Are There Parallel Realities in Black and White Media?

Journalists are supposed to lay it all out in black and white, right? But what’s actually happened, according to the May 28 Rolling Stone, is that the news has become black or white.

“In the last two decades, the black media and the white media have often told different versions of reality, with two different sets of facts and commentary, and neither group was even aware of what the other was seeing and hearing,” writes Jon Katz.

In his analysis, “Can the Media Do the Right Thing?” Katz says that as the black and white middle class abandoned the cities, the urban media abandoned the remaining underclass.

Into that void charged “an ideological mercenary army” of alleged spokespeople--”people whose livelihoods depend on not ever changing their minds or even simply listening to another point of view.”

Whites received meager insight into the black community from these spokespeople. And while white anger and bigotry built on a parallel to black anger and bigotry, the notion of spokespeople for whites remained ludicrous, Katz writes.

So, “Neither whites nor blacks were forced to confront the other as individuals suffering from the loss of jobs or the fear of crime.”

At long last, in part because there are increasing numbers of minority reporters in newsrooms, this may be changing.

But until now, Katz writes, “journalism’s flight from the awful realities and complexities of race has left this story largely in the hands of bigots, idiots and opportunists.”

In the June 8 Newsweek, Joe Klein, freshly wooed away from New York magazine, touches on a similar theme in his cover story on values.

Klein’s essay, the best in an excellent package of stories, heaves tons of statistics into the largely vacuous Murphy Brown-Dan Quayle debate. Klein never succumbs to the simplistic, judgmental claptrap into which this discussion too often descends. But in the stats, and in the hearts of people he interviews, Klein finds overwhelming support for the notion that strong, two-parent families are important to creating healthy individuals. And an unselfish commitment to community, he finds, is crucial to maintaining a healthy society. Echoing Rolling Stone’s Katz, Klein worries that the “slivering” of America into comfortable, special-interest media niches undermines any sense of national community.

This “centrifugal” segmentation, he says, “targets those qualities that distinguish people from each other rather than emphasizing the things we have in common. It is the developed world’s equivalent of the retribalization taking place in Eastern Europe, Africa and Asia.”

REQUIRED READING

Eddie Murphy’s image makers are probably sobbing. They spend all this time establishing him as the epitome of the tough, detached, hyper-cool, super macho male, and here he shows up in Essence cooing and cuddling his toddler daughter.

The magazine’s Fathers’ Day package--”Our Fathers, the Ones Who Leave and the Ones Who Stay”--is a moving tribute to Daddydom. Because Essence is primarily a women’s magazine, its main focus is on father-daughter relationships.

“If he is righteous, a father helps to mold a young girl’s soul into the spirit of a woman,” writes Bebe Moore Campbell. “If he misuses his power, he can tear her heart to shreds, wounding her in places that may take years to heal.”

Richard Riley writes that having daughters turned him into a supporter of women’s rights: “I now respect that feminine part of my soul--the intuitive, nurturing part of me. The struggle against the violence that threatens all women has become my battle.”

But fatherhood isn’t always Cosby cut-and-dry for the families in this package.

Ten years ago, Phil W. Petrie wrote about his hopes for his three sons in Essence’s first men’s issue. Now, as he looks at their lives, he is proud, loving, but concerned.

Petrie’s sons, like many young men in America today, have little use for “old-fashioned” values. One has provided Petrie with two grandchildren, “but there is not even the shadow of a daughter-in-law.”

“The small Southern town in which I was raised did not consider it helpful or healthy to have children reared in a home headed by a single parent,” he writes. “Consequently, there were rituals, ancient rituals, of censure.”

He adds: “My son eschews this ritual of the past, primarily because he does not place society’s needs above his own.”

Murphy says fatherhood has made him more serious: “I think of my daughter all the time. She is the first person in my life whom I have a responsibility to.”

Now what is his responsibility to society? What is society’s responsibility?

So there it is. Back to Eddie Murphy and Murphy Brown.

* Sunset Boulevard wiggles from Union Station to the Pacific, passing some of Los Angeles’ famous cultural cliches and its most jarring, myth-busting realities.

Photographer Steve McCurry followed the famous strip--before the riot--and his album of images appears in the June National Geographic.

The story, by senior assistant editor Rick Gore, begins in a personal and poignant vein.

“I had a brother who wrote a movie called ‘Fame,’ ” Gore reveals. “He moved to L.A. and became rich. I remember the expensive cars, the extravagant meals, the sparkling views from the Hollywood Hills. I remember the hot tubs, the gym with the endless mirrors, the white powder, and his gnawing fear that the reel would suddenly break. But mostly I remember that my brother died, years too early, while living above Sunset Boulevard.”

The story never develops Gore’s feelings about the death of his brother, Christopher, 42, who died in 1988 of cancer. But then the flat, dispassionate National Geographic narrative tone may, finally, be the best way to handle the boggling human variety Sunset embraces.

The best line in the piece comes from Hugh Hefner. Gore tells Hefner that he learned about female anatomy as a kid by reading Playboy.

Hefner responds: “And I learned about female anatomy as a boy from your magazine.”

* Racism can infect a child as young as 3. How can parents immunize their children?

The June L.A. Parent offers tips for raising prejudice-free children. For instance: Parents must first face their own biases. Then they must avoid even “positive” stereotyping, which tell children it’s OK to categorize people by ethnicity.

Another thing: Parents might consider shielding their budding racists from television. According to this article, studies show that heavy TV viewers are more likely to hold stereotypical views than those who watch less.

NEW ON NEWSSTANDS

Tired of letting law enforcers have all the fun? Fugitive! magazine might be for you. Along with articles on crime and tips on how to avoid being victimized, this new bimonthly features photos of heinous criminals at large and lists rewards. (Citizens are urged to call a real law enforcer, rather than attempt to nab these murderers and rapists.)

Especially interesting is the centerfold feature, in this case a wanted poster for a cop-killer .

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