Howard Witt recaps last year’s internet movement with the Maynard Institute
The Maynard Institute has a comprehensive interview with Howard Witt, Southwest Bureau Chief of the Chicago Tribune. Anyone who has visited this site for any length of time is familiar with Mr. Witt's work on the ShaQuanda Cotton case and in the Jena 6 story. He was the first person in the national media to report on either issue.
The interview conducted by Reggie Royston is titled Black Blogosphere Proves Potent Force In Story of Race in the New South. Click here to see the interview in its entirety. Here are just a few excerpts, please visit Maynard to get the entire picture.
Were you encouraged or intrigued by the blogger reaction to your stories?
I was. The whole experience was kind of an awakening for me as to the even existence this black blogosphere. I didn't really pay much attention to blogs until early this year. I think I shared the stereotype of bloggers that most mainstream journalists have, which is [that] they were this bunch of lunatics sitting in front of the computer screen at midnight in their underwear expostulating on things. I thought it was a bunch of navel-gazing and a waste of time, but I changed my opinion pretty dramatically after the Shaquanda Cotton story.
I was discovering the bloggers I think as they were beginning to discover themselves. What I came to discover later, and what the bloggers themselves started to talk about, [was that] prior to the Shaquanda case they were kind of isolated. While they had a few interconnected links to each other, they were mostly a bunch of individuals kind of giving their thoughts on issues of the day.
What role do you think race played in raising the profile of these bloggers? Are black bloggers more influential than white bloggers or leftist bloggers, per se?
Certainly the black bloggers have defined for themselves a particular area of interest and broadly we're talking about civil rights-type issues. I think the difference is, if we're talking about "white blogs," if we're talking about the liberal political blogs like Daily Kos and the Huffington Post, those blogs to me, they're much less interesting. They are basically just regurgitating what they read in the mainstream media, particularly the big-name columnists, Paul Krugman and the rest. It's kind of a hall of mirrors to me, and I find none of it interesting.
But what I find in the black blogosphere you have people who don't profess to be political professionals. They're just ordinary folks coming from a range of interests and professions but they have these very thoughtful takes on the civil rights issues of the day. They bring to bear their own experience and they give voice to a lot of stuff that just doesn't get aired either in the mainstream media or in the kind of liberal blogs. Plus the black blogosphere is not distinguished by a particular political orthodoxy.
What about the Associated Press story saying the truth in this matter (Jena 6) is a lot murkier?
I can only be responsible for what I wrote. I think that was the [AP] story that tried to make a big deal about the fact that there [were] only two nooses, not three……
The AP story [that] somehow tried to debunk this followed another AP story done by a different reporter, which talked about the local barbershop. There's a barbershop called Doughty's Westside Barbershop, where it's an all-white barbershop, and they proudly refuse to cut black people's hair. I went in there a few weeks ago and couldn't believe these guys were willing to say this, and sure enough, the proprietor says, "I'm not cutting n-people's hair. They're not coming in this place. If I were to cut their hair then that would just dirty up my instruments." Just the most vile stuff. So, the same AP did a story about that, but then they decided a month later that they were going to raise questions.
You are white, correct?
I actually find it entertaining. A lot of the bloggers think I am black, and they give props to brother Howard Witt. And you know, I'll take that as an honor. But, no, I am Caucasian.
