Articles Feature

Can Journalism Solve Urban Problems?

by richard03014

Temple J-School Launches Investigative Unit
Paul Cheung to Lead Center for Public Integrity

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Homepage photo: The scene of a triple shooting in Philadelphia last week, at Keim and East Ontario streets. (Credit: Jessica Griffin/Philadelphia Inquirer)

The new center “will focus exclusively on the issues facing Philadelphia and other large American cities, including gun violence, economic inequality, education and health disparities, crumbling infrastructure and eroding trust in institutions.” (Credit: Temple University)

Temple J-School Launches Investigative Unit

“Temple University’s Klein College of Media and Communication will soon launch a Center for Urban Investigative Reporting, thanks to a $1.2 million founding grant from the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation of Berkeley, California,” the college announced Tuesday.

Asked how many other universities have such centers, Dean David Boardman (pictured) messaged Journal-isms, “Not sure. I know of several: Berkeley, Maryland, Arizona State, for starters. But I believe ours will be the only one exclusively focused on urban issues and dedicated to community input and engagement. “

He said the school was seeking a director.

The announcement came as the Philadelphia Inquirer reported that, “An average of more than 10 people have been shot per day in Philadelphia in July, as of Sunday. That July pace is 53% higher than last year, and 159% higher than 2019.”

Two weeks ago, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo declared a new state of emergency around gun violence and committed almost $139 million to reverse the trend of rising shootings and murders across the state. Cuomo said it was the first by a state to address gun violence, Ashley Southall reported for The New York Times.

According to Temple’s Klein College news release, “The Jonathan Logan Family Foundation Center for Urban Investigative Reporting will focus exclusively on the issues facing Philadelphia and other large American cities, including gun violence, economic inequality, education and health disparities, crumbling infrastructure and eroding trust in institutions.

“Through the Logan Center, Klein students and faculty will report aggressively not only on these problems, but on potential solutions, closely examining what has worked well in other cities across the nation and the globe.”

Boardman is also vice chair of the Solutions Journalism Network. That organization says on its website, “As news avoidance and distrust grow, solutions journalism has rapidly grown from an ‘extra’ to a must-have for newsrooms building or repairing relationships with their communities. These results reveal the extent to which audiences respond to solutions journalism in ways that can strengthen local news.”

“Klein has long had a ‘teaching hospital’ model for preparing students for careers in journalism and other communications professions, giving them a strong foundation in theory and research along with myriad opportunities to hone their skills on campus and in the community. Through the college’s Philadelphia Neighborhoods capstone class, students report from areas of North and West Philadelphia that are largely overlooked by mainstream media. . . .”

Paul Cheung to Lead Center for Public Integrity

Paul Cheung (pictured), a past president of the Asian American Journalists Association and most recently director of journalism and technology innovation at the Knight Foundation, has been named CEO of the Center for Public Integrity. He “will lead one of the country’s oldest nonprofit news organizations in its mission of investigative reporting about inequality,” the Washington-based organization said Monday.

In a question-and-answer on the Center’s website, Cheung said, “Public Integrity has a rich history of holding the powerful accountable, and I want to use that power to hold those people and systems who are perpetuating or worsening inequality accountable as well as uplifting those who are solving the problems of inequality.

“My vision is for us to be the leading newsroom in America in equipping and inspiring change makers with our investigative journalism to reverse the effects of inequalities.”

Cheung previously worked at NBC News Digital, the Associated Press, The Wall Street Journal and the Miami Herald, and he is a board member of the News Leaders Association.

As Kristin Hare reported Monday for the Poynter Institute, Cheung “succeeds Susan Smith Richardson, who became deputy editor of The Guardian US earlier this year. Cheung is the first Asian American to lead the Center for Public Integrity, which was founded in 1989 and is an investigative, nonprofit news organization.”

On his LinkedIn profile, Chung emphasizes his background in technology. “I manage a multimillion dollar investment portfolio at the Knight Foundation. My key investment areas include scaling AI [artificial intelligence], business sustainability solutions, and mitigating misinformation,” he wrote.

“With more than 20 years of experience at the forefront of digital transformation in the media — pioneering AI, data journalism, AR/VR [Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality], visual storytelling and digital training strategies, I am ready to lead media companies looking to launch breakthrough ideas from concept to reality across new digital and emerging technology platforms.”

AAJA membership declined during Chung’s four years as president, as newsrooms shrank, but in his farewell message in 2016, Cheung listed these successes:

  • “Partnering with more than 30 community groups to host the first Asian American Presidential Town Hall, which featured principals and surrogates from all major campaigns.
  • “Launching ‘The Heartland Project,’ a first-of-its-kind partnership among the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln to help newsrooms in the
  • “Cornhusker State do a better job in covering communities of color and LGBT issues.
  • “Acquiring more than $300,000 in grants and sponsorships to reboot AAJA’s signature journalism programs, including the Executive Leadership Program.
  • “Holding newsrooms accountable by aggressively responding — via our MediaWatch team — to unfair, irresponsible and inaccurate coverage of our communities.”

