‘Team Player’ Forced to Cut Hair or Not Compete

More Than Two Dozen Advertisers Boycott Carlson

Peter Alan Harper, A.P. Reporter, Poet Dies at 68

Predators Lurk in Immigrant Children’s Shelters

More Details on Russian Targeting of U.S. Blacks

Muscogee Council Votes to Reinstate Free Press

A ‘Song Stylist’ Makes a Front Page

Two Votes for ‘Racist’ Over ‘Racially Charged’

Number of Journalists Killed in Reprisal Up Sharply

Short Takes

‘Team Player’ Forced to Cut Hair or Not Compete

New Jersey authorities are investigating the case of a black high school wrestler who was forced to cut off his dreadlocks if he wanted to compete, but one thing has already been settled: the writer who initially said the wrestler’s compliance makes him the “epitome of a team player” has apologized.

Outrage over the incident — and the writer’s description — had gone viral.

Mike Frankel, sports director of SNJ Today, the local outlet that covered the event, initially tweeted Thursday, “Epitome of a team player. A referee wouldn’t allow Andrew Johnson of Buena @brhschiefs to wrestle with a cover over his dreadlocks. It was either an impromptu haircut, or a forfeit. Johnson chose the haircut, then won by sudden victory in OT to help spark Buena to a win.”

Bernice King, daughter of Martin Luther King Jr., was among those who responded. “Andrew Johnson’s teammates and coaches protesting on his behalf would have been a true reflection of ‘team’ and dignity, @MikeFrankelSNJ,” she tweeted Friday. Please discontinue framing this as a ‘good’ story. It’s actually a reflection of bias and acquiescence to bias.”

Frankel returned to Twitter to declare that he was not a racist and apologized for his description of the incident.

“Obviously it was naive of me to run with the ‘consummate team player’ angle,” Frankel wrote. “In my mind, it was just the ultimate selfless move from a high school athlete. I know now I missed the bigger picture, and for that I apologize.

“Things can be ‘framed’ in a number of ways. According to many of you, I missed the correct ‘framing’ here. I understand many of you watch this video and feel strong emotions. I do too. I’d just like to remind you that I didn’t cause the action, I documented the action. And my method of delivery fell short in many ways.”

To many, the ultimatum by referee Alan Maloney was racist, pure and simple, buttressed by a 2016 report that Maloney had called a black fellow official, Preston Hamilton, the ‘n-word,’ as Ricardo A. Hazell recalled Friday on the Shadow League website.

“Black hair is at the center of yet another controversy because white people apparently cannot deal with non-mainstream cultural expression,” a secondary headline over Hazell’s report read.

“State Assemblyman John Armato (D., Atlantic), whose district includes Buena, said Maloney should be immediately banned from officiating scholastic wrestling matches,” Melanie Burney and Phil Anastasia reported Friday for the Philadelphia Inquirer. They published a statement from school superintendent David C. Cappuccio Jr. stating that “although the investigation in the matter is ongoing, the assigned referee will no longer be permitted to officiate any contests that include any Buena Regional School District student-athletes.”

“This was without a doubt a clear act of racial discrimination,” Armato said in a statement.

However, Burney and Anastasia went on to report that there was more behind the referee’s action.

“During competition, ‘all wrestlers shall be clean shaven, with sideburns trimmed no lower than earlobe level and hair trimmed and well groomed,’ according to rules from the National Federation of State High School Associations, based in Indianapolis,” they wrote.

“ ‘If an individual has hair longer than allowed by rule, it may be braided or rolled if it is contained in a cover so that the hair rule is satisfied. The legal hair cover shall be attached to the ear guards,’ the guidelines state.

“The covering must be made of a solid material, be nonabrasive, and attach to the wrestling ear guards. The wrestler is required to bring the covering for inspection by the referee at weigh-in.

“Camden High School wrestling coach Sandy Thame said none of his current wrestlers [has] long dreadlocks. But he has had some members with dreadlocks in previous seasons. He has three head coverings in stock to meet the new regulations, just in case.

“ ‘That’s a hard one,’ said Thame, a retired science teacher who has been Camden’s coach since 1976. ‘I think I might have taken the forfeit. Imagine that kid going home and telling his mom he cut his hair.’

“During a tournament last weekend at Southern High School in Manahawkin, Ocean County, Buena wrestling coaches and Johnson complained about the new hair covering, and Johnson was allowed to compete with a version that did not comply with the guidelines,” Howie O’Neill, a member of the Southern Chapter of the New Jersey Wrestling Officials Association, said.

