In an aggrieved follow-up to his controversial piece from Marathon County, Wisconsin, which he painted as a hotbed of bigotry, New York Times reporter Reid Epstein garnered a “Times Insider” Page 2 story, “When a Local Rift Grows Wider.”
Epstein’s initial May 21 piece, based on a fight over a proposed declaration that Marathon was “a community for all,” suggested the mostly white residents of Marathon County, which welcomed Hmong refugees after the Vietnam War, were against racial equality for the “people of color” within their community, and was rewarded with front-page placement of “County Sought To Be Inclusive. Not All Agreed.”