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rhythm. Isay made a fatal error, however: he ignored the emerging rules
of journalism. He didn't edit out the segment where the two hosts
record themselves breaking car windows, nor where one of the boys'
fathers, under prodding from the son, promises unconvincingly to enter
an alcohol rehab program, nor where one of their grandmothers tallies
up the children and grandchildren she has lost to drugs and violence, nor
where one of their sisters brags about knowing who committed several
murders.
Retribution was swift. As reported in
The Washington Post,
black
staffers at NPR revolted. Reporter Phyllis Crockett charged in a widely
circulated memo that "the program repeat[ed] every negative stereotype
of poor, inner-city black life ... a new low in which arrogant whites
use unsuspecting blacks for preconceived notions." NPR's minority cau–
cus whined: "Weare offended. We feel personally assailed. We feel un–
welcome and ignored." Vice president Sandra Ratley complained that
"many Americans still believe the stereotypes about the black community:
that there is a welfare mentality, a life of drug abuse and alcoholism and
avoidance of responsibility."
NPR hastily called an extraordinary five-and-a-half hour meeting,
run by two professional diversity trainers, during which blacks argued
that the decision to air the show proves that they are excluded from the
editorial process. For his part, Isay says that he is now "locked out of
doing anything important for a very long time."
Crockett's comment is a fascinating revelation of the diversity men–
tality. She refuses to hold blacks responsible for their own actions, even
though seeing them as NPR's victims in this case requires a considerable
twisting of the facts.
In
charging Isay with "us[ingJ unsuspecting blacks,"
she seems to imply that he set the boys up to break the car windows, or,
at the very least, projected so overwhelming an expectation of misbehav–
ior that they were simply compelled to act up. If her argument is that
Isay should have edited out the offending segments to protect the boys
from themselves, is that not just as paternalistic and patronizing as more
traditional racism? As for the entire world portrayed in "Ghetto Life
101," Crockett's statement suggests that if the white media didn't report
on it, its problems would cease to exist.
The fact that the "stereotypes" about inner-city drug abuse, alco–
holism, avoidance of responsibility, and welfare dependency also happen
to be true is no longer relevant to the journalistic mission. That mission
is now defined otherwise: to "reflect the strengths of the community," in
the words of
Post
editor Ben Bradlee, promising to make amends for an
incident of similarly "insensitive" reporting in 1986.
Ironically, the strict taboo on discussing the problems of race creates
