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‘I Was Racist Before It Was Cool’

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Elon Musk, left, and Marko Elez

Musk Aide Quits After Wall St. Journal Finds Deleted Tweets

“A key DOGE staff member who gained access to the Treasury Department’s central-payments system resigned Thursday after he was linked to a deleted social-media account that advocated racism and eugenics,” Katherine Long reported Friday for the Wall Street Journal.

“Marko Elez, a 25-year-old who is part of a cadre of Elon Musk lieutenants deployed by the Department of Government Efficiency to scrutinize federal spending, resigned after The Wall Street Journal asked the White House about his connection to the account.

“ ‘Just for the record, I was racist before it was cool,’ the account posted in July, according to the Journal’s review of archived posts.

“ ‘You could not pay me to marry outside of my ethnicity,’ the account wrote on X in September. ‘Normalize Indian hate,’ the account wrote the same month, in reference to a post noting the prevalence of people from India in Silicon Valley.

“After the Journal inquired about the account, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said that Elez had resigned from his role.

“On Friday morning, Musk posted a poll to X, asking his followers if DOGE should rehire the ‘staffer who made inappropriate statements via a now deleted pseudonym.’ Within hours, it had amassed more than 200,000 votes, almost 80% in favor of bringing Elez back.

“In recent days, Elez had emerged at the center of a legal battle over access to sensitive taxpayer information and systems the Treasury Department uses to process trillions of dollars in payments annually.

“Thursday morning, a U.S. District Court judge ruled that Elez could continue to access the department’s payment systems, but limited his ability to share the data. Elez resigned later that same day.

“Elez didn’t respond to repeated requests for comment.

“Elez attended Rutgers University, where he majored in computer science. As a sophomore, he co-founded a company, Unimetrics.io, that aimed to connect high-schoolers with mentors who could help burnish their college applications. . . . “

“The user appeared to have a special dislike for Indian software engineers. ‘99% of Indian H1Bs will be replaced by slightly smarter LLMs, they’re going back don’t worry guys,’ the user posted in December, referring to large language models such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT. 

“In June, the user weighed in on the conflict in the Middle East, offering some sympathy for Israel but also posting, ‘“’I would not mind at all if Gaza and Israel were both wiped off the face of the Earth.’”’

“The deleted @nullllptr account previously went by the username @marko_elez, a review of archived posts shows. The user behind the @nullllptr also described themselves as an employee at SpaceX and Starlink.

“Elez currently operates another X account, which also has the username @marko_elez; the two accounts often interacted with the same users and posted similar content, including posts complimentary of Musk and SpaceX, archives show. . . . “

U.S. Aid Freeze Hurts Press Around the World

Feb. 6, 2025

Propagandists, Authoritarians Seen as Winners
Attackers of Journalists Among Those Pardoned
. . . Black Woman Listed on the ‘Insurrection Index’
Breaking the News Industry’s Near-Silence on DEI
Washington Post Eliminates ME/Diversity Position

Vanessa Gallman Dies, ‘Barrier-Breaking’ Opinion Editor
How Jose Antonio Vargas Became Legal — for Now
Telemundo Super Bowl Reporter Found Dead at 27

Short Takes: Charles M. Blow; Amber Ruffin and White House Correspondents’ Dinner; viral video of an arrest in Cuba; U.N.’s International Decade for People of African Descent; help on accessing records on immigration and deportation; NAHJ’s advice on reporting on immigration; advice from Latin American journalists on migration reporting; Ann M. Simmons and Brittany Shepherd;

Maxie Jackson; Sandra M. Stevenson; Atlanta Voice and Q-City Metro; undeterred journalists in war-torn Sudan; Iranian-American journalist sentenced; bravery by Myanmar journalists; Haitian journalists in exile speak

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A skills-training class for journalists at DataCameroon in the West African country. There, “the funding freeze forced the public interest media outlet based in the capital, Douala, “to put several projects on hold, including one focused on journalist safety and another covering the upcoming presidential election,” Reporters Without Borders said. (Credit: DataCameroon/Facebook)

Propagandists, Authoritarians Seen as Winners

“President Donald Trump has frozen billions of dollars around the world in aid projects, including over $268 million allocated by Congress to support independent media and the free flow of information,” the Paris-based press freedom group Reporters Without Borders said Monday.

“Reporters Without Borders (RSF) denounces this decision, which has plunged NGOs, media outlets, and journalists doing vital work into chaotic uncertainty. RSF calls on international public and private support to commit to the sustainability of independent media.

