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Legal Action by Media Forced Release of Shocking Chicago Video

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Returning Nov. 30, barring breaking news

Officer Unloaded Gun on Black Teen 16 Times in 15 Seconds

Woo, Banks, Chu Among Dozens Taking L.A. Times Buyout

N.Y. Times Backs Removal of Woodrow Wilson’s Name

Officer Unloaded Gun on Black Teen 16 Times in 15 Seconds

The shocking and disturbing video showing the fatal police shooting of a black Chicago teenager was released Tuesday only after lawsuits by journalists and news organizations — a yearlong delay that has prompted criticism of the city’s black leadership, others in the media, and Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

“The mayor of Chicago talked a lot about accountability just before he released the police video showing Laquan McDonald gunned down by a cop,” (accessible via search engine) columnist John Kass wrote in the Chicago Tribune Wednesday.

“But what of the mayor’s accountability? He sat on the video for months. If voters had seen it, he wouldn’t have been re-elected. So it all worked out for him.

“And where is the accountability of African-American politicos and others like the Rev. Jesse Jackson, so loud now, pointing their fingers and organizing meetings and demanding accountability from others?

“When it mattered, they were silent. They didn’t demand that the video be released. Why? . . .”

Curiously, a freelance journalist who pushed for the release of the video was barred from the center of the action on Tuesday.

Ashley Southall reported for the New York Times, “Dozens of journalists were gathered inside Chicago’s Police Headquarters on Tuesday, listening to Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Police Superintendent Garry F. McCarthy discuss the shooting of the teenager, Laquan McDonald, 17. Absent was Brandon Smith, the freelance journalist whose lawsuit over the summer had pressed for the release of the police dashboard camera video.

“In a telephone interview, Mr. Smith said that he had rushed to the news conference after hearing about it from friends, but that police officers guarding the door had blocked him from entering. He said they had told him the room was too full to allow members of the news media without credentials. Mr. Smith does not have them, he said, because he does not usually attend credentialed events.

“Mr. Smith said he did not know if officials had deliberately kept him out or if it had been an oversight. But he said he should have been invited because of his role in the video’s release.

” ‘This wouldn’t be happening if not for my lawsuit,’ he said. . . .”

Jason Meisner reported Thursday for the Tribune, “The Illinois Attorney General’s Office ruled on Nov. 6 that the Chicago Police Department violated the state’s Freedom of Information Act by refusing to release the video. 

“The opinion stemmed from an open records request for the video first filed in May by Wall Street Journal reporter Zusha Elinson. The Chicago Police Department denied the request citing the sensitivity of the ongoing investigation and concern over a fair trial if charges result.

“Beginning in March, the Tribune also filed a series of FOIA requests for the video to the police department, the city’s law department and the Independent Police Review Authority, which investigates shootings that involve police officers. FOIA requests to all three agencies were denied. . . .”

The video shows Officer Jason Van Dyke unloading his gun 16 times in 15 seconds as McDonald walked away from the officers during an altercation. Van Dyke has now been ordered held without bond on a first-degree murder charge.

“Horror.

“Absolute horror,” columnist Mary Mitchell wrote Tuesday in the Chicago Sun-Times. 

“You can’t look at the video of a Chicago police officer’s shooting 17-year-old Laquan McDonald and hold onto any illusion that black people are exaggerating police brutality. . . .”

“The video takes your breath away,” (accessible via search engine) the Chicago Tribune editorialized Wednesday under the headline, “A Staggering Moment for Chicago.”

“It shows a figure, identified by prosecutors as 17-year-old Laquan McDonald, felled by gunfire as he walks away from a line of Chicago police cruisers along Pulaski Road.

“McDonald writhes on the ground as a police officer continues to shoot. At one point, another officer steps close enough to kick what prosecutors say is a knife out of McDonald’s hand.

“It doesn’t square with the story a police union spokesman told at the scene Oct. 20, 2014, the night McDonald died after being shot 16 times by Officer Jason Van Dyke. . . .”

The National Bar Association Wednesday called for the resignations of McCarthy, the police superintendent, and Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez.

“It is unacceptable that it took over a year to file these charges against Officer Van Dyke. Not only did it take a year to file these charges, but Van Dyke was able to continue in the capacity of a police officer during this delayed investigation.

“The video that [State’s] Attorney Alvarez relied on to finally bring forth charges has been available since day one. Why did it take so long? I believe that had there not been a court order to release the video, Officer Van Dyke would not have been charged,” NBA President Benjamin L. Crump said in a news release.

