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Jackie
Wright, formerly Public Affairs Manager for CW Bay Area and now an
independent publicist, wrote an impassioned latter to Bay Area
independent media after only the Oakland Tribune covered a speech by
former ambassador Andrew Young in Oakland.
Here is the note she sent:
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Dear Journalists,
Thank you for your coverage of Ambassador Andrew Young. Please send me
links or clips to your coverage when you complete your story and/or any
links to advance stories or mentions.
As you know over 1,000 people gathered in Oakland on Saturday to hear
Ambassador Young, who was incredible for his age. After a long day of
travel the previous night, meeting with Reverend Jesse Jackson,
journalists, and the clergy just before he made his presentation, he was
absolutely brilliant especially for a man in his eighties.
Your Independent coverage is very significant in that except for the
Oakland Tribune, no other corporate media was present to cover the
story. No broadcast TV Stations and no major newspapers in San
Francisco.
In light of the impact of corporate media on society as described in Dr.
Kang's "Trojan Horses of Race"--that basically says TV news perpetuates
and creates prejudice against racial minorities, your reports stand to
counter unbalanced reports. If only one side of Oakland is
reported---the shootings and negative, be assured we are all robbed of
truth and information to make informed decisions.
If you don't read the entire report, at least take a moment to read the first two paragraphs of the synopsis--that includes---
"These implicit biases have been demonstrated to have real-world
consequence - in how we interpret actions, perform on exams, interact
with others, and even shoot a gun. The first half of this Article
imports this remarkable science into the law reviews and sets out a
broad intellectual agenda to explore its implications.....
Troubling is what's on the local news. Sensationalistic crime stories
are disproportionately shown: If it bleeds, it leads. Racial minorities
are repeatedly featured as violent criminals. Consumption of these
images, the social cognition research suggests, exacerbates our implicit
biases against racial minorities."
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=627381
If Ambassador Andrew Young's Lecture is overlooked, what else in
communities of color considered significant will be considered
unimportant.
Women, Asians, Blacks, Latinos in newsrooms can trace their presence in
corporate media back to the work of Ambassador Young and the Civil
Rights Movement. Although much lip service is given, corporate media do
not hold diversity as a priority. Across the nation, we are close to
being in a state of condition found in the early 70's. The few
reporters/editors of color that remain have a difficult time standing up
to the floodgates or racism within the newsroom and without, as they
try to do their jobs.
THANKS AGAIN FOR YOUR COVERAGE OF THE HISTORIC LECTURE.
Please send me links to any of your story posts as soon as you get a moment.
"Freedom of the Press" is essential to our democracy.
Anything less than fair and balanced free press puts America in chains.
Thanks for your on-going hard work to keep America free.
Best regards,
Jackie Wright
Wright Enterprises
"Yes W.E. Can" since...
Before President Barack Obama
www.wrightnow.biz |