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CBS Owner Throws ’60 Minutes’ Staff Under Bus

by richard02387

Deal Called More Media Suppression From Trump
Can Gayle King Be Both Celebrity and Journalist?
Davidson Leaves WaPo Column Over Policy Change
When Will NABJ Respond to the Urban League?
Spanish-Language Journalist Granted Bond
. . . Harassment Sending Salvadoran Journos into Exile
Israeli, Iranian Attacks Also Hurt Journalists
The Man Who Discovered the Watergate Break-In

Short Takes: Sean Combs; Laura Barrón-López; Farah Stockman; Nestor Ramos; TheRoot.com; Byron Allen; National Newspaper Publishers Association; NNPA and Cuba; harassment, detention of independent Cuban journalists; Marcus Mabry; Sudeep Reddy; Mumia Abu-Jamal; Kimi Yoshino; Zuri Berry; Isabel Lara; Felix Contreras; Chris Pena; Wesley Morris; arrested Zimbabwe editor.

Homepage photo: Bill Whitaker interviews Kamala Harris for “60 Minutes.” (Credit: CBS)

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“We are posting the same transcripts and videos of our interview with Vice President Kamala Harris that we provided to the FCC,” CBS News said in February. “They show – consistent with 60 Minutes’ repeated assurances to the public – that the 60 Minutes broadcast was not doctored or deceitful.” (Credit: CBS/YouTube). 

Deal Called More Media Suppression From Trump

Spurning pleas from the staff of “60 Minutes,” from First Amendment advocates and from those who fear that the nation is moving further toward Donald Trump-led authoritarianism, Paramount said late Tuesday that it has agreed to pay Trump $16 million to settle his lawsuit over the editing of an interview on CBS News’ “60 Minutes.”

It was “an extraordinary concession to a sitting president by a major media organization,” in the words of Benjamin Mullin, Michael M. Grynbaum, Lauren Hirsch and David Enrich, writing Wednesday for The New York Times.

They added, “The deal is the clearest sign yet that Mr. Trump’s ability to intimidate major American institutions extends to the media industry.”

Paramount Global, CBS’ parent company, said the money will go to Trump’s future presidential library and that the settlement did not involve an apology.

While race was not a major factor in the dispute, both the interviewer, Bill Whitaker, and the interviewee, then-Vice President Kamala Harris, are Black. On the other side, George Cheeks, part of a three-person “Office of the CEO” at Paramount Global, has been described as biracial.

On Sunday, Oliver Darcy reported for his Status newsletter that “people familiar with the matter” told him that Whitaker and his six “60 Minutes” colleagues –– Lesley Stahl, Scott Pelley, Anderson Cooper, Sharyn Alfonsi, Jon Wertheim and Cecilia Vega — “took a hard stance on Trump’s lawsuit.

“They pointedly expressed concern that Paramount is failing to put up a fierce and unrelenting fight in the face of Trump’s lawsuit over the program’s Kamala Harris interview, which has been widely denounced by the legal community as baseless, according to the people familiar with the matter. They said Trump’s allegations against the storied program are false and ripped his lawsuit as baseless. And they warned in no uncertain terms that if Paramount were to settle with Trump, it will stain the reputation of the company and undermine the First Amendment.”

The “60 Minutes” journalists had “warned in no uncertain terms that if Paramount were to settle with Trump, it will stain the reputation of the company and undermine the First Amendment.” (Credit: CBS News)

After the announcement of the settlement, “At 11 a.m. on Wednesday, the dispirited staff of ’60 Minutes’ logged onto Zoom for a meeting with CBS News President Tom Cibrowski and interim Executive Producer Tanya Simon. The meeting, described to me by attendees, had been hastily arranged to address the bombshell news,” Darcy wrote Wednesday night.