At the Poynter Institute, James Warren, a former Chicago Tribune editor, gave credit Wednesday to an additional freelance writer.

“MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell was worth catching if only because he beckoned thoughtful freelance writer Jamie Kalven, the son of a late and legendary University of Chicago law professor, who has been way out ahead on the whole story for months,” Warren wrote. “Amid the anguished and angry pontificating, there are facts.”

Kalven founded the Invisible Institute, a nonprofit journalism outlet that recently released tens of thousands of pages of civilian complaints filed against the Chicago Police Department and uncovered McDonald’s autopsy report.

“The media tended to miss this: It took an unidentified whistleblower to tell Kalven long ago that the video blew to smithereens the initial B.S. defense of the cop by both the police department and police union,” Warren continued. “That also served to underscore the slow-walking of the saga by Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who Tuesday offered a theatrically suitable mix of concern, outrage and an urging for locally therapeutic nonviolence.

“TV reporter-anchor Carol Marin reiterated, too, how it was not until five days after Emanuel’s own runoff re-election win in April that he asked the City Council to approve a $5 million payment to the teen’s family without even a lawsuit having been filed. (Chicago Sun-Times) As columnist Eric Zorn had already noted, the 400 days before an indictment were an outrage. (The Chicago Tribune) (accessible via search engine) They’re further cause not to trust government.

“But the media also by and large missed the godawful underlying circumstances of the victim’s life embedded in the video it distributed with righteous indignation and Pavlovian monotony. What else is new?”

Kass, writing in the Tribune, attributed the delay in releasing the video to politics.

“Rahm sat on the video, and kept sitting on it, all the way through his re-election, as black ministers and other African-American political figures rallied to his side to get out the black vote and deny that vote to Jesus ‘Chuy’ Garcia.

“If the video had come out during the election campaign, Rahm Emanuel would not be mayor today.

“Rahm didn’t demand that the video be shown, and neither did the Chicago City Council’s Black Caucus. They voted for the $5 million settlement.

“But if they’d demanded that the video be shown — before the election — Rahm would have cut them off at their knees.

“I didn’t hear Kim Foxx — Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle’s candidate for state’s attorney — demand that the video be made public either.

“I didn’t hear Preckwinkle and Foxx hold a news conference, with all their supporters around them back when the case was settled in April, speaking in loud, angry tones about accountability and City Hall and that video.

“And I didn’t hear Jackson — now trying to use this police shooting to re-legitimize himself and help Foxx — demand that the video be released.

“Or other black leaders, who like most of the rest are covering their behinds, pointing fingers at others, lest the people of Chicago be reminded that many of them had Rahm’s back, or at least never made a peep out loud about that video.

“The art of politics in Chicago is demanding accountability for others, but never for yourself.”

Zorn pointed to more work to be done.

“Why, for instance, have we still heard so little about action against the officers involved in the deletion of 86 minutes of video from security cameras at a Burger King restaurant near the scene of the shooting?

“The deleted files cover the time from 37 minutes before McDonald was killed to 49 minutes after he was killed. Burger King officials say a group of officers came into the restaurant after the shooting and were given access to the surveillance equipment. It wasn’t until the next day that the restaurant discovered that the video was missing.

“Will it take another 400 days until we find answers to that question?”

Woo, Banks, Chu Among Dozens Taking L.A. Times Buyout

Elaine Woo, a Los Angeles native who has produced “artful pieces on celebrated local, national and international figures, including Norman Mailer, Julia Child and Rosa Parks” during her tenure on the obituaries beat, in the words of a brief bio, is among dozens of veteran Los Angeles Times journalists taking a buyout, Kevin Roderick reported Tuesday for LAObserved.

Also departing is longtime columnist Sandy Banks, “the paper’s lone black columnist and most prominent African American journalist,” Roderick wrote separately.

The LAObserved writer had reported on Friday that Henry Chu, London bureau chief and one of the first graduates of the Metpro internship rogram for journalists of color, was also leaving. 

Banks “has been writing for the paper for 36 years, and had a column starting way back in the View features section,” Roderick wrote. “A lot of readers have followed her life arc and the experiences of raising African American girls in Los Angeles — and as a result of the personal details and tone in her columns, readers have grown to know her and her family. . . .”

Banks wrote, according to Roderick, “For me, it’s time for a new chapter. I don’t know what lies ahead. It’s hard to imagine doing anything else, but I’m looking forward to getting to know another side of myself. . . .”

