Site icon journal-isms.com

Chicago Sun-Times Makes Drastic Cuts

richard

Buyouts, Most Severe in Years, Are Multicultural
Geoffrey Starks, Pro-Diversity FCC Member, to Step Down
Digital Journalist Named CEO of Online News Assn.
Tapper Schools CNN Viewers on Jackie Robinson
David Diaz, ‘Reporter’s Reporter’ in N.Y., Dies at 82
U.S. Restores Some Funding for Cuban Independent Outlets

Short Takes: YouTube simulcast of NABJ, NAHJ, AAJA presidents; defamation suit involving coverage of Pride events; Anthony W. McCarthy; Morgan State U. and book banning

Updated March 20.

Homepage photo: Copies of the Chicago Sun-Times featuring slogans from the paper’s union protesting potential layoffs. (Credit:.Sun-Times Guild)

Members of the Chicago Sun-Times union hold an action before a Chicago Public Media board meeting at Navy Pier. (Credit: Sun-Times Guild)

Buyouts, Most Severe in Years, Are Multicultural

“Thirty employees of the Chicago Sun-Times — around 1 in 5 on its payroll — have agreed to resign under buyout terms the paper’s nonprofit ownership offered in hopes of stanching persistent financial deficits,” David Roeder reported Wednesday for the Sun-Times. Noted film critic Richard Roeper later added his name to the list.

In fact, Roeder wrote, “Those leaving include most of the paper’s editorial board. Editorial Page Editor Lorraine Forte (pictured) and board members Tom Frisbie and Marlen Garcia are leaving, causing staff speculation that the Sun-Times will no longer post editorials reflecting board members’ views of various issues. Company leadership would not confirm that plan. If implemented, it would be a major break with newspaper tradition.”

Garcia (pictured) is a Latina. She messaged Journal-isms, “I will seek freelance work, hopefully as an editor.”

Forte wrote on social media, “I don’t know what my next adventure will be, especially at this frightening time in our country. But I wish everyone who’s leaving, and those still staying, all the best, always.”

Roeder reported, “The cuts are the most drastic the oft-imperiled Sun-Times has faced in several years and will bring about recognizable changes to its content, although top leaders said the buyouts ensure there will be no layoffs in the near future.”

When Chicago Public Media acquired the Sun-Times in 2022, WBEZ reporter Dave McKinney described the paper as a “gritty tabloid made famous by its corruption-busting investigations, Roger Ebert’s movie reviews and Irv Kupcinet’s gossip column, and crisp sportswriting.”

The layoffs continue an industry-wide trend. “At least 3,875 redundancies and layoffs across newspaper, news broadcaster and digital media businesses were publicly announced or reported in 2024,” Charlotte Tobitt reported for Britain’s Press-Gazette in January.

“This compares to the at least 8,000 journalism job cuts made in the UK and North America in 2023.”

The downward trend comes as trust in traditional media is declining, while use of social media is rising, especially among African Americans and younger adults. Yet disinformation and misinformation are spreading on those platforms, often unchecked. How journalists can survive and thrive in this environment is to be the subject of a Journal-isms Roundtable this coming Monday. It can be viewed on Facebook.

Roeder’s story continued, “Sports columnists Rick Morrissey and Rick Telander accepted buyouts. Their work typically has led the daily sports coverage, a traditional stronghold for a tabloid and a huge source of digital readership. Bears beat writer Mark Potash and White Sox beat writer Daryl Van Schouwen will also be departing. Separately, Annie Costabile, who has deepened coverage of women’s sports, has resigned.

“Other departures include advice columnist Ismael Perez (pictured) and assistant features editor Darel Jevens. Longtime columnist Michael Sneed will be leaving the paper after 58 years in journalism. Assistant breaking news editor and former longtime political editor Scott Fornek, public safety and justice editor Dan Haar and deputy editor, politics and government John O’Neill, all involved in assignments and editing of copy, said they are among those exiting the paper. . . .”

“I am passionate about making sure that the media ecosystem accurately reflects our American society,” said FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks. (Credit: Comcast)

Starks, Pro-Diversity FCC Member, to Step Down

Geoffrey Starks, the only Black member of the Federal Communications Commission and a Democrat who has made diversity one of the hallmarks of his six-year tenure, announced Tuesday that he intends “to resign my seat as a Commissioner this spring.”

