Recently, the Whitewater Register ran a three-part series on the Whitewater Police Department. Here’s my assessment of the second part of that series, entitled, “A Diverse Community Presents Challenges.”
The Register lists three groups as contributing to the diversity of our community: (1) Hispanics, (2) students, and (3) juveniles.
The inclusion of juveniles as a category constituting diversity is unusual. Every community in America has juveniles; if they’re a category leading to diversity, then there is no place on earth that’s not diverse. When a category applies to everyone, it’s unique to no one, and useless as a distinguishing characteristic.
That leaves us with two groups that make us diverse, by that reckoning: Hispanics and UW-Whitewater students. Those groups do contribute to our diversity. I would not think, though, the most telling attribute of either group is that it presents a challenge.
Imagine how this sounds to someone not trapped in the town faction’s echo chamber: “Minorities and College Kids Present Challenges for the Rest of Us.” That would be a headline that’s false and insulting simultaneously.
There are two ways to consider the second part of the series – as history or journalism. I’m more interested in the story as journalism. (To see that it’s a history that the Register presents only in part, one need merely review the pages of this website.)
It’s as journalism, as reporting, that the story’s most interesting to me. It presents one side of the story in the words of those holding that view (Chief Coan or reports that he has prepared), but the other side only through the reporter’s words.
This technique represents only the appearance of balance. When both points of view do not have an equal voice within the story, the story’s unbalanced. There’s no reason not to interview and quote from members of the Hispanic community, or faculty involved in criminal justice matters, or immigration policy, etc.
I know that Editor Carrie Dampier once wrote that she was pressed for time, but these are not matters peripheral to a reporter’s concerns. They are central to a reporter’s craft.
It’s as though a pilot told you that he was too busy to look at the plane’s altimeter.
It’s easier and faster without the effort, but it’s also undesirable.