Articles Feature

Media Believed Cops; Missed Horror Chamber

by richard02835

Upstart Black Startup Sounded the Alarm
Study Finds Race, Gender Pay Gaps at Gannett
FBI Monitored Aretha Franklin, Dossier Shows
‘Nature’ Examines Role of Science in Racism
Fla. Papers Show Footage of ‘Voter Fraud’ Arrests
Are ‘Migrants’ More Accurately ‘Asylum Seekers’?
How Akron’s Daily Increased Black Readership
A Reminder That Sheriffs Are Also on the Ballot
Bernard Shaw Tribute Elevates Old-School Values

Short Takes: The 2022 joint NABJ-NAHJ convention; Jerry Green, Roland Martin, John Quiñones, Clarissa Ward and Bill Whitaker; lack of Black sperm donors; opposition to “kamikaze” term re Ukraine drones; Oprah Winfrey and Stacey Abrams; Jovita Moore and WSB newsroom; UNC’s Hussman School of Journalism; Ad Council’s PSA against fentanyl; NBC News’ one-day digital seminar for students; Fresno-area Journalists of Color training program; Americans’ lack of trust in news media; growing popularity of news on TikTok; little-heard reality of slavery; Stephen A. Smith and Will Smith;

Calling out lack of investment in Black-owned media; Audie Cornish; all-Black team at Boston’s WCVB; U.N. blacklist of 42 countries that retaliate against journalists; racial reckoning in Mexico; revocation of prize to Palestinian journalist; India’s blocking of Pulitzer winner’s travel to U.S.; sexual harassment allegations at Al Jazeera; Iran’s crackdown on journalists; killing of Colombian journalist; blacklisted Chinese journalist not giving up

 
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The Kansas City Defender captioned this collection of headlines, “Local and national news outlets unquestioningly parrot KCPD statement claiming reports of missing Black women and possible serial killer are ‘completely unfounded rumors.'”

Upstart Black Startup Sounded the Alarm

A 22-year-old Black woman was abducted and tortured for weeks and locked in a basement in a suburb of Kansas City, Mo., by her account, while police and mainstream media dismissed Black concerns that a serial killer was targeting Black women and girls.

Four killings and three kidnappings were said to have occurred in the span of weeks. An upstart Black digital startup took those fears seriously and publicized what it later called the actions of “a white supremacist who believed we are in a ‘race war.’ ” Mainstream media went with the police dismissals of the story.

“Even now, after it was clear that the white media outlets helped silence the Black community in this case, they’re still — even as recently as yesterday evening and today, the white news outlets in our city continue to print exactly and parrot exactly what the police are saying,” Ryan Sorrell (pictured), founder of the Kansas City Defender, said Tuesday on “Democracy Now!”

“And so, really, it looks like already they have not learned anything at all from this situation. They continue to believe the police over the community and to continue to silence the community. And so, I think, once again, that’s standard journalistic practices, in many cases, for a lot of these local news outlets, for a lot of these white-owned news outlets.”

Timothy M. Haslett Jr. (pictured), a 39-year-old white man, of suburban Excelsior Springs, Mo., was arrested Oct. 14 at his home and charged with rape, kidnapping and assault. The tabloid world jumped on the story.

The New York Post headlined, “Missouri sex dungeon victim who escaped house of horrors told rescuers that sicko killed two of her friends.”

The story by the Post’s Patrick Reilly said, “Missouri police are investigating whether the sicko who allegedly held a woman captive for a month as his sex slave tormented other victims, a report said.

“The development was revealed after the 22-year-old woman who escaped Timothy Haslett Jr.’s sex dungeon last week claimed to her rescuers that the suspect killed two of her friends, the Daily Mail reported. . . .”

Lurid details aside, there are clear racial dimensions to the story, coupled with those of journalistic accountability, says Sorrell, who is 27. Seeing those connections is part of the Defender’s mission. As James Anderson wrote in August for Nieman Reports, “The Defender, a news and culture platform consciously rooted in the tradition of both the Black and the abolitionist press, also reaches an under-served audience of predominantly Black teenagers and young adults, across the greater Midwest, on social media.”

