I sent the station's news director the editorial response I described in a
recent diary (I sent in my original version; I got some good feedback from people on things to take /out/ but without suggesting anything to add back /in/ to keep it long enough). He passed it on to the "editorial board" including the general manager, who CC'd me a copy of the response she sent back to the news director and the rest of the board. Kind of interesting:
As a point of clarification, the KTVO editorial did not say African Americans should take personal responsibility, the point was that All Americans should take personal responsibility. Here is the actual script.
"We live in a free country. We have free education and free daily access to mass media. Today's technology offers vast amounts of information and resources for self-improvement and social change. Yet there are those who chose to drop out of school, don't vote and refuse to take on new challenges. Recently, entertainer Bill Cosby came under fire when he castigated some blacks for blaming whites for their social problems. Perhaps Mr. Cosby has helped to illuminate a major issue which reaches across all of America today. Why must we blame someone else for the social, educational and moral failures of many segments of our society? It's time to take responsibility for the natural consequences of the choices made in our own daily lives."
That said, I would encourage Alan to do the editorial response.
I responded back with an accommodating, but slightly pointed response, (hopefully) sweetened up with some ego stroking:
How about if I change "said" to "seemed to imply"? I think that's fair, given that the only specific example used in the editorial was Bill Cosby's statements about "blacks...blaming whites".
Thank you, though, for being open to my doing the response editorial. I am sure it must be difficult to be put in the position of approving and running something which differs with, and criticises, your own editorial position; and I give you a lot of credit for being willing to do so.
Of course, what I really wanted to say was "yeah, right--not about blacks. Pffft--what-the-fuck-ever! You're busted and you know it!" But that would have been impolitic, given that I would actually like to get this on the air.