More Than 150 Reports Counted Over 18 Months

Ala. Paper Admits Failings During Lynching Era

Sinclair to Sell 3 More Stations to Williams

Black Man Hailed as Hero in Waffle House Killings

Vice Wins Peabody for Charlottesville Coverage

Marijuana Magazines Sprout as Legalization Spreads

Short Takes

More Than 150 Reports Counted Over 18 Months

“Editor’s note: To provide a full picture of what hate speech victims experienced, we have not edited out offensive language,” Reveal News, from the Center for Investigative Reporting, alerted readers Thursday.

“It was the day after the 2016 presidential election,” the story by Will Carless began. “Melissa Johnson was walking out of a Trader Joe’s in the heart of San Diego when a shiny BMW pulled up alongside her. The driver was a man in his late 30s. Dark hair. Green eyes. Her first thought: He’s kind of hot.

“The car slowed down. Then the man shouted at her through the open window.

“ ‘Fuck you, nigger, go back to Africa. The slave ship is loading up,’ he said. Then he added an exclamation point: ‘Trump!’

“As the man drove away, Johnson looked around at the shoppers who had witnessed the attack. She was the only African American in the parking lot. Not one person met her eye. Nobody said anything. So the 37-year-old walked, stunned, to her car, where she sat and wept.

“Nearly every metric of intolerance in the U.S. has surged over the past 18 months, from reported anti-Semitism and Islamophobia to violent hate crimes based on skin color, nationality or sexual orientation.

“This renaissance of hate features something new: xenophobic, racist and homophobic attacks punctuated with President Donald Trump’s name. To understand the scope of the phenomenon, Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting identified more than 150 reports of Trump-themed taunts and attacks stretching across 39 states over the past year and a half.

“Interviews with the targets of and witnesses to these incidents showed a striking pattern. The abusers had a clear message: Trump’s going to take care of a problem — and that problem is you.

“This pattern extended across races, religions and sexual orientation. . . .”

Separately, in “Targeted: 2018 Civil Rights Report,” [PDF] the Council on American Islamic Relations reported Monday that it “recorded a 17 percent increase in anti-Muslim bias incidents nationwide in 2017 over 2016. This was accompanied by a 15 percent increase in hate crimes targeting American Muslims, including children, youth, and families, over the same period.

“Of particular alarm is the fact that federal government agencies instigated 35 percent of all anti-Muslim bias incidents recorded in 2017. This represents an almost unprecedented level of government hostility toward a religious minority within the United States, and is counter to the American value of religious freedom. . . .”

• Shayan Modarres, Orlando Sentinel: Don’t let Muslim travel ban join list of America’s moral failures
• Terry Spencer, Associated Press: Group blames Trump for jump in attacks on US Muslims

Ala. Paper Admits Failings During Lynching Era

“ABOUT THIS SERIES:” begins an editor’s note Friday from Brian Lyman of the Montgomery (Ala.) Advertiser, updated Tuesday.

“In conjunction with the opening of the National Memorial for Peace and Justice and the Legacy Museum, the Montgomery Advertiser is running a series of stories titled ‘Legacy of lynchings: America’s shameful history of racial terror.’ Between 1877 and 1950, more than 360 African-Americans were murdered by mobs in Alabama and more than 4,000 were killed nationwide.

“The acts of racial terrorism, conducted in the name of white supremacy, were almost never punished; created untold human suffering, and helped contribute to the Great Migration out of the South.

“The series looks at the victims of lynching and the aftermath of their murders, the Advertiser’s indifference to the terror and the potential impact of the memorial, both on the city and in the long process of reconciliation.

“It was a ghastly explosion of terror.

“On Sept. 29, 1919, a Montgomery mob kidnapped Miles (or Relius) Phifer and Robert Crosky as they were being transported to jail over allegations they assaulted two white women in separate incidents. The masked group drove the two men — both veterans — to some woods near Hughes Ferry Road, and told them to run. They then shot them multiple times. Phifer, reported to be wearing a U.S. Army uniform, was killed on the spot. Crosky later died at a hospital.

