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Journal-IsmsSeptember 29 2014

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Online News Assn. Conference Makes Strides in Diversity

“Segregation Now” Series Wins Twice at ONA Awards

Holder Seen as the “Race Man” Obama Didn’t Want to Be

Knight Foundation Gives CUNY $1.2 Million for Diversity Initative

Calif. Media Not Editorializing on Confederate Flag Curb

MSNBC, Contributor Goldie Taylor Part Company

Sports Editors Seek Applications for Management Candidates

Holder Seen as the “Race Man” Obama Didn’t Want to Be

From his first days on the job, it was clear that Attorney General Eric Holder was unbound by the racial constraints that his boss, President Obama, operated under,” Nia-Malika Henderson wrote for the Washington Post on Thursday, the day that Holder announced he was stepping down as soon as a successor is in place.

“Just weeks after America saw the inauguration of its first black president, Holder gave what has come to be known as his ‘cowards speech’ — an address that crystallized the now-outgoing attorney general’s place as Obama’s man/conscience/inner voice on race . . .”

Henderson also wrote, “Publicly, Obama moved to separate himself from the comments, saying that if he had been advising Holder, ‘we would have used different language.’ And in discussing race, Obama has often used different language, or even none at all. Holder, who grew up blocks away from Malcolm X, was the dystopic realist. Obama, who during his first term discussed race in executive orders and speeches less than any other president since 1961, was mostly hope-and-change, appealing to ‘our better angels.’ (He rose to fame by declaring there wasn’t a white America or a black America.) After Obama stumbled and called out a white police officer for arresting African-American Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates at his home, an All-American beer summit was in order. No hard feelings, right guys?

“But even with Obama’s silence, and in some ways because of it, Holder has always been up to something else — both rhetorically and judicially. He has been Obama’s go-to man on race, bolstering the civil rights division, unafraid to point to racial disparities. He moved to reform the ‘mandatory minimum’ federal sentencing drug laws, which disproportionately impacted minorities. He sued Alabama over voter identification laws, in a case he ultimately lost in the Supreme Court even as he vowed to keep fighting that fight. Holder also made the case that states should repeal laws prohibiting felons from voting, and he spoke out against so-called ‘stand your ground’ laws after Trayvon Martin‘s death. As Ferguson, Mo., erupted this summer, it was Holder who met with residents and activists on the ground, recounting his own experiences with racial profiling.

Henderson continued, “For Obama, Holder has been a link to the civil rights community and that tradition of black protest and righteous anger . . .”

For many journalists, Chicago Tribune columnist Clarence Page‘s assessment had resonance. ” I am dismayed but not shocked that what many journalists and civil libertarians see as a war on the press started in Holder’s office,” Page wrote Monday.

“He has subpoenaed journalists, their emails and their phone records in a crackdown on their sources. He has started more investigations than any of his predecessors into government officials who disclosed information to reporters.

“The New York Times reporter James Risen, who has refused to reveal his sources about information on Iran, remains under subpoena.

“For actions like these, attorney James Goodale, who argued for the Times in the historic Pentagon Papers case against the Nixon administration before the Supreme Court, described Obama as ‘rapidly becoming the worst … president ever’ for respecting press freedom on national security matters. . . .”

Knight Foundation Gives CUNY $1.2 Million for Diversity Initative

“To address the large underrepresentation of minority journalists in newsrooms, the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism will launch a diversity initiative that includes an all-expenses-paid, two-month summer internship program for 20 participants and free tuition for five of them to its graduate school,” Amy Dunkin reported Thursday for CUNY. “The three-year diversity program is supported by $1.2 million from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

“The CUNY J-School will recruit participants from historically black colleges, Hispanic-serving institutions, CUNY, the State University of New York (SUNY) and the membership base of associations representing underserved populations, such as the National Association of Black Journalists, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, the Asian American Journalists Association and the Native American Journalists Association.

“The 20 participants will intern for two months at journalism outlets in New York City, while receiving supplemental instruction from the CUNY J-School’s faculty. Knight funding will cover travel expenses, as well as housing and living costs for the two-month period the students are in New York.

“At the end of each summer, five students will be chosen to receive scholarships covering their entire tuition at the CUNY J-School, if they choose to apply and are accepted. They will have two years from the time of their offers to decide if they would like to pursue the graduate school opportunity. . . .”

Dunkin also wrote, “Joanna Hernandez, who has been the director of career services at the CUNY J-School for the past two years, will lead the initiative. Hernandez is the National Association of Hispanic [Journalists’] representative on the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (ACEJMC) and a former president of UNITY: Journalists for Diversity. . . .”

Calif. Media Not Editorializing on Confederate Flag Curb

“California Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill on Thursday that effectively bans state agencies from displaying or selling items bearing the Confederate flag,” Andrew Desiderio reported Thursday for Mediaite.

“The bill was introduced by an African-American assemblyman who contended that the flag is racist because it symbolizes the American southern states’ historical support for slavery. The bill was introduced after the state assemblyman, Isadore Hall, said his mother saw items at the Capitol Gift Shop in the state capital of Sacramento bearing the Confederate flag.

“The bill passed 66-1, and the lone dissenter was a Republican who argued banning the flag would impede on First Amendment rights to free speech. . . .”

Terry Schanz, Hall’s chief of staff, told Journal-isms he was unaware of any editorials in the state on the issue. “Many articles, but I am unaware of any editorials,” he said by email.

On NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune in New Orleans, however, columnist Jarvis DeBerry wrote Monday that he doubted that any such law could be passed in the South. In Louisiana, a 1960 law is still on the books barring desecration of the Confederate flag, even though flag-burning laws are unenforceable.

“California was never a part of the Confederacy. So it’s unclear why paraphernalia related to that doomed government would ever be sold in a gift shop in that state’s Capitol,” DeBerry wrote. “That’s not the case in Louisiana or Tennessee or nine other states that seceded. At least in those capitols’ gift shops, Confederate souvenirs might help provide a history of those states. But the Confederacy shouldn’t be given more special status than any other enemy of the United States. . . .”

A “Fact Sheet” from Hall’s office leaves no doubt where he stands on the flag. “The Confederate Flag is a symbol of racism, exclusion, oppression and violence towards many Americans,” it says. “Its symbolism and history is directly linked to the enslavement, torture and murder of millions of Americans through the mid-19th Century. Even today, its public display is designed to instill fear, intimidation and a direct threat of violence towards others. . . .”

 

MSNBC, Contributor Goldie Taylor Part Company

“MSNBC and contributor Goldie Taylor have parted ways,” Jordan Chariton reported Monday for TVNewser. “Taylor, who’s been a contributor for several years appearing across daytime and primetime programs, tweeted out the news.

Taylor was writing for theGrio.com when she signed with MSNBC in October 2012.

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