A topsy-turvy world
An old journalistic saw is that if both sides are complaining, you must be doing something right. I've never put much stock in it, even though I've said it myself on occasion. It's illogical; it could just as easily mean that you must be doing something wrong.
For a week or so, I've heard from callers and writers who accuse us and City Council of being afraid to deal directly with the police department issues for fear of being called racist. More bluntly, the idea is that a rogue African American cop is able to operate illicitly within the department and no one will do anything about it -- or write about it. It seems to be a current running beneath the surface in the storyline in the Rhino.
At the same time, County Commissioner Skip Alston, former head of the state NAACP, and State Rep. Earl Jones have called the paper and me racist. In brief, they think we never put positive stories about black people on the front page. And they think we unfairly vilified the Rev. Michael King of Project Homestead and the A&T football player convicted of sex crimes.
How has it gotten to the point that being called racist has become a defense against being accused of political correctness? It's not, of course. But it's a result of this name-calling, finger-pointing world where ad hominem attacks based on our own preconceptions take the place of reasoned discussion and fact finding.
An addendum to this discussion is the notion that we're in league with the city leaders, parroting their preferred story line. Given our long history writing about issues that brought down the city's wrath -- the Homestead scandal, the city's managing the hockey team, the lie detector tests and our reporting of the RMA documents -- this argument has the credibility of an e-mail from deposed Nigerian royalty.
For the record, we've written about Lt. Hinson and his connections with prostitutes and drug lords, although not in the detail that the Rhino has. As for Skip and Early, I buy the concept of institutional racism, but the evidence they've presented doesn't wash.
Newspapers are criticized for a variety of sins, some justified, some not. On controversial stories, the criticism routinely comes from all sides. Around here, on issues pertaining to race, the debate seems to boil over every time, scalding anyone who dares come close. In this case, it seems at times as if some people think the newspaper caused Chief Wray to resign, which occurred a few weeks before we got a copy of the RMA report.
Our reports may not be perfect, but racial bias and political correctness aren't the reason for that. Those are the easy, emotional responses. And that's unfortunate because this story isn't over yet.
Comments (8)
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Well, your "for the record" discussion of Hinson's alleged misdeeds is buried pretty deep in a story that, in my opinion, is easily as biased against Wray as the Rhino's is for Wray. Frankly, I don't trust the N&R or the Rhino for an unbiased account of the whole situation, although I think that by reading both, you get a general sense of it.
And your credibility isn't helped, I think, by having opinion writers do hard news (or by having news writers do opinion pieces). For a paper that constantly stresses the separation of news and editorial desks, that separation looks fuzzier all the time.
Posted on October 23, 2006 6:41 PM
Jerry Bledsoe's series in The Rhino Times is significant because it exposes what the N&R DIDN'T include in it's coverage.
Mr. Robinson, even you have admitted there is a liberal bias at your newspaper. That bias is reflected in the stories you guys write. Lex Alexander is a case in point. He's well-known as a liberal opinion writer, and when he tackles a story as a reporter it's immediately suspect for it's transparent liberal bias. Many people see this, we're not all idiots.
One solution for this is to write factual, well-researched stories that present all sides in an impartial manner.
We haven't seen that from you in years.
Just my $.02.
Posted on October 24, 2006 10:17 AM
John:
I was thinking recently about the long view vis a vis your newspaper and racial tension in Greensboro.
Granted, I have only paid attention to your city for a few years now, but I was wondering, what would be your answer to the following:
Race relations have long been an important issue in Greensboro. What impact, say in the past 25 years, has the Greensboro News and Record had on healing race relations in your city? Have you sought to weave the master narrative together? Has your coverage caused more division than would otherwise exist? Does the paper benefit economically from heated racial tension?
These are honest questions. Granted I am a frequent critic of your paper, but this time I am genuinely wondering what your response would be.
Has the newspaper's printed product made race relations in Greensboro better since 1979? If so how, if not, why?
Posted on October 25, 2006 10:44 PM
Your big questions require a quicker mind and faster writer than me, Jeffrey. And I don't have the time or, frankly, the interest required to answer your questions fully or completely. A couple observations, though:
The specific questions are easy. I can't imagine how we would benefit financially from heated racial tension. People angry with coverage don't buy more newspapers or place more ads, in my experience. We have not sought to weave the master narrative as you call it. That's a book length project, in my mind, rather than a daily newspaper one. (And I seriously doubt that such a work would contribute to healing race relations, although perhaps someone like David McCullough could pull it off.)
I will say that race is the one issue above others that people view reflected through their own biases. So when we write about people of other races than white, we get criticized. Hard to believe in this day and age that people who tell me that we have too many black people in the paper, but I get that pretty often. But you know what? I don't get that from African Americans. And I don't get black readers calling to complain about all the photos of white people in the paper.
I do hear from African Americans, though, when we publish negative stories about black people in the news.
All that said, I have no sense that people I hear from are representative of any consensus opinion. People bring their own bias to bear. I read in the blogosphere that we've called David Wray a racist. Not that I'm aware of. Then, we've portrayed him as a racist. Again, I don't think so. People disagree. OK.
I find it interesting that you frame our coverage through a negative prism -- has our coverage caused more division? and does the paper benefit from heated racial tension -- rather than the just as easy presumption that the coverage has helped, etc. What should I make of that?
Posted on October 26, 2006 1:51 PM
John:
You shouldn't make too much of the frame. I find in blog-style writing one either provides too little background and ends up asking questions in a vacuum or provides too much detail and obscures the main point, which I got around to with "Has the newspaper's printed product made race relations in Greensboro better since 1979? If so how, if not, why?"
Has the newspaper's printed product made race relations in Greensboro better since 1979? If so how, if not, why?
Posted on October 26, 2006 8:58 PM
Umm, that really was a typo to repeat that question twice, not snark.
Posted on October 26, 2006 9:00 PM
What a hoot...
Alston said that while Johnson is "black on the outside," inside, he is "as white as John Robinson."
Do Alston and Jones like any white people...who?
Outside the press...Alston is a nice guy...don't know anything about Jones other than taking cash from Payday lender scum.
Posted on October 26, 2006 9:26 PM
Gotcha, Jeffrey.
meblogin, it's interesting that as concerned as Alston and Jones are, it's been years since Skip and I have talked -- and that occurred only over a lawsuit we had filed to get some county records -- and I can't remember ever talking to Jones.
Posted on October 27, 2006 10:21 AM