“Starks is a champion for the millions of Americans who lack access to or cannot afford a home internet connection,” the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council (MMTC), which presses for broadcast ownership by people of color, said in February during a Black History Month tribute. “He advocates for consumer protection and accountability, particularly in managing the Universal Service Fund,” which subsidizes telephone service to low-income households and high-cost areas.

“Also, he is a leader on national security policy, working to eliminate untrustworthy equipment from America’s communications networks.”

In 2020, at the initiation of Starks and then-FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, the commission created the Early Career Staff Diversity Initiative “to advance equitable opportunities for underrepresented undergraduate, graduate, and law school students.” For the last several years, “the Commission has only offered voluntary, unpaid internships. As a result, otherwise qualified students may decline to pursue these opportunities, including students from underrepresented communities,” it said. The new internships were to be paid.

At a 2023 symposium (scroll down) on “expanding digital and media ownership opportunities for women and minorities,” Starks called that “one of my key areas of interest as a Commissioner.

“How much of the way we see the world is framed by the media? Think about it. News broadcasts shape what gets our attention. TV shows and movies illustrate what families, careers, and neighborhoods look like. From the earliest age, we imagine what our lives could be through the lens of media. Some narratives we see over and over again, whether they’re reported stories or TV show tropes. But some are much rarer. And these impressions add up, informing what we see as familiar or unfamiliar, important or unimportant, even if it remains at a subconscious level.

“That’s why representation in media matters. Diversity in media ownership reaches far beyond a single company’s day-to-day environment. It directly impacts what stories are told, and who gets to tell them.

“I am passionate about making sure that the media ecosystem accurately reflects our American society.”

Starks’ departure “would shift the FCC’s current 2-2 partisan deadlock to a 2-1 Republican majority unless the Senate confirms President Donald Trump’s FCC nominee, Olivia Trusty, (pictured) before Starks steps down,” Jericho Casper reported Tuesday for the trade publication Broadband and Breakfast.

Trusty, a U.S. Senate staffer, is a Black Republican.

Referring to Brendan Carr (pictured), Trump’s appointee as FCC chair, Casper also wrote, “Historical precedent suggests Carr can move forward effectively even without a full commission.”

And Carr has made his agenda clear.

When Trump named him as FCC chair in November, Carr declared that “Starting next year, the FCC will end its promotion of DEI,” or diversity, equity and inclusion. In addition, “Carr has moved aggressively to investigate a number of legacy and public broadcasters who fall under the FCC’s regulatory purview,” Max Tani reported March 6 for Semafor.

“In just a few months, the commission reopened probes into alleged bias at CBS and ABC, began looking into NBC over its diversity, equity, and inclusion workplace initiatives, and is investigating NPR and PBS over whether their sponsorships violate federal rules around advertising. The FCC is currently considering complaints against CBS News as part of its approval of a merger between CBS’ parent company, Paramount, and Skydance.”

Tani wrote, “Democrats are trying to rein in the Federal Communications Commission following a spate of regulatory actions against broadcasters that President Donald Trump doesn’t like.”

Digital Journalist Named CEO of Online News Assn.

Niketa Patel (pictured), “an accomplished digital journalist and widely respected expert in audience engagement, strategic partnerships and product development,” has been named executive director/CEO of the Online News Association, effective March 31, the association announced Thursday.

Patel, senior director of leadership programs at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at City University of New York, “brings more than two decades of experience enabling digital innovation through local and national newsrooms, the technology sector and executive education programs,” the announcement said.

ONA has 2,056 paying members, spokesperson Karolle Rabarison told Journal-isms. “Many of our programs and resources aren’t members-only, though; we serve a broader/larger universe and directly engage about 5k across different opportunities each year.”

The organization listed these priorities for 2025:

LaSharah S. Bunting, veteran journalist and news industry executive, left ONA in October to join The 19th as its first vice president. The 19th is a nonprofit newsroom reporting “at the intersection of gender, politics and policy,”

Tapper Schools CNN Viewers on Jackie Robinson

In light of the removal — then restoration — of an article on the Defense Department’s website telling the story of Jackie Robinson, CNN’s Jake Tapper offered a lesson on the national hero Wednesday to CNN viewers:

(If no image appears, please consider changing browsers.)

David Diaz notched five Emmy Awards and was the first Hispanic anchor at a major New York television station. (Credit: (WCBS/YouTube)

David Diaz, ‘Reporter’s Reporter’ in N.Y., Dies at 82

“Retired New York City journalist David Diaz, who delivered the news to Big Apple residents for decades and was affectionately known as a ‘reporter’s reporter,’ died last week, CBS News announced Monday,” David Propper reported for the New York Post.

