San Francisco Thieves ‘Did This in Under 4 Seconds’
Black Reporter Flees as Neo-Nazis Disrupt Event
Latinos Nearly Missing in Coverage of Racism
L.A. Times Drops ‘Internment’ for ‘Incarceration’
Black and Trans: Journo Industry ‘Doesn’t Hear Me’
Miami Herald Turns ‘Woke Wars’ into Podcast
Ad Spending in Diverse-Owned Media Ratchets Up
Sean Combs Joins Would-Be Bidders for BET
N.Y. Times Picks 7 for Investigations Fellowship (updated March 26)
Frank Washington, Auto Columnist, Dies at 75
Short Takes: Disruption of White House press briefing; Kim Godwin; resignation after berating female journalist; reaching Black millennials and Generation Z; Black country, bluegrass, roots, folk musicians; Tim Thomas; St. Louis American; Craig Newmark School’s Asian Media Initiative; Southern Exposure; Greg Gumbel; Luz Pena’s recovery; Jessica Perez; Black views on U.S. economic system; Sherrell Dorsey and The Plug; a freed Olivier Dubois; documenting a little-publicized war.
Homepage photo: Kyung Lah of CNN tweeted, “@TSA officer Boongaling at Oakland is really helping me out today. Thank you to her! Also, if you fly out of Oakland, know the gas stations are being hit around the airport. Teams here in Oakland say passengers show up crying bc their bags are all stolen, all in seconds.”
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San Francisco Thieves ‘Did This in Under 4 Seconds’
“A CNN crew was robbed while trying to film a segment at City Hall in San Francisco, correspondent Kyung Lah revealed through Twitter on Friday, providing an image of the windshield to their rental car smashed in,” Zachary Leeman reported Saturday for Mediaite.
“ ‘Got robbed. Again. [CNN producer Jason Kravarik] & I were at city hall in San Francisco to do an interview for @CNN,’ Kah tweeted. ‘We had security to watch our rental car + crew car. Thieves did this in under 4 seconds. Security stopped the jerks from stealing other bags. But seriously – this is ridiculous.’ ”
SF News added Sunday, “Their security tried to apprehend the suspects on the scene but they drove away in a getaway vehicle which was a black-colored Infiniti with the license plate 9DJB515.[pictured below]. ‘San Francisco is a beautiful city. This is our 3rd day here and I’ve loved my time here. But if you do visit this city, know that even with hired security watching your car, it is not enough,’ Lah tweeted while sharing video of the shattered rear window of their car.
“The suspects got away with the crew’s equipment and Lah’s ID and passport.
“ ‘Now I’m about to try to get an @SouthWestAir flight back to Los Angeles without ID or passport since they were both stolen. I’ll let you know how that goes…’ Lah (pictured) wrote. Since many get their cars broken into and their bags stolen, the airline issued the reporter a flight ticket after a brief security check.
“She explained that the CNN crew were up in San Francisco covering a story about voter discontent caused by rampant street crime. Lah noted the irony.
“Later that day, Lah’s stolen bag was found by a woman named Perla who is with the Office of Civic Engagement and Immigrant Affairs.
“ ‘Happy to report SF residents are fighting for their city, like @OCEIA_SF. They are a community safety patrol program, speaking 17 languages, run by residents,’ Lah tweeted.
“Kravarik’s bag was later recovered with his computer missing but all his other personal items remained. . . .
“According to reports, the rise in San Francisco crime led to the 2022 ousting of the city’s progressive district attorney Chesa Boudin . . . over 55% of residents voted him out in a historic recall election. Many San Francisco residents felt that Boudin was not hard enough on crime.” (Pictured: Getaway car, via Twitter)
The Radio Television Digital News Association said last week it had sent letters to Florida’s congressional delegation asking it to reintroduce and take the lead in passing the Journalist Protection Act (JPA) during the 118th Congress.
“The legislation, first introduced in 2018, would make it a federal crime to intentionally intimidate or cause bodily harm to a journalist or media organization in the course of newsgathering or reporting. It would also allow the Justice Department to prosecute those who intimidate or assault journalists when local prosecutors decline to do so.
