Wednesday, November 12, 2003

Let’s get a race tally in stories

I congratulate Lionel Spearman for exposing the omission of “white male” in the horrific PTC rape-torch case. His sensitivity is very understandable. Increasingly it appears a minority is automatically assumed to be the perpetrator of the crime.

The same argument can be used in reference to our local Atlanta television news programs. Pick any local channel on any night for the latest reports of murder, rape, drugs, robbery, child abuse or political corruption and you’ll note the individual’s race is omitted. As in the case with the newspaper article, it leaves many to assume the evening’s report of mayhem and body counts is all the work of minorities.

The only unbiased manner of reporting would be to include the race of each and every dirt bag on each and every story. Not only would this serve to dispel ethnic myths, but would be a reflection of Atlanta’s persona and growth direction. It may be asking for too much, but possibly there could be a scorecard or tally sheet at the end of the program identifying the group with the largest number of crime stories.

All the news programs as well as newspapers are too libel-conscious to be completely unbiased or recognize your request for “equitable treatment.” There would be those critics who would accuse the media of having too many negative stories on one particular group. That would cause the media to make sure they reported an equal number of stories on each group. At that expense many newsworthy reports would be omitted in the name of equity.

It won’t happen, Lionel. I’d like to see them all identified also, but it just won’t happen.

Mike Loyd

Fayetteville, Ga.