Articles

Elijah Cummings Was Friend of Black Journalists

by richard02414

Updated Oct. 18

Congressman Spoke at NABJ Regional Conference

Sex Abuse of Enslaved Included Black Men

Book Tackles Subject Media Portray Misleadingly

Fort Worth Case Must Reach Grand Jury ‘ASAP’

Lacey’s Questions Made for Viral Moments

2nd Journalist Dies After Turkish Air Strike

NABJ, NAACP Back Allen in Suit Against Comcast

NPR Promotes 3 One Month After Staff Complaints

New Executive Producer of ‘The Situation Room’

Maria Reeve Named an M.E. at Houston Chronicle

Emilio Nicolás Dies, His Network Became Univision

Native Journalists Praise, Blast Tribes on Free Press

Short Takes

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From left, Michelle Johnson, Nicki Mayo, DeWayne Wickham, Elijah Cummings, Sarah J. Glover, Johann Calhoun and Zuri Berry, activists in the National Association of Black Journalists, at the 2016 NABJ regional conference in Baltimore. (Credit: Richard McCollough)
From left, Michelle Johnson, Nicki Mayo, DeWayne Wickham, Elijah Cummings, Sarah J. Glover, Johann Calhoun and Zuri Berry, all active in the National Association of Black Journalists, at the 2016 NABJ regional conference in Baltimore. (Credit: Richard McCollough)

Congressman Spoke at NABJ Regional Conference

U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., who died at 68 Thursday after longstanding health problems, was a supporter of black journalists, appearing at a regional conference of the National Association of Black Journalists to discuss the shooting death of Freddie Gray and the resulting disturbances.

While critical of police, Cummings also said at that 2016 conference in Baltimore, “I believe in the Black Lives Matter movement, I really do, but the black lives have got to matter to black people,” Tramon Lucas reported at the time for the Spokesman at Morgan State University.

In a message to Journal-isms, Johann Calhoun of the Philadelphia Tribune, NABJ regional director at the time, called Cummings “a lion for justice and equality” and a friend of NABJ who “believed in the mission of our organization as advocates for diversity.” 

“Without hesitation, Cummings accepted the invitation to speak to our members during the 2016 NABJ Region I Conference at Morgan State University’s School of Global Journalism and Communication and spoke candidly on stage with WJZ-TV’s Vic Carter on police brutality during the one year anniversary of the Freddie Gray riots in Baltimore,” Calhoun said.

“After his keynote, Cummings spent a considerable amount of time talking directly with NABJ members — reflective of how he communicated and connected with his constituents. The admiration and respect Cummings had for NABJ was undeniable. Our community has lost a great advocate.”

The Baltimore Sun described Cummings as “a committee chairman known for his devotion to Baltimore and civil rights and for blunt and passionate speechmaking.”

Sex Abuse of Enslaved Included Black Men

Book Tackles Subject Media Portray Misleadingly

His body was not his own.
His body was not his own.

It doesn’t take long to realize that as cruel as slavery was, it was worse than most of the media have been telling us.

That observation comes after a quick look through “Rethinking Rufus: Sexual Violations of Enslaved Men” (University of Georgia Press), a recently published academic book by Thomas A. Foster, an assistant dean for faculty affairs and professor of history at Howard University.

“I think popular media coverage (including TV and movies) of sexual violations under slavery [has] generally focused on sexual abuses of enslaved women but not those of men,” Foster messaged Journal-isms.

“In many ways we’ve been repeating the same gendered discussions that [abolitionists] made public — those discussions say that in the area of family/intimacy, women were sexually violated and men suffered through the denial of their patriarchal role — the ability to protect their wives and daughters from sexually abusive enslavers.

“But the reality was much more complex. Enslaved men and males were also sexually violated by enslavers (male and female) and women also, undoubtedly, worried about the vulnerability of their sons, as well as their daughters (as did fathers, of course).”

As we continue to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first African Americans in colonial Virginia in 1619, and the resurgence of the debate over reparations, it might be instructive to re-examine the details of the “peculiar institution” practiced by, among others, eight U.S. presidents while in office. It’s something many who experienced it just didn’t want to talk about.

Reparations are intended to compensate for more than the physical abuse suffered by the enslaved and their descendants — they relate to a people’s entire economic, social and legal existence — but it might be useful to learn more than we’ve been told about that abuse.

