Otterblog

We have received a lot of feedback on our Sunday story about traffic stops in Winston-Salem. They seem to fall into two camps. The first is that this is a no-brainer, i.e. blacks and Hispanics are stopped more often for minor traffic offenses—such as expired tags—because they have more expired tags. If you don’t want to get stopped, says this group, don’t break the law. The second group says that the police are just doing their job and that they approach their task with professionalism and detachment and they ought not to be criticized.

I think that quite often, people have an incorrect view of the job of the media in general and newspapers in particular. It’s not to conform. It’s to inform. And we do that by putting information out there and bringing it to people’s attention. In this case, what our story showed was that a higher percentage of blacks and Hispanics were stopped during the past four years for minor traffic offenses. We suggested some reasons for it, some noble, some potentially not so noble. Now, it’s up to policy makers to figure out if they think this disparity is significant and what if anything they might like to do about it.

Some new faces among us. The end of spring means a lot of things at the Journal. But to me, a highlight is the arrival of our summer interns, four journalists who will be with us the next three months, writing stories, editing copy and taking photographs. It’s a program we take pride in because it has helped train some exceptional journalists, many of whom are still with us and others who have gone on to bigger—and often better—things. And it’s invigorating to me and many others to have young journalists with us who are excited about our calling and profession. That seems important, now more than ever. Our interns this year are Erin Fitzgerald, from Syracuse (copy desk); Kevin Litten, from Maryland (metro desk); Kate Lord, from UNC Chapel Hill (photo); and Erin Perkins, from Winston-Salem State (metro desk). A good group (although a little confusing with the two Erins...). Look for their work during the summer.