[The New York Times reported Thursday, “The Trump administration plans to retain only about 290 of the more than 10,000 employees worldwide at the U.S. Agency for International Development, according to three people with knowledge of the planned cuts to the work force. The cuts were communicated to agency leaders in a call on Thursday.”]

“Since the new American president announced the freeze of U.S. foreign aid, USAID (United States Agency for International Development) has been in turmoil: its website is inaccessible, its X account has been suspended, the agency’s headquarters was closed and employees told to stay home. Elon Musk, whom Trump chose to lead the quasi-official Department of Government Efficiency, called USAID a ‘criminal organization’ and said, ‘We’re shutting down.’ Later that day, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that he was named acting director of the agency, suggesting its operations were being moved to the State Department.

“Almost immediately after the freeze went into effect, journalistic organizations around the world that receive American aid funding started reaching out to RSF expressing confusion, chaos, and uncertainty. The affected organizations include large international NGOs that support independent media like the International Fund for Public Interest Media and smaller, individual media outlets serving audiences living under repressive conditions in countries like Iran and Russia.

“The American aid funding freeze is sowing chaos around the world, including in journalism. The programs that have been frozen provide vital support to projects that strengthen media, transparency, and democracy. President Trump justified this order by charging – without evidence – that a so-called ‘foreign aid industry’ is not aligned with U.S. interests. The tragic irony is that this measure will create a vacuum that plays into the hands of propagandists and authoritarian states. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is appealing to the international public and private funders to commit to the sustainability of independent media.”

In a separate statement, Clayton Weimers (pictured), executive director of RSF USA, said, “USAID programs support independent media in more than 30 countries, but it is difficult to assess the full extent of the harm done to the global media.

“Many organizations are hesitant to draw attention for fear of risking long-term funding or coming under political attacks. According to a USAID fact sheet which has since been taken offline, in 2023, the agency funded training and support for 6,200 journalists, assisted 707 non-state news outlets, and supported 279 media-sector civil society organizations dedicated to strengthening independent media. The 2025 foreign aid budget included $268,376,000 allocated by Congress to support ‘independent media and the free flow of information.’

“All over the world, media outlets and organizations have had to halt some of their activities overnight. ‘We have articles scheduled until the end of January, but after that, if we haven’t found solutions, we won’t be able to publish anymore,’ explains a journalist from a Belarusian exiled media outlet who wished to remain anonymous. In Cameroon, the funding freeze forced DataCameroon, a public interest media outlet based in the capital Douala, to put several projects on hold, including one focused on journalist safety and another covering the upcoming presidential election.

“An exiled Iranian media outlet that preferred to remain anonymous was forced to suspend collaboration with its staff for three months and slash salaries to a bare minimum to survive. An exiled Iranian journalist interviewed by RSF warns that the impact of the funding freeze could silence some of the last remaining free voices, creating a vacuum that Iranian state propaganda would inevitably fill. ‘Shutting us off will mean that they’ll have more power,’ she says. .. .”

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Attackers of Journalists Among Those Pardoned

Among his first official acts on returning to the White House, President Donald Trump issued an executive order “restoring freedom of speech and ending federal censorship,” the press freedom group Reporters Without Borders said Jan. 23. “Implicit in this vaguely written document: the United States is done fighting mis- and disinformation online.

“Meanwhile, far from living up to the letter or spirit of his own order, Trump is fighting battles against the American news media on multiple fronts and has pardoned at least 13 individuals convicted or charged for attacking journalists on January 6, 2021. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) strongly refutes Trump’s distorted vision of free speech, which is inherently detrimental to press freedom.” Some 1,500 were pardoned in all.

CNN photojournalist Ronnie McCray and New York Times photojournalist Erin Schaff were among the journalists assaulted that day. Philip and David Walker, who attacked Schaff and stole her camera, were pardoned.

“Trump’s pardon, issued on Jan. 20, 2025, released from further punishment all those charged or convicted for actions relating to the Capitol attack. The case against brothers Philip and David Walker was dismissed Jan. 22, according to court records reviewed by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker,” the tracking group said.

No charges were ever filed against McCray’s assailants, Press Tracker said.

On that infamous day, “CNN reporter Alexander Marquardt tweeted shortly after 3 p.m. that ‘protesters swarmed and mobbed’ his news team — including McCray — after discovering that they worked for CNN.

“The Daily Beast reported that at one point a member of the mob assaulted McCray and smacked his camera; another individual got between the CNN team and the mob and told them they should leave before they got hurt.

“In footage captured by McCray and posted on Twitter by Marquardt on Jan. 8, rioters can be heard booing the news team and shouting, ‘Get out of here, motherfuckers,’ ‘Traitors’ and ‘There’s more of us than you… We could absolutely fucking destroy you.’