“We need Congress to act now. It is a dangerous time to be a journalist in America,” said Dan Shelley, president and CEO of RTDNA. “Years of anti-journalist rhetoric trumpeted by those in power has caused a dramatic and disturbing increase in attacks on the media. Unfortunately our members are increasingly at risk of serious harm.”
The association noted, “In late February, Dylan Lyons, a reporter for Spectrum News 13, was murdered and photojournalist Jesse Walden was severely injured by a gunman while reporting from a crime scene in Orlando, Florida. Lyons became the ninth journalist in the United States since 2015 to be murdered for doing his job. . . .”
Neo-Nazis, White Lives Matter, Patriot Front and Proud Boys storm a drag story hour event in Wadsworth, Ohio. “There will be blood,” shouted members of a neo-Nazi group calling itself Blood Tribe. Video posted by attendees and a documentary filmmaker shows a bald, white man swinging a black flag with a white swastika. The neo-Nazi group members point out the few Black people at the event. (Credit: Farina News / FNTV/ YouTube).
Black Reporter Flees as Neo-Nazis Disrupt Event
For his own safety, a Black reporter from the Akron (Ohio) Beacon Journal was forced to leave a planned drag queen storytelling event for children “after being called a racial slur several times by protesters,” Doug Livingston reported March 11, updated March 14, for the Beacon Journal.
The story did not identify the Black reporter, although the reporter’s byline appeared in previous coverage.
“Hundreds of protesters, including armed white supremacists, and LGBT-community supporters descended on Wadsworth’s Memorial Park on Saturday as a humanist group tried to put on a drag queen storytelling event for children,” Livingston’s story began.
“Toward the end of the four-hour event, two people charged with misdemeanor disorderly conduct were arrested after a series of melees involving pepper spray, the violent use of a flag pole as a weapon and a protester who unnerved witnesses when he pointed a gun at a crowd. (Police said Monday that the weapon is designed to shoot pepper spray and not bullets.)”
Neither the reporter nor Editor Michael Shearer responded to requests for comment.
Latinos Nearly Missing in Coverage of Racism
“Latinos are barely part of the conversation in newspapers and online media outlets covering the issue of racial equity and racism, a new study has found,” Edwin Flores reported Wednesday for NBC News.
“Only about 6% of such news referred to Latinos, who make up nearly 20% of the American population and over 40% of all people of color, according to a report published Wednesday by the Berkeley Media Studies Group and UnidosUS.
“The study analyzed peak news cycles related to racism and racial equity issues, including wealth, housing and health in the U.S., following the onset of protests and protest anniversaries between May 1 and Sept. 30 in 2020, 2021 and 2022. . . .”
“About 40% of the articles mentioned solutions to issues of racial disparities and equity, like ways to improve housing and homeownership, educational attainment and closing the wealth gap. . . .
“The report recommended reporters broaden sources who come from diverse backgrounds and ask more nuanced questions, and it recommended more diversity in newsroom leadership and workspaces. . . .”
- Dr. Askshay Syal, NBC News: How diversifying Alzheimer’s genetic research studies is advancing treatment [Researchers identify a genetic variant associated with Alzheimer’s found only in Puerto Ricans] (March 6)
L.A. Times Drops ‘Internment’ for ‘Incarceration’
In “a historic decision aimed at accuracy and reconciliation, the Los Angeles Times announced Thursday that it would drop the use of ‘internment’ in most cases to describe the mass incarceration of 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry during World War II,“ Teresa Watanabe reported for the Los Angeles Times.
“Instead, The Times will generally use ‘incarceration,’ ‘imprisonment,’ ‘detention’ or their derivatives to describe this government action that shattered so many innocent lives.”
“We are taking this step as a news organization because we understand the power of language,’ Times Executive Editor Kevin Merida said in the story. “We believe it is vital to more accurately describe the unjust incarceration of Japanese Americans in the 1940s, and to do so in a way that does not diminish the actions our country took against its own citizens and the experience of those who were held captive.