“ That’s the problem. That was wrong. And because somebody else didn’t do their job, our guy looks like the bad guy,’ said O’Neill, an official for more than 40 years. ‘Alan did everything right. He followed the rules. I would have done exactly the same thing.’ . . .”

• Associated Press: Athletic group benching ref who told wrestler to cut dreads
• Mark Trible, Courier Post, Cherry Hill, N.J.: Grappling with the N-word
• Carron J. Phillips, Daily News, New York: A black teenage wrestler with dreads, a racist referee, and the importance of how the media needs to handle sensitive subjects

Vox.com prepared this video in 2017.

More Than Two Dozen Advertisers Boycott Carlson

“Fox News host Tucker Carlson will go on a previously planned Christmas vacation next week while his bosses contend with an exodus of advertisers that threatens to financially damage his top-rated program,” Stephen Battaglio reported Friday for the Los Angeles Times.

“More than two dozen advertisers have publicly announced that they won’t run commercials on ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight’ following pressure from Media Matters for America, Sleeping Giants and other liberal activist groups upset over the host’s recent on-air comments that described mass immigration as making the country ‘poorer and dirtier and more divided.’

“Negative reactions to Carlson comments — largely delivered through organized tweets — have had a devastating effect on the program’s lineup of advertisers. Lexus, Pfizer, Takeda, Voya, IHOP, Jaguar, Pacific Life, Ancestry and SodaStream are among the brands that have publicly said they have removed their commercials.

“Since the advertiser flight, Fox News has cut the number of commercials carried in the 8 p.m. Eastern hour when Carlson airs. Only a handful of major brand-name companies have been running ads in the program, with other spots taken by direct marketing advertisers known to look for opportunistic prices that are lower than the typical rate. Five companies — Bayer, John Deere, AstraZeneca, My Pillow and Sanofi — have said they will remain in the program.

“Fox News has said that the advertiser fallout will have no negative financial effect on the cable network as the commercials bought for Carlson’s time period have been moved to other programs. That may be the case for a while. But running fewer or cheaper spots on ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight’ over a long period will eventually cut into the program’s profitability. . . .”

• Carlos Maza, vox.com: Why white supremacists love Tucker Carlson (July 21, 2017)
• Lee Moran, HuffPost: Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Gets Called Out On Racist Rhetoric By Own Guest
• Lee Moran, HuffPost: CNN’s Don Lemon And Chris Cuomo Shred Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Over Racist Rhetoric (video)
• Madeline Peltz, Media Matters for America: What happens when the No. 1 cable news channel is steeped in white nationalist rhetoric?
• Fredreka Schouten, CNN: How liberal activists harnessed social media to target Fox News’ Tucker Carlson
• Erik Wemple, Washington Post: Tucker Carlson accuses critics of ‘mischaracterizing’ his attack on immigrants. Uh, no.

Peter Alan Harper, A.P. Reporter, Poet Dies at 68

Peter Alan Harper, a retired Associated Press national business writer and co-founder and co-director of high school journalism workshops in New York, Kansas City and Memphis, died Dec. 13 at New York’s Albert Einstein Hospital. He had a stroke and was hospitalized for renal failure. He turned 68 on Dec. 2, his younger sister, Radiah Amy Harper, told Journal-isms.

He described himself on LinkedIn as “a performing poet who loves the arts, current events, discussions, exploring new worlds, Africa, and museum and gallery hopping.”

“Harper,” as he liked to be known, was part of the civil rights generation, an avid fan of this column and a member of the Journal-isms Strategy Committee.

“This is not niche work, this is not diversity work, this is getting down and pulling the oars of journalism itself. This ship will crash if we are not involved . . .,” he said in a January 2017 testimonial.

A native of New York, Harper taught a class in black history at the public library when he was a high school junior in Westbury, Long Island. That same year he was an exchange student in Chile.

He said in his LinkedIn profile, “After dropping out of college five times, used ESC [Empire State College, from which he graduated in 2010] to wrap up previous learning and explore new worlds: museums and art, economics, flash writing, poetry, the blues, Africa. Just loved pulling together all my interests. Previously attended Wesleyan, Morehouse, Adelphi and ESC.”

Harper was a reporter at the Commercial Appeal in Memphis from 1980 to 1984, then worked for the Associated Press in Kansas City and New York, covering New York’s financial crisis and emerging markets, international business, bankruptcy, foreign exchange, race and economics and the New York economy while a transportation and labor reporter and a business writer. He held a Knight-Bagehot fellowship in economics and business journalism at Columbia University from 1994 to 1995.

