Gene Roberts, one of the most respected American journalists, visited
Roberts was a former editor at the Philadelphia Enquirer and The New York Times, and co-wrote “The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation.”
Roberts spoke to a large group of students and faculty two hours before the ceremony with advice and anecdotes on his career, including attending a Ku Klux Klan rally for a story in Bogalusa, La.
“[Some other reporters and I] got to the rally and there were 2,000 to 3,000 [people] there, including women and children … and the Klansmen were the most well-behaved,” he said.
The speaker began telling a racist joke and Roberts did not write it down, so a woman kicked him and yelled “this son of a bitch ain’t writing it down,” Roberts said. The reporters were later blocked from leaving. Los Angeles Times reporter Jack Nelson had to threaten the Kleagle, an officer of the KKK whose main role is to recruit new members, with bad publicity before they were allowed to leave.
Roberts said that one of the largest problems of contemporary journalism is that there is not enough methodical coverage of race-related issues. The best place to cover the race beat is now in politics.
“With a few exceptions, most papers cover politics and now there are more diverse candidates than ever,” he said.
Roberts compared being a student journalist now to “standing in the middle of an earthquake,” but thought it was still possible to find a job.
“I never had a student, no matter what the economy was like, that didn’t have a job,” he said.
Two hours later at the ceremony, Roberts was awarded the 2008 Helen Thomas Spirit of Diversity Award. Fox2 manager Debra Lawson and WDET journalist Jerome Vaughn were this year’s Work in the Spirits of Diversity honorees. Four WSU journalism students also received the Helen Thomas Spirit of Diversity Scholarship, four were given the Robert G. McGruder Scholarship, and five won the George & Mabel Slocum Scholarship.
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