“In responding to three lynchings in 24 hours in 1919, the Advertiser claimed — without evidence — the victims had assaulted white women. The murdered men included Miles (or Relius) Phifer, who was shot to death while wearing a U.S. Army uniform.

“The Montgomery Advertiser’s prescription for the outbreak of violence — in an Oct. 1 editorial headlined ‘Steady’ — was: Nothing. . . .”

• DeNeen L. Brown, Washington Post: ‘Lynch him!’: New lynching memorial confronts the nation’s brutal history of racial terrorism
• Melissa Brown, Montgomery Advertiser: Usher, The Roots part of star-studded lineup in Montgomery for EJI [Equal Justice Initiative] memorial concert (March 26)
• Mike Cason, al.com: Memorial, museum, recount terror of lynching, slavery’s legacies
• Kim Chandler, Associated Press: New lynching memorial evokes terror of victims
• Vanessa Gregory, New York Times Magazine: A Lynching’s Long Shadow
• Fred Hiatt, Washington Post: Is this when America was great?
• Philip Kennicott, Washington Post: A powerful memorial in Montgomery remembers the victims of lynching
• Koby Levin, Joplin (Mo.) Globe: Memorial for 1903 lynching victim planned in Joplin (April 7)
• Campbell Robertson, New York Times: A Lynching Memorial Is Opening. The Country Has Never Seen Anything Like It.
• Marty Roney, Montgomery Advertiser: EJI’s [Equal Justice Initiative’s] lynching memorial: If not in Montgomery, then where?
• Brent Staples, New York Times: So the South’s White Terror Will Never Be Forgotten

Sinclair to Sell 3 More Stations to Williams

Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. offered “a revised plan to sell TV stations to satisfy regulators vetting its $3.9 billion purchase of Tribune Media Co., saying it would keep New York’s WPIX and offer other stations to friendly buyers,” Todd Shields and Gerry Smith reported Tuesday for Bloomberg News, updated Wednesday.

“Flagship station WGN in Chicago would go to a business associate of a top Sinclair executive, while other outlets would be sold” to Cunningham Broadcast Corp., “a company controlled by the estate of his mother. Howard Stirk Holdings, owned by conservative commentator Armstrong Williams, would buy some stations, as would New York-based hedge fund Standard General LP led by [Soohyung] Kim. In addition, Meredith Corp. would buy one station. . . .”

Christopher Dinsmore and Lorraine Mirabella wrote for the Baltimore Sun, “Without such sales, the Tribune Media acquisition, announced last May, would have given Sinclair control of 233 television stations, including 42 Tribune-owned stations and a presence in such top markets as New York and Chicago. . . .”

Harry A. Jessell added for TVNewsCheck:

“It is selling Tribune’s KPLR, a CW affiliate in St. Louis, to Meredith for $65 million.

“It is spinning off six stations, but will continue to operate them under joint sales and shared services agreements. They are:

“Tribune’s WGN Chicago (Ind.) to WGN-TV LLC

“Tribune’s KDAF Dallas (CW) to Cunningham

“Tribune’s KIAH (CW) to Cunningham

“Sinclair’s KUNS Seattle (Univision) to Armstrong Williams

“Sinclair’s KMYU Salt Lake City (MNT) to Armstrong Williams

“Tribune’s KAUT Oklahoma City (Ind.) to Armstrong Williams.”

Williams, who is African American, already owns stations serving Myrtle Beach, S.C.; Charleston, S.C.; Flint, Mich.; Birmingham, Ala.; Las Vegas and Tuscaloosa, Ala.

Under joint sales and shared services agreements, the operating station, in this case Sinclair, provides advertising, sales, promotion, administrative services and selected programming to the other station. In 2014, the FCC barred such agreements as skirting ownership limits  but made an exception if the arrangement furthered diversity.

