Yesterday, Peder Zane wrote a piece in the N&O bemoaning the partisan bent of news coverage in the state and nation. He has some legitimate gripes. Reporter bias does often come through and, yes, coverage does occasionally seem to reflect a more progressive view of the world especially when covering social issues. Editors and reporters should step back to ensure that they are focusing on facts and recognizing both sides of stories.
That said, Zane misses an important point. Bias is never going to be gone completely. It’s contrary to human nature. Most journalists are middle class and educated. They have a healthy skepticism of people in power and they recognize discrimination when they see it, in part, because they’re taught to look for bias in their own work. Covering broad discrimination by state government might be a bias but it is also a legitimate story.
Right now, our politicians are re-opening old wounds and condoning discrimination for the sake of political gain. That’s the story. Even Zane admits that the voter suppression bill passed by Republicans is meant to deter African-Americans and others from voting. And House Bill 2 is every bit as big a deal as the reporters covering it say it is. House Bill 2 is a multifaceted law that has had an extremely negative effect on the state with broad consequences.
The overreach of the bill itself is a big story. The legislature didn’t just pass a bill to override a Charlotte ordinance. They passed a bill loaded up with unrelated measures that restricted the ability of all local governments to govern their cities and towns. It was a sweeping bill.
One of those measures prevented municipalities from enacting non-discrimination ordinances that protect the LGBT community. It voided ordinances that had been in effect for years in several North Carolina towns. The only reason to enact such a measure would be to protect peoples’ right to discriminate.
Which leads to another, broader story. The GOP approach to governing is a dramatic shift from the approach North Carolina had taken for 50 years prior to the GOP coming to power beginning in 2010. Unlike other Southern states, North Carolina made a conscious decision to move past the divisiveness of Jim Crow politics and adopt a more welcoming, inclusive attitude.
That approach extended to gay rights. While North Carolina might not have been on the cutting edge of promoting equality, we also weren’t part of the reactionary forces pushing back–until the GOP took control. They pushed through a constitutional amendment to prevent marriage equality. When that was overturned, they protected magistrates’ rights to discriminate against gay couples. House Bill 2 continued to roll back principles that had guided North Carolina for half a century and contributed to its national reputation as a welcoming and tolerant state. That’s a huge story because it’s an attack on norms that were not so much laws but attitudes that defined the character of the state in the eyes of the nation.
Finally, Zane protests that Donald Trump’s declaration that the press is the enemy was directed narrowly at the Washington press corps. That’s incredibly naïve. Trump’s statements are designed to cast doubt on anybody who criticizes him. He’s elevated alternative media like Breitbart, makes scurrilous accusations against his enemies and lies about policies without a thought. Trump is trying to destroy the credibility of the fourth estate for the sake of personal and political gain. He won’t stop with the national media.
The media in North Carolina is currently focused on Republican policies and leaders. That’s pretty normal. The same media outlets and many of the same reporters went after North Carolina Democrats for a decade, leading to scandals, resignations and even jail time. Back then, it was Democrats and progressives cancelling their subscriptions to the N&O. I don’t remember much complaining from the GOP and conservatives back then.
Thomas Mills is the founder and publisher of PoliticsNC.com. Before beginning PoliticsNC, Thomas spent twenty years as a political and public affairs consultant. Learn more >
Rick: A splendid piece. I was Skipper Bowles’ pollster and strategist in the 1972 gubernatorial campaign. In that historic North Carolina) election, the Republican party–except for Holshouser’s negative TV ads by Roger Ailes–kept up a reasonable discussion of the issues facing the state, e.g., vocational education, efficient government, infrastructure spending, taxation and the like.
If someone were to write that novel you suggest for the years 1972 to 2010 (Why don’t you?) they would be hard pressed to explain what happened to the Republican party during those 38 years. Yes, I know Jesse Helms was a major character in that story but something else more fundamental occurred. James Holshouser and Skipper Bowles would not fit into today’s North Carolina’s Republican and Democratic parties. Why not and what happened?
It is nice to know what the NCAA wants “Trumps” the civil rights of citizens of North Carolina.
