Three dudes just got shot in front of the convenience store down the street. The journos showed up even before the cops did.

Some favourite journo tricks:

Make out before a demo that there's going to be loads more people than they will, and that there'll be trouble when there won't - thereby making an excuse for repression - and then when the crisis fails to materialise, attribute this to the repressive policing which was legitimated by the initial scare stories. e.g. London Mayday.

Just ignore events which don't fit your worldview or your story. For instance, only ever cover violent protests and ignore any where there's no trouble. Or don't bother covering the protest itself - just make a fuss about how there was "no violence" and this was all the cops' doing. c.f. non-coverage of the third day of protests at the Gothenburg EU summit (because they were peaceful).

Cut bits from out of interviews so everyone says what you want them to say. For instance, in the Rushdie affair, local news put on an Asian saying the book had stirred controversy and a white guy saying he defended free speech. All very stereotypical. But get the full transcript and you find the Asian guy said he supported the book even though it caused controversy, and the white guy was a Nazi who wanted Asians out of Britain, rambled on forever and just said a little snippet about free speech in the middle. It was cut and pasted to make it fit preconceptions.

Get all your info from a single biased source. For instance, info on protests and on "race relations" comes from the police. If the police are your only so...