“When the meeting opened up for discussion, emotions spilled over. I’m told that correspondent Bill Whitaker spoke first and was quite somber, appearing teary-eyed as he spoke about the institution he loves. Lesley Stahl and Sharyn Alfonsi followed, voicing deep frustration and dismay that the company had capitulated to Trump. . . . “

Darcy also wrote, “At Paramount’s annual shareholder meeting, George Cheeks, the co-chief executive who oversees CBS, defended the decision, telling investors: ‘Yes, the company has agreed in principle to settle the lawsuit, and as reported, it does not include an apology. Now as to the why? Look, companies often settle litigation to avoid the high and somewhat unpredictable cost of legal defense, the risk of an adverse judgment that could result in significant financial as well as reputational damage and the disruption to business operations that prolonged legal battles can cause.’ . . . .”

In his “Reliable Sources” column Tuesday for CNN, Brian Stelter said the dispute centered on “a probing, informative interview. Whitaker asked Harris tough questions. He also pointed out that Trump refused to sit down for an equivalent interview.

“Trump’s objection, and the basis of his lawsuit, is about the editing of one answer to one of the 40+ questions. CBS didn’t cover anything up. It broadcast the answer at issue, which certainly wasn’t flattering to Harris. But it chopped up the answer and aired two different parts on two different shows, which exposed the network to criticism.

“That’s it. That’s the substance of the lawsuit that CBS parent Paramount is on the verge of settling.”

The Times report continued, “Shari Redstone, the chair and controlling shareholder of Paramount, told her board that she favored exploring a settlement with Mr. Trump. Some executives at the company viewed the president’s lawsuit as a potential hurdle to completing a multibillion-dollar sale of the company to the Hollywood studio Skydance, which requires the Trump administration’s approval.” . . .

“The sale of Paramount would end the Redstone family’s decades-long control of CBS News and Paramount Pictures and put it in the hands of David Ellison, the son of Larry Ellison, a tech billionaire who has backed Mr. Trump.”

Jeremy Barr added in The Washington Post, “In May, three Senate Democrats wrote a letter to Redstone putting her on notice that settling the case in an effort to smooth the merger could put the company at risk of violating bribery law. It followed an earlier letter written by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), who argued that settling the case would be ‘a grave mistake’ that would ‘capitulate’ to a ‘dangerous move to authoritarianism.’ “

“CBS journalists, including famed ’60 Minutes’ correspondent Lesley Stahl, had come to expect a settlement — one staffer this week described it to The Post as ‘inevitable.’ That consensus hardened after the ouster of two executives who were known to oppose a deal: ’60 Minutes’ executive producer Bill Owens in April and CBS News and Stations chief executive Wendy McMahon in May.

“ ‘I know there’s going to be a settlement. I know there’s going to be some money exchanged,’ Stahl said on a New Yorker podcast in May. She said she was angry with Redstone, who will benefit handsomely from government approval of the merger, and questioned ‘whether any corporation should own a news operation.’ ”

David Bauder recalled for the Associated Press, “In December, ABC News settled a defamation lawsuit by Trump over statements made by anchor George Stephanopoulos, agreeing to pay $15 million toward Trump’s presidential library rather than engage in a public fight. Meta reportedly paid $25 million to settle Trump’s lawsuit against the company over its decision to suspend his social media accounts following the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.”

“Trump’s threats are setting up a potential crisis for American journalism,” said Reporters Without Borders. (Credit: Screenshot/Truth Social)

The international press-freedom group Reporters Without Borders this year ranked the United States only 57 of 180 countries and territories on its Press Freedom Index, explaining, “After a century of gradual expansion of press rights in the United States, the country is experiencing its first significant and prolonged decline in press freedom in modern history, and Donald Trump’s return to the presidency is greatly exacerbating the situation.

“While the media in the United States generally operate free from government interference, media ownership is highly concentrated, and many of the companies buying American media outlets appear to prioritize profits over public interest journalism. In a diverse global media landscape, local news has declined significantly in recent years. A growing interest in partisan media threatens objectivity, while public confidence in the media has fallen dangerously.

“President Donald Trump was elected to a second term after a campaign in which he denigrated the press on a daily basis and made explicit threats to weaponize the federal government against the media. His early moves in his second mandate to politicise the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), ban the Associated Press from the White House, or dismantle the US Agency for Global Media, for example, have jeopardized the country’s news outlets and indicate that he intends to follow through on his threats, setting up a potential crisis for American journalism.”

