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Putin “Creates Climate” for Killing Journalists

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Trump Accepts Russian’s Praise, Says Guilt Not Proved

Rubio, Cruz Not the Latino Candidates Many Expected

Success Story: “Why I Stopped Talking Like Ben Carson”

R. Kelly Walks Off “HuffPost Live” Interview

Tom Joyner Show Moving From FM to AM in D.C.

N.Y. Times Rethinks Anonymous Sources After Mistake

Media Faulted in Coverage of World Refugee Crisis

Univision, Televisa to Boost Training for Media, Tech Jobs

Editorial: Removing Statues Embraces Future, Not Past

Short Takes

Trump Accepts Russian’s Praise, Says Guilt Not Proved

“According to CPJ research, under the leadership of President Vladimir Putin, Russia has consistently held the dishonorable record of being the worst country in the region of Europe and Central Asia at prosecuting journalists’ killers,” Nina Ognianova, Europe and Central Asia program coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists, told Journal-isms on Monday.

“Ninety percent of journalist murders in Russia, our research shows, have gone unpunished, while, according to Russia’s top investigator, Aleksandr Bastrykin, the same percentage of all homicides in the country are solved. Eleven journalists have been slain with complete impunity in Russia over the past decade. As Russia’s top leader, President Putin has a moral responsibility for that.”

Ognianova was responding by email to an inquiry prompted by Republican front-runner Donald Trump’s defense of Putin over the weekend despite assertions that Putin “kills journalists.”

Judd Legum reported Friday for ThinkProgress, “Putin showered praise on Donald Trump on Thursday, calling him ‘a bright and talented person,’ ‘outstanding,’ and ‘the absolute leader of ‘the presidential race . . .’

“Friday morning on MSNBC, Trump returned the favor.

“Joe Scarborough pressed Trump on Putin’s history as ‘a person who kills journalists, political opponents, and invades countries.’

“Trump responded by defending Putin. ‘He’s running his country, and at least he’s a leader. Unlike what he have in this country.’

“Scarborough pressed: ‘But again: He kills journalists that don’t agree with him.’

“Trump again brushed off the critique, telling Scarborough, ‘our country does plenty of killing also, Joe.’ “

The questioning continued on the Sunday talk shows.

Trip Gabriel reported for the New York Times, “The dominant Republican in the nominating race was pressed by ABC’s host, George Stephanopoulos, about his seeming to draw a moral equivalence between the killings of journalists under Mr. Putin and the American government’s killing of terrorists abroad . . . .

“Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee tweeted in response: ‘Important distinction: thug Putin kills journalists and opponents; our presidents kill terrorists and enemy combatants.’

“Pressed by Mr. Stephanopoulos, Mr. Trump said there was no direct evidence of Mr. Putin’s involvement. ‘If he has killed reporters, I think that’s terrible,’ Mr. Trump said. ‘But this isn’t like somebody that’s stood with a gun and he’s, you know, taken the blame or he’s admitted that he’s killed. He’s always denied it.’ “

CPJ’s Ognianova said Putin does not have to pull the trigger himself to bear responsibility.

She continued in her note to Journal-isms, “For years, he and his administration have consistently cracked down on independent, critical journalism in the country, creating a climate where probing reporters are marginalized, obstructed, and treated as undesirables. In such a climate, these reporters have found themselves isolated, unprotected, and vulnerable to retaliation; their enemies, in turn, have become emboldened to silence them by use of violence — the ultimate form of censorship.

“When Russia’s top leader goes on the record, saying that his critics have done ‘more damage to authorities’ when they were murdered than through their work — as Putin said about award-winning journalist Anna Politkovskaya three days after her killing — he does not simply utter insensitive remarks. By failing to swiftly and unequivocally condemn such crimes, he passes the dangerous message to enemies of the independent press to continue their practice of silencing by the bullet, for they will surely get away with it.

“Yes, it has never been proven that President Putin has killed any journalists. But without a doubt he has made it easier for their killers to walk free.”

Rubio, Cruz Not the Latino Candidates Many Expected

“One candidate, Marco Rubio, nurtured by the sprawling Cuban-American community here, bounces effortlessly between two cultures — fritas and hamburgers, Spanish and English — in a city so comfortably bilingual that news conferences pivot between the languages,” Lizette Alvarez and Manny Fernandez reported from Miami Wednesday for the New York Times.