“The Los Angeles Times itself supported the incarceration at the time, and this style change reflects our commitment as an institution to better represent the communities we serve. We hope this will help bring closure to the families of those unjustly incarcerated and deepen our society’s understanding of that period.”
Watanabe explained, “My grandfather, Yoshitaka Watanabe, was a subject of internment, a term most accurately used to describe the imprisonment of enemy aliens during wartime.”
- Alissa Falcone, Drexel University: Communications Professor Analyzes Local Media Coverage of Japanese-American Incarceration Camps (July 6, 2015)
- Naomi Tacuyan Underwood, Poynter Institute: Two years after the Atlanta shootings, equitable coverage of the AAPI community remains elusive
- Sakshi Venkatraman, NBC News: Is the umbrella term ‘Asian American’ even accurate anymore?
(March 11)
Black and Trans: Journo Industry ‘Doesn’t Hear Me’
One of the few mainstream news reporters who identifies as being Black and transgender took to Twitter Sunday to say, “As a Black trans man and gender-fluid reporter, I feel like the journalism industry does not hear me when I say I am still read as a Black woman and that I experience transphobia. Instead, people ignore my gender identity and act as if I am making it up.“
Tat Bellamy-Walker (pictured), since November a communities reporter at the Seattle Times, messaged Journal-isms Monday, “I have been open about my gender identity” at the Times. “I wrote the tweet after being misgendered by readers and facing consistent transphobia. This follows a long history of being pushed out of spaces and fighting transphobia, racism and misogyny on my own.
“There are not many Black trans reporters on staff in newsrooms due to transphobia, racism and an overall lack of support when compared to our white transgender peers.” Bellamy-Walker named five others, including Tre’vell Anderson, a board member of the National Association of Black Journalists, and Monica Roberts, who died in 2020.
Anderson (pictured), who hadn’t been formally in a newsroom since 2019, agreed. “There aren’t great numbers tracking the prevalence of trans people in newsrooms, especially mainstream/traditional media,” Anderson said. “And the prevalence of those numbers, or lack thereof, is even worse for Black trans folks. Many newsrooms don’t track these numbers. When I did a not-quite-scientific callout on Twitter (maybe last year?) asking for Black trans reporters who were on staff in a major/legacy newsroom, Tat was the only one I was made aware of. . . . . It’s much more common in my experience that trans people, especially Black trans people, are freelancers and contributors, and that’s across mainstream and niche media,” Anderson continued.
Femi Redwood (pictured), a host and managing producer of podcasts at New York’s WINS-AM and WCBS-AM and Anderson’s co-chair on the NABJ LGBT Task Force, seconded Anderson’s comments. She added, “Most of the non-binary and trans journalists I’ve come across working in newsrooms in staff positions are white, followed by non-Black POC (specifically Latino and AAPI).”
- Elliot Kukla, New York Times: Ancient Judaism Recognized a Range of Genders. It’s Time We Did, Too.
Miami Herald Turns ‘Woke Wars’ into Podcast
The Miami Herald’s opinion team has launched “Woke Wars,” an “eight-episode podcast series that goes deeper into Florida’s culture wars,” while journalists increasingly explain that “woke,” turned into an epithet by many conservatives, can mean whatever its users want it to.
“Through spirited debate and conversation, the opinion journalists that make up the Miami Herald Editorial Board will discuss immigration, ‘woke’ corporations, LGBTQ laws and the re-shaping of our state university system,” the Herald told readers. “Join us each week for exciting conversations, diverse perspectives and opinionated discourse on the war on woke.”
Meanwhile, Jen Psaki’s show on MSNBC debuted on Sunday, Tom Jones reported Monday for the Poynter Institute.
The former press secretary for the Biden White House said, “For Republicans, ‘wokeness’ is public enemy No. 1. By the sound of it, there is simply no greater threat to American liberty. Whether or not they actually believe it, they clearly think it’s a winning message ahead of 2024. And it makes you think, are they onto something? Should I be freaking out about how right-wing Republicans are co-opting ‘woke’ and ‘wokeism?’
