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Byron Allen Throws D.C. Gala, Says Stay Tuned

by richard03159

Mogul Hosts 700, Features Diana Ross Performance

ESPN Fires Marly Rivera After Incriminating Video

Homepage photo: Byron Allen fist bumps from the stage with Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (Credit: Stefanie Keenan/Getty Images for Byron Allen, Allen Media Group)

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Gayle King speaks onstage with Byron Allen, left, and the Grio team behind her at Allen’s gala at the National Museum of African American History and Culture. From left: Allen, Princell Hair, Michele Ghee, Marc Lamont Hill, Natasha S. Alford. Toure’, Michael Harriot, Geraldine Moriba, Eboni K. Williams, Gerren Keith Gaynor, Dr. Christina Greer, Darren Galatt,
Jocelyn Langevine, Panama Jackson, April Ryan. (Credit: Stefanie Keenan/Getty Images for Byron Allen, Allen Media Group)

Mogul Hosts 700, Features Diana Ross Performance

Media mogul Byron Allen declared Saturday night that no Black American had $2.3 billion in 2000 to buy Black Entertainment Television, when BET was sold to Viacom, but in 2023, it’s a different story. Allen now has access to that money, and he said his empire-building isn’t done.

Allen presided over what was no doubt the largest gathering of Black journalists in the country that night, as he threw a party at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington.

 An exuberant Diana Ross, who told the audience that she had just turned 79, was the star performer. She sang nearly all her biggest hits. Disc jockey Ty Alexander blared dance tunes from the ’80s as the “cool kids,” male and female, mingled, networked, ate platter-served finger food and lined up to have the Grio take free photos of themselves, singly or in groups.

Don’t be scared of Black-owned media, Allen told the crowd, which Geraldine Moriba, senior vice president and chief content officer of The Grio, estimated at about 700.

“Give us an opportunity and we will make it bigger than we ever had before,” Allen said from the stage. He said his Allen Media Group was the only company to own network affiliates of all four major networks — ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox. He then introduced the latest version of his team, lined up on stage.

Byron Allen, on stage at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, declared the evening devoted to Black excellence. (Credit: Irving Washington)

They included Princell Hair, named president of Allen Media Broadcasting on April 17, supervising those affiliates; writers Touré, Michael Harriot, newly engaged White House correspondent April Ryan, television host Marc Lamont Hill and Natasha Alford, podcast host and producer, in addition to other executives.

Allen told how he personally recruited some of them.

The mogul name-checked audience members Susan Rice, who is stepping down as White House domestic policy adviser, new Maryland Gov. Wes Moore; the two Justins — Justin Pearson and Justin Jones, the legislators ousted from the Tennessee House after their protest of gun violence, then reinstated, and former Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., who has stepped down after 15 terms.

Allen presented CBS News’ Gayle King with the Grio’s “Icon Award.” King told the crowd that she lived by advice she had been given: “Excellence is the best deterrent to racism.” The “CBS Mornings” co-host said that she didn’t like being called an icon, because it made her feel old. At 68, she said, “I’m not even thinking about retirement” and is “looking for more things to do.” This, when Walter Cronkite, the legendary “CBS Evening News” anchor, was made to retire at 65.  

Nine days ago, TNT announced that King and “NBA on TNT” analyst Charles Barkley are to host a weekly primetime program, to be called “King Charles,” on CNN, in addition to King’s CBS duties.

“Letting Don go was the wrong move,” Roy Wood Jr. said of Don Lemon, dismissed from CNN. “You shouldn’t have let him go, not this soon. … You don’t fire your host after the first couple of scandals. The scandals got to stack up. You gotta get the ratings. Yes, Don Lemon was a diva and he said a couple of women were raggedy in the face. But that’s a promotion at Fox News!” (Credit: YouTube)

Like some other attendees, King had been at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, attended by 2,600 people at the Washington Hilton further uptown, and she urged attendees to Google comedian Roy Wood Jr.’s performance there. Wood was at the Grio party, but at the Hilton, among other topics, Wood discussed journalism and journalists. That discussion included his late father, Roy Wood Sr., a Black radio pioneer who co-founded the National Black Network, and his mother, Joyce Dugan Wood, who was active in social justice issues as a student and is now an administrator at historically Black Miles College in Alabama.

