REDDING: DRUDGE  LIKENS BLACKS  TO 'ANIMALS'

By Robert "Rob" Redding Jr.

Editor & Publisher    

    WASHINGTON, Sept. 2, 2005 - I must say that I am not surprised that I have been inundated with complaints from readers who are upset at the legacy media's coverage of black people struggling to survive in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.

    But it is not just legacy media - where black journalists are employed to help shape coverage - that have touted racist images of black people and should be assailed, but the Web's growing new media that should also be held accountable.

    I was particularly disturbed by the atrocious coverage of this national tragedy by Matt Drudge and his "Drudge Report." Friday morning his site, read by more than 10 million people a day, referred to black people - my people - as "animals." "Trapped like animals," read his top headline with a black man pictured above it. (The story and headline have nothing to do with one another: http://nydailynews.com/front/story/342810p-292645c.html).

    When I wrote Drudge about his troubling coverage, both as the editor of this site and as a member of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ), he took down the picture but kept the headline.

(Click to enlarge)

    I later requested that he also change the headline and he did not. Later on that day, Drudge set out to substantiate his main headline - that blacks are "Trapped Like Animals" - by linking to a Randall Robinson blog, where the author claims blacks in New Orleans are "eating corpses."

    I am now calling on NABJ to make a statement condemning his blatantly insensitive coverage.

    Drudge's news coverage of the black community comes into question after he ignored Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean's racist comments equating blacks to "hotel staff." He ignored the story although he has posted numerous headlines on his site assailing the party head.

    He also failed to cover NBC Host Brian Williams' disparaging comments about the importance of minority hiring in the media last year, although he is a self-proclaimed observer of the media.

    What's more, Drudge's irresponsible coverage also comes as there is a raging controversy about how the Associated Press has written a caption on a black flood survivor. That caption reads: "A young man walks through chest deep flood water after looting a grocery store in New Orleans on Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2005. Flood waters continue to rise in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina did extensive damage when it made landfall on Monday. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)."  And an equally troubling headline is that of the Agence France-Presse, which claims whites only "wade through chest-deep water after finding bread and soda from a local grocery store."

    All this from news purveyors where blacks are employed. 

    I have communicated to the thousands who visit this site over and over again, and to the people who attended my black entrepreneurship forum held in Atlanta just last month that I am unapologetically a one-trick pony when it comes to diversity in the media. In short, I believe that fairness in media comes only with a focus on black ownership of media. Unfortunately, it is consistent careless coverage like this that continues to illustrate that point. 

Robert "Rob" Redding Jr. is the Editor & Publisher of ReddingNewsReview.com, a nationally syndicated radio host heard on music, news and talk stations, author, artist and a reporter for The Washington Times.  

Read Redding's last media column: DIVERSITY COMES WITH OWNERSHIP

Return to ReddingNewsReview.com

Copyright 2005 by
All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.