Wonder of the Web #2,567: if you write something stupid in a small, local paper, that fact has a much larger chance than before of being discovered outside your locality.
To wit: today’s editorial in The Daily News-Record, the newspaper of Harrisonburg, Virginia. The one headlined, no joke, “Primate Obama.”
Yes.
Now, the editorial in question (thanks to a reader for passing it on) is about Obama’s controversial speech at Notre Dame—“the president is not even Catholic,” the paper huffs, “yet on Sunday during his controversial appearance at Notre Dame’s commencement exercises, Mr. Obama all but declared himself Primate of the Roman Catholic Church in America”—and thus its title is, ostensibly, a reference to clerical vernacular. (A “primate” in the Catholic church, is, per the Catholic Encyclopedia, “a bishop possessing superior authority, not only over the bishops of his own province, like the metropolitan, but over several provinces and metropolitans.”) But, you know, come on.
One DNR reader’s reaction to the monkey business:
THIS HEADLINE IS DISGUSTING, A NEW LOW FOR THE LOWLY dnr. SHAME ON THE EDITORS. THEY ARE THE TRUE SUB-HUMANS IN THIS PICTURE. THERE ARE APPARENTLY NO DEPTHS THEY WILL NOT DIVE TO IN THEIR EFFORTS, UNSUCCESSFUL, TO BE CLEVER. THEY HAVE SUCCEEDED ONLY IN SHAMING THEMSELVES. AND MAKING THE REST OF US IN THE VALLEY LOOK BAD BY OUR SUPPORT OF SUCH DISGRACEFUL “JOURNALISM”.
dis⋅in⋅gen⋅u⋅ous (dis-in-jen-yoo-uhs) - adj. - lying and pretending you're really just stupid.
#1 Posted by JGFitzgerald, CJR on Thu 21 May 2009 at 05:07 PM
Hey Joe, sounds like more of your typical crybaby Leftism shining through...grow up Ex Mayor...YOU give Hburg a bad name.
#2 Posted by Johnathan Woodrow, CJR on Thu 21 May 2009 at 08:08 PM
Sounds like more of your "I don't have anything logical or progressive to say, so I'll call you names" Johnathan. Do you have anything besides name calling in your "reply".
#3 Posted by David Miller, CJR on Thu 21 May 2009 at 08:46 PM
JW,
Uh, yeah ... actually, I prefer Mayor Emeritus. And for the record, I didn't call the president of the United States a primate. That gives the city a bad name. So does having a newspaper run by the family that invented massive resistance. (And in case you're wondering, I was the reader who emailed this tip. Not that it matters. I only mention it because of the quality of the people it will irritate.) As to my liberalism: I would quibble with the reference to it's shining. I believe it glows.
#4 Posted by JGFitzgerald, CJR on Thu 21 May 2009 at 09:31 PM
I forwarded this to the contact sites of most major news outlets. Is it possible to get ol' "Editor" to resign? Let's give it a shot.
#5 Posted by Daniel Showalter, CJR on Thu 21 May 2009 at 11:08 PM
It seems Mr. Fitzgerald has an ax to grind. Were you not the the editor at one time. Maybe you got canned so now you're paying them back.
#6 Posted by Kevin Gorden, CJR on Thu 21 May 2009 at 11:51 PM
Thanks for posting about this. It's been bothering many of us Harrisonburg locals for a while (the racist tones of the DNR staff editorials).
I submitted a CNN iReport here which includes your article:
http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-261612
#7 Posted by Renee, CJR on Fri 22 May 2009 at 02:02 AM
I never worked with Cort. The previous managing editor fired me as city editor in1995. I disagreed with his tendency to spike unpopular stories, treat the staff like serfs, and try to do the work of eight reporters with three. His stated reason for firing me was that i used the word "that" too much. Seriously. It was an odd place to work. I'll let somebody else decide if I have an axe to grind. But Cort still called Obama a monkey. And he did it, to paraphrase his editorial, in a slick way.
#8 Posted by JGFitzgerald, CJR on Fri 22 May 2009 at 06:44 AM
Renee, I find it bothering that you would read a blog named Chimpout. And the fact that you gave that blog a listing on another site is equally bothering. If you want to make it more visible, you did a stellar job, for I had no idea such a racist site existed, but maybe you have issues in your closet.
