[Vision2020] Journalistic Ethics --

Andreas Schou scho8053@uidaho.edu
Tue, 28 Oct 2003 13:22:07 -0800


(1) The "slavery and history" quote was the responsibility of Raul Sanchez and not the Moscow-Pullman Daily News. If the information is incorrect, it's his responsibility. Perhaps the quote should have been pulled.

Speaking of "quotes that have been pulled," Remy Wilkins, who's Steve Wilkins' son and an attendee of the Credenda/Agenda History Conference in 2003, wrote this regarding the conference: "It seems like there’s always one issue that people just can’t swallow at the C/A HC. It’s usually slavery, but this year it was the Pledge of Allegiance."

The archives of his blog, which I reccomend to those who want an inside view of Reformed Christianity, have since disappeared. Fortunately, a Google archive of his blog preserves the quote, and may be found here: 

http://216.239.59.104/search?q=cache:XQoK0DJKDV4J:gloryisabrokenhill.blogspot.com/2003_02_09_gloryisabrokenhill_archive.html+Slavery+Pledge+Credenda&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

Any argument that "slavery was not discussed" is nothing but semantic quibbling. Slavery was discussed -- period. Whether including it with 
"history" as the topics of the conference.

(2) One of the unfortunate problems with co-authoring a book is that you have to take responsibility for things you (possibly) didn't write. To what extent is the "most harmonious multi-racial society" quote your responsibility, Doug? Does it constitute a defense of slavery? If not, what was your intent by writing it?

(Given my hazy memory of actually reading the pamphlet, it may be a quote or paraphrase of Dabney, so this may be an unfair question.)

(3) The anonymous flyer may be what alerted Alexis to the conference. I have no idea where the flyer came from. Is there any information from the flyer in the article? Was the flyer used as a source? If not, then the argument that the flyer is unreliable is just obfuscation. 

P.S. Someone provided a link to the Patriotist earlier, and its suggestion that the SPLC is less reputable than it appears. That's fascinating stuff -- and also, from the Harpers essay, likely true. It's also interesting that Steve Wilkins, co-author of _Southern Slavery: As It Was_, is a contributor to that magazine. Here's a link to an article he wrote in 2000. Since the copyright says it's for the Chalcedon Foundation, I can only assume that it's in some sort of syndication with them.

http://www.patriotist.com/miscarch/sw20010122.htm