Cable hosts Don Lemon and Tucker Carlson, each ousted from their posts last week, were not spared, as People magazine reported. Lemon was characterized as a “diva” who couldn’t accurately report on his own ouster.

The Washington Post noted that Wood “started his professional career in media, earning a degree in broadcast journalism from Florida A&M University.”

In remarks that included mention of the murder of Emmett Till, President Biden noted that Wood attended Florida A&M University, praised the Black press as “unflinching and brave” and lauded anti-lynching publisher Ida B. Wells.

Biden also mentioned approvingly that the White House Correspondents’ Association was honoring the late Gwen Ifill, along with the late Bill Plante of CBS News, with this year’s Dunnigan-Payne Prize. The award was “created in 2022 to raise up the achievements of Alice Dunnigan and Ethel Payne, the first two African American women to serve as members of the White House press corps.“

Allen has been active offstage pursuing his company’s ambitions to be bigger and better. He has in recent weeks run full-page ads in the Chicago Tribune and Washington Post critical of McDonald’s, saying, “It is time for America, especially Black America, to hold McDonald’s CEO [Chris] Kempczinski and their Board of Directors fully accountable for the racist atrocities they have committed against Black America,” as Allen told theGrio. Allen wants McDonald’s to do more business with Black-owned media.

In The New York Times, Benjamin Mullin noted in March, ‘Since BET sold to Viacom in 2000, the number of Black-owned media companies has fallen sharply, said Jeffrey Blevins, a professor at the University of Cincinnati who has researched the subject. In the 1990s, Washington lawmakers repealed a tax policy benefiting minority owners and passed a law that cleared the way for TV station groups to buy out their rivals. Numerous smaller minority-owned groups then sold to companies controlled by white executives.

“Each known suitor for BET brings different strengths. [Tyler] Perry is a bold-face name with a track record of producing popular TV shows and movies for BET. Mr. Allen has experience operating traditional TV networks, and he could bundle them with his existing channels, which include Comedy.tv and Pets.tv.”

Diana Ross’ repertoire went from “Baby Love,” a hit in 1964, through “Take Me Higher” in 1995. (Credit: Irving Washington)

Ross’ appearance came within a day or two of tabloids picking up a story in the Guardian Thursday reporting that Ross and Motown colleague Smokey Robinson had an affair while Robinson was still married to his first wife, Claudette Robinson. The liaison lasted for “about a year,” Robinson said in answer to a question from reporter Simon Hattenstone.

Hattenstone wrote, ” ‘I was married at the time. We were working together and it just happened. But it was beautiful. She’s a beautiful lady, and I love her right till today. She’s one of my closest people. She was young and trying to get her career together. I was trying to help her. I brought her to Motown, in fact. I wasn’t going after her and she wasn’t going after me. It just happened.’. . . “

Ross, of course, did not mention this, but she did introduce her sister, Dr. Barbara Ross-Lee, from the audience, and brought a granddaughter to the stage to dance.

Ross went through nearly all of her hits. The set list was, In order: “I’m Coming Out,” “I Love You More Today Than Yesterday,” “Baby Love,” “Stop! In the Name of Love,” “You Can’t Hurry Love,” “Love Child,” “Don’t Explain,” “The Boss,” “It’s My House,” “Upside Down,” “Love Hangover,” “Take Me Higher,” “Theme from ‘Mahogany’,” “Why Do Fools Fall in Love?” “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” and “I Will Survive.”

ESPN Fires Marly Rivera After Incriminating Video

“Last week at Yankee Stadium, Ivon Gaete, a freelance TV reporter, was standing near the batting cage waiting for New York Yankees star Aaron Judge to finish signing autographs for a group of kids when Marly Rivera (pictured), a baseball reporter for ESPN, began screaming at her in Spanish,” Ben Strauss reported Thursday for The Washington Post.