Cheung advocated for keeping AAJA in the Unity: Journalists of Color coalition after the National Association of Black Journalists and National Association of Hispanic Journalists pulled out, and AAJA remained until Unity dissolved in 2018.

Race, Colorism on Latino Journalists’ Agenda

July 18, 2021

Updated July 19

Record Membership for NAHJ’s Virtual Convention
Israeli Machines Spy on Reporters’ Cell Phones
Black Paper Plans Store at Nashville Airport
Anti-Immigration Groups Have Hateful Origins
Immigrants Portray Punishing Lives as Detainees
Editor Challenges Readers After Racist Email
Amid Protests, Cuba Detains 7 Journalists
Media Said to Miss Afro-Cuban Role in Unrest

With Oligarchs in Charge, Haiti Not Truly Black-Run
News Outlets Shouldn’t Let Others Define Them
Biden Takes Aim at Noncompete Clauses
Illinois Mandates Teaching Asian American History
‘How To Diversify Your Station’s Workforce . . .’
‘Culture of Inclusion’ Hailed on MSNBC’s 25th

Short Takes

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Telemundo host Nacho Lozano guided viewers through the Hall of Fame ceremony. (video)

Record Membership for NAHJ’s Virtual Convention

The National Association of Hispanic Journalists pulled off a record-setting virtual convention that addressed colorism among Latinos and the mental health concerns resulting from covering the traumas of the past year, along with the issues of the day and career-building workshops.

The week’s conference closed Saturday night with an hourlong Hall of Fame awards ceremony simulcast to Facebook viewers without charge and later posted on YouTube.

It educated Latinos and non-Latinos alike about some of the obstacles faced by earlier generations — in one case dubbed “Juan Crow” — and how storytellers faced the challenges.

There was little evidence of the rancor that marked some previous conventions. “We were trying to push forward the mantra that we were the ‘no-drama board,’ ” President Nora Lopez said at a board and membership meeting held by Zoom on Saturday afternoon. Lopez said she thinks the board succeeded.  

On Friday, spokesperson BA Snyder told Journal-isms that the association had registered 1,136 people. That contrasts with 704 NAHJ registrants for the joint virtual convention last year with the National Association of Black Journalists, which supplied 3,009 NABJ attendees. Figures for sponsorships were not addressed.

NAHJ membership climbed to a new high, as it did last year. The organization reported 4,336 members, of whom 2,433 were regular members, 1,044 were students, 220 were lifetime, 392 were associate and 247 were academic. Two percent identified as Afro-Latino.

The discussion of colorism among Latinos follows another that reached a wider audience last month when the movie “In the Heights” was released.

As Aja Romano explained then on vox.com, “Despite an early onslaught of critical praise, the highly anticipated film adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s first Broadway musical In the Heights failed to draw crowds to movie theaters over its premiere weekend. Instead, a wave of backlash surfaced over the film’s lack of visibly dark-skinned Afro Latinx characters — the very community the film purports to represent.”

In her closing remarks, Lopez declared that “discrimination and erasure” were not NAHJ values, nor were “anti-Blackness” or actions against indigenous people. NAHJ established a task force on Afro-Latinos, co-chaired by Yvonne Latty (pictured) of New York University, a past board member, and Keldy Ortiz (pictured), a reporter at Newsday who is NAHJ’s national financial officer. Both have Dominican backgrounds.

One of the posthumous Hall of Fame honorees was Jesús Colón, born in Puerto Rico in 1901, whose “stories about his personal struggles as a Black Puerto Rican, touched and inspired many writers,” as NAHJ said.

Jesús Colón, NAHJ Hall of Fame honoree, “used his words to bring justice to New York City’s Puerto Rican community because he understood that the migrant’s quest for equality in the United States could not be separated from Puerto Rico’s colonial status,” NAHJ said.

On one panel devoted to the colorism issue, the speakers made clear that it is not a simple topic. “Indhira Suero Acosta, an editor for Connectas in the Caribbean who identifies as Afro-Latina, spoke about the differences in how racism manifests itself across North and South America,” Jorge Flores wrote in the Latino Reporter, the student convention newspaper.

‘” ‘Each country in Latin America has their own experience regarding racism,’ Suero said. ‘Once, I went to Peru, and because there is no Afro-Latino representation, people were speaking to me in English because of my looks.’ ”

That Latinos and others of color were more heavily affected by the COVID pandemic took a toll on some Latino journalists. Some sessions addressed the issue of self-care, though at the membership meeting one woman on the call asked that such sessions be more culturally specific to Latinos.

