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Denver Station Ousts 3 Latinas in One Year

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First-Person Story Moves NAHJ, Local Officials
Hedge Fund Won’t Admit Racism at Denver Post
Chauvin Trial Can Trigger Trauma for Journalists
GM Pledges to Quadruple Spending in Black Media
High Court Rebuffs Minority-Ownership Advocates
Female Journalists Face Twice the Danger
Reporters Find Dangerously High Lead Levels
For This Journalist, a Talk Show Is About Listening
Forcibly Removed Blacks May Yet Get Attention

Short Takes

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Lori Lizarraga writes, “That’s the value of diverse journalists. We know where to look, what questions to ask, who to talk to and how to connect with those communities, because they’re ours.” (Credit: Lori Lizarraga)

First-Person Story Moves NAHJ, Local Officials

“After two years and hundreds of community stories, my contract was not renewed, and I am no longer a reporter at 9News,” Lori Lizarraga wrote Sunday for Westword, an alternative publication in Denver. “Like several Latinas before me, leaving was not my choice.

“In fact, I am the third on-air Latina reporter at 9News to be let go in less than a year — a first-time experience in this industry for each of us, and unique, too, for the station, which has renewed every other reporter since 2018.”

The commentary drew the attention of local Latina elected officials and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, whose president, Nora López (pictured), issued a statement that NAHJ is “deeply troubled by the treatment that Lizarraga and her colleagues have described.” The association requested a meeting with Tegna, which owns the station, KUSA-TV.

In addition, López said, “NAHJ will be requesting a diversity and inclusion report from TEGNA leadership that outlines how many Latino news leaders and journalists work for the company in Denver and across the country at TEGNA stations.”

Lizarraga continued, “It’s not just that the three of us were ‘not up to 9News standards.’ It’s that the standard was a moving target that our contributions uniquely did not reach — for Kristen Aguirre (pictured), that was eleven months after she had a stroke.

“It’s that it happened alongside the hire of three more white on-air professionals at 9News just this year; alongside the addition of yet another white man to an investigative news team with a single person of color; alongside months of employees asking for more equitable representation in our coverage and in our newsroom; and all during a global pandemic and racial justice movement that underscored not only the value, but the fundamental need for our perspectives from March 2020 to March 2021 — the exact time frame during which we were each shown the door.”

Lizarraga also wrote, “Sonia Gutierrez (pictured) was let go from 9News in 2020. During her time there, she could not cover immigration unless she disclosed her own immigration status on TV first.

“ ‘When I asked for an explanation or for examples of my work that showed bias, I did not receive a clear response,’ she told me. ‘For three years, I saw other journalists bring their lived experiences to the table as assets and go on to better cover those stories without having to reveal personal information.’

“She was recently hired as a community journalist for another local network.”

In addition, Lizarraga wrote, “As a first-gen 25-year-old Latina and one of several Latinos at 9News with the same feedback, I was surprised how often our voices and lived experiences in the immigrant community were so readily dismissed. If not the verbiage itself, the lack of productive conversation and consideration of our perspectives in a mainstream media newsroom should be concerning.”

Tegna spokesperson Anne Bentley messaged Journal-isms Friday, “Our Chief Diversity Officer has been in communication with NAHJ” and pointed to this statement from Mark Cornetta, KUSA president and general manager:

“Increasing diversity, equity and inclusion is a continuing commitment in our newsroom and at our station. Like all newsrooms, we are striving to do better. Since the start of 2020, 44 percent of hires on our content team are people of color, with 24 percent of content hires comprised of Hispanic/Latinx employees.

“As we continue our diversity, equity and inclusion focus, our content team and news leadership will take part in an Inclusive Journalism program and training that begins this April. We continue to listen to input from our Diversity & Inclusion committee of employees, as well as very specific diversity and inclusion feedback from our annual employee survey -– all with the goal [of] taking steps to further improve our culture.”

Some felt this KUSA special last year should have been hosted by a journalist of color.

