Death By Journalism?
One Teacher's Fateful Encounter with Political Correctness
241 Pages, Hardcover
March 2002
ISBN: 1878086936
This needs to be said from the get-go: there are some genuinely fine people at the News & Record.I’ve come to know many of them over the years. Have worked alongside some of them on occasion. A few I consider sincere friends. Despite what I’ve read in Death By Journalism? I’ll still continue to hold their friendship in great regard. It’s just that some of their editors deserve an extended stint at Andersonville... the way it was during the War Between the States.
There are good people in most of the other media outlets here in north-central North Carolina. And the reason I mention all this now is that before reading Death By Journalism? you have to understand something: this whole area is plagued with a diarrhea of political correctness. There are few facets of public life that it doesn’t pollute, particularly in Greensboro and Winston-Salem.
The good ones in journalism around here are doing a job they love to do, as much as you or I should have that satisfaction. They don’t want a sense of power or prestige: they just want to be honest to both their conscience and to the record. But as fate or stubbornness would have it, they’ve chosen to pursue this vocation in a place where civil rights history is not merely studied but exploited. And where no one – be they public servant or private citizen – dares rock the boat with a suggestion of truth… to their peril. I don’t believe the honest reporters like the situation anymore than most sane people in these parts do.
This isn’t about good reporters though. This is about a very bad reporter: bad in motive, bad in method. Not "Michael Jackson 'Bad'", I mean "atrociously bad." And about bad editors. It’s also about glory-hogging public figures, and the disastrous racial policies of the political left. Ultimately it’s about a mainstream press that’s no longer content to report the news: it must create the news... even to the point of apparently driving an innocent man to untimely death. In many ways this book makes Bernard Goldberg’s Bias look mild: it’s one thing when political correctness is a nuisance from a New York newsroom. It’s quite another when it attacks you in your own backyard.
Death By Journalism? One Teacher’s Fateful Encounter with Political Correctness is Jerry Bledsoe’s account of the November 1998 incident regarding a Civil War history class being taught at Randolph Community College’s satellite campus in Archdale, North Carolina. Several weeks after the class started a reporter from the Greensboro News & Record wrote an article claiming that the class was teaching that "slaves were happy" with their captivity. Nothing of the sort had been taught. In the end, following a media feeding frenzy, incalculable damage was done to the college and the course’s instructor... while the News & Record to this day refuses to retract the story and offer apology, despite the overwhelming evidence that they have been guilty of slander. The events stand as one of the most dramatic evils perpetuated by the insanity of political correctness.
In 1998 Jack Perdue, a highly esteemed, self-taught Civil War historian and genealogist, was approached by Randolph Community College with the proposal that he could teach a class on the state’s history during the Civil War. Perdue seized upon the opportunity with his trademark enthusiasm, while establishing from the outset that the scholarship of the course – including that of guest lecturers - would be nothing short of rigorous. It would also be free of the taint of modern politics: the 1860s cannot be explained by 1990s philosophies, Perdue said often. As such, modern school textbooks glazed over complexities of the war by drastically over-simplifying them. Perdue wanted the course to be a critical look at the local role in the war, and perhaps lead to an instructional course for eighth grade history teachers.
Eleven people, with an age range of almost 55 years, took the course at the Archdale satellite campus. Their first session dealt with how the state had been drawn into conflict: North Carolina had entered the war only with the greatest hesitation, Perdue said, with slavery being the issue that led to its secession the least. Indeed, most North Carolinians did not own slaves. Confederate president Jefferson Davis disliked dealing with the state and its maverick governor Zebulon Vance. Despite the recalcitrance, North Carolina would go on to provide one-sixth of the Confederate army, suffer more casualties than any other state, and provided most of the clothing and other material for the Southern war effort… the greatest reason given for the sacrifice, was that North Carolinians, in their own words, wanted to defend their homes and choose their own government.
