On February 11, 2025, Dr. Natalie Byfield visited Francis Lewis High School to talk to students about the Exonerated Five case. In her presentation, she outlined the circumstances and events revolving around the case but also discussed the significance of the media during the time.
The Exonerated Five are a group of young men who were falsely accused and coerced to confess to having sexually assaulted a young woman in Central Park. The media covering their case often used sensational language to portray the innocent teenagers as dangerous and inhumane when they were completely innocent. And as with most media, the public started to see it as the truth.
Dr. Byfield in her presentation discussed The Shack, a newsroom within the New York Police Department. Though the proximity to authorities was helpful for Dr. Byfield as a journalist during the case, she notes how “the police were the first editors.”
“I just feel like media needs to be restructured,” Dr. Byfield said in an interview with FLHS News. “For profit media is a challenge, because you will have people in the interest of profit moving stories in a particular direction, or framing, not challenging, being uncritical of things they need to be critical of.”
With this profit mindset, news outlets often cherry pick what gets printed and what doesn’t. And as a result, there are, as Dr. Byfield describes, “holes” in the industry.
Dr. Byfield described the lack of a housing beat, when there is a high need for housing issues to be reported on, as a hole. Especially in metropolitan areas such as New York City, having a dedicated reporter on housing is important. This also includes a lack of a labor beat, another hole that doesn’t have as much dedicated coverage.
“We need to focus on some other things that immediately involve the day-in and day-out, immediate lives of the people that we live with,” Dr. Byfield said.
These holes make inclusivity in journalism a challenge, especially with how fast-paced hard news is. In the case of the Exonerated Five, there were several patches the reporters failed to cover. Without considering the perspective of the five teenagers or the logistics behind the justice system, the media portrayed the Exonerated Five as villains.
But Dr. Byfield and the Exonerated Five case remind journalists about the importance of truthful and ethical journalism. In a world of tense political climate and international affairs, it is important for the media to be a medium for the people rather than a weapon against them.
“I think [journalists] have to bring a very democratic lens to their work as a journalist and to think about the broadest group of people,” Dr. Byfield said. “And to make sure that what you’re covering are stories that will be impactful to the broadest group of people in terms of what you focus on.”