“He was 82.

“The trailblazing on-air talent covered 9/11, presidential elections and other major breaking news events throughout the five boroughs and nation on NBC 4 and then CBS 2 for about 30 years.

“Former colleagues remembered him Monday as a mentor always willing to help others.”

“When I was a kid,” veteran broadcast journalist Ray Suarez wrote on Facebook, “this was a guy who helped me believe a career in an unwelcoming business was possible.”

Propper continued, “ ‘A reporter’s reporter. New York City guy,’ ‘CBS Evening News’ anchor Maurice Dubois called Diaz in a tribute by the station. ‘Hardscrabble, you know, bringing himself up and wanted to bring others up as well.’ . . .

“While the cause of death was not revealed, Diaz’s family told his former station that he suffered from a form of dementia that made it harder for him to communicate as he got older.

“The newsman was born in Puerto Rico in 1942 before he moved to Washington Heights in Upper Manhattan as a toddler. He graduated from Fordham Prep, then City College and then earned a master’s degree at Columbia University, according to CBS. . . .

“ ‘I first met David Diaz when I was a print reporter and we went on a complicated trip to South America and Central America,’ CBS political reporter Marcia Kramer said in the station’s tribute.

“ ‘He was able to take this complex story with multiple, multiple locations . . . and feed a piece back and be on the evening news every single night. He was able to do it and make it look so incredibly effortless.’

“In 2008, he told the Daily News that he suffered from health issues, including a sinus problem and headaches, stemming from his on-the-ground coverage at Ground Zero following the terror attacks at the World Trade Center. . . .”

In Spanish, Mario J. Pentón, journalist for Martí Noticias, spoke about his recent departure from the station. “In a context where press freedom is paramount, his message resonates strongly with Cubans and advocates for freedom of expression,” Alexander Martinez wrote Wednesday for the outlet Cuba en Miami. “Marti has been a beacon of hope for many Cubans in exile and on the island.” Pentón “emphasized that the station has been a ‘thorn in the side’ of the Cuban regime, a symbol of resistance against the censorship that has prevailed for decades,” Martinez said. (Credit: YouTube)

U.S. Restores Some Funds for Cuban Independent Outlets

“In a reversal, the U.S. State Department has reinstated a few contracts funding Cuban independent news outlets, humanitarian aid delivery and support for political prisoners in Cuba that it had previously canceled, but questions about the administration’s commitment to promoting democracy in Cuba still swirl as the government-funded Radio Martí went off the air,” Nora Gámez Torres reported Wednesday for the Miami Herald.

Separately, the London-based human rights group Article 19 recorded 121 attacks by the Cuban regime against journalists and another 475 against activists between January and Nov. 30, 2024, Karla Pérez reported Monday for ADN America.

“Independent journalist and historian Boris González Arenas, quoted by Article 19, said that ‘many journalists went into exile, but others who stayed have been threatened and forced to leave the profession, even though they have remained in the country.’

“According to Article 19, State Security attacked the press on 47 occasions, followed by the Cuban Telecommunications Company (ETECSA) (11) and private individuals (3). The remaining perpetrators were prison authorities (2), an unknown individual, a government radio station, and airport authorities in Peru. . . .”

For the Herald, Torres reported that “the State Department notified Cubanet, the oldest independent Cuba news outlet based in Miami, that a grant funding its operations was no longer canceled, its director, Roberto Hechavarría, said. The outlet had received a three-year, $1.8 million award set to expire this year from the U.S. Agency for International Development, which is currently under the State Department. Hechavarría said he was informed that while the contract has not been canceled, it is still under review since a January executive order by President Donald Trump paused foreign aid programs for 90 days.

“Cubanet and some other Cuba-related initiatives were spared cuts that slashed 83% of USAID programs, according to figures provided by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is acting director of the mostly dismantled aid agency.

 “‘Everyone should calm down, this isn’t the end of the world,” Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart, R-Fla., told Telemundo journalist Gloria Ordaz (Credit: Screenshot)

“Cubalex, an organization providing legal advice to dissidents and families of political prisoners and tracking arbitrary arrests, also received notice that a two-year award previously suspended by the State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor would be available again, its director, the Cuban lawyer Laritza Diversent said. Outreach AID to the Americas, an organization delivering humanitarian aid to churches in Cuba and other Latin American countries, received a similar communication indicating one Cuba-related program previously canceled could continue.

