2021 April 17: Wheels with Ed Wallace’s Sleight of Hand News Segment - Daunte Wright

In the April 17, 2021 edition of Second Hand News (SHN), Wallace covers the news story about the Brooklyn Center, Minnesota police shooting of Daunte Wright. Wallace states that Wright being pulled over for having an air freshener hanging from his rear view mirror initiated the tragic events. Wallace asserts this four times in this segment, as per this ♫ audio (edited for brevity). However, this assertion was soon contested. Brooklyn Center Police Chief Tim Gannon clarified that Wright was pulled over for expired tags.

Later in the program, Wallace revisited his assertion of a police pullover based on an air freshener, stating that he had read the Reason article about the incident before the police chief made his statement. The shooting took place on April 11, 2021. Police Chief Tim Gannon stated ‘expired tags’ on April 12, 2021. The latest version of the source Reason article is time stamped April 12, 2021 at 3:21PM and includes an update detailing the expired tags. The Second Hand News segment did not air until place April 17, 2021. So, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday pass before the SHN segment airs and Wallace does not acknowledge the update to his source Reason article. Furthermore, the ‘expired tags’ clarification was widely reported by the major news outlets that Monday, all of whom Wallace monitors daily in order to maintain his news link aggregation site.

Wallace never mentions in the SHN segment that Daunte Wright resisted arrest for an outstanding warrant tied to a gun violation. Wallace never mentions that Wright broke away, got back into his car and drove away. These are actions that put the arresting officers and the public in danger. Instead, Wallace recalls his nonviolent encounter with police where Wallace did not resist arrest and implies that he received preferential treatment.

In short, this is just another representative instance of Sleight of Hand News.