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A Golf Magazine Helped Set an Inmate Free

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Lawyer: ‘It’s Embarrassing for the Legal System’

Columnist Takes Buyout in Austin Amid Changes

Anita Hill Says the Senate Has Learned Little

Viewers Back TV Reporter Criticized for Natural Hair

Trump Tells Rally That the Media Are at His Mercy

Alice Dunnigan Sculpture Unveiled at Newseum

Boston Globe Urges Vote on Puerto Rican Statehood

Media Outlets Sign Up for Obama Voting Drive

When Did Tribalism Become a Dirty Word?

Half of Women in Media Have Faced Harassment

Jose Vargas, New Author, Doesn’t Have Own Place

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Valentino Dixon emerges from the Erie County, N.Y., courthouse on Wednesday after almost 27 years in prison for a murder to which another man has confessed. (Credit: Derek Gee/Buffalo News)

Lawyer: ‘It’s Embarrassing for the Legal System’

A golf magazine is taking credit for an innocent inmate becoming a free man.

“After 27 years in prison, a man who loves golf walked free today,” Max Adler reported Wednesday for Golf Digest.

“Not only that, he was given back his innocence. Of course, the state can regift innocence about as capably as it can 27 years.

“Nevertheless, the Erie County District Court in Buffalo, N.Y., has vacated the murder conviction of Valentino Dixon, 48, who was serving a 39-years-to-life sentence — the bulk of it in the infamous Attica Correctional Facility — for the 1991 killing of Torriano Jackson. On that hot August night long ago, both were at a loud street party with underage drinking when a fistfight over a girl turned to gunfire.

“But before we dive into what really happened, a quick refresher on why golfers might care extra about Valentino Dixon. Six years ago, Golf Digest profiled this inmate who grinds colored pencils to their nubs drawing meticulously detailed golf-scapes. Although Dixon has never hit a ball or even stepped foot on a course, the game hooked him when a golfing warden brought in a photograph of Augusta National’s 12th hole for the inmate to render as a favor. In the din and darkness of his stone cell, the placid composition of grass, sky, water and trees spoke to Dixon. And the endless permutations of bunkers and contours gave him a subject he could play with.

” ‘The guys can’t understand,’ Dixon has said. ‘They always say I don’t need to be drawing this golf stuff. I know it makes no sense, but for some reason my spirit is attuned to this game.’

“It took about a hundred drawings before Golf Digest noticed, but when we did, we also noticed his conviction seemed flimsy. So we investigated the case and raised the question of his innocence. . . .”

The same day’s edition of the Buffalo News, however, did not credit Golf Digest for the reversal of fortune.

Its story by Aaron Besecker and Phil Fairbanks credited investigators and “Students from the Georgetown University Prisons and Justice Initiative” who “investigated Dixon’s case and made a documentary that many believe helped in getting Dixon freed.”

The Golf Digest story continued, “The case is complicated, but on the surface it involves shoddy police work, zero physical evidence linking Dixon, conflicting testimony of unreliable witnesses, the videotaped confession to the crime by another man, a public defender who didn’t call a witness at trial, and perjury charges against those who said Dixon didn’t do it. All together, a fairly clear instance of local officials hastily railroading a young black man with a prior criminal record into jail. Dixon’s past wasn’t spotless, he had sold some cocaine, but that didn’t make him a murderer.

“Golf Digest’s 2012 article led to further national spotlights on the case by NBC/Golf Channel, CRTV.com, Fox Sports, the Georgetown University Prison Reform Project and others. Alongside this, Dixon’s daughter, Valentina, led a grassroots campaign to raise money for her father’s legal fees by selling his artwork online. Still, the gears of the legal system refused to turn.

“As of Christmas 2017, appeals exhausted, Dixon’s petitions for pardon or clemency drew no response from New York governor Andrew Cuomo’s office.

“But now suddenly, a vacated conviction — which means innocence — a far more lofty legal victory. Why now?

