The C is for Crank
Seattle Times Protects Readers from Perry's "Niggerhead" Flap
The stuffed shirts at the Seattle Times report
that Herman Cain (the only black Republican running for president)---has criticized Rick Perry for taking too long to paint over a slur painted on a rock outside his ranch in Texas.
What slur would that be? "A racially offensive name." Cracker? Guido? A little help here? Nope: "A racial slur." "An insensitive and offensive word."
Assuming that most Times readers are adults, there's absolutely no excuse to shelter them from ugly, offensive language---especially when that language could shed light on the character of a candidate for the most powerful office in the country.
Fortunately, the Times' online-only equivalent, the PI.com, doesn't share its competitor's Victorian sensibilities, printing the slur right in the first paragraph of their story :
Instead of treating their readers like infants, the PI gives readers the facts and let them judge for themselves---precisely the role newspapers are supposed to play. As did, for what it's worth, the stodgy New York Times (the paper the Seattle Times so desperately wants to be ... see that latest redesign?). The NYT reports right off the bat: "the name for a portion of the property, Niggerhead, was visible on the rock at the entrance 'at different points in the 1980s and 1990s,' and that a former worker said he saw it as recently as three years ago."
The Seattle Times' priggishness is patronizing at best, willfully dishonest at worst. Either way, a total misread on being the grown-up paper of record.
It's a pretty slippery slope from not printing the word "nigger" to simply not reporting on stories you find icky---or unflattering to a candidate you support.
What slur would that be? "A racially offensive name." Cracker? Guido? A little help here? Nope: "A racial slur." "An insensitive and offensive word."
Assuming that most Times readers are adults, there's absolutely no excuse to shelter them from ugly, offensive language---especially when that language could shed light on the character of a candidate for the most powerful office in the country.
Fortunately, the Times' online-only equivalent, the PI.com, doesn't share its competitor's Victorian sensibilities, printing the slur right in the first paragraph of their story :
As private citizen and public official, Gov. Rick Perry has invited friends, movers and shakers to a West Texas hunting camp its entrance marked by a rock with the name painted: “Niggerhead.”
Instead of treating their readers like infants, the PI gives readers the facts and let them judge for themselves---precisely the role newspapers are supposed to play. As did, for what it's worth, the stodgy New York Times (the paper the Seattle Times so desperately wants to be ... see that latest redesign?). The NYT reports right off the bat: "the name for a portion of the property, Niggerhead, was visible on the rock at the entrance 'at different points in the 1980s and 1990s,' and that a former worker said he saw it as recently as three years ago."
The Seattle Times' priggishness is patronizing at best, willfully dishonest at worst. Either way, a total misread on being the grown-up paper of record.
It's a pretty slippery slope from not printing the word "nigger" to simply not reporting on stories you find icky---or unflattering to a candidate you support.
