"Lights. Camera. Crime" is a look at how a format of TV news created in Philadelphia and exported to more than 141 media markets portrayed Black people as criminals, which discouraged empathy and helped to popularize harsher criminal justice policies. This is the second installment in A More Perfect Union, a special project from The Inquirer examining the roots of systemic racism in America through institutions founded in Philadelphia. This account comes after an examination of The Inquirer’s struggles with racism and diversity reported by an independent journalist and published in February.
