Site icon journal-isms.com

Cuba Says It’s Willing to Discuss Human Rights

richard

Offer, Amid Unrest, Could Include Press Freedom
MSNBC Backs Down on Hiring Ex-GOP Chair
White Ex-Deputies Sentenced in ‘Goon Squad’ Beatings
Jake Tapper Helps Deliver Justice in Philly
Sarah-Ann Shaw Dies at 90, ‘Didn’t Suffer Fools’
Israelis Release Beaten Al Jazeera Journalist
Black Kids Can Help Make Newsday ‘Cool Again’
Columnists Urge Athletes to Stand Up for Diversity

Short Takes: Hispanic news consumption; Jennifer Cunningham; Don Lemon; Telemundo ratings; Manny Garcia, Angel Rodriguez and the Houston Landing; Asian American Journalists Association and NBC News; polling Asian Americans; Sahan Journal;

Stephen A. Smith; LeBron James; Adelle Banks; Sudan’s isolation; freed Congolese journalist Stanis Bujakera;

Emme Tomimbang Burns; Candace Owens; New York Times’ “State of the Times”; disability journalism fellowship; NAACP chapter lauds Sinclair station; Mark J. Rochester; Steve Bien-Aimé; Herman Wong;

Asylum for Emilio Gutierrez Soto; diversity in British news organizations; journalism and mental health; Costa Rica’s unexpected turn; disappeared Nigerian journalist.

Support Journal-isms

Donations are tax-deductible.

Offer, Amid Unrest, Could Include Press Freedom

“Cuban officials are pushing every button at their disposal to get the Biden administration’s attention, offering talks on previously off-the-table issues such as human rights amid internal protests over the country’s worst economic crisis since the end of the Cold War,” Rafael Bernal wrote for The Hill. Cubans staged street protests in at least five cities, according to the Wall Street Journal, demanding an end to blackouts and food shortages.

“Freedom of the press is included among the reforms Congressman Castro would like to see in Cuba,” a spokesperson for Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, the top Democrat in the House Foreign Affairs Western Hemisphere subcommittee, told Journal-isms.

“The Cuban government is the most repressive regime in the Western Hemisphere. If it is genuine about engaging in talks with the United States on its human rights record, without preconditions, I believe that is a positive development that the Biden administration should capitalize on,” Castro said.

Cuban embassy spokespeople in Washington did not respond to requests from Journal-isms for elaboration.

Human Rights Watch reported in December in a year-end summary, “The government continues to repress and punish virtually all forms of dissent and public criticism, as Cubans endure a dire economic crisis affecting their rights.

“Hundreds of critics and protesters, including many who took to the streets in July 2021, remain arbitrarily detained. Demonstrations continued in 2023, triggered by blackouts, shortages, and the deterioration of living conditions. Cubans continued to leave the country in unprecedented numbers.

“The United States continued a failed policy of isolation towards Cuba, including a decades-long embargo.

“The government continued to employ arbitrary detention to harass and intimidate critics, independent activists, political opponents, and others.

“Two years after the July 2021 protests, the largest since the Cuban revolution, rights groups counted over 700 people, including over 70 women, still behind bars in connection with them. Many were periodically held incommunicado. Some suffered ill-treatment and in some cases torture.

Independent journalist Carlos Michel Morales Rodríguez was released from prison March 6 after two years and 10 months of deprivation of liberty, his sentence for demonstrating in Caibarién, Villa Clara, during the popular protests of July 11, 2021, the Havana Times reports.

“The government said over 380 people, including several children, were serving sentences. Some stood trial in military courts, contravening international law. Some stood trial in ordinary courts on ‘sedition’ charges, accused of violence such as rock-throwing and received disproportionate prison terms of up to 25 years. Many received only summary trials on vaguely defined charges such as ‘public disorder’ or ‘contempt.’

