Serving the Poor
“I think a strong argument can be made that the residents of [poorer] areas are severely disadvantaged—as citizens, as workers, as consumers—by the lack of serious coverage from television and the lack of local coverage of their neighborhoods by newspapers,” said Maxwell King former Editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer. The reason, of course, is that the media, regardless of their claims of serving all the people, aim for the affluent, the audience that advertisers seek. It would seem, then, that if newspapers want to expand readership they would be worried about the growing gap between the rich and the poor.
I’m deeply troubled in America that the chasm between those who have wealth and those who don’t is getting wider and wider. There are more people who are the have-nots than the haves. As some kind of a kooky radical Christian it troubles me. As someone who lives in what we like to call a democracy it bothers me, too. Because I fear down the road, not in my lifetime, maybe not in my children’s lifetime, but in my grandchildren’s lifetime...that can’t last, you know. That’s gonna bust. And I fear that the bust will come from what is now called the radical right.
Will Campbell, writer, preacher, social activist, farmer, at a Nieman Fellows seminar, May 5, 1998.
Will Campbell, writer, preacher, social activist, farmer, at a Nieman Fellows seminar, May 5, 1998.