Woo “has written for her hometown paper since 1983. She covered public education and filled a variety of editing assignments before joining ‘the dead beat,’ ” according to the Times bio. Before joining the Times, Woo worked from 1977 to 1983 at the old Los Angeles Herald Examiner.

“I can confirm that I am leaving The Times after 32 years. I plan to continue writing and am exploring various options,” Woo told Journal-isms Wednesday by email.

Roderick quoted an email by Chu to colleagues. “I’ve probably written more than a million words for this great paper over the past 25 years; these are among the hardest,” it began.

“From the day I arrived at Times Mirror Square as a wide-eyed METPRO, I’ve been privileged to work alongside some of the most talented, outstanding journalists in the world. I’m especially grateful to everyone on the Foreign Desk over the years, who could erase with a simple phone call and a cheerful word the isolation of being half a world away. . . .”

Chu previously was based in China, Brazil and India and recently completed a Nieman fellowship at Harvard, Roderick wrote.

“Now it’s time to say goodbye,” Chu continued. “But the LA Times will always be part of me….”

As reported Friday, Henry Fuhrmann, assistant managing editor supervising the copy desks and library and heading the newsroom’s Standards and Practices Committee, is also taking the buyout.

Roderick also wrote Tuesday, “The magnitude of the experience leaving the building is coming home to people, inside and outside the paper.

“Among the departures I have confirmed are two assistant managing editors, the main politics editors for City Hall and California, the bureau chiefs in New York, Seattle, San Francisco, San Diego, Las Vegas and London, all of the obituary writers, most of the ‘backfield’ editors who handle national and foreign stories, the top editors of features and Sunday Calendar, the editor in charge of Column One stories, the wine columnist, the editor in charge of editing standards, as many as a half dozen photographers, at least that many copy editors, and many more in various positions.

“Other prominent editors and writers are named on lists being circulated, but I have not confirmed their actual plans to finalize the buyout deal. They are allowed to change their mind up to the last day.

” ‘This list gives painful dimension to the loss of knowledge and wisdom that Los Angeles is about to face,’ says a former editor at both the Los Angeles Times and New York Times, on a closed Facebook group where the names are being discussed. ‘It makes you want to cry.’ Says another former staffer on the same group: ‘God, that list is staggering. Wow.’ . . .” [Updated Nov. 26]

N.Y. Times Backs Removal of Woodrow Wilson’s Name 

Princeton University should remove Woodrow Wilson’s name from its School of Public and International Affairs, the New York Times editorialized on Tuesday, because of his “toxic legacy” as an “unapologetic racist whose administration rolled back the gains that African-Americans achieved just after the Civil War, purged black workers from influential jobs and transformed the government into an instrument of white supremacy.”

The editorial said, “Student protesters at Princeton performed a valuable public service last week when they demanded that the administration acknowledge the toxic legacy of Woodrow Wilson, who served as university president and New Jersey governor before being elected to the White House.”

Media Refute Trump on Blacks, Arab Americans

November 23, 2015

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?

Short Takes
Jon Greenberg wrote for PolitiFact, “The figures on black-on-white homicides and white-on-white homicides are wildly inaccurate. . . .”

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. . . .”

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. . . .”

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)

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. . . .”

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. . . .”

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.

“EBONY recognizes those who lead, inspire and demonstrate through their individual talents, the very best in Black America.

“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.

Officer’s Trial on Rape Charges Draws Scant Coverage

“Daniel Holtzclaw is a former Oklahoma City police officer now standing trial on 36 counts, including rape, sexual battery and stalking,” Janine Jackson reported Sunday for Fairness & Accuracy In Media.

“Twelve women and one 17-year-old girl have come forward, saying Holtzclaw assaulted them while on patrol. Most of the victims were black, poor and embroiled in the criminal justice system for things like prostitution and drug use — a precarious state Holtzclaw allegedly used to threaten and coerce them.

“As the 17-year-old put it in her testimony, ‘What am I going to do? Call the cops? He was a cop.’

“The alleged crimes are disturbing; so, too, the evident lack of media interest. Outside of Oklahoma, the case has so far garnered little mainstream attention. A Nexis search indicates neither the New York Times nor Washington Post have printed any original reporting; nor has broadcast network news addressed a story that brings together emergent questions of police violence and rape culture. . . .”

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. . . .”

Each of the photographers, above, was given a different description of the subject’s background. (video)

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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