How One News Error Shook Baltimore’s Faith Community

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June 19, 2026

Faith leaders say The Baltimore Sun’s mistaken identification of a respected pastor raises larger questions about accountability, trust, and how Black Baltimoreans are portrayed.

by Rev. Dorothy S. Boulware, WordinBlack

As Baltimore clergy rally behind Pastor Antoine Burton, the controversy over The Baltimore Sun’s misidentification of him as a crime suspect is prompting broader questions about newsroom safeguards, public trust, and the consequences of getting someone’s identity wrong.

Overview:

A newspaper correction may have ended the factual error, but it did not end the fallout. As Baltimore clergy rally behind Rev. Antoine Burton, the controversy is prompting broader questions about newsroom safeguards, public trust, and the consequences of getting someone’s identity wrong.

Long before Rev. Antoine Burton, a Baltimore pastor and president of the nonprofit We Our Us, board of directors, stood at a pulpit, his name was his reputation. It represented years of hard work in ministry, community service and public trust — built one relationship at a time.

Then, in a matter of hours, The Baltimore Sun trashed Burton’s reputation. The city’s venerable paper of record used a photo of Burton and mistakenly identified him as a man charged in a Park Heights shooting.

Continue reading . . . How One News Error Shook Baltimore’s Faith Community

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