From the beginning all eleven students were captivated by Perdue’s love and knowledge of the Civil War era… and his knack for finding accomplished lecturers to assist in the course. Subsequent classes discussed bivouac life of Confederate soldiers, and a revolutionary look at Civil War photography. If later events had not transpired, it’s possible that Perdue’s class would have been a role model for similar courses throughout the state, if not the country.
Then Ethan Feinsilver, the Randolph reporter for the Greensboro-based News & Record, came knocking. Feinsilver had not been with the paper for long, resented being relegated to "unsophisticated" Randolph County, and was looking for a "big story": his ticket to fortune and glory. When Feinsilver read about the class in another paper he immediately saw opportunity. In the racially-charged environment that liberal elitists have created in this region over the years, anything and anyone even slightly suspected of favoring the Confederacy does so at great risk. And Feinsilver was smelling blood.
Feinsilver attended part of Perdue’s first class, at one point asking Perdue why he was teaching such a "controversial" course. In following weeks a News & Record photographer would make it a special point to frame a picture of Perdue and the Confederate flag. Feinsilver sat in on other classes despite not paying tuition before ultimately being made to leave by college faculty. Throughout the time that Feinsilver attached himself to the course, he was combative.
He could not accept that not all African-Americans had been slaves: many were free. Some had become quite wealthy. And some (*gasp*) owned slaves of their own! Despite "conventional wisdom", whites and blacks (and Indians, and Jews) had no segregation, as was predominant in the North. Indeed, some evidence indicated that modern racism was already alive and well north of the Mason-Dixon line, where it was considered publicly uncouth for differing races to shake hands.
The documentation was excellent: Perdue was tolerating no statement without it being backed up by hard-core evidence. Most of it came from participants in the war, through letters and journal entries.
All of which was incomprehensible to Ethan Feinsilver, but nothing as much as a 1930s set of interviews with then-living former slaves, many of whom reported nothing but "good memories" regarding their time as slaves. Perdue and lecturer Herman White provided ample documentation that despite prevailing "conventional wisdom", slaves were treated quite well, as they were considered valuable investments. Indeed, many slaves were taught by kind owners to read and write, in violation of numerous slave laws. Most slaves received good food, were allowed to own their own property and have money, and even allowed to leave on occasion… such as to attend church. The notion that slave-owners in the South were "barbarians" and "Neanderthals" was a myth created by Northerners, and at every turn Perdue and his lecturers had corroborating primary sources establishing their statements. They were unable, however, to state with any certainty how many blacks served on the Confederate side during the war: Southern contingents rarely noted the race of its soldiers, as was common in the Union. But that blacks had served in the Confederate Army – and willingly so – was too much for Feinsilver to pass up.
Feinsilver confronted Perdue, other instructors, and students with questions about the class. Invariably he would make the course out to be "controversial" and try to put words into the mouths of others. At one point a leader of the Randolph County NAACP visited the class: impressed, he told Perdue later that he would like to take the course sometime.
On Sunday, November 15 1998, Feinsilver’s article appeared, along with a photo certainly engineered to rile emotions: that of Perdue standing in front of a Confederate battle flag. The headline read Course reopens war’s wounds: A Civil War course with a pro-Confederate slant angers black leaders and is part of larger clash between Southern heritage and civil rights groups.
The story that followed (and indeed, all the stories that followed from Feinsilver and the News & Record about the class) were rife with shoddy (or non-existent) research, misquotes, stereotypical claims, unsourced allegations, and just plain rotten writing. Feinsilver had reported that class instructors taught that "slaves were happy," and little wonder considering that the class was being taught by the Sons of Confederate Veterans. That was untrue: Perdue was a member of the CSV, but most of the lecturers were not. Nor was the class funded with public money: the continuing-education class was funded with student fees, each paying $40 for the ten-week course. Perdue had intended for proceeds from the class to go toward an essay contest for eighth-grade students. In his book Bledsoe spends six pages meticulously dissecting Feinsilver’s article... and proving that the News & Record story was blatantly untrue. Bledsoe also had access to something else damning to the News & Record’s allegations: every moment of the class had been videotaped: nothing on the tapes corroborates what Feinsilver claimed and that the News & Record continues to defend as "accurate reporting."