“ ‘I was very afraid for my safety and my team’s,’ Marquardt told The Daily Beast. ‘We were vastly outnumbered, surrounded, with no real escape route. We’re lucky we got out physically unscathed, just shaken, and our camera was hit. I’ve covered parliaments stormed, foreign coups, riots and protests across the Middle East and this was by far the most universally hostile crowd I’ve been in. In the city that I call home.’ ”

Clayton Weimers, U.S. director of Reporters Without Borders, identified the 13 who wee pardoned after assaulting journalists as:

Philip Walker, David Walker, Sandra Weyer, Gabriel Brown, Zvonimir Jurlina, Chase Kevin Allen, Joshua Dillon Haynes, Dana Jean Bell, Rodney Milstreed, Peter G Moloney, Alan Wiliam Byerly and Benjamen Scott Burlew.

Rayla Campbell, shown during a 2022 campaign, said she works to highlight the triumphs of African American individuals as ‘”gents of change and progress” rather than victims of oppression, including figures such as Frederick Douglass or Elizabeth Freeman. (Credit: Boston Herald)

. . . Black Woman Listed on the ‘Insurrection Index’

A Black woman, a rarity in this context, is included on one group’s “accessible online database of individuals and organizations involved in the deadly riots and insurrection at our nation’s Capitol on January 6, 2021.” She is Rayla Campbell, a Massachusetts-based radio host who is listedin the “Insurrection Index” by the “equity in democracy” group Public Wise as an election denier who spreads disinformation.

Campbell, 42, is radio host at WSMN in Nashua, N.H. Last June, MassLive described Campbell this way:

“Her story: Campbell grew up in the South Shore of Massachusetts with a ‘strong sense of truth and common sense.’

“Since then, she has worked to be a conservative African American voice in politics, advocating for policies that align with principles of freedom, individual responsibility and limited government.

“Campbell ran for the Massachusetts Secretary of State but lost the election in 2022.

“She became the party nominee and endorsed candidate in 2022 and was the first African American woman to make the statewide ballot, according to Campbell.

Prior to that race, Campbell ran as a write-in candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in 2020 but ended up not getting on the ballot.

“ ‘Without a foundation of shared values, our society has become increasingly fragmented, giving rise to racism and intolerance. The resurgence of racism and division is a stark reminder of the profound impact of this shift. The principles that once bound us together as a nation seem to be fading into the background,’ she said.

“As an influencer, Campbell said she also works to highlight the triumphs of African American individuals as ‘agents of change and progress’ rather than victims of oppression including figures such as Frederick Douglass or Elizabeth Freeman. . . .”

At the Massachusetts GOP convention in 2022, the Boston Globe reported, “Campbell, the party’s candidate for secretary of state, told the delegates, “I don’t think it’s nice when they’re telling your 5-year-old that he can [perform a sex act on] another 5-year-old,’ . . . drawing gasps from the audience. “Do you?”

“ ‘Because that’s what’s happening in your schools!’ she added. ‘If this makes you uncomfortable, it should.’

“Pressed by a Globe reporter, Campbell did not provide evidence of this, instead pointing to a pending bill in the Legislature intended to update the state’s sexual education curriculum. The bill would require schools that offer sexual health education to deploy ‘medically accurate, age-appropriate’ programs, including in providing information about gender identity and sexual orientation. . . .”

Daarel Burnette, a senior editor at the Chronicle of Higher Education, explains the nuts and bolts of diversity, equity and inclusion. (Credit: YouTube)

Breaking the News Industry’s Near-Silence on DEI

The News/Media Alliance says, “Our members represent over 2,200 diverse publishers in the United States — from the largest groups and international outlets to hyperlocal sources, from digital-only and digital-first to print. Our members are trusted and respected providers of quality journalism.”

The National Association of Broadcasters calls itself “the voice for the nation’s radio and television broadcasters.”

Neither wants to talk about the Trump administration’s full-throated push against diversity, equity and inclusion.

The organization representing news editors, the News Leaders Association, went out of business last year. Its predecessors had set a goal of parity with the percentage of people of color in the general population by 2025.

Requests for the remaining organizations’ current positions on DEI went unanswered this week, as the Trump administration assault went full-steam ahead, firing DEI workers, blaming the concept for the midair plane crash at Washington’s Reagan National Airport and shutting government offices dedicated to advancing DEI.

