Columnists Raise Issue After Stephon Clark Death

Poynter to Boost News Literacy for Students of Color

37% of New Hires at N.Y. Times Were of Color

ProPublica to Formalize ‘Rooney Rule’ on Hiring

ASNE Honors Stories on Harassment, Border Wall

Newsroom Harassment Bigger ‘Than Anyone Thinks’

Indian Country Isn’t Into #DeleteFacebook

Ethiopia Rearrests Freed Press-Freedom Hero

Short Takes

Private pathologist Dr. Bennet Omalu, former chief medical examiner in San Joaquin County best known for his research on football-related concussions, describes what he found in his autopsy of Stephon Clark, who was killed by Sacramento police. (Credit: Sacramento Bee)

Columnists Raise Issue After Stephon Clark Death

The fatal shooting of Stephon Clark by Sacramento police has renewed calls to change laws that allow police to shoot and kill black men with impunity — and for other citizens to resist the desire to “move on.”

“Clark was shot at least six times in the back and eight times total by Sacramento police officers, according to a private autopsy released Friday morning by his family’s legal team,” Sam Stanton,Tony Bizjak and Nashelly Chavez reported Friday in the Sacramento Bee.

“Clark, 22, was killed March 18 after Sacramento police received reports of a car burglar in the Meadowview area.

“Two officers followed Clark into the backyard of his grandparents’ home, where they ordered him to show his hands. One officer is heard saying ‘gun’ before the officers fired 20 shots at Clark, according to body camera video released by police three days after the shooting.

“Clark was later found to be carrying only a cellphone. . . .”

“What will it take for Sacramento to move past painful days of strife over the shooting death of Stephon Clark by Sacramento police?,” columnist Marcos Bretón asked Thursday for the Sacramento Bee.

“It will take more than African Americans demanding justice for Clark and his family. Or more than an understanding of a criminal justice system that kills and incarcerates black men at alarming rates. More than the realization that an unarmed man should not have lost his life because cops were looking for a guy breaking windows.

“And it will take seeing Clark as more than a ‘criminal,’ as he is too often branded by non-African Americans. . . .”

Paul Butler, a Georgetown University law professor who is a former federal prosecutor, wrote in his 2017 book “Chokehold (Policing Black Men): A Renegade Prosecutor’s Radical Thoughts on How to Disrupt the System,” “The problem is the criminal process itself. Cops routinely hurt and humiliate black people because that is what they are paid to do. Virtually every objective investigation of a U.S. law enforcement agency finds that the police, as policy, treat African Americans with contempt.”

In a notable exception to common practice, “Police in Baton Rouge announced Friday night that they will fire officer Blane Salamoni for violating department policies during the fatal shooting of Alton Sterling in July 2016,” Mark Berman and Wesley Lowery reported for the Washington Post.

Erika D. Smith, associate editor and editorial writer at the Bee, made a point similar to Bretón’s in a column on Wednesday. “What happened to Clark most certainly should be a crime, but it’s probably not one. Not under the straitjacket of two U.S. Supreme Court rulings that make it all but impossible to charge and convict officers for shooting suspects in the line of duty,” she wrote.

“Tennessee v. Garner allows that it’s OK to shoot a fleeing suspect when ‘the officer has probable cause to believe that the suspect poses a threat of serious physical harm, either to the officer or to others.’ And Graham v. Connor states that ‘the reasonableness of a particular use of force must be judged from the perspective of a reasonable officer on the scene, rather than with the 20/20 vision of hindsight.’

“These rulings are, in part, why this week Louisiana’s attorney general declined to charge two white officers for shooting Alton Sterling outside a convenience store in 2016 — and why so many other officers in so many other cases haven’t been charged or convicted either.

“Complicating matters is California’s own use-of-force statute, which states any ‘officer who has reasonable cause to believe that the person to be arrested has committed a public offense may use reasonable force to effect an arrest, to prevent escape or to overcome resistance.’

“By law, as opposed to policies set by individual police departments, de-escalation tactics that protect the sanctity of life are after-thoughts rather than priorities — and it shows.