Last June, the station produced a special, “Racism and the Road to Change,” hosted by anchor Kim Christiansen.

Scott Jones of the television news website FTVLive wrote then, “KUSA called their special ‘Road to Change’ but the road they should be working on is the one that leads up to the station’s front door.

“It’s time KUSA put a much stronger focus on hiring black Journalists.”

Denver councilwoman Jamie Torres tweeted Friday that a five-person delegation of public officials met with general manager Cornetta and members of his team and suggested that a person of color replace the director of content.

“We set a follow-up meeting for two weeks from today referencing the 43+ questions we got from community because we believe that the next step after our private initial meeting is a broader public discussion.”

In 2017, the Denver Post parted ways with sports columnist Terry Frei after Frei tweeted that he was “very uncomfortable” with Japanese driver Takuma Sato winning the Indianapolis 500 on the day before Memorial Day.

Hedge Fund Won’t Admit Racism at Denver Post

The Los Angeles Times, the Kansas City Star and other newspapers have acknowledged the harm caused by their racism in past years, but the Denver Post won’t be joining them, the Denver Newspaper Guild said Wednesday.

“In the wake of the horrific killing of George Floyd last year, several of the Post’s journalists began meeting in July to examine the newspaper’s role in perpetuating systems of racism and inequality and to seek solutions,” the Denver Post unit of the Guild said to Post readers.

“The group of journalists created a list of action items, solicited the approval and input of the newsroom’s union members, and in September presented the ideas to local management. Several of the newsroom’s managers then joined our group to begin work on the stated goals, including publicly posting a letter committing to change and acknowledging how The Denver Post has previously not represented all of Denver’s communities fairly — or at all.

“For months, we worked with local management to craft a letter, which management then sent to corporate lawyers and human resources personnel. But the board of Alden Global Capital, the hedge fund that owns this newspaper, earlier this month rejected the release of the letter. They did not approve of language admitting the harms The Denver Post — like many other local newspapers — has caused marginalized communities. . . .”

The Guild called Alden Global Capital’s decision “shameful and cowardly. It is impossible to implement change without acknowledging past wrongdoing.”

Nevertheless, the Guild continued, “We’re calling on our company and owners to:

“We want a newsroom committed to telling the stories of people who are excluded or underrepresented in the pages of The Denver Post, and to giving those stories the resources and prominence they deserve,” the Guild said.

Alden Global Capital did not respond to a request for comment.

Don Lemon tears up on his “CNN Tonight” show as activist scholar Cornel West relates the significance of the George Floyd killing. (video)

Chauvin Trial Can Trigger Trauma for Journalists

“As the trial of Derek Chauvin becomes a central focus of the news cycle, we urge news companies to provide resources to Black journalists and communicators to help them cope with the emotional trauma of covering, rewatching and hearing the testimonies of George Floyd’s death,” Dorothy Tucker, president of the National Association of Black Journalists, said in a statement on Friday.

“For many reporting on this story, they must work hard to balance the reality that Floyd could have been them or their loved ones while also maintaining their professionalism, as they report the facts. Covering the trial may also trigger trauma tied to past experiences and previous stories of Black citizens harmed at the hands of police. . . .”

Meanwhile, a report in the Star Tribune indicates that so-called “citizen journalists” are subject to trauma as well. “Darnella Frazier’s viral video of George Floyd’s final, struggling moments showed the world what she happened to see and document on a Minneapolis street last May,” Zoë Jackson reported Friday.

“This week, the world got a glimpse of the trauma that still haunts her because of it.

” ‘There have been nights I stayed up apologizing and apologizing to George Floyd for not doing more and not physically interacting and not saving his life,’ Frazier testified tearfully, between sharp inhales in former police officer Derek Chauvin’s murder trial. ‘But it’s like not what I should have done, it’s what he should have done,’ she said referring to Chauvin.

