Articles Feature

Does Both-Sides-ism Slight People of Color?

by richard03063

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Short Takes

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“Meet the Press” aired clips Sunday from a roundtable discussion on impeachment with six voters in Kent County, Mich.

Nonwhite Voters in Heartland Often Missing

Not everyone agrees that it’s the media’s duty to “cover both sides of the story,” Jon Allsop wrote Monday for Columbia Journalism Review.

“In the Trump era, ‘both sides’ (or ‘bothsidesism’) has become shorthand for a journalistic philosophy that many media critics consider to be broken, especially in its Democrat v. Republican iteration; its rules, critics say, make things that aren’t the same seem the same, and allow bad actors to launder disinformation. . . .”

Allsop also wrote, “Some coverage, it seems, can’t even do bothsidesism properly. Yesterday, Meet the Press courted online criticism of its own, after it aired clips from a roundtable discussion on impeachment with six voters in Kent County, Michigan, a competitive area of a competitive state. Every one of the voters was a Republican; they all appeared to be white.

“Host Chuck Todd disclosed their partisan affiliation, but not before he’d introduced them as ‘voters beyond the Beltway.’ The soundbites they gave were entirely predictable: ‘Have you recorded a football game but found out the final score before you watched it, and you just don’t even care?’; ‘I think a lot of people see it more as an infomercial, politically’; ‘Both sides…’

“Nor were they fully representative of public opinion. Jamil Smith, of Rolling Stone, noted on Twitter that ‘Nonwhite, liberal voters who also live outside of DC are hardly ever on these panels.’ Marcy Wheeler, a national-security blogger who lives in the area Meet the Press visited, said the roundtable didn’t even reflect white opinion in Kent County. (Wheeler says she visited the brewery where the segment was filmed and also interviewed six people there, at random. All six supported impeachment.)”

“Meet the Press” media spokespersons were not available on Monday.

Smith was joined in his observation by Nikole Hannah-Jones of the New York Times Magazine and its “1619 Project,” who tweeted Sunday, “You all will never tire of this tired framing will you? Republicans live in the beltway, black people live in the Midwest, and there is no such thing as ‘real Americans’ unless by that you mean all of us.”

Meanwhile, “Saturday Night Live” aired its own take on the political divisions in American households (video), with the black family having a decidedly different perspective.

Allsop continued, “When it comes to much impeachment coverage, bothsidesism isn’t the beginning and end of the problem, but part of our broader reflex to frame contentious political stories around the concept of partisanship. In parts of the press, a set of party-oriented impeachment narratives has taken hold that contains some truth, but also rests on a selective interpretation of available evidence. . . .”

Short Takes

(Credit: Sharon Farmer/sfphotoworks)

  • While she might have appeared cool and collected when she met the news media, “Journalists didn’t know what we had to go through . . . Because I’d been up all night studying. We knew that you all were counting on us to tell you our best truth,” (Facebook) Valerie Jarrett, senior adviser to former president Barack Obama, right, said at the 10th Annual Journal-isms Roundtable Holiday Party at the Newseum on Dec. 7. “We went out there thinking that it was our responsibility to be honest and candid with you. That was a huge responsibility, as it should be, right?” By contrast, the Trump administration has cut down on news conferences and the Washington Post has counted more than 13,000 false and misleading claims by Trump since the beginning of his term. Jarrett also said the lack of leaks in the Obama White House resulted from thorough vetting of issues among the White House and agency staffs so that all felt their voices were heard. At left is April Ryan of American Urban Radio Networks, who interviewed Jarrett.(video)
    • “I have stepped back from the day-to-day professional world and am now a retiree!,” [PDF] Will J. Wright (pictured) has announced, the subscription-only NewsBlues site announced Wednesday. “I am retired from NBC News and MSNBC following more than 52 years in News.” According to his LinkedIn profile, “Wright is currently Manager of Diversity and News Editorial Projects for NBC News and MSNBC. He has served as Senior News Editor with theGrio and as manager of Digital Production for NBC News, tasked with helping to transform the workforce through training and corporate culture development.” He is “known as a diversity champion, a digital journalism advocate, and a staunch devotee of community inclusion. . . .”
    • “Robert L. Asher (pictured), a journalist who spent decades at The Washington Post writing editorials on issues of local and regional importance such as traffic congestion, the operation, construction and financing of the Metro rapid transit system, and the efficiency or inefficiency of snow removal, died Dec. 6 at a hospital in Bethesda, Md,,” Bart Barnes reported Dec. 8 for the Post. “He was 83. . . . For 30 years, Mr. Asher was also a part-time teacher of journalism and writing at Howard University, one of the few white faculty members at the predominantly black institution. . . .”