“Prosecutors framed as criminal behavior actions such as criticizing the government on social media or protesting peacefully, which are lawful exercises of freedoms of expression and association. Prosecutors and judges used unreliable or uncorroborated evidence.”

In addition, the watch group said, “The government controls virtually all media in Cuba, restricts access to outside information, and periodically censors critics and independent journalists.

“Increased access to the internet has enabled activists to communicate, report on abuses, and organize protests. Some journalists and bloggers publish articles, videos, and news on websites and social media, including X (formerly known as Twitter) and Facebook.

“Authorities routinely block access to many news websites within Cuba and repeatedly impose targeted, and at times widespread, restrictions on critics’ access to mobile phone data. . . .”

The Hill’s Bernal added Monday, “The communist government, once hopeful President Biden would reverse some of former President Trump’s most stringent restrictions on Cuba — namely the state sponsor of terror designation — is now playing formerly withheld cards, but Cuban officials say the U.S. is not picking up the phone.

“ ‘There’s not a lack of interest; what’s lacking is political will. And further, even on the issues that the U.S. government says are their priorities toward Cuba, I can responsibly tell you that there have been public and private offerings from Cuba: “Let’s sit down and discuss topics that they say are their priorities, like the issue of human rights,” ‘ Johana Tablada, the Cuban Foreign Ministry’s top official in the General Division for the United States, told The Hill in a recent interview.

“ ‘But when we say, “Let’s go, we’ll sit down this week in Havana, in Washington or wherever and you can explain to us your concerns,” there is no answer. There is no answer.’

“Cuban officials are receiving plenty of input, however, from Florida Republicans such as Rep. María Elvira Salazar [R-Fla.] who openly call for regime change, the remaining red line for Cuban officials to sit at the table.

“ ‘The Cuban regime has no interest in talking genuinely about human rights. Only the regime has it in its own power to restore human rights to the Cuban people — the United States cannot give rights to anyone in Cuba. I hope this crisis and the protests in Santiago de Cuba expose the failures of communism and lead to an end of the dictatorship,’ Salazar told The Hill.”

Chuck Todd, at right, blasts NBC News for hiring Ronna McDaniel on “Meet The Press” Sunday.

MSNBC Backs Down on Hiring Ex-GOP Chair

“MSNBC has no plans to have former Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel on the cable network, its president told employees as backlash to her hiring grows within the wider NBC News organization,” Joe Flint and Isabella Simonetti reported Sunday for The Wall Street Journal.

“Adding to the internal backlash, Chuck Todd, NBC News’s chief political analyst, blasted the network on-air after McDaniel’s ‘Meet the Press’ interview with Kristen Welker on Sunday over the hiring.

“ ‘I think our bosses owe you an apology for putting you in this situation,’ he said to Welker. ‘There’s a reason why there’s a lot of journalists at NBC News uncomfortable with this, because many of our professional dealings with the RNC over the last six years have been met with gaslighting.’

“The backlash follows NBC News’s internal announcement Friday that it had hired McDaniel as a contributor. In that internal memo, the political chief, Carrie Budoff Brown, said McDaniel would contribute ‘across all NBC News platforms,’ causing turmoil among several of the network’s on-air hosts and staffers, people familiar with the matter said. MSNBC is part of the NBC News division.

“ Over the past few days, Rashida Jones, (pictured) the cable network’s president, has been seeking to address internal backlash in the wake of an internal Friday announcement by NBC News regarding McDaniel’s hiring as an on-air contributor.

“Jones told employees the cable network has no plans to have McDaniel on the channel, according to people familiar with the conversations. A number of MSNBC anchors and producers have voiced concern internally about McDaniel’s ties to former President Donald Trump and the RNC’s role in his efforts to challenge the 2020 election results.

“A representative for McDaniel didn’t immediately return calls seeking comment.

“The tensions at NBC News demonstrate how tricky it can be for news networks to hire former politicians and Washington insiders as contributors — a common practice. While many hires provide insights into the inner workings of the government, there has been concern about the revolving door between news channels and politicos as well as partisan politics that creeps into analysis.

