MMMM #51 - When Race Matters

Reporters get into trouble all the time when they either include someone's race in a story, or when they leave it out. Example: A TV report in Montgomery last week included a description of three criminal suspects, complete with an on-screen graphic displaying the information. Yet there was no indication of race. Viewers knew how tall they were, how much they weighed, how long their hair was and what they were wearing, but not their race*. On the other hand, another TV story, also a crime story, described two suspects as "black males in their 20's or 30's", one of them wearing a red shirt. Not much to go on, is it? Does the race mention in that latter story serve any function other than to satisfy the racial curiosity of the viewers? In another TV story last week a cop told a reporter that "two adult black males" had gotten into a fight. Perhaps that's just cop-talk, but what was the purpose of the racial identity, since the men were not suspects being sought? I suppose what got me going about this topic is someone who is anything but a journalist....the radio talk-show host know for his divorces and prescription drug misuse. He described Alabama Physician Regina Benjamin, President Obama's nominee for Surgeon General, as "a black, environmentalist, Katrina survivor who doesn't think doctors should make a profit." Gee Rush, why the race mention? [*UPDATE: Two suspects were later arrested, and one is black, the other white.] [The Monday Morning Media Memo is a regular feature of this blog.]