Sinclair has been under attack for questionable journalistic practices in furtherance of a right-wing agenda. “In interviews with more than 60 current and former employees and leaders in the broadcasting industry, I repeatedly heard concerns about Sinclair’s use of the public air waves to infuse national and (sometimes local) news with a political bent, a task aided by the company’s three-decade quest to sidestep and eliminate regulations that would otherwise limit its reach and influence,” Ben Wofford wrote Tuesday for Rolling Stone.

On April 9, Williams wrote a pro-Sinclair opinion piece for Broadcasting & Cable making an “admittedly self-interested” point:

“Sinclair has contributed to the establishment, growth, and viability of minority-owned broadcast business like no other broadcaster. Its support of my company, Howard Stirk Holdings has allowed us to bring relevant, consistent and community focused programming to the African American and [mainstream] communities we serve in Myrtle Beach, Charleston, Flint, Birmingham, Las Vegas, and Tuscaloosa.

“It has allowed my minority-owned firm to employ and train people from the community and it has provided a foundation for our future growth and success. For all the platitudes about local programming, community service and minority ownership coming from the liberal side of the ledger, I have not found one company willing to put its money where its mouth is. . . .”

• Willa Frej, HuffPost: Sinclair Broadcast Boss Donated To GOP Rep Who Assaulted Reporter (April 18)
• Adam Johnson, Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting: MSNBC’S Creepy Comcast Commercial Is Sinclair Lite
• Josh Kosman, New York Post: DOJ close to clearing $6.6B Sinclair-Tribune merger (April 18)

Black Man Hailed as Hero in Waffle House Killings

“After watching WGN television news in Chicago on Sunday show mugshot after mugshot of black men either under arrest or wanted by police, it was exciting to see a photo, not a mugshot, of James Shaw, Jr., a 29 year-old black man who successfully wrestled away an automatic rifle from a nearly naked white man after he had shot to death four individuals, including three African Americans, on Sunday at an Antioch, Tennessee, Waffle House restaurant,” Frederick H. Lowe wrote Tuesday for his Northstar News Today.

“The killer, later identified by police as Travis Reinking, 29, who was raised in Morton, Illinois, ran away but police captured him without incident in the woods behind the restaurant on Monday.

“Reinking shot to death two people outside Waffle House before walking inside and firing his AR-15 rifle, then pausing to reload. The dead were identified as Taurean C. Sanderlin, Akilah Dasilva, Joe R. Perez and DeEbony Groves. Police charged Reinking with four counts of murder. A judge revoked his $2 million bond.

“Reinking also wounded two others.

“When Reinking paused his firing, Shaw rushed him and wrestled the gun away from him before throwing it over the restaurant’s counter.

“Shaw had been hiding in the bathroom when Reinking fired a bullet through the bathroom door.

“ ‘I think that’s when I became alert about the situation and was like, there’s kind of no running from this. Kind of like a fish in a barrel type thing and I’m going to have to try to find a flaw or a point in time where I can make this work for myself,’ Shaw Jr. explained on Good Morning America on Monday morning.

“ ‘I was completely doing it just to save myself,’ Shaw Jr. told reporters at a news conference, the BBC reported. ‘I did save other people, but I don’t want people to think that I was the Terminator or Superman or anybody like that. I figured if I was going to die, he was gonna have to work for it.’

“Reinking and Shaw then ran in opposite directions.

“Shaw created a GoFundMe campaign to help the Waffle House victims and their families. The fundraising page, which GoFundMe verified for MONEY as legitimate, says simply: ‘My name is James Shaw Jr. I am creating this page to help the families of the victims from the shooting that took place at Waffle House in Antioch, TN. Please take the time to donate as all of the proceeds will be given to the families. Thank you again for your generosity and blessings!

“Thus far, the website has raised more than $109,000.

“Shaw, who works for AT&T and is a graduate of Tennessee State University, is being hailed as a hero. The Tennessee Legislature honored him today, but President Donald Trump hasn’t called him although the White House in a press briefing praised his courage. . . .”

