Minneapolis protest cleanup: Did you share this meme without fact-checking it? (Don’t spread fake news about the news.)

A Facebook meme with 52k reactions and 37k shares includes pictures of volunteers cleaning the streets in Minneapolis, the day after mass protests of the death of George Floyd. The pictures make a powerful point about the values of the community. However, the text includes an unnecessary slam against journalism, because it introduces the images with “Images you won’t see in the news.”

I searched news.google.com for “minneapolis protesters cleaning” and found dozens of timely, relevant stories covering that angle of the story.

Perhaps whoever created the meme didn’t see a cleanup story in whatever news source they checked. But images like these are most definitely part of the story journalists are telling.

While covering these protests, reporters have been sexually harassed by fellow citizens, and shot with rubber bullets and arrested by law enforcement.

Sharing links to the news stories that do tell the part of the story you want your followers to hear does more good than misrepresenting the coverage journalists are providing.