Come Correct or Don't Come at All

Factuality was once American journalism’s first tenet. However, considering the avalanche of inaccuracies burying the truth on airwaves and in print these days, that seemingly is no longer the case. A few weeks ago, I gasped when I heard a live MSNBC anchor, obviously bitten by the “all blacks look alike” bug, mistake Rev. Jesse Jackson for Rev. Al Sharpton. Jackson checked her boo boo quickly given the rocky relationship the civil rights activists allegedly share.

While I’m almost certain the anchor attributed blame to the producer, the Washington Post writer who recently referred to the NAACP President Ben Jealous as a “grizzly bear of a white man” has no such excuse. She got it twisted while spotlighting the predominantly white Maine State Prison Chapter which signifies a shift in the NAACP's organizational wind.

Although the light-skinned and good-haired Jealous, the son of an African-American mother and caucasian father, could easily pass for white, assumption without verification in professional journalism is unvirtuous. With the Internet at our fingertips, the one-drop rule is surely no secret. Newsflash to mainstream media: Come correct or don’t come at all.