• Justin Bariso, Inc.: How the Hero of the Waffle House Attack Used Emotional Intelligence to Save Himself and Others
• Wayne Bennett, Field Negro: The masks keep coming off.
• Joey Garrison, Tennesseean, Nashville: Nashville mayoral candidate Carol Swain: More lives saved if Waffle House patrons had been armed
• Shaun King, blackamericaweb.com: What We Know About The Waffle House Shooting
• Tony Messenger, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: From Waffle House to Starbucks, coffee becomes metaphor for black and white
• David Waters, Commercial Appeal, Memphis: Waffle House hero a role model for lawmakers

Vice Wins Peabody for Charlottesville Coverage

“BBC News, the podcast ‘S-Town’ and Al Jazeera were among the Peabody Award winners in the news, radio/podcast and public service categories, which were announced on Tuesday,” Peter Libbey reported for the New York Times. “The CBS television program ’60 Minutes’ was also honored, with the Institutional Award for its 50 years of news coverage.

“Six news awards were bestowed, with BBC News winning for its reporting on Rohingya refugees in Myanmar and Bangladesh. Among the winners was a Vice News episode on HBO, ‘Charlottesville: Race and Terror.’ Al Jazeera won the sole public service award, for a documentary by Fatma Naib about female genital mutilation in Africa. . . . ”

The Vice News episode “begins with footage of white supremacists chanting phrases like, ‘You will not replace us! Jews will not replace us!’ and counterprotesters shouting ‘No Nazis! No KKK! No facist U.S.A.!’ ” Ariana Bacle reported Aug. 15 for Entertainment Tonight. “It then launches into an interview with ‘Unite the Right’ speaker and white nationalist Christopher Cantwell.

“ ‘When Trayvon Martin case happened, Michael Brown, and Tamir Rice, and all these different things happened — every single case, it’s some little black a—hole behaving like a savage and he gets himself in trouble shockingly enough,’ he tells VICE reporter Elle Reeve. ‘Whatever problems I might have with my fellow white people, they generally are not inclined to such behavior. You gotta take that into consideration when you’re thinking about how to organize your society.’ . . .”

Sigma Delta Chi, the Sidney Hillman Foundation, the Alliance for Women in Media Foundation and Rhode Island for Community & Justice also announced journalism award winners in the past few days. These lists are not inclusive, but among the winners are:

Sigma Delta Chi

• “Race in the Rock River Valley,” [PDF] by Corina Curry of the Rockford (Ill.) Register Star, among the worke honored with 2017 Sigma Delta Chi Awards for excellence in journalism, the Society of Professional Journalists announced Monday. It won in the non-deadline reporting category for daily circulation 1-50,000. “Black students overrepresented in school suspensions, expulsions,” according to a headline.
• Dionne Searcey of the New York Times won for Boko Haram coverage in SPJ’s foreign correspondence category.
• “One War. Two Races,” by Josh Salman, Dak Le and Michael Braga of the Sarasota (Fla.) Herald Tribune won in the investigative reporting category for daily circulation of 50,001 to 100,000. “Bias reigns in Florida’s war on drugs,” a headline reads.
• Christine MacDonald of the Detroit News won for public service journalism, daily circulation 50,001-100,000, for “Detroit Evictions.” A headline reads, “Persistent evictions threaten Detroit neighborhoods.”
• Rick Telander of the Chicago Sun-Times won for sports column writing (daily circulation 100,001+) for “A Season Under the Gun.” [PDF] “The violence really never ends around Orr High School and its basketball team is often caught in the crossfire,” according to a headline.
• Glenn Jeffers and the staff of Nieman Reports won for magazine writing (national circulation) for “A Mass Shooting, Only in Slow Motion.” “Newsrooms are moving away from a focus on mass shootings to tell more nuanced stories about the people and communities marred by gun violence.”
• Neil Swidey of the Boston Globe Magazine won for public service in magazine journalism (regional/local circulation) for “Trump’s anti-immigration playbook was written 100 years ago. In Boston.”
• David Bitton, Stillwater (Okla.) News Press, for feature photography (newspaper circulation 1-100,000, regional magazine, non-daily publication or online independent) to accompany “Demonstrations following blackface incidents enter second day at OSU.”
• Phillip Martin, Aaron Schachter and Kenneth Cooper of WGBH Radio News in Boston, in the radio category for investigative reporting (1-100 market or network syndication) for “The Gangs of Nantucket” on PRI’s “The World.” “On Nantucket, a teenage migrant gets swept up in a crackdown on Salvadoran gangs.”
• Josh Hinkle, David Barer, Ben Friberg and Shannon Wolfson, KXAN-TV in Austin, Texas, won in “Television: Documentaries (Large-Market Station, 1-50 market).” “In the summer of 2016, a gunman killed five police officers during a rally in downtown Dallas, Texas. Following that tragedy and similar attacks across the nation, our investigative team took a closer look at what led up to those crimes, digging heavily into the backgrounds of the killers to discover a recurring trait among many: mental illness.”

