Articles Feature

Journalists Triumph Over Police Abuse

by richard02744

N.Y. to Codify Right to Record Cops’ Activity
Karine Jean-Pierre, Suzanne Malveaux Split
Sharpton Says, ‘You’re Not Going to Out-Talk Me’
22 Donors Pledge $500 Million for Local News
‘Steady Improvement in Newsroom Diversity’

NPR CEO John Lansing to Retire; Boosted Diversity
Gumbel’s ‘Real Sports’ Ending After 29 Seasons
Transgender Journalists Group Updates Style Guide
Detroit News Editor Agrees Look Back Was Lacking
N.Y. Anchor Ruschell Boone, 48, of Pancreatic Cancer

Short Takes: Anna M. Gomez; $1 million for URL Media; new NABJ chapter in Philadelphia?; traditional TV viewing tanking; Mina Kimes; Julio Ricardo Varela; News & Documentary Emmys; San Diego State U’s Daily Aztec; Don Browne; Sopan Deb; harsh sentence for Myanmar photojournalist.

Homepage photo: Photographer Mel D. Cole being arrested in 2020. Photo © 2020 Ian Reid/

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Mel D Cole answers 21 questions about photographing concerts, starting documentary photography and more in this April 2021 interview (Credit: YouTube)

N.Y. to Codify Right to Record Cops’ Activity

“A group of press photographers reached a historical settlement with the New York City Police Department Tuesday, with an agreement that has the potential to transform police conduct and training, especially regarding the First Amendment for both journalists and the general public,” Lisa Marie Segarra wrote Tuesday for PetaPixel.com, a publication for photographers.

The settlement grew out of police abuse of journalists and protesters during Black Lives Matter demonstrations in New York after the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020.

Photographers of color were among those challenging the police, but the settlement applies to all journalists.

Its provisions are part of sweeping changes that “will overhaul how it handles demonstrations, including banning the tactic of boxing in protesters and then arresting them,” Maria Cramer wrote, speaking of NYPD, for The New York Times.

“In addition to ending that practice, known as kettling, the department will use a tiered system of de-escalation before deploying officers and will install a high-ranking executive to ensure compliance with the new rules.”

“In the agreement, the NYPD also — for the first time ever — formally acknowledges that the press has a clearly established First Amendment right to record police activity in public places, and commits itself to respect that right,” the National Press Photographers Association said. “No press pass or other form of identification is needed to exercise this right.”

Amr Alfiky is arrested Feb. 11, 2020, in Manhattan’s Chinatown while filming NYPD officers. Alfiky was recording two officers who were arresting another man when Alfiky was apprehended by NYPD. Video footage captured by his friend, Mostafa Bassim, was posted on X, formerly Twitter. Alfiky is heard clearly telling police he is a journalist with press credentials. (Photo illustration by New York Post)

A release from the office of New York Attorney General Letitia James added, “As a result of today’s agreement, the NYPD must improve its treatment of members of the press and improve reporters’ access to a protest to be able to record and report. The NYPD must update its trainings and Administrative Guide to explicitly acknowledge that there is a clearly established right under the First Amendment to record police activity in public.

“The agreement states that NYPD officers cannot prohibit or restrict the press’s right to observe and record a protest, including by putting up crime scene tape for the sole purpose of preventing members of the press from viewing the scene. The NYPD also cannot arrest a member of the press or public solely for observing or recording police activity in a public place. If there is an order by the NYPD to leave an area, press pass holders are not required to leave the area but can move to a safe location.

“To ensure that NYPD is effectively complying with these terms, NYPD agrees to participate in meetings at least twice per year to discuss any problems related to the press and newsgathering activities, and to allow representatives of the press to make any recommendations with respect to related policies and practices.”

Segarra reported, “The lawsuit was first brought . . . three years ago by law firm Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, in partnership with the National Press Photographers Association (NPPA), and noted civil rights attorney Wylie Stecklow, after five photographers were assaulted and/or arrested while covering the George Floyd protests in 2020.

“The five plaintiffs are all well-established and respected photojournalists with credits in The New York Times, Reuters, The Wall Street Journal, BBC, The Atlantic, the Times of London, and Le Monde, among other publications. They faced violent attacks from police — one was hit in the face by a baton, another was stripped of his cameras and held for several hours, for example — all of which occurred as they were photographing the protests. . . .”

