Were Media Fair to Kamala Harris?

Narrative Said to Be Bullish Toward White Men

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Narrative Said to Be Bullish Toward White Men

“Over Thanksgiving, the Washington Post and the New York Times both published brutal stories about the state of Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign,” Jon Allsop reported Wednesday for Columbia Journalism Review.

“The Post said she was ‘teetering,’ burdened by ‘indecision within her campaign, her limits as a candidate, and dwindling funds.’ The Times obtained a scathing resignation letter in which Kelly Mehlenbacher, a senior aide, criticized campaign leadership for inconsiderate management, including laying off employees without notice.

“‘ ‘This is my third presidential campaign and I have never seen an organization treat its staff so poorly,’ Mehlenbacher wrote. (She has since joined Michael Bloomberg’s campaign.) On Friday, Politico’s Playbook newsletter shared both pieces, calling them ‘two nail-in-coffin stories for Kamala Harris.’

“Yesterday, Harris called it quits. ‘I’ve taken stock and looked at this from every angle, and over the last few days have come to one of the hardest decisions of my life,’ she told supporters.

” ‘My campaign for president simply doesn’t have the financial resources we need to continue.’ Yesterday, the inevitable postmortems blamed the internal dysfunction and rancor; Harris’s enduring slump in the polls, aided by other candidates, including Joe Biden, eating away at her early support; her vacillation on important policy issues, most notably healthcare; and her past criminal-justice record, which made her candidacy anathema to many progressives. Most centrally, they cited Harris’s failure to pick a clear message and stick with it.

” ‘Kamala Harris was never as easy to put on a bumper sticker as some of the others,’ Chelsea Janes, who wrote the Post’s Thanksgiving story on Harris, said on PBS. ‘She sort of lost clarity in exactly who she was, and why she was running.’

“Some commentators identified another culprit: the media. On Sunday, before we knew Harris would drop out, MSNBC’s Joy Reid said the Harris-crisis stories illustrated a broader truth about the standards to which different candidates are held: ‘The narrative around the Democratic primary seems to be very bullish toward white, male candidates, and lukewarm on women and minorities.’

“Yesterday, post-dropout, the Rev. Al Sharpton echoed Reid’s point. ‘I’ve never seen a candidate taken apart the way she was in the last several days,’ he said, also on MSNBC. ‘Yes, there were organizational problems. Yes, there were financial problems. But you have people on that debate stage who have no organization at all.’ . . .”

• Peter Beinart, the Atlantic: Progressives Have Short Memories
• Charles M. Blow, New York Times: What Kamala Harris’s Campaign Teaches Us
• Errin Haines, Associated Press: Harris exit points to hurdles facing minority candidates
• Frederick Joseph, Independent, Britain: ‘Kamala is a cop’ was a racist narrative that killed Harris’s campaign dead. And whatever you think about her, it’s deeply unfair
• David Lauter, Los Angeles Times: California voters wanted Kamala Harris to drop out of presidential race, poll finds
• Sonya Ross, Black Women Unmuted: Inside the final days of the Kamala Harris campaign for US president
• Michael Scherer, Washington Post: Democrats were excited about their initially diverse field. Now it’s notably whiter.
• Adrian Walker, Boston Globe: Warren, Patrick looking to make moves in an unsettled Democratic field

Short Takes

“Thirteen years old is when a black kid in Mississippi learns he’s an adult. Isaiah figured it out at the beginning of seventh grade when he got into trouble at his favorite place in town,” began the report from Reveal, from the Center for Investigative Reporting.

• “Nearly 5,000 Mississippi children have been charged as adults in the last 25 years,” Ko Bragg and Melissa Lewis wrote for Reveal, from the Center for Investigative Reporting. “26 states can charge kids as adults automatically,” Bragg wrote Nov. 14 on Twitter. “for 2 years i followed a 13-year-old’s saga through solitary confinement, missing school, and birthdays in jail. he’s one of 5,000 kids in Mississippi’s adult system since 1994. 75% are black like him.”