Gayle King reacts two months ago to celebrity friends who criticized her space flight. (Credit: YouTube)

Can Gayle King Be Both Celebrity and Journalist?

On Fox News, Gayle King and Oprah Winfrey were described as “celebrities” in Fox’s coverage of the lavish Venice wedding last weekend of Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez. Winfrey has long since graduated from talk-show host to media mogul. But King is still in the journalistic role of “CBS Mornings” co-host, and Bezos is a possible interview subject.

Should King have been in Venice as a “celebrity”?

CBS woudn’t respond to an inquiry, just as it didn’t when questions were raised about King accepting a ride to space on Bezos’ Blue Origin in April, alongside Sánchez and Katy Perry.

Oliver Darcy wrote of that flight for his Status newsletter in March, “no one will say who’s paying. Space tourism isn’t cheap. Some passengers have spent millions, and even joining the Blue Origin waitlist costs $150,000.

“CBS News has strict policies against accepting ‘gifts and freebies,’ yet one of its top anchors is getting a coveted seat on a high-profile mission while the network showers Blue Origin with glowing coverage.

“Doesn’t that seem like a conflict of interest? If a CBS journalist took a free luxury vacation in exchange for publicity, it would be a clear ethics violation that would land them in hot water with management. A spaceflight is on a much bigger scale. Which begs the question: Who did King clear this with? And why did they say yes?”

Asked for his perspective on the Venice trip, Rod Hicks (pictured), director of ethics and diversity at the Society for Professional Journalists, messaged Journal-isms:

“The SPJ Code of Ethics cautions journalists to avoid even the perception of conflicts of interest.

“Journalists have lives, and some have friends who are wealthy and may invite them to a party filled with millionaires, billionaires and celebrities. As journalists, they should give thoughtful consideration to whether accepting an invitation may raise ethical concerns, particularly if the party thrower is often engaged in newsworthy activities.

“Specifically, the Code offers this guidance on potential conflicts:

“Avoid conflicts of interest, real or perceived. Disclose unavoidable conflicts.

“Refuse gifts, favors, fees, free travel and special treatment, and avoid political and other outside activities that may compromise integrity or impartiality, or may damage credibility.”

Joe Davidson discusses diversity at the International Press Institute’s World Congress in 2020. “When we founded the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) 40 years ago, we didn’t really know that during this time in 2020 these issues would be hitting us in the face to the extent they are now,” he said. (Credit: IPI/YouTube)

Davidson Leaves WaPo Column Over Policy Change

Joe Davidson, who has written about the federal workforce for The Washington Post for 17 years, has become the latest long-running Black columnist to announce his departure from the Post’s troubled newsroom.

“I’m leaving because of a policy restricting the level of opinion and commentary in news section articles,” Davidson told readers on Friday. “While the policy can be justified journalistically, its rigorous enforcement represents a significant reduction in the latitude I’ve enjoyed since I began writing the Federal Diary, now the Federal Insider, in 2008, three years after I joined The Post.”

The previous week, Colbert King (pictured), op-ed columnist specializing in local affairs, announced, “I have now decided that come September, when I reach my 35-year milestone as a Post journalist, I shall strike my tent and silently move on into the night.” King, 85, cited medical issues. He is a former deputy editorial page editor who in 2003 won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary.

In April, Eugene Robinson (pictured), whose columns earned him a Pulitzer in 2009, announced that he was leaving because a “ ‘significant shift’ in the mission of our section spurred me to decide that this is the time for my next chapter,” as Robinson relayed then to Journal-isms.

Davidson, 76, a co-founder of the National Association of Black Journalists, previously worked at the Wall Street Journal, where he covered a variety of government agencies and political campaigns and was a correspondent in Johannesburg. Before that, he worked in Philadelphia as chief of the City Hall bureau for the old Bulletin, for the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in D.C., and for the National Leader, a short-lived Philadelphia-based start-up that aimed for quality coverage of Black issues.

In 2010, Davidson told Journalisms, “Diversity issues have been important to me from before my first column, which was two years ago this month.