Similarly, the journalist of color associations, whose reason for existence is to promote diversity in newsrooms, have been muted. The Asian American Journalists Association Tuesday announced this year’s convention theme, “Forging Our Legacies, Navigating the Future,” with nary a mention of diversity or DEI, just as the National Association of Hispanic Journalists failed to do two weeks ago.

However, the Broadcast Education Association, which calls itself “the premier international academic media organization,” is planning a panel discussion at its April 5-8 convention in Las Vegas, held in conjunction with the annual event of the NAB, which in previous years has been robust in its support for DEI (NAB photo from 2023).

“We’re not changing what we’re doing,” Heather Birks, executive director, told Journal-isms on Wednesday. “BEA is not political,” so it might be easier for its leaders to make that decision.

The panel description reads, “As the BEA celebrates its 70th anniversary, we find ourselves at a critical juncture in the landscape of media education and representation. This panel seeks to commemorate the leadership, and the strides they made in fostering diversity within broadcast education while addressing the contemporary challenges faced by organizations committed to multicultural representation. In an era where diversity initiatives are increasingly under scrutiny, this panel will explore the vital role of BEA, particularly the Multicultural Division in promoting inclusive practices, amplifying underrepresented voices, and preparing the next generation of media professionals to navigate an ever-evolving, diverse media landscape.”

Marquita Smith (pictured) of the University of Mississippi will moderate. She messaged Wednesday, “I just confirmed with Heather that, yes, the discussion is definitely happening! My invited guests are retired professionals and veterans who have spent a lifetime doing this work — one of them even taught me at the University of Tennessee. Their resilience and perspective as both professionals and Black Americans will help us explore what it means to resist in meaningful ways. I haven’t scripted my questions yet, but I can promise the conversation will be timely and impactful.”

“Krissah is creative, steadfast and dynamic, with the right experience and outlook to lead us in pushing the boundaries in journalism and innovation,” said Washington Post Executive Editor Matt Murray in December. He was announcing that Krissah Thompson would become editor of the new WP Ventures.

Washington Post Eliminates ME/Diversity Position

Having named Krissah Thompson to lead a new Washington Post initiative, the Post has decided not to fill the job she inaugurated: managing editor for diversity and inclusion, a Post spokesperson told Journal-isms.

“The company’s diversity and inclusion initiatives across the company fall under the remit of Lahaja Furaha, Director of Diversity and Inclusion. Also, Liz Seymour, Managing Editor, now oversees all of news operation including training, recruiting and culture with a focus on advancing DEI,” the spokesperson messaged Tuesday.

“We remain committed to diversity through our newsroom operations and also the dedicated role of diversity and inclusion director.”

The message was different when former executive editor Martin Baron created the diversity job in 2020, two months after the George Floyd murder by police. Baron acted after criticism by some Black staff members, Baron wrote in his 2023 memoir, “Collision of Power: Trump, Bezos, and the Washington Post.”

“I should have advocated for a top-level editor who could lead our diversity efforts, not just for purposes of hiring but also to strengthen our coverage of long-standing, unresolved issues of race, ethnicity, and identity. Success at getting the resources might have eluded me, but failing to try was regrettably the most serious error of my tenure at The Post.”

On July 28, 2020, Baron announced that Thompson would be the first Black woman to rise to managing editor, no longer a title given only to one person at a time.

The former Style section writer “will be in charge of ensuring significant, consistent progress on diversity and inclusiveness in everything we do – our coverage of race, ethnicity and identity as well as improved recruitment, retention and career advancement for journalists of color,” Baron said in his 2020 statement. “She will have the strong backing of the newsroom’s senior leadership in that highest-priority effort. She will require the support of everyone.”

The next year, new Executive Editor Sally Buzbee gave Thompson added responsibility for climate and environmental coverage, features reporting and recruitment.

In December, current Executive Editor Matt Murray, who has praised Thompson, announced that she would become editor of WP Ventures, whose “goal is to explore how The Washington Post can effectively grow our reach, revenue and relevance with new audiences in a rapidly changing media landscape. A particular focus has been expanding our presence on social media and creating new commercial opportunities for consumer and lifestyle journalism, while accelerating innovation and cross-company collaboration.”

However, the announcement did not say that Thompson was therefore giving up her managing editor role.

The same month, “Amazon said it is halting some of its diversity and inclusion initiatives, joining a growing list of major corporations that have made similar moves in the face of increasing public and legal scrutiny,” CNBC reported in January.

“In a Dec. 16 internal note to staffers that was obtained by CNBC, Candi Castleberry, Amazon’s VP of inclusive experiences and technology, said the company was in the process of ‘winding down outdated programs and materials’ as part of a broader review of hundreds of initiatives.”