“For MSNBC, besides the risk of upsetting talent, there is also concern that having McDaniel on could alienate its liberal audience. MSNBC is currently the No. 2 cable news network, trailing Fox News but ahead of CNN. . . .”

(MSNBC announced in December that its “programming attracts the most diverse cable audience in America. In 2023, MSNBC was the #1 network across all of cable among Black viewers for the 6th consecutive year and in Asian viewers. Among Hispanic viewers, MSNBC was #1 across cable news and #2 across all of cable [behind ESPN].”) 

Eddie Parker, left, and Michael Jenkins, right, stand with their attorney Malik Shabazz during a news conference on March 18. (Credit: CNN)

White Ex-Deputies Sentenced in ‘Goon Squad’ Beatings

In a case in which reporting by news organizations played a significant role, “A federal judge on Thursday finished handing down prison terms of about 10 to 40 years to six white former Mississippi law enforcement officers who pleaded guilty to breaking into a home without a warrant and torturing two Black men in an hourslong attack that included beatings, repeated uses of stun guns and assaults with a sex toy before one of the victims was shot in the mouth,” Michael Goldberg and Emily Wagster Pettus reported for the Associated Press.

“U.S. District Judge Tom Lee called the culprits’ actions ‘egregious and despicable’ and gave sentences near the top of federal guidelines to five of the six men who attacked Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker in January 2023.”

The AP’s Goldberg and Pettus also wrote, “In March 2023, months before federal prosecutors announced charges in August, an investigation by The Associated Press linked some of the deputies to at least four violent encounters with Black men since 2019 that left two dead and another with lasting injuries.

“The officers invented false charges against the victims, planting a gun and drugs at the scene of their crime, and stuck to their cover story for months until finally admitting that they tortured Jenkins and Parker. Elward admitted to shoving a gun into Jenkins’ mouth and firing it in what federal prosecutors said was meant to be a ‘mock execution.’ . . .”

“An investigation by Mississippi Today and The New York Times last year exposed a decades-long reign of terror by nearly two dozen Rankin County deputies, several of them high-ranking investigators who reported directly to the Rankin County Sheriff,” Bryan Bailey,” Brian Howey and Nate Rosenfield wrote Thursday for Mississippi Today.

“In pursuit of drug arrests, the deputies shoved a stick down one man’s throat until he vomited, dripped molten metal onto another man’s skin and held people down and beat them until they were bloody and bruised, according to dozens who said they had witnessed or experienced the raids.”

“More than 20 people said they were tortured during warrantless raids and violent interrogations by deputies, most of whom have not yet been charged with a crime and some of whom still work for the sheriff’s department. . . .,” Howey and Rosenfield wrote Wednesday.

Howey and Rosenfield are examining the power of sheriffs’ offices in Mississippi as part of The  New York Times’ Local Investigations Fellowship.

CNN’s Jake Tapper talks with C.J. Rice, who is now legally innocent of the crime that led to his conviction in 2013 by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. (Credit: YouTube)

Jake Tapper Helps Deliver Justice in Philly

“After his 12 years of incarceration, advocates for C.J. Rice said that justice was delivered Monday when Philadelphia prosecutors declined to retry Rice on attempted murder charges, calling his 2013 conviction ‘unjust,’ Jesse Bunch reported Monday for the Philadelphia Inquirer.

“On his journey through the legal system, Rice had one outsized supporter: CNN’s Jake Tapper.

“The television anchor and Philadelphia native has long been interested in Rice, beginning after his father, a local pediatrician who treated Rice for previous gunshot injuries, testified that the then-teenaged Rice couldn’t have walked — let alone run and flee the scene — that September 2011 day when four people were shot and injured in South Philadelphia.

