Bill Whitaker Defends Jeff Fager of ’60 Minutes’

Ken Smikle Dies at 66, Chronicled Black Business

‘Black-ish’ Creator Burris Breaks His Silence

Short Takes

Bill Whitaker Defends Jeff Fager of ’60 Minutes’

Jeff Fager, only the second person in 50 years to oversee CBS-TV’s “60 Minutes,” was fired Wednesday for sending a text message that threatened the career of CBS reporter Jericka Duncan, who was looking into allegations of sexual harassment leveled against Fager and the network’s recently dismissed chief executive, Leslie Moonves, John Koblin and Michael M. Grynbaum reported Wednesday for the New York Times.

“CBS News had put together a team, including Ms. Duncan, to report out the allegations against Mr. Moonves and others. On Sunday, Mr. Fager replied to an inquiry from Ms. Duncan by warning her to ‘be careful,’ ” they wrote.

“ ‘There are people who lost their jobs trying to harm me, and if you pass on these damaging claims without your own reporting to back them up that will become a serious problem,’ Mr. Fager wrote in a text message, which CBS News aired on Wednesday’s ‘Evening News’ in a segment reported by Ms. Duncan.

Duncan revealed the contents of the text message on the “CBS Evening News” on Wednesday, “since Jeff Fager publicly referred to our exchange today.”(video)

Anchor Jeff Glor said when she finished her report, “You have been on this since the beginning. You have done great work. It’s difficult enough without dealing with this. That message was unacceptable. I think it’s important for you to know…that the entire team at Evening News supports you 100%.”

Veteran “60 Minutes” correspondent Steve Kroft called Fager’s message to Duncan threatening and inappropriate.

CBS reported, “In July, six former CBS News employees told The New Yorker that Fager ‘would touch employees in ways that made them uncomfortable’ after drinking at office parties. The article said 19 current and former employees said Fager enabled a culture that shielded bad behavior.’

“Fager vehemently denied all of those claims. He continued to come to work.

“On Sunday, The New Yorker reported that a new accuser said ‘she “felt compelled to speak because she simply “can’t believe [Fager is] back there.'” The article described her as ‘a producer who was an intern at CBS’ in the early 2000s who said that ‘he groped her at a work party.’

“In response to that allegation, Fager told CBS News, ‘This is an outrageous claim and it didn’t happen. It is wrong.’

The Times’ Koblin and Grynbaum also reported, “inside the ’60 Minutes’ offices, across West 57th Street from the rest of CBS News, there was shock when the news of Mr. Fager’s firing landed in inboxes at 1:31 p.m. Several people were in tears.

“ ‘This action today is not directly related to the allegations surfaced in press reports, which continue to be investigated independently,’ [CBS News president David] Rhodes wrote in his memo. ‘However, he violated company policy, and it is our commitment to uphold those policies at every level.’

“Mr. Fager did not have a chance to address his staff, and a staff meeting with Mr. Rhodes quickly turned into something of an aggressive news conference.

“Several people, including the correspondent Bill Whitaker, pointedly questioned Mr. Rhodes about why this infraction was serious enough to merit Mr. Fager’s immediate dismissal. They wondered why it could not be folded into the larger investigation happening at CBS. . . .”

The Times reporters also wrote, “By Wednesday afternoon, before the ‘Evening News’ report aired, more than 60 members of the ’60 Minutes’ staff — including the building’s security guard — had joined Mr. Fager for drinks at P. J. Clarke’s by Lincoln Center, the show’s regular haunt.

“People were teary-eyed as they showered Mr. Fager with praise and hugs. Several said they were concerned that ’60 Minutes’ could be dismantled under new leadership.

“ ‘Jeff Fager is a wonderful boss,’ Mr. Whitaker said, looking somber on a bar stool. ‘So much of the magic of “60 Minutes” is because of him. He treats his staff as adults. He trusts his people.’ . . .”

Quoting media sites, the website showpizpost.com reports that Duncan, 35, a 2005 graduate of Ohio University, “preferred to stay in CBS and work as a part of that network specifically due to her father Ronnie Duncan’s previous ties with the company. He worked as a sports director for CBS, and is likely the reason she developed an interest for news and working on television.

“Her father didn’t enjoy the same publicity she has now, and was mainly in the background of CBS, helping the company specifically in its sports-related programming. She is also very close to several of the network’s executives, thanks to her father’s ties. . . .”

Separately, quoting “sources,” Cynthia Littleton and Daniel Holloway reported for Variety Tuesday that “Former Turner Broadcasting CEO John Martin and newly added CBS board member Richard Parsons have emerged as two top external candidates for the chief-executive role” vacated by Moonves.

