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In its 2005 report on The State of the News Media, the Project for Excellence in Journalism reported on the prevalence of a "journalism of affirmation" -- where "the news is gathered with a point of view, whether acknowledged or not, and audiences come to have their preconceptions reinforced." The report reassured readers that this was not as serious a problem as it's been made out to be by some observers:
"Not only do Republicans and Democrats consume most news media outlets in similar levels, but those in both parties who distrust the news media are often heavier consumers of news outlets than those who are more trusting. The only exceptions to this are talk radio and cable news. In the latter, Republicans have tended to congregate in one place, Fox."
This past week, I had my own close encounter with Fox's journalism of affirmation when I was invited to appear on the Hannity & Colmes show to discuss one-year-old race-baiting comments by an obscure North Carolina bookstore owner and former adjunct college professor named Kamau Kambon. Hannity & Colmes devoted three consecutive nights of airtime on what Ellen of the blog News Hounds correctly called this "year old non-story." The saturation coverage led Ellen to ask, "Is Hannity & Colmes" trying to start a race war?"
Along with current events such as the Supreme Court's current consideration of a case that could end school desegregation, the shooting of Sean Bell and the news that Michael Richards' racist rant has earned him new fans leaves me understand what Chris Rabb means when he says that these days, it feels like a crime to be caught "breathing while black." But I digress.
Let's go back a year. At an October, 2005 forum on the media coverage of Hurricane Katrina that was picked up by C-SPAN, Kambon made the outrageously offensive statement that the best way to prevent a recurrence of the humanitarian disaster that took place in the Gulf region was to "exterminate" white people. The organizer of the panel denounced him, as did Howard University Law School and his former employer, North Carolina State University. The were a few national and regional stories, and then the news agenda moved on, leaving some conservative bloggers to complain about the "liberal" news media's unwillingness to confront racism when it wears a black face. In a blog post written at the time, I explained why I thought the news coverage of the story was appropriate. I noted that Kambon is not the leader of any organization or movement; there is no evidence that he condoned violence before or after his television appearance, and his comments were rejected by the people responsible for his appearance on the panel.
I got some comments at the time, including a responses that were reportedly from panel organizer Opio Sokoni and Kambon himself. Sokoni's statement explained that he invited Kambon to be on the panel on the recommendation of a mutual friend -- "bad judgment on my part for taking that advice" he said, adding that he was "still receiving 3 am death threats" because of Kambon's remarks. Kambon's statement rambled about the injustices visited upon black people throughout history, the failure to implement solutions recommended by the National Urban League and others, and the virtues of his personal lifestyle. Then the comments died down, and life went on -- until about three weeks ago.
All of a sudden, I started getting comments about Kambon again -- several a day for a few days. I wondered why. I published some of the comments, but blocked others, such as the brief I received, from someone claiming to be white, arguing that black people should support Nazism -- and others that were equally frightening and bizarre.
Then came emails on December 4th and 5th from a H&C staffer asking whether I'd be interested in being on the show to talk about Kambon's 2005 remarks. At one point in the e-mail exchange, I asked why they thought Kambon was worth reporting on, all these months later. The staffer said she didn't know, but audiences were so interested that they were going to do what turned out to be three segments on Kambon, on consecutive nights.
When I saw the results, I was glad that I had not gone on the show, but I was also alarmed by the way those segments, along with others, gave the impression that white Americans are the victims of some widespread