“Like Frazier, who simply happened to be taking her 9-year-old cousin to the store that evening, other people who have stumbled upon and documented instances of police violence describe recording as [the] only thing they could do in situations where they felt helpless. Often, they end up encumbered with guilt, sleepless nights and other mental health concerns. . . .”

In September, actress Regina King signed on as “brand ambassador” for Cadillac. Black people and Cadillac have had a surprising history. (Credit: Cadillac Society)

GM Pledges to Quadruple Spending in Black Media

“General Motors, one of the nation’s biggest advertisers, said Thursday it would quadruple the percentage of its advertising dollars that go to Black-owned media outlets between now and 2025,” Brian Steinberg reported Thursday for Variety.

“GM’s new effort is a sign of the scrutiny and pressure that corporate giants are facing to spread their corporate spending around a wider array of firms.

“GM said it intended to increase the allocation of its ad spending from its current 2% with Black-owned media to 4% by 2022 and to 8% by 2025.

“ ‘Black-owned media are a vital component of our marketing mix, and we evaluate our spend for media partners through several core metrics, including transparency, innovation, ad quality, audience delivery and brand safety,’ General Motors said in a statement Thursday. The company also said it would in May launch an ‘upfront’ process with diverse media owners ‘that encourages partners and potential partners to submit business proposals’ that ‘will be accredited by a third-party to ensure fairness and transparency.’

“GM’s move came after the automaker was targeted by a group of Black media leaders, including entrepreneur Byron Allen. The group in recent days took out ads in the Detroit Free Press and Wall Street Journal to deliver an open letter to GM CEO Mary Barra. The group suggested the manufacturer of Cadillac and Chevrolet spent less than 0.5% of its advertising in Black-owned media outlets. On Thursday, GM said that it has allocated 2% for 2021.

“A number of advertisers and ad groups have in recent days taken steps to show their interest in Black media, which include Allen’s Allen Media Group, Revolt Media, Ozy, Essence Magazine and Urban One. Procter & Gamble, the large consumer-products manufacturer, earlier this week unveiled an initiative to bring more Black creators into the media and entertainment industries and to call for better portrayals of Black individuals and consumers in programming. . . .”

High Court Rebuffs Minority-Ownership Advocates

“On Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed strictly on procedural and agency-deference grounds the Trump FCC’s 2017 order that loosened local broadcast-ownership limits,” Timothy Karr wrote Thursday for the advocacy group Free Press.

“The Court’s decision allows that 2017 order to stand for now, unfortunately prolonging the agency’s ongoing neglect of its mandate to ensure diversity, competition and localism in broadcast ownership.” The vote was unanimous.

Karr continued, “The ruling in Prometheus Radio Project v. FCC is the culmination of the long-running challenge from Free Press and allies to FCC decisions that have repeatedly tried to dismantle media-ownership limits while failing to study the impact of such rule changes on broadcast-ownership opportunities for women and people of color.”

David Honig, founder of the Multicultural Media and Telecom Council, which monitors the FCC, messaged that “the decision was on narrow grounds. The 9-0 vote speaks to its non-controversiality, not to six justices’ conservatism. It’s basically a routine Administrative Procedure Act (‘APA’) decision slightly expanding the zone of judicial deference to federal agency findings. Here the agency made findings based on (1) backward-looking research, and (2) the absence of any available forward-looking research. The agency didn’t find any potential adverse future impact on minority/women ownership, and the justices decided that wasn’t an abuse of discretion.

“Since it was possible to resolve this case on a narrow ground, there was no need for the court to reach more controversial theories including those relating to constitutionality.

“This may actually help the current FCC administration, which might enjoy the relative unlikelihood of a successful Administrative Procedure Act challenge to the agency’s discretion if the agency regulates in a manner that it believes will advance minority/women ownership. That could happen.

“To be sure, it would have been much better if the public interest and minority organizations had prevailed. If our side had to lose, this was the best way to do so.”