Parsons, former chairman of Citigroup and former chairman and CEO of Time Warner, has been one of the highest ranking African Americans in corporate America.

Ken Smikle Dies at 66, Chronicled Black Business

“Ken Smikle, publisher of Target Market News and husband of retired NBC5 investigative reporter Renee Ferguson, died Wednesday evening after his wife made a poignant plea for a donor heart,” Maudlyne Ihejirika reported for the Chicago Sun-Times.

“Smikle, a well-known journalist who helmed the corporate marketing news firm here for 30 years, was 66. . . .”

Ihejirika also wrote, “Smikle founded Target Market News, a trade news source, in 1988. His expertise led to appearances on CNN, ABC ‘World News Tonight,’ PBS, NPR and other programs. He was frequently quoted in Newsweek, Time, the Wall Street Journal and New York Times, among other publications.

“Prior to that, he’d been an editor and publisher at numerous publications — from arts editor of the Amsterdam News in his native Harlem, N.Y. in the ’70s, to senior editor at Black Enterprise magazine in the ’80s. His firm annually publishes the widely cited ‘The Buying Power of Black America’ report, and hosts several annual conferences here, including the Marketing to African Americans with Excellence Summit, a two-day event for senior corporate executives. He also co-founded the African American Marketing and Media Association.

“His wife, who was the first African-American woman investigative reporter on Chicago TV when she joined CBS2 in 1977, and won seven Emmys and numerous other awards over a career of 35-plus years at network and local affiliates in New York, Atlanta and Chicago, said she knew her husband would have wanted his [transplant] need to be used as a teaching moment. . . .”

‘Black-ish’ Creator Burris Breaks His Silence

“‘Black-ish’ Creator Kenya Barris Breaks Silence on That Shelved Anti-Trump Episode, His ABC Exit and ‘Unapologetic’ Netflix Plans,” the Hollywood Reporter headlines n its Sept. 12 issue.

“The Emmy-nominated showrunner details the battle all of Hollywood has buzzed about, including the Spike Lee-narrated episode that led to his departure, clashes with Disney’s Ben Sherwood, ‘monster’ Roseanne [Barr] and the anxiety of high expectations with his massive streaming deal: ‘I’m f—ing terrified,’ ” the editors say over a story by Lacey Rose.

Excerpts:

“The ABC marriage was never perfect, however. There famously was pushback on the title (the network preferred The Johnsons), and an initial round of testing yielded notes like, ‘Do you have to talk about so much black stuff?’ Even as the series was scooping up Emmy nominations (13 to date) and a Peabody, ABC’s standards and practices division remained in almost perpetual panic.

“Vicki Dummer, the head of ABC’s current department whom Barris says he ‘loves to death,’ once approached him with test results that expressed concerns about his ‘Juneteenth’ episode making the series’ sizable white audience uncomfortable. ‘I was like, “[Vicki’], you mean the episode about how talking about slavery makes white people uncomfortable makes white people uncomfortable?” And we laughed at the fuckin’ irony of it,’ he says. ‘We ultimately showed it and it was a well-received episode, but she was doing her job and that’s a network fight.’ . . .”

Rose also writes, “Barris is acutely aware of the racial breakdown in every room he inhabits, even occasionally roping his kids into a game he calls ‘Count the Black People.’ (When he took them to see Hamilton on Broadway, they counted Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Oprah Winfrey.) It’s a broader topic that he loves exploring through his art, but he shudders at the notion of being some sort of poster child for Hollywood’s diversity push — and he’s not particularly interested in sitting on any more panels to pontificate on the subject, either.

“In fact, he’s so tired of talking about ‘diversity’ that he once broke down in tears on an industry stage. ‘ ‘Diversity’ became this catchphrase for the easing of liberal guilt and I felt like there was starting to be an overcorrection, which often happens, and overcorrections tend to re-correct themselves,’ he says. ‘Plus, I didn’t want to be a part of a moment; I wanted to be a part of a movement.’

“He’s hopeful that Netflix will allow him that. . . .”

Short Takes

• ” ‘The Storm of a Lifetime,’ according to the National Weather Service, is heading toward the Carolinas, and TV networks are already bracing for its impact“ (scroll down), Michael Calderone reported Thursday for Politico. “All three broadcast evening news anchors — NBC’s Lester Holt, ABC’s David Muir and CBS’s Jeff Glor — anchored last night from North Carolina.” CNN’s Brian Stelter added Wednesday in his “Reliable Sources” newsletter, “Katrice Hardy, the exec editor of the Greenville News, told me that her staff has been ‘booking hotels and then having to find new ones (scroll down) when they close so our reporters can stay on the ground along the Coast. . . .’ ” Paul Farhi reported for the Washington Post, “As Hurricane Florence bears down on the Carolinas, the Raleigh newspaper is a shadow of what it was in 1999. . . . But in many important respects, the News & Observer’s coverage of Florence may be superior to its acclaimed reporting two decades ago, said executive editor Robyn Tomlin. . . .”
• The Multicultural Media, Telecom & Internet Council, known as MMTC, and the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) asked the Federal Communications Commission Wednesday “to ensure that lifesaving information, in Spanish, is available in four radio markets” in North and South Carolina affected by Hurricane Florence. David Honig, president emeritus and senior adviser, told Journal-isms Thursday that the groups had not received a response from the FCC’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau.