They are:

  • Jemell (Mel) D. Cole, known as a hip-hop photographer, among other distinctions. Cole “was documenting police-protester clashes from the Brooklyn Bridge footpath when he was arrested, stripped of his cameras, and held for seven hours,” NPPA said. “Going to jail for doing your job as a photographer should never ever happen. I’m happy that I can now put what should have never been behind me, but I will never forget the feelings that I had that day while being handcuffed and not being able to free when I should have been!” Cole told the association.
  • Jason (Jae) Donnelly (pictured), “a well-known photographer, and regular contributor to The Daily Mail,” who “was violently assaulted by a baton-wielding officer while photographing protestors in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood,” NPPA said.
  • Diana Zeyneb Alhindawi (pictured), a documentary and news photographer who, according to her bio, was born in rural Romania to a Romanian mother and Iraqi father. NPPA said she “was hit in the face by a baton-wielding officer while photographing police beating a young man in Lower Manhattan. ”As a photographer working in conflict zones around the world, I was stunned when the NYPD struck me with a baton, splitting my lip, when I was simply doing my job on the public streets of NYC a few days after the murder of George Floyd. It was the first time I’d suffered an injury while on the job, and it wasn’t in war-torn Congo or South Sudan, but in the New York City. I’m glad to see that in the USA, however, when the rights of the press are so egregiously infringed upon, there is a legal system that can come to our support.”

Claire Regan, national president of the Society of Professional Journalists, said in a statement, “This is a remarkable settlement for police versus press in New York City. We congratulate our colleagues at NPPA for pursuing this noble cause with perseverance and success, and express hope that the message will reverberate across the country.”

Suzanne Malveaux, left, and Karine Jean-Pierre (Credit: X, formerly Twitter)

Karine Jean-Pierre, Suzanne Malveaux Split

“White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has separated from Suzanne Malveaux, her partner of more than 10 years,” Meredith Clark reported Thursday for the Independent.

“In a new interview with Vogue published on 7 September, Jean-Pierre, 49, revealed that the two have shared custody of their nine-year-old daughter, Soleil. ‘I’m a single mom who is co-parenting this amazing kid’,” she told Vogue. ‘Our number-one priority is her privacy and to make sure we create an environment that’s nurturing.’

“Jean-Pierre and Malveaux first met at the Democratic National Convention in 2012. Her former partner served as a White House correspondent for CNN for more than 10 years, before leaving the network in January 2023.

“They welcomed their daughter, who they named Soleil, in May 2014. According to Vogue, it was Malveaux who initiated the adoption process, not long after she and Jean-Pierre started dating. The White House press secretary revealed that having a child was ‘a thousand per cent’ not on her to-do list, but she formally adopted Soleil a few years after she was born. . . .”

Sharpton Says, ‘You’re Not Going to Out-Talk Me’

Al Sharpton began by challenging Vivek Ramaswamy, the multi-millionaire biotech investor seeking the Republican presidential nomination, over his characterization of Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., prominent author Ibram X. Kendi, and other progressive anti-racists as akin to “grand wizards of the modern KKK.”

And the founder of the National Action Network, with questioning as sharp and combative as any journalist, did not let up.

The setting was Sharpton’s “PoliticsNation” show Saturday on MSNBC, and the questions kept coming, with a smiling Ramaswamy delivering extended answers that continued even as Sharpton was into his next question.

“You’re not going to out-talk me,” Sharpton said at one point. Sharpton ended with, “You certainly came, and you knew I was going to fight it out with you, and you stood up — did about three or four ducks. Threw a couple. Thanks for coming.”

22 Donors Pledge $500 Million for Local News

“A coalition of 22 donors today announced Press Forward, a national initiative to strengthen communities and democracy by supporting local news and information with an infusion of more than a half-billion dollars over the next five years,” the organizations said Thursday.

“Press Forward will enhance local journalism at an unprecedented level to re-center local news as a force for community cohesion; support new models and solutions that are ready to scale; and close longstanding inequities in journalism coverage and practice.

“Since 2005, approximately 2,200 local newspapers have closed, resulting in 20 percent of Americans living in ‘news deserts’ with little to no reliable coverage of important local events. Press Forward seeks to reverse the dramatic decline in local news that has coincided with an increasingly divided America and weakening trust in institutions. . . .”

“Initial Press Forward partners are The Archewell Foundation, Carnegie Corporation of New York, Community Foundation for the Land of Lincoln, Democracy Fund, Ford Foundation, Mary W. Graham, Glen Nelson Center at American Public Media Group, Heising-Simons Foundation, Henry Luce Foundation, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Joyce Foundation, KFF, Knight Foundation, The Lenfest Institute for Journalism, Lumina Foundation, McKnight Foundation, Outrider Foundation, Rita Allen Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Skyline Foundation, and Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.”

