African-American press coverage of Clarence Thomas nomination

This study examines how the African-American press dealt with the Thomas nomination. In particular, it focuses on the challenges to the mission and long-held functions of the African-American press and how it dealt with these challenges.

METHODS

The newspapers selected for the sampling are the largest circulation black weeklies in U.S. cities with large or predominantly African-American populations. Weeklies were selected because they are the predominant format in the African-American press.

This research focused primarily on several issues. First, how did the African-American press cover the Thomas nomination? Second, how did the African-American press deal with the discrepancy between its own traditional liberal politics and Thomas's conservative views? Is it possible to suggest reasons why the press took the positions it did? Third, how did the African-American press deal with the sharp differences of opinion within the African-American community?

These questions were answered through both qualitative and quantitative analysis of all coverage of the Thomas nomination in six leading African-American newspapers.(19) A quantitative content analysis rated all coverage according to whether it was positive, negative, or neutral toward Thomas.(20) News articles provided overall coverage, while editorials, editorial cartoons, and columns provided the basis for analyzing the rationale behind coverage. Letters to the editor and man-on-the-street interviews provided a glimpse into the newspapers' audience.

A COMMUNITY DIVIDED

On July 1, 1991, President George Bush nominated Appeals Court Judge Clarence Thomas to fill a vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court.(21) Thomas had acquired a reputation as a conservative through positions he had held during the Reagan and Bush administrations.(22) In particular, Thomas had articulated strong opposition to many central tenets of the black civil rights movement, including affirmative action.

The first Senate judiciary hearings on Thomas occurred on September 10, 1991. Subsequent allegations of sexual harassment, brought by Anita Hill against Thomas, surfaced soon thereafter and additional judiciary committee hearings were held October 11-13, 1991. The Senate voted 52-48 to confirm Thomas to the U.S. Supreme Court on October 15.

Although the Anita Hill charges generated an avalanche of controversy in the country and in the African-American community, they did not substantially affect the coverage of Clarence Thomas in the African-American press. Because of their weekly production schedules, most of the African-American press did not substantively address Hill's charges until after Thomas was confirmed. The Thomas/Hill hearings occurred over a weekend; most of the black weekly newspapers have Tuesday deadlines and are distributed on Thursdays.

If anything, the Senate Judiciary Committee's treatment of both Hill and Thomas served to jolt the African-American community back into a more cohesive stance; the lines were not so much between black liberals and black conservatives but between the seemingly condescending whites in the U.S. Senate and the nation's African Americans. This allowed the black press to paint the heretofore different issues as not liberal versus black but as black versus white--with the U.S. Senate as the chief villain.