“Instead of giving people in Sacramento false hope and raising expectations for  [Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie] Schubert to file charges that likely will never come, why don’t we talk about how to change state law so it’s easier to hold officers accountable for their actions? Because it’s possible. . . .”

Under the headline “Our Stephon Clark lie – ‘Diverse’ Sacramento is not as tolerant as we think,” Bretón added, “We can reform police practices or insist on independent investigations of police shootings. Or lobby for juridical reform that rethinks the wide latitude cops are given under law to use deadly force. But changing our biases about Stephon Clark are just as daunting. . . .”

• Marcos Bretón, Sacramento Bee: Here’s another result of the Stephon Clark autopsy — cops can’t investigate cops
• Editorial, Sacramento Bee: Justice for Stephon Clark must start with righting injustice in Sacramento
• Editorial, Sacramento Bee: Sacramento made the right call to protect public trust on Stephon Clark
• Benjy Egel, Dale Kasler and Tony Bizjak, Sacramento Bee: Kings announce partnership with activist groups after Stephon Clark protests shut down arena
• John Eligon, New York Times: The Quiet Casualties of the Movement for Black Lives
• Ricardo A. Hazell, Shadow League: NFL Team Owners Can Learn From The Sacramento Kings’ Protest Response
• Roy S. Johnson, al.com: Alabama can’t wait a year to ban racial profiling, so lawmakers need a Hail Mary
• German Lopez, vox.com: Stephon Clark was shot by Sacramento police eight times from behind or the side, autopsy finds
• Mary Mitchell, Chicago Sun-Times: Top cop’s ruling in Quintonio LeGrier, Bettie Jones shooting disappointing
• Phillip Morris, Plain Dealer, Cleveland: A mystery panhandler ignites a useful conversation on police racial profiling
• Rochelle Riley, Detroit Free Press: Questions, like tears, fall after Stephon Clark’s death

Poynter to Boost News Literacy for Students of Color

“The Poynter Institute will lead a project funded by Google.org called MediaWise, a groundbreaking endeavor aimed at helping middle and high school students be smarter consumers of news and information online,” according to the institute — and it is seeking a multimedia reporter and an editor/program manager to lead it.

“Google is investing $3 million over two years in MediaWise, which will bring together experts from the Local Media Association, the Stanford Graduate School of Education and Poynter,” the Poynter Institute said in a March 20 news release.

“MediaWise will feature a curriculum to be taught in classrooms and a first-of-its-kind teen fact-checking initiative online. The project aims to reach a million students, with at least 50 percent coming from underserved or low-income communities. . . .

“At the center of the project is a body of research from the Stanford History Education Group (SHEG) that shows that despite being constantly online, the vast majority of teenagers are unable to correctly evaluate the credibility of online news and information. (Adults didn’t do much better, according to Stanford’s research). Over the next two years, Stanford will develop a new curriculum for use in schools to teach better information literacy and improve what it calls, ‘civic online reasoning.’ . . .”

The job description for the editor/program manager reads, “You’ll be the editor/publisher. You’ll be among some of the world’s best journalism teachers. You’ll be working alongside Poynter’s PolitiFact and the International Fact-Checking Network. You’ll steward our relationships with researchers at Stanford, YouTube creators and other journalism partners. You’ll be in St. Petersburg, Fla., and see the water from the office.

“And you’ll be doing work that’s critically needed. . . ”

Wendy Wallace, director of advancement at Poynter, noted for Journal-isms that the application deadline is April 13.

The Local Media Association said its role “will be to work with Poynter and Stanford to take the skills and knowledge of this project into communities through events, newspaper in education programs and news coverage. Over 2,800 newspapers, TV stations, radio stations and digital news sites are members of the Local Media Association across North America.

LMA is looking for local media companies to partner with on the educational events. Those interested in learning more may contact Lindsey Estes at Lindsey.estes (at) localmedia.org.