“In the memo I wrote that outlined the approach I planned to take with the space, I said: ‘I would seek to expose issues of fairness, or the lack of it, in its many forms, including racial, gender, age and health status bias.’ “

Davidson went on to outline how he has addressed the topic since then. “It is true that in recent weeks I have had a number of columns that deal with various aspects of diversity, discrimination and racism,” he continued. “I think these columns have had more depth and punch than my earlier work and that may make them more memorable.

“Also, the longer I’m in this job the greater number of sources I develop and the more readers turn to me with story ideas. While I’ve always written about diversity, to some extent my recent coverage of diversity issues is related to an increase in the number of good, solid suggestions by my readers.”

Morale at the Post began to decline, and cancellations rose, after billionaire owner Jeff Bezos decided last October that the paper would make no endorsement in the presidential race, ending a decades-long tradition.

Then, as editorial writer and columnist Ruth Marcus (pictured) would write for the New Yorker about her own departure, Bezos “issued an edict that the Post’s opinion offerings would henceforth concentrate on the twin pillars of ‘personal liberties and free markets,’ and, even more worrisome, that “viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others.”

Clare Malone wrote for the New Yorker in May, “Bezos’s ownership of the Post was creating complications for his other businesses. Amazon held a large contract with the government to handle cloud computing for intelligence agencies, and it was in the running for a similar contract with the Pentagon worth ten billion dollars. In 2018, a source told Axios that Trump was ‘obsessed’ with Amazon and had considered bringing an antitrust suit against the company and changing its tax status. . . .”

Davidson concluded his column by saying, “Thank you to The Post for naming me a ‘Washington Post columnist.’ I can’t think of a better title in journalism.” He dedicated his finale to federal employees, citing the achievements of one such honoree for each year of his tenure.

Asked whether the column would continue, a Post spokesperson messaged, “you are welcome to note a Washington Post spokesperson declined to comment, as we do not discuss personnel matters.”

When Will NABJ Respond to the Urban League?

Seven candidates for seats on the board of the National Association of Black Journalists met via Zoom Wednesday night, expanding on their campaign themes, revisiting the controversial interview with Donald Trump at last year’s convention, and expressing enthusiasm for partnerships with other journalists-of-color organizations and those seeking to advance Black progress.

However, left unsaid was that nearly seven weeks ago, National Urban League president Marc Morial invited NABJ and the National Newspaper Publishers Association to join his coalition of about 20 pro-diversity groups formulating strategies to counter the assault on racial advancement. But neither NABJ or NNPA ever responded to a question from this column about whether they would accept the invitation.

Morial said on May 15 that his coalition was “trying to figure out a way to include” the two groups. His Demand Diversity coalition met in February with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., as part of its response to the assault.

“Journalists are storytellers,” Morial said. “And in this moment, also, our journalists in our community are truth-sayers. And it is so important in this moment that all of us find ways to lift our voices. Individuals can do it through social media. Those that have the pen in their hand, the proverbial pen in their hand, can write about this moment.”

Separately, Ashley Mowreader of Inside Higher Ed wrote Wednesday about a report from the National Association for Student Affairs Professionals, which collected data from 60 student affairs professionals in 14 states with bans on diversity, equity and inclusion. It “found that 64 percent reported a less inclusive campus climate and 59 percent had made structural changes at their institution due to legal challenges, including renaming an office, laying off employees or reorganizing departments,” Mowreader wrote.

Participating in the Wednesday night Zoom were three candidates for NABJ president, two for vice president/broadcast and two seeking to represent Region 1, which includes the Northeast. All said that the U.S. presidential candidates should be invited to speak before NABJ conventions, but challengers Errin Haines and Dion Ribouin disagreed with the way the invitations to Republican Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris were executed last year.

Incumbent NABJ President Ken Lemon said the organization was dealing with time constraints and the candidates’ availabilities. Harris was unavailable for the August conference, but spoke separately to the group in Philadelphia in September, he reminded listeners.

The forum was streamed, so NABJ members may watch for themselves via a link soon to be provided. [It’s here] .”Next week, July 9, again there will be seven candidates – if everyone shows,” Lynn Norment, who chairs the NABJ Elections Committee, told Journal-isms. “Candidates for VP digital (4) and secretary (3).

