PBS NewsHour added an editor’s note to its story after featuring a volunteer on Donald Trump’s presidential campaign who appeared to have prominent white power tattoos.
The Tuesday story focused on Grace Tilly, a 33-year-old Trump supporter in North Carolina, who has a Celtic Cross and the number 88 tattooed on her hands, both of which Gawker first identified are widely recognized white supremacist symbols.
In an editor’s note added to the full story, the network wrote NewsHour presents profiles of families and their political views “without reporters’ narrative” which “requires the audience to draw its own conclusions.”
Tilly told producers the tattoos “are not representative of neo-Nazi positions but are connected to her family’s Celtic religious beliefs,” according to the note.
Although both tattoos are visible as Tilly makes calls at a campaign phone bank, PBS producers did not address them in the story.
PBS NewsHour did not respond a TPM request for comment on Wednesday.
Here’s the full editor’s note:
Editor’s Note: At several times during this campaign the NewsHour has featured video packages of voices of voters, profiling different families and their views on the candidates and how they have arrived at them. These reports have been presented without reporters’ narration. It is true that this storytelling style requires the audience to draw its own conclusions about what they see and hear, but we believe the audience is able to do so.
In this case, a debate about Grace Tilly’s tattoos has started online. As you can see in the comments section posted with this story, Ms. Tilly argues that these tattoos are not representative of neo-Nazi positions but are connected to her family’s Celtic religious beliefs. That is what she told our producers as well. Others among our online commenters vehemently disagree.
The headline on this transcript has been updated to more accurately represent the video segment.