“Inquirer and Daily News columnist Helen Ubiñas has been named recipient of the Vernon Jarrett Medal for Journalistic Excellence for a series of columns on gun violence and its impact on Philadelphia teenagers in the aftermath of the deadly mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.,” Joseph A. Gambardello reported Monday for the Philadelphia Inquirer. “Winners of the award, which is administered by Morgan State University’s School of Global Journalism & Communication, must be nominated by someone directly affected by the reporting cited in the nomination. . . . Ubiñas will receive the prize, which includes a $10,000 check, at a Sept. 20 ceremony at the National Press Club in Washington. . . .”

• “A coalition of minority journalism organizations is disturbed by a lack of participation in the American Society of News Editors’ (ASNE) annual diversity survey,” the groups said in a statement Thursday. “The coalition strongly urges media companies to participate in this important annual project. The coalition consists of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ), National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ), Asian-American Journalists Association (AAJA), Native American Journalists Association (NAJA) and The Association of LGBTQ Journalists (NLGJA).” Only 234 of nearly 1,700 newspapers and digital media outlets submitted data for this year’s annual newsroom diversity survey, ASNE said Wednesday, forcing the organization to delay release of its 2018 figures. Karen Magnuson, editor of the Democrat and Chronicle in Rochester, N.Y., and co-chair of the ASNE Diversity Committee, told ASNE members that the announcement prompted some companies, such as Gannett, to reiterate the need to fill out the survey.
• “Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Thursday defended the imprisonment of two Reuters journalists who were investigating military attacks against Rohingya Muslims, saying the men were not punished for their reporting but because they broke the law,” Shashank Bengali reported for the Los Angeles Times. ” ‘If we believe in the rule of law, they have every right to appeal the judgment and to point out why the judgment was wrong, if they consider it wrong,’ Suu Kyi told an audience at a World Economic Forum gathering in Vietnam. . . .”
• “Tracy Baim, a trailblazing Chicago journalist and the longtime publisher and executive editor of Windy City Times, has been named publisher of the Chicago Reader,” Robert Feder reported Thursday in his Chicago media column. “Dorothy Leavell, who heads the leadership team buying the alternative weekly from the parent company of the Sun-Times, announced Baim’s hiring Thursday. Leavell will serve as chairman of the board of directors of the Reader.” Leavell is also president of the National Newspaper Publishers Association, trade association for black-press newspaper publishers. The Chicago Sun-Times announced in June that it was selling the Reader, an alternative weekly that covers the arts, culture and politics, to a group led by Leavell, publisher of the Chicago Crusader and Gary Crusader newspapers.
• “After 22 years at Slate, Jacob Weisberg says he’s leaving to ‘launch a new audio company with Malcolm Gladwell‘ (scroll down), Weisberg announced the move via Twitter on Wednesday,” CNN’s Brian Stelter reported Wednesday for his “Reliable Sources’ newsletter. “He’s been the chairman and EIC of the Slate Group for a decade. . . .” New York Times report
• “BET’s latest scripted series ‘American Soul’ goes back a few decades to explore the life and career of [‘Soul Train’] creator Don Cornelius,” Rodney Ho reported Tuesday for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “The show is set to begin production next week in Atlanta, where BET has shot plenty of its scripted fare over the past decade.. . . .”
• “Receiver Antonio Brown has issued a statement through the Steelers to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette apologizing for his tweet threatening ESPN senior writer Jesse Washington,” Joe Starkey wrote Wednesday for the Post-Gazette. He also wrote, “Brown was angry about a profile Washington wrote for ‘The Undefeated’ titled ‘Antonio Brown is an Instagram All-Pro. But is that the full picture?‘ The story was published Friday. . . .”
• In Florida, “Pinellas County Commission candidate Amy Kedron called police on Tampa Bay Times reporter Mark Puente when he attempted to interview her outside of a campaign fundraiser at the Vinoy Marina on Wednesday evening,” Tracey McManus reported Sept. 6 for the Times. McManus also wrote, “Officers Corinna Branley and Daniel Poveda responded to  ‘stalking allegation’ from Kedron who said she felt unsafe, according to St. Petersburg police spokeswoman Yolanda Fernandez. . . . “
• “Donald Trump whipped up another rowdy ovation from a friendly crowd this week with an attack on the media . . . applauded by dozens of senior law enforcement officials in the splendour of the East Room of the White House,” Jon Swaine reported Saturday for the Guardian. He also wrote,”A review of coverage produced by regional media outlets over recent years found that many of the sheriffs who cheered the president have come under sharp scrutiny from the press for their own actions – or for those of the officers in their departments. They have been held accountable by local journalists for incidents including the leaving of a service pistol in a casino bathroom, alleged mistreatment in jails, the wearing of blackface by an officer, and various other actions. . . .”
• KUT, a public radio station in Austin, Texas, “is at the center of NPR’s first regional news hub, a collaboration developed with NPR, Texas Public Radio in San Antonio, Houston Public Media and KERA in Dallas, April Simpson reported Wednesday for Current.org. “GM Stewart Vanderwilt set in motion a plan to change the culture of the newsroom he presided over for 18 years” before leaving this summer to oversee Colorado Public Radio. “Yet as Vanderwilt departed, the newsroom continued to reckon with longstanding tensions over opportunities for advancement and the difficult working conditions that current and former newsroom staffers say they endured. . . .”