After leaving the AP in 2000, Harper dealt with health challenges and pursued his artistic interests.

A 2004 article in the New York Times began, “No sooner was Peter Alan Harper, 53, given the diagnosis of attention deficit disorder last year than some of his family members began rolling their eyes.

“To him, the diagnosis explained the sense of disorganization that caused him to lose track of projects and kept him from completing even minor personal chores like reading his mail. But to others, said Mr. Harper, a retired journalist in Manhattan, it seems like one more excuse for his inability to ‘take care of business.’

“He didn’t care. ‘The thing about A.D.D. is how much it affects your self-esteem,’ Mr. Harper said. ‘I had always thought of myself as someone who didn’t finish things. Knowing why is such a relief.’ . . .”

Harper freelanced, went back to school and in 2014 earned a master’s degree in fine arts from City College of New York.

In addition to his sister, survivors include his mother, Lovette W. Harper of Sarasota, Fla. (herself an artist), sons Onaje Harper (Katrina) and Dyami Jennings; and a grandchild, Kiara Harper.

A homegoing service and celebration of life are planned in the coming months at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York. Condolences may be sent to Mrs. Lovette W. Harper, 3761 Glen Oaks Manor Drive, Sarasota, FL 34232.

Predators Lurk in Immigrant Children’s Shelters

“Over the past six months, ProPublica has gathered hundreds of police reports detailing allegations of sexual assaults in immigrant children’s shelters, which have received $4.5 billion for housing and other services since the surge of unaccompanied minors from Central America in 2014,” Michael Grabell, Topher Sanders, Silvina Sterin Pensel reported Friday for ProPublica.

“The reports, obtained through public records requests, revealed a largely hidden side of the shelters — one in which both staff and other residents sometimes acted as predators.

“Several of the incidents have led to arrests of shelter employees or teenage residents. And in one particularly heinous case, a youth care worker was convicted in September of molesting seven boys over nearly a year at an Arizona shelter. The employee had worked for months without a full background check.

“Coverage of such incidents by ProPublica and other media triggered demands for investigations.

“Arizona’s governor ordered a statewide inspection of the shelters, leading to the shutdown of two centers run by Southwest Key after the nonprofit failed to provide proof that its employees had completed background checks.

“And late last month, federal investigators warned that the Trump administration had waived FBI fingerprint background checks of staffers and had allowed ‘dangerously’ few mental health counselors at a tent camp housing 2,800 migrant children in Tornillo, Texas.

“But ProPublica’s review of the hundreds of police reports showed something else about the assaults. Something that went beyond background checks. Kids at shelters across the country were, indeed, reporting sexual attacks in the shelters, often by other kids. But again and again, the reports show, the police were quickly— and with little investigation — closing the cases, often within days, or even hours.

“And there are likely even more such cases. ProPublica’s cache of records is missing many police reports from shelters in Texas, where the largest number of immigrant children are held, because state laws there ban child abuse reports from being made public, particularly when the assaults are committed by other minors. . . .”

• John Burnett, NPR: Almost 15,000 Migrant Children Now Held At Nearly Full Shelters
• Elvia Díaz, Arizona Republic: Trump finally finds a way to stick it to Mexico, but hold off the cheers
• Jesse Jackson, National Newspaper Publishers Association: Trump Wall Demand is Dressed With More Lies about Immigrants
• Emily Schwing, Aaron Sankin and Michael Corey, Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting: These priests abused in Native villages for years. They retired on Gonzaga’s campus
• Randall Yip, As Am News: Cambodian [American] Deportations Continue; Are Vietnamese Americans Next?

More Details on Russian Targeting of U.S. Blacks

“The Russian influence campaign on social media in the 2016 election made an extraordinary effort to target African-Americans, used an array of tactics to try to suppress turnout among Democratic voters and unleashed a blizzard of activity on Instagram that rivaled or exceeded its posts on Facebook, according to a report produced for the Senate Intelligence Committee,” Scott Shane and Sheera Frenkel reported Dec. 17 for the New York Times.

“The report adds new details to the portrait that has emerged over the last two years of the energy and imagination of the Russian effort to sway American opinion and divide the country, which the authors said continues to this day. . . .”

The report, produced by New Knowledge, a cybersecurity company based in Austin, Texas, along with researchers at Columbia University and Canfield Research LLC., says that while “other distinct ethnic and religious groups were the focus of one or two Facebook Pages or Instagram accounts, the black community was targeted extensively with dozens.”

