The Oregonian yesterday announced a long form bundle looking at racism and white supremacy expressed in the editorials and news coverage of Henry Pittock and Harvey Scott through World War I.
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| tweets one and five of five - via Twitter |
Reassessment is a small trend in newspapering right now. The Seattle Times looked at their coverage of a 1970 protest recently. Earlier in the year they had looked at original coverage of the the Japanese internment.
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| Earlier this month, Seattle Times |
The Statesman-Journal should strongly consider a similar project of internal reckoning. To start with Asahel Bush and other 19th century editors and writers with both the Statesman and the Capitol Journal is a logical choice.
But right now with the Oregonian project, maybe that would seem a little copy-cat, even with the Bush House's project to reassess the legacy of Asahel Bush.
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| October 25th, 1922 |
There's another big historical episode, a 100th anniversary even, that really demands a visit at this exact historical moment.
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| October 2nd 1922 |
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| October 9th, 1922 |
George Putnam, the publisher of the Capitol Journal staring in 1919, in 1922 ran a striking contrarian campaign against the Second Klan.
The Statesman was not so passionate, and seemed to acquiesce ultimately and support the Klan.
The interplay and competition between the two papers is interesting and is worth attention.
The intensity, and also weakness, of Putnam's moral frame is worth attention. He was focused on secret society, the secret exercise of power, and the con and graft of the financial side of the Klan.
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| August 7th, 1922 |
He did not emphasize the racism so much, and seemed ok with anti-Reconstruction polemic and its racism.
If there is an historical episode in the paper's history that demands attention right now, surely this is it.
Another episode that is strikingly relevant is the 1936 serialization of Sinclair Lewis' novel, It Can't Happen Here, in the Statesman.
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| September 9th, 1936 |
The paper should also consider their current coverage.
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| Buried in the USA Today supplement |
Yesterday's online headline, "Protesters clash outside Old Nick's Pub show over 11-year-old drag queen," and even today's AP piece, buried in the online USA Today supplement and not in the core SJ print product, create a sense of false balance between fascist revolutionaries and brawlers on the one side and queer communities on the other.
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| A bit of obfuscation in the NY Times |
Even the august New York Times struggles to name things plainly, clinging to notions of "objectivity" and employing euphemism that does not meet the moment.
So looking at the history is important, and it is also important to consider what that might say about the present. Even if history doesn't exactly rhyme, there is a good bit of off-rhyme and similarity to analyze.
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