• 

  “NBC Nightly News” followed CBS News, the BBC, CNBC, Teen Vogue and others in shining a light on Kheris Rogers, who after being bullied for her dark complexion, started a T-shirt company with her sister with the message “Flexin’ in My Complexion.” The company has been embraced by celebrities from LeBron James to Lupita Nyong’o, NBC noted in its “Inspiring America” segment Monday.

• “Jonathan Capehart began sitting in as a WNYC host a dozen years ago, as a tuned-in New York Daily News journalist, publicist and later official in Michael Bloomberg’s first mayoral campaign,” David Beard wrote Monday for the Poynter Institute. “At 8 p.m. eastern tonight, The Washington Post columnist and MSNBC contributor returns to the same studio to host a new weeknight program for more than 100 public radio affiliates nationwide, keyed to November’s vote and the extraordinarily unpredictable (of late) news of the day. The show, titled “America on the Line,” also will stream live on wnyc.org. . . .”
• “Years of research, using different sources of data (self-reports, arrests, convictions), at different levels of analysis (individual,city, state), conducted in different time periods, by different authors continues to show the exact same finding: Immigrants do not commit crime at higher rates than native-born Americans, and more immigration, in the aggregate, does not lead to more crime. Period,” Alex R. Piquero wrote Sept. 5 for the Des Moines Register.
• “Sue Schardt, former CEO of the Association of Independents in Radio, left the organization five weeks after the entire AIR staff sent a letter to the board requesting her immediate removal,” Dru Sefton reported Tuesday for Current.org. Among the complaints was “lack of sensitivity regarding race and gender.” Sefton also wrote, “In the July 2 letter, obtained by Current, the staff characterized Schardt’s leadership as ‘a threat to the well-being of the organization and staff.”
• “The same Kremlin-linked group that posed as Americans on social media during the 2016 US presidential election has repeatedly exploited the controversy surrounding the NFL and players who have protested police brutality and racial injustice during the National Anthem, playing both sides in an effort to exacerbate divides in American society,” Donie O’Sullivan and Aaron Kessler reported Saturday for CNN.
• The new season of Ozy’s podcast series, “The Thread,” “will chart the history of nonviolent resistance backward in time, from Martin LutherKing Jr. to the likes of Leo Tolstoy, William Lloyd Garrison and world-changing figures who have remained in the shadows,” Fay Schlesinger, managing editor of ozy.com, said Monday in a promotional email.

