The Ferguson Police Chief reported as soon as possible giving the officer’s version of what happened, and offering the information that the officer had been roughed up. The basic information was there from the beginning, the press just didn’t bother to cover it.
No Police Chief is EVER going to hand out extensive information regarding an ongoing investigation. And if he did, he could be hauled into court and would lose all credibility with the people working for him. There was also political pressure not to release the video of Brown stealing the cigars; that’s one piece of information they had no legal reason not to release, and every reason to want to get into the public discussion.
No information regarding an ongoing investigation is released without serious consideration, meaning not much is going to be available for quite some time. We live in a society of “innocent until proven guilty,” and the police are responsible to protect the innocent by not allowing witnesses to be influenced and by not compromising the jury pool.
Plus, witholding information from the press is one way to weed out people who aren’t valid witnesses but are just looking for attention. If a potential witness knows things that weren’t in the news paper reports, the odds are much better that they know what they’re talking about.
You are exactly correct. The Ferguson case and the Trayvon Martin/George Zimmerman cases are classic examples of the mendacity of the old media. They primarily lie by excluding information that does not support the myth that they are trying to build.
To be more generous, they ignore evidence that does not fit their interpretation of reality.