“The other, Ted Cruz, is partial to cowboy boots, oversize belt buckles, hard-right politics and the fire-and-brimstone style of the Baptist church. Mr. Cruz, a rare Cuban-American outlier in a state where Hispanic usually means Mexican-American, attended overwhelmingly white Christian schools in Houston and prefers Spanglish to Spanish.

“Together, Senators Rubio and Cruz, of Florida and Texas, represent a watershed moment in American politics: two Hispanics running as top-tier candidates for president, and increasingly gunning for each other, in what one Latino conservative has dubbed ‘the yuca primary,’ referring to the popular Cuban staple and an acronym for young urban Cuban-American. Their collisions on defense, immigration and other issues formed one of the main story lines at Tuesday’s Republican debate. The two have emerged as perhaps the leading alternatives to Donald J. Trump.

“But this year’s campaign tale has not been the kind of Hispanic coming-of-age story many Latinos had expected, particularly given their growing numbers and influence in the polls.

“Three years after Republicans vowed to do a better job courting Latinos in the wake of their 2012 presidential defeat, the party has done the opposite as immigrants come under repeated assault by Mr. Trump.

“The harsh tone and the increasingly restrictive policies on immigration that have been floated have complicated the prospects of Mr. Cruz and Mr. Rubio who, as Latinos, had a head start with Hispanic voters. . . .”

Success Story: “Why I Stopped Talking Like Ben Carson”

“If Ben Carson’s political career is built on anything, it’s his inspirational story.

“For two decades he’s been selling books and drawing crowds with his ‘you control your own destiny’ message, convincing millions that hard work and determination can lead a black child out of poverty and on to professional notoriety and success,” Issac J. Bailey wrote Dec. 13 for Politico Magazine.

“For years, that was me, too,” Bailey continued.

Bailey, a longtime columnist at the Sun News in Myrtle Beach, S.C., left the paper in September after 18 years to pursue other projects.

“Whenever I spoke in public I would talk about how I was born into destitution in rural South Carolina to a woman who married at 13 and to a man who beat her like clockwork every weekend for most of my young life. I would talk about how my oldest brother went to prison for murder when I was nine years old (and a few other brothers eventually followed him there) and how the ill-equipped high school my 10 siblings and I attended wasn’t desegregated for more than four decades after Brown v. Board of Education.

“Despite the overwhelming odds stacked against me, I would tell my audience, through my hard work and perseverance, I graduated from one of the top liberal arts schools in the country, Davidson College, and went on to become a successful columnist and published author and was eventually invited to spend a year studying at Harvard. I’ve rubbed shoulders with governors and multi-millionaires, interviewed Barack Obama.

“And then I stopped telling that story.

“It felt great to narrate, but I started to notice that my audience members, far from becoming more sympathetic, began hurling my tale as an indictment of those still mired in the muck of the kind of struggle I experienced. ‘You made it; why can’t they?’ people would say to me as they thanked me for my ‘inspiring’ words. ‘You worked hard and have been rewarded. Why aren’t they doing the same?’ The story was doing precisely the opposite of what I wanted. It hardened, rather than softened hearts. . . .”

R. Kelly told his interviewer, “I didn’t come here to be interrogated. I didn’t come here for a deposition.” (video)

R. Kelly Walks Off “HuffPost Live” Interview

“R. Kelly sat down with HuffPost Live for a bizarre 20-minute interview Monday, in which he asked host Caroline Modarressy-Tehrani if she drank, asked whether she knew what a deposition was, questioned her intelligence, and threatened to leave and go to McDonald’s before ultimately walking off set,” Emily Tess Katz reported for HuffPost BlackVoices.

“The ‘Ignition’ singer was angry after being asked how his sexual abuse allegations had impacted sales of his album, which is projected to sell 100,000 copies less than his 2013 album Black Panties.

“When asked how he would respond to fans who are hesitant to support the album due to his controversial history, Kelly’s message was simple: “F**k that.”

” ‘You can’t satisfy everybody,’ he continued. ‘I will continue to do my job until I get fired, and the only people who can fire me are my fans.’ . . .”

Tom Joyner Show Moving From FM to AM in D.C.

Less than three weeks after Dailymail.com published an anonymously sourced story saying “Radio legend and first African-American nationally syndicated host Tom Joyner getting the boot timed to President’s exit from White House,” Radio One in the nation’s capital said that in January, it is moving Joyner’s show from its longtime FM perch to an AM station.