• The Asian American Journalists Association is partnering with Mathison, which describes itself as a company “committed to bridging the gap between underrepresented communities and employers committed to equity and inclusion.” The company plans “to pilot a new platform to connect AAJA members with employers,” the association said Tuesday. “The pilot, which is supported by the Knight Foundation, aims to increase career opportunities for organizations with memberships like ours and bolster employers’ diversity and inclusion efforts. This partnership came about from initial work to determine how best to serve our members who are freelancers. . . .” The Native American Association announced a similar partnership on Nov. 8.

• Upcoming primetime anchors for the forthcoming Black News Channel include former CNNer Fred Hickman, Laverne McGee and Anthony Amey, R. Thomas Umstead reported Monday for Multichannel News. Byron Pitts of ABC News remains available for special reports, Gary Wordlaw, vice president of news and programming, told Journal-isms by telephone Wednesday. Asked how many households the network will launch with in January, former congressman J.C. Watts, the network’s co-founder and chairman, told Umstead, “I think, [in terms of] households, we’ll be in the 33 million range, but we’ll significantly increase our reach with some mobile deals. I feel comfortable in saying we’ll be able to announce those partnerships in the next three to four weeks. . . .”

• “Gabrielle Union’s firing from NBC’s hit variety show America’s Got Talent has raised a flurry of questions and concerns about the show, and the culture at NBC,” Stereo Williams wrote Sunday for the Daily Beast. Williams also wrote, “Union’s ouster from NBC’s hit show has come with troubling allegations of toxic and discriminatory behavior on the part of the show, co-host Simon Cowell, and NBC. . . .” Marianne Garvey reported for CNN, “NBC said in a statement to CNN on Monday [that it is] working with Union to “hear more about her concerns. ‘. . .”

• “In fiscal year 2019, NPR’s newsroom makeup was just over 28% people of color and just under 71% white,” Elizabeth Jensen, NPR’s public editor, wrote Nov. 19. “Nearly 57% of the staff was female, according to newsroom staff diversity statistics provided, at the request of the Public Editor’s office, by NPR’s human resources department.” Jensen also wrote, “Another fact that jumps out: The percentage of newsroom employees who identify as Hispanic or Latino (that’s how NPR phrases the choice) stayed flat year to year, due partly to employees leaving. The actual number of self-identified Hispanic or Latino newsroom employees stayed even, at 32. . . .” (Credit: NPR)

• “In the end, the Newseum’s name was a bit whimsical, but its mission was critical,” Ken Paulson, a former editor of USA Today, wrote Monday for the publication. “Unless we understand and embrace the vital role a free press plays in our democracy, we encourage politicians of all stripes to denigrate and dismiss the journalists who daily keep a check on corruption and government abuse. . . .” The news museum has sold its building on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington and is closing at the end of the month. Its primary funder, the Freedom Forum, promises a new incarnation.

• “Journalist and digital content strategist Teresa Frontado (pictured) will join KUT 90.5, Austin’s NPR Station, as executive editor in January,” Erin Geisler reported Monday for KUT. Geisler also wrote, “Frontado joins KUT from WLRN, South Florida Public Media in Miami. As digital director there, she designed and implemented a digital strategy to increase audience engagement on all digital platforms -– from web, to app, to social media channels, to podcasts. She previously worked in roles at Univision, as director of social media for news, and at the Miami Herald, including as senior editor for online and production of El Nuevo Herald, the Miami Herald Publishing Company’s Spanish-language publication. . . .”

• “In the spring of 2018, MSNBC host Joy Reid brushed off a Mediaite report about dozens of anti-gay posts published on her old blog by insisting that the content was actually planted on her site by hackers,” Caleb Ecarma reported Nov. 26 for Mediaite. “Reid’s hacker conspiracy was quickly debunked by cybersecurity experts and she was forced to apologize, but a year and a half later, MSNBC contributor Malcolm Nance is still pushing his colleague’s false claim. . . .”
• 

“Ghost River: The Fall and Rise of the Conestoga,” a graphic novel and public art exhibition at the Library Company of Philadelphia that debuted last month, reinterprets a genocidal campaign and its aftermath from the perspective of the indigenous peoples. (Credit: Lee Francis and Will Fenton)