Shane and Frenkel added, “In some cases, Facebook ads were targeted at users who had shown interest in particular topics, including black history, the Black Panther Party and Malcolm X. The most popular of the Russian Instagram accounts was @blackstagram, with 303,663 followers.”

A second report prepared for the Senate committee said Russian’s Internet Research Agency “created an expansive cross-platform media mirage targeting the Black community, which shared and cross-promoted authentic Black media to create an immersive influence ecosystem,” Craig Timberg and Tony Romm wrote Dec. 17 for the Washington Post. That report was prepared for the committee by researchers for New Knowledge, Columbia University and Canfield Research.

• Jelani Cobb, New Yorker: The Enduring Russian Propaganda Interests in Targeting African-Americans
• Joe Davidson, Washington Post: Russia and Republicans attempt to suppress black vote, but Russians are slicker
• Sherrilyn Ifill, Washington Post: It’s time to face the facts: Racism is a national security issue
• Janell Ross, NBC BLK: Russia’s election interference exposes America’s Achilles’ heel: Race
• Scott Shane, New York Times: Some of the Popular Images and Themes the Russians Posted on Social Media
• Scott Shane, New York Times: Facebook Closes 5 Accounts Tied to Russia-Like Tactics in Alabama Senate Race

Muscogee Council Votes to Reinstate Free Press

“The Muscogee (Creek) Nation is another step closer to restoring the editorial independence of its media outlets,” Lenzy Krehbiel-Burton reported Dec. 17 for the Journal Record in Oklahoma City.

“The Muscogee (Creek) National Council voted 9-6 Saturday morning to reinstate the tribe’s Free Press Act as previously written and re-seat the three-member editorial board that served as a firewall between the Mvskoke Media newsroom and government officials.

“ ‘We need to get back on track,’ Okfuskee District Rep. Travis Scott said. ‘Communications was one of the compliance issues the executive branch had, but I’d like to see us move forward and allow the Mvskoke Media staffers to do their jobs.

“Citing negative coverage, the council voted 7-6 five weeks earlier to repeal the tribe’s Free Press Act and place . . . its newspaper, radio show, weekly television show and graphic design shop under the auspices of the executive branch’s Department of Commerce. . . .”

• Editorial, Tulsa World: Muscogee (Creek) Council does the right thing in voting to restore press independence
• Native American Journalists Association: NAJA urges full reinstatement of Muscogee (Creek) free press provisions
• Native American Journalists Association: NPR airs inaccurate story about Indian Child Welfare Act custody case

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A ‘Song Stylist’ Makes a Front Page

In the Washington Post, this story ran inside: “Nancy Wilson, an award-winning singer whose beguiling expressiveness in jazz, R&B, gospel, soul and pop made her a crossover recording star for five decades and who also had a prolific career as an actress, activist and commercial spokeswoman, died Dec. 13 at her home in Pioneertown, Calif. She was 81.”

On the Dec. 14 front page, however, appeared the accompaniment to Adam Bernstein’s story: A photo of Wilson in the center of the front page, one of the very few newspapers to give her front-page treatment.

“Nancy Wilson was accomplished across jazz and other genres for so many years,’ Post Deputy Managing Editor Barbara Vobejda, whose idea it was for the display, told Journal-isms through a spokeswoman. “Sometimes the news pushes obituaries off the front, but when it’s possible to note important deaths, we try to do that.”

Wilson, a native of Chillicothe, Ohio, also graced the front page of the Chillicothe Gazette and the Columbus Dispatch, both of which mentioned her Chillicothe roots in their headlines.

Her photo was also in the box at the bottom of the New York Times front page, keying to the obituary inside.

Did Dean Baquet, 62, the Times’ first African American editor, grow up listening to Nancy Wilson?

“I certainly did,” he told Journal-isms by email. “But I didn’t even have to weigh in. There was no question she deserved prominence.”

Times obit writer Jim Farber agreed. “Nancy Wilson, whose skilled and flexible approach to singing provided a key bridge between the sophisticated jazz-pop vocalists of the 1950s and the powerhouse pop-soul singers of the 1960s and ’70s, died on Thursday at her home in Pioneertown, Calif., he wrote.

“In a long and celebrated career, Ms. Wilson performed American standards, jazz ballads, Broadway show tunes, R&B torch songs and middle-of-the-road pop pieces, all delivered with a heightened sense of a song’s narrative.

“ ‘I have a gift for telling stories, making them seem larger than life,’ she told The Los Angeles Times in 1993. ‘I love the vignette, the plays within the song.’ . . .”

