Back in my larval days, as a young DFH working in a newsroom, I often had some crusty, old, middle-aged, white editor crush a story idea with “our readers DON”T WANT TO HEAR ABOUT THAT!” Blacks protesting discrimination? Nah. White students angry about the draft? Shut up! FBI doing domestic spying on Americans? SHUT UP! “Listen, kid, there are a lot of crazies out there… you write what I tell ya.” That was in the days before the phrase “tin foil hat” gained notoriety. It was before Fox News and Drudge and the right-wing echo chamber displaced the AP in setting the agenda of what was worthy of being covered.
Wisconsin protests? Not so much worth of coverage. Shawna Forde, NOT AT ALL. Yeah, she’s a white woman. But the frame story is wrong. SHE wasn’t kidnapped. She needs to be a Muslim man to be a perpetrator. Meanwhile, look, OVER THERE… Britney Spears!!!
Back in my larval days, as a young DFH working in a newsroom, I often had some crusty, old, middle-aged, white editor crush a story idea with “our readers DON”T WANT TO HEAR ABOUT THAT!” Blacks protesting discrimination? Nah. White students angry about the draft? Shut up! FBI doing domestic spying on Americans? SHUT UP! “Listen, kid, there are a lot of crazies out there… you write what I tell ya.” That was in the days before the phrase “tin foil hat” gained notoriety. It was before Fox News and Drudge and the right-wing echo chamber displaced the AP in setting the agenda of what was worthy of being covered.
Wisconsin protests? Not so much worth of coverage. Shawna Forde, NOT AT ALL. Yeah, she’s a white woman. But the frame story is wrong. SHE wasn’t kidnapped. She needs to be a Muslim man to be a perpetrator. Meanwhile, look, OVER THERE… Britney Spears!!!