Yellow Journalism

Former gubernatorial aspirant Larry Forgy, himself the victim of alleged vote-crimes for which former Governor Patton pardoned four indictment-plagued colleagues who might well have implicated him in plea-bargain activity, called attention to some interesting facts in a column published in the Lexington Herald-Leader on Oct. 5. He noted that, according to the Kentucky Political Report, the Louisville Courier-Journal and Lexington Herald-Leader published more than 450 personnel stories in the past four months related to the current “merit mess” plaguing the Fletcher administration, as compared to 193 stories during the 27 months when former governor Patton was embroiled in the “Tina Connor affair,” Connor being his mistress as well as a “patronage person” and recipient of alleged favored treatment. Connor operated a nursing home and her then-husband a contracting business. This is called yellow journalism and is defined thusly: “featuring sensational or scandalous items or ordinary news sensationally distorted.”

The two morning newspapers are monopolies in the state’s largest cities. Neither is locally owned, but owned by huge chains given over to highly partisan liberal causes. Both, however, have represented liberal interests for years, their most recent competitors being the now defunct afternoon papers, the Louisville Times and Lexington Leader, respectively. In short, there are no high-profile print news-organs in the state to present the “other side” of matters, such as the so-called “hiring scandals.” Some balance is perhaps achieved by at least a couple of talk-radio shows (in Lexington, at least), but these reach only a handful of people compared to the readership of the papers, though the number of subscribers to newspapers nationwide is steadily declining.

The editorialists and columnists in the Lexington paper, besides lambasting the Fletcher administration on a virtual daily basis, also constantly stir the “racism pot” to keep it to at least a slow boil all the time and at a steaming boil at intervals. Since the 60s at least, when everything from affirmative action to unchallenged voting rights were written into law, African Americans have had opportunities far exceeding those (quotas, for instance) of others to forge ahead, but the paper constantly rants about the inequities they suffer, rarely mentioning that blacks have managed to shoot themselves in the feet consistently despite everything the legislatures, Congress, and courts have done to guarantee them their rights, not to mention (and damnably so) welfare payments of every stripe. Political correctness – not truth – dictates the paper’s position…yellow journalism.

The problem in the black community is illegitimacy, though the papers may paint it as one of poverty – a good example of yellow journalism. According to the summer 2005 edition of City Journal, a respected urban-policy magazine, it was noted that in 1965 the illegitimacy rate among blacks stood at between 25% and 28%, but that by 1980 it had more than doubled to 56% (66% in New York City). For whites in 1980, it stood at 9%. Presently, the rate for black illegitimacy is some 70%, but for whites has zoomed to 28.5% (2002), an increase from 1970 (5.5%) of an astonishing 418%, meaning that welfare rolls among whites are exploding, as they have among blacks for years, since it has been well proven that families without documented fathers are likely to be poor and therefore on the public dole. To get it right, the paper should not say that poverty causes illegitimacy, but that it’s the damnable illegitimacy that causes poverty. Yellow journalism. Surely no reasonable person believes that poverty has driven white women to shack-up. Just the opposite is true. Shacking-up has driven poverty-levels upward. The old stud in both races is off the hook, not responsible for his bastard offspring…unless, of course, the woman can afford to get a lawyer and go down the DNA trail. Attorney General Greg Stumbo knows something about this, his palimony problems a matter of public record.

Another good example of yellow journalism has been seen in the tortured reporting or opining regarding the problems connected to the ways various individuals, governments, and agencies have responded to the chaos caused by hurricanes Katrina and Rita. In the first place, the media on all levels should have noted that no governmental entity could be expected to handle what happened in New Orleans, though FEMA has been excoriated to a degree unimaginable among reasonable people. FEMA routinely handles hurricane problems, though in every event it is always blamed (and expects to be) for being too slow, etc. Nothing new there! New Orleans was an altogether different matter, since no large city has ever been literally flooded in this country. Media folks, however and especially in Lexington, have jumped on FEMA, it would seem, for allowing the hurricane, in the first place, and have even used it as a comparison to a terrorist attack…something that can be handled to at least an extent by appropriate agencies.

The yellowest of the journalism has occurred, however, in not placing blame where it belongs, with respect to the Louisiana situation. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and Louisiana Governor Blanco stand as the main reasons for the turmoil through do-nothingness and politics, respectively. Seldom have two U.S. officials been responsible for so much suffering; yet, the media, local and national, have castigated the U.S. Government unmercifully, knowing full well just who was primarily responsible for the New Orleans debacle…yellow journalism. As the facts trickle out – and many already have – the media types will discover a public that will roundly castigate them for not only not being truthful, but for purposely being untruthful, the better to persecute the hated president.

Yellow journalism is nothing new. It’s here to stay More’s the pity!

And so it goes.

Jim Clark