Two different readers this morning have asked me a question I hear all the time:
"Are you hearing from other readers about this?"
In one case, the caller's point was a fair one that nobody else had made: He thinks The Star doesn't devote enough attention to high school sports in his part of town. That's relative, and I bet parents in other parts of the area would disagree, but it's still reasonable (and I've shared it with the high school sports editor).
The other caller made a point that I've heard many times throug the years: He thinks The Star publishes too many photographs of black people.
Stark examples of one good, unique point of view -- and one somewhat common, very bad and extremely unreasonable one.
The overall point: Some of the best stuff I hear comes from a small number of people or even just one. For me, it's about good, not just popular, thoughts.
I heard from columnists about this.
I attended a panel discussion at the Plaza Library a year or so ago. Eric Wesson of The Call and Lewis Diuguid were on the panel. They both were extremely critical of the Star for publishing pictures of blacks who were in some way connected to crimes. Basically, their opinion was that the Star’s frequent publication of these pictures unfairly perpetuates a negative stereotype of blacks.
VOR, maybe I should have
VOR, maybe I should have been more explicit. This caller was complaining about simply seeing too many black people. The example he cited was a story about Halloween candy last week that pictured four black children and their choices of sweets.
"This caller was complaining
"This caller was complaining about simply seeing too many black people." I thought that was the case, but I also thought it was worth noting that many of the pictures of blacks in the Star show them in a negative context. The opinion of Wesson and Diuguid is that these pictures (and stories) are published much more frequently than is justified by the significance of the underlying events. I assume that the editors of the Star strenuously disagree with their opinion.
I think you have to take
I think you have to take every instance on a case-by-case basis. Every individual's subjective opinion about the cumulative effect is going to be different, so I respect any criticisms to that effect. I used to serve on a newsroom committee that tried to do an audit of issues such as this, and I'm of the opinion that it's simply too complex and subjective to be worth studying. For example, should a photo of a person who used to be homeless but now is back on track be considered negative or positive? I think you can argue both positions.
I don’t think Wesson and
I don’t think Wesson and Diuguid are primarily concerned with stories like “Winnetonka’s Jobe rises up from tragedy” (a story in this morning’s sports section about a black high school football player who transferred from Central High School to Winnetonka High School). I think they are more concerned about articles like the one on page A8 of Saturday’s paper, which shows the picture of a black man charged in an incident where a police officer was wounded. Even though this specific story may be a valid news story, I think they would question what value is added by showing the black man’s picture. I think they believe this merely reinforces stereotypes without adding any substantive information to the article.