“Oral traditions have always spoken of the variety of abuses that enslaved men and women endured,” Foster messages. “My book is the first academic monograph to discuss enslaved men’s sexual violations. It also examines aspects of the lives of enslaved men that are not generally talked about — love, marriage, and same-gender bonds of affection.”

Thomas A. Foster
Thomas A. Foster

Foster’s book includes graphic descriptions of whippings and brandings while the enslaved man was naked, his genitals unspared. It describes forced couplings with enslaved women as well as with white plantation mistresses, and sexual violations of his body by both white men and white women, including rape. His body was not his own. Some of the abuse was outright sadism.

Images propagated at the time were misleading. “The diet of enslaved men was such that many men’s musculature would have been retarded or disproportionate from repetitive work. Bones would have been weakened from calcium deficiencies. . . . The classically developed muscular bodies depicted in many abolitionist accounts would not have been possible on many an enslaved man’s diet and workload,” Foster writes.

And yet, Foster says, even sympathetic descriptions of slavery ignore this particular kind of humiliation and loss of dignity, described not only in the United States, but also in the Caribbean and in South America.

In a message, Foster points to “the very good and recent PBS series Africans in the Americas [1998].

“Note the first sentences,” he advises.

The sentences read, “Enslaved men endured many forms of abuse at the hands of their masters and overseers, including whippings and beatings. Women slaves, too, felt the pain of the lash, as well as other forms of mistreatment. Many women were also sexually abused, whether by being harassed, raped, or forced into concubinage. . . .”

What’s missing?

After James Smith called Fort Worth, Texas, police to check on the welfare of his neighbor, an officer fatally shot the woman, Atatiana Jefferson, in her own home. “If you don’t feel safe with the police department, then who do you feel safe with?” (video) (Credit: Jack Howland/Star-Telegram)

Fort Worth Case Must Reach Grand Jury ‘ASAP’

“As Fort Worth grieves the unjustified death of Atatiana Jefferson at the hands of a police officer, words and actions are both crucial,” the Star-Telegram editorialized on Monday, updated Tuesday.

“So we were heartened by the honesty and completeness with which Mayor Betsy Price, City Manager David Cooke and interim police Chief Ed Kraus spoke Monday about the tragedy.

“The mayor’s tone was sorrowful and apologetic. She addressed specific issues, including the police department’s inflammatory initial focus on the presence of Jefferson’s gun at the scene of the shooting. She spoke directly to Jefferson’s family, including the nephew who had to watch his beloved aunt die. And she called for a complete, independent review of the department.

“The words were right. Now, the actions must be, too.

“First, the case needs to go before a grand jury as soon as possible, and officials moved to expedite that late Monday with the arrest of the shooter, former Officer Aaron Dean, on a murder charge. . . .

“Next, the city must provide more information about exactly what happened. Kraus indicated Dean’s tactical response — parking around the corner with no lights and checking the yard — was appropriate. But why didn’t he identify himself as an officer? And why wouldn’t the proper response to a neighbor’s concern about an unusually open door be to knock and check on the occupants of the house?

“We need more information about Dean’s training and record, too. . . .”

Lacey’s Questions Made for Viral Moments

“Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s inability to explain how she’d pay for Medicare-for-all, Andrew Yang’s takedown of Microsoft’s Bing, Sen. Cory Booker’s interruption — many of the viral moments that came out of Tuesday’s Democratic presidential debate were due to direct questions by New York Times national editor Marc Lacey,” Rob Tornoe wrote Wednesday for the Philadelphia Inquirer.

“With the Times cohosting the debate along with CNN, Lacey was literally called on to moderate his first national television debate alongside TV veterans Anderson Cooper and Erin Burnett. What Lacey lacked in broadcast experience he more than made up for with the direct questioning that served him well as reporter and editor for the Times, where he’s worked for more than 20 years. . . .

2nd Journalist Dies After Turkish Air Strike

The Committee to Protect Journalists Tuesday strongly condemned the Turkish air strike on a civilian convoy, as reports emerged that a second journalist died as a result of the attack.

“In the afternoon of October 13, a Turkish air strike hit a civilian convoy carrying local and foreign journalists near the Syrian town of Ras al-Ain, as CPJ reported at the time. Mohammed Hussein Rasho, a Syrian Kurdish reporter and cameraman for Cira TV, was injured in the blast and died of his wounds the following day, according to Cira TV Director Zanar Jafr, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app.

