Nick Reisman reports at New York State of Politics that a report by the group FWD.US found many instances where the media failed to explain how the measure to end cash bail in New York worked. The report says the media spread misinformation and did not check the claims made by opponents to the measure. That ultimately led to, the report suggests, more people in jail during the pandemic. "We also saw the poll numbers," said Laura Bennett, the group's research and policy manager for criminal justice reform. "Support for bail reform was declining just days after the law took effect." After the bill passed law enforcement sources would often point to someone who was not in jail, and blame the ban on bail, even if the new law had nothing to do with the case. "Too often those stories were just untrue and they often used sensationalized headlines or un-fact checked claims from law enforcement," Bennett said. "You can draw a direct line from these articles to the rollbacks and from the rollbacks to the fact that thousands of more people are in jail today while COVID is spreading behind bars.... That's why we feel this issue is so important." Stanley Fritz, the political director for Citizen Action, agreed. "The Legislature reacted to what the public response when it was obvious now that the public was misled, legislators were misled, reporters were misled," said Fritz. Read more about this story at New York State of Politics.