NORFOLK -- Tensions surrounding the attack on two Virginian-Pilot reporters continue to boil.
Angry phone call and e-mails are coming in to the paper from across the country.
The paper is being accused of not reporting the attack last month in Norfolk, for racial reasons. The reporters are white and the suspects are black.
Reporters Marjon Rostami and Dave Forster were attacked on April 14th at the corner of Church Street and Brambleton Avenue. They had just left the Attucks Theatre about two blocks away. Forster's car was hit by a rock by a teen walking with a group of about 30 people.
It wasn't until May 1st that there was a mention in the Pilot about what happened in an editorial but not a news story.
Some people feel - had it been the other way around, the story would have made big news, including Fox News' Bill O'Reilly, who's been taking up on the topic on the 'O'Reilly Factor.'
During his program on Monday, he said it was inconceivable that the media would sit out this story if the attacks had been white and the victims, black.
Meanwhile, Pilot Editor, Denis Finley is defending his decision not to cover the story as newsand says O'Reilly is distorting the facts. He is growing increasingly frustrated with the attention his paper is getting for something he says has been completely blown out of proportion. Finley says the facts of the case did not meet the standards of a news story. Police dubbed the incident a simple assault. Finley says the paper doesn't have space to report every assault that happens in Norfolk. He strongly denies race played a part in his decision.
'Everytime a black person hits a white person or a white person hits a black person, thatdoesn't mean it's racially motivated. We have to know it is,' says Finley. He calls the accusation that he protected the African American suspects to be politically correct is preposterous.
'Why would I protect a couple of thugs who beat up my reporters? It just doesn't make any sense. It's ludicrous to think i would do that.'
O'Reilly is pushing for the state to get involved and investigate the incident. So, far Governor McDonnell says the investigation is being handled by Norfolk police.