• Adam Bernstein, Washington Post: Nancy Wilson, acclaimed ‘song stylist’ who defied musical boundaries, dies at 81
• Chillicothe (Ohio) Gazette: Legendary Chillicothe jazz singer Nancy Wilson dead at 81
• Andrew Dalton and Hillel Italie, Associated Press: Nancy Wilson, Grammy winning jazz singer, dies at 81
• Jim Farber, New York Times: Nancy Wilson, Singer Who Bridged Jazz and Pop, Is Dead at 81
• Askia Muhammad, Washington Informer: She Really Was ‘Fancy Miss Nancy’
• James Reed, Los Angeles Times: Nancy Wilson’s sublime artistry rippled well beyond jazz and torch songs
• Tonja Renée Stidhum, the Root: Legendary ‘Song Stylist’ Nancy Wilson Dies at 81

Two Votes for ‘Racist’ Over ‘Racially Charged’

“While I’m not much for New Year’s resolutions, here’s one I’m definitely encouraging for 2019: It’s time for all of us in journalism to pledge to not just report on racism, but to call it out,” Errin Haines Whack, the Associated Press’ national writer on race and ethnicity, wrote for Nieman Lab’s “Predictions for Journalism 2019.”

“Many of us know racism when we see it, and we’ve seen plenty of it in recent years, from the white supremacist rallies in Charlottesville to white people repeatedly calling the police on black people for doing everyday activities. But we haven’t always reported it that way, and we should be asking ourselves and our colleagues why race continues to be treated like a four-letter word.

“We don’t say ‘gender-tinged’ when we mean sexist. If we’re honest, talking about race makes white Americans — including journalists — uncomfortable. We see constant proof of this in the journo-gymnastics of our headlines and ledes, with toothless phrases like ‘racial rhetoric,’ ‘racially charged’ or ‘racially tinged.’ They mean little, and do even less to convey what it is that we’re actually trying to report.

“But more than that: Such phrases have risen to terms of art for our profession that often feel like a wink and a nod to viewers, readers and listeners that assumes a shared set of values, putting the onus on them to figure out what we mean instead of being explicit. It’s a ‘both sides’ approach that leaves room for doubt and dismissal. . . .”

Whack was not the only one to weigh in.

“It’s the adverbs that are the most insidiously racist. As usual,” Jeffrey Barg wrote Dec. 14 in the Philadelphia Inquirer’s “Angry Grammarian” column.

“The past month has been especially dark for the weaker modifier. While adjectives do the dirty work of telling it like it is, adverbs give cover to those who would soften language to weave a gentler story.

“When George H.W. Bush’s funereal hagiographies recounted the 41st president’s attack ads featuring Willie Horton, the ads were always ‘racially charged’ or ‘racially inflected.’

“Days earlier, Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith won a ‘racially charged’ runoff against Democrat Mike Espy, which followed the ‘racially charged’ gubernatorial races in Florida and Georgia, with their ‘racially coded’ messages. But rarely were those elections, comments, or individuals just ‘racist.’ . . . ”

Number of Journalists Killed in Reprisal Up Sharply

“At least 53 journalists were killed on the job this year, 34 of whom were targeted for murder in reprisal for their work, the Committee to Protect Journalists found in its annual analysis. The numbers, which represent those killed between January 1 and December 14, make 2018 the deadliest year for journalists in the past three years, according to CPJ data,” the press freedom group said Wednesday.

“Afghanistan, where extremists have stepped up deliberate attacks on journalists, was the deadliest country, followed by Syria and India. . . .”

“The recent uptick in killings comes as the jailing of journalists hits a sustained high — adding up to [an] ongoing global crisis of press freedom. Amid the physical dangers to journalists, many world leaders are doubling down on anti-press rhetoric. . . .”

• Columbia Journalism Review: Severed human head and threat left outside Tamaulipas newspaper office
• Carolina de Assis, Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas: On the eve of a new government in Brazil, Bolsonaro criticizes the press and journalists are targeted on social networks
• Siobhán O’Grady, Washington Post:  In Cameroon, journalists are being jailed on charges of ‘fake news’ (Dec. 16)
• Ruma Paul, Serajul Quadir and Zeba Siddiqui, Reuters: In fear of the state: Bangladeshi journalists self-censor as election approaches (Dec. 12)
• Christopher Sherman, Associated Press: Nicaragua’s Ortega pushes ahead with crackdowns on dissent