37% of New Hires at N.Y. Times Were of Color

For the first time, “we are sharing detailed data about the ethnic and gender composition of our staff members — data that we intend to update and make public annually,” the New York Times Co. reported on Wednesday.

“We believe releasing this data on a yearly basis will make us accountable to the public — and ourselves — for improvement. And we hope that in doing so we can contribute to the broader conversation about equality and representation in journalism.

“As the charts. . . show, many of the numbers are moving in the right direction — though not far enough or fast enough. Over the past three years, representation of women has increased at every level of The Times. Over all, our employees are now evenly split between men and women. Women in News and Opinion leadership increased to 46 percent in 2017, from 38 percent in 2015, and in business departments, to 46 percent, from 41 percent.

“The trend is not as uniformly positive for people of color. There have been gains in places, including in business leadership, where people of color now make up 21 percent of the total, up from 16 percent in 2015. But gains like this have not been consistent — the charts below show declines in certain areas — and improving that trajectory is a focus for us.”

The company also wrote, “One important way to improve diversity is through our recruiting and hiring. The steps we have taken include creating tools and policies to further minimize bias.

“We’ve expanded our outreach to underrepresented groups, working with organizations dedicated to diversity in technology (e.g. Code2040), journalism (e.g. National Association of Black Journalists), and media (e.g. The Emma Bowen Foundation). And we’re helping to broaden the pipeline of the industry as a whole through our Student Journalism Institute by providing training for diverse groups of college students interested in pursuing a career in journalism.

“It will take time for these efforts to be reflected in the overall data, but there is evidence that they are already paying off. Company-wide, 61 percent of our new hires in 2017 were women, and 39 percent were people of color. . . .”

In December 2016, Liz Spayd, the Times’ final ombudsman before the post was abolished, wrote, “The Times can be relentless in questioning the diversity at other institutions; it has written about the white ranks of the technology sector, public schools, police departments, Oscar nominees, law firms, legislatures, the major leagues and the Ivy League,” Spayd wrote. “Fixing its own problems comes less easily.

“The newsroom’s blinding whiteness hit me when I walked in the door six months ago. It’s hardly a new problem here, but it’s one that persists even as the country grows more diverse and The Times grows more global. . . .”

A. G. Sulzberger, 37, succeeded his father, Arthur Sulzberger Jr., as publisher of the Times on New Year’s Day.

• Monica Drake, New York Times: Dear Times Reader . . .

ProPublica to Formalize ‘Rooney Rule’ on Hiring

ProPublica, which describes itself as “an independent, nonprofit newsroom that produces investigative journalism with moral force,” released diversity figures Tuesday showing its newsroom to be 76 percent white, 8 percent Hispanic/Latino, 8 percent Asian, 4 percent black, 4 percent two or more races and 1 percent other.

The news organization, in a story by Lena Groeger, Sisi Wei and Stephen Engelberg, also announced, “As part of our commitment to diversity, starting this year we intend to formalize a practice we have already followed on most hires. We will interview at least one person of color for every posted job in line with the practice pioneered by the NFL and known as the ‘Rooney Rule.’ Many other entities have adopted this approach to increasing their diversity. . . .” Engelberg is editor-in-chief.

The story also said, “We’ve expanded many of the programs and scholarships we started in 2015. Specifically:

“The Emerging Reporters Program, which offers grants to college students of color who are interested in doing great journalism, is in its third year. Learn more about these talented journalists.

“The Diversity Scholarship program. For the third year in a row we’ll be awarding scholarships to student journalists of color to attend journalism conferences. This year we’ve increased the number of scholarships from 12 to 20 and increased the amount of each scholarship from $500 to $700. We are also excited to be working with the Association of LGBTQ Journalists for the first time. . . .

“The ONA Diversity Mentorship breakfast. For the fourth year in a row, we’ll be pairing journalists of color with managing editors, executive editors and other top journalists at our ONA Diversity Mentorship Breakfast. . . .”