The Defender reported Oct. 14, “In mid-to-late September, The Kansas City Defender published a video of Bishop Tony Caldwell, a local Kansas City community leader who was one of many in the Black Kansas City community who made reports of numerous murdered and missing Black women. In the video, Bishop Caldwell specifically identified that the women who were missing were being taken from an area on Prospect Avenue in Kansas City (video).

“The Kansas City Police Department made a statement addressing the community testimonies and called them ‘completely unfounded rumors,’ dismissing the concerns. Local news outlets followed suit, in essence, silencing any ongoing community voices which maintained concern of the missing Black women.”

In a follow-up the next day, the Defender headlined, “Social Media Posts Reveal Captor and Possible ‘Serial Killer,’ Timothy Haslett Jr., Was A White Supremacist Who Believed We Are In A ‘Race War.'”

Journal-isms sought comment from the editor and managing editor of the Kansas City Star and the news directors of KMBC-TV, the ABC affiliate, KCTV, the CBS affiliate, and WDAF-TV, the Fox affiliate.

None responded, though the Star in 2020 had apologized for its past racist coverage and announced remedial steps.

However, Lisa A. Rodriguez (pictured), news director of KCUR, the NPR affiliate, replied to Journal-isms:

“There are a few undeniable truths media have to accept, particularly in light of the current situation. We have, writ large, failed to listen to Black communities. Mainstream media — and KCUR is no exception — has, for too long, taken police statements as fact.

“At KCUR, we’ve been actively working to break that habit, often waiting on publishing or broadcasting anything until we can confirm details independently. Sometimes, that means not being the first to a story but if it brings us closer to facts and truth-telling, it’s worth that delay. We know we — and other media outlets here — won’t be able to earn trust from the communities we’ve failed until we can demonstrate our commitment to listening to them and taking them seriously.”

Study Finds Race, Gender Pay Gaps at Gannett

“The median salary for journalists of color at six Atlantic-region Gannett shops is $11,500 less than that of their white counterparts, according to a NewsGuild pay study released Tuesday,“ Angela Fu reported for the Poynter Institute.

“That study, which covers roughly 200 reporters at nearly a dozen unionized papers, also found gender pay gaps of more than $8,000. The units representing those journalists — the Atlantic DOT Guild, APP-MCJ Guild, Hudson Valley News Guild, The Record Guild, Newspaper Guild of Rochester and Utica News Guild — put together the pay study after receiving employee salary and demographic data from Gannett in August. . . . .”

The Guild report said:

“Despite Gannett’s stated commitment to diversity, the analysis finds:

“● Gannett pays its non-white journalists an average of $11,500 less than their white counterparts at these papers.

“● Senior female journalists make median full-time salaries that are $9,500 less than men the same age.

“● The median salary for white male journalists is more than $12,200 greater than that of minority women journalists.

“If journalists of color stay at these Gannett papers, their pay plateaus. If female journalists stay, they can expect to be paid less than their male counterparts . . . “

Fu wrote, “Gannett spokesperson Lark-Marie Anton wrote in an emailed statement that Gannett is committed to ‘equitable employment practices’ for all its workers.

“ ‘It’s troubling that the NewsGuild would issue a ‘study’ that fails to take into consideration critical analysis factors and uses selective data to drive a narrative that has clear bias and further raises questions of credibility and integrity,’ Anton wrote.”

The Detroit Free Press and other news outlets filed Freedom of Information Act requests that resulted in the FBI’s release of a dossier on Aretha Franklin, who associated herself with Martin Luther King Jr.

FBI Monitored Aretha Franklin, Dossier Shows

“Revelations that the FBI closely monitored Aretha Franklin during the civil rights movement prompted dismay from one of the era’s most prominent government targets,” Brian McCollum wrote Monday for the Detroit Free Press.