“The Tom Joyner Morning Show that has been on the air for over 20 years in DC will continue to empower listeners with information and entertainment,” urbanradiomagazine.com reported. “Broadcasting on nearly 100 stations nationally and reaching 7.4M listeners, Tom Joyner remains the top urban radio personality. The Tom Joyner Morning Show will continue to be the morning show DC listeners awaken to, but now on the heritage station WOL1450 AM in addition to a number of HD2 stations. . . . .”

Dubbed “the morning mayor” for many black listeners, Joyner features journalists Roland Martin and Don Lemon on his show along with its comedy and music and is on President Obama’s list for a telephone call-in when he has a message targeted to Joyner’s audience.

N.Y. Times Rethinks Anonymous Sources After Mistake

“The executive editor of The New York Times says his paper’s erroneous report on the San Bernardino terrorists’ social media use was ‘a really big mistake,’ and would cause the Times to reconsider its use of anonymous sources,” Dylan Byers reported Friday for CNNMoney.com.

” ‘More than anything since I’ve become editor it does make me think we need to do something about how we handle anonymous sources,’ Dean Baquet told Margaret Sullivan, the Times’ public editor, on Friday. ‘This was a system failure that we have to fix.’

“The report, which appeared on the front page of the Sunday edition, claimed that Tashfeen Malik had ‘talked openly on social media about her views on violent jihad,’ and that these postings had gone ‘uncovered’ by American law enforcement authorities.

“The Times was forced to revise its report on Thursday after FBI Director James Comey told reporters that both Malik and her husband, Syed Farook, never posted publicly on social media about their views, but had instead communicated via ‘direct, private messages.’ Comey dismissed the Times report as inaccurate ‘garble.’

“President Obama also appeared to address the report during a press conference on Friday. ‘The issue of reviewing social media for those who are obtaining visas, I think may have gotten garbled a little bit,’ Obama said. ‘It’s important to distinguish between posts that are public… versus private communications.’ . . .”

Univision, Televisa to Boost Training for Media, Tech Jobs

Univision Communications Inc. and Grupo Televisa, S.A.B., “two of the world’s leading media companies focused on serving Hispanics, today announced plans to expand upon their existing programs to provide more opportunities for Latinos in the U.S. media and technology sectors in 2016,” the companies said on Monday.

“The new efforts will include a wide variety of education, mentorship and career development programs.

“As the economic, political and cultural impact of Hispanic Americans continues to grow, Univision and Televisa believe it is critically important for Latinos to play a leading role in participating in and shaping the media industry in the United States. Accordingly, the two companies have joined forces to accomplish two overarching goals: 1) Strengthen and expand their existing efforts to increase the pipeline of Latinos in media and technology; and 2) Develop and educate future media leaders and professionals.

“Commenting on the initiative, Alex Nogales the president and CEO of the National Hispanic Media Coalition, said: ‘One of my lifelong goals has been to provide access to careers in media for future generations of U.S. Hispanics, and to create opportunities for Latinos both behind and in front of the camera. That is why we are supporting the joint initiative announced today by Univision and Televisa — because it will create opportunities for a new generation in our industry at this critical time when it’s so important for diverse voices to be heard.’ . . .”

Under the title “Strengthening the Pipeline of Latinos in Media & Technology,” the companies listed:

Editorial: Removing Statues Embraces Future, Not Past

“The decision to remove four Confederate monuments from the heart of New Orleans came down to an essential question: What kind of city do we aspire to be?” the editorial board of NOLA.com | the Times-Picayune wrote on Friday under the headline, “With vote to remove Confederate monuments, City Council embraces New Orleans’ future.”

“Is New Orleans the inclusive, tolerant place we tell the world it is?” it continued. “Are we committed to healing racial divisions? Are we dedicated to fairness and equality?

“We must be.

“That was the essence of the City Council’s vote Thursday (Dec. 17) to take down statues of Robert E. Lee, P.G.T. Beauregard, Jefferson Davis and a monument to a Confederate rebellion. . . .”

“The case for moving the statues was powerful. Not only do these monuments honor men who fought for slavery, they are symbols of the institutional oppression of African-Americans during the century after the Civil War.

“Jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis eloquently described the damage done in a guest column for NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune: ‘The pernicious effects of this legacy are clearly evidenced by gross inequalities in everything from education to housing, to employment and access. We are accustomed to these conditions and perhaps don’t see them, but we are capable of being so much more. It’s time to live up to our potential, not down to the flaws that we have inherited.’ . . .”

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