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FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE Text of letter sent to Naples Daily News regarding Brent Batten's column Phil Lewis Dear Mr. Lewis: The National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) was stunned to read the patently offensive, intellectually condescending and journalistically unfocused column by Naples Daily News columnist Brent Batten about a failed local hip-hop concert. In his sloppy attempt at satire, Batten insulted thousands of readers, many of who may or may not speak with an urban dialect, but most of who probably don’t look like or sound like Brent Batten. “And he's down wit y'all for chillin' an' sez much love, mad props to the peeps. He knows y'all gots to get paid an' he axe everyone to be cool while he gets da pimps their bling bling and y'all yo fitty,” Batten wrote. Huh? We thought this kind of parody went the way of blackface, big lips and Step-‘n’-Fetchit routines decades ago. More alarming, however, was not just that Batten chose to sit down and write such a piece, but that his editors allowed it to be published. Did anyone raise even the slightest comment, question or concern? Certainly there would have been more pause if your columnist wrote something as patronizing about your Jewish community in, say, mock-Yiddish? At most newspapers in Florida and throughout the nation, competent line editors would have read this piece and summarily tossed it in the garbage. In a newsroom that reported in the most recent ASNE survey that fewer than 2 percent of its journalists were people of color, were there any editors in the room with enough sense to stop this? We’d expect a more rigorous editing process at a newspaper like the Daily News. Tasteless writing and editing like this hurts the paper and its reputation, especially when you are otherwise doing good work. During the same week, the Daily News had a well-reported news story about the failed festival, as well as a well-argued editorial condemning the promoter’s actions. And we understand the Daily News has signed up for the Parity Project that offers writers and editors training and exposure So it was sad to see your journalistic values temporarily tossed aside to let this inappropriate column grace your pages. As journalists, we understand and wholly support a columnist’s right to use humor to make a point, even if that humor may rub some people the wrong way. But, in this case, what was the point? Looking at your other coverage of the same event, your columnist added little to the conversation, provided no new insight or analysis and ultimately failed the reader. In addition, as one writer pointed out, his slang was not even accurate. All in all, it just ended up being inauthentic -- and it wasn’t even that funny. We’d hope that, upon reflection, you would apologize to your readers for this insensitive column. Your newspaper must aspire to be better than this, even if your columnist does not. Sincerely,
Cc: NABJ Board of Directors An advocacy group established in 1975 in Washington, D.C., NABJ is the largest organization of journalists of color in the world, with 3,600 members, and provides educational, career development and support to black journalists worldwide. |
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