“My gut here is no. You don’t need to be too worried about their war on ‘woke.’ Because the Republican crusade against ‘wokeness’ may not be as potent of a campaign issue as they hope. And here’s why: Most people don’t think of the term ‘woke’ in the way that Republicans would like them to. It’s simply not the boogeyman they’d have you believe.”
- Kevin B. Blackistone, Washington Post: Baseball can no longer ignore Ron DeSantis’s culture wars (March 5, updated March 6)
- Matthew Crowley, PolitiFact, Poynter Institute: Political definitions for ‘woke’ are all over the place (March 8)
- Ross Douthat, New York Times: What It Means to Be Woke
- Roy S. Johnson, al.com: ‘Woke!’ is the far right’s ‘sky is falling’; it fell on them (March 23, updated March 24)
- Matt Lewis, Daily Beast: The GOP Blew It By Calling Everything ‘Woke’ (March 10)
- Bethany Mandel, Newsweek: ‘I Was Asked to Define Woke. My Humiliation Went Viral’
- Clarence Page, Chicago Tribune: What doesn’t MAGA know about the ‘Black national anthem’? A lot (Feb. 15)
- Chris Quinn, cleveland.com: What does “woke” even mean? Don’t use it. Try civility, instead: Letter from the Editor
- Allison Wiltz, Medium: How Anti-Woke Became a Cowardly Slogan For a Racist Crusade (March 7)
Ad Spending in Diverse-Owned Media Ratchets Up
“Ad spend awarded to diverse-owned media grew by 80% per year between 2020 and 2022, versus 9% growth for ad spending as a whole, according to Diverse-Owned Media Ad Spend, a study by AIMM in partnership with MAVEN/Media Framework,” Ray Schultz reported March 7 for Media Post. “However, spending on diverse-owned media (DOM) totaled $1.4 billion, compared to $94.0% billion for all media.”
Separately, “Media buying agency GroupM said it is pledging to allocate 5% of its spending on media outlets owned by or focused on Black, Hispanic, Asian American and Pacific Islanders and LGBTQ+ Americans, Jon Lafayette reported March 9 for Broadcasting & Cable.
“The pledge expands GroupM’s Media Inclusion Initiative.
“ ‘As the largest media investment company in the world, we have a responsibility to accelerate growth through the next era of media,’ said Kirk McDonald (pictured), CEO, GroupM North America. ‘That means making our industry more inclusive and equitable for all publishers. As well as, sharing brands’ products and services with audiences that are representative of the changing face of America in service of growing their businesses.’ ”
The Diverse-Owned Media Ad Spend study, Schultz reported, found “The share of dollars to Black and Asian media was disproportional to their representation of DOM-owned outlets.
“Black-owned media comprised 47% of DOM-owned outlets, while claiming 62% of the DOM ad spend.
“Asian-owned outlets made up 8.7% of the total, but claimed 22.3% of the ad dollars.
“In contrast, Hispanic-owned outlets were 34% of DOM, but realized only 14% of the total DOM spending. But ad sales grew by 56% to $19 million.
“Meanwhile, LGBTQ ad spend almost doubled from 2020 to 2022, to total $15 million. . . .”
- Andy Anderson, Association of National Advertisers: The Top 5 Reasons for Using Diverse-Owned Media Outlets (March 6)
- Inside Radio: As Diverse-Owned Media Ad Spend Grows, Black-owned Stations Seek Their Fair Share (March 9)
Sean Combs Joins Would-Be Bidders for BET
“There’s another potential bidder for Paramount’s BET businesses.
“Music mogul Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs (pictured) is exploring the opportunity to acquire a majority stake in the business, which includes BET, VH1, BET Studios and the streaming service BET+, a source familiar with the matter confirms,” Alex Weprin reported March 13 for the Hollywood Reporter.
“Combs joins an increasingly crowded field of possible buyers that includes current BET partner and producer Tyler Perry, as well as Weather Channel owner Byron Allen.
