The Most Racist Newspaper in America: The Omaha World Herald

Politics and Subjective Journalism in Omaha: The Omaha World Herald

 

Summer, 1999

     When I talked with Robert White, editorial page editor of the Cincinnati Post recently, I praised him on how his newspaper published sensitive editorials about the police shooting of a black teenager who had no weapon. One editorial documented all of the shootings in recent years and demanded something be done, another one showed how the conditions of Cincinnati helped create the riot conditions.

       One of the things White was shocked about was when I told him about the conservative nature of the Omaha World Herald, and how the newspaper got involved in social issues and tried to MAKE the news as well as report on it. I told him about how the paper once altered the race of a child, about the polygraph test that the paper unethically became a part of when Mayor Daub was running against Brenda Council, and about how, in general, the paper wants to help steer the state by controlling and working with City Hall in Omaha. I promised him I’d send him some examples of it.

      This essay deals with a trilogy of articles that the Omaha World Herald published on March 24^th (“Let’s Pick a Better Coucil”), March 25^th (“Let’s Pick a Better Council II”) and finally on April 1^st (“Let’s Pick a Better Council III”). Just as Catholic Charities and Hal Daub prove that there is no separation between church and state as far as Omaha is con-cerned, the uncontrolled antics of the Omaha World Herald clearly show that there is no “objectivity” or “neutrality” when it comes to issues of controlling the city and controlling who controls the city. The joint-effort between the City of Omaha and the World Herald to take more control of downtown is just the tip of the iceberg. Take note of their own words and bear in mind the relationship between money, advertising, power and control.

       First of all, the title: “Let’s Pick a Better Council.” This implies that the Council can be improved upon, a direct slap in the face of the people who voted for the EXISTING Council. Who is the World-Herald to call into question the votes of Omaha residents? Here’s why they do it: as journalists, we are taught to write our articles for an eighth grade audience. That is what they think of your intellect. If you don’t believe what I say is true, call any journalism department and ask them. This means that the people who print and publish newspapers believe you’re stupid – with no more a mentality than an eighth grader. That if you come across a word you don’t understand, you’re too lazy to look it up. That indeed, they (the writers) are YOUR superiors, your moral conscience and, in this case, your political advisors!

        What the Omaha city council has been doing for at least a century was something the World Herald could not allow when it came down to people of color. With Frank Brown, Lormong Lo, Marc Kraft and Paul Koneck forming a solid block and a majority, conservative and racist white folk began to complain. But nobody said anything when it was Steve Rosenblatt, Tim Rouse,  Jerry Hassett, Mary Kay Green and others, led by a conservative mayor named Veys, that held the black community back time and time again.

     So when things don’t go the way of the World Herald, and when the paper cannot use its influence to direct where the money will go, they cry foul and ask for a “new starting lineup,” as it were.

      Do not be fooled; this mani-pulation does not only take place on the editorial pages as it would in any other paper making such an attempt. The World-Herald uses its reporters to interview whom they want, and they use those blue pens to cut out or edit any part of an article which reveals the city for the racist bastion that it is.

       The first segment of the trilogy starts of with generic praise, but then attributes it to an urban reality that does not exist. Check this out: “But those positive and progressive actions should be expected from the legislative body of the state’s largest city. In too many other instances, the performance of the council majority has earned little praise.”

     Two things: first the belief that the size of a city means it would be more progressive. Not in Nebraska. A hick times one and a half million hicks equals neander-thal thinking. The “progressive” thought comes in when you have people who have been exposed to people of color and people of color themselves. That’s where Kraft, Lo, Brown and Koneck come in and this leads to my second point.

       The World-Herald is not concerned about the ENTIRE Council, you’ll note. Just the “Council majority” – and those are the progressive thinking ones. Being regressive and reactionary, the World-Herald views progress-sive thinking as an obstacle, not an ally. So the attacks begin.

