Today is the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington and Dr. Martin Luther King's historic "I Have a Dream" speech. The news media has been doing anniversary stories on the event for weeks, a good thing everyone would agree. But few news organizations have reflected on their coverage--or lack of coverage--of the march. One of the best and most honest pieces I have read is by Robert G. Kaiser, an associate editor at the Washington Post, who was an intern at the newspaper 50 years ago and helped cover the march.
As Kaiser
recounts, the Post published two dozen stories about the march but they all missed the importance of King's speech. The words “I have a dream” appeared in only one story and it appeared on Page A15. Although the Post published brief
excerpts from the speeches made given, but the three paragraphs chosen from King’s
speech did not include the ringing words, “I have a dream.” In Kaiser's words, “We blew it.” Kudos to Kaiser for his admission and to the Post for publishing it.
