The New York Times appears to have been asleep at the
wheel on the passing of John Hope Franklin, the great historian. This was a
significant moment in American life, but you wouldn't know it from the Times,
which didn't front page the death, and (in my edition, at least) ran its obit
on B12. Contrast that with the performance by the Washington Post, which
ran an appreciation
by Wil Haygood on page one, an editorial,
and a fine op-ed by Walter
Dellinger, who had called Franklin from the Democratic convention in Denver
last summer after Obama received the presidential nomination. The Times'
negligence appalled my wife, who relied often on Franklin's work, especially From
Slavery to Freedom, when writing her own book
on the biggest attempted slave escape in American history.
The lapse by the Times is significant especially
because, in an age when newspapers often follow breaking news by many hours,
their role has become to provide
context, scope and meaning.
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