Letter to the Editor: Newspapers' Doom

The Durham Herald Sun is running a part of my letter to the editor today. Although, it is about newspapers in my neck of the woods, it probably applies to your city too. The original letter is below:

When I recently read Gary Gaddy's column and editor Bob Ashley's response regarding the pending doom of newspapers like the Herald Sun, I was reminded of Bill Clinton's description of an ideologue. Clinton said when others see the futility of digging a deeper ditch the ideologue says give me a bigger shovel.

So it is with newspapers and their reluctance to change.

Gaddy is correct in his assessment that traditional media are quickly sinking into the Dead Sea of irrelevancy. Unfortunately, instead of patching the hole in the boat the editors are more than happy to go down with the ship.

Newspapers are big on tradition and you stand a better chance of finding a cure for the swine flu than getting them to change their antiquated methods of operations.

Although, Ashley sings the praises of the Herald Sun's attempt at new media , what the paper needs is new ideas not new aps.

Gaddy mentions that newspaper readers eventually age and die off but unfortunately old ideas are immortal. As long as there is one elderly person left reading the Herald Sun over his Sunday morning Bojangles biscuit and coffee, it will be business as usual.

The power is in the pen; a power that newspaper executives aren't willing to give up. To borrow from the the uncompromising words of Charleton Heston, in order to get the pen from an editor you're gonna have to pry it from his cold dead hands.

NWSF Bullet: Case of the Missing CrackHeads

Durham Herald Sun columnist, John McCann is running an article, today, about Crackheads Candy called "All it's Cracked up to Be." According to the article McCann called Northgate Mall (Durham)and some dude told him that they still had Crackheads. But as I posted yesterday, when I called Thursday night, the dude answering the phone told me that they didn't carry the junk...

http://heraldsun.southernheadlines.com/opinion/columnists/mccann/index.cfm?

So what gives?

Maybe we should hire some undercover candy NARCS to go into FYE stores across the country and get surveillance footage of Crackhead deals going down...

No, better still, the No Warning Shots Firing Squad should go into FYE music stores posing as desperate CrackHead addicts armed with camera phones and take pictures/videos of Crackhead "stashes" and post them on youtube and send them to local media outlets across the country.

"Please, mister..I just need one CrackHead...Here, take my watch...."


In other Crackheads related news, I called into Rev. Al Sharpton's nationally syndicated talk show, yesterday and he gave me a few minutes to talk about Crackheads. He said he would check out the blog and asked me to send him some info.

Stay tuned for more CrackHead News....

Don't Believe the Hype 2008!!!

Public Enemy had a song back in the day about the treacherous nature of the media called "Don't Believe the Hype."

They must have been rappin' about the Durham Herald Sun.

A few weeks ago, I posted a piece here called "Prelude to a Race War" where I exposed the Herald Sun's promotion of "Black on Brown" violence by running two stories that blamed Black males for targeting Latinos with robbery and some murders because of "racism." In which, not one member of Durham's Black community was interviewed to refute the claim.

Well, guess what.

In an article, today it says that the two men arrested for one of the murders were Hispanic...

http://www.heraldsun.com/durham/4-929069.cfm

Now, if you look closely at the article this contradiction is not mentioned (and only briefly) until more than half way through the article. However, when the perpetrators were thought to be Black, it was headline, front page news...

Also, there is another article in the same paper that talks about the community forum that Durham Police Chief Jose Lopez held last evening.

At the meeting, I congratulated Chief Lopez because of his not caving in to media hype and promoting the idea that blacks were targeting Latinos because of race. Although he gave a well though out and rather lengthy response, this exchange does not appear in the article.

I guess the elders were right "believe none of what you hear and only half of what you see....

Especially if it is in the Herald Sun.

Min. Paul Scott's blog is http://www.nowarningshotsfired.com/ He can be reached at (919) 451-8283

Prelude to a Race War

Prelude to a Race War

Min. Paul Scott

Durham may have its problems but the one thing that we really don't have to worry about is being shot because of the color of our skin.

The color of our baseball caps, maybe. But not the color of skin.

Not yet anyway...

For the last few weeks, the Durham Herald Sun has been on overdrive promoting the idea that black folks are targeting Latinos for robbery because of race.