Short Takes

• “When Vernon Odom arrived in Philadelphia in 1976, Frank L. Rizzo was mayor, and the city was getting ready for the celebration of the nation’s 200th birthday,” Ellen Gray wrote Dec. 14 for the Philadelphia Inquirer. ” ‘I was here the week Rizzo announced, “I need [15,000 federal] troops to maintain order during the Bicentennial,” ’ Odom, 70, recalled Friday, chuckling, as the longtime 6ABC reporter took some time out of his last day before retirement to reminisce about more than four decades covering the news in Philadelphia and around the world. . . . ” Stories by WPVI, Delaware County Times and Philadelphia Tribune.
• “Jeff Bezos bought WaPo and the paper hired lots of people,” (scroll down) Brian Stelter reported Dec. 17 in CNN’s “Reliable Sources” newsletter. “Patrick Soon-Shiong bought the LA Times and the paper is in the process of hiring lots of people. Marc Benioff bought Time, and now the magazine is posting 25 new jobs. Max Wilens wrote Sept. 11 for Digiday, “How The Atlantic, LA Times and others are staffing up.”
• “Justice,” as in “racial justice” and “social justice,” is Merriam-Webster’s word of the year, Peter Sokolowski, editor at large for the dictionary, wrote Wednesday for the Washington Post.
• A study by Amnesty International in collaboration with Canadian firm ElementAI shows that black female politicians and journalists are 84 percent more likely to be mentioned in abusive or “problematic” tweets than white women in the same profession, Will Knight reported Tuesday for MIT Technology Review. Knight also wrote, “The study examined tweets sent to female members of the UK Parliament and the US Congress and Senate, as well as women journalists from publications like the Daily Mail, Gal Dem, the Guardian, Pink News, and the Sun in the UK and Breitbart and the New York Times in the US. . . .”
• “CBS on Friday pledged to give $20 million to 18 organizations dedicated to eliminating sexual harassment in the workplace as the network tries to recover from a scandal that led to the ouster of its top executive, Les Moonves,” Alexandra Olson reported Dec. 15 for the Associated Press.
• Columnist Julianne Malveaux, former president of Bennett College, is asking for “your dollars and your ideas.” “The accrediting body, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, has said that Bennett College is fiscally unstable. If we can’t raise a minimum of $5 million by February 1, 2019, just a few weeks from now, the school will lose its accreditation!,” she wrote Thursday.

• 

  Today Don Rojas, “who still stands as of one of the leading progressive figures in recent history, is fighting another fight: one that involves his own life,” Stacy M. Brown wrote Dec. 15 for the National Newspaper Publishers Association. “After months of treatment for a chronic back ailment, Rojas was recently diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a particularly aggressive form of bone cancer. . . . He’s undergoing heavy chemotherapy treatment which will continue in the weeks ahead, followed by the infusion of steroids and then bone marrow transplants . . . His friends, led by [Benjamin F.] Chavis [Jr., president and CEO of the National Newspaper Publishers Association] and actor Danny Glover, have launched a Go Fund Me campaign to raise the urgently needed funds to ensure that his wife and family have the ‘resources to pay for the best lifesaving medical treatments available. . . .’ “

• Detroit Free Press columnist Rochelle Riley, a North Carolina native, is to be inducted into the NC Media and Journalism Hall of Fame in April, the Free Press reported Wednesday, updated Thursday. “Riley has been a columnist since 2000 at the Free Press, where she has been a leading voice on government responsibility, education, race and children’s issues. Judges wrote that she is ‘a crusader for justice in the best journalistic tradition.’ . . .”

• “Inside the Arch Street United Methodist Church, the pews were filled with hundreds of Philadelphians — some who had known homelessness and some who were currently homeless — who had gathered for the annual Homeless Memorial Day service,” Brad Larrison reported on Friday for WHYY-FM. Participants called out 270 names to honor the memory of homeless and formerly homeless people who died in Philadelphia over the past year. WHYY is one of 21 news organizations producing Broke in Philly, a collaborative reporting project on solutions to poverty and the city’s push toward economic justice.
• Hugo Balta, president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, and Keith Woods, NPR vice president of newsroom training and diversity, met to discuss NPR’s 2018 diversity report, NAHJ announced Dec. 13. “A culture of framing stories where Latinos are the protagonists as niche must change,” Balta said. “Newsroom managers need to appreciate that ‘Latino’ stories and ‘American’ stories are one in the same; that inclusion of different voices is increasingly relevant to the changing multiethnic, multicultural, multilingual nation.”
• The Society of Professional Journalists named two at-large directors to its national Board of Directors, SPJ announced on Dec. 12. “Ivette Davila-Richards (@IDRichards) has eight years of leadership experience with the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ); while Victor Hernandez (@ToTheVictor) has received accolades for his digital and management expertise. . . .”
• Marshall Harris, “a fill-in host at 94.1 WIP best known to area sports fans for the 10 years he spent at NBC Sports Philadelphia and Comcast SportsNet, is joining the CBS affiliate in Sacramento as the network’s sports director,” Rob Tornoe reported Wednesday for the Philadelphia Inquirer.