“Last week a source told The Hollywood Reporter that Perry, who owns a minority stake in BET+ through his current overall deal with Paramount, was interested in the buyout with his deal coming up for renewal. A spokesperson for Allen later said that the mogul “is interested in buying BET, and he will be pursuing the acquisition of the network.”
“Combs already has a presence on cable TV through his Revolt network, which launched a decade ago, though BET and VH1 are much more widely-distributed. . . .”
- Benjamin Mullin, New York Times: Third Black-Owned Company Emerges as Suitor for BET (March 10)
N.Y. Times Picks 7 for Investigations Fellowship
The New York Times has announced the seven journalists, including representation from Asian Americans but apparently not African Americans, who will become the inaugural class of its Local Investigations Fellowship, led by Dean Baquet (pictured below, by Texas Tribune). Baquet began working on the idea when he stepped down as executive editor of the Times last year.
The program “gives journalists the opportunity to produce signature investigative work focused on their state or region that will be published by The Times and made available for free for co-publication by local newsrooms,” the Times announced March 9.
“There was so much talent out there and so many good ideas. These were hard choices. But this is a remarkable group of reporters. And their work will have an impact on their communities,” said Mr. Baquet.”
Baquet told the Journal-isms Roundtable in October how the fellowship concept originated: “When you hit 65, the tradition is that the executive editor steps down. I’d been editor for eight years. . . .,” he said.
“The publisher came to me and said, ‘Look, we don’t really want you to leave and we have this idea. You care deeply about investigative reporting. You also care deeply about diversity. Can we come up with something that marries those two?’ (video, at 13:14)
“Essentially, what we are going to do is, we’re going to pick a group of fellows every year to do investigative projects. Probably in the first year, it’ll be 10, but I hope it grows over time, and people will pitch investigative stories to us. We will pay their salaries. We’ll edit their stories. We will publish them in the New York Times, and wherever news organizations they’re from. Freelancers can apply, people who are not connected to a news organization can apply. I took a month off, so what I’ve been doing in the month since is visiting some newsrooms, talking to people, just getting a sense of what people want. . . .”
According to the announcement, “When the program launched in October 2022, editors on the fellowship team visited local newsrooms across the country to learn more about the challenges facing local news. In those conversations, Mississippi in particular emerged as a place that could benefit from more investigative reporting resources to supplement its strong mix of local news outlets. Three fellows are based in Mississippi, and are the first Times employees to be hired in the state. Additional fellows hail from Hawaii, Maine, Maryland and Wisconsin. All will report from the communities where they live. . . .”
The fellows are Shalina Chatlani, Ilyssa Daly, Callie Ferguson, Sarah Fowler, Mario Koran, Blaze Lovell and Alissa Zhu. (Updated March 26 to reflect that Koran identifies as Latino. “My father is Mexican,” he told Journal-isms.)
Frank Washington, Auto Columnist, Dies at 75
Frank Washington, a veteran of Newsweek and Time magazines, a producer for radio and television and the “About That Car” columnist whose work appeared in more than 230 Black-owned newspapers, died at 75 of esophageal cancer March 8 in a hospice in Detroit, his friend and colleague Greg Morrison told Journal-isms.
Another friend and colleague, Sylvester Monroe, posted this tribute on Facebook:
“I lost another dear friend to cancer today. Frank Washington and I met years ago when we were Newsweek correspondents. He was in the Detroit Bureau, and I was in Chicago. We also both worked at Time.
“It was always a treat to see Frank at NABJ conventions, where he was perennially one of the chief organizers of the legendary Newsweek parties on the last night of the conventions,” referring to the National Association of Black Journalists.
“Always impeccably dressed, Frank had an eye for the ladies, and they loved him back! He was also a great reporter and after Newsweek and Time, he became a major automobile writer crisscrossing the country to test drive the latest models of every nameplate.
“I always thought he was one of the most underrated and underappreciated writers in that field. Frank not only knew a lot about cars, he also was writing a book about the long, historical relationship between black people and cars, specifically how African Americans have been a cutting edge force in the design of American cars for decades. When the Chrysler 300 came out, I remember casually saying to him, ‘That’s a gangsta car if ever I saw one.’ To which he replied: ‘It was designed by a black man.’
