Objecting to a Point We Didn't Make

Dear Editor,
   When the issue was a possible policeman's head injury, Chron Editor [Louis] Black was dismissive, saying "If this is the biggest deal [during SXSW], this is great news for us" (as quoted in The Daily Texan, March 22, "Ozomatli Members Fight Arrests Following After-Show Scuffle").
   But when the issue was possible police overreaction, the Chron (in its subsequent issue) took a different tack, publishing a full-sized, strongly worded ("mini police riot") article ["Not Quite 'Ya Se Fue!,'" News, March 26] and also, separately, a large, strident political cartoon ["Naked City," News, March 26], showing a passive rocker being sprayed point blank in the face with pepper.
   This discrepancy is the more glaring because of the serious injury (e.g., eye damage) to which a person being hit on the head by a drum is liable.
   Such lack of objectivity is typical of the Chron, and does, I believe, bear resemblance to the racism which the Chron is always so quick to condemn.

   [Louis Black replies: I haven't read The Daily Texan piece, so I have no idea as to how I was quoted, but I certainly wasn't referring to a "possible policeman's head injury." I was trying to suggest that if this was the worst incident in the 18 years of SXSW, it said something about general safety at the event and the police's performance over time – even though I wish it hadn't happened at all. Lest this seem callous or dismissive, I was talking in relative terms and am, of course, very concerned. That said, I must point out that I can say one thing and the politics staff write another. We are not all of one mind, they do not have to adhere to what I think. Suggesting that there was a change in "the Chronicle's attitude" is to miss the regularity in which the politics section and I have different opinions.]