Change is in the air. Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president of the United States, is not the only person highlighting the urgency for change. Dr. Francis Ward, a professor of journalism at Syracuse University, challenges the media to re-evaluate their responsibilities as journalists and their coverage of important news issues.”It’s time for accurate reporting of the Jeremiah Wright story and for news media to take the lead in promoting an honest and open dialogue about race,” he says. In an opinion piece Ward provides insight as to why he is capable of criticizing the media and then pens his poignant thoughts on the media’s responsibility moving forward.
Francis Ward
Professor of Journalism
Syracuse University
A Challenge to the News Media
by Francis Ward
In 1985, I was an assistant press secretary in the Mayor’s Press Office in Chicago when the late Harold Washington was mayor. He had been elected in April 1983 as the first-ever black mayor of Chicago. During Washington’s first administration (1983 – 87), Chicago was drastically split along racial lines: blacks solidly (almost unanimously) supporting Washington and most, but not all, whites favoring the white majority in City Council that bitterly opposed everything Washington said and did. At the time, Chicago was truly “us and them,” blacks versus whites, with no moderate center. You were either on one side of the other.
As part of the Washington administration, I strongly supported his goals of openness and reform in city government, but I also strongly believed Harold was open to some criticism. He spent too much time out of the office, making public appearances, reveling in the celebrity of being the first black mayor, while he should have spent much more time shoring up his political base and running city government. Washington delegated too much authority to his chief of staff, the late Bill Ware, a political moderate who despised the small contingent of ideological pan – Africanists (aka: black nationalists) who were vital in getting Washington elected.
I wanted to find some way of making my criticisms public by either leaking them to a friendly journalist, or persuading some public figure to speak out. But I also knew that criticism of Washington by a black person at the time would be tantamount to Read the rest of this entry »
