NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #16/NN_1992_16.iso/spool/misc/handicap/5198

Internet Message Format | 1992-07-21 | 3.0 KB

Path: sparky!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!olivea!isc-br!bunker!hcap!hnews!377!6!Doug.Coyle
From: [e-mail] (Doug Coyle)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: Re: "blind loyalty"
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Date: 21 Jul 92 15:51:48 GMT
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Index Number: 23199

[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]

She was a responsible,
JMindependent journalist who deserves credit for covering what
JMmany of her peers are afraid to do with depth and honesty..

I am a new federation member and as such cannot and will not
comment on your opinions of the federation.  You are entitled to
them especially since you were kicked out of the organization but I
do understand why those oldtimers are criticising the article Blind
Loyalty.

I used to belong to a religious organization which was headed by a
strong Charismatic leader with a heck of an ego which most
main-line churches considered a cult.  From time to time articles
about the organization would appear in the press, and I was always
amazed at the "journalistic spin" which would appear on most of
these.  There is a glaring example of this "english" in that
article which directly involves you.  When she mentioned your
expulsion from the organization she slipped it in that you are
black. What difference does it make that you are black?  Needless
to say she did not assert or state that your being black had
anything to do with your expulsion, and neither did you, but the
mere mention of your racial persuasion in that context consciously
or subconsciously at the very least leads to some interesting leaps
of logic.  If I were you I think I would have been in the woman's
face about that.  It would be a similar situation, let's say, if I
were walking down the street here in my town and somebody snuck up
behind me and hit me over the head and  robbed me.  The paper would
probably say, "Blind (emphasis on the blind) resident mugged on the
way to bus stop."  Anything to get that extra little zizz in
there.  Regarding that other organization I belonged to, the only
"fair" article I ever saw done was a series of articles a reporter
did in the local paper in the city where one of their colleges was.
He spent a week living with us as if he were a student and wrote
five articles about the experience.
The articles were fair even though not everything he wrote was in
the organization's favor. The paper published all five of them, and
the reporter was subsequently fired because the ministerial
association got angry with the paper for giving the college so much
space and not there churches.  That doesn't have anything to do
with anything, but it's interesting how politics works.

d/c
===
 * SLMR 2.1a * Tha theea tha theea tha theea that's all, folks

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