“Tapper published an article in The Atlantic in 2022 asserting Rice’s innocence, and on Monday, attended Rice’s hearing in Common Pleas court to celebrate the decision of the District Attorney’s Office alongside his doctor father and criminal justice advocates who worked for Rice’s release.

“In an interview with The Inquirer, lightly edited for clarity, Tapper elaborated on his relationship with Rice, details about the attorney who mishandled Rice’s case, and being one of the biggest Eagles fans in Washington, D.C. . . .”

Sarah-Ann Shaw, left, was honored at Old South Church in Boston in 2016. After receiving the Open Door Award, she was greeted by Victoria Williams, former civil rights director for Boston. (Credit: Pat Greenhouse/Boston Globe)

Sarah-Ann Shaw Dies at 90, ‘Didn’t Suffer Fools’

Sarah-Ann Shaw, who would serve as a guidepost for a generation of younger journalists, died in her Boston home Thursday,” Joseph P. Kahn reported Thursday for the Boston Globe. “She was 90.”

“Ms. Shaw, who retired from [WBZ-TV] in 2000, specialized in covering stories neglected or marginalized by other media sources. From Dorchester housing hearings and discriminatory banking practices to welfare rights, homelessness, and a women’s rights movement rapidly transforming work and home life, she gravitated toward issues that mattered deeply to Boston’s communities of color.

“In the 1970s, during the school busing crisis, she became one of the few Black journalists reporting from the front lines. More important to her than stories of conflict and crisis, though, were ones that challenged stereotypical assumptions.

“ ‘I tried to do stories that showed positive events in the Black community,’ Ms. Shaw said in a 2007 interview. ‘I thought it was important particularly for young Black kids to see themselves not on television for fighting, for doing drugs, et cetera, but for doing something positive.’

“Equally important, she added, was letting white suburban viewers see that families in urban neighborhoods were ‘just as concerned about achieving the American Dream as they were.’ In that spirit, she was sharply critical of local news trends that emphasized negatives such as crime and violence.

“Liz Walker, a former WBZ-TV colleague and the first Black woman to co-anchor a local newscast, recalled Ms. Shaw as ‘unapologetically an advocate journalist.’

“ ‘She wanted to cover education, not shootings,’ said Walker, who left TV news in 2001 to earn a divinity degree and become a Presbyterian pastor. ‘She did not suffer fools lightly, either. Sarah was not about small talk.’

“At the same time, Walker noted, Ms. Shaw took pride in mentoring other young journalists of color, herself included. Said Walker, ‘Sarah educated you, whether you wanted to be educated or not.’

“Ms. Shaw ‘never, ever, ever let up,’ Callie Crossley, host of GBH’s ‘Under the Radar,’ and former longtime host of ‘Basic Black,’ told the Globe in February.

“ ‘She focused on the kinds of things that needed to be addressed, whether people wanted to hear it or not, Crossley said.’ . . .”

Al Jazeera said the “targeting” of Ismail al-Ghoul, pictured, is part of a series of “systematic attacks on Al Jazeera”, including the killings of veteran Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, Samer Abu Daqqa and Hamza Dahdouh, as well as the bombing of its office in Gaza. (Credit: Al Jazeera)

Israelis Release Beaten Al Jazeera Journalist

“Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent Ismail al-Ghoul has been released after being arrested for 12 hours and severely beaten by Israeli forces in Gaza City’s al-Shifa Hospital,” Al Jazeera reported Monday.

“Al-Ghoul was there early on Monday with his crew and other reporters to cover the Israeli army’s fourth raid into the hospital, where thousands of civilians are trapped, including medical staff, patients and displaced families.

“Witnesses said the Al Jazeera reporter was dragged away by Israeli forces, who also destroyed the broadcasting vehicles of news crews at the medical facility. He has since been freed after 12 hours in Israeli custody.

“Al-Ghoul told Al Jazeera after his release that Israeli forces destroyed media equipment and arrested journalists gathered in a room used by media teams. He said the journalists were stripped of their clothes and forced to lie on their stomachs as they were blindfolded and their hands tied. . . .”