The last year’s nasty political divisiveness and confrontations sparked by protests over the murder of George Floyd also had an effect. “Journalists of color are targeted for who they are and what they have to say,” Lopez observed.

“The arrest of CNN correspondent Omar Jimenez during a live shot in Minneapolis was only the most visible example in a series of perilous police encounters for journalists,” a webinar advertised. “And the hazards facing reporters in the field go well beyond physical safety. “

Workshops and plenary sessions were wide-ranging, from a revival of the NAHJ Sports Task Force to how to succeed at investigative reporting. Especially significant was a panel on the erasure of Latino history, joined by Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, taking place as efforts to more accurately portray American history are under attack.

Saturday saw two last-minute additions. One was Secretary of Education Miguel A. Cardona, who addressed the need for historical inclusiveness. “At #NAHJ2021, U.S. Sec. of Education
@teachcardona encourages curriculum that includes diverse perspectives,” Monica Rhor tweeted. “It’s the responsibility of local boards, he says, to make sure that happens.” Cardona, the first Puerto Rican to hold the post, was interviewed by CBS News’ Ed O’Keefe.

Last September, Google honored Jovita Idár with a Doodle. “In 1914, Idár continued her groundbreaking journalism career at El Progreso (The Progress) newspaper,” Google explained. “Never afraid to make her voice heard, she expressed her criticism of the US army’s involvement in the Mexican Revolution in an editorial, which resulted in an attempt by Texas Rangers to shut the publication down. When officers rode up to the El Progreso office, Idár stood in their way and forced them to turn back — a scene recreated in today’s Doodle artwork.“

Later, in honoring activist journalist Jovita Idár posthumously for the Hall of Fame, the lynchings of Hispanics in Texas — another little-mentioned topic — was cited as one of her challenges.

The second Saturday addition was a discussion of the ongoing protests in Cuba. “There’s been healthy debate during the #NAHJ2021 ‘Bringing Balance to News Coverage of the Protests in Cuba’ session!,” tweeted Leslie-Ann Frank. “But, there is agreement that U.S. coverage has fallen short.”

The convention closed with words from Gilbert Bailon, editor of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and an NAHJ president from 1994 to 1996. He was given the President’s Award.

While his own newspaper reported only 14.47 percent people of color in the 2019 newsroom diversity survey of the News Leaders Association [PDF], Bailon cited the need for more top editors, news directors, members of boards of directors and college deans of color, saying that people of color must be in leadership positions for true change to take place.

“We’re the ones who need to train, get educated, make those extra efforts, work the hardest,” Bailon urged. He also said, “Ultimately, it’s not about your career. There’s a greater mission we have.”

Cellebrite machines like this are used to extract data from mobile phones. Police in Botswana used Cellebrite technology to search a journalist’s phone for a source.

Israeli Machines Spy on Reporters’ Cell Phones

“Tsaone Basimanebotlhe was not expecting security agents to appear at her home in a village outside Gaborone, Botswana’s capital, in July 2019, she told CPJ in a recent interview,” Jonathan Rozen wrote Wednesday for the Committee to Protect Journalists. “But they didn’t come to arrest or charge her, she recalled – they came for her devices, hunting for the source for an article published by her employer, Mmegi newspaper.

“Basimanebotlhe (pictured), a politics reporter, said she surrendered her phone and password to the agents after they presented a warrant and could not find her computer. A senior officer then used technology sold by the Israel-based company Cellebrite to extract and analyze thousands of her messages, call logs, and emails, and her web browsing history, according to an affidavit from the police forensics laboratory. The affidavit, which CPJ reviewed, was submitted during a related court case. . . .

“The use of powerful tools provided by private companies to scour seized devices raises significant concerns over privacy and press freedom. The experiences of Basimanebotlhe . . . demonstrate that police in Botswana use digital forensics equipment to sweep up vast quantities of journalists’ communications from seized devices, regardless of whether they are charged with a crime. The extent of these searches was only revealed when police documents were submitted in court months after the fact, and it’s not clear what happened to the data. . . .”

The Israeli news organization Harretz reported in April, “Cellebrite’s flagship product is the UFED (Universal Forensic Extraction Device). It allows law enforcement agencies to extract data from locked mobile phones already in their physical [possession.] Cellebrite, which recently announced it was going public, works with law enforcement agencies and has a long list of clients – including regimes with shady human rights records. . . .”

[Update: The Washington Post reported late Sunday: “Military-grade spyware licensed by an Israeli firm to governments for tracking terrorists and criminals was used in attempted and successful hacks of 37 smartphones belonging to journalists, human rights activists, business executives and two women close to murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, according to an investigation by The Washington Post and 16 media partners.