“Still, both organizations had other grants for Cuba-related work canceled. Diversent said Cubalex lost half of its funding and had to reduce its team and scale back the legal counsel it was offering to people subjected to government harassment in Cuba.

“The International Republican Institute was allowed to retain only five of its 95 awards from the State Department and USAID. Those still in place are projects related to Cuba and Venezuela, among them one supporting political prisoners on the island that was initially terminated, a source with knowledge of the decision said. Another source said that a similar Democratic organization, the National Democratic Institute, was allowed to retain only a couple of Venezuela-related grants.

“Promoting a democratic transition in Cuba — and more recently, in Venezuela — has been a bipartisan policy funded by Congress for decades. But the goal has clashed with the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency crusade to slash costs and close government agencies.

“Radio Marti, a government effort to provide uncensored information to the people of Cuba from offices in Miami, stopped broadcasting for the first time in 40 years on Monday, after Trump mandated its parent agency, the U.S. Agency for Global Media, to reduce its operations to the minimum, and all of the Radio and TV Martí stations employees were placed on administrative leave or fired during the weekend.

“Martí Noticias’ last publication on its website was on Monday, and radio programming streaming on the website is repeating daily in a loop. Former employees have lamented the closure, which occurred after the stations had revamped their digital and social media strategies and amassed millions of views on Facebook, YouTube and Instagram, according to figures in an internal document widely circulating on Tuesday. The Herald could not independently verify the data gathered by a third-party company.

“The move to shut down the Martí stations, fulfilling a long-sought goal of the Cuban government, has caused an uproar in the Cuban exile community and has prompted Cuban American Republican members of Congress to react.

“ ‘In the case of Radio and TV Martí, it’s something I’ve always supported and continue to support,’ Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart, who has saved the stations in the past from harsh cuts and plans to merge with the Voice of America, told Telemundo journalist Gloria Ordaz in an interview. ‘I’m working with the administration to see how we can reverse it, or at least find a way to provide radio and communication services for the Cuban people, which is essential,’ he added.

“Díaz-Balart also mentioned that some previously suspended funds are flowing back to the organizations. ‘Everyone should calm down, this isn’t the end of the world,’ he said. ‘Essential things will continue to be funded. Among those essential things is communications to the Cuban people and the groups that are helping the cause of freedom.’ However, uncertainty looms over the future of many of these organizations and aid programs focusing on Cuba. . . .’

“ ‘There is no clarity on the administration’s strategy for the Cuba programs, or for that matter, other countries,’ a source involved in humanitarian projects in foreign countries said. ‘We don’t have anyone to speak with, and no funds have been provided. So even if a project is not terminated, it has the same effect as a suspension, which has been in effect since January 24th.’ ”

Short Takes

Sexual Advances Part of Lowery Allegations

Disputes Account of Meeting in Woman’s Apartment
Don Lemon Says He Was Sexually Harassed at CNN
John Johnson, Miss. News Director, Dies at 77

March 18, 2025


Support Journal-isms

Donations are tax-deductible.

Wesley Lowery told The Washington Post he “left her apartment when she asked,“and “he denied saying he would feel ‘used’ if he wasn’t invited into her apartment,” the Post reported. (Credit: Jeff Watts/American University )

Disputes Account of Meeting in Woman’s Apartment

Wesley Lowery, who resigned from American University last week after allegations that he made inappropriate comments to students, also was accused of making “unwanted sexual advances and actions toward journalists, according to interviews and records reviewed by the Washington Post,” Will Sommer reported late Monday for The Post.

Since the Columbia Journalism Review last Wednesday provided more details about Lowery’s resignation as top editor of an investigative workshop and as a tenured associate professor of investigative journalism, Lowery has resigned as co-chair of the National Association of Black Journalists’ 50th anniversary convention, to be held in his hometown of Cleveland.

[NABJ President Ken Lemon said there are no plans to replace Lowery, who was one of three co-chairs, NABJ told Journal-isms Wednesday.]. 

He likewise left the Allbritton Journalism Institute, where he was a senior instructor, Sommer reported.

Sommer and the Post, former employer of both Sommer and Lowery, had already been working on a story about Lowery, Sommer’s story indicated.