“Gaete asked Rivera if she was okay. Rivera responded sarcastically, ‘Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t know you speak English now.’ Rivera then said, within earshot of both Judge and the kids, ‘What a f—ing c—.’

“The exchange was caught on video by Gaete’s cameraman and described to The Washington Post by three people who were either on the field or saw the video. It would lead to the end of Rivera’s ESPN employment. An ESPN spokesman said Wednesday that Rivera no longer works at the company.

“In an interview with The Post, Rivera said she was being ‘singled out’ by Major League Baseball.

“Rivera covered the Yankees and national baseball for ESPN. She appeared on its Home Run Derby broadcast and on Sunday Night baseball radio coverage. A native of Puerto Rico, she specialized in coverage of Hispanic players and was among the most high-profile Hispanic women covering the sport.

“But the video of the exchange with Gaete touched off an investigation that became a referendum on how Rivera did her job and interacted with colleagues. The video was shared with MLB, which set about determining what happened. . . .”

Vanessa De Luca Out as Editor of The Root

April 27, 2023

Former Essence Leader Held Job 2 Years
. . . De Luca Says It Was Her Decision to Leave
Journalists Settle Lawsuit Over Arrests in D.C.
Justice Dept. Warns Localities on Gouging the Poor
A.P. Reporters Witness Africans’ Perilous Journey
After Firing From CNN, Lemon Says He’s ‘Resilient’

Homepage photo: Root 100 2022 (Credit: Jaze Uries)

Updated April 28

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Vanessa De Luca hosted this 2021 discussion for the Root Institute on “The Media Coverage of the Black Community” with “Errin Haines (The 19th), April Reign (#OscarsSoWhite) and Angela Rye (Impact Strategies).” (Credit: YouTube)

Former Essence Leader Held Job 2 Years

Vanessa K. De Luca has left The Root after two years as editor-in-chief, and owner G/O Media has advertised for her successor.

“Vanessa left the company. We wish her well. Tatsha Robertson is now Acting Editor in Chief,” Mark Neschis, head of corporate communications for G/O Media, messaged Journal-isms Thursday. “That’s all I can share at this point.”

De Luca (pictured) did not address the departure publicly nor respond to an inquiry. Emails sent to De Luca’s email address at The Root are returned with, “We’re sorry Vanessa is no longer working at G/O Media,” and her LinkedIn profile says, “She recently served as Editor In Chief of The Root.”

Robertson (pictured), who assumes the role of acting top editor, describes herself on LinkedIn as: “Multimedia journalist, investigative writer-editor, adjunct professor, author and ghostwriter for major publishers: Benbella, Harper Collins and Little Brown.

“With 25 years in publishing, I’ve handled print, digital, long-term projects and features for People Magazine, Essence, The Boston Globe, Minneapolis Star Tribune and other publications.

“I forged strategic sources with the former White House and built visibility with appearances on national media outlets. I founded two blogs, coauthored a major education book and ghosted two books in 2019 and 2020.”

De Luca, editor-in-chief of Essence magazine from 2013 to 2018, arrived in 2021 as the seventh editorial leader of The Root, established in 2008 by Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. and then-Washington Post publisher Donald Graham. She followed Danielle Belton, who became editor-in-chief of HuffPost, and immediately encountered a backlash from staffers as she shifted the site to a more family-friendly direction.  

Over “the past year, 15 of the site’s employees have left — a nearly 100 percent turnover since April, when it had 16 full-time staffers,” Tarpley Hitt wrote in January 2022 for Gawker.

“The departures included: editor-in-chief Danielle Belton; managing editor Genetta Adams; news editor Monique Judge; social media editor Corey Townsend; editor Maiysha Kai; video producers Felice Leon, Jessica Moulite, and PJ Rickards; writers, Tonja Renée Stidhum, Joe Jurado, Terrell Jermaine Starr, Stephen Crockett Jr., and Michael Harriot; and the two founders of Very Smart Brothas, the popular blog that The Root acquired in 2017, Damon Young and Panama Jackson.

