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?
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Jon Greenberg wrote for PolitiFact, “The figures on black-on-white homicides and white-on-white homicides are wildly inaccurate. . . .”
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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. . . .”
Reporters at Trump rally strictly quarantined to “media pen.” Prevented from exiting to talk to audience members. pic.twitter.com/A75KNCYdGe
— Jordyn Phelps (@JordynPhelps) November 20, 2015
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. . . .”
- Shannon Barber, bipartisanreport.com: Condoleezza Rice Turns On GOP, Brilliantly Blasts Their Anti-Refugee Bigotry
- Charles M. Blow, New York Times: Anti-Muslim Is Anti-American
- Tommy Christopher, Mediaite: Donald Trump’s Campaign of White Resentment Comes to Life Before Our Eyes
- Jarvis DeBerry, NOLA.com | the Times-Picayune: History will harshly judge America’s anti-Muslim rhetoric
- Chauncey DeVega, Salon: Donald Trump’s white fascist brigade: His rallies are now a safe space for racism
- Kevin Drum, Mother Jones: Donald Trump’s Hatemongering Moves on to African-Americans
- Marina Fang, Huffington Post: Donald Trump Tweets A Wildly Inaccurate Graphic To Portray Black People As Murderers
- Emma Green, the Atlantic: The Objectification of Muslims in America
- GroundTruth Project: Covering the Refugee Crisis: A New GroundTruth Reporting Fellowship
- Maggie Haberman, New York Times: Donald Trump Calls for Surveillance of ‘Certain Mosques’ and a Syrian Refugee Database
- Elizabeth Jensen, NPR: Islamic State, ISIS, ISIL or Daesh?
- Brent Johnson, NJ Advance Media for NJ.com: Trump: ‘Thousands’ in Jersey City cheered on 9/11 (VIDEO)
- Glenn Kessler, Washington Post: Trump’s outrageous claim that ‘thousands’ of New Jersey Muslims celebrated the 9/11 attacks
- Shaun King, Daily News, New York: Donald Trump’s blatant, unapologetic racism breeds a dangerous hysteria
- Gregory Krieg, CNN: Muslim Americans: Current political climate worse than after 9/11
- Nicholas Kristof, New York Times: ‘The Statue of Liberty Must Be Crying With Shame’
- Laila Lalami, New York Times Magazine: My Life as a Muslim in the West’s ‘Gray Zone’
- Judd Legum, thinkprogress,org: The Big Logical Error Made By Everyone Linking Syrian Refugees To The Paris Attack
- David Mack, BuzzFeed: Trump Says Falsely That New Jersey Arabs “Cheered” On 9/11
- Terrence T. McDonald, Jersey Journal: Fulop: Trump ‘shamefully politicizing’ 9/11 attacks
- Media Matters for America: NBC’s Chuck Todd Explains How Only A Dozen Of 785,000 Refugees Admitted To The U.S. Since 9/11 Were Removed Because Of Terrorism Concerns
- Media Matters for America: ABC’s George Stephanopoulos Fact-Checks Donald Trump’s False Claim Thousands Of Arab-Americans Cheered In The Streets Following 9/11
- Greg Miller and Souad Mekhennet, Washington Post: Inside the surreal world of the Islamic State’s propaganda machine
- Sherman N. Miller, newsvine.com: GOP Dr. Ben Carson is morphing into a religious bigot
- Azadeh Moaveni, New York Times: ISIS Women and Enforcers in Syria Recount Collaboration, Anguish and Escape
- Clarence Page, Chicago Tribune: How pols run against Syrian refugees
- David Remnick, the New Yorker: Telling the Truth About ISIS and Raqqa
- Steve Russell, Indian Country Today Media Network: The ISIS Fight, Part 1: Take It From Indians — Religious Wars Stink
- Mary Sanchez, Kansas City Star: In face of refugee crisis, will we repeat the injustice of 1942?
- E.J. Tamara, Associated Press: 2015 Latin Grammys Get Political As Artists Urge Latinos: ‘Don’t Vote For Racists’
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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)
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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. . . .”
- Editorial, Washington Post: Iran’s cruel and arbitrary treatment of The Post’s Jason Rezaian
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. . . .”
- George E. Curry, George Curry Media: Terrorism is a ‘Black Issue’
- Editorial, Star Tribune, Minneapolis: World grieves again after attack at Mali hotel
- Alexis Okeowo, New Yorker: Mali’s Hotel Hostage Siege
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.
“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.
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“3½ Minutes, Ten Bullets,” a film about the fatal shooting of Jordan Davis, 17, debuted Monday night on HBO. (video)
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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. . . .”
- Mary Mitchell, Chicago Sun-Times: More than police bullets killed Laquan McDonald
- Phillip Morris, Plain Dealer, Cleveland: Samaria Rice is a necessary part of the Cleveland Conversation
- Pat Pheifer Star Tribune, Minneapolis: Black Lives Matter meets to plan next steps
- Ruben Rosario, Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.: New day coming in fatal police shooting investigations
- Michael Sneed, Chicago Sun-Times: Officer who shot Laquan McDonald to be charged with murder
- Matt Welch, Los Angeles Times: Black Lives Matter and Michael Bloomberg: the oddest couple?
