It now appears that any disagreement with the leftist Black Lives Matter narrative — which falsely says the United States and its major institutions, public and private, are irredeemably poisoned by “systemic” or “institutional” racism — is a death sentence for one’s career.
The latest victim of the Gadarene dash to enforce leftist orthodoxy?
Stan Wischnowski, a longtime editor at the Philadelphia Inquirer, resigned after the newspaper published an “offensive” headline over a column about widespread destruction in the City of Brotherly Love.
Wischnowski is the second high-profile newsman to lose his job for not towing the BLM line.
Grant Napear, play-by-play announcer for the NBA’s Sacramento Kings, resigned from his job after uttering “All Lives Matter.”
Lesson to be learned: Deviation from the BLM narrative will be punished severely.
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Column and Headline
The headline appeared over a column by Inga Saffron, who wrote that the destruction of historic buildings and neighborhoods is bad for the people who live there.
“‘People over property’ is great as a rhetorical slogan,” she wrote. “But as a practical matter, the destruction of downtown buildings in Philadelphia — and in Minneapolis, Los Angeles, and a dozen other American cities — is devastating for the future of cities. We know from the civil rights uprisings of the 1960s that the damage will ultimately end up hurting the very people the protests are meant to uplift.”
Thus, the headline, “Buildings Matter, Too.”
But explaining that truth in a headline that riffs off the BLM slogan was inexcusable, the newspaper’s apology said. Wischnowski and two editors confessed thusly:
The Philadelphia Inquirer published a headline in Tuesday’s edition that was deeply offensive. We should not have printed it. We’re sorry, and regret that we did. We also know that an apology on its own is not sufficient.
The headline accompanied a story on the future of Philadelphia’s buildings and civic infrastructure in the aftermath of this week’s protests. The headline offensively riffed on the Black Lives Matter movement, and suggested an equivalence between the loss of buildings and the lives of black Americans. That is unacceptable.
While no such comparison was intended, intent is ultimately irrelevant. An editor’s attempt to capture a columnist’s nuanced argument in a few words went horribly wrong, and the resulting hurt and anger are plain.
The apology explained the headline-writing process in detail without divulging who wrote it.
“Sick and Tired”
Wischnowski had a storied 20-year career at the newspaper and vastly improved minority representation in the newsroom, but his loyalty and accomplishments meant nothing after the headline appeared and the newspaper’s “journalists of color” published a list of opaque demands and called in “sick-and-tired” on June 4.
“We’re tired of shouldering the burden of dragging this 200-year-old institution kicking and screaming into a more equitable age,” they wrote:
Things need to change.
On June 4, we’re calling in sick and tired. Sick and tired of pretending things are OK. Sick and tired of not being heard….
This is not the start of a conversation; this conversation has been started time and time again. We demand action. We demand a plan, with deadlines. We demand full, transparent commitment to changing how we do business. No more “handling internally.” No more quiet corrections. If we are to walk into a better world, we need to do it with our chests forward — acknowledge and accept where we make mistakes, and show how we learn from them. Your embarrassment is not worth more than our humanity.
The letter did not elaborate on the “actions” the newspaper must take or what the “plan with deadlines” must entail, or who will determine if and when those demands are fulfilled.
All Lives Don’t Matter
A tweet cost Napear his job.
When NBA star DeMarcus “Boogie” Cousins asked Napear about his “take on BLM,” Napear replied kindly: “Hey!!!! How are you? Thought you forgot about me. Haven’t heard from you in years. ALL LIVES MATTER…EVERY SINGLE ONE!!!”
Napear quickly learned otherwise, and got his mind right when a follower observed that “All Lives Matter” is the “go-to response from racist individuals” who don’t accept the BLM narrative. “Even if it wasn’t your intent to be racist, it was an incredibly dumb thing to say.”
If it came across as dumb I apologize. That was not my intent. That’s how I was raised. It has been engrained in me since I can remember. I’ve been doing more listening than talking the past few days. I believe the past few days will change this country for the better!
Napear wisely did not attempt to explain how arson, vandalism, and killing police “will change his country for the better.”
Image: Minerva Studio/iStock/Getty Images Plus
R. Cort Kirkwood is a long-time contributor to The New American and a former newspaper editor
