By Ralph Cipriano![]()
for BigTrial.net
The social justice warriors at The Philadelphia Inquirer have decided that before they can remake society, they must first remake the newsroom.
So for the last month, some 30 newsroom managers have been working out a plan to dismantle "the systemic racism in our coverage and newsroom culture."
To embrace higher levels of "wokeness," the Inky's newsroom managers, who see systemic racism lurking around every corner, have decided to involve more diverse voices from the staff to help them make "long-term decisions on core questions of coverage, culture and editorial policy."
Yes, the Inky brain trust has decided, a committee approach is what's needed to make the P.C. Paper of Record even more P.C. How are they going to do that? By "creating a process for flagging sensitive content" as well as a "safe environment for staff to question and stress test our work."
That's according to Patrick Kerkstra, managing editor and guilty white guy, who wrote in a Wednesday memo to colleagues that regarding longterm decisions, "Historically, these calls have been made by a small group of predominantly white editors. That has to change."
It's been a tough time at the Inky.
In June, top editor Stan Wischnowski "resigned' -- other sources say he was shoved out the window -- for the alleged sin of signing off on an allegedly insensitive headline that said "Buildings Matter Too."
Even though Wischnowski did the requisite groveling by issuing a formal written apology for that "deeply offensive" headline that somehow insulted the Marxist group known as Black Lives Matter, his sin was deemed unforgivable and he was toast.
Not that the loss of Stan was any big deal. As a former Inquirer staffer wrote about the departed top editor:
"Never wrote or edited a story in 20 years at the Inquirer. Had no original ideas, no sources and knew nothing about the workings of the city, region or the state. Traveled in from West Chester and hid in his office all day avoiding any interaction with the staff. Left the paper in worse shape than when he took over. The lesson here boys and girls is that you can go far by being a yes man."
Before Wischnowski got canned, in March the Inky purged longtime columnist Christine Flowers, the paper's only conservative voice. In an exit interview, Flowers told Big Trial that the newspaper's Progressive social justice warriors were "clueless" about so many issues, such as the rise of Donald Trump and the rebellion in South Philly over a so-called safe injection site for drug addicts that the newspaper had been relentlessly championing.
But one thing about Progressivism. If something goes wrong, the only cure is more Progressivism.
So in that spirit, the Inky has created five new committees to develop their own mission statements on voice, editorial identity, coverage, newsroom culture, editor process/policy, and content auditing. The new committees will be assisted by "outside facilitators and a steering committee," and their recommendations will be answered within 30 days.
The steering committee is made up of 14 editors and reporters. Besides "creating a process for flagging sensitive content" and "creating a safe environment for staff to question and stress test our work" the groups also want to figure out "is the Inquirer a detached chronicler or the voice of Philly?"
I can answer that one for you and I don't need a committee.
With their relentlessly progressive outlook, the Inky is "detached" all right; it also reads like it was written by out-of-towners who have no clue about the city. As far as being the voice of Philly, well the voice of Mount Airy might be more accurate.
But that didn't stop Kerkstra from laying out a progressive new course by committee
"The focus of this work must be on identifying and dismantling the systemic racism in our coverage and newsroom culture," Kerkstra wrote. "But it's inevitable and appropriate that workgroup deliberations of race will intersect with other social inequities in our coverage and culture, and we hope and expect that changes to our editorial processes and culture will help address systemic problems beyond racism," Kerkstra wrote, such as "gender biases in our coverage and newsroom" and "shortcomings in our coverage of LGBTQ communities."
The groups will be be 5 to 15 members in size with managers "to comprise no more than a third of the total membership of any working group."
Team members to spend one day a month on this work. Team leaders and steering committee members will likely need to put in significantly more time, Kerkstra warned. Issue statements from each committee are due Sept. 1st. The goals: a "more equitable journalism and a more inclusive culture."
And the Inky's bold new plan will not only involve up to 75 newsroom volunteers, but also the Maynard Institute, Temple Professor David Brown, and Temple's Klein College of Media and Communication.
So many voices, but hopefully, Kerkstra wrote, they'll all be singing the same tune.
"We hope and expect that the steering committee will achieve consensus or near consensus on each recoommdnation," Kerkstra wrote. "However, as editor, Gabe [Escobar] is ultimately accountable for our journalism and retains the right to overrule the steering committee on journalism recommendations. If that happens, Gabe will explain his decision to the newsroom."