“Beyond Frank’s journalism, he was not just a dear friend but one of my personal heroes. I so admired his strength and courage.
“He beat alcoholism and drug addiction, survived a brutal assault by unknown assailants that left him near dead with almost every bone in his face broken, and he survived Covid 19 in his 70’s. But through it all, not once or at any other time during the more than 40 years that I knew him, did I ever hear him complain about anything bad that ever happened to him.
“His daughter, Monica, told me that when he got the diagnosis of terminal cancer, all he said was: ‘I never expected to get out of my 70s. I’ve had a great life.’ That was Frank. I love you, brother. You will be sorely missed! This photo was taken the last time I saw him in 2018. We had lunch and walked on the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica remembering good times. It was a beautiful day!! Rest now in Heavenly Peace, my old friend!”
- Stacy M. Brown, National Newspaper Publishers Association: Frank Washington, auto journalist and NNPA columnist, dies
Short Takes
- “A White House press briefing featuring the cast of ‘Ted Lasso’ was briefly derailed on Monday after a correspondent and frequent disruptor repeatedly interjected, prompting pushback from the White House Correspondents Association and other reporters,” Brett Samuels reported Monday for The Hill. “Simon Ateba (pictured), a correspondent for Today News Africa, began shouting out as press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre stepped to the podium, joined by actors Jason Sudeikis, Hannah Waddingham, Brett Goldstein, Brendan Hunt and Toheeb Jimoh. Ateba, who frequently speaks out of turn in the briefing room and has in the past clashed with Jean-Pierre [and predecessor Jen Psaki], claimed he and others in the room were being ‘discriminated against’ because of the questions they wanted to ask. ‘It’s been seven months. You’ve not called on me. I’m saying that’s not right,’ Ateba said. . . .”
- ABC News President Kim Godwin (pictured), who “has rarely engaged with the media in her time at ABC News, giving only three interviews in nearly two years at the helm,” talked with Charlotte Klein of Vanity Fair for a story published Thursday. The first African American to lead a broadcast network news division, named in April 2021, Godwin defended her leadership style. She said of the firing of T.J. Holmes and Amy Robach over their extramarital affair, “It’s very easy to Monday-morning quarterback and second-guess when you don’t know what you don’t know, and frankly you’ll never know, because we’re not going to litigate it publicly. We ended up where we needed to be, and I’m very comfortable with that decision.” Godwin also said, “I am in the job that I’ve earned through 40 years in the business,” noting that she’s done “just about every job in broadcast news,” including reporter, anchor, executive producer, and vice president. “I worked for all three networks, and I’ve worked for 10 different stations. So my résumé is strong.”
- “A New York City Council staffer has resigned after allegedly berating a female journalist with misogynistic slurs,“ Chris Sommerfeldt and Shant Shahrigian reported Sunday for the Daily News in New York. “Councilman Chris Marte said Sunday that his aide Steven Wong was resigning — after Marte initially stuck by his staffer. Marte, a Manhattan Democrat, initially refused to fire Wong after the staffer left four voicemails with a reporter at Chinese-language Sing Tao Daily, according to a complaint filed with the City Council. Wong allegedly called journalist Lotus Chau a ‘c–t’ and other offensive terms in Cantonese during the February verbal attacks. . . .”
- “At the invitation of the Black Media Initiative at CUNY’s Center for Community Media, I recently presented . . . new findings on reaching Black Millennials and Gen Z specifically,” Kevin Loker wrote March 9 for the American Press Institute. Key points: “1) Black Millennials and Gen Z get news daily from social media platforms at higher rates than white peers . . . 2) Many Black Americans under 40 get news daily on certain topics at higher rates than white peers. . . . 3) Black Americans under 40 are more likely than their white peers to pay or donate to news . . . . 4) Black Americans under 40 want many — but not all — of the same things from journalism as peers . . .”
