News-Record.com

Our front page story today about the resurgence of racial "incidents" accompanied by a large photo of a group of Klansmen demonstrating in Georgia reignited the discussion of whether it is better to reveal or ignore such radical hate groups.

Obviously, we decided on the former, believing that the more information people have about events around them, the better. One incident cited here occurred in the Triad. Others cited here occurred in Boone and Durham.

Some readers thought the front page coverage was too much, believing the display promoted the groups. One comment is here: We can't give any hate group that type of publicity. It is confirming that your paper is supporting their philosopy of hate.

The mere act of publishing a story is not a News & Record "seal of approval" on the story's content. Rather, by publishing stories, we are signalling that the information is important enough to know about.

Did this one have to go on the front page? No, but given our history both positive and negative, it seems worthy of attention.

A subscriber writes that the KKK is back, dropping its one-page garbage with an advertising flier on driveways. Some people think it is delivered by us. It's not.

The fliers are anonymous, of course, in keeping with the organization's cowardice.

We suggest the people who object to them contact the city, given that this is considered littering under city ordinance.

My newspaper column

Over the Christmas holidays, some people in Guilford County awoke to find a rolled paper wrapped in blue plastic on their driveways.

I would say it looked suspiciously somewhat like a newspaper, but I don't want to equate what was lying there with what we produce every day.

Inside the plastic bag was an advertising circular of the type you might find in the News & Record and a one-page hate message that confused and upset some newspaper readers. I don't blame them.

The flyer came from the Knights Party of the Ku Klux Klan, which delivers its toxic message in this way a few times a year, often around holidays. Last February, the group delivered one "in recognition of Black History Month." Nice.

Several times a year, the KKK litters people's driveways with its drivel, occasionally wrapped in pages of our newspaper to give it enough weight so that it doesn't blow away. (The racist organization has used the Rhino, too.)

The Klan is at it again. We have gotten complaints from people who think we actually delivered the bilge on Christmas morning. (Christmas is apparently a popular time.)

We didn't and wouldn't. On Christmas or any other day. My advice is to treat the Klan flier as you would any other piece of trash that blew up on your property.