I certainly hope Cooper seeks not pride in this because there is none to be found.
“Finally, Zane protests that Donald Trump’s declaration that the press is the enemy was directed narrowly at the Washington press corps.”
That line was a clear cut case of Zane acting like every other Trump apologist by essentially saying “You can’t take Trump literally; here’s what he really meant to say.”
Trump has attacked the media every which way for two years now, and has, only on the rarest of occasions, specified the “Belt Way” media or D.C. press in his salvos. 99% of the time, he’s bashed “the media,” writ large. Period.
And I must say that conservative efforts to always “re-warm” Trump’s words has gotten tiresome to read and watch, even after just 10 weeks of his being in office. Seems that “reinterpreting” Trump’s statements, all to make them less offensive or more palatable to the public, has become a regular pastime of his sycophants and the partisan conservative media.
You’re right, AL, but the story is deeper even than that. The conscious effort by the alt-right and its soviet supporters (including in the Kremlin and in the Mercer family home) is to delegitimize all sources of information other than their own power centers. By constantly casting “doubt” on the truth and honesty of honest, truth-telling media outlets — from the NY Times to the Asheville Citizen-Times to the Podunk Express — they capitalize on the ignorance and gullibility of the “poorly educated” whom they love, and manage to convince them that, just as Trump insists that “Only I can fix it,” “only I tell the truth.” And Trump has said that many times, and sadly for our democracy, many millions of poorly educated, naive, gullible, and plain stupid Trump supporters believe him.
I am a career newspaperman, a lifer, if you will, and a native Tar Heel who has worked in Virginia for the past quarter of a century. I still have family in the Carolina mountains and don’t get there as often as I would like.
Everything changes. We all, especially professional newspapermen, know this. But I have watched with horror what has happened to my native state over the past seven or eight years under Republican rule. And let me say, I grew up in Mitchell County, where my late grandfather was head of the Democratic Party, a very minority party in that place and in that time, and mayor of my hometown. Our friends and neighbors were Republicans, but those Republicans were not like the Republicans who are now governing the state.
North Carolina of my youth and early career in Asheville was in many ways the best of the Southern states. This included race relations. Yes, Greensboro had the lunch counter sit-ins. But North Carolina largely avoided the violence and rancor of the Civil Rights Movement. It was a moderate place in the best sense. North Carolina became a two-party state beginning really in 1972 when Democrat Skipper Bowles lost the governorship. He was the first Democrat to lose a Tar Heel governor’s race in the 20th century. That year, 1972, also saw the election of Republican Jesse Alexander Helms as U.S. senator. As a footnote, Bowles and Helms grew up as boyhood friends in Monroe, where Jesse’s dad was police chief. Mr. Bowles during the 1972 race took me to his boyhood home in Monroe when I served as pool reporter for The Associated Press (I was “loaned” to The AP by my paper during part of that historic campaign.) I knew the major politicians of that era.
It would take a magnificent novelist to chronicle what happened to the state in the years between 1972 and the 2010 election. It is a subject that continues to haunt and trouble me.
The GOP’s actions are so egregious that once they are placed in the black and white of newsprint they look all the more egregious. The perpetrators typically then blame the press for being biased, when it is the ideological politicians whose bias is displayed for all to see. Once injustice and prejudice see the light of day, they look a lot different than they do in backroom deliberations. The kill-the-messenger syndrome is with the republic still.
If anything, the press is too easy on this crowd of ideologues who would not understand the former North Carolina sense of proportion if it hit them in the face. They are fighting the war of a past and discredited generation and, as tired writers say, are on the wrong side of history in their treatment of those different from the “norm.”
As a lifelong Democrat, I believe in a two-party system. But North Carolina Republicans give that grand tradition a bad name, too. I was delighted that Democrat Roy Cooper won the governorship. I only hope that some of the Republican legislators eventually are held to account for the damage they have done to my native state. That damage extends far beyond the loss of sports tournaments. North Carolina these days has more of the image of Mississippi of my youth than it does of the Old North State of my boyhood and early manhood.
