No, this isn’t an attack on Clear Channel or 84WHAS.
But take a look at this story’s headline on the WHAS site:
No big deal, right?
Then look at the Tweet promoting the story:
What does “Hispanic” have to do with anything?
It’s not an attack. I’m legitimately asking. Because some say it’s a big deal, some say it’s not. (It really could matter when it comes to this particular story because LMPD is asking for the public’s help.)
5 responses so far ↓
1 Laura Ellis // Jun 21, 2010 at 2:11 pm
Good question. Would they have tweeted African-American? Or white? I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t have tweeted white… there seems to be a tendency to use white as the default and only specify details if they are different (ie non-white). As to why the story said one thing and the tweet another, I couldn’t even hazard a guess.
It reminds me of when that shooting happened at Fort Hood and the media kept saying the shooter was injured by a “female MP.” But I never heard any of the other MPs referred to as a “male MP.” Know what I mean?
2 cdxx // Jun 21, 2010 at 2:15 pm
How about the euphemism “city man”? Any time the news mentions a “city man” was murdered, they are referring to a black male from the West End.
3 Earl // Jun 21, 2010 at 7:22 pm
Hispanic is an ethnicity, not a race. They did not mention whether he was white, black, Asian or American Indian. I guess they may not have mentioned whether he was of Spanish or Portuguese descent, or from Latin America either.
4 Lisa Graas // Jun 22, 2010 at 12:48 am
A man was stabbed. We need to be concerned about that no matter what his skin color is, so no, it’s not important to name the ethnicity of the victim. The police should offer lots of identifying information about the people sought for questioning, including, but certainly not limited to, their ethnicity. A person was assaulted here and no matter who he was, justice needs to be served. The best way to find the people responsible is to give the public lots of identifying information. So, they were Hispanic. WHAT ELSE can they tell us???? Let’s find ‘em. It is kind of weird to me that the only identifying information given was their ethnicity.
5 Phil // Jun 22, 2010 at 8:02 am
The AP stylebook provides specific guidelines here. Race should be used only when necessary, such as “Police are on the lookout for a black man, 6’2″, with a tattoo on the side of his face and a mohawk.” Race should not be used when there is no purpose, such as “A black man entered the store at 10 a.m. and robbed the clerk at gunpoint.”
Usually, this creeps up because of sloppy writing and lazy editing. When police send a press release they often say black, hispanic, etc. A reporter and editor should see that and not include it.
Otherwise the town is on the lookout for a black man!
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