Posted by
Mike Bates on Monday, July 28, 2008 11:52:53 AM
In today's Chicago Sun-Times, columnist Mary Mitchell writes of a panel conducted at the UNITY convention of minority journalists:
Earlier, an NPR editor asked panelists whether it was
appropriate for journalists to clap for Obama -- and the question
uncorked a mounting frustration among many black reporters.
"The total duality of it gets to me," said Les Payne, a member of the panel.
Payne is a founding member of the National Association of Black Journalists and an editor at Newsday.
"There's no question that mainstream journalists completely adore McCain and cover him favorably," Payne said.
"Now it is: You cannot do what we do routinely . . . and have been doing for a century," he said.
"You have been writing favorable stories about [President] Bush for
eight years. This is a serious problem and one of the reasons why this
organization was founded," he said.
That the mainstream media adore McCain comes as a surprise to all of
us continually irritated by its fawning and swooning over Barack Obama.
Even more incredible is Payne's assertion that journalists have
provided favorable coverage of President Bush for all of the last eight
years. The world of the MSM must be even more detached from reality
than previously believed.
The Newsday columnist provided useful information as to one of the
reasons UNITY was established: To stem the flow of all those gushing
pieces about Bush.
Now there's a change they can believe in.