Whitlock hits it out of the park

It was a good, thoughtful column, Jason.

Get much feedback from readers?

 

Nice job, bubs...

 

Yeah, if you're black, do you really want to start your career at some podunk paper as not only the paper's, but the circulation area's only black person. That's certainly an issue.

An issue beyond race, and into income strata, is that journalism is turning into a career only rich kids can afford. Let's see, take outrageous college costs, add low-paying or unpaid internships, leaven with low-paying jobs in even some of the most desirable places, shake in industry groupthink that values profit-squeezing and un-rocking-the-boat (nonboat rocking?) above all else and, voila! Anyone who wants to eat more than cans of beans while paying back those student loans is going to find something else to do. I mean, if you have to be a corporate whore, at least be an expensive one.

 

Nice read Jason.

ChickWriter1975, that was probably the best follow up I've read on this board.

MFB

 

See also:
Crouch, Stanley.

Push this phenomenon too far and you wind up with Thomas (Buy My Kidneys! Cheap!) Sowell and the unspeakable Larry Elder.


UPDATE -- And, Jason? OK, exactly how much WOULD you attribute to entrenched white racism and, for the benefit of us all, can you please cite the last major white sports columnist who has used that as an excuse for why the numbers are so terrible?

 

Are we ever going to get past this white-black discussion?

I'm a sports editor and would hire the best talent, regardless of race, gender, creed, preference to baseball teams, etc. I'd like to think there are many more like me who doesn't give 2 hoots about the white-black issue.

The piece is well-written, but to me it's just a tired old issue.

It's 2006, people.

 

It's only tired because the numbers show things haven't improved in the past 20 enlightened years or so.

 

In theory, I agree with you. But in reality, this issue is still having a direct impact on hiring practices in the business.

 

Well, how many young black sports writers have applied to newspapers during that span? Let's get some numbers to put this debate into perspective. But that seems nearly impossible. How could we ever know?

Well, send a young black sports writer to me and I'll give him/her a job. Disclaimer: I'm a one-person sports department with oft-unreliable stringers. But you get my point.

Instead of Scoop going around to high schools and deriding our business, maybe Whitlock should go around to schools to encourage our noble profession  to aspiring sports writers. Let them put a face with a name. Face to face. Handshake to handshake. More summer internships would help, I'm sure.

 

Maybe you should read Whitlock's column.

 

I did this morning and probably forgot stuff. What did I screw up in the post? Did he go and meet young writers?

 

He says that while in college he tried to recruit blacks for his college paper. One of his main points is that young African-Americans aren't preparing themselves to become journalists.