• 

  “Karen Magnuson, who has been executive editor of the Democrat and Chronicle for 18 years, will step down Jan. 2,” the Rochester, N.Y., news organization reported Thursday. Magnuson is co-chair of the Diversity Committee of the American Society of News Editors. She listed “A commitment to diversity, both in newsroom hiring and in local coverage” among her top achievements in Rochester. The news operation reported 23.91 percent people of color in ASNE’s 2018 newsroom diversity survey [PDF]. Magnuson, 61, voluntarily accepted an early retirement package from Gannett Co. Inc. “She will serve as an executive in residence at Rochester Institute of Technology’s Saunders College of Business as she weighs options for ‘rewiring’ her career. . . .”

• “Lison Joseph has been hired by the Philadelphia Inquirer as a deputy business editor,” Chris Roush reported Wednesday for his Talking Biz News. “Joseph was previously an assistant business editor at the Dallas Morning News where his business news team covered such core Texas concerns as energy, real estate and the economy along with industry giants Southwest and American Airlines. . . .”
• “Variety has hired Rebecca Davis as its new China bureau chief, part of the organization’s expansion of its international coverage, Variety reported Wednesday. “Davis will cover a land that boasts the world’s second-largest movie market and a burgeoning television industry and that has developed extensive ties with Hollywood in recent years. Formerly a reporter with Agence France-Presse, Davis is based in Beijing, and has long had a professional interest in and personal fascination with the Chinese entertainment scene. . . .”
• “Is it getting any easier to live as an African-American in Boston?” Adrian Walker asked Dec. 17 in the Boston Globe. “I was prompted to ponder that question upon realizing that exactly one year has passed since the Boston Globe Spotlight Team reported on the issue. The seven-part series ‘Boston. Race. Image. Reality,’ explored the many ways that the city’s reputation for racism plays out in the lives of people who live in the city. I was one of the reporters on the series, along with Akilah Johnson, Andrew Ryan, Nicole Dungca, Todd Wallack, Liz Kowalczyk, and Spotlight editor Patty Wen.” Walker also wrote, “The single most memorable fact in the series, the one that everyone noted repeatedly, was financial: the net worth of white families in the area was $247,500, compared with $8 for African-American families. That number was so shocking that we had to do a second story explaining that it wasn’t a typo or a math error. Here’s the significance of that number to me. The economic inequality it reflects was a huge factor in nearly every ill the series talked about. . . . “
• “[V]ictims and families of people shot in Chicago can face a depressingly long road on the way to justice,” William Lee and Jeremy Gorner reported Dec. 17 for the Chicago Tribune. “Even with the low percentage of shootings that result in arrests, it can take more than a year of filings, fights over evidence and delays before a case may finally be resolved. . . .”
• “As a Muslim, I can tell you plainly, I do celebrate Christmas, but not in the religious sense,” Ahmed Sharma wrote Friday for AsAmNews. “For myself, and I’m sure most American Muslims will agree, Christmas has been a time to spend with loved ones. It’s a time to relax briefly and catch up with people we don’t normally get to see every day. . . .”
• For almost four years, Verónica Sanchis Bencomo, a Venezuelan photographer, has been seeking contemporary Latin American female photographers, David Gonzalez wrote Thursday for the New York Times “Lens” blog. She founded Foto Féminas, a digital platform and library that features a different photographer working in Latin America and the Caribbean each month. “With her eye focused on their images and not on their credentials or contacts, Ms. Sanchis Bencomo has convened a virtual community of experienced and emerging photographers alike whose styles range from documentary and photojournalism to fine art and conceptual photography. . . .”
• “A dissident rebel believed to be working for a Mexican drug cartel, and on the ‘most wanted’ lists of two South American countries, was killed Friday in a government operation, Colombia said,” Agence France-Presse reported Saturday. “Walther Arizala, known by his nom-de-guerre of ‘Guacho,’ is believed to have ordered the abduction and murder of a three-man Ecuadoran press team on the border with Colombia early this year. . . .” Joshua Goodman added for the Associated Press: “Jose Miguel Vivanco, the director for the Americas at Human Rights Watch, said the historically neglected Afro-Colombian population around the Pacific Ocean port city of Tumaco near where Arizala was killed remains remains highly vulnerable to recruitment by criminal groups. ‘The residents of Tumaco, who have suffered for years and years the abuses committed by multiple actors, need much more than the removal of Guacho for violence not to be recycled again,’ he said on Twitter. . . .”
• In Africa, about 13 countries, including Senegal, Botswana, Namibia, Senegal, Nigeria, South Africa and Guinea, will hold general elections at some point in the coming year,” Tshepo Tshabalala wrote for Nieman Lab. . . . at least 16 Nigerian news organizations launched an election fact-checking project called CrossCheck Nigeria in an attempt to combat misinformation before elections next year. The platform will get over 50 journalists working across print, broadcast and online media to work together to investigate, verify and disprove erroneous claims, particularly on social media. . . .”
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View previous columns (after Feb. 13, 2016).