Norment said that 166 people attended the Zoom, with 442 viewing on Facebook and 100 on YouTube.

“There also will be a candidates forum at NABJ in Cleveland. One forum for all the candidates, total of 16 candidates in all. Two uncontested candidates will not participate in the Zoom forums.”

Last week’s forum may be viewed here.

Mario Guevara was arrested on three misdemeanor charges related to his First Amendment rights, guaranteeing freedom of the press. Those charges were dropped on June 25 due to insufficient evidence, the Committee to Protect Journalists said. (Credit: Facebook)

Spanish-Language Journalist Granted Bond

“An immigration judge in Georgia on Tuesday granted bond for a well-known Spanish-language journalist arrested while covering a protest last month, meaning he will be free as the government seeks to deport him from the United States,” Kate Brumback reported Tuesday for the Associated Press.

“Mario Guevara, a native of El Salvador, was arrested by local police on June 14 while covering a protest just outside Atlanta and was turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement several days later. He has been held at an immigration detention center in Folkston — in southeast Georgia, near the Florida border — since then.

“MG News, a digital news outlet that Guevara started about a year ago, posted on social media Tuesday that a judge had granted him bond.

“Guevara, 47, fled El Salvador two decades ago and built a large following as a journalist covering immigration in the Atlanta area. He worked for Mundo Hispanico, a Spanish-language newspaper, for years before starting MG News. He was livestreaming video on social media from a DeKalb County rally protesting President Donald Trump’s administration when local police arrested him. . . . “

Despite the court order for Guevara’s release, the Committee to Protect Journalists said it was concerned by the government lawyer’s argument that livestreaming presented a danger to the public by compromising the integrity and safety of law enforcement activities.

“The fact that Guevara was arrested while exercising his First Amendment rights as a journalist and was subsequently held for over two weeks by various law enforcement bodies sends an alarming message to the media and has effectively silenced Guevara’s coverage of his community,” the group said. “We urge law enforcement to thoroughly investigate why Guevara was arrested in the first place.”

. . . Harassment Sending Salvadoran Journos into Exile

“Dozens of journalists from El Salvador have gone into exile over the last month in the face of escalating government harassment, intimidation and arbitrary press restrictions, according to the Journalists Association of El Salvador,” Isabella Cota reported June 25 for the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.

“The group, known by its Spanish acronym APES, warned in a press release of ‘strong indications that the state has specific lists for surveillance, intimidation, and even arrests of human rights defenders and journalists’ within El Salvador.

“APES estimates that 40 journalists, fearing arrest, have had to leave the Central American country in the last month as President Nayib Bukele has escalated his crackdown on his critics. Several among those exiled are reporters at award-winning investigative outlet and ICIJ media partner El Faro. . . .”

Israeli, Iranian Attacks Also Hurt Journalists

“On June 16, three days after Israel started its offensive on Iran, Israeli rockets hit Iranian state TV, killing two staffers and interrupting broadcasts,” Reporters Without Borders said on June 25. “Though long criticised as a propaganda arm of the Supreme Leader, the strike sent a chilling message to journalists.

“By 23 June, Israeli rockets struck the gate of Evin prison, infamous for holding journalists and political prisoners. While the Israeli foreign minister touted the hit on the regime’s symbol of repression, he made no mention of the danger the strikes posed to the dissenting voices inside. Rather than liberate journalists, Israel’s strikes reinforced the Iranian regime’s narrative that those loyal to the regime are victims and reporters critical of the authorities are enemies. (Photo credit: TCH.ua)

“Iranian journalists were forced to work under the threat of Israeli airstrikes and military attacks while facing the brutal repression of the Islamic Republic. Arbitrary arrests, internet blackouts, pressure and threats remain the regime’s go-to tactics to control the flow of information and censor unfavourable coverage of the war. We call on the Iranian regime to immediately end the crackdown, liberate all detained prisoners, and allow the press to freely cover conflicts. We remind the Israeli army — already accused of killing nearly 200 journalists in Gaza, as well as reporters in the West Bank and Lebanon — that targeting journalists and media infrastructures is a war crime.”

