Revisiting the requirements of hutchins: Context and coverage in the post-George Floyd world

The death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police in 2020 set off a season of upheaval in communities across the country and beyond. Rioting erupted, buildings burned, and activists demanded the dismantling of police departments. For journalists, this was not just an enormous story, it was a challenge to the long-held practices, policies, and values of traditional news organizations. It was not the first such period of self-scrutiny. In 1947, the Commission on Freedom of the Press, better known as the Hutchins Commission, challenged the United States news industry to reform itself before outside forces imposed reform upon it. The commission's report identified five requirements of a free society. If not met by journalists, the Hutchins report warned, these requirements would lead that society to regulate news media through governmental means. This chapter examines how the Hutchins requirements relate to reporting on race relations and challenges to journalism that followed the police killing of George Floyd. It explores the issue of who gets to decide which words journalists use; new thinking on such old concepts as objectivity, independence, and neutrality; and the notion that news organizations owe greater protection to certain public protesters than tradition would dictate.