Oregonian newspaper ripped for identifying police shooting victim as White 'in light of social unrest'

The Oregonian newspaper received fierce backlash Friday after it revealed the race of the victim of a police-involved shooting in Portland in an apparent effort to quell potential riots.

The Portland-based paper reported that police had responded to reports of a man in a park with a gun.

The victim was described by the paper, which cited sources, as a "[W]hite man in his 30s."

However, in a Twitter thread sharing the report, the Oregonian emphasized the victim's race in the wake of a string of police-involved shootings have made national headlines.

"The man who was killed was a [W]hite man in his 30s, according to three sources with knowledge of the investigation. The Oregonian/OregonLive is identifying the man's race in light of social unrest prompted by police shootings of Black people," the paper tweeted.

The Oreganian was slammed by critics on social media.

"'The police killed a man, he was [W]hite so you don't need to come and riot' is a sane and healthy message coming from our media," conservative commentator Stephen Miller reacted.

The paper ultimately deleted the tweet and later offered a clarification.

"We included information in an earlier tweet about why we identified the victim’s race that was poorly worded," the Oregonian wrote. "It was not intended to minimize what happened, only to provide context. We generally do not identify race in news stories but often do when reporting police shootings."

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