Wednesday, August 15, 2012

White people's rights group? What could that be?

Recently, the Scranton Times-Tribune published an article with the headline, "Moosic says no to white rights group celebration." The first paragraph of the article reads:
Moosic will forbid a white people's rights group from having a celebration at a borough park Saturday because its leader lied when he applied to use the park, council President Joseph Mercatili said Wednesday.
I want to focus particularity on the phrase "white people's rights group" because this is an excellent example of a Euphemism. The correct term for the group in question is "White supremacist" or "Neo-Nazi" as this article clearly demonstrates.

This, of course, raises some interesting questions about the Scranton-Times Tribune editorial choices.  Why did they select the more innocuous sounding "white people's rights group?" Were they trying to appeal to a certain segment of their readership? Are there that many racists in Pennsylvania that they thought maybe they could broaden their readership? I am really not sure, but I do find it disturbing to see people in the media fail to describe things as they actually are, and instead allow the people they cover to dictate the nature of that coverage (a problem that I will discuss at length as the presidential campaign heats-up). This is not healthy for journalism, and certainly not healthy for democracy.

h/t to Atrios

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