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Baquet Responds to “Angry Black Woman” Storm

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Alessandra Stanley Tried “to Make a Profound Point”

Google Seeks to Address Employees’ Hidden Biases

Fans Still Love NFL Games, but Not Goodell, Recent Events

Writer Brill Questions Why NFL Gives Money to NABJ

ProPublica Offers Primer on Status of Voting Rights

Bilingual Interview Too Much for Laura Ingraham

Restraining Order Against Pro-Marijuana TV Reporter

Short Takes

Alessandra Stanley Tried “to Make a Profound Point”

New York Times Executive Editor Dean Baquet made his first public comments on the “Angry Black Woman” story, telling Public Editor Margaret Sullivan in a blog item Wednesday that writer Alessandra Stanley “was trying to make a profound point” about breaking down stereotypes of black women, but “clearly, it wasn’t read that way.”

Baquet also said he would “love to diversify” the Times’ contingent of 20 cultural critics, which includes no African Americans and only two of color, saying, “I have an obligation to diversify the staff and I will figure out a way.”

Stanley, the Times’ television critic, wrote a feature for Sunday’s print edition on Shonda Rhimes, producer of ABC’s “Scandal,” “Grey’s Anatomy” and the new “How to Get Away with Murder,” with the premise that Rhimes was an “angry black woman.” “When Shonda Rhimes writes her autobiography, it should be called ‘How to Get Away With Being an Angry Black Woman,’ ” the feature began.

The piece created a firestorm when it was posted on the Times’ website on Thursday, in large part because of the mindset it displayed by raising the tired “angry black woman” trope.

“In a blog by Sullivan on Monday, Stanley explained, “I didn’t think Times readers would take the opening sentence literally . . . .”

Erik Wemple of the Washington Post was one of many who asserted not that readers misread Stanley’s piece but that Stanley miswrote it. “Why write a lede at all if your goal in the body of the piece is to undercut it?” Wemple asked.

Sullivan told readers Wednesday, “In more than two years as public editor at The Times, I’ve encountered very few subjects that have aroused as much passion and reaction” as the Stanley piece.

She also wrote, “Mr. Baquet suggested that readers take a broad view of The Times, pointing to other articles in the same day’s newspaper (last Sunday’s) that had a racial component, theme or prominent voice — including Charles Blow’s essay on the Sunday Review cover, a front-page article on an historic black film, and a review on the cover of the Book Review. ‘I would ask people to please consider the whole,’ he said. . . .”

But the public editor also noted that “in an era in which readers come to stories on social media or through recommendations from people they know, each story has to stand on its own; it’s disaggregated — it stands or falls alone, not as part of the whole.”

Baquet, the Times’ first African American top editor, would not be the first executive editor to give Stanley a pass.

Citing Editor & Publisher, media blogger Jim Romenesko wrote in 2009, “Los Angeles Times media writer James Rainey told New York Times executive editor Bill Keller that ‘some people inside the paper believe that Alessandra [Stanley] has been allowed to continue as a critic, without sufficient punishment, because she is close with [managing editor] Jill Abramson. Keller responded: ‘We love a conspiracy theory, but the truth is simple: Alessandra has been allowed to continue as a critic because she is — in my opinion, among others — a brilliant critic.’ ” Abramson succeeded Keller as top editor.

Sullivan correctly framed the issue as broader than involving one writer.

Baquet’s interview with Sullivan took place on Monday; on Wednesday he announced a new leadership team. Rather than name a new managing editor, Baquet retired the title and promoted four senior editors — Susan Chira, Janet Elder, Matthew Purdy and Ian Fisher — to deputy executive editor and gave a fifth editor, Tom Bodkin, the title of creative director, a position equal to those of the four deputy executive editors.

None of the five is of color.

The Times reported 19.5 percent journalists of color in the most recent diversity survey of the American Society of News Editors: 0.1 percent American Indian, 7.1 percent Asian American, 7.9 percent black and 4.5 percent Hispanic [PDF].

“Mr. Baquet is the only person of color on the news-side masthead,” Sullivan noted in Wednesday’s blog. No African Americans appear positioned to join him.

Sullivan concluded, “There’s an opportunity for meaningful change here. This contentious chapter may not seem like a welcome gift to anyone involved. But if The Times takes it seriously — looking hard at its diversity and its editing practices — it can be exactly that.”

Google Seeks to Address Employees’ Hidden Biases

Google disclosed in May that whites represented 60 percent of its U.S. workforce, and 72 percent of what it calls its tech jobs. Blacks were 2 percent of the total; Hispanics 3 percent; Asians 30 percent; two or more races 4 percent; and others less than 1 percent.

By gender, men make up 83 percent of Google’s engineering employees and 79 percent of its managers.

“And so they are undertaking a long-term effort to improve these numbers, the centerpiece of which is a series of workshops aimed at making Google’s culture more accepting of diversity,” Farhad Manjoo reported Wednesday for the New York Times.

Manjoo also wrote, “Google’s diversity training workshops, which began last year and which more than half of Google’s nearly 49,000 employees have already attended, are based on an emerging field of research in social psychology known as unconscious bias. These are the hidden, reflexive preferences that shape most people’s worldviews, and that can profoundly affect how welcoming and open a workplace is to different people and ideas.”