The opinion was authored by Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

Ashley Cullins added for The Hollywood Reporter, “A concurring opinion from Justice Clarence Thomas (pictured, above) says the FCC had no obligation to consider minority or female ownership in the first place. The fact that it was even part of the conversation with regard to these changes, he argues, was the result of judge-made procedures dating back to 2004. The FCC’s focus is encouraging viewpoint diversity for the benefit of consumers, he argues, not ownership diversity for the benefit of producers.”

Thomas “noted, too, that ‘The F.C.C. has recently questioned the validity of the assumption that ownership diversity promotes viewpoint diversity,’ Adam Liptak wrote for The New York Times.

Like others, Lex Weaver, a graduate journalism student at Northeastern University, says she has benefited from a “Gender in the Newsroom” course. It provides a forum that puts the students’ own obstacles and concerns into historical perspective, offering them support in an industry that has been dominated by white males. (Credit: Ruby Wallau/Northeastern University)

Female Journalists Face Twice the Danger

Of all the stories commemorating Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day, which both took place in March, this was perhaps the most concerning:

“Women journalists endure ‘twice the danger’ of their male colleagues because of the risk of sexist violence both in the field and in their own newsrooms,” as Charlotte Tobitt reported March 8 for the Press Gazette in Britain.

“Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has produced a report on sexism in journalism, defined as all forms of sexist and sexual violence (including verbal and physical threats) to mark International Women’s Day on 8 March.

“Some 112 journalists – RSF’s own correspondents and journalists who write about gender issues – in 120 countries filled in a survey about the trends they are seeing.

“The group found that all women journalists are concerned and vulnerable – whether they are on a permanent staff contract, fixed-term or freelance – although ‘the more precarious her employment status the less likely she will be able to make her voice heard and defend herself’.

“More than two-thirds (71%) were aware of discrimination towards women journalists because of their gender and 73% said most of this behaviour occurs online, making the internet more dangerous than the streets. . . .”

Tobitt also wrote, “Following the Internet, it is the workplace that the most respondents (58%) identified as the location ‘where sexist violence has been perpetrated.’ This perception has been reinforced by the #MeToo movement’s spread throughout the world and the fact that women journalists are now daring to denounce sexual attacks or sexual harassment in such countries as the United States, Japan and India.”

Reporters Find Dangerously High Lead Levels

“Mayor Jane Castor called this week’s Tampa Bay Times investigation into unsafe work conditions at Gopher Resource concerning and has directed city staff to gather information from regulatory agencies that monitor the factory,” Charlie Frago reported March 26, updated March 27, for the Times.

“In a statement late Thursday, the mayor said she supported U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, a Tampa Democrat, in her efforts to update the federal Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970.

“Kathy Castor wrote a letter to federal Environmental Protection Agency Director Michael Regan on Friday asking for the agency to review the factory’s operations, saying the ‘disturbing’ findings in the Times report indicated that the company put corporate profits above worker and community members’ safety. . . . “

Among the findings, “Gopher exposed workers for years to levels of lead in the air that were hundreds of times higher than the federal limit. At times, the concentration was considered life-threatening. Workers described regular tasks that left them caked with dust, as though they’d been dunked in powdered sugar.”

The investigation, by Corey G. Johnson (pictured), Rebecca Woolington and Eli Murray, was part of a collaboration with “Frontline,” the PBS series, through its Local Journalism Initiative. It was published March 24.

“Tampa Bay Times reporters spent 18 months examining thousands of pages of regulatory reports and company documents, including data tracking the amount of lead in the air and in workers’ blood. They interviewed more than 80 current and former workers, 20 of whom shared their medical records,” the report said. It was published under the headline, “Hundreds of workers at a Tampa lead smelter have been exposed to dangerous levels of the neurotoxin. The consequences have been profound.”

For This Journalist, a Talk Show Is About Listening

Kojo Nnamdi (pictured) hosted the final episode of “The Kojo Nnamdi Show” Thursday on Washington’s public radio station WAMU-FM, although he will continue to host a Friday show on politics.

On the broadcast, Nnamdi, a former reporter for the Howard University commercial radio and television stations, was asked, as “someone who’s been on radio for decades, you know, what makes this special for you? What has kept you going, all this time?”