• “On a frosty December morning in 1763, a mob of frontiersman from central Pennsylvania slaughtered the 14 remaining Conestoga people, completing a genocidal campaign against a people who had lived, unarmed, on a tract of land set aside by William Penn with the founding of Pennsylvania,” Lee Francis and Will Fenton wrote Thursday for the Philadelphia Inquirer. They also wrote, “We worked with The Inquirer to highlight the story of the Conestoga people and their enduring legacy. This is especially important during Native American Heritage Month and the Thanksgiving holiday — a day that often pays lip service to Native history — because the act triggered a series of remarkable events in Philadelphia. . . .”

• ESPN has officially designated Dec. 4 as “Stuart Scott (pictured) Day,” in honor of the ‘SportsCenter’ anchor who lost his hard-fought battle with cancer in January 2015 at age 49, ESPN announced Monday,” Debbie Emery reported for the Wrap. “Throughout Dec. 4, ESPN will celebrate with frequent content of Scott’s love of life and perseverance through his fight with cancer.. . . The coverage is part of the ESPN’s 13th annual ‘V Week for Cancer Research,’ which runs Sunday, Dec. 3 through Dec. 14. . . .”

• “Circuit Judge Brad Karren of Bentonville yesterday ordered television journalist Nkiruka Azuka Omeronye released after a few hours of her three-day jail sentence,” David Ramsey reported Nov. 22 for the Arkansas Times. “Karren sentenced Omeronye, a reporter for KNWA, for contempt of court for violating an order against making an audio recording of a hearing in his court, in the capital murder trial of Mauricio Torres. She said she made the recording for note-taking purposes, not for broadcast, and not seen the judge’s order in June against recording or the posted signs prohibiting electronic recordings. . . .”

• The University of Central Florida in Orlando has announced a new endowed journalism scholarship in the name of Wendy Chioji, Paul Greeley reported Nov. 21 for TVNewsCheck. “Chioji was a news anchor at WESH, Hearst’s NBC affiliate in the city, for more than 20 years. She died in October from cancer at the age of 57. . . .”

• Charles Barkley apologized in a statement Nov. 20 for telling Axios reporter Alexi McCammond, “I don’t hit women, but if I did, I would hit you.” But before McCammond could receive much sympathy, some of her old tweets insensitive to Asian Americans surfaced. She deleted them, but the National Association of Black Journalists, which named McCammond “2019 Emerging Journalist of the Year,” was asked to take back her honor. NABJ replied that the tweets took place outside of the time period McCammond was being cited for.

• “A reality TV executive filed a discrimination suit against CBS on Monday, alleging he was fired as part of a systemic pattern of mistreatment of non-white executives,” Gene Maddaus reported Nov. 25 for Variety. Ghen Maynard, who is of Japanese ancestry, was a senior executive VP for alternative programs. He alleges that although CBS has said publicly that it is taking steps to address diversity, at the top levels it is still run exclusively by white men. . . .”

• “The Players’ Tribune, the digital media venture launched by former New York Yankees captain Derek Jeter, is joining a new team,” Lucas I. Alpert reported Nov. 21 for the Wall Street Journal. “The website, which was introduced in 2014 as a platform for athletes to tell their stories, has been acquired by Minute Media, a digital publishing platform founded in Israel that operates a network of sports-media sites around the world, the companies said. . . .”

• WISH-TV in Indianapolis has named Erika Facey-Palmer manager of content, Theresa Wells-Ditton reported Nov. 15 for Inside Indiana Business. WISH-TV was recently acquired by Circle City Broadcasting, owned by African American entrepreneur DuJuan McCoy.

