It is almost an axiom of human behavior that eye-witness testimony is notoriously unreliable. Innumerable research studies in both psychology and law have shown how much eye witnesses to the same event differ in their accounts of what did, or did not, really happened.
But here’s something else the research has shown: people tend to interpret events in light of their own prejudices and predispositions.
In other words, two people observing the same event will put their own interpretation on the event depending on what they want to believe.
And these results apply whether two or more people are observing the same event, or watching multiple videos of the event.
While these results are often taken from experimental situations that may or may not reflect real life, there are also real-world example of this disconnect between what we think we see and what actually happened.
Take, for example, the several videos of the interaction between federal agent Jonathan Ross and Renee Good.
As you might expect, news media outlets with different political persuasions see two different actions. Conservatives see an attack on Ross, while liberals see an unprovoked attack on Good.
The same results occur no matter which of the three or four different videos are shown.
And of course, both sides accuse the other of bias and distortion.
Multiple news organizations are suggesting the multiple videos can be interpreted different ways. One video seems to show Ross being struck while a different video showing the same scene from a different angle shows Ross not being struck.
Oh, and here’s something else everyone needs to remember: under our system of law, someone is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, after a trial.
Unfortunately, we will never know what Renee Good was thinking in that last minute. And her past actions and words are totally irrelevant to the facts at hand.
As for Ross, innocent until proven guilty,
Larry Burriss, a professor in Middle Tennessee State University’s College of Mass Communication and president of the Tennessee Journalism Hall of Fame, welcomes the crowd before the induction ceremonies at the Tennessee Association of Broadcasters conference in Murfreesboro for the Tennessee Journalism Hall of Fame. (MTSU photo by Andrew Oppmann)
