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Are We Watching a Fascist Playbook?

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Writer Makes Us Wonder Where Outrages Lead

Sinclair Bid to Absorb Tribune Media Hits Snag

Lemieux, Mayo Depart Black Digital Company iOne

NAHJ Issues Guidelines on Fraternization

East Bay Weekly Publisher Out Over N-Word

E. Richard Walton, ‘Passionate’ Reporter, Dies at 72

Reporters Committee Evaluates Kavanaugh Record

Chicago Police Call Fatal Shooting Coverage Unfair

France and Africa Have Long Been Intertwined

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Writer Makes Us Wonder Where Outrages Lead

“It was press conference as national nightmare, summed up succinctly by the BBC on its home page minutes later with this headline: ‘Trump Sides With Russia Against FBI,’ ” Margaret Sullivan wrote Monday for the Washington Post.

“And though Monday’s joint Trump-Putin post-summit appearance in Helsinki was a news conference — with some admirably tough questions from two experienced wire-service reporters — it also was a moment in which no media interpretation was really necessary.

“Everything was right out there in the open. Believe your eyes and ears.

“As my Washington Post colleague Mark Berman put it on Twitter: ‘I’m really struck by what a huge story it would be if it emerged that Trump was privately questioning the intel assessment re: Russian meddling and suggesting he buys Russia’s denial. Instead, he says it out loud, on TV, while standing next to Putin.’

“Almost superfluous in the moment, the news media’s job became crucially important in the immediate aftermath.

“What happened on that stage needs to be made undeniably clear to every American citizen who isn’t hopelessly lost in denial. (And clearly, many are.) . . .”

What that might be was spelled out June 26 by Fintan O’Toole, writing in the Irish Times. O’Toole’s connection of the dots took us back to a conclusion many feared during the 2016 presidential campaign: a flirtation with fascism. The newspaper says that one million people have since read the article.

“To grasp what is going on in the world right now, we need to reflect on two things,” O’Toole wrote. “One is that we are in a phase of trial runs. The other is that what is being trialled is fascism — a word that should be used carefully but not shirked when it is so clearly on the horizon. Forget ‘post-fascist’ — what we are living with is pre-fascism.

“It is easy to dismiss Donald Trump as an ignoramus, not least because he is. But he has an acute understanding of one thing: test marketing. He created himself in the gossip pages of the New York tabloids, where celebrity is manufactured by planting outrageous stories that you can later confirm or deny depending on how they go down. And he recreated himself in reality TV where the storylines can be adjusted according to the ratings. Put something out there, pull it back, adjust, go again.

“Fascism doesn’t arise suddenly in an existing democracy. It is not easy to get people to give up their ideas of freedom and civility. You have to do trial runs that, if they are done well, serve two purposes. They get people used to something they may initially recoil from; and they allow you to refine and calibrate. This is what is happening now and we would be fools not to see it.

“One of the basic tools of fascism is the rigging of elections — we’ve seen that trialled in the election of Trump, in the Brexit referendum and (less successfully) in the French presidential elections. Another is the generation of tribal identities, the division of society into mutually exclusive polarities. Fascism does not need a majority — it typically comes to power with about 40 per cent support and then uses control and intimidation to consolidate that power. So it doesn’t matter if most people hate you, as long as your 40 per cent is fanatically committed. That’s been tested out too. And fascism of course needs a propaganda machine so effective that it creates for its followers a universe of ‘alternative facts’ impervious to unwanted realities. Again, the testing for this is very far advanced.

“But when you’ve done all this, there is a crucial next step, usually the trickiest of all. You have to undermine moral boundaries, inure people to the acceptance of acts of extreme cruelty. Like hounds, people have to be blooded. They have to be given the taste for savagery. Fascism does this by building up the sense of threat from a despised out-group. This allows the members of that group to be dehumanised. Once that has been achieved, you can gradually up the ante, working through the stages from breaking windows to extermination. . . .”

Sinclair Bid to Absorb Tribune Media Hits Snag

“It looks like Sinclair, the right-wing Baltimore-based broadcast group, might have finally gone too far in trying to end-run rules put in place by Congress to ensure diversity and some local ownership of TV stations,” David Zurawik reported Monday for the Baltimore Sun.