• • • In Texas, the State Board of Education “adopted the current social studies curriculum standards, known as the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), in 2010,” Cary Clack, a former columnist at the San Antonio Express-News, wrote Tuesday for the Austin American-Statesman. Of those board members’ embrace of the “Lost Cause,” Clack wrote, “Their talk of heritage embraces my white great-great uncle who fought for the Confederacy, but it ignores my enslaved black great-great grandfather, his half-brother. More than it was brother fighting against brother, the Civil War was about brothers fighting to keep brothers and sisters enslaved. . . .” Clack is a board member of the Texas Freedom Network, advocating for changes in the curriculum standards. A related piece ran in the Texas Observer.
    • “A U.S. Department of Agriculture report on hunger released Wednesday showed that nationwide, the rate of food insecurity — the condition of not having access to enough food for a healthy life — decreased from 12.3 percent in 2016 to 11.8 percent in 2017,” Alfred Lubrano reported Monday for the Philadelphia Inquirer. “At the same time, childhood food insecurity didn’t change much, stuck at around 8 percent. In the coming days — unofficially dubbed ‘Poverty Week’ by anti-hunger advocates — the U.S. Census Bureau will release two vital reports about poverty in 2017 that are used by businesses and local, state, and federal officials to understand poverty, set their agendas for fighting it, and create funding levels for the entire year. . . .”
    • The Multicultural Media, Telecom & Internet Council, known as MMTC, Wednesday endorsed a petition it co-sponsored before the Federal Communications Commission to create an FM station class to be called C4. “Class A stations have (typically) 6,000 watts at 100 meters (tower height), and their signals reach 15-18 miles out from the tower,” David Honig, president emeritus and senior adviser, told Journal-isms. “Thus they are full power but not as competitive as (for example) a ‘Class C’ station, which has 100,000 watts and a much higher tower. Minorities have always disproportionately owned Class A stations. Being able to double their power would mean that their signals would reach maybe 25 miles from the tower. . . . On becoming a C4, a ‘Class A’ station would double its power. . . .”
    • The Atlantic’s October magazine issue is devoted to the complicated question, “Is Democracy Dying?” the magazine announced in an advisory. “Publishing tomorrow, September 13: The Atlantic examines one of the most traditional hazards to the American ideal. In ‘On Racism’s Threat to the American Idea.’ Ibram X. Kendi, a professor of history and international relations at American University and the author of the National Book Award-winning Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, argues that the country remains divided by racism — and the threat is as existential today as it was before the Civil War. . . .”

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About Richard Prince

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

• Journalist Richard Prince w/Joe Madison (Sirius XM, April 18, 2018) (podcast)
• Richard Prince (journalist) (Wikipedia entry)
• 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
• Diversity’s Greatest Hits, 2008
• 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)

J-Groups, Under Attack, Ask Voters for Help

Sept. 17, 2018

Where Do Candidates Stand on Press Freedom?

3 Radio Groups Providing Storm Info in Spanish

Few Black and Brown Winners at ONA Awards

. . . Cost, Internal Politics Stifling Diversity

Ruby Washington, Pioneer Photographer, Dies

Henderson, Detroit Free Press Reach Settlement

‘The Victims Who Don’t Count’ Are Too Often Black

Authors Call Identity, Not Economics, Key in ’16

Short Takes

In May, Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs was body-slammed by Greg Gianforte, a Republican candidate for Montana’s congressional seat. Gianforte is now a member of Congress, whom President Trump praised at a Sept. 6 rally. “This man has fought,” said Trump, pausing for effect, “in more ways than one, for your state. He has fought for your state. Greg Gianforte. He is a fighter and a winner.” (video) (YouTube)

Where Do Candidates Stand on Press Freedom?

As midterm elections approach and President Trump continues his verbal attacks on the news media, two dozen media organizations, led by the international press freedom group Reporters Without Borders, are launching a counteroffensive in which they encourage voters to ask their congressional candidates where they stand on press freedom.

The campaign, called #DefendPressFreedom, “seeks to galvanize the American public in protecting and defending the First Amendment,” the Radio Television Digital News Association said in a news release on Thursday. Voters are to be urged to contact their candidates through phone calls, letters, at town hall meetings or on social media.

Participating are the American Society of News Editors, Arab and Middle Eastern Journalists Association, Asian American Journalists Association, Association of Alternative Newsmedia, Free Press Action, Freedom Forum Institute, Freedom of the Press Foundation, International Center for Journalists, International Press Institute, International Women’s Media Foundation, Investigative Reporters & Editors, Media Law Research Center, National Association of Hispanic Journalists, National Press Club, National Press Photographers Association, Native American Journalists Association, News Media Alliance, Newseum, Online News Association, PEN America, Radio Television Digital News Association, Society of Environmental Journalists and Society of Professional Journalists.

“By doing this, we hope to bring to light the critically important role that journalists play in the US, as well as the dire need to preserve press freedom in the midst of its concerningly steady decline,” the announcement said. “It is vital to remember the crucial role journalists play in empowering the community to make more informed decisions and to hold those in power accountable. This is why It’s time to remind those running for office of the importance of an independent and free media. It’s time to #DefendPressFreedom.”

RTDNA Executive Director Dan Shelley said, “Too often, today’s candidates and elected officials disparage, lash out at, obstruct and even attack journalists working to keep the public informed about how those officials are conducting the public’s business. RTDNA and our partners are encouraging voters to remind their congressional candidates that they are responsible to the people and that upholding press freedom is a crucial mechanism for accountability.