The Associated Press then picked up the story and sent it worldwide: the campus became barraged with angry phone calls and e-mails, demanding to know why a public school was teaching such "racist pseudohistory." Never mind the fact that, as Bledsoe documents later in the book, Randolph Community College had long offered a "Creating Racial Unity" class: a rabid diatribe against white people created by local NAACP members. That class was explained away as "diversity" by the liberal faculty running it. Guilford County NAACP hatemongers Earl Jones and Skip Alson (I don’t apologize for calling them "hatemongers": if you live in this area you know it, I know it, and that dumb sheepdog on Bugsqualor Road knows it too) got into the act and started screaming racism (well duh!). The class and story then took the attention of U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and Clinton-appointed Mary Frances Berry, who threatened to drag Perdue into a federal hearing.
The media onslaught continued, with the News & Record leading the charge. Feinsilver’s reporting was found to be "accurate" according to metro editor Tom Corrigan and publisher Van King. No explanation was given, nor has one since. News & Record columnist Rosemary Roberts (pardon me for saying so but this woman doesn’t have an original bone in her body. She’s a bore, always has been and always will be) couldn’t resist a mean-spirited attack, as ever. The worst came from Lorraine Ahearn, who used her column to ridicule Randolph County as a whole. No doubt that the News & Record’s shenanigans were motivated by politics, whether in part or in whole. Randolph County is a conservative area, at the time gerrymandered into having the leftist representation of Chapel Hill. The county’s obstinacy against "progressive" policies no doubt rankled the more "enlightened" minds of the more cosmopolitan News & Record editors. Indeed: Lex Alexander, Feinsilver’s editor, boasted that the paper had sent college officials "whimpering back to Randolph County with their tails between their legs" after the News & Record’s editors attempted what can only be called a blackmail attempt in finest Cosa Nostra fashion.
The students stood by the class and their instructors. One student of the class I had the pleasure of meeting noted that "if it was so bad, why did we stay around?" Truly, all eleven stayed and wanted the class to finish (it had one session left before the News & Record started its slanderfest). College administrators, at the behest of advisors, chose to end the class rather than face more ridicule... that they simply did not have the clout to counter.
Ethan Feinsilver, a reporter with the News & Record, had willingly and maliciously misreported on Jack Perdue and his Civil War history class at Randolph Community College. Feinsilver’s handlers eventually came to realize this, but chose to stand by Feinsilver’s articles and Feinsilver as a reporter. What they are loath to admit is that Feinsilver was placed on six-months probation, at the conclusion of which was given the choice of resigning, or being fired. Feinsilver quietly left. That was the only disciplinary action taken. Feinsilver got away and in his wake were ruined careers and possibly one life driven to an early grave: a few weeks after the class ended, Jack Perdue died of a stress-related heart attack in his home, on what would have been his wedding anniversary.
Bledsoe was already an accomplished reporter and columnist, but since 1988’s Bitter Blood he’s made his mark as North Carolina’s pre-eminent chronicler of high-profile murder cases. Subsequently he’s published other works includingDeath Sentence (1998), about the execution of arsenic killer Velma Barfield, while also delighting readers with his Christmas novel The Angel Doll and numerous books on the North Carolina experience.
With Death By Journalism? Bledsoe returns to real-life tales with a style that won him worldwide acclaim. He chronicles not only the story itself, but Jack Perdue as an individual: a person who loved his family, his community and its historical heritage. The media wanted Perdue to be the two-dimensional character that political correctness demanded he be, but Bledsoe defines a committed, loving man who was content with sharing a passion. I doubt that the News & Record, with its corporate austerity, can ever now understand the simple beauty of such a singular person. But at last, Jack Perdue is vindicated.