“Ajit Pai, the chair of the Federal Communications Commission who earlier this year was pilloried for reversing net neutrality, surprised many in the media world Monday by announcing that he had ‘serious concerns’ about the deal by Sinclair to take over Tribune Media and was referring it for a hearing and further review before an administrative law judge.

“Some analysts see such a move as a deal killer. I wouldn’t go that far at this point, but the statement from Pai sent Sinclair stocks tumbling 6.5 percent in morning trading, while Tribune dropped 15 percent. . . .”

Zurawik also wrote, “The $3.9 billion deal would have allowed Sinclair, which was already the largest station owner in the U.S., to add 42 Tribune stations in such major markets as New York and Chicago, giving it more than 200 stations and access to 70 percent of American households. . . .”

Lemieux, Mayo Depart Black Digital Company iOne

Jamilah Lemieux

Jamilah Lemieux and Kierna Mayo, former Ebony editors who two years ago went on to oversee editorial content at iOne, formerly Interactive One, have left the company, Detavio Samuels, president of iONE Digital and One Solution, told Journal-isms on Monday.

“While we are sad to see Kierna and Jamilah go, we are excited about the amazing opportunities that lie ahead for them as well as the new opportunity it creates for us to evolve our digital business,” Samuels said in an email.

“Based on their departures, Marve Frazier has been promoted to SVP, Chief Content Officer and now oversees all of our national brands (CASSIUS, Bossip, MadameNoire, NewsOne, HipHopWired, HelloBeautiful and GlobalGrind). ”

Those brands include some of the most popular black-oriented websites, according to the most recent comScore research figures available to Journal-isms.

“Marve is a strategic leader with a proven track record building brands in the digital age. Given we pride ourselves on hiring the best & brightest, our next move is to look across our ranks to groom and elevate our next generation of digital leaders.”

Mayo left in the second quarter and Lemieux “just left,” Samuels said. “With them leaving, we have an opportunity to streamline our business and get more efficient. It also gives us a chance to groom and elevate new talent. Their departures are bittersweet.”

Marve Frazier

Lemieux, who was vice president, news and men’s programming, described her parting as amicable and messaged, “I’m working on a book proposal and doing some consulting. Planning to develop a podcast and do more freelance writing.”

Referring to Ebony in a LinkedIn profile, she wrote, “Jamilah was one of the small-but-mighty team that led the re-imagining of the magazine’s website in 2012 and was later promoted to Senior Digital Editor before taking on her current role. Her work has appeared via a host of print and digital properties, including Mic, Essence, The Nation, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Gawker, and her now-defunct, award-winning blog, The Beautiful Struggler. . . .”

Mayo was senior vice president, content + brands. She had been editor in chief at Ebony and vice president, digital content from 2011 until she joined iONE in 2016, according to her LinkedIn profile.

 

NAHJ Issues Guidelines on Fraternization

On the eve of its national convention, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists Monday issued a prohibition on romantic or sexual relationships between students and NAHJ mentors.

The guidelines follow a declaration last month from NAHJ President Brandon Benavides that the NAHJ board would investigate “an allegation concerning misconduct by persons associated with the National Association of Hispanic Journalists which occurred a number of years ago.”

Russell Contreras, a former board member, had told Facebook readers that he had not been to an NAHJ convention since 2012, and that “there needs to be a thorough, independent investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct during the 2010 student projects and beyond. #MeToo.”

The new guidelines read, in part, “No NAHJ Mentor shall pursue, have or maintain a romantic or sexual relationship with any Student, and likewise, no Student shall pursue, have or maintain a romantic or sexual relationship with any NAHJ Mentor during a Student Workshop.

“In the event a prior relationship exists, the NAHJ Mentor or Student shall, before the commencement of the Student Workshop, report such relationship to his or her supervisor and the supervisor shall consider whether any steps, appropriate to address the situation, should be taken, which may include preventing or limiting any teaching, advisory or similar interactions between the NAHJ Mentor and the Student. . . .”

NAHJ spokeswoman BA Snyder messaged that the investigation is continuing.