ASNE Honors Stories on Harassment, Border Wall

Coverage by The New York Times on sexual harassment in Hollywood and beyond, a report on “how the bankruptcy system is failing black Americans,” Chicago Tribune columnist Dahleen Glanton and the staff of the Arizona Republic with the USA Today Network are among the winners of this year’s ASNE Awards for distinguished writing, digital storytelling and photography, the American Society of News Editors reported Thursday.

“Times reporters unearthed revealing, on-the-record details on the abusive behavior of Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein and took readers to factory floors to reveal an endemic culture of harassment at the Ford Motor Company. The Times’ stellar reporting, combined with the power of the institution, made this the story of the year,” ASNE judges said, awarding it the Batten Medal, honoring achievement in public service journalism.

“Paul Kiel and Hannah Fresques of ProPublica are the winners of the Dori J. Maynard Award for Justice in Journalism, which celebrates journalism that overcomes ignorance, stereotypes, intolerance, racism, hate, negligence and indifference. They will receive $2,500 for winning the award, sponsored by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation in memory of Dori J. Maynard, who was an ASNE board member and a strong advocate for news and newsroom diversity,” ASNE said.

” ‘Too Broke for Bankruptcy’ [PDF] skillfully marries masterful data journalism with nuanced reporting about those affected to create a powerful report that shines light on a little-known but deeply disturbing trend,” the judges said. “It is a compelling and important read that starts in Memphis, and ProPublica’s reporting has already led government officials to take action. It truly meets the criteria of this award, journalism that fights for justice for those who are disadvantaged. . . .”

Glanton is to receive $2,500 for winning the Mike Royko Award for Commentary/Column Writing, [PDF] “which recognizes excellence in writing by an individual that expresses a personal point of view. The award is sponsored by the Chicago Tribune in memory of legendary columnist Mike Royko, who died in 1997.”

The judges said, “Dahleen Glanton writes with thunderous passion and uncommon clarity about the issue that affects Chicago worst and most: violence, too often by and against the young, spawned by the hopelessness of the city’s high-poverty neighborhoods. Her empathy for the underdog and her ability to put voice to unpleasant truths are infused in every sentence she writes.”

In addition, “The staff of The Arizona Republic with the USA TODAY Network is the winner of the Punch Sulzberger Award for Online Storytelling, which recognizes excellence and innovation in the use of digital tools to tell news stories. The staff will receive $2,500 for winning the award, sponsored by The New York Times in memory of former publisher Arthur Ochs ‘Punch’ Sulzberger, who died in 2012.

“The editors of the USA TODAY Network knew that the president’s much-ballyhooed border wall was no mere abstraction. It’s not a cliche to say that the immigration debate, on the ground, is one of blood, sweat and tears. This hyper-ambitious, thoroughly comprehensive online project recognizes that and gives voice and space and vision and context to the barrier’s potential impact on both sides of the southern border. ‘The Wall’ made the most its online-storytelling ambitions, ensuring that viewers can access and interact with the multi-pronged story in the way that is most comfortable for each individual: photos and text, of course, but also video, podcasts and VR. . . .”

Newsroom Harassment Bigger ‘Than Anyone Thinks’

“One year ago this week — Sunshine Week — I set out to chronicle journalism in America in 2017 by driving 10,000 miles,” Meredith Cummings wrote March 17 for medium.com.

“As a former full-time journalist turned journalism professor I wanted to step out of my own newsroom experiences and learn. I was interested in holding a mirror up to the journalists who bring us the news every day. ‘Who,’ I asked, ‘is watching the gatekeepers?’ I visited news outlets big and small, for-profit and non-profit, traditional and cutting-edge across all media. . . .”

Cummings also wrote, “The lessons I learned on my adventure to document American journalism have taken me a year of digesting what I saw — and many notes — to find patterns and overarching truths from my trip. I truly believe this strange, quirky journey I took is important. Regret is difficult to forecast, but I know I will not regret this.

“Journalists are not angry. . . .

“Journalism is also under attack from within. . . .

“Newsrooms have a bigger sexual harassment and assault problem than anyone thinks. . . .

“Newsrooms are strange places and have strange things in them. . . .

