Sun defense of black journalists biased

Once again, The Baltimore Sun has written a textbook display of biased journalism. Your editorial (“Trump attack on black journalists reinforces old stereotypes,” Nov. 13) is a perfect example. The two examples of black journalists’ questions “just doing their jobs” were asked in the same context of “when did you stop beating your wife?”

The first example, in which black journalist Abby Phillip asked the president whether he appointed Matthew Whitaker as acting attorney general in hopes that he would stop an investigation into Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign, inherently presupposes her bias, intent and presumption of the president’s rationale. Rather than asking an objective journalistic question, she made an accusation and put the president in a position to defend or explain that that was not his rationale. A more appropriate question would be “do you foresee any negative reactions to appointing Mr. Whitaker as acting attorney general related to the ongoing investigation of the presidential campaign?”

The second example, in which black journalist Yamiche Alcindor probed the president about his self-depiction as a nationalist and “how it may be fueling white nationalism,” once again presupposes and frames the question in which the president must deny and defend her allegation. A more appropriate question would be: “You have stated your political position on nationalism as a priority. Some have said that may have emboldened more negative nationalist actions by white power groups. Do you see a relationship?”

Both of these rephrased questions would have provided the president the courtesy of a reasoned response explaining both his position and his perception of any potential causative relationships. Neither question as phrased allowed that journalistic objectivity. They were not questions; they were accusations, inherently inappropriate for professional objective journalists.