East Bay Weekly Publisher Out Over N-Word

“Stephen Buel, the publisher of the East Bay Express apologized Friday in the weekly for using the N-word in a meeting with staff members and for taking down stories written by a cultural and music reporter,” Rebecca Aguilar reported on her website on Saturday.

“His apology came with a lot of pledges for change. It didn’t look like he was going to resign. Then today, he did just that, resigned.

“Buel has been the co-owner of the East Bay Express since 2007. He was also the editor of the weekly for ten years.

“In May, reporter Azucena Rasilla was covering the Bottlerock Napa Valley Music Festival . In a phone conversation this afternoon, Rasilla told me that Buel took down her story about rappers using the N-word during their performances and white people in the audience singing along also using the N-word. Rasilla said she mentioned in her story that she thought it was wrong that white audience members used the N-word when they repeated the lyrics.

“In a meeting after Buel took down Rasilla’s story, she said she was shocked when he used the N-word in front of the staff members. Friday, Rasilla had enough. She quit her job. . . .

“Friday, Buel published ‘An Apology and a Pledge.’ He admitted he used the N-word and that he took down stories, because he didn’t agree with them. In his ‘apology’ he said he had plans to make major changes. There was no hint he planned to quit or remove himself as publisher. . . .”

E. Richard Walton, ‘Passionate’ Reporter, Dies at 72

E. Richard Walton

E. Richard Walton, a veteran journalist who reported in upstate New York, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida and worked with community groups after his 2013 layoff from the Greenville (S.C.) News, died Friday at 72, his sister, Patricia Walton, told Journal-isms Monday.

She said Walton had called Emergency Medical Services and prepared for a hospital stay but felt chest pains in the ambulance, “seized up” and was pronounced dead at Greenville’s Bon Secours Hospital. The cause of death had not been determined.

Wanda Lloyd, former managing editor of the Greenville News, wrote on Facebook Monday that in 1997, “I recruited and hired Richard Walton to move to Greenville and work for The Greenville News.

“I was a managing editor at the newspaper and we needed a reporter to cover crime.

“Recommended to me by a colleague, Richard immediately charmed me and everyone he met in Greenville. He was passionate about the crime beat, not only because he would report and write about crime, but he had a heart for the people who fought crime — the police — and for those caught up in the criminal system.

“Richard was a smooth dude, someone who could strike up a conversation with anyone the moment he met them. He was a pleasure to have in the newsroom, and I applaud him for the amount of time he worked there, long after I left. He took to Greenville like a duck takes to water, especially for someone who grew up in New York City. He felt right at home in the South.

“For several years, I always knew that Richard was still on the job. That was comforting. I am sending prayers to Richard’s family and close friends. We will miss him.”

Brett Pulley met Walton when Pulley arrived at the Times-Union in Rochester, N.Y., Walton’s first newspaper, in 1987. Pulley said, “We shared our passion for journalism, books, movies and music. He was a genuinely sophisticated renaissance man. He was a groomsmen in my wedding, and my cut buddy in all things social.” Pulley was dean of the Scripps Howard School of Journalism and Communications at Hampton University from 2011 to 2015.

Walton also worked at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Ocala (Fla.) Star-Banner and Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville.

Walton messaged last month, “Yours truly has a new contract with the city of Greenville. Writing stories and Op-Eds, I’m helping the Police Department with diversity hiring. They are trying to hire more black and brown men and women of all flavors.” He had also been a board member, mentor and volunteer at the city’s Hispanic Alliance, and he had founded Baldwin-Hughes Media, named after writers James Baldwin and Langston Hughes.

Funeral plans are incomplete. Condolences may be sent to the Watkins, Garrett and Woods mortuary, 1011 Augusta St., Greenville, SC 29605.

Reporters Committee Evaluates Kavanaugh Record

“On July 9, 2018, President Donald J. Trump nominated Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to fill the vacancy that will be left by Justice Anthony Kennedy when he retires at the end of July,” the Reporters Committee on Freedom of the Press said in evaluating the judge.

“Given the D.C. Circuit’s role as the court that hears appeals stemming from challenges to the federal government, Judge Kavanaugh’s record tends to be heavier on press freedom issues as they relate to things like national security, access to government information, and federal regulations, and relatively lighter on ‘traditional’ First Amendment press issues like libel or the privacy torts.