Sidney Hillman Foundation, 2018 Prizes for Journalism in Service of the Common Good

The winners of the Hillman Prizes include:

• Azmat Khan and Anand Gopal, New York Times Magazine, magazines category, “The Uncounted.” “In Iraq, an on-the-ground investigation suggests that coalition airstrikes have killed many more civilians than previously reported.”
• Univision and El Faro, Almudena Toral, Maye Primera, Mauricio Rodriguez, Andrea Patiño, Juanje Gomez, Oscar Martinez, Carlos Martinez and Fred Ramos, web category, “From Migrants to Refugees: The New Plight of Central Americans.”
• Bill Whitaker, Ira Rosen and Sam Hornblower, Robert Zimet, Scott Higham, and Lenny Bernstein, CBS News’ “60 Minutes” and Washington Post, broadcast category, “The Whistleblower & Too Big toProsecute“
• Richard Rothstein, “The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America,” for book journalism.

Alliance for Women in Media Foundation’s Gracie Awards

Among the gala awards for television are:

• Hoda Kotb of NBC’s “Today” show for “Hoda’s Heroes Among Us: Superheroes,” soft news feature, NBC News
• Felicia D. Henderson (“The Quad”), producer – entertainment, BET Networks
• Juju Chang, reporter/correspondent, ABC News
• Pam Oliver, on-air talent – entertainment or sports; FOX Sports
• Issa Rae (“Insecure”), actress in a leading role – comedy or musical, HBO
• “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,” made for TV movie, HBO
• VICE News Tonight’s “Charlottesville: Race & Terror,” hard news feature, VICE News

Metcalf Awards for Diversity in the Media

The awards, from Rhode Island for Community & Justice, recognize journalists for covering “diversity issues in ways that inspire, engage and empower,” the Providence Journal reported on Monday.

• Dr. Pablo Rodriguez and Reynaldo Almonte, co-founders of Latino Public Radio. (Latino Public Radio “is off the air after plans to buy its AM signal from Rhode Island Public Radio fell through,” Tyler Falk reported Tuesday for Current.org. For now, LPR is broadcasting online and hosting community forums, CEO Reynaldo Almonte said.)
• Sarah Francis and Casey Nilsson, Rhode Island Monthly.
• G. Wayne Miller, Karen Lee Ziner and Alan Rosenberg, Providence Journal.

“This is the 30th anniversary for the awards, and this set of awards focuses on ‘game changer teams who have worked in partnership to foster excellence in diversity journalism,’ the organization says,” the Journal reported.

• Kelsey Ables, Columbia Journalism Review: Meet the journalism student who found out she won a Pulitzer in class

Marijuana Magazines Sprout as Legalization Spreads

“More than 60 percent of the U.S. population now lives in a state with some form of legalized marijuana, according to Cassandra Farrington, co-founder of Marijuana Business Magazine,“ Katy Ibsen reported Thursday for folio:.