- Earl Hopkins of the Philadelphia Inquirer, who covers “Philly’s arts and entertainment scene, focusing on the cultural trailblazers that help shape the city’s identity,” reports Friday that, “Local radio station WXPN aims to amplify the voices of Black musicians of country, bluegrass, roots, folk and other Americana genres through a new residency program. The Black Opry Residency, funded by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, is a project that gives five musicians from around the country a chance to take part in songwriting sessions, career development workshops, and networking opportunities with big-name industry leaders. . . .”
- “Tegna today appointed Tim Thomas (pictured) president and general manager at WTLV and WJXX, its NBC and ABC affiliates in Jacksonville, Fla., effective April 3,” TVNewsCheck reported Wednesday. “Thomas will be responsible for overseeing the stations’ operations across platforms, as well as leading community service efforts. Thomas joins WTLV and WJXX, known as First Coast News, from West Texas, where he was president and general manager and led all operations across KWES Odessa-Midland, KXVA Abilene and KIDY San Angelo. . . .”
- “The Center for Community Media at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism is taking a major step forward in promoting diversity in the media industry with the launch of the Asian Media Initiative,” Victoria Holmes wrote for Editor & Publisher. The program, aimed at increasing the representation of Asian Americans in media and journalism, will provide opportunities for students, journalists and aspiring media professionals to gain the skills and resources necessary to succeed in the competitive field of journalism. . . . This new initiative follows the successful launch of the Latino and Black Media Initiatives, which aimed to support and amplify the voices of underrepresented communities in media.
- Southern Exposure, founded in 1970 as the civil rights and antiwar movements “entered a new moment,” is celebrating its 50th anniversary with a bonus. “The Southern Exposure archive, which will be released in four installments throughout the year, contains a wealth of information that will be useful to researchers, writers, historians, journalists, and organizers seeking to answer questions of what came before and to understand what lies before us,” its owners said. “The journal’s writers and editors were audacious — taking big swings at the powerful, publishing the groundbreaking work of grassroots researchers and organizers, looking to history for lessons for their time. They asked cultural, political, racial, gender, and class questions of the region’s past and its present — always in service of a better future.”
- “CBS has signed Greg Gumbel (pictured) to a contract extension that will see the long-time announcer continue in his role as host of the network’s college basketball coverage while stepping down from doing play-by-play on NFL games,” John Ourand reported Wednesday for Sports Business Journal. “Gumbel currently is hosting the NCAA men’s basketball tournament studio show for CBS, marking his 25th year of hosting the March Madness show. Gumbel’s move to step away from the NFL is perhaps more significant, as he has been part of CBS’s NFL coverage for more than three decades. . . . “
- “Luz Pena is one of the more high-profile reporters at Disney’s KGO in San Francisco, CA, but she’s been off the air since shortly after February 3rd,” the subscription-only NewsBlues column reported. “Pena crashed into a tree head-on at the Heavenly Ski Resort in Lake Tahoe, NV and was found by her husband and brother-in-law lying unconscious. Her leg was badly broken and centimeters away from severing a major artery. Since then, she’s been recovering from the horrifying experience and won’t be able to walk for awhile. She told of the incident recently on a KGO newscast. . . .”
- At the Los Angeles Times, “Jessica Perez (pictured) is joining the Latino Initiatives team as community editor,” the news operation announced March 7. “In this new role, Perez will help develop partnerships within the Latino community, assist in the creation and execution of live events and bring her news judgment and digital skills to our growing team. Perez will be joining the Latino Initiatives team after spending the last four years as an assistant editor on the News Desk, where she helps coordinate daily coverage, breaking news and the website’s homepage presentation. . . .”
- “Black Americans have long had significantly lower wages and household wealth than White Americans,” Khadijah Edwards reported for the Pew Research Center. “The roots of these inequities trace back to the central role slave labor once played in the nation’s economic system and the subsequent segregation and discrimination in labor markets. Today, most Black adults say the U.S. economic system does not treat Black people fairly. And though they are increasingly dissatisfied with capitalism, most Black adults say supporting Black businesses will help achieve equality, according to recent Pew Research Center surveys. . . .”