“ ‘I was shocked,’ [Angela] Davis said Friday in Detroit. ‘But I shouldn’t have been.’

“A 270-page Franklin dossier was released in September following Freedom of Information Act requests by the Detroit Free Press, part of the USA TODAY Network, and other news media outlets after the singer’s 2018 death. It shows that the Detroit music star was very much on the FBI’s radar, largely because of her associations with Davis and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

“The Franklin document, compiled over four decades and heavily redacted in places, includes FBI investigations into matters unrelated to racial-justice pursuits, such as online music-piracy claims and death threats against the singer. . . .”

‘Nature’ Examines Role of Science in Racism

“Science’s history is enmeshed with racism and colonization,” guest editors Melissa Nobles, Chad Womack, Ambroise Wonkam and Elizabeth Wathuti wrote Wednesday for Nature magazine. “It should not have needed the murder of George Floyd, yet one more Black man killed at the hands of police, for such truths to be restated, as Nature and other scientific journals did in June 2020.“

The publication said, “For centuries, science has built a legacy of excluding people of colour and those from other historically marginalized groups from the scientific enterprise. Institutions and scientists have used research to underpin discriminatory thinking, and have prioritized research outputs that ignore and further disadvantage marginalized people.

“Nature has played a part in creating this racist legacy. After the killing of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 2020, Nature committed to becoming an agent of change, and helping to end discriminatory practices and systemic racism.

“This special issue is part of that commitment, and the first in this journal’s history to be guest-edited. It can only scratch the surface of such a vast topic, and will be followed by others that examine different facets of racism in science — to help build a future in which all people can participate in and benefit from the shared experience that is science.”

The articles include:

Body-worn camera footage recorded by local police and obtained by the Tampa Bay Times and Miami Herald captured the confusion and outrage of Hillsborough County residents who found themselves in handcuffs for casting a ballot following investigations by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ new Office of Election Crimes and Security.

Fla. Papers Show Footage of ‘Voter Fraud’ Arrests

Never-before-seen footage obtained by the Tampa Bay Times and Miami Herald through public records requests “captured the confusion and outrage of Hillsborough County residents who found themselves in handcuffs for casting a ballot following investigations by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ new Office of Election Crimes and Security,” Lawrence Mower reported Tuesday, updated Saturday, for the joint Tampa Bay Times-Miami Herald state capital bureau.

On Friday, a Miami judge tossed out a criminal case against one of 19 people accused by DeSantis’ election fraud force of voting illegally in the 2020 election, Mower reported. In the first legal challenge to DeSantis’ arrests, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Milton Hirsch rejected the idea that the Office of Statewide Prosecutor could charge Robert Lee Wood, 56, with registering to vote and casting a ballot in the general election. . . . Hirsch wrote that statewide prosecutors were spreading their reach beyond state statutes.”

Mower reported on Tuesday, “Of the 19 people arrested, 12 were registered as Democrats and at least 13 are Black, the Times/Herald found.

“Romona Oliver, 55, was about to leave for work when police walked up her driveway at 6:52 a.m. and told her they had a warrant for her arrest.

“ ‘Oh my God,’ she said.

“An officer told her she was being arrested for fraud, a third-degree felony, for voting illegally in 2020.

“ ‘Voter fraud?’ she said. ‘I voted, but I ain’t commit no fraud.’ . . .

“Oliver and 19 others are facing up to five years in prison after being accused by DeSantis and state police of both registering, and voting, illegally.

“They are accused of violating a state law that doesn’t allow people convicted of murder or felony sex offenses to automatically be able to vote after they complete their sentence. A 2018 state constitutional amendment that restored the right to vote to many felons excluded this group.

“But, as the videos further support, the amendment and subsequent actions by state lawmakers caused mass confusion about who was eligible, and the state’s voter registration forms offer no clarity. They only require a potential voter to swear, under penalty of perjury, that they’re not a felon, or if they are, that their rights have been restored. The forms do not clarify that those with murder convictions don’t get automatic restoration of their rights. . . .”

