Poor Coverage of Poor?

By: David Astor Marian Wright Edelman, another American Association of Sunday and Feature Editors (AASFE) convention speaker, called for better coverage of people in poverty. "For the richest nation in the world to have 131/2 million poor children is morally wrong," said the Children's Defense Fund founder and president.
Edelman suggested newspapers write more about welfare reform's aftermath, noting 40 percent of those kicked off welfare are unemployed. "That's a lot of people with a lot of children," Edelman said, adding that many of the other 60 percent have low-paying jobs. "Our goal at the Children's Defense Fund is to end child poverty as we know it, not just welfare as we know it."
Edelman also suggested newspapers focus on how more kids are killed by guns in the United State than in the next 25 industrialized nations combined, on how poor mothers are pressured to get jobs while middle-class mothers are pressured to stay home, and on how underpaid child-care workers are.
"You have a much greater responsibility than just boosting the balance sheets of your publishers," she said, adding that socially conscious reporting "is not incompatible with making a profit."

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