“As of April 2018, a total of 29 states and the District of Columbia have enacted laws allowing for medical or recreational use of cannabis. Eight of those states allow recreational use, while the others permit medical use in the form of smoking, oils and concentrates, topical creams and edibles.

“And with the rise of legal marijuana across the country, the publishing industry is also seeing an increase in print magazines and new media brands focused on cannabis to meet growing demand for news and insight related to the upstart industry.

“The National Cannabis Industry Association (NCIA), an advocacy group that represents the cannabis industry and advocates to affect wider legalization at both the state and federal levels, boasts over 1,500 association members, 27 of which are classified as media and information firms.

“ ‘The idea that cannabis publishing and media brands are created is evidence of the legalization and the growing acceptance of it among the mainstream — they are becoming symbiotic,’ says Bethany Moore, NCIA communications and projects manager.

“The association attests that the benefit of more cannabis-centric media is that it opens an arena for storytelling and marketing that previously existed only through word of mouth or social media. The caveat, however, is that as legalization expands, more restrictions are being put in place by social and traditional media brands barring the marketing of drug-associated businesses and products. . . .”

• Errol Louis, Daily News, New York: Beware the perils of legal pot
• Clarence Page, Chicago Tribune: Based on Boehner’s reversal, pot politics can depend on when you ask

Short Takes

• “Joy Reid, host of the weekend MSNBC show ‘AM Joy,’ apologized more than four months ago for homophobic comments she admitted to making on her blog in the mid-2000s,” Meagan Flynn wrote Wednesday for the Washington Post. “But now she’s suggesting she didn’t write many of the posts in the first place — that instead she was hacked. . . .” Caleb Ecarma wrote Tuesday for Mediaite, “The LGBTQ advocacy group PFLAG National has rescinded Joy Ann Reid’s allyship award in light of Mediaite‘s report on newly unearthed homophobic posts from the MSNBC pundit’s old blog. . . .”
• “We cannot allow what happened inside the Starbucks to define us,” Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney wrote Monday for the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News, referring to the April 12 incident in which two black men were arrested. The mayor also wrote, “I am committed to helping all Philadelphians move toward a better understanding of all perspectives, and toward change that will ensure we never face this heartbreaking reality again,” and outlined steps the city is taking.
• “The Chicago Sun-Times left its front page blank in a plea for subscribers on Monday in an effort to ‘protect the long-term survival’ of its newsroom,” Joe Concha reported Monday for The Hill. “The unorthodox appeal comes one month after the 174-year-old newspaper completed a round of layoffs as it struggles with falling advertising revenue from its print edition. . . .”

• 

  Tony Norman, columnist for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, is lukewarm to the idea that President Trump should issue a posthumous pardon for heavyweight champion Jack Johnson, which Trump said he would seriously consider. “America should feel shame when confronted with the facts surrounding the railroading of Jack Johnson — not smug satisfaction that an empty symbolic pardon by a president who’d never heard of him until lobbied by a movie star approximates justice at some level,” Norman wrote Tuesday. “Despite spending nearly a year in prison, Jack Johnson lived his life as a free and unrepentant black man in Jim Crow America. He really doesn’t need our posthumous validation seven decades later.”

