Some in the blogosphere wondered about that. A guest post by @ReignofApril at Angry Black Lady Chronicles compiled quotations from other Politico writers who made similar observations about race and politics, but were themselves white. One quotation, from Politico founding editor Jim VandeHei, writing with Mike Allen, said, “The truth about politics is that Republicans - regardless of the nominee - are a mostly white party and have been for decades.”
At theGrio.com, owned by NBC, Nida Khan asked, “The real question for Politico (and other news outlets for that matter) is: would they have been so quick to suspend Williams if he were White?”
Poynter noted that Politico has previously been taken to task for a lack of diversity, and this firing won’t help.
Williams himself, in an opinion piece at theGrio, said that the situation wouldn’t have occurred if it hadn’t been for the “right-wing noise machine” epitomized by publications like Breitbart.com and the Daily Caller. He wrote, “Reporters and news organizations have always prided itself on being fearless, independent and intrepid, willing to push back on government and stand up for free speech. Now, in a hyper-kinetic, hyper-partisan age, it seems we’re not even willing to push back on our own critics, which doesn’t bode all that well for my colleagues.”
But even that doesn’t tell the whole story. Williams posted several ill-advised Twitter posts over many months, some retweeting vulgar jokes or crude comments made about the Romneys, another complaining that working at Politico had an “overlay of blatant racism.”
When CJR reached him, Williams said he doesn’t believe he had seen a Twitter policy at Politico, but one might exist. In his opinion piece, he noted that Breitbart.com and the Daily Caller had chosen only a few opinion tweets out of over 3,000.
Politico editors declined to comment on the matter to CJR, but they wrote in a memo to staffers published in The New York Times that the existence of the tweets aided their decision. They have refrained from commenting directly on the situation to other outlets as well. Williams referred most questions to his lawyer, who was not able to be reached before press time.
Wiliams’s firing has some lessons for journalists. First, race is still “the third rail of American politics,” as Steinhorn said during the interview with CJR. It is important to be able to back up what you say with facts.
And second, said Steinhorn, if you’re not a columnist or an opinion writer, “Stop the analysis and stop the advocacy and stick to gumshoe reporting.”
In our brave new world of talking-head reporters, that may be impossible.
- 1
- 2
Ah, the race card. Smelling out possible 'racism' is a particular obsession of a certain kind of journalist. The question would be more relevant if the author had been able to cite a 'White' journalist who had gotten away with comments and tweets as offensive as those by Williams.
#1 Posted by Mark Richard, CJR on Fri 20 Jul 2012 at 12:25 PM
Good to see that CJR picked a neutral journalist to write about the issue.
Point is, Williams got what plenty of others have gotten for intemperate and stupid remarks. As well, his comments went beyond race. He also made dirty jokes about Ann Romney. What kind of numbskull would put that material out under his own name?
And what, pray tell, does our alumna of 365.gay think would have happened to a reporter who made a similar joke about the couple in the White House?
The left started this type of thing when it demanded that anyone who said anything which the left disagreed be fired on the grounds of racism. It's happened more than once to conservatives who never made a dirty joke about the First Lady.
Now the shoe is on other foot. How does it feel?
Anyway, plenty of other leftwing journalists who have said much worse are still working. So don't worry, you still control the mainstream media.
#2 Posted by newspaperman, CJR on Fri 20 Jul 2012 at 03:55 PM
It's fine for every political journalist in Washington to openly ruminate about President Obama’s white working-class problem - (Glenn Thrush - POLITICO.com) and that Working-class whites wary of Obama - (Alex Leary - Tampa Bay Times - POLITICO.com) but POLITICO won't tolerate a black man talking about Mitt Romney, even though that was his job.
POLITICO, and political journalism in general, suffers severely from a diversity problem and that's been noted for years and years. But ultimately, POLITICO is beholden to Drudge and the extremist rightwing blogworld and Williams is just another scalp for them. That's all there is to it -- beltway journalism in abject terror of the angry, vicious right. ALL of them, not just POLITICO. There's no need to pontificate further on it.
#3 Posted by James, CJR on Fri 20 Jul 2012 at 07:52 PM
It is remarkable that Afro-American (black) journalists working in the so-called mainstream media must always bite their lips before making even the slightest non-conventional observation.
The result, in journalistic terms, is that a wealth of experience goes unnoticed because the decision-makers prefer not to recognize that experience.
It is a problem that black journalists also have in Europe. Even when analyses and observations are incorrect we must play the game by writing stories that we know are piffle, but which managers and readers see as the reality.
We do a serious disservice to our readers with this conservatism.
#4 Posted by Hal Austin, CJR on Wed 25 Jul 2012 at 09:12 AM
To James, are you saying that journalists don't talk about the problems Romney and the Republicans have with African-American or Hispanic voters? It's one thing to talk about a candidate and voting blocs. It's another thing for Politico to be asked to tolerate a journalist who makes penis jokes about a candidate toward whom he is obviously hostile. Williams retains credibility with folks like you, but sometimes the MSM is interesting in preaching being the choir. Not usually, but sometimes.
#5 Posted by Mark Richard, CJR on Wed 25 Jul 2012 at 12:35 PM