While anyone, with any knowledge of Durham's history or a fair amount of plain old common sense, would immediately write this off as hogwash, as it is said, if you tell a lie long enough....

First, it is problematic to insinuate that black people can be "racist."

To quote writer Neely Fuller, author of "The United Independent Compensatory Code/System/Concept,"

"The only form of functional racism that exists anywhere in the known universe is white supremacy."

To suggest that African Americans have the social, economic or political ability to be "racist" is just evidence of those who have the power to define reality though their media organs to spread false propaganda.

In recent weeks, the Durham Herald Sun has published two articles in which members of the Latino community have been quoted as saying that they are being targeted for robbery because of "racism" via "blacks."

In the 1/22 issue under the caption "Hispanics fear rash of crimes is racism: String of robberies committed mostly by black men", it was reported by Dan Way (metro editor of the Herald Sun) that several Hispanic Durham residents were raising the question whether the 30 robberies of against Hispanics during the first two weeks of January were "racist hate crimes."

A few weeks later in an article written, again, by Dan Way, a Mexican woman is quoted as saying,

"The problem in this neighborhood is with the blacks."

Also a "Honduran national" is quoted as saying,

"The "gringo's" don't bother you The Hispanics don't bother you. It's the blacks."

He later says that while his sandwich truck serves black customers, both attempts to break into his vehicle were by black men.

The article ends with the quote,

"How are we going to defend ourselves ? We don't have any help."

http://www.heraldsun.com/durham/4-922593.cfm

Now, there are several things that are very problematic about these two articles.

The first being that both of these articles were not written by some college intern or some kid fresh out of journalism school. These articles were written by the metro editor of the Herald Sun who should know better than to spread these accusations.

Secondly, the terms being used. As stated earlier "racism" would not be the proper term here nor would "hate crimes." When you use these terms you are alleging that those black men who are robbing Latinos are doing it strictly to deny Latinos of their rights. You also assume that these thieves only rob Latinos and have no prior histories robbing any other race, including other African Americans.

The term "gringo" is also used. In the article there is no attempt to define the Spanish term "gringo." Even, when researching the word via other sources the term is hard to define. Taken out of the context of the story, one can assume that the interviewee is using the the term to differentiate European Americans from African Americans, which is disturbing in and of itself. Since most English speaking people, including African Americans, do not use the term "gringo" it can be rightly stated that the article was only meant for a community that understands the lingo or code word.

Also, one cannot help but notice that no African Americans were interviewed in either article to refute the charges of racism. It must be noted that the way the stories are written, it is not a condemnation of a few black thieves but an indictment of the entire black community.

Not only does the Herald Sun's coverage defy logic, the assertion of black racism against Latinos goes against studies such as the one started a few years ago by Duke professor Paula McClain.

In her study "Racial Distancing in a Southern City: Latino Immigrants Views of African Americans" it is said that Latinos have a more negative view of blacks than blacks have of Latinos. According to news reports her study said that 59% of Latino immigrants felt that few or almost no blacks are hard working, one third said that blacks are hard to get along with and 57% said that few or no blacks could be trusted."

http://www.diversityinc.com/public/2967.cfm

Yet, this local study by a local professor was not used in either Herald Sun story.

One must, of course, question the motives for promoting brown on black violence.

A strong argument could be made that Durham is experiencing a strong surge in gentrification. What better way to rid the community of "undesirables" than to have them kill each other off. The out of town business developers could then come in and buy what is left of the neighborhoods dirt cheap and put up high dollar developments. Also, there has been a lot of attention in the national media lately over the political divide between African Americans and Latinos.

This is not the first time that a local newspaper has been accused of inciting violence against African Americans. Josephus Daniels, former owner of the News and Observer has been accused of using the paper to encourage violence against African Americans and he was, also, accused of helping to incite the Wilmington Race Riots of 1898.

http://www.ah.dcr.state.nc.us/1898-wrrc/report/report.htm

It could also be argued that the Herald Sun played a major role in the popularization of local street gangs because of the extensive coverage which it has given the issue over the last decade.

http://www.heraldsun.com/hottopics/topicpage.cfm?topicID=21

Durham does not have a major brown on black race problem yet, that is still a problem that plagues West Coast cities such as Los Angeles. One cannot help but wonder what role the LA media played in promoting the tensions and if the same could happen in Durham, NC.

