Little Rock 11: Impartiality For Journalists In 1958

Impartiality for Journalists in 1959
Reporters and journalists from around the country raced to Little Rock in 1959 to cover the unfolding events. People from across the world watched and read the events play out from news articles and their television. People could see the emotion, they could see the hate in the crowd, and the news story helped explain the scenes. Except, was the story accurate? Bias is a term used for news stories and their accuracy. The definition of bias is prejudice in favor of or against one thing, person, or group compared with another, usually in a way considered to be unfair. Even in the 1950’s, this was a problem for reporters and journalists, especially for those covering the events of the Little Rock Nine. For reporters

There were many reasons for this happening, one being how the crowds of protesters welcomed their presence. Carlotta explains this when she says, “ one of them them delivered a crushing blow to the back of Wilson's head… and died three years later” (LaNier 85). In this case, a reporter was killed for trying to do his job of reporting the story, and that could have affected other journalists opinion on the situation. A good example of a reporter showing his opinion on the story, is described by Shelley Tougas in her book Little Rock Girl, 1957, when she says, “New York Times reporter Benjamin Fine had put his arm around Elizabeth... a human reaction, but not a professional one” ( Tougas 44). This shows how reporters got personally attached to the story, and their opinion, in this case, was show to the world by photographs of this seemingly kind hearted act. Another reason for a lot of bias around the coverage of the events, was because, “ Newsman heard the threats and saw the violence” ( Tougas 44). For reporters covering the story, seeing their colleagues being beaten and threatened must have had a large effect on how they saw and covered the story, leading to the potential of a biased story. The potential for a biased story was very much there, because reporters had often a very strong opinion on the story; leading to a biased story if they let their opinions into their