This is a word, a podcast from Slate. I'm your host, Jason Johnson. American newspapers

have had a rocky history in covering racism. Now one is taking tough steps to correct

the record and live up to its creed. I think this is the right city and I think this

is the right newspaper for us to have a conversation about systemic institutional inequality.

Not only for us to really more fully understand the foundations of many of those institutions,

but also for us to acknowledge the present day harm.

A big media effort to get it right on race in the city of brotherly love coming up on a word with me,

Jason Johnson. Stay with us.

Welcome to a word, a podcast about race and politics and everything else. I'm your host, Jason Johnson.

As we wrap up Black History Month, we're going to take a moment to address how racism

has affected what many call the first draft of history journalism.

While lots of conservatives like to frame the media as too woke or too progressive or too liberal on race,

the country's newspapers have been really reticent or even hostile to the idea of delivering

honest information about racism in the communities they cover.

The Philadelphia Inquirer is one of several newspapers that's undergoing that reckoning over media bias.

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Wes Lowry recently wrote a blistering account of the paper's history

on race, title, Black City, White Paper.

It's the first installment of a special project from the inquirer called a more perfect union.

It's a long-term effort to examine the roots of systematic racism through institutions founded in Philadelphia.

A person leading a more perfect union is Aaron Haines. She's a veteran political journalist

and one of the founders of the 19th, a news nonprofit focused on gender, politics, and policy.

And Aaron Haines joins us now. Welcome to a word.

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