Thanks. My memories of NC during the years of which you write are second hand (relatives), but nothing led me to expect what I now see. It is sad, shameful and frightening. It also mirrors too many other places, but seems to lead in sheer ugly hatred of anything that has changed since the middle of the last century.
Thank you for reading my words, Norma Munn, and responding.
All journalists and consumers of journalism would be well served to study up on logical fallacies. Some of your readers (and probably you and the writers on PoliticsNC and other journalists) are familiar with some of them, although the point is to know them well and avoid their practice in reporting. It is up to readers, of course, to know and recognize them when they are practiced “in the wild.” The formal recognition of these distortions in clear thinking go back to Aristotle. While being quite ancient now, he still has demonstrated the persistence of his insight in some realms, ethics and logic among them.
There is an excellent description of many at the actively edited and peer-reviewed website at www(.)iep(.)utm(.)edu(/fallacy (I do this in an obtuse way because I’ve noticed that hyperlinks take longer to post on here). There is also a heavily abbreviated poster anyone can download for their TV room at https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/poster https(:)(//)yourlogicalfallacyis(.)com(/)poster.
For my part, it always surprises me when I endure FauxNoise (I’ve practiced a fallacy here) and see the pretend impartial hosts have competing “experts” on. The friendly “expert” is allowed to ramble on without interruption… well, unless the host wants to interrupt them (rare)… and the opposing “expert” (usually someone who couldn’t debate their way out of a wet tissue gag) is interrupted as soon as they attempt to make their point. Why don’t the viewers see this and demand better? I am going to assume for purposes of this note that some of them are intelligent, well-read, and know that this practice is not only rude, but usually includes fallacies in the interruption itself.
This occurs on all cable news to some extent. The best news, to my thinking, is on PBS NewsHour. They often have opposing viewpoints on, but let them talk through their points. There is a sub rosa expectation of courtesy “imposed” on the speakers, but is this such a burden? There is also a bias towards people who are actually credentialed on the topics presented. David Brooks drives me nuts as I’ve seen him argue venomously on shows other than NewsHour, which tells me he is unprincipled. But when he is on NewsHour, he behaves in a collegial way. Whatever points he makes are riddled with fallacies, but his opponent is allowed to identify them and Brooks is allowed the same in his response.
In some ways, this is what we need – a return of decency in public discourse. How will we get there? Beats me. It seems quite important, though.
Dr. De Vries:
Thank you for noting my little words on politicsnc.com. I remember you so well from that 1972 campaign. I was just a kid then and traveled with Mr. Bowles in at least 25 of North Carolina’s 100 counties. I filed three stories daily with The AP. It was hard not to like Mr. Bowles. When he lost by something like 100,000 votes, I was crushed. I am sure you know better than I that he later contracted a fatal disease but still raised the money for the Dean Dome at UNC.
I would love to try to do the novel I mentioned and you referred to. I am 72 and operate a weekly newspaper. Even so, you are correct that it would be hard to explain what happened to change the politics of both parties. I still might try the novel. LOL!
Go for the novel, Rick. You think you are old? I cannot believe that I am 87 and still functioning (my perceptions only).
I kept up a relationship with Skipper Bowles until his death. His work on the Dean Dome was important but equally critical was his support of the Alcoholism Center at UNC-Chapel Hill.
I was so impressed with him and this state that I moved my family from Michigan (I was a Professor at UM) to North Carolina and we never regretted it. His son, Erskine, is a chip off the ole’ Skipper block and inherited his father’s sense of public service.
Good to hear from you.
Peace,
Rick:
I, too, say “go for the novel.” Two years ago my small, independent Pisgah Press (in Asheville) published radio commentator Jeff Messer’s delightful and snarky “Red-state, White-guy Blues” about the takeover of the state in the first two years of the McCrory administration. It was our first political book, following numerous memoirs, fiction, nonfiction, and a couple of poetry collections and children’s books. As a fellow NC native who grew up here in the ’50s and ’60s, I’d love to talk with you about doing a novel on NC politics!
Email me at pisgahpress@gmail.com if you’re interested.
A.D. (Andy) Reed
Editor-in-chief
Pisgah Press, LLC
(www.pisgahpress.com)