“It rises from a confluence of factors, according to Donald Thompson, who along with Alan Rosenthal, filed Dixon’s latest motion (which included the Golf Digest article) pro bono. ‘Once a case crosses a certain threshold of media attention, it matters, even though it shouldn’t,’ Thompson says. ‘It’s embarrassing for the legal system that for a long time the best presentation of the investigation was from a golf magazine.’

“Thompson says Golf Digest’s work eventually was eclipsed by the recent report filed by the Erie County district attorney’s wrongful convictions unit, which is a new type of department popping up in various districts these days. Their report was helped by the Georgetown University students, a group of undergraduates who have also created documentaries, websites and social-media campaigns around three other individuals thought to be wrongfully imprisoned, as part of a class. ‘They did a great job of speaking to witnesses who could still be located, as well as getting Chris Belling [who prosecuted Dixon] to say things at variance with positions he’s argued in the past.’ . . . ”

Columnist Takes Buyout in Austin Amid Changes

A change in ownership, buyout offers and the resignation of the editor and publisher have left the Austin American-Statesman with at least three fewer journalists of color, including longtime editorial writer and columnist Alberta Phillips.

Alberta Phillips

Phillips, who was in her 32nd year at the Central Texas newspaper, left on Sept. 7. Also gone are Ralph Barerra, photographer and videographer, and tech writer Omar L. Gallaga, a “digital savant.”

Publisher Susie Biehle and Editor Debbie Hiott announced Aug. 27 that they were leaving. Biehle has been the newspaper’s publisher since November 2012, and Hiott has been editor since November 2011. The announcement of their departures came five months after GateHouse Media finalized its purchase of the Statesman from Cox Enterprises, which had owned the paper for 41 years.

Phillips was the paper’s most well-known black journalist. She told Journal-isms by telephone this week that her editorials helped establish life without parole in Texas as an alternative to the death penalty, which had been meted out to young people who committed crimes at 16 and 17. She was also the go-to person for community members and was the first black woman in the state capital press corps. Phillips was a reporter before joining the editorial board ion 2000.

“Very few journalists can write with the authority of an Alberta Phillips,” Editorial Page Editor Juan Castillo told Journal-isms by email. “She carefully and passionately honed her expertise over many years covering local and state news for the Statesman, skills she brought with her to the Opinion pages. She rightfully commanded respect for her ability to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable and powerful, if that was the right thing to do. Alberta often thought it was — she wasn’t one to pull punches. I know readers will miss her unmistakable voice.”

Phillips said she would be working on a book project on Austin’s relatively unknown segregated history. The city has a progressive reputation and is sometimes called the “un-Texas.”

Omar Gallaga

Gallaga messaged, “I’m planning to do some freelance writing and Podcasting and occasional writing for the Statesman.”

Barerra had already established a freelance photography business, according to his LinkedIn profile. “I have a freelance business after hours and take work whenever time permits,” he wrote there. “My abilities are first rate photography on deadline from anywhere, but am also inclined to environmental work which requires more setup and planning. . . .”

Michael King wrote for the Austin Chronicle on Sept. 7, “Last week, editor Debbie Hiott (also accepting a buyout) informed her staff of some other editorial colleagues who will be leaving, most at the end of this week. Of the 13 names on the list, many will be long familiar to Statesman readers: editorial writer and board member Alberta Phillips, transportation reporter Ben Wear, PolitiFact honcho Gardner Selby, fitness writer Pamela LeBlanc, sportswriter Kevin Lyttle, photographer Ralph Barrera, tech guru Omar Gallaga. The editorial side list also includes: Ed Allen, Karen Hinojosa, Emily Quigley, Pancho Gomez, Michael Adams, and Jake Harris. . . .”

Phillips said she hoped the newspaper would hire more black journalists. While Andy Alford is a senior editor, there are no metro, features or business reporters who are African American, she said. In last year’s newsroom diversity survey, the paper reported to the American Society of News Editors that its staff was 67.6 percent white, 4.8 percent black, 23.8 percent Hispanic and 3.8 percent Asian.[PDF]

New publisher Patrick Dorsey, most recently publisher of GateHouse’s Sarasota, Fla., Herald-Tribune, was the first-ever winner of GateHouse’s Journalism Advocate of the Year award, which honors publishers who champion their newsrooms, Gary Dinges reported Sept. 4 for the Statesman.

