Journalistic Obligations
Hat Tip to Michael Smerconish for bringing this up on his radio show this morning.
Today's post is going to require a little homework on your part. First I want you to read this article about a group of teenagers terrorizing the small community of Chesnut Hill, PA. It will require registration, but it is free. Now read this article in the Chestnut Hill Local newspaper and contrast the two. Notice any difference in how the articles are worded?
The first article from the Philadelphia Daily News just describes the suspects as a pack of teenagers. It isn't until you read the Chesnut Hill Local article that you read the perpetrators are black. I'm sure the Philadelphia Daily News left this fact out of their article under the banner of tolerance and political correctness. I'm sure they felt that if they identified the thugs as black teenagers they would be hurting the feelings of all black people by making them feel inferior to whites. The Chesnut Hill Local says to hell with your feelings, we want these thugs off our streets and we're going to tell you what they look like.
One caller to Mike's show this morning relayed a story about when he called the police about some kids he saw throwing rocks at a house. I'm guessing from his dialect and accent that the man was black. He said when the police arrived one of the first questions they asked him was the race of the teenagers he saw throwing the rocks. He responded to the police, "What does that matter?" Of course it matters! How are the police going to find them if they don't know what they look like?
Mike Smerconish compared this to the Phillies beating the Nationals in baseball one night and the newspaper not reporting it the next day because they didn't want to hurt the feelings of any Nationals fans who might read it. It's ridiculous.
My question is: Do reporters have an obligation to tell you the race of a crime suspect? Should reporters carry the burden of deciding what is important to us? As a caller pointed out on Smerconish's show this morning, the Daily News is basically saying you as a reader can't handle the truth. Is it their right to decide that? Or are they obligated to give us all of the facts regardless of whose feelings might get hurt?
Today's post is going to require a little homework on your part. First I want you to read this article about a group of teenagers terrorizing the small community of Chesnut Hill, PA. It will require registration, but it is free. Now read this article in the Chestnut Hill Local newspaper and contrast the two. Notice any difference in how the articles are worded?
The first article from the Philadelphia Daily News just describes the suspects as a pack of teenagers. It isn't until you read the Chesnut Hill Local article that you read the perpetrators are black. I'm sure the Philadelphia Daily News left this fact out of their article under the banner of tolerance and political correctness. I'm sure they felt that if they identified the thugs as black teenagers they would be hurting the feelings of all black people by making them feel inferior to whites. The Chesnut Hill Local says to hell with your feelings, we want these thugs off our streets and we're going to tell you what they look like.
One caller to Mike's show this morning relayed a story about when he called the police about some kids he saw throwing rocks at a house. I'm guessing from his dialect and accent that the man was black. He said when the police arrived one of the first questions they asked him was the race of the teenagers he saw throwing the rocks. He responded to the police, "What does that matter?" Of course it matters! How are the police going to find them if they don't know what they look like?
Mike Smerconish compared this to the Phillies beating the Nationals in baseball one night and the newspaper not reporting it the next day because they didn't want to hurt the feelings of any Nationals fans who might read it. It's ridiculous.
My question is: Do reporters have an obligation to tell you the race of a crime suspect? Should reporters carry the burden of deciding what is important to us? As a caller pointed out on Smerconish's show this morning, the Daily News is basically saying you as a reader can't handle the truth. Is it their right to decide that? Or are they obligated to give us all of the facts regardless of whose feelings might get hurt?
posted by Mike at 8:18 AM
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