http://journalism.indiana.edu/resources/ethics/sensitive-news-topics/the-super-crip-stereotype/ Journalism ethics cases online Fri, 25 Jul 2008 01:43:02 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 http://journalism.indiana.edu/resources/ethics/sensitive-news-topics/the-super-crip-stereotype/#comment-8840 Paul South Tue, 18 Mar 2008 16:25:31 +0000 http://journalism.indiana.edu/resources/ethics/sensitive-news-topics/the-super-crip-stereotype/#comment-8840 Wonderful piece. As someone with cerebral palsy who worked in newspaper newsrooms for 25 years as a reporter and editor, it's little surprise that newswriters fall into the "super crip" trap. Look at the low numbers of physically disabled reporters and editors in American newsrooms. I left the business after winning multiple awards --including a Pulitzer nomination by a newapaper where I once worked. Too, I was ME at a paper on the Mississippi Gulf Coast during and after Katrina. We never missed a day of publication. My biggest disappointment --aside from our paper being passed over for a Pulitzer for public service when papers who did not publish every day were honored-- is that the largest paper I worked at passed me over time and again for promotion, despite protests from some senior staffers. Disabled people in newsrooms have to be super in big newsrooms. If not, they will be passed over as I was. I am now out of the business, never to return. And while I feel called to my current work in media relations and as a full-time divinity student, I also feel a deep sadness, wondering what I might have done if given the opportunity. I pray other disabled journalists will not be left feeling as I do.