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Editorials denouncing Senator Trent Lott's December 5, 2002, remarks at Strom Thurmond's birthday party began appearing in Nexis-linked newspapers five days later and reached a crescendo December 12-13.
Timing of the event and news coverage of it seemed to influence the speed of editorial response, a small sampling of online archives and of editorial page editors found.
The party was on a Thursday night. It was reported routinely Friday, Saturday, and even Sunday in some newspapers whose files are in Nexis. Those stories focused on Thurmond's seniority and generally did not mention the controversial Lott remarks. It later came out that he said he was among those proud of Thurmond's 1948 segregationist Dixiecrat campaign and speculated that America might be better off if Thurmond had won that election. It took a while for that part...