Did you happen to hear Politico’s Jonathan Martin say ‘cracker
counties’ during an MSNBC interview with Chuck Todd recently I missed it, but
when I read the account, my reaction meter registered OMW as in “Oh my word.” Literally.
Are you kidding me?! This can’t be professional journalism. Right?
As Martin later explained, ‘cracker counties’ is an endearment central to Floridians, referencing residents with long term generational ties to the region. Since America at-large is likely unfamiliar with the term, Todd bore the journalistic responsibility of clarifying its meaning. To my knowledge, he didn’t.
Now if we detach the word ‘counties’ from ‘cracker,’ we’re
left with the pejorative commonly used as a vile distinction for poor,
uneducated whites. Fast forward to 2012 and the expression ‘let’s get crackin’ slung
by hip hoppers has nothing to do with color. For the unhip, it means let’s
proceed.
Given mainstream media’s premature proclamations and blatant
misstatements, including John King’s recent gaffe where he referred to Mitt
Romney as Governor Mormon, it’s mildly shocking that many called ‘cracker
counties’ into question. And don’t overlook the fact that the messenger matters
and if a minority had spewed the term publicly, a backlash behemoth would’ve
resulted.
Let’s be clear, political immersion doesn’t make one a
journalist: Todd attended George Washington University without graduating and
the Hamden Sydney College from which Martin graduated doesn’t currently offer a
journalism program.
Although journalism, once the bedrock of peeling fact from
fiction in an unbiased manner, has obviously sputtered, audience
expectations remain the same: Stick to the facts and shed the bias. MSNBC Interview with Chuck Todd and Jonathan Martin
See John King's 'Governor Morman' Gaffe
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