On the Poynter Institute site, Tracie Powell (pictured), who has long worked with philanthropy as it affects publications of color, called the announcement “as welcome as spring rain. Yet funders need to radically rethink the way they find and fund news organizations, to avoid inadvertently recreating the inequitable systems of the past.

‘The Press Forward fund builds on a decade of experience by a handful of foundations that were early to journalism funding. What’s missing from that experience, though, is recognition of the wide range of new ways that people — especially people of color — are getting their news and information, including the multitude of small, hyperlocal news sites that many underserved communities trust to keep them informed.

“There are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of these outlets across America, but many are small and rural, some publish only on social media, and few founders have connections to traditional journalism or philanthropy. As a result, most aren’t even blips on philanthropy’s radar screen. But they have one thing that money can’t buy — the trust of the people they serve. . . .”

‘Steady Improvement in Newsroom Diversity’

“Gannett, Insider and The Washington Post have released their annual (or, in Gannett’s case, biannual) reports on the diversity of their workforces, revealing very little — if any — change in overall employee diversity year over year,” Sara Guaglione reported Tuesday for Digiday. The headline was, “Publishers’ workforce diversity reports released this summer show steady improvement in newsroom diversity.”

“Within their newsrooms, both Insider and The Washington Post did improve the diversity of their editorial staffs, though white employees still made up 62% and 63% of those newsrooms, respectively, in the first half of 2023. . . .

“News and editorial diversity at The Washington Post also increased in 2023.”

Its figure of 63 percent white is “down by three percentage points from last year. Editorial leadership is now 69% white, down from 73% in 2022. . . .”

“Condé Nast’s editorial employees were 29% BIPOC [Black, Indigenous, people of color] in 2022, up one percentage point year over year. Vice Media Group’s U.S. news department was 63% white in 2022, down one percentage point year over year. The share of editorial employees who were white at Vox Media dropped significantly from 66% to 60%, from 2021 to 2022.

“The New York Times’ news and opinion department, however, remained 66% white, the same as last year. . . .

“Gannett’s overall workforce diversity remained the same since its last report was released on January 1, 2023, with 71% of its employees self-identifying as white as of July 1, 2023. . . .

“The Los Angeles Times released a workforce diversity report on the newsroom internally on June 15, according to a spokesperson. . . .

“The spokesperson shared a portion of the company’s internal workforce diversity report with Digiday, which showed newsroom employees overall were 50% white. Last year, 57% of non-manager roles within the L.A. Times’s newsroom were white, while manager roles were 62% white. The newsroom is 21% Hispanic or Latino (in 2022, non-managers were 18% Hispanic or Latino and managers were 16% Hispanic or Latino).”

NPR CEO John Lansing to Retire; Boosted Diversity

“NPR chief executive John Lansing (pictured) says he intends to retire at the end of 2023,” David Folkenflik reported Tuesday, updated Wednesday, for NPR. “His four-year tenure will be defined by his handling of the extreme challenges of the pandemic, a racial reckoning, and headwinds in the podcasting industry that led to severe layoffs. . . .”

Folkenflik also wrote, “Upon his arrival at NPR in fall 2019, Lansing made diversifying the network’s staff, offerings and audiences a hallmark of his leadership, defining it as both a moral and a business imperative.

“That he did so nine months before the outrage that followed the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis enabled him to navigate the waves of protest for social justice in the streets and in U.S. newsrooms more adeptly than many of his peers.

” ‘Currently, our audience on radio does not nearly reflect the demographics of the United States,’ Lansing says now. ‘Our name is National Public Radio and “national” means everybody.’

“NPR’s leadership went from 9% people of color to 46% during his tenure, according to the network’s figures; it stands at 42% for the entire workforce, up from 33% in 2019.

” ‘It’s a commitment that I believe is now in our DNA,’ he says, ‘and I think that’s a really big thing.’ . . .”

Gumbel’s ‘Real Sports’ Ending After 29 Seasons

“Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel is coming to an end after nearly 30 years,” Peter White reported Wednesday for Deadline. “The venerable investigative sports series will end with its current season on HBO.

“Gumbel, who has been hosting the show since April 1995, said that his nearly three-decade run has been ‘very gratifying.’