“Journalists don’t document their own stories. . . .

“Journalism — long a champion of openness and transparency — is anything but. . . .

“Journalism can be a painfully lonely career. . . .

“Journalists talk a good game when it comes to diversity in newsrooms, but do not put that into practice. . . ”

“Journalism is alive and well in America. . . .

On sexual harassment, Cummings wrote, “So far, most coverage has focused on large, [well-known], national, corporate newsrooms, but we cannot forget the thousands of newsrooms in smaller towns and communities that also have a problem. Their voices are not loud, but I am here to tell you, they are there and the sheer number of them is unconscionable.”

• Ben Beaumont-Thomas, the Guardian: R Kelly accused of grooming 14-year-old girl as ‘sex pet’

Indian Country Isn’t Into #DeleteFacebook

“In the last 48 hours, I’ve seen several people turn to one social network, Twitter, to vent their frustrations about another one: Facebook,” Jenni Monet wrote March 23 for yes! magazine.

“In the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, in which data from over 50 million Facebook profiles were secretly mined for voter insights, it sparked what some have called a #DeleteFacebook movement.

“But not in Indian Country.

“Deleting Facebook would be like pulling the plug at the party, rendering total darkness and, what’s more, deafening silence (where there’s already plenty of that).

“And it’s not just Indian Country that would feel the extreme disconnect in a Facebook-less scenario. The entire Indigenous world would reel from its absence. To be sure, the social network has done more for bolstering the modern Indigenous rights agenda than perhaps any other platform of our time. . . .”

• Liz Mineo, Harvard Gazette: Battling stereotypes of Native Americans

Ethiopia Rearrests Freed Press-Freedom Hero

The International Press Institute and other press-freedom groups are strongly condemning the re-arrest of recently freed Ethiopian journalist Eskinder Nega and other journalists, bloggers and politicians, calling for their immediate release.

“Ethiopian authorities on Sunday made the arrests at a gathering outside the capital city of Addis [Ababa],” Alma Onali, an IPI fellow, reported Monday.

“Nega, who received the IPI-IMS World Press Freedom Hero Award in 2017, had been recently released after spending more than six years in prison on a spurious terrorism conviction.

“Local media have said authorities also rearrested . . . journalist Temesgen Desalegn; bloggers Befekadu Hailu, Zelalem Workagegnehu, Mahlet Fantahun and Fekadu Mehatemework; and politicians Andualem Aragie, Woineshet Molla, Yidenehackew Addis, Sintayehu Chekol and Tefera Tesfaye.

“According to reports, the reasons given for the arrests were the display of a prohibited national flag at the gathering and the violation of a ban on unauthorized gatherings under Ethiopia’s state of emergency. . . .

“Earlier this year, Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn initiated a mass release of political prisoners from Ethiopian jails following anti-government protests. However, Desalegn announced his resignation shortly thereafter, and the government promptly declared a state of emergency. Ethiopia is expecting a new prime minister to take charge in the next few days. . . .”

