Fusion senior correspondent Tim Pool has been reporting from Ferguson, and he took time to take questions in a Reddit “Ask Me Anything” session Tuesday. Asked about media coverage of the Ferguson grand jury’s decision in the Michael Brown case, Pool said the reporting about violence has created a “self-fulfilling prophecy”:
I was told a story once in Chicago. There was this new drug they were calling “super heroin.” Several people overdosed on it and the local news reported their location and where they thought it was being sold. The next day way more people overdosed… they found out where to get it from the local news report.
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Pool, who live-streamed from Ferguson for three hours Monday night, said the media was “part of the problem” in a way Pool has not seen in other, seemingly more dangerous conflicts:
In the other countries I’ve been to protests are more focused on single targets. The police reaction is certainly not the most violent and the protester reaction is certainly not the most violent. However it feels so much more dangerous in Ferguson. The media is a part of the problem to the police and a lot protesters here and that makes you a part of the conflict much more than an impartial observer.
Watch some of Pool’s reporting from Ferguson, after the jump: