It is important to keep in mind that color and gender diversity is not the same as diversity of ideas, diversity of perspective. I know black editors who know less about Harlem than many white folks do and could care less about how, or whether, it is covered. The consequence of this is pernicious. The white bosses will argue that there can be no problem because there is a black editor in a key position and if he doesn't think that what you've proposed is a story, then it's probably not a story. They don't realize that their favorite black editor, wanting to please the bosses and be just like them, is perhaps wary of pushing for too many black stories and doesn't want to be seen as an advocate for black reporters and editors.
Many stories never see the light of day because of such intra-racial tension.
Now that is candor. Shipp provides them. So do authors of the other chapters in this collection. Vanessa Williams of the Washington Post, a former president of the National Association for Black Journalists, adds to Shipp's theme on the nexus between newsroom racial politics and self-censorship. Pat and Tom Gish, owners of the Mountain Eagle in Whitesburg, Kentucky, explain how they withstood pressures from advertisers and readers when they published some of the truth about community scandal.