“In the US, assaults against reporters, photojournalists, and media workers are becoming more and more commonplace. Physical, verbal, and online attacks against reporters undermine the media’s role as a critical pillar of democracy, consequently creating opportunities for government overreach, the erosion of the First Amendment, and infringing on the public’s right to be informed.”

The issue of attacks on the press surfaced Friday at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Annual Legislative Conference. “One of the things that has just been boiling my blood is the lack of respect for the press coming from the orange man,” Rep. Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., said, opening a panel discussion called “Black Journalists: Reporting Our Experiences in the Era of Trump,” Rachel del Guidice reported Friday for the Daily Signal, a publication of the conservative Heritage Foundation.

At Trump’s Sept. 6 mass rally, in Billings, Mont., the president stoked loud jeers from the crowd by criticizing the reporters in attendance. “Look at all the fake news back there,” Trump said.

The attacks on the press are the basis for a new course offered this fall by Stanford Continuing Studies and the John S. Knight Journalism Fellowships at Stanford University, the school announced on Wednesday.

The course, “Journalism Under Siege? Truth and Trust in a Time of Turmoil,” is to be offered on Tuesday evenings beginning Oct. 2.

Dawn Garcia, director of the fellowship program, and Michael Bolden, its managing director of communications, are to host a diverse group of nearly 30 guest speakers throughout the five-week course.

• Amanda Darrach, Columbia Journalism Review: It’s getting more difficult for foreign journalists to work in the US 
• Glenn Kessler, Salvador Rizzo and Meg Kelly, Washington Post: President Trump has made more than 5,000 false or misleading claims
• Norman Pearlstine, Los Angeles Times: Trump wants to toughen the nation’s libel laws. Here’s why he isn’t likely to succeed (Sept. 8)
• Andrew Restuccia, Politico: Trump on congressman who assaulted reporter: ‘He is a fighter’ (Sept. 7)
• Matt Tullis, Daily Beast: How Trump Is Making Journalism School Great Again (Sept. 10)

3 Radio Groups Providing Storm Info in Spanish

“In the best public service tradition of broadcasting, three radio station groups have voluntarily banded together to provide life-saving information to Spanish-speaking residents of two coastal South Carolina communities threatened by Hurricane Florence, [PDF] the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council (MMTC) and the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), announced on Monday.

“The companies are:

“Cumulus Media, which serves Myrtle Beach

“Dick Broadcasting, which serves Hilton Head

“Spanish Broadcasting System (SBS), which is voicing and transmitting Spanish-language alerts and information for Cumulus Media’s and Dick Broadcasting’s South Carolina stations.

“The three broadcast companies came together at the request of the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council (MMTC) and the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC). The South Carolina Broadcasters Association and the FCC’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau each assisted in identifying the participating broadcasters.

“Through this initiative, the 22,000 Hispanic residents of the Myrtle Beach radio market and 21,000 Hispanic residents of the Hilton Head radio market are receiving life-saving information about health care issues, shelters, how to find missing persons, health care issues, and avoiding injury. . . .”

Made it through my @ONA Awards speech without ugly crying to talk about how proud I am @TexasTribune supported + believed in Dangerous Deliveries. Big hugs @CEssig @AlexSamuelsx5 @dkharmon and all who helped bring this to life. We hope it continues to help moms + families. #OJA18 pic.twitter.com/7TwOR1PSyI

— Marissa (@marissaaevans) September 16, 2018

Few Black and Brown Winners at ONA Awards

When just two black women and one Latina — but no black or Latino men — stepped up to receive one of the 37 awards presented Saturday night at the Online News Association conference in Austin, Texas, it was reflective of ONA’s continuing challenge to become more inclusive of African Americans and Hispanics.

An ONA survey of its 2,600 attendees showed 26 percent of those responding to be nonwhite and 74 percent white, although 22 percent preferred not to answer. Eight percent said they were Hispanic, Latino or of Spanish origin. Of the 26 percent nonwhite, Asians were 11 percent, blacks 7 percent, American Indian or Alaskan Native, 1 percent. Those who identified as more than one category were 2 percent, and those who checked Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander were less than 1 percent.

Marissa Evans, a Student Journalist of the Year for the National Association of Black Journalists in 2013, accepted an award for the Texas Tribune for “Dangerous Deliveries.” The entry was the result of Evans’ “tireless reporting from South Texas all the way to Poland” on “why Texas women were dying at unusually high rates after childbirth,” in the words of the Tribune. It won in the “Explanatory Reporting — Small Newsroom” category.

Akoto Ofori-Atta, senior editor of the Trace, “an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit newsroom dedicated to shining a light on America’s gun violence crisis,” accepted for her outlet, which tied in the “General Excellence in Online Journalism, Micro Newsroom” category. She is also a black journalist.

