A Virginia newspaper has come under fire from its readers after it ran a Ku Klux Klan recruitment flyer in full on its front page.
The Westmoreland News ran a story on how KKK recruitment flyers and DVDs had started appearing in the town of Colonial Beach, Virginia.
However, the paper decided to include a copy of the recruitment flyer, which included racist and anti-Semitic language, in full on the front page to illustrate its story.
“They posted the whole flyer as if they were giving them free advertising,” Colonial Beach resident Betty Tate Thompson told WTVR. “It even had the number on flyer to contact the head of the KKK. Which I thought was totally ridiculous.”
Now I can see why the newspaper would do this as they are accurately relating events, and providing a visual example of what they are reporting.
(I just did the same thing up above as well.)
However if you were the local chapter of the KKK, and you were having a devil of a time handing out enough flyers to really increase recruitment, just imagine how gratified you would be if the newspaper printed your entire invitation, including contact information, for their thousands of subscribers?
I mean that would be the kind of gift to warm an old racist's heart.
So the criticism is quite valid.
No one thought to black out the phone number at least or to only show part of the flyer? As it stands, it looks like advertisement.
ReplyDeleteKNowing the area as well as i do it would not surprise me if it members are not on that payroll.
DeleteThat's what I was thinking. Show the letterhead but blur the rest.
DeleteIt's almost like the paper is playing both sides. Reporting this terrible thing while enabling it at the same time.
Who is the owner of this rag? Morons on parade recruitment.
ReplyDeleteMaybe enough readers and subscribers will stop buying this rag. I mourn the demise of "paper" newspapers, but perhaps this foolish one deserves to die.
Deletehttp://www.westmorelandnews.net/
DeleteThis is their website -- The Westmoreland News, Westmoreland County, VA
Trump again paid and buses in lousy actors to fake a rally. Who paid them this time? cohen?
ReplyDeleteIF *this* chucklehead *has* a job, I fervently hope that this video goes viral in record time, reaches his employer, and he's canned posthaste and henceforth becomes UNemployable.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.rawstory.com/2018/04/degenerate-filth-screaming-trump-fan-raged-media-following-presidential-rally-michigan/
Is it any wonder? While I refuse to watch it, I have seen enough clips of Humpty's hate fest last night to again ask just WTF has happened to this country and how could such an asshole be elected? He is not presidential, has ZERO decorum, and a leader brings together NOT divide to the point of fever pitch ones like the 'chucklehead' you mention. I absolutely ABHOR him and those who support him.
Deleteyep, trump stirring the hatred pot and walks away. It is getting boring and tiresome that he continues to get away with this uncivilized behavior.
Delete5:31 AM here.
DeleteA further thought.
Journalists are still in jeopardy. Of their livelihood, and their very lives. This is not hyperbole. I think of that t-shirt at another Trumplethinskin "LoveMe" rally: "Rope. Tree. Journalist. Some assembly required."
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/rope-tree-journalist-shirts-pulled-image-goes-viral-at-trump-rally-944763
The renewed shrieks of (verbatim! in *America*!) "Lügenpresse!" at reporters in the press area after a Trump rally:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/10/24/the-ugly-history-of-luegenpresse-a-nazi-slur-shouted-at-a-trump-rally/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.0f28a30a92a1
These are dark times. Support the First Amendment. Support journalists and the free press. If they go, *our* voices go next, and the grip of fascism tightens even more...
Ad for the trump and his toxic pussies.
ReplyDeleteThe KKK got a free ad. What else could they hope for? Maybe this will teach them to try to spend money for some tiny part of the population! Now they know if they can be obnoxious enough, they get free advertising.
ReplyDeleteThis incident occurred in my area. I live in Virginia where the Potomac River joins the Chesapeake Bay -- I stand on my front porch and look straight ahead six miles across the Potomac to Maryland; turn 45 deg right and face across the Chesapeake.
ReplyDeleteThis occurred in Colonial Beach, which is about 35 miles upriver from me.
The newspaper, the Westmoreland News (Westmoreland County), is one of several county-based weeklies published here on the Virginia Northern Neck.
The editor is new. She is being pummeled for her decision to publish a photo of the full flyer. First up was the local police chief, followed by hundreds of us from all surrounding counties. The Richmond VA press has not been kind. The Washington Post has not yet picked up the story.
I'm going to a meeting tonight that is pulling people from six counties, chaired by the local NAACP chairman, a well-known local minister. At this meeting we will plan our response to include:
-- demonstrations in front of all local newspapers in the region
-- letters to the editor in all regional papers
-- resolutions to be introduced by Boards of Supervisors in all six counties
-- statements by sheriffs of all six regional counties
-- approaches to and demonstrations at the offices of our state and federal representatives, demanding they denounce the Klan and racism
-- and more.
I suspect a rookie mistake of this kind is going to get the editor fired. Kinda a shame, really, as how many women editors run a newspaper. But really. If she didn't have the sense to only show part or blur it then she really shouldn't be in charge.
DeleteIt has always been standard procedure to black out identifying information in these cases, so publishing the whole thing untouched was no accident.
ReplyDeletefreedom of press. they need to think about what they print and where to put it. on an inside page would have been fine.
ReplyDelete