By Rob Ralph / Herald Forum
The local newspaper, as an established form of media, used to act as a sounding board and as a standard that protected the American public. It was a place where controversial opinions and viewpoints could be aired publicly, with the intention of creating public discourse, debate and change. Today, however, the canceling of a comic strip — think about that! — because its artist said something that is controversial in a separate forum from his work, is what is wrong with the American newspaper today (“Editorial: Creator’s racist rants earn ‘Dilbert’ a pink slip,” The Heald, Feb. 28).
It is symptomatic of a desire by some to cancel anything that has the faintest whiff of racist intention or content without the merit of truth, fact-finding or the application of journalistic integrity. Call something or someone racist and cancel it. I find it appalling that the editors of a local newspaper can’t use this as an opportunity to employ the fundamentals of journalism to report “the rest of the story.”
The Herald’s editorial makes a great deal of assumptions about the intentions and meanings of Scott Adams’ statements. While Adams is making some broad assumptions of his own, isn’t it the duty of any reputable journalist, and by extension, newspaper, to dig in and find out more? When was this editorial board’s interview of Mr. Adams conducted? Do the conclusions of the poll he referenced contradict his comments? If the statement that 47 percent of the respondents weren’t sure or disagreed with the notion that it’s OK to “be white,” what additional questions should we be asking of those respondents? What of the pollsters should be asked? Where’s the journalism?
Is it OK to be “white”?
Is it OK to ask this question in the first place?
And by asking it, aren’t the pollsters responsible for this simple-minded poll question themselves, guilty of racism? If not, they’re certainly guilty of race-baiting.
In closing, we had a subscription to The Herald when its journalists were allowed to ask the tough questions, to report actual news, and when they were empowered to challenge difficult questions and controversial topics in the Opinion section of the paper. Your editorial suggested that Adams was imparting his own biases but you have not asked him any questions. You assert that he came to the wrong conclusions, but haven’t shared what the right conclusions ought to be.
In short, your decision may be the right one: to cancel Scott Adams and the “Dilbert” comic. But we will never know because journalism has died at The Herald and it’s only a matter of time before Sound Publishing realizes it and cancels this publication. And that will truly be a sad day.
Rob Ralph lives in Everett.
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