“In the year under consideration for this award, The Trace used its investigative chops to produce document- and data-driven deep dives into stolen guns and NRA lobbyist Marion Hammer,” the Trace reported on Monday. “We published an audio report about the hurdles faced by gunshot survivors, highlighting The Trace’s use of digital storytelling techniques to cover deeply affected communities. An animated guide to bump stocks, produced in collaboration with The New Yorker days after the Las Vegas shooting, underscored the newsroom’s issue expertise at a time when public interest in gun violence was high. And we tested readers’ gun violence knowledge with a quiz, as part of its commitment to increase understanding of this issue among the public. . . .”

Alba Mora Roca, executive producer at AJ+ Español, accepted the award for “Excellence in Collaboration and Partnerships” for Verificado 2018, AJ+ Español, Animal Político and Pop-Up Newsroom. Verificado 2018 is an elections fact-checking project in Mexico. “This was a big collaboration to fight fake news in Mexico during the presidential campaign,” Mora said, according to Teresa Mioli, writing for the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas.

Yemeni journalists Zahra Rassool, Manal Qaeed Al Wesabi and Ahmed Al Ghobari won in the “Excellence in Immersive Storytelling” category for “Yemen’s Skies of Terror,” airing on Al Jazeera Contrast.

That so few black and brown journalists were on stage did not mean that issues of concern to them were not recognized.

The Florida Times-Union and ProPublica, for example, won the University of Florida Award for “Investigative Data Journalism, Small/Medium Newsroom,” for “Walking While Black.” Topher Sanders of ProPublica, a black journalist, and Benjamin Conarck of the Florida Times-Union wrote that their organizations had examined “more than 2,200 pedestrian tickets issued to people in Jacksonville from 2012 to 2017, and found that 55 percent of them were issued to blacks despite the fact that the city’s population is just 29 percent African American. . . .”

. . . Cost, Internal Politics Stifling Diversity

Irving Washington, executive director of the Online News Association, says the perception of how many black and brown people were present at last week’s conference is largely a function of whether the observer is a first-time visitor.

“It’s like night and day,” he told Journal-isms at the conference site, the J.W. Marriott hotel in Austin, Texas. Washington recalled that in earlier years, when African American attendees would gather for a photo, the number would be about six, including himself. Today, those six would see a dramatic difference.

First-timers don’t have that frame of reference, however, and wonder why there are so few black and brown attendees.

As noted in this column after an ONA conference four years ago, the position of ONA leaders has likewise changed. At a 2008 gathering in Washington, then-leaders told Journal-isms that nothing about racial diversity was on the agenda because the organization dealt with technology, which is colorblind.

Those days are gone.  The association is aware enough to survey attendees’ racial background and, Washington said, puts a diversity focus on the speakers. “Getting people to see people who look like them,” by gender and race, encourages more diversity, Washington said.

Journal-isms asked about 10 black and brown attendees why there weren’t more people of their ethnic group.

The answers:

• The cost is among the highest of the journalism conventions.
• The lack of significant numbers of others like them takes some out of their comfort zone. If the choice is going to a conference of black or Hispanic journalists or to ONA, many choose the black or Hispanic conference. Sheryl Huggins, communications director at the McSilver Institute for Poverty Policy and Research at New York University, is a former managing editor of theRoot.com. At that time, she said, “Very often people from my team were the only black people in the room” at professional development sessions.
• Newsroom politics determines who goes and who does not, especially when the employer is paying. “The people in power who get to decide aren’t the black people,” said Jamal Jordan, a digital editor at the New York Times. Brent W. Jones, assistant managing editor, training and outreach at the Wall Street Journal, added, “It’s probably worthwhile for news organizations to take a close look at who we send and why.”
• Not envisioning a future as a digital journalist. “A lot don’t realize the competitive advantage you get” from acquiring these skills and contacts, said Latoya Peterson, a regular attendee who is a storytelling technologist.
  (more to come)

Ruby Washington, Pioneer Photographer, Dies

“Ruby Washington was an intensely private person,” David Gonzalez reported Saturday for the New York Times. “Her daughter, Courtney, said she had no idea her mother was the first African-American woman to become a staff photographer at The New York Times. Her editors said that while she won awards, she didn’t go to galas to accept them. And when she fell ill with breast cancer in 2010, many of her colleagues had no clue, since she kept on working.

“This week, many of them were stunned when they learned that Ms. Washington, 66, died after her cancer returned earlier this year. Her reticence may have been more than just a quirk, but a survival strategy for someone who was promoted from lab technician to staff photographer, much to the intense resentment of some of the men who felt they had been passed over.

