Payne: Journalism essential to democracy
When Les Payne, then a reporter for Newsday, finally made his way into South Africa to cover the 1976 Soweto uprising, the South African government designated him an "honorary white."
That was so Payne, an African-American and already a Pulitzer Prize-winner, would be able to book hotel rooms, attend news conferences and travel around the country to do his reporting, he told about 100 people...
