
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, October 2, 1993                   TAG: 9310020044
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B1   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: MATT MURRAY AND BRYAN SMITH NEWPORT NEWS DAILY PRESS
DATELINE: HAMPTON                                LENGTH: Short

PREP STAR'S SUPPORTERS TO BOYCOTT PAPER

Vowing to fight racial injustice in America's court system, supporters of Allen Iverson and three other African-American youths convicted in a bowling-alley brawl held a town meeting Thursday night to rally support and call for a 10-week boycott of The Newport News Daily Press.

Dianne Suber, a member of the group SWIS, formed to support the defendants, told the 250 to 300 people at the meeting at Hampton University that subscribers should call the paper and cancel delivery to protest "biased and prejudicial coverage."

The boycott's length is meant to represent the 10 months that the three youths are likely to be in jail, Suber said. After the 10-week period, she said, SWIS plans to target major advertisers of the newspaper.

Will Corbin, the Daily Press' managing editor, defended the paper's coverage of the story.

"The Daily Press coverage of the Iverson case, I think, speaks for itself," Corbin said. "We think it has been fair and accurate throughout. If Iverson supporters feel like they need to boycott the paper, that will disappoint us. We're sad to see it."

Corbin added that the paper had made an offer to have any SWIS members write columns detailing their problems with the paper's coverage and said he had seen no substantive critique of bias on the paper's part.

At a candlelight vigil after the meeting, Suber and the Rev. Marcellus Harris said they would write such columns.

Iverson, considered by many the nation's top high school athlete, was sentenced Sept. 8 to five years in prison for his part in a Valentine's Day melee at a Hampton bowling alley.

by CNB