Short Takes

• “Myriam Marquez, former editor of el Nuevo Herald, will take on the top communications job in Miami-Dade County as the new spokeswoman for Mayor Carlos Gimenez,” Douglas Hanks reported March 8 for the Miami Herald. “The veteran editor and columnist takes on the $175,000-a-year county post with the title of senior adviser and communications director for the county. That puts her in charge of all press shops across the bureaucracy. . . .” Marquez previously was the Miami Herald’s editorial page editor.
• “A former Minneapolis FBI agent who sought to expose what he called ‘systemic biases’ within the bureau has been charged after allegedly leaking secret documents to a national news reporter, according to federal criminal charges filed in Minnesota this week,” Stephen Montemayor reported Thursday for the Star Tribune in Minneapolis. Attorneys JaneAnne Murray and Joshua Dratel said the actions of Terry James Albury, “as the only African-American FBI field agent in Minnesota . . . were driven by a conscientious commitment to long-term national security and addressing the well-documented systemic biases within the FBI.’ . . .” The receiving news organization is believed to be the Intercept.
• With Unity: Journalists for Diversity having set a target date of folding on March 30, Paul Delaney, writing Thursday in Columbia Journalism Review, and former Unity president Karen Lincoln Michel, Tuesday in Madison magazine, updated Wednesday, said farewell. “I probably would not be the editor of this city-regional publication without the trailblazing work of UNITY,” Michel wrote. Unity President Neal Justin said by email on Saturday that “it’ll be a couple weeks” before Unity officially closes; “There’s some legal work that still needs to be processed before it’s official.”
• “President Trump justified his metal tariffs with a spurious claim that they were necessary to safeguard our national security,” the Baltimore Sun editorialized Tuesday. “But these new tariffs threaten another vital American interest — the free press.” Import tariffs announced by the Commerce Department will hit a Washington state paper mill, “and the tariffs — ranging up to 32 percent — are on Canadian newsprint. That means a spike in prices for our industry’s single biggest expense at a time when we are facing a historic shift in our business model, and the results could be catastrophic, particularly for small publishers. . . .”
• “Maia Majumder was on Twitter earlier this month when she saw a map that terrified her,” Helen Branswell reported March 20 for statnews.com, distributed by the Boston Globe. “Large swaths were shaded light pink, denoting a county that had no local daily newspaper at all. . . . local newspapers are critical to identifying outbreaks and forecasting their trajectories. On the map, Majumder saw every county without a local newspaper as a community where health officials and disease researchers could be flying blind. . . .”

• The Accrediting Committee of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, meeting in Chicago March 24, said farewell to retiring Susanne Shaw, who has been executive director of the association of 117 colleges and universities for 32 years. Shaw, who is also retiring as a professor at the William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Kansas, told Journal-isms that a search is underway for her successor. “Going to try to help some HBCUs,” historically black colleges and universities, she messaged Saturday. “Will visit Savannah State and Hampton in the fall.”
• “Late last month, roughly 80 immigrant men from Somalia, Kenya, and Sudan arrived at a remote, for-profit detention center in West Texas to await deportation,” Ryan Devereaux, José Olivares and Maryam Saleh reported March 24 for the Intercept. “In the week that followed, the men were pepper-sprayed, beaten, threatened, taunted with racial slurs, and subjected to sexual abuse. The treatment they endured amounted to multiple violations of federal law and grave human rights abuses — and it all happened over the course of a single week. These are the findings of chilling new report by a collection of Texas-based legal advocacy groups. . . .”
• “The lineup of original podcasts from ESPN Audio will gain a new and distinctive voice when The Right Time with Bomani Jones debuts Tuesday, April 3,” ESPN announced Wednesday. “Offered two times per week . . . [t]he Thursday show will include a special guest as co-host, a personality in sports or media. . . .”
• “A charge of misdemeanor assault on a female against WCCB-TV morning news anchor Terrance Bates was dismissed on Monday in District Court in Mecklenburg County because his wife recanted her allegations,” Théoden Janes reported Tuesday for the Charlotte Observer. “Jim White, the general manager for the station (Channel 18, Charlotte’s The CW affiliate), said Bates will be back on the air Wednesday morning. He has not appeared on camera for the past three weeks. Bates, 44, was arrested on March 6 and spent 24 hours in jail after Tamara Bates, 44, alleged that he choked her and threw her to the ground while the couple was arguing. . . .”

• 

  Yvette Cabrera, investigative reporter at the Washington-based ThinkProgress covering criminal justice, immigration and environmental issues, is returning to California as an environmental justice reporter for the Huffington Post, based in the San Francisco Bay area, spokeswoman Caitlin O’Neill confirmed on Thursday. Cabrera, formerly a reporter at the Orange County Register, has been president of CCNMA: Latino Journalists of California.

• “After seven years at Sports Illustrated and four more at ESPN, longtime pro football reporter Jim Trotter has been hired by NFL Media, the league announced Tuesday,” Alex Putterman reported Tuesday for awfulannouncing.com. “Trotter will contribute to both NFL.com and NFL Network in a variety of roles. . . .”

