Coverage lacked photo of African-American speaker

Coverage lacked photo of African-American speaker August 11, 2004

By Shirley Wormack, Cumberland

Last month, on "Page Two" I saw articles regarding the Democratic Convention. Each headline told who gave "the" speech, and there was a picture of them, except for Wednesday, July 28. The headline read, "Democrats hear success story." It was about (African-American Illinois senatorial candidate) Barack Obama, but the picture was of John Kerry.

I don't want to read too much into this, but I'm a little sensitive right about now. While at the Allegany County Fair, I was sitting between two couples, when a gentleman came by and introduced Mr. Pitkin, stating that Mr. Pitkin was running against U.S. Sen. Mikulski. The couple on my right said "Good.” He shook my hand, asked how I was, and moved on, not mentioning Sen. Mikulski. To the couple on my left, he repeated his statement, and they also responded with something to the effect of "Yeah."

Now, my question - did they lose a vote because he PRESUMED I was a Democrat because I am African-American, and therefore voting for Sen. Mikulski? We'll soon see, won't we?