The Runback: A New Leaf Requires Deeds, Not Just Words
Statements of apology are great. But when you are continuing to do the thing, were you ever really sorry?
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News and Politics
ENDORSEMENT: Kelly Schulz for Governor: The Duckpin’s first ever endorsement.
Cox Endorser Subpoenaed by January 6th Committee: Mastriano one of six subpoenaed for their role in the post-election debacle.
I've Found The Worst Campaign Website In the History of Campaign Websites: There are bad campaign sites. And then there's this Hot Mess from a candidate for Congress in Maryland.
Dan Cox is a Clear and Present Danger: Dan Cox is a clear and present danger to the health and lives of Marylanders.
February 2022 Gubernatorial Power Rankings: Have we achieved stasis?
Democratic Tax Cuts May Be an Election Year Gimmick, but They Are a Good Idea: As far as election-year gimmicks go, this is one that should get unanimous support
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The Monday Thought
In an editorial on Friday, The Baltimore Sun apologized. For a lot.
Instead of using its platforms, which at times included both a morning and evening newspaper, to question and strike down racism, The Baltimore Sun frequently employed prejudice as a tool of the times. It fed the fear and anxiety of white readers with stereotypes and caricatures that reinforced their erroneous beliefs about Black Americans.
Through its news coverage and editorial opinions, The Sun sharpened, preserved and furthered the structural racism that still subjugates Black Marylanders in our communities today. African Americans systematically have been denied equal opportunity and access in every sector of life — including health care, employment, education, housing, personal wealth, the justice system and civic participation. They have been refused the freedom to simply be, without the weight of oppression on their backs.
For this, we are deeply ashamed and profoundly sorry.
I don’t really have an opinion either way or the other about the apology. I was not the target of the apology, so that is not up for me to decide. Most of the references that the piece talks about as it relates to bias and bigotry in the paper had nothing to do with the current ownership of the paper or anybody employed there. I was just glad to see somebody finally acknowledge that their treatment of Michael Steele in 2002 was wrong.
Either way, their apology creates two other sets of problems that show what’s really at the root of this. It isn’t about being sorry.
First, some of the “solutions” that the Sun is going to implement in order to “be better” are all of this, which I have copied from their piece:
Launching a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion reporting team focused on telling the stories of underserved groups;
Developing a cultural competency style guide to help ensure that our coverage of Black, Hispanic, Latino and Asian American communities; Indigenous people; people with disabilities; and LGBTQ+ individuals is respectful, accurate, inclusive and fair;
Building a database of sources made up of people of varying backgrounds to diversify the voices who bring analysis and insight to our stories;
Nurturing a talent pipeline to broaden the pool of applicants we promote and hire from: From 2018 to 2021, the percentage of non-white people who make up the newsroom rose from 20.7% to 26%, and of the 26 people we’ve hired over the past two years, 13 of them — 50% — have been people of color;
Partnering with the Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education, a nonprofit training organization, to provide diversity and bias education for the staff, and to audit content across Baltimore Sun Media properties to gauge how well our reporting and opinion coverage reflects the variety of race, class, gender, generation, geography and sexual orientation in our communities;
Forming outreach committees to engage with groups we have inadequately served in the past to find out how we can do better. Among those contacted were Black funeral home directors, some of whom told us they didn’t believe we would welcome their input or feature news obituaries of African American residents;
Making a point of diversifying the photos we publish to better represent the communities we cover.
The entire set of solutions just creates new biases. Instead of treating people equally the Sun seemingly is committing themselves to a quota system. Instead of just reporting the news, the news is going to be filtered to make sure that it is “respectful, inclusive and fair”. Instead of ensuring that the news is going to be reported, it’s going to make sure that “reporting and opinion coverage reflects the variety of race, class, gender, generation, geography and sexual orientation in our communities”
Notice in there that there are no promises to ensure that their reporting and opinion coverage reflects a variety of viewpoints? And that’s the problem with all of this. Instead of reporting just the facts, instead of just providing people with the opportunity to present their opinion, the news will be sanitized and the opinions will be homogenized.
This homogenization of the Sun is going to lead to groupthink and discrimination against those that don’t buy into the Sun’s progressivism. Things will be like they’ve always been; except this time, it will be in writing.
So much for Light for All.
The second problem is that the Sun’s progressive worldview has and almost certainly will continue advocating policies that hurt and discriminate against African-Americans.
The Sun has long advocated for expanded access to abortion. That of course has led to over 65 million unborn children killed legally since 1973. Yet, a disproportionate number of those killed have been unborn African-American children. Birth control and abortion were promoted as a way to control the population of African-Americans. Planned Parenthood was founded by a eugenicist. These things are all documented.
Abortion is racist. But the Sun loves abortion.
Abortion is the most violent of those policies The Sun loves that hurt African-Americans. But it is far from the only one:
Will The Sun now commit to supporting school choice so African-American students have the opportunity to flourish?
Will The Sun now commit to stop opposing school reform in Baltimore City?
Will The Sun now commit to supporting gun rights so law-abiding African-Americans can defend themselves from crime?
Will The Sun now commit to supporting lower tax rates so that all Marylanders of all races can prosper?
Will The Sun now commit to opposing frivolous laws like bag taxes that disproportionately impact those of all races who are least likely able to afford it
The Sun is now stuck between a rock and a hard place. They have put checkpoints in here that virtually guarantee homogenized opinions, but they are going to continue to use them to advocate positions that disproportionately hurt African-Americans? Is that really “opinion coverage reflects the variety of race, class, gender, generation, geography and sexual orientation in our communities?”
Look, we all know why The Sun is doing this right now. And it’s The Baltimore Banner. At least three former Sun employees have already decamped for The Banner. And since The Banner is tied into Democratic Party advocacy, I guess this is The Sun’s attempt to stop the bleeding by changing the subject.
Either way, all of this tells me that The Sun has not learned the lessons of their past. If they truly want the people of Baltimore to believe that they are acknowledging their past and turning a new leaf, show us. But I don’t think quotas, homogenization, and advocating policies that hurt African-Americans are going to accomplish what they say they want to accomplish. Don’t tell people about your new leaf; show them.