• In Philadelphia, Generocity, “a local social impact news and events group,” along with 18 other local news organizations, announced “Broke in Philly” on Thursday. It is “an ambitious year-long initiative that will provide in-depth, nuanced and solutions-oriented reporting on the issues of poverty and the push for economic justice in Philadelphia. . . . Our reporting aims to, piece by piece, examine what it would take to bring about economic justice in Philadelphia — which we broadly define as our city being a place in which a greater number of people are economically secure and thriving. . . “
• “Speaking of Missouri politicians who ought to resign immediately, Democratic Missouri state Rep. Bob Burns should pack his bags and wave goodbye to public life,” the Kansas City Star editorialized Monday. “That way, he can spend even more time doing what he loves. Which apparently is calling in to carry on amiably on air with KQQZ-AM Radio’s Bob Romanik, of Belleville, Illinois, who specializes in racist rants. . . .” The St. Louis Post Dispatch wrote Monday, “Within five minutes, Romanik used the word ‘nigger’ three times, including once in reference to Black Lives Matter protesters. Later in the program he stated outright: ‘I hate niggers.’ His radio station logo prominently displays its nickname, ‘kool killer kountry,’ with the three K’s capitalized. . . .”
• Students of Stuart Wexler, a high school civics and government teacher from Hightstown, N.J., worked in 2015 to write the Cold Case Records Collection Act, “a bill that, if passed, could fill the holes left by the existing FOIA law — such as long wait times and agencies’ ability to redact large parts of documents,” Alexandria Neason reported Tuesday for Columbia Journalism Review. “It would establish an independent review board to make decisions about the release of unredacted FBI and other government records on Civil Rights-era crimes, including those that remain unsolved. . . . Since then, three generations of students in Wexler’s AP US government class have worked to write, lobby, and secure Congressional support for the bill. In 2017, the bill was introduced in the House by Illinois Representative Bobby Rush. . . .”

• 

  “Bossip, an Atlanta-based gossip website with a focus on black celebrity, was founded in 2006 and acquired by the media network Interactive One last year. Since then, the audience of the website has more than doubled, according to Janeé Bolden, the site’s managing editor. In part, that’s because of the website’s lyrical, often biting headlines, which inspire devotion, fear and above all, strong reactions,” Jonah Engel Bromwich reported Tuesday for the New York Times.

• Monica Rhor, a narrative writer covering gender, sexuality, spirituality and race issues for the Houston Chronicle, and Kira Lerner, political reporter at ThinkProgress, were named inaugural fellows at the Ira A. Lipman Center for Journalism and Civil and Human Rights at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. “The focus of their year-long fellowships will be on underreported, but important issues dealing with the current justice system,” a news release said.
• “Sabrina Squire, the longest-serving television news anchor in Richmond, is retiring from the NBC12 station [WWBT-TV] next month,” Gregory J. Gilligan reported Monday for the Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch . “Her last day on air will be during the 6 p.m. newscast on May 23, she announced Monday. . . .”
• “Washington became the 14th state to protect student journalists and their free speech rights by passing a New Voices bill on March 21,” Jennifer Karchmer reported April 16 for the Quill. “Gov. Jay Inslee signed SB5064, which states that student journalists should be free from school censorship if their reporting is not libelous, illegal or invading anyone’s privacy. The other states that have passed New Voices legislation are Arkansas, California, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, North Dakota, Oregon, Rhode Island and Vermont. . . .”

• 

  On the 25th anniversary of the Branch Davidian compound assault and standoff with federal authorities near Waco, Texas, which lasted from Feb. 28 to April 19, 1993, and left 75 dead, Minerva Perez of Houston’s KTRK-TV and other journalists recalled the incident for Mike McGuff’s television blog. “At the end of my time there, I was so emotionally and physically exhausted that I collapsed into the arms of my husband and baby when I got home. . . . It was awful thinking of all the children who perished in that fire,” Perez said.