“In fact, the strike on Evin prison led to seriously degraded living conditions for the journalists locked inside. Iranian authorities moved male reporters to the overcrowded Fashafoyeh prison — some transferred without their life-saving medication — while the women reporters were sent to the infamous Garchak prison, where conditions and medical care are dire.

“In tandem with the Israeli army’s attacks, Iran ramped up its war against its own journalists. . . .”

 
 
 
 
 
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The Man Who Discovered the Watergate Break-In

On June 17, Karlyn Barker, a retired Washington Post reporter, recalled on Facebook that day 53 years ago when the Watergate story began — and the role of Frank Wills, the man who discovered the fateful break- in.

By Karlyn Barker

“ I was fortunate to be working at the Washington Post then and was actually one of seven reporters called in that Saturday morning.

I was dispatched to find Frank Wills, the security guard who was the first Watergate hero. I found him at his rooming house (woke him up). He came downstairs carrying a kitten and recounted the now-famous story of how he was patrolling the Watergate office building and saw that one of the doors had been taped. He removed the tape and continued his rounds.

Later, when he saw the door had been re-taped, he called the police. But for an $80-a-week security guard who did his job, the five “burglars” would never have been discovered.

There are a lot of ironies attached to the break-in.

1) The Nixon agents were, in fact, breaking in a SECOND time…because the bugging devices they planted in the first (undiscovered) break-in at Democratic headquarters weren’t working properly.

2) The police who responded to Wills’ alert arrived in an unmarked car…so the lookout in the hotel across the street didn’t recognize them as police and didn’t warn the men.

3) One of the men was stupid enough to be carrying an address book with a phone contact labeled “W.H.” That early White House connection and, of course, the important guidance Bob Woodward was getting from the mysterious Deep Throat (Mark Felt, the #2 guy at the FBI) let the Post know early on that this was more than the “third-rate burglary” dismissed by Nixon aides.

A lot of those aides and others later got rich telling their Watergate stories. Wills played himself in “All the President’s Men,” the 1976 movie about how Woodward & Carl Bernstein uncovered the scandal. But the guy who foiled the break-in later served a year in prison for stealing a pair of sneakers and was broke when he died in 2000 at the age of 52.

In this current bitterly divided country (and if Fox and other far-right sources of “news” had existed then) I’m sure Nixon would have survived the Watergate revelations. Certainly no Republican leaders of today would have put country over party to oust him. But that’s another discussion.

One other thing I’ll share before shutting up: Seven reporters were called into the Post newsroom that Saturday, June 17, 1972. Only two came back on Sunday to keep working the story — Woodward and Bernstein.

Short Takes

During the trial (Credit: CNN)

  • Laura Barrón-López (pictured), reporter on the White House beat at the “PBS News Hour,” is joining MSNBC News as a White House correspondent, MSNBC announced Wednesday. Her predecessor on the beat at PBS, Yamiche Alcindor, left for NBC, having covered the White House for PBS until 2022. Barrón-López was also a CNN political analyst and covered the Biden administration for Politico.
  • Farah Stockman (pictured), editorial board member at The New York Times, is starting a new beat at the Times covering manufacturing. As Charlotte Klein reported in May for New York magazine, opinion editor Kathleen Kingsbury “has all but gutted the editorial board in recent months, offering Mara Gay, Jesse Wegman, Brent Staples, and Farah Stockman buyouts or roles elsewhere in ‘Opinion’ or the newsroom.” Gay and Staples remain in the section, but Charles M. Blow, another Black columnist, left earlier this year for Harvard University.
  • Metro editor Nestor Ramos (pictured) has been named National editor at the New York Times, Times managing editors Marc Lacey and Carolyn Ryan announced Tuesday. “As Metro editor, Nestor Ramos has shown finely tuned news chops, outsized leadership skills and ample journalistic creativity. So skilled has he been in overseeing our report in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut that we’re tapping him to focus on the other 47 states,” they said.
  • The Root.com will be all that remains of G/O Media, the digital media publisher that once owned such sites as Jezebel and Deadspin, Katie Robertson reported for The New York Times. “The company announced on Wednesday that it was winding down its operations and selling off one of its last properties, the video game website Kotaku.”

