NEW ORLEANS TIMES-PICAYUNE SERIES ON RACISM essays

NEW ORLEANS TIMES-PICAYUNE SERIES ON RACISM essays In 1991 the New Orleans Times-Picayune covered a bruising, racially charged governors race that had former Klansman David Duke running against former governor Edwin Edwards. The editors and reporters at the Times-Picayune were so concerned that Duke had a chance of defeating Edwards that they completely abandoned journalistic neutrality and aggressively used news columns and editorials in a campaign to defeat Duke. It is disturbing find that a newspaper would abandon its journalistic values, and not be objective. This creates social pressure for its readers, and hurts the newspapers credibility. They used explicit crusading and made investigations of Duke at every opportunity. Boosted by the campaign, Edwards won with a landslide victory. The fact that Duke had 680,000 votes (39 %) reflected deep racial polarization. Some black staffers including city editor Keith Woods were convinced that the newspaper really needed to address the problem. Several ideas were thrown around about a project for the newspaper. In addition to race relations, a series on crime was proposed, but Woods felt that such a series would end up offending blacks and be seen as an examination of black pathology. All of the ideas, including racial relations, eventually faded. However, race relations came up again when the predominantly African American city council passed an ordinance forcing Carnival Krewes, clubs that run the parades and other social events, to integrate. Fifty-five percent of the city was African American, and they thought the measure was long overdue. However, some wealthy white families stopped parading rather than obey the ordinance. Finally the newspaper assembled an 18-member biracial team to carry out the project. Another morally relevant fact is that many of the black journalist team members challenged the assumption that the white reporters could do such a project in the first place. Also, a relevant issue was how t...