Death By Journalism? presents, for the first time anywhere, a complete, thoroughly researched and detailed account of what took place between Archdale and Greensboro in late 1998. And I may be shooting myself in the foot with this review. Y’see, the News & Record is where I started publishing my own writing career, beginning in 1990. It’s this region’s only major daily newspaper. And when you’re trying to realize a dream you never consciously try to block up any window. I might be doing more harm than good to my possible avenues in writing all this.
But after reading Death By Journalism? I also realized that nothing in this life should ever be in reference to me, as an individual. That’s what started this mess to begin with: a pathetic excuse for a "journalist" who took the lowest road possible to secure some fleeting material glory. In doing so he blasphemed something that a lot of us still hold as sacred.
Y’see, I’m a historian by training. And I’ve done some time as a reporter. They’re two professions as tightly-knit as acting and modeling: one is just a form of the other. And our central tenet, what guides us with the gravest conscience, whether we study the past or report on the present, is this:
The Truth matters.
The Truth isn’t something to be played with. It’s not some ductile thing to be drawn and spread as current fashion dictates. The Truth is concrete: it’s not "negotiable" or what some might say as "living"... to paraphrase what Moses heard, "The Truth is, what it is."
And to approach the Truth is to do so as a Hebrew priest of old: cautiously, and in purity. For to be a priest of the Truth is not just a service to our generation, but to those to come. We must chronicle what has transpired with utmost fidelity, being faithful to each jot and tittle. Nothing must be misrepresented that might be transmitted to those who will come after us.
Well, what happened at the highest levels of the News & Record, once a respected and esteemed newspaper to many people throughout this country, was the most serious abrogation of our field’s sanctity imaginable. And the leadership of the News & Record continues to violate that principle by adamantly refusing to retract the story and publicly apologizing for it’s treatment of Jack Perdue.
Names should be named. Among them: Van King, publisher of the News & Record. Lex Alexander, who could have put the brakes on Feinsilver’s rogue behavior from the beginning but allowed him to continue unabated. Tom Corrigan, then-metro editor, who refused to admit that Feinsilver’s reporting was anything but accurate. Then-city editor Ed Williams also was over Feinsilver but again did nothing. Current editor John Robinson perpetuates the wrongs that his newspaper committed three years ago. Rosemary Roberts and Lorraine Ahearn… if I could scream "J’accuse!" knowing there’s a tumbril out the door, I’d be darned tempted to do so. Some people just can’t be named, 'cuz the News & Record refuses to credit its editorial writers. Them and a bunch more should be held against the wall until they produce some answers. Or at least a simple "we apologize."
I don’t know of any way to make them do that. I do know of something that can be done, though. Last time I checked, Death By Journalism was ranked 20,396 at Amazon.com. Bledsoe is no stranger to successful books: Bitter Blood was on the New York Times’ bestselling list shortly after it’s 1988 rollout (it was later made into a television movie). His subsequent books have likewise done very well. Gang, Death By Journalism? has to slam through the roof if there’s any justice to be found in modern America. It needs to eclipse every book he’s ever written… and that’s saying a lot. I’m from Reidsville. We know Jerry here. No one else to my knowledge has ever taken this town’s worst family tragedy and handled it so respectfully, or with such thoroughness. We’re indebted to him for making sense of the Klenner/Lynch case, as best as anyone possibly could (and even today, it’s still the most senseless incident in recent memory). I’d love to see that go from 20,396, to the top one hundred... if not the top ten.
Death By Journalism? is a book that should be read by every concerned American. It’s a warning about political correctness and the injury that the mainstream media is capable of inflicting upon a person. It’s about how dangerous a corporate mindset can become when it believe it really is above reproach... and how eager it is to destroy any challenger. And it’s about what can so easily happen to any of us should one common tenet be forgotten about in this land…
The Truth matters.