• Jeffrey Dale (pictured), a white copy editor who in September quit the Patriot Ledger in Quincy, Mass., after his paper published the N-word in full on the front page, is now working at the Boston Herald. “My title is, ‘Regional Editing Assistant,’ mainly because I’m working on three different papers: The Herald, The Fitchburg Sentinel & Enterprise and The Lowell Sun,” Dale messaged Journal-isms last week. “The editing hub is another layer of editing after local reporters and editors at each paper give a first read. Our role is also to communicate w/ designers in the design hub, which is in Boulder, Co.” The hedge fund firm Alden Global Capital acquired the paper in 2018, cut pay and dissolved the union. “The cut pay hasn’t been as bad as I originally thought it would be. The new company’s health insurance is a lot cheaper than what it was before,” Dale said.

• “Non-Hispanic white Americans account for 60% of the U.S. population, but in a growing number of counties, a majority of residents are Hispanic or black, reflecting the nation’s changing demographics and shifting migration patterns,”  Katherine Schaeffer reported Nov. 20 for the Pew Research Center. “In 2018, there were 151 U.S. counties where Hispanics, blacks or two much smaller racial and ethnic groups – American Indians and Alaska Natives – made up a majority of the population, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data. . . .”

• “Emily Ramshaw, our beloved editor in chief (pictured, left), and Amanda Zamora (pictured, right), our best-in-class chief audience officer, will be leaving The Texas Tribune in a few weeks to launch a new venture: in their words, a new national nonprofit news organization aimed at giving women the facts, tools and information they need to be equal participants in democracy and civic life,” Evan Smith wrote Nov. 19 for the Texas Tribune. “Their departures are a blow, of course, but this is an exciting development for journalism -— so I’m beaming about their leap. . . .  Amanda returned to her home state in June 2016 to join us as our first-ever lead on audience development and immediately demonstrated the value of her years of experience at places like ProPublica and The Washington Post. . . . “

• “According to the Directors Guild of America, the TV industry has made major gains in terms of diversity,” Dave McNary reported Nov. 19 for Variety. “Half of all TV episodes in the 2018-19 season were directed by women or directors of color for the first time, according to a DGA report released on Tuesday. . . .”

• “Fox duopoly KTTV-KCOP Los Angeles (DMA 2) today appointed Erica Hill-Rodriguez (pictured) vice president and news director,” Mark K. Miller reported Nov. 19 for TVNewsCheck. “Effective Dec. 9, she will oversee all editorial, business and administrative functions for KTTV and KCOP News, reporting to the stations’ VP-GM Bill Lamb. . . . Most recently, Hill-Rodriguez was news director of Nexstar’s KCPQ and KZJO in Seattle and KRCW Portland, Ore. Prior to that, she held the positions of assistant news director, managing editor, and senior assignment editor at KCPQ. . . .”

• Prompted by Tribune Publishing’s announcement that it is closing Hoy, its Chicago-based Spanish-language weekly, NPR’s Michel Martin asked Graciela Mochkofsky, director of the Spanish-language journalism program at the City University of New York, “Is this form of journalism declining in the U.S.?” Mochkofsky replied Nov. 17 that in addition to the factors affecting the entire industry, “you have an increasing number of English-dominant and bilingual LatinXs. And you have — most of the outlets serving Latinos are still Spanish-dominant and are very traditional in terms of platform and distribution models. . . .”

• Under the title “How UT Alumna Beverly White (pictured) Became One of the Most Trusted Voices in News,” Gretchen Sanders wrote about White Nov. 1 for the Alcalde, alumni magazine of the University of Texas. White, who has been with KNBC -TV in Los Angeles for 27 years, “grew up admiring Texas-born journalism legends Sam Donaldson and Dan Rather. But it was Carole Simpson, the first African-American woman to anchor a major network newscast, and Iola Johnson, an African-American anchor for WFAA in Dallas, who ignited her imagination. ‘Iola Johnson was a pioneer, White says. ‘She was smart, classy, and traveled. Journalism just looked like an amazing job to have, and for a change I saw someone who looked like me who had it. . . .”