• Book Notes: Is Taking a Knee Really All That? (Dec. 20, 2018)
• Book Notes: Challenging ’45’ and Proudly Telling the Story (Dec. 18, 2018)
• Book Notes: Get Down With the Legends! (Dec. 11, 2018)Journalist Richard Prince w/Joe Madison (Sirius XM, April 18, 2018) (podcast)
• Richard Prince (journalist) (Wikipedia entry)
• February 2018 Podcast: Richard “Dick” Prince on the need for newsroom diversity (Gabriel Greschler, Student Press Law Center, Feb. 26, 2018)
• Diversity’s Greatest Hits, 2017 — Where Will They Take Us in the Year Ahead?
• Book Notes: Best Sellers, Uncovered Treasures, Overlooked History (Dec. 19, 2017)
• An advocate for diversity in the media is still pressing for representation, (Courtland Milloy, Washington Post, Nov. 28, 2017)
• Morgan Global Journalism Review: Journal-isms Journeys On (Aug. 31, 2017)
• Diversity’s Greatest Hits, 2016
• Book Notes: 16 Writers Dish About ‘Chelle,’ the First Lady
• Book Notes: From Coretta to Barack, and in Search of the Godfather
• Journal-isms’ Richard Prince Wants Your Ideas (FishbowlDC, Feb. 26, 2016)
• “JOURNAL-ISMS” IS LATEST TO BEAR BRUNT OF INDUSTRY’S ECONOMIC WOES (Feb. 19, 2016)
• Richard Prince with Charlayne Hunter-Gault,“PBS NewsHour,” “What stagnant diversity means for America’s newsrooms” (Dec. 15, 2015)
• Book Notes: Journalists Follow Their Passions
• Book Notes: Journalists Who Rocked Their World
• Book Notes: Hands Up! Read This!
• Book Notes: New Cosby Bio Looks Like a Best-Seller
• Journo-diversity advocate turns attention to Ezra Klein project (Erik Wemple, Washington Post, March 5, 2014)
• Book Notes: “Love, Peace and Soul!” And More
• Book Notes: Book Notes: Soothing the Senses, Shocking the Conscience
• Diversity’s Greatest Hits, 2015
• Diversity’s Greatest Hits, 2014
• Diversity’s Greatest Hits, 2013
• Diversity’s Greatest Hits, 2012
• Diversity’s Greatest Hits, 2011
• Diversity’s Greatest Hits, 2010
• Diversity’s Greatest Hits, 2009
• Diversity’s Greatest Hits, 2008
• Book Notes: Books to Ring In the New Year
• Book Notes: In-Your-Face Holiday Reads
• Fishbowl Interview With the Fresh Prince of D.C. (Oct. 26, 2012)
• NABJ to Honor Columnist Richard Prince With Ida B. Wells Award (Oct. 11, 2012)
• So What Do You Do, Richard Prince, Columnist for the Maynard Institute? (Richard Horgan, FishbowlLA, Aug. 22, 2012)
• Book Notes: Who Am I? What’s Race Got to Do With It?: Journalists Explore Identity
• Book Notes: Catching Up With Books for the Fall
• Richard Prince Helps Journalists Set High Bar (Jackie Jones, BlackAmericaWeb.com, 2011)
• Book Notes: 10 Ways to Turn Pages This Summer
• Book Notes: 7 for Serious Spring Reading
• Book Notes: 7 Candidates for the Journalist’s Library
• Book Notes: 9 That Add Heft to the Bookshelf
• Five Minutes With Richard Prince (Newspaper Association of America, 2005)
• ‘Journal-isms’ That Engage and Inform Diverse Audiences (Q&A with Mallary Jean Tenore, Poynter Institute, 2008)