Meet the (Black) Press: what black newspapers can teach the mainstream media - and what they can learn from them.

• Author: Fellows, Jarrette, Jr.

What black newspapers can teach the mainstream media--and what they can learn from them.

Last summer the California General Assembly debated and passed a new welfare-to-work law that will radically overhaul the state's entitlement program. But although the debate was contentious, the mainstream media had little trouble boiling it down for public consumption: As far as the media was concerned, this was a black-and-white issue--a simple story of angry white taxpayers taking on equally angry black welfare mothers who saw themselves as being targeted for elimination from the welfare rolls because of their race. However, as the managing editor of the L.A. Watts Times, a newspaper aimed at African-Americans, I was aware of another story: The fact is that African-Americans who go to work every day and who pay taxes deride the overburdened state welfare system just as much as--if not more than--their white counterparts. For years, employed blacks have been critical of the debilitating dependence on government aid that welfare has caused many in the black community to develop, sapping them of their motivation, ambition, and self-reliance. Yet the mainstream news outlets were so busy playing up the racial angle that they completely ignored this large segment of the black population. They also failed to make clear that the bulk of Californians on welfare happen to be white.

Sadly, the media's inaccurate portrayal of black Americans is not limited to their coverage of welfare. Audiences are bombarded with negative images of black men, whether it's convicted drug dealer "Freeway" Ricky Ross or slain rapper Tupac Shakur, Rodney King or O.J. Simpson. Positive stories on blacks tend to focus on mainstream entertainers and athletes like Michael Jordan, Denzel Washington, or Ken Griffey Jr. Meanwhile, far more uplifting black role models like former NASA astronauts Mae Jemisons and Guion Blufors or black members of Congress go unnoticed. What emerges is a one-dimensional portrait of blacks in America: If they're not committing a crime or leeching off society, they are running, jumping, joking, or singing.

The simplistic and inaccurate slant that dominates news coverage of blacks certainly does little to improve the self-image of the African-American community--in fact, it may have a great deal more to do with the general apathy and low self-esteem of many African-Americans than we fully appreciate. Furthermore, the media's biased reporting only fuels; racial strife and misunderstanding by widening the already huge gulf of ignorance between blacks and whites.

It is this state of affairs that makes black-oriented newspapers so valuable. Their editors have both a responsibility and an opportunity to tell the stories that their mainstream counterparts ignore--in short, to present a real, objective view of African-Americans. By and large, they do a good job, serving up everything from profiles of local heroes to unique...