The Gist

Jena 6 Coverage

CNN was all over the protests in Jena, LA all day. I had not seen Fox News but the Fox web site as of Thursday night had the story buried, not a major story at all on their page.

Pam has offered a critique of bloggers on the left and the lack of coverage that is important to read. In my opinion it's about a feeling of trepidation that many if not all of us have about race and an impulse to just not talk about it for fear of saying the wrong thing. Blogging especially is about quick thinking and writing, and often (though not always) doesn't lend itself to something that is uncomfortable and requires deeper thought. So I think people just kind of put it off, move it down the line of posts, and then it gets put off for good sometimes. I know this not from my own blogging (I'm a very sporadic blogger) but rather because it's actually the way I do the show often (a four-hour show, planned out all morning), when it comes to a variety of issues. I have to stop myself sometimes and say, no, this story's got to get delved into, even if it's difficult. Anyway, none of that is an excuse for not covering something; just some thoughts on how something like this happens.

We had a lively and interesting discussion on the show today about the protests, with many people making the black/gay connections (both the Human Rights Campaign and National Black Justice Coalition had officials there, and many of the African-American leaders did include bias against gays as one of the ills we still have to fight, which many people were encouraged by). We discussed the facts of the case, and played audio from some of the residents of Jena. We also talked about this in the context of the major Republican candidate's skipping a debate focused on African American issues later this month. It did take a little time for listeners to jump into the discussion, I must say -- again, that discomfort, among both white and black listeners -- though they did, eventually, big time.

Tomorrow (Friday) on the show I hope to have HRC's associte diversity director, Donna Payne, on the show; she was in Jena and wrote this piece on the Advocate website yesterday.

UPDATE: I just want to add that I noticed this as well with regard to GLBT issues lately. I've felt that many of the larger liberal and progressive blogs have not covered recent GLBT issues (i.e., Larry Craig, the Condi stuff, whatever) in a serious way or in a way that they used to in the past. It could be a lot of different reasons, including the thought that there are so many people writing on these issues, so many gay blogs, that they don't have the expertise or don't need to because it's being covered by so many others. Not sure that cuts it but just some thoughts.

UDPATE II: HRC's Donna Payne, who was in Jena, will be on the show on Monday to talk about; is traveling today. HRC executive director Joe Solmonese gave a speech at the Washington rally in support of the Jena 6.