Next time, if you disagree with a "blog" that you MIGHT not like, don't link to it...you gave them what they desire...attention.
#9 Posted by Johnathan Woodrow, CJR on Fri 22 May 2009 at 06:59 AM
Oh yeah, why is not OK for the DNR to use the word Primate but this place can use the word Monkey? Typical Liberal double standards...
#10 Posted by Johnathan Woodrow, CJR on Fri 22 May 2009 at 07:01 AM
JW,
Now that we know how you feel about the actions and personalities of people commenting, perhaps you could tell us how you, as a representative, presumably, of non-crybabies with no double standards, viewed Cort's headline. Did he intend a double-meaning? Did he take a cheap, racially loaded shot at the President? Could "Bishop Obama" or "Cardinal Obama" have said the same thing, with the added advantage that most people don't think a bishop or a cardinal is a monkey? I'm just curious.
#11 Posted by JGFitzgerald, CJR on Fri 22 May 2009 at 08:11 AM
One thing to remember is that there are a lot of people at the DNR, reporters, press people, office workers, that don't have anything to do with writing the editorials. Most don't read them and they surely don't see them before they go to print. So, if you associate with this people, try not to hold it against them. Most are living paycheck to paycheck just trying to get by.
#12 Posted by kevin gorden, CJR on Fri 22 May 2009 at 08:22 AM
Kevin, of course no one is attacking the DNR staff, editorial staff aside. Since no comments even allude to an attack on the rest of the staff I'll just assume you are trying to twist said words. Either way we all know that this shit is racist and thinly veiled. My opinion is this; I really don't care what some editor at the DNR writes anymore. That paper has been horrid for a long time. We all respect the fact that it gives us a local news outlet but the editorials are always offensive. They choose the worst of the worst and systematically lie. I really don’t care anymore but slandering the person who finds your work offensive is about as productive as the editorials themselves. Get over it, your editorials are trash. Many of us feel this way. Some people don’t like my art, fine. I do draw the line at insulting those persons for their views. Maybe you should consider the same.
#13 Posted by Billy Shifflett, CJR on Fri 22 May 2009 at 08:53 AM
Joe, worry about yourself and the image you are presenting to the world. After all, YOU were the one who stated that you do not read the DNR...so don't worry about it. (if you don't remember that statement, it can found in the archives of both the so-called news site you post on and in Google)
#14 Posted by Johnathan Woodrow, CJR on Fri 22 May 2009 at 11:08 AM
JW,
Just to catch up on the grammar, the first person singular is capitalized, the second person isn't. Not even when it's me. As to not reading the DNR, I'm not sure of the relevance here. I don't watch "American Idol" either, but I'd probably hear about it if they called one of their winners a racially tinged name on air.
On the topic of the many people in a newsroom who aren't writing the editorials: It is sadly ironic that it may be the most dedicated who hang on to the newsroom jobs when the industry is tanking to the extent that it takes more and more daily compromise to continue.
#15 Posted by JGFitzgerald, CJR on Fri 22 May 2009 at 11:14 AM
This is more-or-less par for the course for the DNR editorial page. They're generally about a half-notch shy of outright contempt for Obama, and about a hairsbreadth shy of outright adulation when it comes to conservatives.
I'm not one to stretch for charges of racism--I take such charges to be very serious indeed. But there's very little doubt that the racist suggestion was intentional. The DNR editorial staff is apparently dumb--but they're not *that* dumb.
Add to this several habitual commenters on the DNR site who push things even farther (one moron who typically refers to the President as "Ol' Bama"), and you get an environment thick with stupidity and implied racism.
The DNR editorial page is the absolute bottom of the journalistic barrel. It's like a bloody train wreck--mesmerizing yet repulsive. It actively works to bring out the worst in those who are out of touch enough to take it seriously.
Having grown up on a farm in the Missouri Ozarks, I've always been resentful at the condescending attitude the coastal press takes towards rural and middle America. But the DNR editorial page has, unfortunately, come to make me wonder whether this attitude might be defensible...
#16 Posted by William Knorpp, CJR on Sun 31 May 2009 at 02:06 PM