Death by Journalism?
I recently read Jerry Bledsoe’s “Death by Journalism? One Teacher’s Fateful Encounter with Political Correctness.” The book’s a decent look at the effect journalism can have on a community.
A big controversy in the book is one teacher’s interpretation of the slave narratives. As it happens, Project Gutenberg recently released the slave narratives. The narratives are intriguing but employ a verbatim transcription of dialects, which makes for hard reading.
Here’s what I thought:
Death by Journalism? One Teacher’s Fateful Encounter with Political Correctness
By Jerry Bledsoe
Down Home Press, 2002
In “Death by Journalism? One Teacher’s Fateful Encounter with Political Correctness,” author Jerry Bledsoe tells the story of man wronged by a press that may have hastened the man’s death.
Jack Perdue, a Civil War buff, was leading a lecture at the local community college entitled “North Carolina’s Role in the War for Southern Independence.” The Sons of Confederate Veterans, a group that dedicates itself to Confederate history, helped sponsored the class.
Intrigued, a reporter for the Greensboro News & Record, Ethan Feinsilver, decided to check it out. Feinsilver thought the class might be indicative of a “lingering resentment among some Southerners, people who felt that because of pressures to be politically correct, they couldn’t celebrate their heritage” (Shepard).
He wrote a story for the paper detailing a class that allegedly taught students slaves were happy in the South and that blacks fought willingly for the Confederacy. When confronted by Feinsilver, the teacher Perdue replied, “There’s no controversy here” (Bledsoe 76).
Feinsilver attended a couple classes, talked to the students and wrote the story, which ran on the front of the News & Record’s B section (Shepard). The Associated Press noticed the story, entitled “Course reopens war’s old wounds” (Bledsoe 93), and moved it on the wires. It was then that the gates broke loose. TV crews, radio personalities, and newspaper reporters camped out on Perdue’s lawn (Feinsilver). Vitriolic editorials were written in papers around the country, the course was branded “racist propaganda” (Bledsoe 115), and the NAACP got involved.
Feinsilver’s story contained several factual errors, including the course’s name, the number of students, and the number of classes (Bledsoe 95). Also, some information had been paraphrased. Where Feinsilver wrote “happy slaves,” the source had actually referenced a 1930 poll that said 70 percent of slaves were “satisfied with their lives in captivity” (Bledsoe 97).
The News & Record did not run a correction and the national media picked up on Feinsilver’s original reporting. Eventually, Perdue’s course was canceled and Randolph Community College was shamed. Perdue died shortly afterward at age 60. Bledsoe insinuates that scrutiny from the media, and the subsequent destruction of his reputation, helped to end his life. As a final straw, the News & Record “decreed that [Perdue’s] death was not news” (Bledsoe 214) and no obituary story was printed. Perdue’s family had to pay to have an announcement in the paper.
Bledsoe, himself a former reporter for the Greensboro News & Observer, faults the paper for taking a “defensive position about claims of inaccuracies” (Bledsoe 232) and for treating members of the Sons of Confederate Victims dismissively (Bledsoe 233). He warns that the “most dishonest or incompetent reporter in the tiniest backwater town” can instantly spread lies through the power of wire services, such as the Associated Press (Bledsoe 234).
Ultimately, Bledsoe condemns newspaper sensationalism. He cites an American Society of Newspaper Editors study that found 80 percent of adults believe newspapers overly dramatize events (Bledsoe 235). He believes this, combined with clerical and factual errors, are contributing to a widespread loss in journalism’s credibility (Bledsoe 235).
The book’s strength was Bledsoe’s research. He talked to students of the class, the teacher before he died, NAACP administrators, politicians, and reporters. He also watched all the videos of Perdue’s class, which were sealed by Perdue’s attorney when the story was breaking (Muschick). There are a plethora of quotes and Bledsoe keeps the narrative moving in an engaging fashion. This probably due to his background in true crime writing.
Now, there are a number of problems with the book. First, Bledsoe admonishes Feinsilver for writing about the first class when he did not attend it (he wrote off student schedules and notes that were faxed to him). Throughout the book, Bledsoe himself reconstructs conversations for which he was not present and makes use of secondhand quotes.
He also faults national newspapers like the New York Times and the Washington Post for picking up Feinsilver’s story without questioning it or getting the other side of the story. Bledsoe’s book really only tells one side of the story. All of his sources at the News & Observer, a paper he spent a good portion of his working life at, are anonymous. He also does not find any material to support the paper’s conflicting position, which still stands by the essential nature of Feinsilver’s reporting (Deans).
Bledsoe burns Feinsilver at the proverbial stake for misspelling names and getting the name of the class wrong in his stories. Bledsoe, in fact, has a number of facts wrong himself. He says Feinsilver enrolled in a graduate program at University of North Carolina (Bledsoe 224). He did not enter the graduate program but he got a job there (Shepard). Bledsoe also claims Feinsilver “chose to live in Greensboro,” 25 miles away from Asheboro, the town he was covering (Bledsoe 73). This was untrue (Shepard).
In interviews, Feinsilver says he feels “Death by Journalism?” portrays him unfairly as a pushy, self-centered reporter. “I’m so obnoxious in the book. I just don’t behave that way,” Feinsilver said in an American Journalism Review article (Shepard).
Bledsoe also castigates journalists for stirring up sensationalism while his book, which is self-published, has a provocative title and jacket design. The word “death” is red, implying blood, and in a bold, all-caps, sans serif font. Now, by most measures, this would be considered a sensational cover. Even the premise, that newspaper stories killed a smoker (Bledsoe 46, 75) who had a heart attack, is sensational.
Granted, the book is engaging and makes a strong case for Perdue. There were mistakes on both sides (Perdue sealing the videotapes and not initially addressing the media, the News & Observer’s reticence regarding factual errors) and Bledsoe presents an excellent case study. The book could certainly help journalists and editors understand just how much stories can affect subjects of coverage.
Works Cited
Bledsoe, Jerry. Death by Journalism? One Teacher’s Fateful Encounter with Political Correctness. Asheboro: Down Home Press, 2002.
Deans, Sue. “When the big story’s credibility is questioned.” American Society of Newspaper Editors 30 Jan. 2003. 22 Sept. 2006.
Feinsilver, Ethan. “Randolph Teacher Quiet Despite National Queries.” The News & Record 18 Nov. 1998. 24 Sept. 2006.
Muschick, Paul. “Teacher: Lectures Didn’t Say Slaves Were Satisfied.” The News & Record 26 Nov. 1998. 24 Sept. 2006.
Shepard, Alicia C. “Uncivil War.” American Journalism Review June 2002. 24 Sept. 2006.