“Harriot, who resigned in November, told Gawker: ‘As a staff, we came to the conclusion that, basically, The Root is over.’”

The Gawker piece followed one from Aja Hannah for the Pivot Fund in December 2021. “On its homepage, it can be seen that the content of The Root has strayed from news and Black opinion to entertainment,” Hannah wrote.

“Before April 2021, the featured stories were news, opinion, and race matters. Today, much of the headline content is fashion, music, entertainment, and television. Utilizing the Wayback Machine, it can be seen that the navigation bar changed to include Culture and Entertainment on May 28, 2021. Very Smart Brothas was pushed to the end of the bar. At a later date, the Beauty/Style tab was also added. . . .”

Many stories were rewrites of pieces from other media. The Gawker account reported, “Eight former and current Root staffers told Gawker that management seemed to want less of the overtly provocative work its writers were known for in favor of ‘a softer, gentler, more upbeat site,’ with an emphasis on entertainment, fewer swear words, a blurrier relationship with advertisers, and stories like, as one source put it: ‘This Girl Applied For 17 Scholarships And Got Into Three Ivy League Schools.’ “

The most prominent stories on Thursday’s site were, “I Still Can’t Believe What Jimmy Butler Just Did to the Milwaukee Bucks,” “Don Lemon Reveals His Post-CNN Plans, and Honestly, They Aren’t Bad,” and “A Great Writing Hack That’ll Get Your Dream Book Published.”

In March, Journal-isms asked the Comscore research company for the number of unique visitors that leading Black-oriented websites attracted in 2022. TheRoot.com recorded 2,428,000, down 36 percent from the previous year. It was No. 8 on the list. In 2017, the last year Comscore conducted such a survey, the site was No. 3.

When Jim Rich, then editorial director at G/O Media, hired De Luca in 2021, he said, “Vanessa is a proven leader who has run major editorial operations covering the African American experience in the US. She is a smart, innovative editor who I am confident will maintain and grow The Root’s position in the industry, and with her guidance,
take the brand to new levels of success.”

In the midst of the staff dissatisfaction, De Luca tweeted in October 2021, “If y’all only knew how many people i have outlasted, you wouldn’t try me. #resilienceisaverb.”

. . . De Luca Says It Was Her Decision to Leave

(April 28 update) After the above posting, Vanessa K. De Luca took to Instagram to respond. She apparently hadn’t checked her Twitter messages, where we have communicated previously, to see the attempt to reach her there as well as by email, where the account supplied no forwarding address.

“Ahem …. Taking a brief moment from reclaiming my time to reframe the narrative surrounding my recent departure from The Root, because this article leaves out a few details:

“– it was my decision to leave after two years; I have always had a knack for knowing when it’s time to move on.

“– the split was amicable, despite all the past drama that was dredged up about what happened when I first joined the website, which has nothing to do with my current status. Also, it is very easy to reach me for comment beyond sending a query to a work email that has been disabled.

“– my decision is about self-care, something Black women don’t often get the opportunity to honestly admit that we need. We soldier on and push through, and we foster our own self-destruction in the process. This is my attempt to break that cycle.

-“- If anyone needs encouragement to do the same, DM me. This is about to become a movement, :-)”

A limousine was set on fire during protests in Washington on Jan. 20, 2017, Donald Trump’s Inauguration Day. (Credit: Christina Pascucci/KTLA-TV)

Journalists Settle Lawsuit Over Arrests in D.C.

“The D.C. government agreed to pay $175,000 to two journalists to settle a lawsuit that alleged police unlawfully detained the pair while they were covering demonstrations and vandalism in downtown Washington during Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration in January 2017,” Keith L. Alexander reported Wednesday for the Washington Post.