    “ In New Orleans in September 2018, columnist Jarvis DeBerry talks to Debra Touissant about why she and others gather every day beneath the shade trees. (Credit: David Grunfeld, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune).

    • John Yearwood is joining Politico Tuesday as deputy editor for agriculture and trade, working with P.J. Joshi, editor for trade and agriculture, the Washington-based news organization announced Dec. 6. Most recently, Yearwood was president of his own Yearwood Media, a media consultancy that specializes in emerging markets. Previously, he spent almost 13 years as the Miami Herald’s world editor, and was on the executive board of the Vienna-based International Press Institute and the National Association of Black Journalists.

    Alex Tizon (Credit: Melissa Tizon)

    • “The 49ers have suspended Tim Ryan, their radio color analyst, over comments he made on a Bay Area sports talk radio show Monday in which he said Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson, who is black, is exceptional at faking handoffs because of his ‘dark skin color with a dark football, ‘ ” Matthias Gafni and Lauren Hernández reported Dec. 5 for the San Francisco Chronicle. “He’s really good at that fake, Lamar Jackson, but when you consider his dark skin color with a dark football with a dark uniform, you could not see that thing,” Ryan said on air. “I mean, you literally could not see when he was in and out of the mesh point, and if you’re a half step slow on him in terms of your vision, forget about it, he’s out of the gate.”
    • Julian Wyllie has joined Current, which reports on public media, as a reporter covering public television and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. “A former online news reporter for the Chronicle of Philanthropy, he has completed several editorial internships and fellowships in Washington, D.C.,” Karen Everhart reported for Current on Nov. 26. “In June 2017, Wyllie became a City Accelerator Journalism Fellow with Governing Magazine, and he went on to intern with The Chronicle of Higher Education and AARP. . . .”
    • In an interview with Esquire magazine, 82-year-old actor Billy Dee Williams said, “And you see, I say ‘himself’ and ‘herself,’ because I also see myself as feminine as well as masculine. I’m a very soft person. I’m not afraid to show that side of myself.” As Kelley L. Carter reported Dec. 4 for the Undefeated, “Media outlets — so many media outlets! — picked that quote up and ran with it. Williams, they reported, is gender fluid. People praised him. Oh, how they praised him. Thing is, Williams has no idea what that means. . . .”
    • “From the Yellow Vests in France to demonstrations in Lebanon, Gaza, Chile, Ecuador and Haiti, sustained movements all over the planet have taken to the street demanding change. Yet US corporate media have been disproportionately interested in only one: the Hong Kong protests,” Alan MacLeod wrote Dec. 6 for Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting. “As FAIR argued previously (FAIR.org, 10/26/19), this disparity in coverage can largely be explained by understanding who is protesting and what they are protesting against. . . .”
    • “The mayor of Rio de Janeiro, Marcelo Crivella, severed city hall’s relations with newspaper O Globo, the largest in the city and edited by Grupo Globo, the largest communication group in the country,” Júlio Lubianco reported Dec. 4 for the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas. “As a practical effect, on Dec. 3, two journalists from the outlet were prevented from attending a press conference about the city’s New Year’s Eve party, which annually attracts millions of tourists from Brazil and around the world. . . .”
    • “Cuban authorities should stop barring journalist Luz Escobar from leaving her home, and cease harassing independent journalists in the country,” the Committee to Protect Journalists said Thursday. “Beginning on November 16, authorities have repeatedly barred Escobar, a reporter for the independent Cuban news website 14yMedio, from leaving her home in Havana, according to news reports and tweets by Escobar. . . . Escobar told CPJ in a phone interview that authorities often prevent independent journalists from working on ‘significant dates’ either by detaining them or stopping them from exiting their homes. She called the practice ‘random house arrest, without any process,’ and said that she has not been made aware of any charges filed against her. . . .”

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