- “Today is the last day our team will serve you all through The Plug,” founder Sherrell Dorsey (pictured) wrote Wednesday. Dorsey also said, “The Plug became the first Black business publication to syndicate on The Bloomberg Terminal in 2021. Our work featured in The Washington Post, LA Times, ADWeek, The Information, Bloomberg, and others. Our data has helped founders raise hundreds of thousands of dollars, accelerators launch in new markets, and bring visibility to ecosystem leaders who largely remain overlooked. . . . Most important: We made deep reporting and research on Black innovation matter.”
- “Olivier Dubois, a French journalist who was abducted in Mali’s Gao region (north) on April 8, 2021 by the al Qaeda-linked Group to Support Islam and Muslims (GSIM), was released on Monday and taken to neighbouring Niger,” France 24 reported Monday. “Dubois’s release came as US hostage Jeff Woodke was freed after more than six years in captivity in Africa. . . . Dubois worked for various French news outlets, including Libération, Le Point and Jeune Afrique, when he was kidnapped. He was held for almost two years.” The Committee to Protect Journalists’ Africa Program Coordinator Angela Quintal said from New York. “Mali’s conflict and constitutional crisis have acutely increased risks for journalists. While Dubois’ release is a relief, journalist safety continues to be concerning. We urge all parties, including jihadists, to refrain from criminal actions to silence the press.”
- “A reporter’s perilous trip to document war in the Central African Republic” by Anjan Sundaram (pictured) in Columbia Journalism Review, makes Nieman Reports’ list of “the most interesting stories about Labby subjects: digital media, startups, the web, journalism, strategy, and more.” From the piece, published Tuesday: “The obscurity of the war made it hard to justify a reporting trip, which would require twleaving my family behind. I also found it difficult to persuade editors to commission a story. ‘Which central African republic?’ they asked.” The war “was perhaps even deadlier than the Syrian war, which at the time dominated newspaper headlines. But Central Africa, home to several long-running conflicts, rarely made the front page.. . . .”
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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@
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View previous columns (before Feb. 13, 2016)
- Diversity’s Greatest Hits, 2018 (Jan. 4, 2019)
- Book Notes: Is Taking a Knee Really All That? (Dec. 20, 2018)
- Book Notes: Challenging ’45’ and Proudly Telling the Story (Dec. 18, 2018)
- Book Notes: Get Down With the Legends! (Dec. 11, 2018)
- Journalist Richard Prince w/Joe Madison (Sirius XM, April 18, 2018) (podcast)
- Richard Prince (journalist) (Wikipedia entry)
- February 2018 Podcast: Richard “Dick” Prince on the need for newsroom diversity (Gabriel Greschler, Student Press Law Center, Feb. 26, 2018)
- Diversity’s Greatest Hits, 2017 — Where Will They Take Us in the Year Ahead?
- Book Notes: Best Sellers, Uncovered Treasures, Overlooked History (Dec. 19, 2017)
- An advocate for diversity in the media is still pressing for representation, (Courtland Milloy, Washington Post, Nov. 28, 2017)
- Morgan Global Journalism Review: Journal-isms Journeys On (Aug. 31, 2017)
- Diversity’s Greatest Hits, 2016
- Book Notes: 16 Writers Dish About ‘Chelle,’ the First Lady
- Book Notes: From Coretta to Barack, and in Search of the Godfather
- Journal-isms’ Richard Prince Wants Your Ideas (FishbowlDC, Feb. 26, 2016)
- “JOURNAL-ISMS” IS LATEST TO BEAR BRUNT OF INDUSTRY’S ECONOMIC WOES (Feb. 19, 2016)
- Richard Prince with Charlayne Hunter-Gault, “PBS NewsHour,” “What stagnant diversity means for America’s newsrooms” (Dec. 15, 2015)
- Book Notes: Journalists Follow Their Passions
- Book Notes: Journalists Who Rocked Their World
- Book Notes: Hands Up! Read This!
- Book Notes: New Cosby Bio Looks Like a Best-Seller
- Journo-diversity advocate turns attention to Ezra Klein project (Erik Wemple, Washington Post, March 5, 2014)