Black Journalists Scoff at Suggestions That Coverage of Barack Obama Tests Their Objectivity

By: Jackie Jones, BlackAmericaWeb.com

The role of citizen journalists and the presence of journalists of color on the campaign trail and covering the White House are all common fodder for journalist conventions. The elephant in the room is usually the issue of whether minority journalists are held to a different standard of objectivity than white reporters.

The issue broke open during a panel discussion about campaign coverage at the UNITY convention in Chicago Sunday.

Alicia Shepard, ombudsman for National Public Radio, asked whether journalists should applaud or cheer a candidate’s appearance, an obvious foreshadowing of the appearance of presumptive Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama, which followed the panel.

“It’s analyzing as if we’re under a microscope,” responded NABJ founder and former president Les Payne, saying the question suggested to minority journalists, “You cannot do what we do routinely, what we do universally and have been doing for centuries.”

Payne noted that white journalists have relationships with sources and socialize with them, maintaining that even the American Society of Newspaper Editors applauded President Bush both metaphorically and literally.

Through their coverage of the events leading up to the war in Iraq, American editors essentially applauded Bush’s handling of the war. “Just ask Judith Miller,” Payne said, referring to The New York Times reporter whose close ties to White House sources resulted in coverage that some said essentially endorsed the Bush administration.

Black Journalists Scoff at Suggestions That Coverage of Barack Obama Tests Their Objectivity....