The two are Aarón Cantú (pictured), a Latino journalist then at the Santa Fe (N.M.) Reporter who has written about policing, propaganda, drugs and politics for the Intercept, Al Jazeera and other publications, and Colorado-based photojournalist Alexei Wood. A spokesman for the journalists announced Tuesday that the two would split the settlement, minus attorney fees. Both were arrested and charged with rioting and other counts; Wood was acquitted at trial, and prosecutors later dropped the charges against Cantú.

“In all, 234 people were arrested during the unrest on the Inauguration Day in downtown D.C. Authorities alleged that demonstrators caused about $100,000 of property damage across many blocks downtown, shattering windows on businesses and vehicles. Police, in turn, rounded up people en masse and fired pepper spray and other less-lethal munitions,” Alexander wrote.

“Twenty-one of the 234 defendants pleaded guilty before trial — the only convictions arising from the arrests. A handful fought their charges, resulting in acquittals or hung juries. Charges against the others were eventually dropped after prosecutors struggled to tie defendants to specific damage of businesses, vehicles and other property. . . .”

On Feb. 27, 2017, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press sent a letter to then-U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, Channing D. Phillips, in support of Cantú.

The letter argued that Cantú, who now writes for the Los Angeles-based publication Capital & Main, is clearly a journalist and questioned why a journalist faces indictment when he appears to have been covering the protest at the time of his arrest. [PDF]

In 2020, with the case still alive, Cantu said in a written statement, “I’m still very angry about what happened to me, Alexei, and hundreds of others, but I’m trying to channel this anger constructively by attempting to hold D.C. police accountable. Unfortunately, because of the immense power courts grant police, this isn’t the first time D.C. police have been sued for outrageous conduct at public protests and I doubt it will be the last time.”

Members of Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment conduct a silent protest during a public hearing on municipal court reform in 2015. (Credit: File Photo/Rachel Lippmann/St. Louis Public Radio)

Justice Dept. Warns Localities on Gouging the Poor

Since the uprising in Ferguson, Mo., in 2014, after police officer Darren Wilson shot and killed 18-year-old Michael Brown, a Black man, journalists have reported that one of the underlying frustrations in that city and others was the levying of unnecessary fines on poor people to balance the budget.

A year later, the Justice Department, under Attorney General Eric Holder, found that the Ferguson Police Department and the city’s municipal court engaged in a “pattern and practice” of discrimination against African Americans. They were targeted disproportionately for traffic stops, use of force and jail sentences.

In 2021, Tony Messenger of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch wrote “Profit and Punishment: How American Criminalizes the Poor in the Name of Justice.” The book examined the issue as a national one. Moreover, “What is particularly new since Ferguson is the ‘pay-to-stay’ phenomenon, where poor people are jailed for their inability to pay for ‘board bills’ or bills for previous stays in jail,” Messenger told Journal-isms then.

In February, the George Polk Award for local reporting went to a team of journalists from Alabama’s AL.com. Their reporting “revealed how the police force in Brookside, a town of 1,253 people, used proceeds from fines for nefarious citations and arrests and forfeitures to bilk poor residents of thousands of dollars, increasing revenue by 640 percent over two years. The police chief, his top lieutenant and more than half of the force resigned or were forced out within two weeks of AL.com’s initial story,” Al.com reported.

Now the Justice Department is ratcheting up its attention. Associate Attorney Vanita Gupta (pictured), the No. 3 person in the department, “sent a memo to the nation’s judges . . . that warned against imposing high fees and fines that would unfairly burden low-income people,” Perry Stein reported April 22 for The Washington Post.

“A day later, top officials at the agency celebrated several people who have received pardons and clemencies in recent years, characterizing their long sentences for nonviolent drug crimes as harsh and unfair.

“Both efforts were part of the Biden administration’s campaign to address what Justice Department officials describe as systemic failings in the justice system that disproportionately affect the poor and people of color.

“ ‘Imposing and enforcing fines and fees on individuals who cannot afford to pay them has been shown to cause profound harm,’ officials wrote in the ‘Letter to Colleagues’ memo this week, which warned that harsh financial penalties that trap people in poverty could be unconstitutional. . . .”