A series on public radio’s “Latino USA” in March showed asylum seekers – most from Haiti and including others from Nigeria and Ethiopia – beginning their trek into the Darién Gap, at the border of Colombia and Panama, from Las Tekas, a migrant camp at the edge of the jungle. (Credit: Yurema Perez-Hinojosa/Latino USA)

Are ‘Migrants’ More Accurately ‘Asylum Seekers’?

The Radio Television Digital News Association announced in an email Thursday, “During the past few weeks, RTDNA has been working behind the scenes as part of a consortium of Florida news organizations and press freedom groups to seek public records related to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration transporting Venezuelan migrants from San Antonio, TX, to Martha’s Vineyard, MA, in September.

“Last week, some of the records being sought were finally provided, although many were partially redacted. RTDNA will continue this effort, believing firmly that the public has a legitimate need to know how and why taxpayer funds were used in this manner.”

Meanwhile, writing in the Columbia Journalism Review, Columbia professor Helen Benedict (pictured) urged caution when using the word “migrant.”

“Over the past month, The New York Times ran some twenty-two articles using the word ‘migrant’ in headlines and leads, reflecting the prevailing usage on much of radio and television,” Benedict wrote Thursday. “Yet  many of the people in these stories are not migrants but asylum seekers or refugees – people escaping war, persecution, or local and lethal violence; people who cannot go home.

“Obviously the word ‘migrant’ has become popular because it is shorter and easier to use than the clumsy phrase ‘asylum seeker’ and perhaps seems more neutral than the word ‘refugee.’ But the word ‘migrant’ is not neutral. A migrant is someone who is traveling to find better job opportunities and make money, while asylum seekers and refugees are people who are fleeing for their lives. Even more significantly, asylum seekers and refugees are entitled to legal procedures and protections that migrants are not.

“The anti-immigrant politicians of the world are well aware of this distinction and deliberately use the term ‘migrant’ to whip up xenophobia, racism, and prejudice.”

In another development, Ana Ceballos and Sarah Blaskehy reported on Friday for the Herald and Tampa Bay Times, “A Venezuelan migrant unable to legally work in the United States was paid to help coordinate Gov. Ron DeSantis’ migrant flight program, putting the Republican governor’s high-profile political gambit in conflict with his long-standing push to crack down on undocumented labor.

“The migrant, a 27-year-old named Emmanuel (pictured, above), told the Miami Herald he helped find passengers to fill planes that DeSantis wanted to send from Texas to Democratic strongholds in northern states. He was recruited by Perla Huerta, a 43-year-old former U.S. Army counterintelligence agent working for Vertol Systems Company — which has been paid more than $1.5 million by the DeSantis administration to execute the operation. Emmanuel ended up receiving three cash payments totaling $700 from Huerta for his work on behalf of DeSantis’ relocation program, he told the Miami Herald. . . .”

Artist Miller Horns designed this memorial to the Hotel Mathews, which hosted jazz legends, in downtown Akron. Black entrepreneur George Mathews opened and operated the hotel from 1925 until 1978. It was razed along with other businesses on the strip in the 1970s and 1980s to make way for urban renewal projects. After a Beacon Journal project examining the ongoing negative impact of the city’s Innerbelt highway project, the newspaper co-sponsored a reunion where predominantly Black families displaced by the project in the late 1960s and 1970s came together. (Credit: Karen Schiely)

How Akron’s Daily Increased Black Readership

The Akron (Ohio) Beacon Journal increased its coverage of Black-owned businesses as one step to increase Black readership, the Beacon Journal’s Betty Lin-Fisher, James Mackinnon, Cheryl Powell-Fuller, Jennifer Pignolet and Michael Shearer told the American Press Institute’s Better News project.