The Committee to Protect Journalists reported separately, “On Monday, March 18, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched a new offensive on the Al-Shifa hospital complex, arresting scores of Palestinians. An unspecified number of journalists, including Mahmoud Elewa, a freelance correspondent for Al-Jazeera TV, and Mohamad Arab, a freelance journalist with Al-Araby TV, were among those held.

“Arab and Elewa were among the first to report on the hospital raid and the arrest of Al-Jazeera reporter Ismail Al-Ghoul on Monday. Al-Ghoul was released after about 12 hours in Israeli custody following earlier U.S. State Department inquiries about his detention and calls for his release by organizations, including CPJ and Al-Jazeera. . . .”

As of March 21, “CPJ’s preliminary investigations showed at least 95 journalists and media workers were among the more than 32,000 killed since the war began on October 7—with more than 31,000 Palestinian deaths in Gaza and the West Bank and 1,200 deaths in Israel,” the organization said.

Newsday Editor Don Hudson speaks to students in the Hub during a recent tour. (Credit: Newsday)

Black Kids Can Help Make Newsday ‘Cool Again’

Newsday is winning kudos for a program to “make Newsday cool again,” in the words of the Poynter Institute’s Kristin Hare, by bringing fifth graders to the newspaper with “Newsday in Education,” a program that combines field trips with free digital access to all school districts on Long Island, as Hare wrote March 14.

But Long Island, N.Y., Newsday’s circulation area, is “one of the most segregated in America,” as Newsday itself reported in 2019, and the photos accompanying Hare’s story showed no visibly Black students.

Here is Newsday’s response:

“Newsday sent invitations to Long Island’s school districts in 2023 to participate in its ‘Newsday in Education’ program. Newsday has hosted 17 schools through this month, including students from Brentwood and Jericho, two of the Island’s most diverse districts. Other districts, including Hempstead and Uniondale, are scheduled to visit Newsday’s Melville, New York, facilities before this school year ends. Newsday has a state-of-the-art multimedia operation, including a TV studio and newsroom HUB, where editors from various platforms work in collaboration.

“Newsday Associate Editor Joye Brown (pictured) plays a key role in the program, which is designed to align with the fifth-grade journalism unit and provides students with a behind-the-scenes look at how professional journalism is carried out in their backyard.

“ ‘I’ve seen a lot of smart kids come through here who, by the end of the day tell us they’re excited about journalism,’ Brown said. ‘They’ve never been in a multimedia newsroom before.’

“While at Newsday, students participate in interactive experiences, explore multimedia spaces, and meet journalists. Students and school administrators also receive complimentary access to newsday.com and Newsday’s e-edition while on school grounds.”

Left unsaid: As Newsday reported in 2019, “Half of Long Island’s black population lives in just 11 of the Island’s 291 communities, and 90 percent lives in just 62 of them, according to 2017 census estimates.” Just as Newsday must be sure to invite those diverse school districts into the program, those districts have an obligation to respond.

Students take part in interactive experiences during Newsday in Education field trips. (Credit: Newsday)

In the March 5 edition of “Roland Martin Unfiltered,” Martin calls on former players, top high school ballers to stand with football Hall of Famer Emmitt Smith in supporting diversity, equity and inclusion. “When the University of Florida eliminated its DEI office, largely due to a law signed in 2023 by Gov. Ron DeSantis that banned state universities from spending money on diversity, equity and inclusion programs, Smith responded with harsh criticism,” Ken Makin reported for Andscape.

Columnists Urge Athletes to Stand Up for Diversity

Black columnists are urging athletes to take a stand against the growing number of measures against diversity, equity and inclusion programs by taking their services only to places that endorse DEI — and at least one voice is saying they should use the same tactic against efforts to limit abortions.