“Syrian Kurdish journalist Saad Ahmed, a reporter for the local news agency Hawar News, died of his wounds shortly after the strike, and three other journalists, including Rasho, were injured, according to Jafr and CPJ reporting. The blast killed 15 civilians, including the two journalists, according to news reports. . . .”

NABJ, NAACP Back Allen in Suit Against Comcast

Byron Allen
Byron Allen

The National Association of Black Journalists joined the NAACP, the Congressional Black Caucus and other civil rights organizations in urging Comcast and the Supreme Court “to not dismantle the critical protections provided under Section 1981 of the Civil Rights Act of 1866,” NABJ said on Oct. 7. “The potential outcome of Comcast’s urging of the Supreme Court to undo equal opportunity protections afforded under the Act could impact our more than 4,000 members, as well as Black media professionals and entrepreneurs nationwide.”

Separately, Derrick Johnson, president and CEO of the NAACP, told the Journal-isms Roundtable in Washington on Oct. 8, “If that case is not removed from the Supreme Court docket, this Supreme Court will gut that act, and that could be more damning than [gutting] the Voting Rights Act.” (Access to Facebook required)

Eriq Gardner wrote Friday for the Hollywood Reporter, “When Byron Allen first launched a legal rampage back in 2015, few would have guessed he would get to the Supreme Court with a case that could transform the way discrimination lawsuits are handled and represents a coda on 19th century Reconstruction efforts after the Civil War.

“Once known as the entrepreneur who debuted as a stand-up comedian on The Tonight Show as a teenager, Allen, 58, sued cable operators and satellite distributors after they refused to license his small channels devoted to topics including criminal justice, cars and pets. He hired an attorney who defended the city of Los Angeles in the Rodney King beating case and demanded tens of billions of dollars via allegations of a racial bias conspiracy against Comcast, DirecTV, Charter and others.

“Just how out there was Allen’s lawsuit? The NAACP and Al Sharpton were originally co-defendants in the case for allegedly taking actions to ‘whitewash’ Comcast’s discriminatory business practices.

“As the story was told in the suit, when Comcast sought regulatory approval for its 2010 bid to acquire NBCUniversal, it looked to gather support. To calm any fears that the merger would have a detrimental impact on diversity, Comcast made voluntary commitments and came to memoranda of understanding with various civil rights groups like the NAACP, National Urban League and Sharpton’s National Action Network.

“But Allen took issue with those so-called ‘sham’ agreements, questioning the monetary donations that Comcast had made to these groups and further challenging how Comcast was spending $25 billion annually on channel licensing, but less than $3 million on what he characterized as ‘100% African American-owned media.’ . . .”

NPR Promotes 3 One Month After Staff Complaints

Terence Samuel
Terence Samuel

NPR has promoted three people of color to management positions a month after more than 85 NPR staffers of color signed an open letter criticizing a statement by the network’s director of news.

However, another staffer of color, Sara Kehaulani Goo, bolted to become executive editor, a new position, of the digital site Axios. She was managing editor at NPR, overseeing its social media and audience development strategy.

Promoted were:

  • Terence Samuel “to Managing Editor-News where he will be the overall point person on daily coverage of the major story/ies of the day, with a particular emphasis now on the cross-desk coverage of the Trump-Ukraine story,” according to an Oct. 8 announcement.
  • Luis Clemens, supervising editor, National Desk and a former senior editor, diversity, to deputy managing editor.
  • Sara Kehaulani Goo
    Sara Kehaulani Goo

    Carline Watson, who “will become NPR’s Talent Development Manager. This position was created on the recommendation of the Temporary Employee Working Group, as the primary day-to-day point person for temporary News and Programming division staff at NPR. In her quarter century at NPR, Carline has worked in pretty nearly every corner of the newsroom, both here in DC and at NPR West. . . . “

As reported in this space Sept. 7, a statement by Nancy Barnes, NPR’s director of news, that “disciplined, direct coverage of race relations and the culture wars” at the network is “more lacking than we realized” ignited a response from more than 85 NPR staffers of color calling the statement “baffling and insulting,” ignoring their persistent efforts over the last several years.

Barnes replied, “What I intended to convey was that I was looking for more resources to augment this important work on a daily basis. . . .