[“The phones appeared on a list of more than 50,000 numbers that are concentrated in countries known to engage in surveillance of their citizens and also known to have been clients of the Israeli firm, NSO Group, a worldwide leader in the growing and largely unregulated private spyware industry, the investigation found,” began the story by Dana Priest, Craig Timberg and Souad Mekhennet.]

Artist’s conception of Tennessee Tribune store. It plans to “have over 40 minority vendors providing top-notch retail products.”

Black Paper Plans Store at Nashville Airport

In a rare move for a member of the Black press, the Tennessee Tribune is planning news and gift concession at the Nashville airport that will feature not only the Tribune, but 40 African American vendors. “For the first time we will have more than a shoe shine stand at this airport,” Tribune owner Rosetta Miller Perry messaged Journal-isms.

“The development of the space is part of a larger concession program re-development that Fraport is coordinating through a contract with the Airport Authority,” said a spokesperson for Fraport, which operates airport concessions. Perry adds, “The first store will open in the Fall of 2021 and will be located between Terminal C and D in the Southwest Airlines Hub.  The second store will be pre-security and will open in the Spring of 2022 and is open to the public and does not require a ticket for entry.”

Perry (pictured) continued, “The Airport was expanding and looking to include more diversity. They had only 3 minority firms in since its inception in 1937. Airport officials met with me and said they  wanted to have a Tennessee Tribune News Store in the new wing being built at the BNA [Nashville International Airport] and to sell African American products along with mainstream products.

“There was no issue in getting space as there was plenty in the new wing they were building and they had all of that before approaching me.

“Nashville is known as the International City so they reached out to me before reaching out to others  as I have a whole lot of history in this city but mainly because I have a well known newspaper statewide.

“How much is the airport charging [for use of the space]? No charge right now.  I have lots of support from the city and many others.”

Elaborating, Perry said, “The Tennessee Tribune Stores will reflect the history of the paper in design and architecture while also serving the mainstream needs of the traveler as they seek customary items such as their Coke, Pepsi, Magazines, bottled water and more. The difference between the Tennessee Tribune Stores and other airport stores is the fact that we also have over 40 minority vendors providing top-notch retail products that range from snacks, jewelry, gourmet coffee blends, ready to drink beverages, top shelf wines and spirits, HBCU collegiate apparel, celebrity published works from local authors, traditional souvenirs, items from the world renowned Winfrey Family Foods line and more.

“With over 3,000 square feet of real estate space between two locations, the second location will offer cafe seating that will be open to the public with grab and go food, a creative space with entertainment, and be a great place for family and friends to wait for arriving passengers.” 

Anti-Immigration Groups Have Hateful Origins

“Major newspapers and wire services continue to cite white nationalist-linked nativist organizations — two of which have been declared hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) — as authorities on immigration, often without mentioning their extremist beliefs or their outsize influence on the Trump administration,” Sergio Munoz and Casey Wexler reported Tuesday for Media Matters for America.

“The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), and NumbersUSA are all anti-immigrant groups with deep ties to the late white nationalist and eugenicist John Tanton, who wanted to limit immigration in order to maintain the United States as a white-majority country. Tanton personally founded FAIR and CIS, which have since been classified as hate groups by the SPLC. Although NumbersUSA was not directly founded by Tanton, it originally operated as a part of his foundation, U.S. Inc., and the group’s president and CEO, Roy Beck, was dubbed by Tanton his ‘heir apparent.’ All three of these groups and their leaders were significant influences on the draconian and xenophobic immigration policy of the Trump administration. . . .”​

Protesters rally outside federal detention center in Elizabeth, N.J., in 2017 (Credit: Marisa Iati/NJ Advance Media)

Immigrants Portray Punishing Lives as Detainees

“A vast web of institutions that detain immigrants stretches through every major city in the United States,” Ariel Goodman reported Wednesday for the Marshall Project. “And while undocumented people often power the restaurants and construct the skyscrapers in these urban centers, the detention centers and county jails where they’ve been held for months, or even years, are often invisible to people on the outside.

“In her multimedia project ‘Spaces of Detention,’ photographer and anthropologist Cinthya Santos-Briones pairs the drawings, poetry and oral histories of formerly detained immigrants with collages she makes to shine a light on life in four New Jersey facilities: the Elizabeth Detention Center and the Bergen, Essex and Hudson County jails. . . .

“Isaac Garay Ponce, a Salvadoran immigrant who cleans offices in Jersey City, participated in a workshop last year. He lives five minutes away from the Hudson County Jail where he was detained for three years before winning his asylum case in 2019.