“ ‘Since Day 1 at Real Sports, we’ve consistently tried to look beyond the scoreboard and focus instead on the many societal issues inherent in the world of sports,’ host Bryant Gumbel said. ‘In the process we’ve had the opportunity to tell complex stories about race, gender, class, opportunity and so much more. Being able to do so at HBO for almost 3 decades has been very gratifying. I’m proud of the imprint we’ve made, so I’m ready to turn the page. Although goodbyes are never easy, I’ve decided that now’s the time to move on.’ “

White also wrote, “The show has received 37 Sports Emmy Awards and three Peabodys, while Gumbel received the Sports Emmys Lifetime Achievement Award this year.

“Stories broken by Gumbel during his Real Sports run have included exposing a child slavery ring in the UAE [United Arab Emirates], where 5-year-old boys were forced to race camels, investigations into the International Olympic Committee, the police shooting of a teenage boy and Shaquille O’Neal’s revelation that he has made more money per year from endorsements than he did from his NBA career. . . .”

Hope Giselle, at right, who identified herself as a “Black trans woman,” stands and speaks with Ollie Henry at the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington last month. (Credit: National Action Network.)

Transgender Journalists Group Updates Style Guide

The Transgender Journalists Association has updated its Stylebook and Coverage Guide, even though, it acknowledges, “The words some trans people use to describe themselves might differ from or even contradict the guidance given here.”

That observation is evident even in a look at the list of the association’s board members .

Some are “he” or “she,” while others use the pronoun “they.”

A spokesperson told Journal-isms, “Our board does represent the membership of the Trans Journalists Association, which is an organization of trans, nonbinary, and gender-expansive journalists.”

The style guide says, “Where our stylebook is silent, honor the way someone speaks about themself whenever possible, and let that inform your writing.”

Mike De Socio wrote Tuesday for the Poynter Institute that since the first style guide in 2019, “conservative legislators around the country have pushed a blitz of bills designed to restrict trans people’s access to health care and public life. In 2023 alone, state lawmakers have introduced hundreds of anti-trans bills.”

“This degree of legislation is a really big story, and newsrooms need to do it right,” Kae Petrin, president and interim executive director of the group, said. “We just want to be here to help people understand the nuances of the language and how to tell these stories accurately … (with) thought and care for the communities that are impacted by them.”

De Socio added, “That’s why Petrin is leading the Trans Journalists Association through a significant expansion, beginning with the launch of a greatly updated style guide. The organization has also expanded its board of directors, added a new strategic mission and secured fiscal sponsorship for the first time, from the Tiny News Collective (up until this point, TJA has been entirely volunteer-led).”

A spokesperson told Journal-isms, “We have had more than 700 members join since our launch in 2020. We haven’t up to now tracked active/inactive as a status, so we’re not sure how many consider themselves active members.”

More than 1.6 million adults (ages 18 and older) and youth (ages 13 to 17) identify as transgender in the United States, or 0.6% of those ages 13 and older, according to the Williams Institute of the UCLA College of Law.

Detroit News Editor Agrees Look Back Was Lacking

Darren Nichols (pictured), a 30-year industry veteran and contributing columnist at the Detroit Free Press, has lambasted an overwhelmingly white retrospective of the rival Detroit News, produced to commemorate the News’ 150th anniversary. Nichols zeroed in on the sports section, and Gary Miles (pictured, below), the News’ editor and publisher, told Journal-isms Wednesday that “Darren is absolutely right.”

” It was a birthday party, but apparently some Black guests weren’t there to blow out the candles,” Nichols wrote Wednesday for Deadline Detroit.

Nichols continued, “This undercuts many of the diversity efforts by The News, recruiting some of the best Black journalists into their newsroom. We can’t forget The News fed other newsrooms with a Pulitzer Prize winner and others moved on to some of the highest platforms in media.”

Nichols began his piece telling readers that “My earliest memories about journalism came from my dad telling me stories about Luther Keith.

“Keith’s (pictured) beginnings as a high school sportswriter at The Detroit News came when my dad, Charles Nichols, coached Detroit Kettering High School in their quest to win a state championship in 1973. As the first Black sports writer at a major daily in Detroit, it was my dad — and other city coaches — who understood what Keith’s presence meant. . . .

“Back in the 70’s, the coaches knew Black folks weren’t invited to those spaces so Keith was let in. Nearly every Black coach rallied behind Keith and to do as we call it today ‘source’ Detroit high school sports. The Raven bar on the city’s east side was the coaching safe space and Keith was invited in.

“They wanted his success just as much as Keith.

