Omitting Race: Politically correct or good crime reporting? (gag alert)

Society of Professional Journalists ^ | Sally Lehrman

[Baladas]

Two frightening killers were on the loose, and the Sacramento Bee’s readers wanted to protect themselves. They wanted more than descriptions of the attackers’ clothing at the time of the murders. They wanted to know the criminals’ race. The Bee, they accused editors, had allowed outdated policies to endanger public safety.

Challenged by readers and by bloggers who don’t adhere to journalistic conventions, many editors have been thinking about loosening their rules for identifying race in crime stories.

In general, news outlets have avoided racial and ethnic identifiers unless they were important to the case, or, perhaps, if victims’ descriptions were very detailed. They’d apply a test: Was the racial information useful to people in the community who might know the attacker or want to avoid harm themselves? Or was it so general that it only merely contributed to stereotypes about one group or another?

[Baladas]

For cryin' out loud, how politically correct can they possibly be?

[SandRat]

to the point of being dead wrong.

[BenLurkin]

Scary. No logic to this but the "journalist" seems to think he is offering a rational explanation.

A vague description of two 5-foot-2 Hispanic men between the ages of 18 and 25, for instance, might implicate any number of young men on their way to the grocery store or out to a movie.

So omit the "Hispanic" and what do you have? Even MORE young men implicated.

Why hide the truth from the public? Makes no sense at all.

[Publius6961]

Was the racial information useful to people in the community who might know the attacker or want to avoid harm themselves?

Any broadly racial description would be helpful in people feeling safer. If the crazy perp is described as white, no one needs to feel paranoid about the Asian walking down the street mumbling to himself.

The worse option is to omit race altogether, which would lead most rational people to use the Jesse Jackson test for feeling paranoid...

[Mark was here]

If a persons race is meaningful enough for the U.S. Census to take special note of, why isn't it good enough for a newspaper reporter?

[WilliamofCarmichael]

RE: "how politically correct can they possibly be?"

Glad you asked. Within days of 9/11/01 the Society of Professional "Journalists" issued guidelines which advised against using Muslim and the word terrorist in the same article -- UNLESS the article was balanced with a reminder of our own domestic terrorists. To wit, "When writing about terrorism, remember to include white supremacist, radical anti-abortionists and other groups with a history of such activity."

here

[the invisib1e hand]

For cryin' out loud, how politically correct can they possibly be?

it's never enough.

[Alouette]

In the end, they never arresting anyone.

Well, there goes the stereotype that one has to know grammar in order to be a "professional journalist."

[Tzimisce]

Warning: some individuals on the loose for aggressively making a withdraw from a 7-11.

If you have any information in the name of anti profiling please keep it to yourself.

[learner]

Oxymoron= “society of professional journalism”