       Without mentioning one time the role that Mayor Hal Daub’s game-playing played in a plethora of issues, the World Herald lays the blame squarely at the door of the “gang of four,” as they were called.  After doing that, they re-duce themselves to name-calling by claiming that the actions of the majority “remains a textbook example of government naivete and capriciousness.” And the manner in which the World-Herald handled the “polygraph scam” remains a journalistic example – documented in journals across the nation – of how silly a newspaper can make itself look.

       Political manipulation is not the purpose of a newspaper! They can endorse whom they choose, but a three part series on what the voters MUST do is borderline unethical. They write, “if the voters cast their ballots wisely on April 3, the result should be a choice on May 15^th that will provide the city a new, com-petent, more effective City Council, befitting this great city.”

      First of all, the World-Herald has not established that Omaha is a great city, and neither has its mayor. They think that just because they say it makes it so. If Omaha is so great, then why is Mayor Daub always talking about “let’s get the city moving forward”? This implies that the city is either moving BACK-WARDS or is STAGNATED and, in either case, it proves that the city is anything other than great!

       Secondly, the statement, “if the voters cast their ballots wisely.” Who on the OWH edi-torial staff considers himself wise? These are people who hail back to the days of the penny press, and take all of their news from the police blotters and from the mouths of politicians. The masses hardly ever get a chance to air their views, and when they cover North Omaha, they usually send in some buffoon, some “Negro” or if someone progress-sive does do a good story, those same “wise men” in the editorial rooms are waiting, erasers poised for editing.

       The only reason they didn’t attack Frank Brown and/or Melvin Muhammad is because both would automatically ad-vance. But the other man of color, Lormong Lo, felt their wrath. And while the World-Herald doesn’t even like Marc Kraft, better the white man you don’t like than the person of color you might other-wise be able to tolerate. That’s the unspoken message that they’re sending. Their choice, Kathryn Piller, didn’t even make it past the primary election.

      The second installment (as in “bathroom stall”) digs much deeper. This time, the World Herald seeks to show how the “Democrats” are the problem with the City Council, despite the fact that Omaha City Council elec-tions, as everyone knows, are nonpartisan.

       For example, after citing an example where the five “demo-crats” supposedly voted for the living wage ordinance, the World Herald concludes that “Now, with all seven councilmen up for reelection, the voters have a chance to elect a less partisan and more common-sense legisla-tive body for Nebraska’s largest city.”

        This call for “equity” is hypocritical. The World Herald opposed district elections and was leading the way with the lie that “a black could be elected to the city council in an at-large election.” Remember that? They were wrong. The World Herald endorsed the North Freeway and promised it would bring jobs and that the skyline over North Omaha “looks brighter.” Re-member that? And the only good thing that North Omaha has going for it, Senator Ernie Chambers, is regularly raked through the coals of racism by that newspaper. Equity? Who are they to feign a concern for “nonpartisanship” when it is the card that those pen-toting hillbillies play every chance they get?

       And racism is surely evident. Read the following paragraph, as but one example: “This is not to suggest that only Republicans should be nominated and elected. Kraft, as we noted yesterday in recommending his renomination along with the nomination of Kathryn Piller in the 1^st District, has been a steadying force on the council. Brown’s 2^nd District, in which the incumbent’s only challenger is Democrat Melvin Muhammad, will inevitably place a Democrat on the council.”

        But what about Brown’s performance? What about the work he has done in behalf of his district? For that matter, what about the work that Muhammad has done at the grassroots level as the leader of the Nation of Islam? Nothing. Nada. Zilch. And when this is added to the preference of Piller and Kraft over Asian-American Lormong Lo, then I think it is clear that the World-Herald wants the City Council the same color as its newsroom: lily-white.

       But the OWH is not just racist, but it is also partisan – not in terms of conventional politics, but in terms of philosophy and ideology. If you’re a racist and a conservative, nine times out of ten you’re a “star” in the minds of the World-Herald editors. Like minds think alike.

       So we come to Paul Koneck, who the World-Herald has op-posed for some time. Likable and straight forward, he defends his multi-racial community (Latinos and white ethnics) and is a member of the “gang of four.” To the World-Herald, despite his hard work, he represents an obstacle in the way of the World-Herald’s teammate, Mayor Hal Daub. So they scrounge up a right-wing cop (Garry Gernandt) to run against him. And to make it appear that they are not racist, from the other candidates they chose Juan Ramon Hernandez – a Latino Republican.