“Of particular note for the news media, Judge Kavanaugh has written favorably with respect to the ‘actual malice’ standard as articulated in New York Times v. Sullivan, which sets him apart from the late Justice [Antonin] Scalia, who famously disagreed with the unanimous decision in that 1964 civil rights era case. . . .”

Chicago police push back protesters near the scene where an officer fatally shot a man Saturday. (Credit: Nader Issa/Chicago Sun-Times)

Chicago Police Call Fatal Shooting Coverage Unfair

“The Fraternal Order of Police is accusing an ‘activist, one-sided’ Chicago media of’ ‘ramping up every angle they could muster to paint’ the police shooting of Harith Augustus as ‘unjustified,’ even though the shooting was ‘text book legitimate, ‘ ” Fran Spielman wrote Monday for the Chicago Sun-Times.

“ ‘This shooting by the police was entirely justified,’ FOP President Kevin Graham was quoted as saying in a post on the police union’s blog. . . .”

Spielman also wrote, “Augustus was shot by a probationary police officer near the South Shore barbershop where he worked.

“In the brief and silent body-camera video released by [Police Superintendent Eddie] Johnson on Sunday, at least four officers approach Augustus to question him.

“When one officer reaches for Augustus’ right arm, Augustus pulls away. After a struggle, Augustus spins his body toward a police vehicle. That’s when his shirt flies up, revealing a weapon on his right hip. The edited video released by CPD freezes on the gun for about two seconds.

“Protests erupted quickly Saturday night, injuring four officers. People taunted officers with chants of ‘murderers’ and ‘Who do you serve? Who do you protect?’ One officer was hit with the bottle of urine, and people also threw rocks. Police eventually tried to push protesters back, hitting at least a dozen people with batons. . . .”

France forwards Antoine Griezmann, left, and Thomas Lemar (Credit: Via Tim Groothuis/Witters Sport/USA Today Sports Images)

France and Africa Have Long Been Intertwined

“World Cup fans have been jubilantly saying France is the last African team left in the World Cup,” Karen Attiah wrote  July 10 for the Washington Post. “As Khaled A. Beydoun wrote for the Undefeated, ‘a divided nation in search of an elusive optimism puts its hope in the hands of players named Mbappe, Dembele, Fakir, Rami, Umtiti, who wear French Bleu but also play for Africa, and the legions of African soccer fans who share their continental roots.’ Out of 23 players, 12 have African ancestry. . . .

“[T]he celebrations of the team risk missing an important point — that the fortunes of France and black Africa have been intertwined since the days of ‘Francafrique.’ ‘France has been black for centuries,’ Gregory Pierrot writes poignantly for Africa Is a Country. ‘If a point must be made by way of this team, maybe it is that France should not be allowed to claim distinction and separation from Africa so casually, because France owes Africa everything. Not just the resources it continues to pillage, not just the labor force it shamelessly taps into, not just the art it appropriates as it has for centuries: France owes Africa its very soul.’

“Indeed, Africa has literally been the piggy bank of France’s political elite. Fourteen African countries on the continent still use the CFA franc, a currency that was pegged to the French franc (now the euro) — 12 of them are former French colonies.

“The countries that use the CFA franc are some of the poorest in the world; critics of the CFA franc say it is an instrument of ‘monetary repression.’ Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy (who once said during a speech in Dakar, Senegal, that the African had ‘not yet fully entered into history’) was charged earlier this year, accused of illegally accepting campaign cash from the regime of Libyan dictator Moammar Gaddafi — the very same Gaddafi he helped to overthrow in a military intervention in 2011 and who was later killed.

“French President Emmanuel Macron has taken some rhetorical steps toward acknowledging France’s historical injustices against Africa. Last year, Macron faced considerable backlash from the right wing after he acknowledged that France committed crimes against humanity during its colonial rule over Algeria. He has pledged to return African artifacts taken during colonial times back to the continent. . . .”

On Sunday, France beat Croatia 4-2 in Moscow to win soccer’s most prestigious prize for the second time.

Short Takes

Mia Moody-Ramirez

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