Authorities in Tunisia have intercepted migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea to Italy and have stopped 372 people in just 14 hours using speedboats. The Associated Press followed the National Guard on patrol near Sfax, Tunisia. ((AP Video/Mehdi El Arem, via YouTube.)

A.P. Reporters Witness Africans’ Perilous Journey

“A young man wearing a baseball cap emblazoned with ‘Dior,’ women clutching babies wrapped in blankets, children bundled in winter coats. All gingerly stepped from rickety boats into the sturdy craft of the Tunisian Maritime National Guard — and away from their dreams of life in Europe,” Mehdi El-Arem and Elaine Ganley reported Thursday for the Associated Press, their story generously illustrated with photographs.

“Cold, wet and heartbroken, they are among hundreds caught daily in overnight sweeps for migrant boats on the Mediterranean Sea.

“Many sub-Saharan Africans looked toward Europe as a getaway.

“ ‘Sit down! Sit down! Sit down!’ The shouted order confirmed the group was no longer in charge of their destiny. A woman sobbed.

“On an overnight expedition with the National Guard last week, The Associated Press witnessed migrants pleading to continue their journeys to Italy in unseaworthy vessels, some taking on water. Over 14 hours, 372 people were plucked from the fragile boats.

“Migrants, mainly from sub-Saharan Africa, are undertaking the perilous journey in unprecedented numbers. In the first three months of this year, 13,000 migrants were forced from their boats off the eastern Tunisian port city of Sfax, the main launching point. Between 2021 and 2022, the number of migrants heading to Europe, mostly to Italy but also to Malta, nearly doubled. . . .”

El-Arem and Ganley also wrote, “Each night, National Guard vessels comb the waters. Pulling up the dead is the grimmest part of the job. The Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights said that 580 migrants died or disappeared at sea in 2022. . . .

“Sub-Saharan Africans, some living illegally in Tunisia for years and working at low wages, began trying to make a quick exit after Tunisia’s increasingly authoritarian President Kais Saied demanded urgent measures in February to crack down on Black Africans, claiming they are part of a plot to erase his country’s identity. Some countries airlifted their citizens back home.

“Many sub-Saharan Africans looked toward Europe as a getaway.

“ ‘If a Black man does something bad in Tunisia, then Tunisians see us all as bad and chase us away,’ said a man from Ivory Coast who refused to give his name over concerns about the tense situation for Black Africans in Tunisia. ‘It’s not logical. We are all humans.’ . . . ”

After Firing From CNN, Lemon Says He’s ‘Resilient’

“When life gives you lemons …

“Don Lemon swears he’s not angry after being unceremoniously ousted from CNN earlier this week,”  Nicki Gostin reported Wednesday for the New York Post’s Page Six.

“ ‘It’s not in my nature,’ the journalist, 57, told Page Six exclusively at the TIME 100 gala on Wednesday night. ‘I’m not an angry person, I’m not mad.’

“Despite tweeting that he was ‘stunned’ by his abrupt dismissal, Lemon claimed that he’s no longer in shock.

“ ‘I’m a very resilient person,’ he explained.

“ ‘I’ve had a very full life with lots of twists and turns. I come from strong, sturdy stock in Louisiana and I am lucky enough to be in a position where I don’t have to worry about, you know, not having a place to live or a home or whatever.’ . . . ”

Samantha Agate reported Monday for Yahoo.com, “Lemon has an estimated net worth of $12 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth. He also earned a salary estimated to be around $4 million from his contributions to CNN each year.” (Photo: Andrew H. Walker/Shutterstock)

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Richard Prince’s Journal-isms originates from Washington. It began in print before most of us knew what the internet was, and it would like to be referred to as a “column.” Any views expressed in the column are those of the person or organization quoted and not those of any other entity. Send tips, comments and concerns to Richard Prince at journal-isms+owner@groups.io

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