Talking with alexisjreports, a reporter at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette who says she was barred from protest coverage because her bosses felt her tweets showed “bias”
Alexis Johnson Photo: Shantale Davis In late May, as massive protests against police brutality were erupting across the country — and some pundits and cable-news anchors chose to focus their coverage on the specter of looting and property damage instead — Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reporter Alexis Johnson saw an opportunity for a satirical tweet.
All the while, the Post-Gazette has maintained a defensive stance. On June 10, executive editor Keith Burris fired back against what he characterized as “a great deal of disinformation” in an open letter, claiming that the publication did not retaliate against Johnson and Santiago because they are Black.
I’ve been at the Post-Gazette since October 2018, when I was hired as a digital news editor, but in February I got switched to a reporting role. I have gotten pushback when I’ve tried to pitch stories around a black protagonist or culture. For example, that story about the black-owned restaurant list — that was a huge discussion behind it.
That’s exactly what happened here. When the Tree of Life synagogue shooting happened in Pittsburgh, where a white supremacist murdered 11 people in their place of worship, a Jewish reporter on staff was very instrumental in that coverage. In fact, he was on the podium when we won the Pulitzer for that coverage because of his expertise about the Jewish community.
I think you hit the nail right on the head, because what is objectivity? I think there’s a difference between objectivity and fairness, and none of us are objective. We all develop implicit bias over time; we walk into our jobs and our professions with bias because our race, our gender, our sexual orientation, our environment, and our geography affect how we see the world.
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