Mosby’s speech a remarkable moment cable missed

The Marilyn Mosby viewers saw Wednesday morning on local TV stood in sharp contrast to the one they viewed on the steps of the War Memorial Building last year when she announced indictments against the six officers in the Freddie Gray case.

While cable news focused its cameras on yet another Donald Trump news conference, Baltimore TV gave viewers a front-row seat to one of the more remarkable moments in the battle over policecommunity relations that has engulfed the nation the past two years.

The Baltimore state’s attorney, standing in front of a wall portrait of Freddie Gray in the Sandtown neighborhood where he lived, delivered a fiery defense of her office’s performance in the wake of her decision to drop all charges against the three remaining officers in the case.

Part of that change in Mosby’s image involved staging. Last year, she stood on the steps of that monument to civic authority, and some cameras shot up at her, making her seem more powerful.

This time, shown at eye level on the street, she seemed smaller — diminished, defensive and angry as she pointed fingers at others for the failure of her office to win convictions against any of the six officers charged.

The Mosby on my screen Wednesday morning seemed far less in control or powerfully righteous. A few minutes into her speech this time, I started wondering if the failure and widespread criticism she and her office had come under were taking an emotional toll. I wondered if the strong TV persona I saw last year was starting to melt down.

Besides defending her office, an angry Mosby also denounced “the media,” some of the police involved in the investigation of Gray’s death and, indeed, the system itself.

“After much thought and prayer, it has become clear to me that without being able to work with an independent investigatory agency from the very start, without having a say in the election about whether our cases proceed before a judge or a jury, without communal oversight of policing in this community, without real substantive reforms to the current criminal justice system, we could try this case100 times, and cases just like it, and still wind up with the same result.”

Nowhere in all the cable coverage that I have watched since the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., have I heard any public official offer such a blanket indictment of the criminal justice system.

Never have I heard a public official so clearly say justice is impossible. And she said it to a city and nation that could hardly be more on edge over police-community relations.

And, as she spoke, the major 24/7 cable channels, our primary crucibles of national political news, had their cameras focused on Trump.

Cable news tried to catch up with the story as Mosby’s words exploded across social media. Stationed in Philadelphia for the Democratic National Convention, the major networks over the course of Wednesday afternoon interviewed Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake about her reaction to the words of the state’s attorney.

“I have never —and will never — use my position to give the impression to the community that they should not have confidence in the people who have sworn to serve them,” Rawlings-Blake told CNN.

Then it was on to MSNBC and then Fox News. Rawlings-Blake’s reaction was less tempered by the time Shepard Smith asked if Mosby’s words are “helpful.”

“They’re absolutely not helpful,” Rawlings-Blake said. “When you insinuate that the process is rigged, that is, I think, an unfair statement about the judge and about the investigation — especially when she purported to do her own independent investigation in her initial press conference.”