When the headline “Student punished for ‘white power’ call” popped up in our reader from the Denver Post yesterday, we didn’t pay it much mind. When the same story popped up today under the headline “Student disciplined for ‘white power’ remark,” we perked up. The basic gist of the incident is as follows:

A Catholic high school in Broomfield has disciplined a student after a classroom discussion on immigration and Spanish lessons ended with that student repeatedly saying the phrase “white power.”

(Now our decision to take Latin back then doesn’t seem so backwards.) Naturally, the school denied reports that “several students joined in chanting the words,” saying “most of the class did not hear the comments.” We know bullshit when we smell it, but the tale gets more sordid: turning journalistic convention on its head, the follow-up article (today’s) actually features less detail, info, and text than the article that originally broke the story. Why regurgitate identical copy then pare it down like this, other than to milk such a sensational mishap? And one last thing:

Another glaring difference between the two articles rests in the byline. Yesterday’s says a reporter by the name of Manny Gonzales logged the story. Today’s replaces his name with a generic “The Denver Post.” What happened to Manny? A knot in our gut tells us the Gestapo got him!

Student disciplined for “white power” remark [Denver Post]
Student punished for “white power” call [Denver Post]
Image [Google]