“ ‘I pass by there all the time, and I remember those times with mixed feelings,’ said the 31-year-old who crossed into the U.S. in 2015 after receiving death threats from gangs in El Salvador. ‘No one else can talk about what happens on the inside like we can. No one is going to tell you that the food is bad. That you have to cry in order for someone to give you a roll of toilet paper. That the showers are so hot that they burn your skin. That the officers are racist. So it’s better for people who have been inside to give others an idea of what it’s like. ‘ ”

Cuban American demonstrators blocked Miami’s Palmetto Expressway Tuesday, stopping traffic. They were voicing their support Tuesday for the people in Cuba and calling for action by the Biden administration. (Credit: Pedro Portal/Miami Herald)

​Editor Challenges Readers After Racist Email

Monica Richardson (pictured, below), the first African American editor of The Miami Herald, responded Thursday to a racist email prompted by the Cuban unrest by writing an open letter to the Miami community.

“Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, ‘The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy,’ ” Richardson wrote.

“Miami, who are we in times of challenge? Who are we right now? How are you using your voice?

“Tension should breed intelligent conversation and receptivity.

“Tension should inspire constructive change and action.

“Collectively we have to say enough on racism, in all its forms. And it doesn’t have to be incredibly complex.

“Write to your political leaders when laws feel one-sided, or when laws are needed.

“Speak up when you see someone being treated unfairly.

“Seek different perspectives.

“Find your voice in sending the message that racism is unacceptable.

“And most importantly, don’t be led by misinformation and disinformation. The Miami Herald and el Nuevo Herald are the local news sources that you need. It’s our job to keep you informed. We see ourselves as a crucial part of civic engagement, exposing wrong and inspiring people to act for the greater good.

We see ourselves as a tool to foster change in our communities.

“What about you?

“I encourage you to be a part of the change that you want to see.”

Amid Protests, Cuba Detains 7 Journalists

“Cuban authorities should immediately and unconditionally release all detained journalists, stop disrupting internet access in the country, and allow the press to cover protests freely,” the Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday.

“Since July 11, protests have erupted in several Cuban cities, with demonstrators calling for the end of the country’s communist government and protesting an economic crisis, worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to press reports, which said they were the biggest demonstrations in the country in decades.

“Authorities have disrupted internet access in the country, and police have detained at least seven journalists, according to news reports and statements by the Cuban press freedom organization ICLEP and human rights organization CUBALEX.”

In Havana Sunday, the Associated Press reported, “about 300 pro-government protesters arrived with a large Cuban flag, shouting slogans in favor of the late President Fidel Castro and the Cuban revolution. Some assaulted an AP videojournalist, smashing his camera. AP photojournalist Ramón Espinosa was then beaten by a group of police officers in uniforms and civilian clothes; he suffered a broken nose and an eye injury.”

Media Said to Miss Afro-Cuban Role in Unrest

“We`ve had conversations in pop culture in America over the last couple of years about the erasure of Afro Latino faces and voices,” Jason Johnson declared Thursday on MSNBC’s “The ReidOut,” which Johnson was guest hosting.

Johnson was interviewing Amalia Dache, associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania and an Afro-Cuban American scholar. “What are we not hearing about the faces of the people initiating these protests in Cuba right now? Who is really behind this, and what are they really asking for?” he asked.

Dache replied, “The catalysts were Afro-Cubans and artists across the island that wanted to express their lack of freedom of expression, the repression of the state of their freedoms in Cuba, and so we’re not hearing from the voice of Afro-Cubans on this issue.

“We’re not talking to Afro-Cubans on this issue when it comes to issues of race and racism under the dictatorship, and we’re focusing on things like the external embargo, instead of focusing on things like the internal embargo, or what we call the internal blockade of food and medicine like COVID vaccines because Cuba is not allowing COVID vaccines to come in through the COVAX program that UNICEF offers for free. They’re blocking medicine and food.”

Dache also said, “Well, just really, this is a quick history point that will address this issue. In Cuba in 1961 when this new regime came in, they said they eradicated racism, and you know what they did, they got rid of 200 Black organizations across the island, so they outlawed Black organizations, they outlawed associating or organization across racial lines because they said they eradicated racism. So, can you imagine the United States after the civil rights movement, we got rid of all Black organizations, we got rid of the Black church because in Cuba you weren`t allowed to organize across religious lines either.

“So, these are the issues we’re missing. These are the conversations we’re missing that Cuba, the rhetoric of Cuba being a Black power-aligned country is part of an old discourse, an old discourse that belongs in the 1960s, not in 2021. Because guess what? In Cuba, Black history can`t be taught in schools. . . .”

Garry Pierre-Pierre, editor of the New York-based Haitian Times, says it is up to the Haitian diaspora, not international organizations or the United States, to save Haiti. “Haitian leaders and the international community are sifting through the same playbook used after the last assassination of a Haitian president 106 years ago. Back in 1915, they chose the play that resulted in the U.S. taking $500,000 from the Bank of Haiti to New York for ‘safekeeping’ and the armed occupation of Haiti for nearly two decades. (Credit: Pulitzer Center)

With Oligarchs in Charge, Haiti Not Truly Black-Run

“The torture and assassination of president Jovenel Moïse by unknown assailants laid bare the reality in Haiti in ways that we can no longer hide,” Garry Pierre-Pierre wrote Friday for the Haitian Times, the New York-based outlet for the Haitian diaspora of which he is editor.