• “Several people were laid off today at Telemundo Orlando as part of what new parent company Telemundo calls a ‘realignment’ of station operations,” Veronica Villafañe reported Tuesday for her Media Moves site. “WTMO was one of 13 ZGS stations Telemundo acquired for $75 million earlier this year. . . . Among those laid off today were the station’s General Manager, Alex Sánchez Sobrino, News Director Gilberto Companioni, anchor/reporter Luis Estrada, Marketing Manager Elda Rivera and Research Director María Fernández. . . .”
• “Ji Suk Yi, who signed off earlier this month as a contributor to ‘Windy City Live,’ [on WLS-TV] has been hired as a feature reporter for the Sun-Times,” Robert Feder reported Monday for his Chicago journalism site. “Starting today she will create local content for the Sun-Times, including its online entertainment platform and WeekendPlus entertainment section on Fridays, according to an announcement by Carol Fowler, senior vice president of digital news products. . . .”
• “Shaw University in Raleigh, N.C., announced last week that it sold WSHA, its long-running public radio station, and two additional frequencies to religious broadcaster Educational Media Foundation,” Tyler Falk reported Wednesday for Current.org. “The university sold the station to help fund modernization of its communications department, according to a press release. . . .”
• In Milwaukee, “The Music Lab is a different kind of project for both 88Nine and public media as a whole,” Ian Fox wrote Monday for Current.org. Fox also wrote, “The Music Lab is the only youth program I know of that is run primarily by an outside party. 88Nine provides the performance space, manages community outreach for the events and provides financial services for the Lab but doesn’t profit from the program. . . .”
• “In ruling against Florida’s racist and regressive system of restoring — or, more accurately, failing to restore — ex-felons’ voting rights, U.S. District Judge Mark Walker called it ‘fatally flawed,’ ” the Miami Herald editorialized Wednesday. “The ruling is only 150 years in the making. It is overdue, but welcome anyway. . . .”
• The Fund for Investigative Journalism has awarded $58,535 in reporting grants for eight projects “that will help shine light on potential abuses of power, expose significant shortcomings in social institutions and give voice to people who seldom have the platform to share their stories,” the fund announced Friday. Among the recipients are Katti Gray, a veteran journalist who mainly covers health and criminal justice issues; Jenni Monet, an independent journalist who reports extensively on the rights of the country’s indigenous people; and Christina Goldbaum, an independent investigative journalist based in East Africa.
• “Samantha Bee dove deep into the issues that Puerto Rico continues to face more than six months after Hurricane Maria in a ‘Full Frontal’ special on Wednesday,” Lee Moran wrote Thursday for HuffPost Latino Voices. “ ‘If this happened in Connecticut, it would be front page news every day,’ Bee said at the start of the show, citing how 103,000 people on the U.S. territory are still without power. . . .”
• “Three Indian journalists have been struck by vehicles and killed in recent days in what their families and rights groups claim were deliberate attacks,” Michael Safi wrote Tuesday for the Guardian. “The deaths of the reporters Sandeep Sharma in Madhya Pradesh state, and Navin Nischal and Vijay Singh in Bihar state, have underlined India’s status as one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist . . .”
• The International Press Institute Wednesday “reiterated its call on Myanmar to free two Reuters journalists who have been now held for more than 100 days on spurious accusations of violating the country’s official secrets law,” Ahmed Ahmed reported Wednesday for the institute.
• In Kenya, “eight columnists working for the country’s biggest media group resigned en masse yesterday in protest against government and management interference in their journalistic freedom,” Reporters Without Borders reported on Wednesday, updated Thursday.
• In Ecuador, “two newspaper journalists and their driver were kidnapped Monday while on a reporting visit to an area near the Colombian border that has seen frequent clashes between drug traffickers and the authorities since January,” Reporters Without Borders reported on Tuesday.
• In Mexico, “Two former policemen found guilty of the 2015 murder of Veracruz journalist and activist Moisés Sánchez Cerezo were sentenced to 25 years in prison and the payment of about $18,000 in civil reparations, according to Animal Político,” Paola Nalvarte reported Friday for the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas.
• “Mozambican journalist Ericino de Salema, who was kidnapped and savagely beaten on Tuesday afternoon, is now out of danger, but has suffered multiple fractures, according to medical sources at the Maputo private health unit where he is currently hospitalised,” Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique reported on Wednesday. . . . The spokesperson for the Maputo City Police Command, Orlando Mudumane, announced that the police have launched an operation to find and arrest Salema’s kidnappers. . . .”
• “The Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) has suspended licenses of 23 radio stations for allegedly promoting witchcraft,” Serestino Tusingwire reported Tuesday for the Daily Monitor in the capital, Kampala.

