by Eric Ginsburg
I don’t ever pick up the Rhino Times, Greensboro’s right-wing propaganda sheet and so-called newspaper published by developer Roy Carroll. I just don’t see the point. But today, sitting in a deli waiting for my order to be ready and after thoroughly trolling social media on my phone, I finally gave in to the sensational headline.
“Court defendant gets his good friend Mary Jane to help testify,” an article in this week’s issue of the Rhino Times written by fixture Scott Yost, is splashed across the front page of the paper. But it is what Yost says a few paragraphs into the article about defendant Usama T. Hussain that is really worth noting.
“One might think that, if your name’s pronunciation sounded like two terrorists’ names strung together, you would be on your best behavior when appearing in court…” Yost wrote about Hussain in today’s issue.
It’s the kind of unnecessary and racially-charged commentary that often appears in the publication, even in what parades as a news section. Remember, this is the paper whose editor, John Hammer, incessantly referred to President Obama as “Barack Hussein Obama,” and that ran a seemingly endless series about how there is no racism within the police department. And then there’s Yost’s gross sexism on display back in January.
It’s no surprise to find this sort of generalizing, Islamophobic perspective in the Rhino Times, but that doesn’t make it any less frustrating and offensive.
At least they’re predictable.
Join the First Amendment Society, a membership that goes directly to funding TCB‘s newsroom.
We believe that reporting can save the world.
The TCB First Amendment Society recognizes the vital role of a free, unfettered press with a bundling of local experiences designed to build community, and unique engagements with our newsroom that will help you understand, and shape, local journalism’s critical role in uplifting the people in our cities.
All revenue goes directly into the newsroom as reporters’ salaries and freelance commissions.
I go to the RT box, find the NYT crossword, tear it out and return the rest to the pile. No, I don’t feel bad for the person who finds the puzzle missing.
Stop doing that!
I just think it’s telling that for years Hammer railed continually about Roy Carroll’s sweetheart deals and how developers had city and county government in their back pocket, to the detriment of taxpayers. Yet, when Carroll became his boss after Hammer ran the old Rhino into the ground and didn’t pay all his debts, Carroll revives the rag under his banner and not a discouraging word about Carroll is ever written again by Hammer or his sycophants.
People used to speak of prostitutes as “fallen women.” I think of the staff of the Rhino as fallen men.