“Contrary to popular belief, Haiti is not a Black country. It is a modern-day Apartheid state where a small minority of White people lord over the mass of the population who are Black.

“To try to explain this any other way is intellectual malfeasance. Haiti is presented either as an example of Black rule or, in White supremacist circles, of Black people’s inability to govern. I get asked the question in polite company: ‘Why is Haiti ungovernable?’

“The answer is that it is by design. It is set up that way. Haiti is ruled not by the Black faces who are elected. It is governed by a small cabal of oligarch families who migrated to Haiti. They are known as BAM BAM, phonetically in Creole ‘Gimme, Gimme.’ The acronym stands for the Brandt Acra, Madsen, Bigio, Apaid Mevs families.

“These families control 90% of Haiti’s wealth and give a veneer that Haiti is a Black-run country when in fact they control virtually every business and entity in Haiti. They allow the political class to exist to protect their narrow personal interests. . . .”

Pierre-Pierre concluded, “Haiti needs the same awakening that’s happening in the United States. This is your Black Lives Matter moment. You should question your privilege, the Haitian system that allows you social standing by the virtue of your skin tone. . . .”

News Outlets Shouldn’t Let Others Define Them

“Forced to choose between strict neutrality or defending democracy over the past four years, many news outlets opted for the latter, casting Donald Trump as a threat to the nation,”
Perry Bacon Jr. (pictured) wrote Wednesday in The Washington Post. “This approach dismantled whatever was left of the facade that the media is a disinterested observer of U.S. politics — and created a new crisis for the industry.”

Bacon also wrote, “Moving forward, the nearly half of voters who backed a man that the press cast as racist and authoritarian aren’t going to forget the media’s judgment on their candidate. The media can’t credibly go back to posturing as disinterested or neutral — nor should it if Trump and Trumpism remain threats to democracy. It needs to chart a new path forward for a United States with a Trumpian Republican Party. Here are three thoughts on how to do that:

“CNN, the New York Times, The Post and similar outlets should embrace and announce their core values . . .

“Other national outlets should have different values — and be transparent about them, too. . . .

“Local newspapers and local public radio stations should be organized into democracy-defending institutions. . . .

“I don’t expect any of these three suggestions to be followed. But the main reason they won’t is deeply problematic: Most news organizations, while pushing and prodding virtually every other institution in American life to clarify and act on their values, have long refused to apply that principle to themselves.

“This is a mistake. Not clearly stating their values not only creates internal confusion, but it also allows outsiders to define the media’s values for them. As New York University journalism professor Jay Rosen often says, there is no ‘view from nowhere.’ The coverage decisions of the media are coming from somewhere — they should state those values honestly and clearly and act on them.”

Biden Takes Aim at Noncompete Clauses

“On Friday, President Joe Biden signed an executive order that got a lot of headlines because it takes aim at Big Tech, Big Mergers and maybe even Big Media,” Al Tompkins wrote Monday for the Poynter Institute. “Biden is urging the Federal Trade Commission to get busy making it more difficult for employers to enforce noncompete clauses in employment contracts. . . .

“Noncompete contract clauses are fairly common among television journalists, especially for anchors, who are forbidden from leaving one station and going to the station across town after their contract expires. Other news organizations also impose noncompete agreements on workers, especially if they are higher-profile journalists. . . .”

“There’s research on Asian Americans, and it shows that a majority of people are more likely to see Asians as foreign,” said sociology professor Natasha Warikoo. “You see an Asian face, you assume they’re foreign. And I think that’s in part because we don’t know the history of Asians in the United States.” (Credit: Zinn Education Project)

Illinois Mandates Teaching Asian American History

“Illinois has become the first state to mandate that Asian American history be part of its public school curriculum,” Kimmy Yam reported Monday for NBC Asian America.

“Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a bill Friday that requires elementary and high schools to teach a unit of Asian American history beginning in the 2022-23 school year. The historic legislation, which passed after an aggressive campaign led in part by the nonprofit group Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Chicago, is scheduled to go into effect Jan. 1.

“Sociology professor Natasha Warikoo, a scholar of racial and ethnic inequality in education at Tufts University, said that the legislation is no doubt a win but that it is likely to be up to the educators and the community to determine how heavily schools will emphasize the teachings. . . .”

‘How To Diversify Your Station’s Workforce . . .’

Grady Tripp, VP and chief diversity officer at Tegna, explains how fostering diversity, inclusion and equity at TV stations can be cultivated by maintaining an inclusive work environment, recognizing and valuing underrepresented groups and securing buy-in from leadership. (Credit: TVNewsCheck)

Rashida Jones, center, in white, and Cesar Conde, third from right, were joined by, from left, Hallie Jackson, Andrea Mitchell, Kasie Hunt, Joy Reid, Tiffany Cross and Geoff Bennett.