Sommer left this month for the Bulwark. But the 1,693-word story carrying his byline — with a credit to Molly hensley-Clancy as contributer- – said, “Two professors filed five complaints against Lowery on behalf of six women, the records show, including to the university’s Office of Equity and Title IX, which enforces the federal law barring sex-based discrimination and harassment at schools. One student filed her own complaint.

“University officials found that three of the complaints were not potential Title IX violations, records show. A fourth was closed when a student denied the allegations made by one of the professors, according to records reviewed by The Post, and a fifth after the student involved declined to be interviewed. The result of the sixth was unclear.”

It continued, “an interview last week, a day before his exit was announced, Lowery denied the allegations made in the complaints. He said he was only contacted about one of the complaints, after the Title IX office declined to take it up.”I have never been under Title IX investigation,’ he said.

“I’ve got a very clear track record of opening doors for people and never doing anything to close doors on anyone,” he said. “That doesn’t excuse any behavior that makes anyone uncomfortable or causes any harm.”

“Lowery broadly blamed a colleague for ‘attempting to drum up as many complaints as possible, in some cases for the explicit purpose of leaking them to attempt to publicly attack and embarrass me.’

“That colleague, former Post journalist and adjunct professor Cara Kelly, filed her own hostile-work and Title IX complaints last year, accusing Lowery of mistreating students and retaliating against her. Kelly said she was told they did not meet the Title IX office’s standards and does not know what came of her HR complaints.

“Kelly left [the Investigative Reporting Workshop] last summer, saying in her resignation letter that she was ‘increasingly alarmed’ by Lowery’s behavior. In interviews with The Post, she stood by her actions, saying she was trying to protect students and journalists.

“One of the professional journalists mentioned in Kelly’s resignation letter was employed by a small news organization and, in July 2023, began working with IRW staffers to craft a grant application for $175,000 to fund a reporting project, including $50,000 for the journalist.

The National Association of Black Journalists’ 50th anniversary convention takes place in Cleveland Aug. 6-10. Lowery, originally a co-chair, graduated from Shaker Heights High School in 2008. He was its commencement speaker in 2023, and commencement speaker in 2017 at his alma mater Ohio University in Athens. (Credit: NABJ)

“The woman, who is early in her career, spoke with The Post on the condition of anonymity, citing concerns about her career prospects if she spoke out. (The Post does not typically name victims of alleged sexual misconduct unless they asked to be named.) She shared the same account last year with Kelly, who included it in her resignation letter. But the letter did not include the woman’s name, and the woman said she never heard from investigators.

“Though she was friends with Lowery, the woman said she had previously rebuffed his advances and ‘was expecting to be taken seriously.’ But after meeting for dinner and drinks to discuss the project and catch up, the woman said, Lowery insisted that he wanted to enter the woman’s apartment, adding that if she didn’t take him upstairs, he would feel that he was being ‘used’ for the IRW grant money, the woman recalled. She took that to be an offer of a sexual quid pro quo over the future of her reporting contract, meaning that Lowery would cut off the project if she didn’t invite him into her apartment.

“She relented, she said, telling Lowery he could come inside for a brief tour and reiterating that she wasn’t interested in sex. Once inside, she said, Lowery spent several hours propositioning her, trying to kiss her and attempting to take off her clothes, only to be rebuffed each time. He eventually left.

“The woman talked to her boss at her news organization and said they should drop out of the IRW collaboration because she was unable to work with Lowery after the incident — a decision the woman said cost her the tens of thousands of dollars she had counted on from IRW. She and her boss ended the partnership, the woman said, citing work on an unrelated project as an excuse to avoid what she feared could be retaliation from Lowery.

“In an interview, the woman’s boss confirmed that the woman shared her account at the time and that they lied to IRW about why they were ending the collaboration.

“The woman told IRW’s Kelly about the alleged incident last spring. After Kelly summarized the allegations in her resignation letter, Lowery sent the woman an email, which was reviewed by The Post.

“ ‘I just want to say that I never intended to use the prospect of us working together to leverage anything romantic between us,’ he wrote. ‘Given the sometimes romantic nature of our personal relationship, I thought we could balance working together while still figuring things out. Clearly I was wrong, and I screwed up the balance of that. I’m sorry that anything I did or said made you feel that one was contingent on the other.’ . . .

“Lowery told The Post that he disputed the woman’s account of the evening, saying that they kissed consensually before leaving the dinner meeting and that he did not attempt to remove her clothes. He left her apartment when she asked, he said, and he denied saying he would feel ‘used’ if he wasn’t invited into her apartment.

