New Yorker Imagines the Unimaginable for 2020
‘Kanye West’s announcement of his intention to seek the Presidency reminds us that it’s not too early to start thinking about the 2020 campaign. (2016’s already old hat by now, anyway),’ Barry Blitt says about ‘2020 Vision,’ his cover for next week’s issue,” Mina Kaneko and Françoise Mouly wrote Friday for the New Yorker.
“And when one considers Mr. West, it doesn’t take a whole lot of imagination to be reminded of another scrappy kid who won the Presidency, back in 1948, against all odds. The press wrote him off, too.
“That’s right — Harry Truman.” Here is the historic photo that inspired Blitt’s image of the future.
- Tim Giago, Native Sun News: The 14th Amendment did not include American Indians
- Scott Eric Kaufman, Salon: Jorge Ramos puts Bill O’Reilly in his place: “You’re not the right person to lecture me on advocacy and journalism”
- Geraldo Rivera, Fox News Latino: Geraldo to Trump: You’re wrong, boss, immigrant murder wave is factually false
Double Standard Seen in Use of Graphic Videos
“It’s sad enough when a violent crime mesmerizes the nation — such as the murder of nine African Americans in a Charleston, S.C. church, a fleeing Walter L. Scott being fatally shot in the back by a North Charleston Patrolman Michael T. Slager, or two young, White journalists, Alison Parker and Adam Ward, gunned down on live television — but those tragedies are compounded by the media’s double standard,” George E. Curry wrote Monday for the National Newspaper Publishers Association.
“Let’s begin with how the initial crime is reported.
“How many times have we seen the graphic video of a uniformed Michael Slager in South Carolina remove his gun from his holster on April 4 and shoot 50-year-old Walter Scott as he was running away? With two huge trees in the foreground, we heard eight shots, four of them striking Scott in the back and one lodging in an ear.
“Contrast that with the coverage of two promising White journalists in Roanoke, Va. Because it was what is called a live shot, we have even more graphic footage of their actual murders. The shooter also filmed his dastardly crime, later posting it on social media before committing suicide.
“Did we see repeated clips of the two White journalists being murdered? No, we saw some freeze-frames just before the act. And when the New York Daily News published freeze-frame photographs of Alison Parker as she was shot, there was widespread condemnation. . . .”
L. Chris Stewart, lawyer for the Scott family, could not be reached for comment.
- Anita Bennett and Itay Hod, the Wrap: TV Crews Reveal the Dangerous Downside of Covering News
- Ariel Edwards-Levy, Huffington Post: Americans Are Divided On How Media Outlets Should Handle Graphic Footage
- Andrew Knapp, Post and Courier, Charleston, S.C.: Court filing seeks video, cellphone in Walter Scott’s death
Charleston Paper Urges Death Penalty Over Massacre
“Ninth Circuit Solicitor Scarlett Wilson announced Thursday that she will seek capital punishment for Dylann Roof, who is charged in the Emanuel AME Church massacre,” the Post and Courier in Charleston, S.C., editorialized on Friday. “It’s hard to imagine a crime more fitting for the death penalty.
“As Solicitor Wilson aptly put it: “This was the ultimate crime, and justice from our state calls for the ultimate punishment.”
- Jarvis DeBerry, NOLA.com | the Times-Picayune: Louisiana town seeks to get rid of cop with Klan ties
- Ben Duell Fraser, Detroit Free Press: A guy, his truck and the Confederate flag
- Judy Kurtz, the Hill: Julianne Moore joins fight to take Confederate name off her high school
- Conor McCue, WMBF-TV, Myrtle Beach, S.C.: Darlington Raceway offering Confederate flag swap
- Scott Sutton, Chicago Sun-Times: Meet the man behind ‘Buy Confederate Flags From a Black Guy’
- Yvonne Wenger, Baltimore Sun: Mayor names Confederate monument review commission
- Michael Paul Williams, Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch: Judge renders clear-headed verdict on Confederate symbols
- Ben R. Williams, Martinsville (Va.) Bulletin: Clark removes Stuart’s portrait
FBI Interested in Story on Black Lives Matter
“Government agents make a surprise visit to a young journalist’s home with questions about articles he’s written about an emerging protest movement,” Sarah Stuteville wrote Thursday for the Seattle Globalist, which describes itself as “a daily online publication that covers the connections between local and global issues here in Seattle. We highlight diverse voices and train the next generation of media makers.” Stuteville is a co-founder. .