‘Culture of Inclusion’ Hailed on MSNBC’s 25th

“This week marks the 25th anniversary of MSNBC“ (scroll down), Tom Jones reported Tuesday for the Poynter Institute. “On Monday, MSNBC president Rashida Jones and Cesar Conde, chairman of the NBCUniversal News Group, celebrated the occasion at the Washington bureau of NBC News. They were joined by MSNBC Washington-based anchors Joy Reid, Andrea Mitchell, Kasie Hunt, Hallie Jackson, Tiffany Cross, and Geoff Bennett.

“Jones (pictured below with Mitchell) told the group, ‘I really want to make sure we’re all focused on what’s to come because we’ve got a lot of work to do and a lot of exciting opportunities ahead. I’m pleased that we get to do it together but the focus is real. We’ll be sharing some exciting news on how we’re looking ahead, on streaming and digital, long form projects, and more.’

“She added, ‘What’s most important to me is our culture and our culture of inclusion. Cesar, a year ago, launched the 50% Challenge, which we’ve all been working towards and continuing to make a priority. This is something that will continue to be a priority for us moving forward.’ “

Brian Stelter added for CNN’s “Reliable Sources” column, “NBC Daily is running 25 days of forward-looking essays by MSNBC anchors, hosts and correspondents.”

Separately, Joe Mandese reported Wednesday for MediaPost, “Fox News Channel may have the biggest average audience, as well as gross revenues of the cable news networks, but when it comes to a key Madison Avenue metric — CPMs — MSNBC is the most valued.

“A MediaPost analysis of data released Tuesday by the Pew Research Center analyzing the 2020 audience size and economics of the major cable news networks, reveals that MSNBC generates an average of $423 per prime-time household reached annually, which is about 10% more valuable than the second most valued cable news network, Fox News’ $386 per prime-time household reached. . . .”

4 Held in Alleged Plot to Kidnap Iranian-American

“Four Iranian nationals have been charged in an alleged plot to kidnap a US journalist and human rights activist living in New York, court documents show,” Madeline Holcombe and Brian Vitagliano reported Wednesday for CNN.

Masih Alinejad (pictured above), an activist with more than 5 million followers on Instagram, said she is the journalist targeted in the plot, the CNN report said. Authorities released the indictment and did not name Alinejad publicly, the writers continued.

“According to an indictment unsealed Tuesday in a New York federal court, Alireza Shavaroghi Farahani, aka Vezerat Salimi and Haj Ali, 50; Mahmoud Khazein, 42; Kiya Sadeghi, 35; and Omid Noori, 45, all of Iran, conspired to kidnap a Brooklyn journalist critical of the Iranian regime.

“The four were charged with conspiracies related to kidnapping, sanctions violations, bank and wire fraud and money laundering, according to the indictment. They are based in Iran and remain at large, authorities said.

“ ‘As alleged, four of the defendants monitored and planned to kidnap a U.S. citizen of Iranian origin who has been critical of the regime’s autocracy, and to forcibly take their intended victim to Iran, where the victim’s fate would have been uncertain at best,’ US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Audrey Strauss said in a news release.

“A fifth person, Niloufar ‘Nellie’ Bahadorifar, was also charged with sanctions violations conspiracy, bank and wire fraud conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy and structuring charges for allegedly providing financial services that supported the plot, according to the attorney’s office. . . .”

Pulitzer-Winning Photographer Dies in Afghanistan

“The Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Danish Siddiqui (pictured) was killed while covering a clash between Afghan security forces and the Taliban on Friday, as fighting between the insurgents and government troops intensifies across the country,” Christina Goldbaum and Fahim Abed reported for The New York Times.

“Mr. Siddiqui, an Indian national and Reuters staff journalist, was embedded with members of Afghanistan’s elite special forces in the southern province of Kandahar, a former Taliban stronghold. He was killed on Friday morning when Afghan commandos, trying to retake a district surrounding a border crossing with Pakistan, came under Taliban fire, according to Reuters. . . .”