“Her response? Silence. . . .”

Gonzalez also wrote, “Marilynn K. Yee, a retired staff photographer, was perhaps her closest friend at the paper. ‘Being women of color at the paper we bonded more so than the others,’ Ms. Yee said. ‘I think we had a special affinity together, and we were both mothers who worked during our pregnancies. I think we were both driven. Being female, I think we had a greater understanding of how to work with people. It showed in her work, where she could get the most flattering photos of people who didn’t feel comfortable with the camera.’ . . .”

Henderson, Detroit Free Press Reach Settlement

“A settlement has been reached, but no terms disclosed, between the Detroit Free Press and newspaper owner Gannett Co. Inc. and fired editorial page editor and Pulitzer Prize winner

Stephen Henderson, according to those involved,” Bill Shea reported Sept. 7 for Crain’s Detroit Business.

“Henderson, 47, was fired by Gannett on Dec. 15, 2017, after the newspaper said he had engaged in ‘inappropriate behavior’ with female colleagues years before. There were no accusations or evidence of sexual assault, the Free Press reported at the time.

“Henderson’s attorney, Bloomfield Hills-based employment and civil rights lawyer Deborah Gordon, confirmed to Crain’s on Friday afternoon that the settlement had been reached in late July after several months of negotiations. There was no lawsuit, she said.

” ‘He’s moved on and wanted a clean slate and is pleased there is resolution,’ she said Friday afternoon. ‘There were never any complaints filed against him.’

“She termed the settlement talks as routine and said there was ‘obvious respect’ on both sides. . . .”

• Michael Ausiello, TVline.com: Are Julie Chen’s Talk Days Over?

‘The Victims Who Don’t Count’ Are Too Often Black

“After his father was murdered in Sarasota, Florida, in 2015, Anthony ‘Amp’ Campbell was in shock,” Alysia Santo reported Thursday for Reveal, of the Center for Investigative Reporting, in conjunction with the Marshall Project and the USA Today Network. “Not only had he lost his role model and supporter, he also worried about coming up with $10,000 to pay for the funeral and burial.

“Campbell, an Alabama State University football coach, emptied most of his savings but still could not cover the whole cost. Sarasota police urged him to apply to Florida’s crime victim compensation fund for help. Every state has such a fund to reimburse people for the financial wallop that can come with being a victim.

“The answer was no. His father, Johnnie Campbell, had been convicted of burglary in 1983 after a late-night break-in attempt at a local business, and Florida law is clear: People with certain types of felonies in their past cannot receive victim’s aid. It did not matter that the elder Campbell had changed in 30 years — the Sarasota City Commission called him a ‘prominent citizen’ a month after his death — or that his son had never committed a crime.

“Florida is one of seven states that bar people with a criminal record from receiving victim compensation. The laws are meant to keep limited funds from going to people who are deemed undeserving. But the rules have had a broader effect: An analysis of records in two of those states — Florida and Ohio — shows that the bans fall hardest on black victims and their families, like the Campbells.

“ ‘Nobody came and questioned or asked. It was just, “no,” ‘ said Campbell, 43, who lives in Montgomery, Alabama. ‘I just felt like they turned their backs on us.’ . . . ”

Authors Call Identity, Not Economics, Key in ’16

“Two years after the 2016 election, there has been no single answer to the question: What happened?” Dan Balz wrote Saturday for the Washington Post. “In an outcome that saw the popular vote and the electoral college diverge, theories abound, opinions are many and consensus fleeting. Now, a trio of political scientists have come forth with their answer as to why Donald Trump prevailed over Hillary Clinton, summed up in the title of their forthcoming book: ‘Identity Crisis.’

“The co-authors are John Sides of George Washington University, Michael Tesler of the University of California at Irvine and Lynn Vavreck of the University of California at Los Angeles.

“They have plumbed and analyzed a wealth of polling and voting data, examined surveys of attitudes taken long before, during and after the 2016 campaign. Their conclusion is straightforward.

“Issues of identity — race, religion, gender and ethnicity — and not economics were the driving forces that determined how people voted, particularly white voters. . . .”

Balz also wrote, “Their conclusion agrees with that of Alan Abramowitz, a political scientist at Emory University, who has long studied the rise of polarization in American politics and who focuses on racial resentment in his recent book, ‘The Great Alignment: Race, Party Transformation and the Rise of Donald Trump.’ . . . ”

Short Takes

(more to come)

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

• Journalist Richard Prince w/Joe Madison (Sirius XM, April 18, 2018) (podcast)
• Richard Prince (journalist) (Wikipedia entry)
• 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
• Diversity’s Greatest Hits, 2008
• 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)