“It was the start of a Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame career, where Keith became the first Black reporter to cover Lansing politics, editor and on the masthead as an assistant managing editor. . . .”

Miles messaged, “The News has had a number of outstanding sportswriters through the years, many of them Black. And among Luther’s many many groundbreaking roles, I’m chagrined that we overlooked his first — as a high school sportswriter for The News. It absolutely was worth mentioning, as were the contributions of so many employees who broke barriers and whose work was transcendent over our 150-year history. We’ll review that piece with an eye toward updating it to better reflect our groundbreaking efforts, and the outstanding contributors, in the area of diversity and sports.”

Ruschell Boone told the New York Amsterdam News in 2019, “Where I’m from… girls like me aren’t really expected to do well, but my mother and grandmother always thought I would do well in life. My mom and grandmother sacrificed a lot to send me to a really good school in Jamaica that they absolutely could not afford.”

.

N.Y. Anchor Ruschell Boone, 48, of Pancreatic Cancer

“Ruschell Boone, a dynamic and dogged Spectrum News NY1 reporter and anchor who became among the network’s most recognizable faces, died Sunday in New York City,” Tim Balk reported Tuesday for the Daily News in New York. “She was 48.

“The cause was pancreatic cancer, according to NY1.

“Boone, who was born and raised in Kingston, Jamaica, before moving to the Bronx at age 11, worked at NY1 for more than two decades after starting as a reporter covering Queens in 2002.

“She covered New Year’s Eve at Times Square, the 2016 bombing in Chelsea and the 2018 upset primary election victory of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

“A three-time Emmy nominee, she appeared equally comfortable interviewing everyday New Yorkers going about their lives as she was questioning the city’s most powerful figures.

“In 2021, Boone moved to the anchor’s desk, and she most recently hosted NY1′s News All Day program at noon. Fans and colleagues remembered her as gritty yet warm — a true New Yorker who brought pluck and spunk to the telecast.

“ ‘Ruschell was such a special person to so many people in that newsroom,’ said Grace Rauh, a former NY1 political reporter. ‘She was really this larger-than-life person, and had such a huge heart.’ . . .

“Mayor [Eric] Adams said he was heartbroken, describing Boone as ‘the heart and soul of the greatest city on the globe.’ ”

“ ‘She was just so authentic,’ Adams told NY1 on Tuesday, remembering her rich laugh. ‘She was not covering people to just check a box. She got into it.’ ”

Short Takes

  • “Traditional TV viewing is falling off a cliff,” Alexandra Canal reported Aug. 15 for Yahoo Finance. “According to the latest data from Nielsen, linear TV viewership fell below 50% in July for the first time. Broadcast and cable each hit a new low of 20% and 29.6% of total TV usage, respectively, to combine for a linear television total of 49.6%. Time spent streaming (via a television) increased 2.9% in July compared with June, according to the data, to reach a record of 38.7% of total TV usage. YouTube (GOOGL), Netflix (NFLX), and Amazon Prime Video (AMZN) all saw month-over-month viewership increases of 5.6%, 4.2%, and 5%, respectively, in July. . . .”
  • “After 9 years — and considering the recent challenges that our nonprofit has been dealing with — I let the Futuro Media Board know that I plan to transition out of my current role as President of Futuro Media and step aside from day to day leadership, Julio Ricardo Varela (pictured) wrote Tuesday to Futuro employees and posted on Twitter.  “In the short term, I will remain as  an advisor to help Futuro continue producing award-winning journalism that tells much-needed stories about underrepresented communities. . . .” Futuro Media, the nonprofit news organization founded in 2010 by Pulitzer Prize winner Maria Hinojosa best known for the public radio show “Latino USA,” announced last month that “we have taken action to scale down our organization.”  
  • “The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS) has announced the 2023 Gold and Silver Circle Inductees who will be feted at the 44th Annual News and Documentary Emmy Awards, which will be presented at two individual ceremonies: News on Sept. 27 and documentary on Sept. 28,” Tyler Coates reported for the Hollywood Reporter. “Longtime television news anchor Dan Rather is among the news inductees in the Gold Circle, along with CBS News’ national security correspondent David Martin and ABC News correspondent John Quiñones. The Silver Circle inductees for news include ABC News president Kim Godwin and senior national correspondent Steve Osunsami; CBS News producer Rand Morrison; CNBC senior vp of operations Steve Fastook; Meruelo Media president and CEO Otto Padron; and NBC News editor Thomas Snowden. . . .”

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