Short Takes

  • The descendants of Frederick Douglass, the abolitionist publisher of The North Star whose “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?” speech was widely quoted over the Independence Day holiday, have created another outlet to honor journalists and others around the globe who have worked against racism. “We’ll be creating 10 art pieces recognizing Black Excellence, which we’re calling ‘Virtual Monuments,‘ ” says the Frederick Douglass Family Foundation. “These pieces could be songs, illustrations, short films, photo collages – but each one will celebrate an important moment or influential figure from Black History or Black Culture in its own, unique way. . . .”
  • “Newsroom employment in the United States has dropped by 26% since 2008. But while newspapers have seen steep job losses during that span, digital-native news organizations have seen considerable gains, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics,” Mason Walker reported Tuesday for Pew. Walker added, “The bulk of the decline in total newsroom employment occurred in the first half of this 12-year period.”
  • “In the summer of 1983, The Times published a series on Southern California’s Latino community,” the Los Angeles Times reports. “It was produced by a team of Latino editors, writers and photographers. The idea was to move beyond stereotypes and to produce stories that described Latinos in their full dimension, using feature articles, first-person stories, oral histories, commentaries and photos. They covered stories of success, struggle, art, politics, family, religion, culture, education, farm labor and history. In 1984, the series won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. The stories are now available in digital form for the first time.”
In photo that went viral, Deveonte Joseph, graduate of Community of Peace Academy in St. Paul, Minn., stands near University Avenue and Griggs Street in St. Paul on May 28, 2020, as Gordon Parks High School stands n the background. (Courtesy of Nathan Aguirre via Pioneer Press)
  • Sometimes one of the most interesting things about a photograph is what’s just outside the frame,” John Edwin Mason wrote June 26, 2020, for National Geographic. “That’s the case with the portrait of Deveonte Joseph that Nathan Aguirre made on a street corner in St. Paul, Minnesota a month ago during the protests after the murder of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, by Derek Chauvin, a white Minneapolis police officer. Across the street from where Joseph stood, barely outside of the camera’s view, is a building that connects him to another young black man who lived in St. Paul nearly a century ago. The building is Gordon Parks High School. Its namesake was a man who, as a photojournalist, became one of the mid-20th century’s most influential interpreters of African American life and culture. The connection between Joseph and the school reveals much about the enduring nature of racial oppression in the United States and, at the same time, allows us to think about how that oppression and resistance to it have been represented in photography. . . .”
  • “The New York Times today announced that the Ford Foundation will fund its new Disability Journalism Fellowship,” the Times said Thursday. “The two-year program will recruit one early career journalist each year to work at The Times to produce stories that illuminate and explain issues that are relevant to the 19 percent of the U.S. population who currently live with a disability – and to countless others who care about them and these matters. The program will provide fellows with mentorship, a peer network and specialized training on how to cover disabilities. The nonprofit National Center for Disability and Journalism will serve as a training partner to the fellows and other members of the newsroom. Ford is providing a $150,000 grant to create the new fellowship. . . .”
  • WarnerMedia News & Sports is partnering with the organization Most Influential People of African Descent “in recognition of the remaining three years of the UN’s proclaimed International Decade of People of African Descent to support the contributions of people of African descent worldwide,” said Johnita Due, SVP and Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer for WarnerMedia News and Sports, which includes brands such as CNN Original Series and CNN Films, Turner Sports + BleacherReport.” Part of the partnership is to “collaborate on events, panels, screenings that amplify Black creatives and voices globally, including but not exclusive to film makers, musicians, actors, artists, etc.,” a spokesperson explains.
On Sept. 23, 2001, Eritrean security forces arbitrarily detained Dawit Isaak — then reporting for Eritrea’s first independent newspaper, Setit — without charge or trial along with at least 10 other independent journalists, Judith Abitan, executive director of the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, and Irwin Cotler, international chair of the center, wrote Monday for The Washington Post. “Isaak, a dual Eritrean-Swedish citizen, was unexpectedly released for medical treatment in 2005 but arrested again two days later. Nothing has been heard of him since.. . . Some of the journalists arrested with him have already died in detention. Isaak and his colleagues are the longest detained journalists in the world today. . . “
Top row, from left, detained journalists Bekalu Alamrew, Yayesew Shimeles, Abebe Bayu. Bottom row, Fana Negash, Fanuel Kinfu and Meheret Gebrekirstos.
“The front banners of major newspapers in Nigeria on Monday bore a picture of an individual with a sealed mouth,” Yusuf Akinpelu wrote Monday for Nigeria’s Premium Times. ” ‘Information Blackout,’ read the caption that ran with the picture. ‘It’s not just against the media….it’s about society’s right to know, your right to be heard.’ ” Akinpelu also wrote, “This is a pushback by media organisations in the country against the Buhari government’s brazen attempt to regulate social media and censor the press through controversial media bills at the National Assembly. . . .”
  • “For nearly two weeks, South Africa’s media, to their credit, have been reporting on the increasing level of violence in Eswatini,” formerly Swaziland, “and we have seen journalists threatened, detained and tortured,” William Bird wrote July 8 for the Daily Maverick in South Africa.
  • “Egyptian authorities released three activists and three journalists Sunday after months in pre-trial detention, officials and lawyers said, the Associated Press reported July 19. “The releases came after U.S. officials, among others, expressed concern over the arrests and harassment of rights advocates and critics of President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi’s government.”
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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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