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View previous columns (after Feb. 13, 2016).

• February 2018 Podcast: Richard “Dick” Prince on the need for newsroom diversity (Gabriel Greschler, Student Press Law Center, Feb. 26, 2018)
• Diversity’s Greatest Hits, 2017 — Where Will They Take Us in the Year Ahead?
• Book Notes: Best Sellers, Uncovered Treasures, Overlooked History (Dec. 19, 2017)
• An advocate for diversity in the media is still pressing for representation, (Courtland Milloy, Washington Post, Nov. 28, 2017)
• Morgan Global Journalism Review: Journal-isms Journeys On (Aug. 31, 2017)
• Diversity’s Greatest Hits, 2016
• Book Notes: 16 Writers Dish About ‘Chelle,’ the First Lady
• Book Notes: From Coretta to Barack, and in Search of the Godfather
• Journal-isms’ Richard Prince Wants Your Ideas (FishbowlDC, Feb. 26, 2016)
• “JOURNAL-ISMS” IS LATEST TO BEAR BRUNT OF INDUSTRY’S ECONOMIC WOES (Feb. 19, 2016)
• Richard Prince with Charlayne Hunter-Gault,“PBS NewsHour,” “What stagnant diversity means for America’s newsrooms” (Dec. 15, 2015)
• Book Notes: Journalists Follow Their Passions
• Book Notes: Journalists Who Rocked Their World
• Book Notes: Hands Up! Read This!
• Book Notes: New Cosby Bio Looks Like a Best-Seller
• Journo-diversity advocate turns attention to Ezra Klein project (Erik Wemple, Washington Post, March 5, 2014)
• Book Notes: “Love, Peace and Soul!” And More
• Book Notes: Book Notes: Soothing the Senses, Shocking the Conscience
• Diversity’s Greatest Hits, 2015
• Diversity’s Greatest Hits, 2014
• Diversity’s Greatest Hits, 2013
• Diversity’s Greatest Hits, 2012
• Diversity’s Greatest Hits, 2011
• Diversity’s Greatest Hits, 2010
• Diversity’s Greatest Hits, 2009
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• Book Notes: Books to Ring In the New Year
• Book Notes: In-Your-Face Holiday Reads
• Fishbowl Interview With the Fresh Prince of D.C. (Oct. 26, 2012)
• NABJ to Honor Columnist Richard Prince With Ida B. Wells Award (Oct. 11, 2012)
• So What Do You Do, Richard Prince, Columnist for the Maynard Institute? (Richard Horgan, FishbowlLA, Aug. 22, 2012)
• Book Notes: Who Am I? What’s Race Got to Do With It?: Journalists Explore Identity
• Book Notes: Catching Up With Books for the Fall
• Richard Prince Helps Journalists Set High Bar (Jackie Jones, BlackAmericaWeb.com, 2011)
• Book Notes: 10 Ways to Turn Pages This Summer
• Book Notes: 7 for Serious Spring Reading
• Book Notes: 7 Candidates for the Journalist’s Library
• Book Notes: 9 That Add Heft to the Bookshelf
• Five Minutes With Richard Prince (Newspaper Association of America, 2005)
• ‘Journal-isms’ That Engage and Inform Diverse Audiences (Q&A with Mallary Jean Tenore, Poynter Institute, 2008)