Florida A&M University finally made front-page news for something other than administrative and financial woes. But this time, the coverage wasn’t any better. In my 20 years of living in Tallahassee, I’ve seen FAMU on the front page between 40 to 50 times, give or take.
Out of those 40 to 50 front-page stories, only about five stories have shed positive light on the school. The other 40 stories ran during the weeks following the investigation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. One can probably name all five of those positive stories (i.e., 1997 College of the Year, President Humphries’ retirement, President Ammons Appointment, and some band story).
But maybe, just maybe, Tallahassee’s media venues are a little biased. Speaking of front-page news, when was the last time you saw any FAMU athletic happenings as a top story in the Democrats’ sports section?
Of course not all of the events, and newsmakers on our campus are negative.
Even more disheartening is that fact that such a substantial number of the Democrats’ readers support the paper without any reservations regarding the type of news they get.
This isn’t the first time, the Tallahassee Democrat has been cited for being bias or irresponsible in it’s reporting, rather it was in the context of bigotry, or an underlying political agenda.
Hopefully, not all of the Democrat’s readers are blind to the fact that some of the news they get is aimed toward a certain audience. But it’s only a matter of time before more people start to speculate the paper of having a hidden agenda.
Jason Lawrence for the Editorial Board