Maynard Institute archives

Media Refute Trump on Blacks, Arab Americans

GOP Candidate Stands by Racially Charged Misinformation

Networks Can’t Agree on Challenge to Trump on Access

Iran Sentences Washington Post Reporter to Prison

Mali’s Tragedy Isn’t the Same as Paris’ or Kenya’s

Journalists Among Ebony’s Latest “Power 100”

HBO Debuts Film on “Loud Music” Shooting of Fla. Teen

Officer’s Trial on Rape Charges Draws Scant Coverage

Terry Foster, Unhappy With New Beat, Leaving Detroit News

A Photo Experiment in Preconceived Notions?

Short Takes


Jon Greenberg wrote for PolitiFact, “The figures on black-on-white homicides and white-on-white homicides are wildly inaccurate. . . .”

GOP Candidate Stands by Racially Charged Misinformation

News media fact checkers leaped on Donald Trump Sunday and Monday over two racially charged — some said racist — statements about Arab Americans and African Americans.

“Having already played the hate card against Mexicans and Muslims — and getting crackerjack results — Donald Trump has apparently decided to move on to African-Americans,” Kevin Drum wrote Sunday for Mother Jones. “I don’t know what the ‘Crime Statistics Bureau’ in San Francisco is, and I don’t think I want to know, but one of the most well-established facts about murder in the United States is that it’s pretty racially segregated.

“Whites kill whites, blacks kill blacks, etc. But today Trump decided to tweet the CSB graphic [above], for no readily apparent reason. And wouldn’t you know it: it contains a wee racial error. It claims that most whites are killed by blacks, but in 2014, which is the latest full-year homicide data available from the FBI, 82 percent of whites were killed by other whites and only 15 percent were killed by blacks. . . .”

Jon Greenberg added Monday for PolitiFact, “The figures on black-on-white homicides and white-on-white homicides are wildly inaccurate. And, as several news organizations quickly noted, the ‘Crime Statistics Bureau’ doesn’t exist. We looked for that agency as well and the closest we found in San Francisco were a number of crime scene clean-up services. . . .”

Greenberg added that Trump’s tweet came “A day after a black activist was kicked and punched by voters at a Donald Trump rally in Alabama.”

The victim, activist Mercutio Southall Jr., told his story Monday to Alice Ollstein of thinkprogress.org.

” ‘It was just a sea of white faces,’ he told ThinkProgress. ‘A lady kicked me in the stomach. A man kicked me in the chest. They called me n*****, monkey, and they shouted ‘all lives matter’ while they were kicking and punching me. So for all the people who are still confused at this point, they proved what ‘all lives matter’ meant. It means, ‘Shut up, n*****.'”

Wesley Lowery reported Monday for the Washington Post, “On Sunday, Trump refused to condemn the way his supporters treated the activists.

” ‘Maybe he should have been roughed up, because it was absolutely disgusting what he was doing,’ Trump said on the Fox News Channel on Sunday morning. ‘I have a lot of fans, and they were not happy about it. And this was a very obnoxious guy who was a troublemaker who was looking to make trouble.’ “

Glenn Kessler, who writes the Fact Checker column for the Washington Post, wrote of Trump Sunday, “Even when confronted with contrary information — ‘police say it didn’t happen’ — he insists that with his own eyes he saw ‘thousands and thousands’ of cheering Arabs in New Jersey celebrating as the World Trade Center collapsed during the Sept. 11 attacks.

“Trump has already earned more Four-Pinocchio ratings than any other candidate this year. He is about to earn another one.

“This is a bit like writing about the hole in the doughnut — how can you write about nothing?

“Trump says that he saw this with his own eyes on television and that it was well covered. But an extensive examination of news clips from that period turns up nothing. There were some reports of celebrations overseas, in Muslim countries, but nothing that we can find involving the Arab populations of New Jersey except for unconfirmed reports.