Dinges quoted Dorsey, “ ‘There’s a ton of opportunity for the Statesman. We’re an integral part of this community, and it’s important that we make people realize that. The Statesman has a great reputation on the news side and, on the advertising side, is known for being very experimental.’

“Dorsey’s plans also include more community outreach, he said. . . .”

Anita Hill (Credit: Mike Lovett/Brandeis University)

Anita Hill Says the Senate Has Learned Little

“There is no way to redo 1991, but there are ways to do better,” Anita Hill wrote Tuesday in the New York Times.

“The facts underlying Christine Blasey Ford’s claim of being sexually assaulted by a young Brett Kavanaugh will continue to be revealed as confirmation proceedings unfold. Yet it’s impossible to miss the parallels between the Kavanaugh confirmation hearing of 2018 and the 1991 confirmation hearing for Justice Clarence Thomas. In 1991, the Senate Judiciary Committee had an opportunity to demonstrate its appreciation for both the seriousness of sexual harassment claims and the need for public confidence in the character of a nominee to the Supreme Court. It failed on both counts.

“As that same committee, on which sit some of the same members as nearly three decades ago, now moves forward with the Kavanaugh confirmation proceedings, the integrity of the court, the country’s commitment to addressing sexual violence as a matter of public interest, and the lives of the two principal witnesses who will be testifying hang in the balance.

“Today, the public expects better from our government than we got in 1991, when our representatives performed in ways that gave employers permission to mishandle workplace harassment complaints throughout the following decades. That the Senate Judiciary Committee still lacks a protocol for vetting sexual harassment and assault claims that surface during a confirmation hearing suggests that the committee has learned little from the Thomas hearing, much less the more recent #MeToo movement. . . .”

Corallys Ortiz

Viewers Back Reporter Criticized for Natural Hair

“Corallys Ortiz just wanted to give her hair a break,” Natasha S. Alford reported Wednesday for theGrio.com.

“Ortiz, a meteorologist and TV reporter at WBBJ 7 in Jackson, TN, decided that instead of her usual straight-haired look, she would wear her natural curls on TV.

“ ‘I’ve been giving my hair a bit of a break from this heat and humidity and not having to straighten it so often. This is only my second round wearing it the 10 months I’ve been in Tennessee,’ Ortiz wrote in a Facebook post.

“Ortiz, who is of Puerto Rican and Dominican descent, initially received a lot of positive feedback from viewers who appreciated her natural look.

“But Ortiz says on Sunday night, she received a voicemail at the station, which blasted her for simply being herself.

“A viewer who goes by Donna felt that my hair wasn’t up to ‘her standards.’ The following video just reflects back to everything I just said about criticism and dealing with what is considered ‘cultural or racial ignorance.’ Racism for short. It is very clear you can hear what she says and it’s something I don’t condone.’

“A creaky woman’s voice can be heard on tape saying,

“ ‘To the weather girl tonight, please don’t wear your hair like that anymore. It just doesn’t look good at all. Change it back to something more normal. Not something that’s all– n*ggery lookin’.’ . . . ”

Ortiz played the recording on her Facebook page and “has received a wide outpouring of support from her fans and viewers,” Alford wrote.

Trump Tells Rally That the Media Are at His Mercy

“President Trump spent most of his campaign-style rally in Las Vegas on Thursday night convincing supporters that everyone loves him — including his harshest critics in the media, who he says are sure to endorse him in 2020,” Allison Quinn wrote Friday for the Daily Beast.
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“Trump, who was in Nevada to stump for Republican Dean Heller ahead of a midterm challenge for his U.S. Senate seat, spent most of his speech praising himself for making America ‘respected again’ by creating economic growth. But he repeatedly interrupted his comments to mock the media.

