New Jackson Gaffe Raises Question Of Political Correctness In The Media

By Kevin Robinson in News on Jul 17, 2008 4:00PM

This year's presidential race has been a national dialogue on what matters to Americans at this point in our nation's history. But it's also been a sometimes difficult debate on the very real gender, ethnic and racial tensions that lie just underneath our country's perception of itself.

A week after Jesse Jackson apologized to Barack Obama for vulgar remarks made to a colleague when he thought his microphone was turned off, new footage reveals that Jackson referred to blacks as "niggers". In a scene that has been played out repeatedly this election cycle, Obama publicly accepted the apology. But as the media scrambled to report the comment that Jackson believed was private, a new set of questions has emerged. What role does the media play in reporting an event like this, and how should language that many people find offensive, if not repulsive, be reported? Is the language the story? Or is the bigger, (and unreported story) the context of the statement: Jesse Jackson talking as if he made Obama into who he is today? Does the so-called Old Guard of the civil rights movement get to claim a figure like Obama as their own, even as he breaks new ground? And how do Americans (regardless of race) respond to statements like Jackson's?