      Now I don’t know Bro. Hernandez (which says something right there), but one thing is for sure: he’s the director of the South Omaha Affordable Housing Corporation and is most likely beholden to Mayor Daub for funding. And as Nebraska State Senator Chambers has said on more than a few occasions, “the hand that feeds, controls.”

      So, like they did with the Omaha Housing Authority Board some years back, whites can always find a person of color, a literal unknown, to “come on down” and be called. It doesn’t matter if you lack experience. It doesn’t matter if you don’t understand the process. You don’t even have to have name recog-nition. In a community as nean-derthal as this “big city” is, money can solve all those prob-lems. Just agree that you’ll do what Mayor Daub says, and the World-Herald will make you look like a superstar.

      But the World-Herald knew that Bro. Hernandez didn’t stand a chance. They knew that it would be Paul Koneck versus the Cop in the general election. So they chose the cop and the Latino brother so they could appear to be “color blind” when, in reality, they knew what the outcome would be.

       I don’t know that much about Robert Sivick, but I know this much: anybody who the World-Herald opposes (which includes Sivick), I am voting FOR! (More on this approach later). In typical “anybody but the progressives already on the council” pique, the OWH editors, they slapped Sivick by writing, “In the 3^rd District currently represented by Sivick, the voters would be well served by the choice between Paul Gnabasik and James Vokal in the general election. (Voters, of course, get only one vote apiece. So this is a recommendation to vote for either Gnabasik or Vokal).”

      See? No track record except that they are in the system and are beholden to it. Gnabasik is a lawyer and opposes the Council. Vokal is a bank president which falls right in line with what Mayor Hal Daub is all about. A lawyer and a banker, two representatives from the most hated segments of the occupational ranks – just what the mayor would gravitate toward.

       Cliff Herd – the World Herald likes him so something must be wrong. And sure enough, you’ll remember he announced that he was running against Mayor Daub. Then, he and his wife had some problems – and they must have been major ones because he called a press con-ference and said that he wouldn’t be running after all. But that doesn’t matter to the World-Herald; Herd opposed the gang of four and, as a result, he is the “friend” of the conservatives. That is why he is selected to pro-ceed along with another Re-publican, some dude named Bernard Magid, a retired doctor – and a Republican. The fact that he saw the Council and screamed at the television – and then admitted that he lacked such control – shows what kind of personality quirks this guys got. But then, look at Mayor Daub. Need I say  more?

       Finally, the OWH goes to District 6 and calls the two people vying “two of the best candidates in the entire city field.” Franklin Thompson is black (in color, at least). And he’s running against Andy Winstrom. He’s one of those black conservatives who forgot where he came from and has, as a goal, “bringing various parts of the city together.” Yeah, he’ll be real welcomed in a city that is so segregated that most whites think the Westroads is in the heart of the ghetto! I don’t think a lot of the people who voted for him know that he’s black. Like the Joker said on the first Batman movie, he might be uttering, “Wait until they get a load of me!”

       So that brought their second segment to a close, and they had done their dirt. So they waited a while, and then on April 1^st (undoubtedly the birthday of the World-Herald), they came back “smokin’” with their third segment.

       Short, and to the point, they made their pre-primary election picks and to make sure that someone backwards gets in, they didn’t just nominate one, but told the people of Omaha – who the OWH apparently considers to be morons – to vote for either “can-didate a or candidate b, but not for both.” How much more patron-izing can you be?

      NOW, do you see what blacks, other people of color, and low-income whites need a “voter education guide”? If we continue to rely on the World-Herald, under the mistaken belief that the newspaper is objective, all we will get fed is more fodder regarding who “will help make Omaha better.” And this explains why, in large part, Omaha never gets any better.

      Here’s my suggestion: whoever the World-Herald en-dorses, vote for the opposite candidate. Let them know that you are aware of their games and of their history, and the Judas role that they’ve played when it comes to those who don’t live in the suburbs..