Jeff Bezos, founder and executive chairman of Amazon, owns The Washington Post.

In 2015, Vanessa Gallman spoke about the University of Maryland’s Capital News Service bureau in Annapolis, the state capital. She was hired in 1990 to open that bureau. Here, she talks about the genesis of the program as well as the opening of the school’s Washington, D.C., bureau. (Credit: YouTube)

Vanessa Gallman Dies, ‘Barrier-Breaking’ Opinion Editor

Vanessa Gallman, “a barrier-breaking journalist who helped steer Lexington’s conscience for more than two decades as the editorial page editor of the Lexington Herald-Leader,” died Monday in Lexington, Ky. Linda Blackford reported Monday for the Herald-Leader. She was 71.

In 2008, Gallman became the only Black woman to serve as president of the National Conference of Editorial Writers, known by that name for 65 years until 2012, when it was renamed the Association of Opinion Journalists. AOJ merged in 2019 into the News Leaders Association, which disbanded last year.

She died of heart failure, her daughter, Erica L. Stinson, told Journal-isms.

“She rose to the top as steady, calm, dependable, insightful, and a true worker,” said Chuck Stokes, editorial/public affairs director for WXYZ-TV in Detroit and who in 2000 became the first Black president of the editorial writers group. He reflected the sentiment of colleagues on the group’s listserve, which survives.

“Besides our fun times together at NCEW conferences and board meetings, what I remember best is her dedication to NCEW’s annual Minority Writers Seminar at the Freedom Forum First Amendment Center in Nashville. She was one of our core teaching group that attended practically every year to help grow young and seasoned journalists into talented opinion writers.”:

Blackford’s obituary continued, “Gallman was a native of Charlotte, North Carolina, who worked up and down the East Coast as a reporter and editor before settling in Lexington.

“As she said in her retirement column in 2019, she had not expected to spend so much time in Lexington, but ‘not only is Central Kentucky a comfortable place to raise a family, this state is full of challenges, opportunities, beauty, despair, outsized characters and small-town charms. In other words: a journalist’s dream.’ . . .

“ ‘We sometimes ended up on the losing sides of community debates,’ Gallman wrote. ‘But it was not really a loss because we opened our pages to passionate discussion, becoming the equivalent of the old-time public square, where anyone could climb a platform and have a say.’ . . .”

A celebration of life is planned for Feb. 15 at the Lyric Theater, 300 E. Third St. in Lexington, her daughter said, with services handled by the Hawkins-Taylor Funeral Home.

How Jose Antonio Vargas Became Legal — for Now

“For 31 years, my life as an undocumented immigrant has been a problem waiting to be solved,” journalist and immigrant rights activist Jose Antonio Vargas says in this video.

“Finally, I have what some might call a solution, albeit temporary, partial, and at the whim of a new administration and president who built his whole campaign around deportations.

“Since sharing my story very publicly in an essay in the New York Times some 13 years ago, the question I get asked the most all over the country from Americans of all backgrounds, is, why don’t you just get legal?

“Why don’t you just fix this thing?

“This thing?

“You got your papers?” . . .

“I was brought here when I was 12.

“I didn’t know I didn’t have papers till I was 16.

“My grandparents who were American citizens didn’t tell me.

“So I’ve been here. . . .”

Telemundo Super Bowl Reporter Found Dead at 27

“A Kansas City Telemundo reporter died Wednesday while covering Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans, Telemundo Kansas City said on social media,” Gabriella Killett and Michelle Hunter reported Thursday for NOLA.com.

“Adan Manzano, 27, worked as a sideline reporter for KBKC, Kansas City’s Telemundo affiliate, and was in town to cover the event for both the station and Tico Sports, KBKC and the Daily Mail said.

“KBKC said it is cooperating with law enforcement that are investigating Manzano’s death. The Jefferson Parish Coroner’s Office said in a Thursday statement that Manzano died at a Kenner hotel.

“The coroner had conducted an autopsy of his body, but Manzano’s official cause of death is pending further test results, authorities said.”

Anna Lazarus Caplan added for People magazine, “A Mexico City native, Manzano earned his degree at Kansas State University and joined the Chiefs Television Crew as a sideline reporter at the beginning of the last NFL season, according to Fox affiliate KCTV.

“Manzano’s wife, Ashleigh LeeAnn Boyd, was killed last year, on April 11, 2024, in a car crash, CBS affiliate WIBW reported.

“The couple leave behind a toddler daughter named Eleanor. … :

Short Takes

(Credit: Sudan Media Forum)

 


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