“It may sound like a scene from a distant and frightening land, but it happened last week to 22-year-old Jama Abdirahman, a college student and recent graduate of the Seattle Globalist’s youth-reporter apprenticeship program,” Steuteville continued.
“Abdirahman wasn’t home when the two FBI agents came calling, but his 16-year-old brother was, and handed over his cell phone number.
“During the apprenticeship program, where other Globalist reporters and I mentor young people hoping to become journalists, Abdirahman wrote about stereotypes of his South End neighborhood and even did the photography for a few of my Seattle Times columns, one about issues facing the Somali-American community.
“But it was a story he wrote about Black Lives Matter protests — specifically about women in the movement — that particularly interested the agents. . . “
- Wayne Bennett, the Field Negro: Fear of a black movement.
- Charles M. Blow, New York Times: Ratcheting Up the Rhetoric
- Julia Craven and Nick Wing, HuffPost BlackVoices: 5 Things To Tell Anyone Who Blames Black Lives Matter For Violence Against Cops
- Stephen Deere, Houston Chronicle: Ferguson police say they don’t have video from protester’s arrest
- Amelia Dickson and Alexis Krell, the Olympian, Olympia, Wash.: Two groups take to the streets over officer-involved shooting charges
- Editorial, Houston Chronicle: Flowers for Goforth
- Lisa Falkenberg, Houston Chronicle: Officials were wrong to jump to conclusions in deputy’s slaying
- Megan Favignano, Columbia (Mo.) Tribune: Local group meets to take on police issues, racial divide
- Josh Feldman, Mediaite: ‘Shut the Hell Up!’: Roland Martin Calls Out O’Reilly for Slamming #BlackLivesMatter
- Cindy George, Houston Chronicle: Slain deputy remembered as ‘one of the good guys’
- Gary A. Harki and Jonathan Edwards, Virginian-Pilot, Newport News, Va.: Portsmouth police officer indicted on first-degree murder charge in shooting death of William Chapman II
- Earl Ofari Hutchinson, syndicated: Black Lives AND Police Lives Both Matter
- Nicholas Rogers, Media Matters for America: Mainstream Media Call Out Conservative Outlets For Linking Black Lives Matter To Anti-Police Violence And Increased Crime
- John Kerr and Eric Wuestewald, Media Matters for America: Fox News Calls Black Lives Matter A Hate Group After Repeatedly Lauding Actual Hate Groups
- NewsOne Now: Bill’s Lies Matter: Roland Martin’s Talking Points Memo On #BlackLivesMatter Controversy
- Andrew Rosenthal, New York Times: The Real Story of Race and Police Killings
- Fran Spielman, Chicago Sun-Times: Police officer who said, “Mike Brown deserved it,” to get off lightly
Díaz-Balart Might Survive MSNBC Daytime Shakeup
“José Díaz-Balart may not be leaving MSNBC dayside after all, Joe Concha reported on Friday.
“The news comes after another highly-placed source with knowledge close to the situation says while Díaz-Balart may lose an hour off of his current two-hour weekday morning timeslot (The Rundown with José Díaz-Balart) as reported yesterday, he will remain as an anchor in a condensed capacity during weekday mornings. Said capacity will likely be the 10:00 AM-11:00 AM slot that immediately follows the extended version coming for Morning Joe, which–as originally reported here–will run until 10:00 AM. . . .”
Concha also wrote, ” He’s the only Latino anchor on MSNBC. His program is broadcast live out of Miami, which is the only MSNBC program to originate from outside of New York City or Washington, D.C. Experience and accolades aren’t in short supply with the 54-year-old Cuban-American, having earned a national Emmy for his work with Telemundo and two more Emmys while with WTVJ-TV in Miami. . .
“As MSNBC continues its largest overhaul in history, some at the network win, some lose. Díaz-Balart may be losing one hour, but it appears he’ll still be keeping another, basically putting him back where got his own program on the network 16 months ago. . . .”
- Chris Ariens, TVNewser: Why a Progressive MSNBC Dayside Didn’t Last
- Jack Mirkinson, Salon: Hell is 4 hours of “Morning Joe”: Why MSNBC just made a horrible & disappointing mistake