And yes, I guess I could be guilty of finding a problem where there isn't one, but as a gay man and a former journalist I'm sensitive to the influence the media has over the people.
oh hey, reporter, I wouldnt suggest that you're guilty of finding a problem where there isnt one at all. in fact, its refreshing that other people admit the media bias. i started reading newspapers when I was 9yrs old (i guess they looked interesting when I was rolling them up to pass them), and even then was struck by the fact that black murderers or menaces to society were splashed across the front pages of every major city newspaper (Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times), WITH A PICTURE - yet when there was a story of a white person who was of a similar menace (or even greater, i.e. serial killer, child rapist, etc.), their heinous crime story would appear about 8-15 pages into the paper - middle to back pages where studies prove that most readers won't even turn. Oh, and with the white criminals in those days, there was NEVER a picture, so one could never put a face to evil of white criminality.
Beyond that, what would really turn my ire, was the consistent posting of black
minors names and pictures on the front pages of the paper. It got to a point where I started to believe there was a different standard when it came to the privacy rights of black minors vis a vis white minors. Indeed, with white minors, there was always the byline that due to the age of the perp, the name could not be shared - one didnt even expect to see a
picture of all things! Such racism was par for the course, however - what alarmed me more so, was the fact that it got to a point that all black minors even mentioned were being prosecuted as adults (even 6-8 year olds) because ...yknow....those black kids have adult mentalities - lock 'em up!
I digress. You get my point. You and tramp may find this funny, but I actually went into print Journalism in undergrad with the view of being an investigative journalist, but after a series of unpleasant experiences (I defined them as "racist" at that time) with the head of the print program - I switched to broadcast journalism in radio. the head of that program, at least, actually worked on the air in the tight Chicago market. Its the first time I fully appreciated the adage:
Those that can't, teach. Those that can, do. Suffice to say, I went on to be mentored by a guy who was on-air every day in Chicago, and graduated highly successful black broadcast journalists, and the head of the print program ended up stepping down in later years to do massage therapy. My sister went for a year or so to the school and focused in TV journalism and ran into the same problem with the guy who headed that program, who was also the Dean of the entire journalism school.
To this day, I'm not sure that school has graduated a black print or TV journalist.
I would like to suggest that I'm being bitter and over-sensationalizing. Unfortunately, I'm not - the head of our program even alluded to the fact that the politics of our journalism dept were inappropriate, and I found that he finally left the school a few years after I graduated. I know of no other wildly successful journalism alumni other than those I graduated with - in the broadcast program. Nor were the only people who graduated and were successful black or minority.
I guess I said all that to say that the tv and print journalism culture of 10-15 years ago, at least in my area, was very very racist and hard to break into. The field itself is hard to break into as a whole regardless of any other issues. Could I have pressed the issue and fought it? Probably. But I was 15, and in those days often took the path of least resistance. If I was going to fight anything, I wouldve fought to do what I had really wanted to do, which was to be a commercial pilot - however, I had gone to one of the schools offering Aviation as degree program, and in the informational session, the Dean of the Aviation program systematically talked to each and every parent and prospective student in attendance, EXCEPT me and my father. My dad eventually made him talk to us, but by that time I was so outraged and humiliated that I was done with Aviation. In retrospect, I realized that I gave them exactly what they wanted, which was for me to just go away - but I didnt have that fight in me. (I guess my little sister did, because she then went to a mostly boys school in MA, and is now highly coveted and one the only black female marine engineers I know. But she did go through the ringer to get it.) So yeah. In a school where almost every black student, to the man or woman, was being steered into Social Work or those what I call "easy" degrees, I was satisfied enough to do something I was good at - and I was very good at being a jockey.
It's not something that makes me bitter - a person's life takes many turns, and many opportunities appear and disappear, but Im pretty happy where I ended up.
All told - and beyond racism - I didnt buy that false claim to journalistic objectivity then, and I still dont buy it. Journalism was never objective, and it never will be. Anyone who truly understands persuasive writing should get that - real persuasion is to be able to persuade someone and all the while they have no idea that they are being steered. Beside the fact that the newspaper itself (if it truly is the "pinnacle" of real news as you suggest) has been dumbed down to a 8th Grade level across the board, most newspapers have a slant. The Tribune has Republican. The Sun-Times is Democratic. And apparently, the Wall Street Journal (or Washington Post - I cant remember which one had the article I read) is Republican as well.
However, having seen the blatant racism of a decade or two ago - comparatively speaking, I would say journalism of today has made leaps and bounds in sensitivity, but, as indicated, has seriously dumbed down as well.
Are we there yet? Absolutely not. Getting there? Hopefully. And you're right, we have a long way to go.
EDIT: Apparently I'm all alone, thought that cant be the case, because I'm not the one who cared about "MoFo"
to say the least of the fact that there are actually white Africans - what happens when they immigrate to America? Did they call themselves British-African? This whole paragraph could continue for days so I'll stop here.
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