Columnists like the LA Time's Gregory Rodriguez bemoaned the media's exploitation on the black vs brown conflict. His 10/7 column, "The Fantasy of LA's Race War " ends with the chilling words:

"I can't help thinking that there is some sort of wish fulfillment in the black-versus-brown fixation."

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-rodriguez1oct01,0,1767378.column

The Durham community must rise up and stop the spread of this false propaganda before it escalates into a conflict that will neither benefit the black nor Latino community.

We must heed the words of the late great Malcolm X when he said :

"The press is so powerful in its image-making role, it can make a criminal look like he’s the victim and make the victim look like he’s the criminal…. If you aren’t careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.”

Min. Paul Scott's blog is http://www.nowarningshotsfired.com/ He can be reached at (919) 451-8283 info@nowarningshotsfired.com

Black Racism???

For the second time in less than a month, the Durham Herald Sun is promoting the idea that black people are robbing Latinos because of "racism."

Now, I'm gonna say this one mo' time for people who are a little slow....

Black folks, cannot be racist!!!

Bigots, yes...

Prejudiced, yes...

But racists, heck to tha naw!!!

Racism means that you have the ability to deprive someone of their rights to Life, Liberty and all that other stuff that black folks have never had... We do not, collectively, have the economic-political power to deny "nobody nuthin'."

We, as a community, should be concerned that the Herald Sun is quoting members of the Latino community as saying that black racists are targetting them for crimes.

I doubt if the Spanish equivilant of that word "racism" has the same connotations that it has as the way the word is used in America with her history of lynchings, discrimination, etc

So, I can see the reporter rollin' up on Pedro Gomez....

"So, I hear you folks are being targeted by the neg...I mean, colore..I mean African Americans..."

"Que?"

"You know the black people..."

"Oh, si, el negros !!!"

"So would you say that they are dispoportionately targeting people of the mexi..., I mean, Hispanic persuation because of your economic vulnerability, based on color? "

"Que ?"

"I mean, they are being racist right ?...'

"Um, si ???"

It is dangerous that the Heald Sun is promoting this in the community..I guess they must be runnin' out of good Crip and Blood stories...

Shouldn't the city council, human relations commission, boys in the barbershop or somebody be addressing this issue before it gets outta hand ?

So far, Durham has been spared the Black and Brown tensions of, say, Los Angeles...

But give the Herald Sun a few more weeks to hype this misinformation...

To borrow from that great Hip Hop philosopher, Jay Z....

"Black folk's got 99 problems but a Mexican ain't one."

Yet, anyway....

Min. Paul Scott's blog is http://www.nowarningshotsfired.com/ (919) 451-8283

NWSF Bullet: Give Us Gangsta Rap!!!

Funny thing happened today. Last week, I sent my press release for Hip Hop Strikes Back's controversial new track "Drums of War" that puts Bill O'Reilly and the rest of the Hip Hop Haters on blast to my friendly local paper, the Durham Herald Sun.

Seems like it was given the go ahead until I called today to see why "Drums of War" had not graced the front page (or at least honorable mention at the bottom of the gardening section.)

I was now told that the song ,for some reason, did not fit the format for even the Arts and Entertainment blog.

No problemo...

I admit that "Drums" is a little hardcore, even though it contains none of those dirty four letter words...(OK, we were tempted to call Sean Hannity a no good "bleep...bleep....bleep" But we didn't!!!)

And I can see it not really fitting in under a story about "Big Bubba and his Amazing Banjo."

Plus when a newspaper decides to label you persona non grata, you can put on a clown suit and set yourself on fire while singing Yankee Doodle Dandy and the reporters will do a front page story on the fireman's boots that put your fire out....

But out of curiosity I went to the entertainment blog and what were they promoting on the 8/29 entry?

A local group's myspace page featuring a song about N***** rollin' dice on ho's!!!

(Really, I'm not making this up)

Don't believe me? Go to the Herald Sun's website (http://www.heraldsun.com/) and under "Entertainment" click on the A&E blog and scroll down to 8/29....

I had always said that if given a choice the media would choose the smooth gangsta stylings of a Snoop Doggy Dog instead of the political and well thought out rap of a Public Enemy...

Now we know and like they used to say on the old GI Joe cartoon...

"and knowing is half the battle...."