“ ‘Do you remember the tears from the fake news media when it was obvious that we were going to win [in 2016]? And you know what? They’re still crying,’ he said. ‘They don’t know what the hell happened, but it happened, and that’s why we’re setting all-time records, that’s why we’re doing so well.’

“Describing the media as the ‘great ally’ of the Democratic resistance — which he said consists of ‘left-wing haters, angry mobs, and socialist fanatics’ — the president expressed particular scorn for The New York Times.

“ ‘People don’t read The New York Times because it’s a dishonest newspaper, it’s terrible,’ he said, claiming the paper had been forced to issue an apology for covering the 2016 election ‘so badly.’

“He went on to complain that the media’s overall coverage of his accomplishments has been ‘so unfair’ for failing to cover positive developments.

“Yet it is the media that is at his mercy, and not the other way around, he suggested. . . .”

Alice Dunnigan Sculpture Unveiled at Newseum

A sculpture of Alice Allison Dunnigan, the first African American woman to receive press credentials to cover the White House and Congress, went on display Friday at the Newseum in Washington as about 200 people celebrated the pioneering journalist who rose to the top of her profession despite racist policies that segregated black journalists and sexist attitudes.

Dunnigan traveled with President Harry S. Truman on his coast-to-coast whistle-stop tour; was the first reporter to question President Dwight D. Eisenhower about civil rights and provided front-page coverage for more than 100 black newspapers of racial issues before federal Washington.

Family members, residents of her rural Russellville, Ky., hometown, journalists and far-flung members of her sorority, Sigma Gamma Rho, gathered in knots around the statue, then reassembled for a panel discussion moderated by Sonya Ross of the Associated Press. Panelists were Carol McCabe Booker, who in 2015 edited Dunnigan’s autobiography, “Alone Atop the Hill,” artist Amanda Matthews, who created the statue, and Dunnigan’s granddaughter Soraya Dunnigan Brandon.

They rebuked anti-press rhetoric and lauded the value of perseverance in those days before the high point of the civil rights movement in the 1960s. Booker noted that the statue depicts Dunnigan holding a copy of the Washington Post at a time before the Post hired black reporters. “I was seeing ‘maybe one day,’ ” Booker said. Her husband, Simeon Booker, became the Post’s first African American reporter in 1952.

Roland Martin, now hosting a digital news show, streamed the ceremony and the panel discussion.

The sculpture is to be on display at the Newseum through Dec. 16. It will then be taken to Dunnigan’s hometown of Russellville and installed on the grounds of the West Kentucky African American Heritage Center as part of a park dedicated to the civil rights movement, the Newseum said.

Boston Globe Urges Vote on Puerto Rican Statehood

“The aftermath of Hurricane Maria, which hit Puerto Rico with devastating force a year ago Thursday, has exposed the cracks and contradictions in the island’s untenable political status,” the Boston Globe editorialized on Tuesday.

“Over the last 364 days, it’s become clearer than ever that the Caribbean US territory of 3.3 million residents lacks the free hand that an independent country would have to rebuild itself — but also the clout in Washington that would come with full statehood. The tragic result: a slow recovery, with only grudging help from the Trump administration, and an unsettled future.

“On the anniversary, it’s right to remember the nearly 3,000 fatalities, renew the commitment to Puerto Rico’s recovery, and continue to aid the many refugee families still struggling on the mainland. (Massachusetts has the second largest number of displaced families, after Florida.) With that pledge, though, should also come a fresh push — in Washington, and in Puerto Rico — to resolve the island’s political identity. The United States acquired Puerto Rico as war booty from Spain more than a century ago, and the island and the mainland have debated what to do ever since. It’s time for Puerto Rico to have the final say on its permanent status.

“ ‘There is an obvious colonial, and hence unacceptable, relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States,’ said Rafael Cox Alomar, a professor of law at the David A. Clarke School of Law in Washington, D.C. ‘The current arrangement is unacceptable.’

“In simple terms, Congress ought to authorize a binding referendum: Should the island become the 51st state, or an independent country? . . .”

