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....

Barack Obama Talks Immigration, Intolerance with Journalists of Color at First Post-Trip Forum

By: Jackie Jones, BlackAmericaWeb.com

Last year, when Sen. Barack Obama was making the circuit of conventions for journalists of color, the question was whether the prospective candidate was black enough. This year, when he appeared before the UNITY: Journalists of Color convention in Chicago, the presumptive Democratic nominee joked, “I’m too black.”

Obama appeared Sunday at the close of the convention in a session aired live on CNN to talk about his observations from his trip to the Middle East and Europe, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. economy and questions from the journalists about faith, affirmative action, immigration and apologies for slavery and to Native Americans.

About 6,000 journalists convened in Chicago last week to discuss coverage of communities of color and the status of journalists of color in the news industry, particularly given a recent wave of buyouts and layoffs that cost 1,000 jobs in June alone, according to some estimates.

UNITY: Journalists of Color, Inc. is a coalition of four national associations -- NABJ, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, the National American Journalists Association and the Asian American Journalists Association -- that places its total representation around 10,000. The organization challenges the journalism industry to make its staffs reflect the country’s diversity, and it advocates for fair and accurate news coverage about people of color.

Obama originally had been expected to appear at a town hall session on Thursday at the convention, but the overseas trip and other commitments by Republican opponent John McCain’s campaign disrupted those plans.

Barack Obama Talks Immigration, Intolerance with Journalists of Color at First Post-Trip Forum....