It baffels me how a senator in the 21st century can have viewpoints that implies a support for segregation policies. In any case, It probably wasn’t too smart for Trent Lott to express such opinions even if it were unconventional methods of news reporting that brough down the Mississippi senator.

“I think there is something to the [notion] of pack journalism…of individuals believing that if something is noteworthy, … everyone will get it… If they didn’t all get it, then it couldn’t possibly be a newsworthy item.” – Ed O’Keefe

So at former Senator Strom Thurmond’s retirement, and 100th birthday party, Lott made the following statement: ”I want to say this about my state. When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We’re proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn’t have had all these problems over all these years either.” (video). The crowds cheered and reporters thought nothing special of it.

“This is news,” O’Keefe, ”off-air” reporter, said to himself. O’Keefe knew about Strom Thurmond’s presidential campaign in 1948 on segregationist platform and his strong opposition to the 1964 Civil Rights Act. He figured this was a huge scoop since being branded a racist is not something a powerful man in politics such as Trent Lott would want.

ABC, however, did not seem to agree that what O’Keefe had pointed out was a worthy news story. The network need reactions that could be aired alongside the statement but people barely seem to have noticed that he said anything at all. Contempt which the attitudes of his coworkers he posted the story on the blog section of ABC’s website; The Note. In less than a week the story broke into the mainstream news media. This eventually put so much pressure on Lott that he was forced to resign his position as senator. Interestingly enough, Lott was reelected as senator in 2006, although he retired a year later.

This really shows how the internet allows for the inclusion of the stories that go unnoticed by the mainstram media and how blogs can provide a critical view on some of the shortcomings of mainstream journalists.In blogger Jolie O’Dell’s article she writes about some of the differences between a blogger and a journalist. For, example a blogger has the luxury of being able to provide opinion to their material and do not have any obligtions to their sources. While this might be seen as negative attributes it can provide an indefinate amount of different viewpoints which can help shape our view on the bigger picture.

Oh, a little fun-fact about Thurmond to end the week; when he was 22 he had a secret affair with a black maid of 16 who gave birth to a daughter. Interesting to think about how this affected his political career.

– Steinar Engelsen