Editor Admits Running All-White Story Was Mistake
Editor & Publisher Editor Greg Mitchell said today that running an all-white cover story on parent-and-child newspaper journalists was an “oversight” and said he would post a letter critical of the story from National Association of Black Journalists President Herbert Lowe today on the E&P Web site.
Mitchell told Journal-isms that “We did make a big search, we called ASNE [the American Society of Newspaper Editors] and a bunch of other places. We asked newspaper editors, we asked, ‘who did you know?’. We followed every lead. . . . These names did not come up.” But he acknowledged that “it was our oversight” in not calling any editors of color or the NABJ. “They were not at the top of our list,” he said.
As reported Monday, the trade magazine debuted its new monthly format with a cover story on 11 examples of children who followed their parents into newspaper journalism, but all of the examples were white.
“It’s good to be reminded” of the need for source lists that include people of color, Mitchell said, though he added that in general, “I think our track record is pretty good.”
Mitchell said he had not been in his office because of a snow storm in New York and just saw Lowe’s Wednesday letter today. He said he would probably call the NABJ president. The letter came too late to be included in the next print edition of the magazine, Mitchell said.