This wasn’t some random article on the internet. AZcentral.com is the website of The Arizona Republic, which is affiliated with Gannett, the largest newspaper in the country. Professional news operations are supposed to have editors and gatekeepers who decide what does and does not get published. Some mysterious thing called “judgement” is supposed to be involved.
I can all but guarantee that this article did not end up on AZCentral without multiple people going over it. At no point did anyone ask themselves or their editorial colleagues, “Isn’t this article just cataloging an unjustified and petty grievance against a harmless restaurant owner who could be harassed as a result of publishing this?” And “How will this inform our readers and otherwise encourage them to have healthy and productive conversations about race?”
Newspapers ought to also consider how these extremist opinions that they publish reinforce the perception of bias. Right now, there’s a major advertising boycott being run against the popular right-wing website Breitbart. Why? Well, Breitbart ran a lot of ridiculous articles to get clicks, with headlines such as, “There’s No Hiring Bias Against Women In Tech, They Just Suck At Interviews,” and people on the left got offended. Even if you can’t excuse the blatant sexism of the article, the article is at least a bit self-aware, even tongue-in-cheek.
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