• ““What drives me more nutty than the president -— who I think is obviously a terrible human being in a lot of ways — is the way in which the media does not know how to handle him,” Soledad O’Brien told Lloyd Grove of the Daily Beast on Nov. 18. “Quoting people who are saying lies is a really bad strategy. When President Trump says the moon is made of cheese, well, it’s not,” she continued, speaking metaphorically. “What drives me really crazy is to see all the mistakes the media makes around [the problem of], how do you report on somebody who’s a liar, who won’t hold press conferences in a place where you can ask real questions?” O’Brien continued. “How do you use your access? Every so often, someone writes a story about Ivanka [Trump] that sounds like it’s been written by Ivanka. And you can tell that this is the access piece, so you can get that little drip, drip, drip that she’s giving. . . .”

• “Five months after Estrella TV canceled its two morning shows –- ‘Primera Edición’ and ‘Buenos Días Familia’ -– amid its parent company’s bankruptcy proceedings, LBI media has launched ‘En La Mañana,‘ ” Veronica Villafañe wrote Nov. 18 for her Media Moves site. “This marks the first new program rolled out under the company’s new management. The new two-hour national morning news program airs live from EstrellaTV’s Dallas television studios Monday through Friday from 7 to 9 am. . . .”

• “Marc Lacey ’87, national editor for The New York Times, will be the inaugural fellow in the Distinguished Visiting Journalist Program, launching next semester in the College of Arts and Sciences,” Linda B. Glaser wrote Nov. 18 for the Cornell Chronicle, an official publication of Cornell University. “The new program will bring accomplished journalists to Cornell for stays of two to eight weeks. . . .”

• Representatives of the Native American Journalists Association met Nov. 11 with the New York Times to discuss NAJA’s objections to an Oct. 20 Times story, “Drawn From Poverty: Art Was Supposed to Save Canada’s Inuit. It Hasn’t.” The story was criticized for playing into stereotypes of Indigenous people, Kyle Muzyka reported Nov. 15 for the Canadian Broadcasting Corp·. Francine Compton, an executive producer at APTN National News and a NAJA director, said in his story, “It was interesting to see the difference in perspectives. [There were] just straight up differences in the way we read it and in the way they read it.”

• “In Bolivia, several media outlets and journalists have found it necessary to suspend their work in the face of the insecure environment that prevails in the country after three weeks of social demonstrations,” Paola Nalvarte reported Nov. 12 for the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas. “Looting and fires at facilities and the media outlets’ actual antennae increased after Evo Morales’ resignation of the presidency on Nov. 10, according to several national and international media outlets. . . .”

• “When Tanzanian media owner and talk show host Doreen Peter Noni first encountered depression in late 2017, she had no name for it . . .,” Anne Kidmose reported Nov. 20 for ozy.com. Since a trip to Portugal last year, “the 30-year-old entrepreneur has come up with a plan to unlock the conversation about mental health in East Africa. Her upcoming TV show, Peter’s Daughter, features young Africans who have battled depression or anxiety while attempting to realize their business idea. . . . The conversation is largely absent in many African countries due to the stigma attached to those living with mental illness, local beliefs that mental disorders cannot be treated and the myth that depression is a Western phenomenon. . . .”

• “It began when Rana Ayyub, who is nowadays a Washington Post columnist, posted a cryptic message on Twitter on 8 November about the ruling that India’s supreme court was due to issue the next day on a fraught 30-year-old dispute between Hindus and Muslims over a religious site in the northern city of Ayodhya,” Reporters Without Borders wrote Nov. 15. “It ended with the words, ‘I hope my country does not disappoint me tomorrow.’ It immediately unleashed a torrent of Twitter insults and calls for Ayyub to be raped or murdered that were orchestrated by trolls linked to the Hindu nationalist movement. Even more amazingly, it elicited a threat of legal action that came from the Twitter account of the police . . . “
• “José Arita, a journalist for Channel 12 in Puerto Cortes, Honduras, was killed just after leaving the station where he works,” Teresa Mioli reported Nov. 26 for the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas. “The murder, which took place on the night of Nov. 25, involved four men who were waiting for the journalist and began to shoot at him, as the Associated Press reported, citing security spokesman Jair Meza Barahona. Meza Barahona added that the murder could be related to Arita’s work, the news agency said . . .”

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