• “The National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), in partnership with Chevrolet, recently announced that the 2018 Discover The Unexpected (DTU) Journalism Fellowship will now accept applications from communications and journalism students attending any one of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities,” Freddie Allen reported Tuesday for NNPA. Michelle Alexander, the diversity marketing manager for Chevrolet, said, “They will have an opportunity to travel across several states in the all-new 2018 Chevrolet Equinox to discover inspiring stories along the way.” The application deadline is April 30.
• Hurricane Maria “served as a moment of contraction in the news industry,” Carolina Rodriguez Plaza, production manager for the evening news team at WORA-TV in the Puerto Rican coastal city of Mayagüez, Ryan Bell reported Monday for Columbia Journalism Review. ” ‘Meanwhile, AM radio emerged even stronger. Young people in the under-35 demographic are listening to radio news for the first time in their lives. Radios are at the center of a culture shift. Neighbors sit together drinking coffee and listening to the news.’ . . .”
• Cox Media Group is looking to sell the Spanish-language digital site Mundo Hispánico, Rebecca Aguilar reported Monday for her website. “If we are unable to find a buyer, we plan to close Southern Kitchen and the national Vertical portion of Mundo Hispanico by the end of the quarter,” Kim Guthrie, president of Cox Media Group, said in an email. Aguilar also wrote, “Reporters in Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Los Angeles, Orlando, and one in North Carolina are expected to lose their jobs. . . .”
• “The E.W. Scripps Company . . . has appointed Danyelle S.T. Wright to the newly created role of vice president, employment and labor law, and chief diversity officer,” the company announced Monday. “Wright will continue to serve as the employment attorney for the company, a role she has held for three years. . . .”
• During the takeover of the financial aid building at Howard University this month, the student newspaper the Hilltop posted a YouTube video interviewing some of those who participated. (video) “A nine-day occupation of the Howard University administration building came to end on [April 6], after students said they reached an agreement with university officials who promised to meet most of their demands,” NPR’s Vanessa Romo reported then.
• “A journalist in Nicaragua has been shot dead while doing a live broadcast about anti-government protests,” the BBC reported on Sunday. “Ángel Gahona was reporting on damage at a bank in the Caribbean coast town of Bluefields when a bullet hit him during his Facebook Live newscast. Video footage shows him falling to the ground and bleeding. . . .”
• “Mexico’s interior minister on Monday said that authorities had arrested the alleged murderer of a renowned journalist in northern Mexico whose death had become emblematic of a spike in violence across the country,” Lizbeth Diaz reported for Reuters. “Javier Valdez was assassinated last year in the state of Sinaloa, which has been the scene of violent battles between gangs following the arrest and subsequent extradition early last year to the United States of drug lord Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman. . . .”

When you shop @AmazonSmile, Amazon will make a donation to Journal-Isms Inc. https://t.co/OFkE3Gu0eK

— Richard Prince (@princeeditor) March 16, 2018

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

Follow Richard Prince on Twitter @princeeditor

About Richard Prince

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

• 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)
• Book Notes: “Love, Peace and Soul!” And More
• Book Notes: Book Notes: Soothing the Senses, Shocking the Conscience
• Diversity’s Greatest Hits, 2015
• Diversity’s Greatest Hits, 2014
• Diversity’s Greatest Hits, 2013
• Diversity’s Greatest Hits, 2012
• Diversity’s Greatest Hits, 2011
• Diversity’s Greatest Hits, 2010
• Diversity’s Greatest Hits, 2009
• Diversity’s Greatest Hits, 2008
• Book Notes: Books to Ring In the New Year
• Book Notes: In-Your-Face Holiday Reads
• Fishbowl Interview With the Fresh Prince of D.C. (Oct. 26, 2012)
• NABJ to Honor Columnist Richard Prince With Ida B. Wells Award (Oct. 11, 2012)
• So What Do You Do, Richard Prince, Columnist for the Maynard Institute? (Richard Horgan, FishbowlLA, Aug. 22, 2012)
• Book Notes: Who Am I? What’s Race Got to Do With It?: Journalists Explore Identity
• Book Notes: Catching Up With Books for the Fall
• Richard Prince Helps Journalists Set High Bar (Jackie Jones, BlackAmericaWeb.com, 2011)
• Book Notes: 10 Ways to Turn Pages This Summer
• Book Notes: 7 for Serious Spring Reading
• Book Notes: 7 Candidates for the Journalist’s Library
• Book Notes: 9 That Add Heft to the Bookshelf
• Five Minutes With Richard Prince (Newspaper Association of America, 2005)
• ‘Journal-isms’ That Engage and Inform Diverse Audiences (Q&A with Mallary Jean Tenore, Poynter Institute, 2008)