Nnamdi replied, “I like radio because of two things, in particular. One, as a host on radio, I actually do more listening than I do talking. And I think that listening is a skill. We are now so, all of us, involved in communicating on such a variety of media and in such a variety of ways, that it is my view that we don’t spend enough time listening. And the one thing you have to do in radio, whether you are a host or literally a listener, is listen. So, that’s what I enjoy.

“The second thing I enjoy about radio is its intimacy. Most people listen to radio when they are by themselves. And so, the radio host is only really communicating with one listener at a time, even though a former colleague of mine used to talk about his vast listening audience. You’re really talking to one person at a time and as a result you develop a relationship with that individual that can be intensely personal. And I think that — you don’t really get that from any other medium but radio. Now, I think you might be able to get it from podcasts, because people also tend to listen to podcasts by themselves. But for me, that’s what radio’s all about.”

Christiane Amanpour, reporting for “60 Minutes” in 2003, quotes the evicted residents of Diego Garcia saying “they left paradise and landed in hell.” (Credit: YouTube)

Forcibly Removed Blacks May Yet Get Attention

Few have heard of “a little-known group of 55 islands in the middle of the Indian Ocean known as the Chagos Archipelago.” It’s where the United States and the United Kingdom evicted the Black people who had lived there for 200 years — separating families and poisoning pets as a harbinger of what might be in store for them — so that the U.S could build a strategically positioned military base.

Part of the reason so few have heard of the archipelago and its base, Diego Garcia, is because no journalists, or anyone besides military people and their workers, are allowed there.

Now, according to an op-ed piece Thursday in The New York Times, there is a proposal for a way for the evicted people to return to their homeland after all these years, if the Biden administration and the British act on it.

The op-ed author is Philippe Sands, a law professor at University College London.

Sands explains, “For 150 years they were part of the British colony of Mauritius. Then, in 1965, at the instigation of President Lyndon Johnson, Britain decided to separate the islands from Mauritius and, at just the time that the world was agreeing the era of colonialism was over, created a new colony, called the British Indian Ocean Territory. One of the islands, Diego Garcia, was leased to the United States for a military base.

“Mauritius got its independence in 1968, but without Chagos. The entire population of the islands — about 1,800 Black people, mostly descendants of slaves who lived and worked on copra plantations there — were forcibly removed and transported to other parts of Mauritius, the Seychelles and Britain.

“The episode, which the British government itself has since called ‘shameful,’ had not been widely known — until now, as these events come back to haunt Britain and, indirectly, America.

“Mauritius has long sought to get Chagos back, and its effort has been supported by numerous states — including India, the entire African continent, various governments in Latin America and Europe — and the many displaced Chagossians who never gave up on their hope to return to their homes. . . .

“But the British have refused to leave. . . .

“There is, however, a simple and effective solution — if indeed the U.S. government is truly committed to the rule of law and international treaties.

“Mauritius already has offered the United States a 99-year lease over Diego Garcia, providing a long-term security that is lacking under America’s current arrangement with Britain, which expires in 2036. In return, the Chagossians would be allowed to come back to parts of Chagos. A marine protection area could be established to conserve a pristine maritime environment. The flag would finally be lowered on Britain’s last colony in Africa.

“It’s a win-win-win proposition. Security, human rights and the marine environment are protected. The rule of law, treaties and UNCLOS are promoted. Charges of hypocrisy and double standard are cast to the wind. . . .”

Short Takes

From left, on-air personalities Charles M. Blow, Yodit Tewolde, and Marc Lamont Hill flank CEO Princell Hair, seated. (Credit: Black News Channel).

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Richard Prince’s Journal-isms originates from Washington. It began in print before most of us knew what the internet was, and it would like to be referred to as a “column.” Any views expressed in the column are those of the person or organization quoted and not those of any other entity. Send tips, comments and concerns to Richard Prince at journal-isms+owner@groups.io

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