“(Some conspiracy Web sites cite a column by controversial blogger and commentator Debbie Schlussel, who is highly critical of Muslims, that makes a reference to an MTV broadcast of protests and riots in Paterson, N.J.; this claim has never been authenticated.) As the Newark Star-Ledger put it in an article on Sept. 18, 2001, ‘rumors of rooftop celebrations of the attack by Muslims here proved unfounded.’ . . .”

Tal Kopan reported for CNN, “GOP primary rival Ben Carson also said he witnessed the same, but his campaign walked back his statement later on Monday. . . .”

Networks Can’t Agree on Challenge to Trump on Access

“Network TV representatives decided Monday not to fight restrictions imposed by Donald Trump’s campaign on reporters covering the Republican presidential front-runner,” Paul Farhi reported for the Washington Post.

“In a conference call, the political-news chiefs of the five leading news networks conferred about the issue but came to no agreement about what to do, several people familiar with the discussion said.

“The call among news managers from ABC News, CBS News, CNN, Fox News and NBC News came after two run-ins between network journalists and Trump officials last week.

“In both cases, the journalists — videographers who have been ’embedded’ with the campaign for months — sought to speak with people attending Trump rallies. They were ordered back into a designated media ‘pen’ by Trump’s campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, who threatened to ban them from covering the campaign if they didn’t comply.

“Some network managers had been pushing for a joint statement or letter to the Trump campaign seeking an agreement on reporter access. But others said the issue was overblown and required no formal action. The lack of unanimity doomed any further effort. . . .”

In this Washington Post video, Douglas Jehl, Post foreign editor, addresses next steps now that Post reporter Jason Rezaian has been sentenced to a prison term in Iran. (video)

Iran Sentences Washington Post Reporter to Prison

A spokesman for the Iranian judiciary announced on Sunday that the jailed Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian had been sentenced to prison, an Iranian news agency reported,” Penn Bullock reported Sunday for the New York Times.

“The announcement, as with much the Iranian authorities have said about Mr. Rezaian’s case since his arrest last year, was vague, and it contained no information about the length of his prison term. . . .”

Mali’s Tragedy Isn’t the Same as Paris’ or Kenya’s

Anyone reflecting on reportage in the in the aftermath of the Paris attacks will have been struck by something of a social media backlash by people questioning the relative ignorance of deaths by terrorism happening elsewhere,” Lucy James wrote Monday for Huffington Post UK.

“The line of debate over which human tragedy gets the most human coverage and why is by now familiar, resurging in just about every episode of political violence experienced by Western Europe in recent years. . . “

James also wrote, “One of the consequences of this to-ing and fro-ing in the case of Paris has been a merging of media commentary generally, where both the pressure to highlight deaths occurring elsewhere and a desire to find a pattern between seemingly senseless violence sees the amalgamation of several new stories [into] one. The result: a hollowing out of the historical dynamics at play that have shaped the outlooks and the tactics of the various militant groups themselves.

“A case in point was the recent hotel siege in Mali’s capital Bamako a week after Paris, in which 170 were held hostage by Islamist militants resulting in the deaths of 27 people. Press channels were quick to link the events if not by questioning the potential involvement of [ISIS] in Mali directly, then by bleeding headline updates together so that Paris, Bamako and Nairobi all became part of one unfolding news story of horror and destruction. . . .”

James wrote later in the essay, “In the case of Mali, to talk in the same breath as Paris or other [ISIS] strikes might risk ignoring the country’s own important and specific backstory. . . .”

Journalists Among Ebony’s Latest “Power 100”

Sports journalist Bomani Jones; “NBC Nightly News” anchor Lester Holt; MSNBC reporter Trymaine Lee; documentary filmmaker Stanley Nelson; husband-and-wife team Elliott Wilson and Danyel Smith of HRDCVR magazine; Kirsten West Savali, cultural critic and senior writer at The Root; and Shani O. Hilton, executive editor for news of BuzzFeed News were named Monday to Ebony magazine’s “Power 100” list of inspiring African Americans.

EBONY recognizes those who lead, inspire and demonstrate through their individual talents, the very best in Black America.