Tracee Wilkins of WRC-TV, known as NBC4 in Washington, reports on the plight of Black newspapers, interviewing Denise Rolark Barnes, publisher of the Washington Informer, and Benjamin Chavis, president and CEO of the National Newspaper Publishers Association. (Credit: YouTube)

  • “The Sacramento Observer earned the night’s most prestigious recognition, the John B. Russwurm Award,” as the National Newspaper Publishers Association held its convention last week in Savannah, Ga., NNPA’s BlackPressUSA reported. The award is “presented to the newspaper with the highest cumulative score across all award categories. The Observer achieved an impressive 154 points and took home first-place honors in Education Reporting, Business Reporting, Original Photography, Youth and Children Coverage, and Facebook Campaigns.”
  • “The Cuban government must halt its harassment of journalists Yunia Figueredo (pictured) and Frank Correa, and allow them to continue their work with the community media outlet, Amanecer Habanero,” Katherine Jacobsen, U.S., Canada and Caribbean program coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists, said June 26. “Reporters should not be threatened into silence with legal orders . . . Cuba’s private media companies have come under increased scrutiny from a new communication law banning all unapproved, non-state media and prohibiting them from receiving international funding and foreign training. . . .”
  • MSNBC has poached CNN executive Marcus Mabry (pictured) “to serve as its Senior Vice President of Content Strategy,” according to Max Tani of Semafor. According to a note to network employees, “Mabry is expected to help rethink how MSNBC’s audiences experience the network online. The network also said Mabry would develop new online projects for MSNBC, expanding the brand’s digital audience and business. That could eventually mean a suite of new digital revenue products, including e-commerce.” Tani wrote May 20. “Mabry was previously CNN Worldwide’s Senior Vice President of Digital Editorial and Programming, where he oversaw teams responsible for running the CNN.com homepage, as well as audio, features, and commerce initiatives.”
  • Mumia Abui-Jamal (pictured), the former Black Panther and onetime president of the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists, is the subject of an interview by Dave Zirin in Rolling Stone. Abu Jamal, convicted of murdering Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner in 1981, and no longer on death row, says, “It’s hard not to look at the world at the present and feel a sense of profound chaos that grips one every day. It’s partly because what the country has chosen is a kind of politics of madness, of meanness and — forgive me for saying so, but I do believe this in my bones — a kind of mass ignorance that cannot be ignored. That’s the nature of this beast. It’s an extraordinary and terrifying moment.”
  • Zuri Berry, a multimedia journalist who has been digital producer for the Baltimore Banner after roles in radio and newspapers in Washington, Boston and Charlotte, N.C., has been named executive editor of a new Montgomery County, Md., edition of the Banner. “We plan to bring The Banner’s signature style of accountability reporting, feature writing and depth to our coverage of these issues,” Berry wrote to readers. Montgomery County, an affluent Washington suburb, is also the most populous in the state.
  • NPR’s Felix Contreras (pictured), “a trailblazing journalist and an international ambassador for Latin music and art,’ will receive the 2025 Hispanic Heritage Award for Journalism at the 38th Annual Hispanic Heritage Awards, the Hispanic Heritage Foundation announced June 26. The celebration takes place Sept. 4 at the Warner Theater in Washington.
  • Chris Peña (pictured) is joining TEGNA Inc. as vice president of content for the Midwest region, effective June 30,” Veronica Villafañe wrote June 23 for her Media Moves site. “Peña was most recently director of broadcast transformation at consulting company Blue Engine. Before that, he spent seven years as senior vice president of news at Univision Local Media, exiting the company in 2023. He previously held roles as senior executive producer at MSNBC, executive editor of NBCLatino.com, assistant news director at NBC Chicago, executive producer at NBC Miami, and news director at KTMD Telemundo Houston.”
  • The New York Times announced “Cannonball with Wesley Morris,” a new weekly culture podcast hosted by Morris, a Pulitzer Prize-winning critic. “Every week, Wesley will sit down with fellow writers, artists, critical thinkers and friends to talk about the cultural moment we’re in in order to better understand it, and ourselves,” the Times announced June 26.

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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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