This isn’t meant to cast aspersions on the folks at The State covering the fire that killed seven people. But: I think it’s important to talk about race and class and how it relates to coverage. The dead were all young college students, and at least six were white (the seventh was not pictured).
A reasonable person can ask if the newspaper would open up its entire front page — two days in a row — for seven middle-aged black men who died in a boarding house fire in a rough neighborhood. Or seven Mexican immigrants who died in a van crash on a rural highway.
Again, I’m not trying to declare war on The State. Most newspapers would probably play it the same way — parents of privileged college kids are a key target demographic And senior editors are often parents of privielged college kids. But it’s nonsense to discuss this week’s coverage without talking about race and class
A.