The Black Informant

Black media gets scared

George E. Curry, editor-in-chief of the NNPA News Service and BlackPressUSA.com recently expressed his “concern” about the NY Times recent decision to create a newspaper that targets black Americans:

“Black publishers freely concede that anyone has the right to start a newspaper. That is not the issue. What is so galling is that White-owned media companies that have done such an embarrassingly poor job of accurately portraying people of color on their pages and broadcast outlets are now seeking to supplant the only legitimate Black media voices that have performed that task admirably for more than a century. It is arrogant and ridiculous to think that newspapers that primarily portray African-Americans as criminals, athletes and entertainers will suddenly be able or willing to present African-Americans in their full complexity.

Equally culpable are companies that refuse to advertise in Black-owned media but are willing to place ads with White-owned publications, broadcasts and Internet outlets targeting African-Americans. They should be publicly exposed and boycotted. In fact, every Black newspaper should identify them each week so that African-Americans will be able to support only corporations that respect and support them.” (more…)

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White Alert! White Alert! White Alert! White Alert! There coming to steal our newspapers! Man your battle stations!

Trust me, this has less to do with some fear that the white-owned NY Times will miss the mark when trying to relate to us black folks and has more to do with one thing: competition.

Healthy competition is something that is desperately needed in the black newspaper world if it is to survive in the coming years. Since its early beginnings, black newspapers have been a source of information relevant to the black community. Unfortunately, many of these newspapers today have been slow to catch up with the times (no pun intended). News happens everyday, so newspapers provide daily coverage. The same cannot be said for most black newspapers which usually put out a weekly publication.

As I pointed out many times on this site, the general theme for most black newspapers is to report on the latest discrimination case, the latest racist incident involving some white teen who sprayed the word “nigger” on the back of some 7-eleven, etc. From time to time you will find an interesting article, but most of it is just sounding an alarm that has been blowing for years. Don’t get me wrong here, we do need to know of at least some of these cases. But to use this as a central theme becomes very tiring to the reader.

The NY Times may be white-owned, but that fact does not always equal “out of touch”. When BET was black-owned”, there were numbers of blacks who felt that the overload of booty-shaking videos fed into the black stereotype—BUT WE STILL WATCHED THEM. When Viacom bought the station, all of a sudden Bob Johnson became a sellout. The same accusation is being stamped on Ed Lewis, former CEO of Essence Communications–BUT WE STILL BUY THE MAGAZINE.

Hey, I am not crazy about OUR media being controlled by other races either, but the fact of the matter is, our newspapers desperately need fresher and more relevant content. If the presence of the NY Times will encourage our papers to provide better content, then I am all for this move. I suggested a while back that perhaps some of black newspapers out there need to join forces and resources to achieve this type of quality. Unfortunately, I think tradition will prevent that from happening.

Curry really needs to chill on this one because if the idea of a white-owned company ruining a black newspaper will not work , then let it go down in flames on its own. Obviously there might be some potential to the idea if he is making this big of a deal about it. Most companies who are white-owned but target blacks know that they must keep the input of their targeted audience on the forefront if they are to be successful. I do not think that the NY Times will deviate from this practice.

In the end, let the readers decide based on the content, not the race of the owners (hmmm, based on content…not on race…Reminds me of something someone said a while ago. Awww, don’t mind me. Just me daydreaming again).

Just a side note, Curry makes the following statement:

“In 1978, the American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE) established a goal for the year 2000 of having newsroom employment be “equivalent to the percentage of minority persons in the national population.” Although African-Americans represent 12.5 percent of the population, Blacks are only 5.4 percent of the nation’s newsrooms, according to a survey by the American Society of Newspaper Editors.”

12.5 of Americans does not equal to 12.5 of newsroom personnel. Both of these percentages are based on two different populations of different size. So there is a possibility that blacks have exceeded the national average in the newsroom. You will need the actual count of personnel in all newsrooms throughout the US to come up with the actual number.