OUR PUBLIC APOLOGY, PLEDGE TO SAN DIEGO

Our sister paper today published a heartfelt apology for its past unconscious bias regarding racial inequality. It’s an important moment of recognition for the Los Angeles Times, whose standing as a liberal voice has been clouded by the prejudices of its past and opportunities it has missed to address inequities that continue to this day.

America is built on great ideals and great failings; our institutions, our traditions and our leaders are complicit in the good and the bad. The long accounting in the Times made that clear today. The collective guilt of the community sits heavily in its leading institutions.

The Union-tribune is no exception. This paper’s predecessors abandoned their principles, standing by as Kumeyaay people were forced off their land; supported the internment of the Japanese during World War II; did too little to confront racism, redlining and exploitation through much of the 20th century. The victims should be well known to every San Diegan; in our town, those who were marginalized, disadvantaged and bullied by American society were too often left unprotected by — and were sometimes targeted by — the San Diego Union and Tribune.

The LGBTQ community, immigrants, Latinos, Blacks, Asians and other people of color, women, the poor, the powerless. Across the decades, few outside the White male establishment have not been dismissed or disadvantaged at one time or another by the Union-tribune.

These were not the trespasses of everyone, but of the powerful and the privileged. Throughout our history, like our peers in Los Angeles and across the industry, the Union-tribune served the interests of the establishment.

This paper can point to many important counterexamples. The investigation that led to the conviction of decorated veteran Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham is among the most striking. Those exceptions stand in contrast to the context — a company that for decades carried political functionaries on its payroll and a partisan worldview on its news pages. The company was among those reported to have collaborated with the CIA in the 1950s and 1960s, using its news agency as a front for spies in South America. Not long ago, political endorsements wrapped the paper before Election Day.

The obligation of journalists is to seek the truth; to challenge assumptions and provoke thought; to hold the powerful accountable. At our best, we provide a trusted, factual environment for public debate. At our worst, we flinch from the inconvenient truths of the day, succumb to the orthodoxy of the moment, manipulate or deceive. Within the history of this newspaper is a lesson on each and every count.

At this writing, America is at an inflection point, struggling to shed the ugly elements of its past that have become so painfully clear — the racism and chauvinism that underwrite the tremendous inequities in our country and in our community. Regular readers will know this has been the theme of much of the U-T’S coverage this year. Some have welcomed this window into our community. To others, it is too little, too late. To many, it is a betrayal of the very establishment values that bonded them to the U-T for decades.

After reading the Times’ long apology, I spoke to my colleagues about the Union-tribune. Not everyone was comfortable with the idea of an apology here. What does an apology imply about our staff, people who work tirelessly, and with the highest ethics, on behalf of the community? Why tie us to a legacy of problems that violate our values? What about the extraordinary work Union-tribune journalists have done for decades?

It is not easy to accept responsibility. But I think the people of San Diego should know that at the Union-tribune, we feel the weight of the painful chapters in our company’s story. We are sorry for the times the company has let down our community. It motivates us to do better.

We vow to do better at the fundamentals of our craft: To know our community. To ask hard questions. To pursue our journalism with a spirit of public service. To check our work with the humility incumbent on those who claim stewardship of concepts like truth, fairness and trust. We know that in this era, too, a new establishment and new orthodoxies already are arising.

Not everyone was comfortable with the idea of an apology here.