“This year, on December 2nd, the EBONY POWER 100 event will be held in Los Angeles, California. EBONY will gather to celebrate the 2015 honorees during an exciting and star-studded evening in Hollywood. The night will culminate with a special recognition of the 70th anniversary of EBONY magazine, which was founded in 1945.”

Among other media figures on the list is Craig Robinson, executive vice president and chief diversity officer of NBCUniversal.

“Don’t mistake Robinson for the comedian with the same name — the moves this Craig Robinson is making on behalf of people of color are no joke,” reads the copy under his photo.

“The executive vice president and chief diversity officer for NBCUniversal learned by example what it means to give back. His mother served underrepresented families in their hometown of Los Angeles, while his father was one of the first Black consultants for the Fair Employment Practices Commission. Robinson is the main liaison between NBCUniversal and key national and local figures, while also overseeing the company’s diversity and inclusion commitments.”

Robinson considers himself Asian American and African American.

“3½ Minutes, Ten Bullets,” a film about the fatal shooting of Jordan Davis, 17, debuted Monday night on HBO. (video)

HBO Debuts Film on “Loud Music” Shooting of Fla. Teen

Jordan Davis’s name often gets lost in the list of unarmed shootings of black men and boys that seems to grow by the day: Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice,” Lottie Joiner wrote Friday for National Journal. “But on Nov. 23, 2012, Davis, 17, was fatally shot by Michael David Dunn, 45, in Jacksonville, Florida.

“Davis was with three friends at a gas station when he got into an argument with Dunn over the teens’ loud music. Dunn reached into his car and pulled out his pistol, firing 10 bullets into the car with four unarmed black teenagers inside, killing Davis.

“Dunn claimed self-defense, using Florida’s ‘Stand Your Ground’ law. But a jury convicted him of first-degree murder and in October 2014, he was sentenced to life without parole plus 90 years for three counts of attempted murder.

“Since the verdict, Jordan Davis’s mother, Lucia McBath, has become a gun-control advocate, traveling throughout the country to get gun laws changed. Her family’s journey is documented in the film 3½ Minutes: 10 Bullets by Marc Silver. The documentary provides a look into the tragic details surrounding Davis’s death and the road to Dunn’s conviction. The film goes inside the courtroom, giving us an eyewitness account of the gripping testimony and offering a sobering perspective on the nation’s criminal-justice system.

“3½ Minutes, Ten Bullets” premiered Monday, the anniversary of Davis’ death, on HBO. “Next Amer­ica recently spoke to McBath about her efforts to promote gun control. . . .”

Terry Foster, Unhappy With New Beat, Leaving Detroit News

“Longtime Detroit sports columnist Terry Foster is taking an early retirement from The Detroit News,” Bill Shea reported Monday for Crain’s Detroit Business. “His last day will be Dec. 27.

“Foster, 56, made the announcement last week on Twitter, saying the decision was rooted in the newspaper’s push to have him cover the Detroit Pistons as a full-time beat writer — in an often-grueling slog that involves an 81-game schedule split between the Palace of Auburn Hills and road games around the country.

“Foster will continue to co-host WXYT-FM 97.1′ highly rated afternoon sports talk show, he said on Twitter.

“Covering the basketball team full time would have meant Foster couldn’t do his full-time radio gig from 2-6 p.m., a job that likely rivals or even exceeds his newspaper salary.

” ‘The ground work for this was The News wanted me to cover Pistons full time. It conflicted with my radio career. I was mad at first but no longer. No ill will. After a long talk with the wife, who settled me, I realize this is best for me and my family,’ Foster tweeted Friday. . . .”

Each of the photographers, above, was given a different description of the subject’s background. (video)

A Photo Experiment in Preconceived Notions?

A photograph is shaped more by the person behind the camera than by what’s in front of it,” according to the caption accompanying a video posted Nov. 3 by Canon and picked up by several websites.

“To prove this we invited six photographers to a portrait session with a twist. . . .”

Canon got six pro photographers to shoot a portrait of the same guy in the same location,” komando.com wrote. “But they gave each one a different back story. Each shot is so different it’s truly incredible.”

Not all readers agreed with the premise, however, and some said the experiment was flawed.

Short Takes

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