Media Outlets Sign Up for Obama Voting Drive

“The day before When We All Vote kicks off its National Week of Action the campaign announced new partnerships with major media outlets to help register voters and raise awareness around the importance of voting,” the campaign announced on Friday.

“ELLE, ESSENCE, The Root, Oath along with popular digital sites Hollywoodlife and Baller Alert, have joined When We All Vote’s efforts to create a dialog with Americans to get folks registered, fired up, and ready to vote in the midterm elections and beyond. Our partnership with BET Networks was announced after Co-Chair Michelle Obama appeared in a PSA encouraging women of color to vote during Black Girls Rock!. . . .”

Meanwhile, “A study of Florida’s past two presidential elections finds that mail ballots were 10 times more likely to be rejected than votes cast at early voting sites or on election day,” Steve Bousquet wrote Wednesday for the Miami Herald.

“The study also found that mail ballots cast by youngest voters, blacks and Hispanics were much more likely to be rejected than mail ballots cast by white voters, and that those voters are less likely to cure problems with their ballots when notified by election supervisors than other voters. . . .”

When Did Tribalism Become a Dirty Word?

“Maybe the business about how to use language is just a pet peeve?” Elizabeth Cook-Lynn wrote Thursday for indianz.com.

“Yes, admittedly, but….while we are on the subject, take this as an example of how to use language without knowing what it means or what it is supposed to mean. At lunch the other day, a friend referred to the street calamities in Charlottesville as an example of ‘tribalism.’ All those people behaving badly were just a symptom of tribalism, he said. I was annoyed. What does he think ‘tribalism’ is?

“It goes without saying that when Europeans came to this country, they called the indigenous people they met by various descriptions (you know, good Indians, bad Indians) but everyone described the natives of this continent as ‘tribal people’ and ‘tribal’ individuals and communities. Never Nations. Never nation states.

“The indigenes were called ‘tribes’ and were said to be living out there in the ‘wilderness.’ They weren’t nations or nation states, nor were they organized . . . civilizations. They were Tribes, seemingly wandering, homeless. That term was even used in Treaty Language even though indigenous nations signed many treaties with the invaders, and we all know that Treaties are signed between NATIONS. Not wanderers.  Does anyone get Irony any more….or did they ever? . . .”

Half of Women in Media Have Faced Harassment

“More than half of women in media have suffered work-related abuse, threats or physical attacks in the past year,” Sonia Elks wrote Sept. 13 for the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

“Female journalists are facing a ‘relentless’ barrage of attacks and harassment, with nearly a third considering leaving the profession as a result, media support organisations have warned.

“More than half of women in media have suffered work-related abuse, threats or physical attacks in the past year, found a survey by the International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF) and TrollBusters, which supports reporters being harassed. . . .”

The possessions of Jose Antonio Vargas (Credit: Jose Antonio Vargas)

Jose Vargas, New Author, Doesn’t Have Own Place

“This is all my stuff,” (Facebook membership required) Jose Antonio Vargas, who has been called the most famous undocumented immigrant in America, wrote on Facebook. “At least, all the stuff that matters in my life: mementos, papers, clothing, collectible books, cherished photos, etc. They’re all in my grandma’s garage. For the first time since I graduated high school in 2000, I don’t have my own place.

“After Trump’s election, the building manager of the apartment I was living in in downtown Los Angeles told me that it may be best, for him and for me, if I moved out. He wasn’t sure if the building could hide me if ICE showed up. That’s when I started thinking about facing this book, which meant facing myself. . . .

Jose Antonio Vargas

“I had to face what years of lying, passing, and hiding had done to me. The emotional toll. The psychological cost. The trauma. I had to look at myself to make sense of myself, to put myself back together. And that’s what this book is about: my own liberation.”

“Not the part of me that activists complain is not ‘radical enough.’

“Not the projections or expectations or demands that people have of me. . . .”

Vargas, part of the Washington Post team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2008 for coverage of a massacre at Virginia Tech, was referring to his “Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen,” which went on sale Tuesday. In a bookstore appearance in Washington Friday, Vargas said he wrote the book on planes and in hotels. He has founded the nonprofit group Define American.

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