When Dr. King shared his dream of one America, with black and white Americans learning and growing and living together in harmony, it’s hard to imagine that his sweep or promise included inmates at the Caswell Correctional Center in Yanceyville. But that’s the dominant image on the Journal’s front page this morning, a photo of two inmates—one white, the other black—having a cigarette in the smoking yard at a state prison. It accompanied a story on the prison smoking ban and what it has wrought across North Carolina. This was a good piece, seemingly frivolous at first glance, but nuanced and symbolic about crime, punishment, and our state’s complicated history with tobacco. Cigarettes, like cable TV, can be a useful tool in a prison, and taking them away has benefits and costs.
A larger question is this: Is there something disrespectful about publishing this story on the King holiday? Timing is important in journalism. We publish spot news as soon as we can, but news features and the like have their own timelines, and our decisions about when to publish or if to publish are often vigorous debates. What we choose to do sends important messages—often unintended—about our values and concerns. My sense is that this story was’t disrespectful to King’s legacy, and the art showed in clear terms that our state’s prison population isn’t just black males. You can find more information on prison demographics here.
Your host is Ken Otterbourg, the managing editor at the Winston-Salem Journal. It's a forum to discuss the media, from
Hello Ken,
I saw the picture but did not read the article. I did not think twice about it in association with MLK Day.
What did concern me demonstrating some insensitivity by the Journal.
- Towing cars of individuals attending the Chronicle’s MLK Prayer breakfast who parked in the Journal’s lot.
- The story on the front page about MLK. The issues are well known and have been around for some time now. Why publish on his birthday (holiday)?
- The Journal reported a number of King day activities, however, did not mention the Chronicle’s breakfast. Why?
Let me try to take these one at a time:
First, the tow trucks. We have essentially two lots. The northern one doesn’t require card access, but it has only a certain number of spaces, and its where some employees have their assigned space. So for a variety of reasons, we don’t let the public use it when our employees are using it. On the weekend, that’s a different story (We let First Baptist use our lot on Sundays, for example.) That said, we probably could have handled the parking better and—although the no parking signs are posted—made sure people clearly knew they couldn’t park there.
Second, the King story. We talked about this a great deal in our newsroom last week. The story was meant to be a summary of all the issues that still swirl around Dr. King, but the headline was much too harsh and gave it an edge that the story didn’t deserve. As I’ve noted in another post, writing headlines is tough. We make mistakes. This was one of them.
Third, the Chronicle breakfast. We published a calendar of all the events we were notified of. We didn’t get anything from the Chronicle. But the omission lies equally on our shoulders. It’s enough of a community institution that we ought not to need a reminder.
Thanks for writing.
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