“Black coaches, and every Black parent or guardian of a Black college football or basketball recruit, can let wishful college coaches know those boys-to-men aren’t going to work” — which is what playing college sports is — at places where people of color, women and other marginalized folks are not otherwise supported,” Kevin Blackistone wrote March 11 in The Washington Post.

It was a sentiment also advanced by Roy S. Johnson on al.com, Jim Trotter in the Athletic and Deron Snyder in the Grio, among others.

Johnson applauded Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin, who in criticizing an anti-DEI bill in the state that since has become law, “recalled the sordid segregationist history of the University of Alabama,” Ken Makin wrote March 7 for Andscape.

“ ‘Although I’m the biggest Bama fan, I have no problem organizing Black parents and athletes to attend other institutions outside of the state where diversity and inclusion are prioritized,’ Woodfin posted last month on X. ‘If supporting inclusion becomes illegal in this state, hell, you might as well stand in front of the school door like Governor Wallace. Mannnn it’s Black History Month. Y’all could have at least waited until March 1.’ ”

The NAACP joined in this month, responding to the University of Florida and other state schools that have eliminated DEI programs. In a letter to NCAA President Charlie Baker that was also addressed to current and prospective student-athletes, NAACP leaders said, “The value Black and other college athletes bring to large universities is unmatched. If these institutions are unable to completely invest in those athletes, it’s time they take their talents elsewhere.”

Elsewhere, “An unofficial coalition of civil rights, political and advocacy groups” is ““launching a multifaceted counter to the growing cries to dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion efforts stoked by billionaires like Elon Musk and Bill Ackman, among others,” Curtis Bunn reported Feb.8 for NBC News.

“But who is advocating for female athletes?” asked Shalise Manza Young Friday on Andscape. “As of right now, 16 states have enacted either total bans on abortion or ban it after six weeks, which has the effect of a complete prohibition given most women don’t even know they’re pregnant by that time.

“Yet few prominent voices, particularly men, have spoken up to encourage young women to avoid schools in those states. . . .”

The anti-DEI moves also affect the journalism world. The Gannett Co. is in court over a charge the plaintiff calls “reverse discrimination.” And as Rod Hicks wrote in January for the Quill, “For decades, journalism organizations, thought leaders and educators have been urging news operations to elevate their diversity commitment to a University of Memphis–type level. But now another powerful force is trying to push the industry in the opposite direction. Led by Texas and Florida, state legislatures are attacking DEI activity at public colleges and universities . . .

“Journalism educators are worried that this will be a major setback among the many others they’ve experienced during decades of efforts to build a pipeline of journalism students more representative of the nation’s rich diversity. . . .”

Countering the anti-diversity measures will be the subject of a Journal-isms Roundtable scheduled for April 11. Details in the coming days.

Short Takes

“ Jennifer H. Cunningham (pictured), previously editor-in-chief of the news division at Business Insider, has been named executive editor of Newsweek, overseeing all news content and strategy and reporting directly to Global Editor-in-Chief Nancy Cooper, Newsweek announced Monday. Newsweek no longer has the profile it maintained before Post-Newsweek sold it in 2012. It withdrew from the Alliance for Audited Media, which reports circulation figures, and Samir Husni, known as “Mr. Magazine,” told Journal-isms, “It is more like a footnote in history now compared to the days before Tina Brown did not understand the value of the brand and killed it.”

Houston Landing CEO Peter Bhatia, at center, introduces Manny Garcia, the Landing’s new editor in chief, at left, and Angel Rodriguez, the new managing editor, at right, during an all-hands meeting at the Houston Landing, Friday, in Houston. (Credit: Antranik Tavitian / Houston Landing)

Emilio Gutiérrez Soto, left, and his son, Oscar Gutierrez Soto, right, and their immigration attorney Eduardo Beckett celebrate the judge’s ruling to grant asylum to the father and son after a 15-year journey that included denials, delays and detention. (Credit: Daniel Perez / El Paso Matters)

Exit mobile version