In Defense Of The Black Press

"I still don't think that there is a future for a young person working in a predominantly Black medium. Let's face it, twenty years from now Ebony magazine could be out of business. Or if it's not out of business, it would be something that would not give you the benefits, the rewards for your abilities that you would get if you went to a larger publication or one that was better integrated. Why work for Ebony when you can work for Newsweek or the Washington Post?"--Stanley Robertson, executive producer, Universal Pictures Television (Players magazine interview, December 1978, pp. 29-30).

Although Mr. Robinson has the right to speak his mind, I think he should be reminded (daily, if necessary) that his attitude toward the black press does more harm than good.

His statement would lead any young black considering a career in journalism to think that unless he is employed by Time or the Washington Post, his career will be going nowhere.

The fact that this statement comes from an experienced journalist and television executive adds weight to it in the mind of a young black. (Interestingly, Mr. Robertson writes a column called "L.A. Confidential" for the Los Angeles Sentinel, a black weekly.)

True, the salaries and fringe benefits at a predominantly white paper are more attractive than anything a black paper can offer.But this will change when a financially strong black press is given strong community support. Bringing in a cadre of dedicated young journalists will help immeasurably to arouse this support.

The increase in young blood will bring with it new ideas and new approaches that will stimulate the content in the black press. (To quote Joseph Nazel, a black writer, "the Black press is angry because it is not receiving the community support it so desperately needs." He also writes that this happened because "integration into the pages of the white press usurped much of the stature of the Black press" resulting in the loss of reporters, readership, and advertising revenue.)

This damage to the stature of the black press will not be rectified, if blacks like Mr. Robertson, who have "made it," continually play down the importance of the black press. This is not to say we should discourage anybody from going to the other side, either.

We need them there also (blacks make up approximately 4 percent of the working press). But we shouldn't cut off our noses to spite our faces. The white-controlled metropolitan dailies cannot and will not give the black community overall coverage. And we should not expect them to. That is why the black press is so important to the people and the events that would otherwise go unnnoticed or receive scant coverage.

Mr. Robertson's statement also ignores the historical reason for the existence of the black press today and in the past. It was the racial attitude of whites. (The 19th and 20th centuries saw the emergence of numerous newspapers and magazines catering to a black audience.By 1910, there were 288 black newspapers with a combined circulation of half a million.)

In the words of the late black journalist-author Roi Ottley, "Feeling among Negroes was negative to the white dailies. They felt those organs could not be trusted to tell the truth about the Negro." Although the white press today is not as hostile to blacks as it once was, there still is a need to "let the people know the true state of things."

The black press can do this better than the white press because the black press has a stake in the community.

This does not mean that the black press is perfect. There are a few black papers that are using unethical methods to attract readers.

Writes Ron Reynard in Players magazine, "Many small community newspapers are doing an excellent job. Others, however, seem intent on giving the Black community the shaft. Shrill editorials, misleading headlines and the stance that 'if it's Black, it's right,' do no service to the Black community."

But despite these shortcomings, the truth still remains--we need the black press as much today as did our forefathers in their day. That's why it is foolish for the black community to allow its support of the black press to decline any further.

This article was originally published in the New York Amsterdam News (September 20,1980). It was also published in the Black American, another New York-based weekly.