14.06.10
In all fairness, in using the site search tool for terms "white male" "black male" and "hispanic male" I did find out several things; the Oregonian did have a column in April stating their editorial policy is that they will not identify race in certain circumstances. I also noted "white male" yields plenty of suspect descriptions and related articles, whereas the other two descriptors yield very few if any articles. Obviously, the race you don't have to guess at or split into ethnicity is "white" - therefore it's easy to identify someone as white.
If a hispanic person is arrested, their arrest cycle and rap sheet will show in a database as "white". In fact, in the mandatory national FBI UCRs, there is no category for "hispanic" and those crimes with hispanic suspects are listed under "white", so perhaps the Oregonian is just taking a lead from the Feds.
I wondered to myself this afternoon if the fall of journalism in this country is really due to the economy, or if it's something else. I have a theory that since more of us are out of work, perhaps we have time to pay closer attention to what we've been fed from corporate, state controlled media and the pathway we've been led down the past three decades.
Source: OregonLive.com