s overemphasis on crime makes people feel less safe than they really are and negatively shapes public policy around the criminal–legal system…

For every good police-accountability story, or story covering the root causes and generational pain of violence and harm, there are dozens more crime stories that inflict trauma and make a spectacle of violence, mental illness, poverty, substance abuse, and generational divestment…

The whole process of how the criminal–legal system is covered needs to be reexamined — from who sets the news agenda, to who determines what’s newsworthy, to whose voices are centered in coverage and which relationships are prioritized. We need beats that focus on communities impacted by systemic marginalization and keep people safe and healthy. And we need beats that help people navigate the criminal-legal system, access important social services, and better understand their rights.

Let me translate that from leftyspeak. 

1. Reporting on crime should be abolished because if the media doesn’t report on crime, people will falsely think they’re safe. At least until they’re murdered in their homes. And when people realize how bad things are, they’ll demand that law enforcement protect them which leads to a crackdown on crime.

Which is bad.

2. Good journalism is about how cops are evil “police-accountability” and Marxist garbage blaming murder and rape on “root causes” like poverty or mental illness.

3. Instead of centering the voices of crime victims, especially if they’re white, or law enforcement, center the voices of criminals and their advocates. Journalism should be about how America is racist, crime is caused by racism, and provide criminals with information about how to get away with their crimes.

No this stuff isn’t marginal. Nieman is influential and it’s part of the larger pro-crime push. And the reshaping of the legacy media.

Even at this late date, one of the few things the local news does anymore is sports, weather, and crime. Lefty virtue signaling destroyed sports. The push to make every weather report about global warmunism while firing any weatherman who doesn’t go along has been underway for years. Eliminate the crime beat and then, as the old Soviet joke went, there’ll be on izvestia (news) in Pravda (the Soviet publication) or pravda (truth) in Izvestia (the Soviet publication).

But I’m sure that people will feel safe even when there’s crime and violence all around them just because the news is full of explainers about how crime was caused in 1619. And they’ll in no way turn to covert social media groups and conspiratorial organizations in the hopes of getting at the truth.