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Sunday, June 30, 2002
Washington Post
Page. B6
Editorial
From the Readers'
Mailbag
Michael Getler
Last Monday, a story on the front page was headlined, "Racial Discord
in a Md. Town; Diversity -- and Tension -- on Rise at Damascus High
School." A couple of readers said they felt this story was an "attempt
to paint a whole community racist based on the behavior of a couple of
teenagers and the presumed attitude of their parents," as one put it,
and was "certainly not worthy of the front page."
The story started out by reporting an incident a week earlier about one
youth who drove through the streets waving a Confederate flag, and his
mother, who told police she saw nothing wrong with that. The rest of
the piece revolved mostly around an incident six months ago, which is
now being heard in juvenile court, in which three white teenagers and
one Asian youth from Damascus High beat up a black freshman who was
walking in a parking lot with a white friend from school. The fourth
paragraph says, "The January fight has deeply divided the once rural,
once all-white community, causing long-simmering racial tensions to
erupt and forcing the town to confront its reputation for being hostile
to outsiders and minorities."
Clearly, there have been problems at the high school, which is 84
percent white, and maybe the thrust of the story is right. But it
seemed to me that the story did not provide enough evidence to back up
the broader implication that the headline, front-page display and
summary paragraph suggested.
A couple of readers also commented that the New York Times had run a
big story, and picture, in the main news section of its Sunday, June
23, paper about a packed awards night at the Kennedy Center Concert
Hall in which the work of outstanding local high school theatrical
performers and critics was recognized. These readers asked why The Post
didn't cover the event, especially since The Post publishes some of the
student reviews. Actually, The Post did cover it, but the stories
appeared only in the weekly local Extra sections before and after the
awards. This seems worth mentioning for a couple of reasons. The
Kennedy Center gala was on Sunday, June 9, two weeks before the Times
story appeared. The Times story, written on June 22, never mentioned
the actual date. The Post stories in the weekly sections appeared four
days before and four days after the awards. But this was news,
important and interesting local news involving 39 high schools in
Virginia and the District. It deserved to be seen by all Post readers
the next day.
President Bush, last
Monday, outlined his vision for the Mideast, and
that is exactly what The Post's bold-faced banner headline read on
Tuesday morning. But what every other major newspaper I saw headlined
was the very big news in that speech -- that the president wanted
Yasser Arafat out and new Palestinian leadership in.
Some readers continued to
find fault with The Post's continuing
coverage from the Middle East. A few called to say that an article June
25 on a Palestinian mother who has become a celebrity because of a
videotape in which she extols her dead suicide-bomber son, "glorified"
the mother and is "encouraging them to continue to do this." I disagree
with this view. The article and occasional others like it provide
important insight into terrorist activities and are a part of the full
story that should be told.
A Post story June 21, in
which Palestinians described damage to a
hospital in the West Bank city of Jenin, was 28 paragraphs long. But
the Israeli army statement that it knew of no shooting around the
hospital did not appear until the 26th paragraph. Whatever happened,
that kind of placement diminishes the credibility and power of
reporting.
A June 22 story about
Israeli preparations to curb further terrorist
attacks ended with a paragraph that said, "Israeli forces stormed into
major West Bank cities in a six-week operation that ended in May,
bulldozing houses, killing civilians as well as suspected militants."
Some readers said this made it appear that the Israeli army
intentionally killed civilians. Innocent civilians did die, but this
could have been phrased more precisely.
You can reach me at (202) 334-7582 or via e-mail at:
ombudsman@washpost.com
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