“I regret that I didn’t speak to what we’re already doing and have done in the past. . . .”

 

Wolf Blitzer and Emily Atkinson (Credit: Twitter)
Wolf Blitzer and Emily Atkinson (Credit: Twitter}

New Executive Producer of ‘The Situation Room’

Emily Atkinson, who joined CNN’s “The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer” after its inaugural year and worked alongside Blitzer and other staff members for 13 years, has been promoted to executive producer of the program, CNN announced Oct. 8. Atkinson has spent 23 years at the network.

Maria Reeve Named an M.E. at Houston Chronicle

Maria Reeve
Maria Reeve

Maria Douglas Reeve, an assistant managing editor of news for the Star Tribune in Minneapolis, will become the Houston Chronicle’s managing editor of content, overseeing the day-to-day newsgathering operations, the paper reported on Oct. 8.

Mark Lorando, formerly the editor-in-chief of the Times-Picayune in New Orleans, is to serve as the Chronicle’s managing editor of audience, responsible for the newsroom’s digital and reader strategy.

“Reeve started her career in Bradenton, Fla., and has worked in the Twin Cities for 27 years, starting as a reporter and editor for the St. Paul Pioneer Press. She moved in 2011 to the Star Tribune, where she served as a features editor, deputy metro editor and assistant managing editor of news.

“ ‘The paper has a growing reputation for excellence, and I wanted to be a part of that and see if I can help push the paper to the heights I think it can reach,’ Reeve said Tuesday. . . .”

Emilio Nicolás Dies, His Network Became Univision

“Emilio Nicolás Sr., founding pioneer of the network that would become Univision, died today at his home in San Antonio. He was 88,” Veronica Villafañe reported Saturday for her Media Moves site.

Emilio Nicolás Sr.
Emilio Nicolás Sr.

“Nicolás, a Mexican immigrant from Frontera, Coahuila[,] made a name for himself in the U.S. Spanish-language broadcast industry, but it wasn’t his first career choice.

“He moved to San Antonio in his late teens to study, graduating with a Bachelor’s Degree in biology and chemistry and a Master’s Degree at Trinity University, before going to work in 1952 as a researcher on arteriosclerosis and the polio vaccine.

“While in college, he met his future wife Irma, daughter of Spanish-language radio station KCOR founder Raoul Cortez. That connection would end up changing his path.

“He got his start in broadcasting in 1955, when he went to work as a producer and director for Cortez the same year his father-in-law launched KCOR TV.

“In 1961, Nicolás and a group of investors that included René Anselmo and Televisa’s Emilio Azcárraga Vidaurreta bought KCOR TV and renamed the station KWEX. Nicolás became general manager, rebuilding the financially struggling station. He went on to oversee the purchase additional stations, including KMEX in Los Angeles, leading to the creation of the Spanish International Communications Corporation (SICC) station group.

“In 1976, the San Antonio station became center of operations for the Spanish International Network (SIN) – the first U.S. satellite interconnected television network – and part of what is now Univision. . . .

“Among his many contributions, Nicolás, along with business partner Anselmo, successfully lobbied Congress to mandate that all television sets come equipped to receive UHF channels, where the network’s channels lived.

“He stepped down from SICC in 1987 after selling SIN to Hallmark for $301.5 million. That year, the network was renamed Univision. . . .”

Native Journalists Praise, Blast Tribes on Free Press

The Native American Journalists Association has commended the Osage Nation for strengthening the tribe’s free press law, but condemned the Muscogee (Creek) Nation National Council’s failure to pass strengthened free press protections for the tribe.

The proposed Muscogee legislation “would have allowed tribal citizens to vote for free press protections during the Muscogee (Creek) Nation National Council general election – a right that the National Council has denied its constituents after the bill failed to reach the required two-thirds majority,” NAJA said Tuesday.

The Osage Nation Congress voted 10-1 to approve an amendment to strengthen the tribe’s free press law Sept. 27 that was later signed by Principal Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear.

“I had to think about this for a long time,” the bill’s sponsor, Congresswoman Paula Stabler said, Lenzy Krehbiel-Burton reported Oct. 2 for the Osage News. “If something were to happen, the newspaper would be the first to go. It’s a communication to our members. For some, it’s the only way they find out what’s going on here.”

Short Takes

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