Times editorial board member Brent Staples, The New York Times, July 10, 2021, details the complicity of the white press in the demonizing and murder of Blacks in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The racism persisted into the 1960s and 70s with the Los Angeles Times and Kansas City Star recognizing their hostility toward and neglect of their communities of color. The 1968 Kerner Commission blamed the white press for not covering Black activities beyond the crime scene. Staples notes that the news gap with Black communities, generations in the making, still exists and provides an opportunity that if addressed could help the news industry survive.
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