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. . . .”
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Each of the photographers, above, was given a different description of the subject’s background. (video)
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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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Carole Carmichael, an assistant managing editor at the Seattle Times since 1991, is one of two recipients of a new journalism fellowship from the Russell Sage Foundation for spring 2016. Carmichael, a 1972 graduate of New York University, told Journal-isms by telephone on Monday that she plans to spend three months continuing her research into how then-NYU President James M. Hester’s decision to seek scholarships for black and Hispanic students in honor of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., slain in 1968, affected the recipients. Hester consulted with Coretta Scott King and philanthropist Brooke Astor. “We need to hear that a whole cohort did well . . . and how we went out into the world and made America,” Carmichael said. In May, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Scholars Program graduated its 24th Class.
- “We reported earlier about Denise White’s retirement from Tampa Fox-owned station WTVT,” Kevin Eck reported Monday for TVSpy. “Today, Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn was on the Good Day set, along with White, and read a proclamation declaring today Denise White Day in the city. They also talked about White’s cameo on Miami Vice opposite both Crockett and Tubbs.”
“This month’s stunning cover and the story inside symbolize much more than this magazine’s recognition of Madison’s indigenous roots. To me they represent some remarkable firsts,” Karen Lincoln Michel, editor of Wisconsin’s Madison Magazine, wrote on Friday. “I am quite certain that this is the first time a Ho-Chunk person has graced the cover this prominently in the magazine’s thirty-seven-year history. We have written about the Native American community over the years, but never before have we shared Ho-Chunk history in this much depth, or recounted the Ho-Chunk legend of how the four lakes surrounding Madison — Mendota, Monona, Waubesa and Kegonsa — were formed. That is, until this issue. . . .” Michel, Ho-Chunk, is a former newspaper editor and former president of Unity: Journalists of Color.
- “Beloved weatherman Al Roker fired off a series of tweets Saturday claiming a New York City cab driver intentionally passed him by because he’s black,” Michael J. Feeney reported Sunday for theGrio.com. “And it’s not the first time, the NBC Today Show co-anchor said. . . .” “Mahabur Rahman — facing heavy fines after Roker complained on Twitter Saturday night that a taxi left him and his 13-year-old son high and dry in favor of a white fare — settled a similar allegation in May for $200, according to the city Taxi and Limousine Commission,” Dan Rivoli reported Monday for the Daily News in New York.
- “It pays to have friends in high places,” Isabel Vincent and Melissa Klein reported Sunday for the New York Post. “Al Sharpton gave himself a 71 percent raise last year after his National Action Network group drew a record $6.9 million in donations as the controversial cleric’s association with Mayor [Bill] de Blasio and President Obama lent him a newfound air of legitimacy. . . .”
- “Among the legendary Tuskegee Airmen, America’s first African-American military air squadron which heroically fought in World War II, was a little known about Hispanic pilot named Esteban Hotesse,” Bryan Llenas reported Monday for Fox News Latino. “Born in Moca, Dominican Republic, but a New Yorker since he was 4 years old, Hotesse served with the Tuskegee Airmen for more than three years before he died during a military exercise on July 8th, 1945. He was just 26. . . .”
- Reporting on Ethiopia, Reporters Without Borders said Thursday that it was “worried about a travel ban imposed on the blogger Zelalem Kibret, which prevented him from flying to France to receive this year’s RSF Press Freedom Prize in the citizen-journalist category” on behalf of the Zone9 blogger collective. “As Zelalem Kibret was about to set off for Paris on 16 November, the Ethiopian authorities confiscated his passport and prevented him from boarding his plane. Immigration officials said he could not leave Ethiopia” because he and other Zone9 members had previously been arrested.
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Retired Newsday columnist Les Payne, at left in photo, moderated a conversation Nov. 13 at SUNY Old Westbury between civil rights figure Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., center, and veteran journalist Bill Moyers as the school marked its 50th anniversary. Moyers, an aide to President Lyndon B. Johnson during the civil rights movement, went on to hire Payne when Moyers was publisher of Newsday. Story. (Credit: Bob Giglione)
- “Unidentified gunmen on Sunday killed a Pakistani TV journalist, police said, the second such murder this month in the insurgency-hit northwest,” Agence France-Presse reported. “[Attackers] riding a motorcycle fired on 42-year-old Hafeez Ur Rehman near his home on the outskirts of Kohat, a town in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. . . .” Bob Dietz, Asia program coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists, said, “Journalists in Pakistan, especially in the northwest, are under siege. . . .”
- “Two people on a motorcycle fatally shot 30-year-old Brazilian blogger Ítalo Eduardo Diniz Barros on Nov. 13 in Governador Nunes Freire in Maranhão state,” Teresa Mioli reported Wednesday for the Knight Center for Journalism at the University of Texas at Austin. “A friend with Diniz was also shot, but survived, according to G1. Military police confirmed that Diniz had received threats for publications made to his blog, G1 reported. . . .”
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