“ ‘It’s clear that [she] experienced that night differently than I thought she had initially, and certainly was different than what I intended,’ Lowery said. ‘But I also understand that my intentions are not the only thing that matters, and impact matters a lot as well.’ . . .”

Don Lemon Says He Was Sexually Harassed at CNN

“ Don Lemon (pictured) accused unnamed CNN colleagues for the first time Sunday of sexually harassing him during his 17-year tenure at the news network, recalling one specific instance that saw a female staffer tweak his nipples in the company’s Atlanta cafeteria. Another involved an off-site encounter with a female staffer when he was still ‘so new’ at the company,” Benjamin Lindsay reported Monday for The Wrap.

“Joining Bill Maher for his ‘Club Random’ podcast in a nearly two-hour conversation, the journalist said that he never went to HR or management over such instances because he feared ‘they may find a way to get rid of me.’ (Lemon was fired from the network in 2023 amid accusations of misogyny and workplace misconduct.)

“ ‘I have been harassed by women and men in the work[place]. And some things are not even — it’s ridiculous,’ Lemon said. ‘Now look, there are some things that are really egregious, but not everything is Harvey Weinstein-level.’

“That’s when Lemon shared details of encounters with two women he worked with in Atlanta. One involved a ‘young lady’ who comically ‘tweaked my nipples’ in the cafeteria and exclaimed ‘Oh, it’s cold in here!’

“ ‘I said, “OK, you realize if I did that they’d be walking me out the door right now?’ But I didn’t care to go to HR,’ Lemon recalled. ‘I didn’t say anything because I was just like, it’s a double standard, it’s fine.’ . . . .”

“John had the ability to make WTOK feel like home away from home for so many young broadcasters as they got their start in this business,” said current WTOK News Director Lauren Carson. (Credit: WTOK/YouTube)

John Johnson, Miss. News Director, Dies at 77

John Johnson, a retired news director at WTOK-TV in Meridian, Miss., died Monday at a local nursing home “after a lengthy battle with an extended illness,” the station reported. He was 77.

“He was a Meridian legend who worked at WTOK for over 32 years. His last day was December 30, 2016.

“ ‘He had a way to make people feel comfortable and that they mattered,’ said Tim Walker, a former WTOK General Manager. ‘He was just an all-around good person that shaped WTOK’s image in the community and he had an ability to make people feel that they were the most important person in that moment.’

“ ‘I don’t know that there’s anybody who’s had a bigger impact on my adult life than John Johnson,’ were the words of former WTOK News Anchor Wade Phillips. ‘I think back not on stories we did or big events we covered. I think back on the hours and hours that I spent in his office talking about life. He cared about people. He wanted to know about your family and your kids. He cared about that far more than he cared about what the next news story was. I think that’s his legacy. He just cared about people.’ ”

Although Johnson was African American, most accounts of his death did not mention his race and the station was not immune from protests from the local Black community. Meridian is 62.5 percent Black and surrounding Lauderdale County is 45.1 percent Black. The ABC affiliate is owned by Gray Television.

“Protesters spent about two hours Wednesday voicing their disapproval of what they call unfair treatment of African Americans by the media in general and WTOK in particular,” the station reported in June 2016, shortly before his December retirement. “The protest comes in response to Wednesday’s story about a video showing a black teenager who appears to have been beaten, and continuing to be beaten while having racial slurs thrown at him. They say they are upset about the timing of the release of the story. . . .”

Johnson was a 1968 graduate of Rust College in Holly Springs, and a graduate of the University of Iowa with an advanced degree in 1972.

“Johnson has served on several national, state and local boards during his career,” the Meridian Star reported in 2011. “He currently serves on the Board of Trustees at Meridian Community College. He was president of the board in 2010-11. He is also a member of the Community Foundation of East Mississippi and West Alabama. In 2006, he was inducted into the Mississippi Associated Press Broadcasters Hall of Fame, a result of his work leading WTOK-TV’s top rated news department for 26 years, and for his work with Mississippi Public Broadcasting.”

Support Journal-isms

To subscribe at no cost, please send an email to journal-isms+subscribe@groups.io and say who you are.

Facebook users: “Like” “Richard Prince’s Journal-isms” on Facebook.

Follow Richard Prince on Twitter @princeeditor

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

About Richard Prince

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

View previous columns (before Feb. 13, 2016)

Exit mobile version