Referring to Laszlo Bock, Google’s executive in charge of human resources, Manjoo wrote, “Google’s interest in hidden biases was sparked in 2012, when Mr. Bock read an article in The New York Times about a study that showed systematic discrimination against female applicants for scientific jobs in academia. The effect was so pervasive that researchers theorized that the discrimination must be governed by unconscious cultural biases rather than overt sexism. . . .”

Bock asked a staff scientist, Brian Welle, to begin a project on hidden biases, Manjoo wrote.

“Dr. Welle points to research showing that we aren’t slaves to our hidden biases. The more we make ourselves aware of the role our unconscious plays on our decision-making, and the more we try to force others to confront their biases, the greater the chance we have to overcome our hidden preferences. . . .”

A six-minute YouTube video, “Redskins No More,” expands the Twitter hashtag #redskinsnomore. According to a Sports Illustrated poll, 79 percent of NFL fans don’t find the team name offensive. (video)

Fans Still Love NFL Games, but Not Goodell, Recent Events

“According to a poll conducted last week for Sports Illustrated by Marketing & Research Resources, the events of recent weeks have left a bad taste in the mouths of NFL fans although the appetite for the game has not diminished,” Sports Illustrated reported on Wednesday. “In the poll, which was conducted among more than 500 fans across the country, a wide variety of topics were discussed, including attitudes toward Roger Goodell, domestic violence in the NFL and the use of the nickname ‘Redskins’ by Washington. Among the findings:

Writer Brill Questions Why NFL Gives Money to NABJ

In his latest “Stories I’d like to see” column for Reuters and Columbia Journalism Review, journalist and author Steven Brill questions why the NFL has tax-exempt status and adds that he examined the Form 990 that every tax-exempt nonprofit organization must file with the IRS.

“Under ‘grants,’ there’s a $20,000 donation to the National Association of Black Journalists,” Brill wrote. “Should groups of reporters be seeking and accepting money from an organization they cover, especially one that is so much in the news?”

NABJ President Bob Butler responded to Journal-isms by email, “Most professional sports teams (NFL, NBA, MLB) financially support NABJ, as do media companies, foundations and private corporations. Our members cover all of these industries and our corporate partners (sponsors) understand that there is no connection between their support of NABJ and whether our individual members will write stories about them. This goes out with every letter we send to current and prospective supporters:

” ‘Disclaimer: As a non-profit professional and educational organization, NABJ greatly appreciates corporate and foundation support for its mission, goals, programs and activities. Acceptance by NABJ of any financial or in-kind contribution from our partners or funders does not constitute an endorsement of their policies, products or services.

” ‘There should be no expectation on the part of our partners or funders for any special treatment in news or media coverage. Likewise, as we welcome input from our partners, NABJ retains final approval of all topics of discussion, selection of panel experts, speakers and other aspects of creative control regarding branded events.’ “

Butler said the NFL’s donation went to NABJ’s Sports Task Force. “The money is generally used for the mentor breakfast [at the convention], the Pioneer Awards and scholarships.”

Gregory H. Lee Jr., former NABJ president and former chair of the Sports Task Force, responds in the “Comments” section on behalf of the task force.

ProPublica Offers Primer on Status of Voting Rights

“As voters head to the polls this November, citizens in more than a dozen states will face shifting voter policies in wake of the Supreme Court’s 2013 decision weakening protections of the Voting Rights Act of 1965,” Kara Brandeisky, Hanqing Chen and Mike Tigas wrote last week for ProPublica, updating a post first published last year.

“Several states — such as Texas, North Carolina and Ohio — are facing legal challenges to new restrictions around voter ID, early voting or same-day registration.

“Meanwhile, some have moved to loosen voter restrictions. Oregon and Florida have dropped out of the Interstate Cross-Check Program, an effort to purge duplicate voter registrations from voter rolls in different states. Also, as of June 2014, online voter registration has been made available in 20 states.

“With the midterms approaching, here’s an updated look at the state of voting rights around the country.

“Remind me — what is Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act? . . .

“What did the Supreme Court rule in Shelby County v. Holder? . . .

“Why does this matter? . . .

“What have preclearance states done since the Supreme Court ruling? . . .

“What about non-preclearance states? . . .

“States to watch: . . .”

Bilingual Interview Too Much for Laura Ingraham

“Listen, we got to give it up to what MSNBC’s José Díaz-Balart has been doing on this show recently,” Latino Rebels said on its website Wednesday. “Very few cable news network hosts are covering the immigration debate as well as he and his time are doing right now. (If you disagree, then you really aren’t watching the show.) In addition, Díaz-Balart’s bilingual and bicultural journalism skills are on display every day.

“Such was the case on September 22, when the Telemundo news anchor [conducted] a bilingual simultaneous translation segment with undocumented mom María Cruz, who recently protested at the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee to raise awareness about that pesky immigration relief delay that continues to affect President Obama and Democrats.

“It is safe to say that this could be probably one of the first times a mainstream cable news channel had a host conduct a bilingual interview on the fly. Granted, it might have been a bit bizarre for some, but for us, such a segment made sense. Díaz-Balart did his best to make it work and more importantly, he had a guest whose voice rarely gets heard on English-language TV in the U.S. For that, Díaz-Balart and his team should be applauded.

“But as you might imagine, conservative talk host Laura Ingraham couldn’t take it . . .”

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