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COLD FEET: Birds take to the ice as winter makes its appearance at Yellowstone National Park. / Photo by Nancy Williams

Today's word on journalism

Monday, November 5, 2007

On Objectivity:

"I still insist that 'objective journalism' is a contradiction in terms. But I want to draw a very hard line between the inevitable reality of 'subjective journalism' and the idea that any honestly subjective journalist might feel free to estimate a crowd at a rally for some candidates the journalist happens to like personally at 2,000 instead of 612 -- or to imply that a candidate the journalist views with gross contempt, personally, is a less effective campaigner than he actually is."

-- Hunter S. Thompson, from Fear & Loathing: CORRECTIONS, RETRACTIONS, APOLOGIES, COP-OUTS, ETC., a 1972 memo to Rolling Stone editor Jann S. Wenner, excerpted in the current (November 2007) issue of Harper’s Magazine (Thanks to alert WORDster Andy Merton)

Opinion : :

O'Reilly comments prove racism's alive and well in America

By Spencer Johnson

October 12, 2007 | My how the mighty have fallen! Fox News Channel representative and conservative icon Bill O'Reilly has gotten himself into a deep mess, and this time there is no one he can yell "Shut up!" to but himself.

After having dinner with Rev. Al Sharpton, he decided that he should share his experience with a national audience. On air, Bill O'Reilly told the audience "I couldn't get over the fact that there was no difference between Sylvia's restaurant (a famous restaurant in Harlem) and any other restaurant in New York City. I mean, it was exactly the same, even though it was run by blacks, primarily black partnership." He added: "Those people are surprisingly respectful. I had a great time."

This was not taken well by the African-American community in Harlem. O'Reilly defended himself poorly by saying that the media "took it out of context." This coming from O'Reilly, who is known for calling attention to anyone who says or does anything wrong in his or Rupert Murdock's eyes.

Is this how Fox and conservatives want to be viewed upon?

The family spokesperson for the business was upset with the comments as well. They felt that the comments were "extremely insensitive" and "outrageous."

O'Reilly has been fairly quiet about the situation. He is also expected to play the victim in the media. He said he has been the prey of the media and he just wants to be heard out.

Although that is very ironic, we don't believe it. Everyone deserves a second chance, but quietly O'Reilly has been getting into more trouble as time goes along. He went on to stereotype rappers by saying he didn't see anyone saying, "Hey mother 'f-er' gimmie some more iced tea."

As expected, every conservative has come to bat for the disgraceful comments O'Reilly made. The first to report this was Media Matters, which also was the first to report the Don Imus comments.

We believe O'Reilly deserves similar treatment. The comments were quite sad. They show that racism still is alive and well in America. We have a responsibility to raise our children in such a way that we don't see color. Its also the media's job to shed more light on the issue. People complain about athletes and actors getting favored treatment -- is this a different scenario?

NW
RB

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