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Topic: Letters Sent to Romenesko
Date/Time: 4/17/2007 6:34:42 PM
Title: AAJA's position was mischaracterized
Posted By: Jim Romenesko
 
From JEANNE MARIANI-BELDING, AAJA national president: The comments made by Christine Suh mischaracterize AAJA's position. AAJA never advocated "ignoring the identity of the shooter" as Ms. Suh stated. Our media advisory, which was issued yesterday prior to the identity of the shooter being released, dealt specifically with using race as an identifier.

In part, it stated: "As coverage of the Virginia Tech shooting continues to
unfold, AAJA urges all media to avoid using racial identifiers unless there
is a compelling or germane reason. There is no evidence at this early point that the race or ethnicity of the suspected gunman has anything to do with the incident, and to include such mention serves only to unfairly portray an entire people."

Indeed, most news organizations already have policies in place pertinent to using race as an identifier. This practice in part deals with fairness and accuracy, core tenets of good journalism. AAJA, which represents approximately 2,000 reporters, editors, photographers and executives in the industry, encourages journalists to refer to style and reference books, both within their own shop as well as AAJA's at aaja.org/resources/apa_handbook/.

We at AAJA remain committed to ensuring fair and accurate coverage of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. [Permalink]

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