“The encouraging news is we’ve seen stronger growth of paid digital subscriptions in ZIP codes with a Black majority population (+243% year over year) and those that over-index as non-white (272%). During the same time, overall paid digital subscribers grew by 216%,” they wrote.

The Beacon Journal initiative started with the Table Stakes Local News Transformation Program, in which “local news organizations assemble cross-departmental teams to take on a major challenge core to their businesses.”

“Q: How did you go about solving the problem?

“A: During our Table Stakes project, we identified our three target audiences. We then reached out to people in those groups through more than 60 virtual interviews (during 2020) to learn more about their interests and expectations to build three audience personas. [The others were, those aged 25-44 and households with under $60,000 income.]

“For Black readers, our efforts focused on identifying and generating content our diverse community wants to see and diversifying our staff to ensure we can properly serve the entire community.

“In brainstorming for Black History Month coverage for February 2021, an editor pitched trying to profile as many Black-owned businesses as possible. The idea grew partly out of a frustration from the summer of 2020 when a competitor published a list of Black-owned businesses after the murder of George Floyd. We could not match the content at that time.

“Our staff embraced the idea and produced 26 features throughout February that really resonated with all of our diverse audiences and even the Chamber of Commerce.

“Since 2021, we have written 67 stories focusing on Black-owned businesses, averaging 3,300 page views each and leading to 77 digital subscriptions.

“Additional content efforts included:

“a deep look at racism as a public health issue, including grants via a third party for startup initiatives

“an in-depth examination of how a failed ‘Innerbelt’ freeway project disproportionately impacted Black families and businesses

“ensuring we featured diverse restaurants and chefs in our food coverage

“and a mobile newsroom initiative at a library in a predominantly Black area.

“We’ve also robustly covered five police shootings and aggressively sought public records we believe the city of Akron is illegally withholding.

“In 2020, editors also convened an advisory board of Black leaders who meet virtually with editors every two months to discuss recent events and our coverage. Their feedback proved to be valuable on more than one occasion, including a discussion of our coverage of the Cleveland Browns controversial trade for Deshaun Watson. We’ve received positive comments on the intentionality of our diversity efforts and willingness to have a dialogue on a routine basis.

“On the staffing side, we’ve worked to successfully recruit two full-time diverse journalists, including an editor. We have added a Black community columnist and have begun working with freelance journalists of color in hopes of developing them into full-time journalists.

“We believe all of the journalism described above has helped us reconnect with the Black community. But our efforts remain a work in progress and we’re far from declaring ‘mission accomplished’. . . .”

 

“While police chiefs generally serve for up to six years, political scientist Michael Zoorob found that the average sheriff serves for roughly 11 years, and often runs uncontested,” the Marshall Project reported. (Credit: Virginia Sheriffs’ Association)

A Reminder That Sheriffs Are Also on the Ballot

“Over the last decade, debates about police violence, mass incarceration and other criminal justice issues have generally focused on police chiefs and prosecutors,” Maurice Chammah wrote Tuesday for the Marshall Project. “But sheriffs demand equal attention. In an increasingly partisan America, they lobby state legislatures and Congress. They run jails and carry out evictions. They decide how aggressively to investigate and arrest people on matters ranging from guns to elections to immigration. And they may shape how new abortion laws play out at the local level.”

In fact, “many subscribe to a notion popular on the right that, in their counties, their power supersedes that of the governor or the president.”

Chammah also wrote, “Most sheriffs are elected, and hundreds are on the ballot this November. Progressives are promoting candidates who promise to make jails safer and leave immigration enforcement to the federal government. Conservatives increasingly see sheriffs as standard-bearers in fights over guns, immigration and voting, and it’s not unusual to see them on Fox News or standing on a rally stage next to former President Donald Trump.

“To make sense of this blend of policing and politics, we conducted an exclusive, wide-ranging survey with two of America’s leading scholarly experts on sheriffs, Emily Farris of Texas Christian University and Mirya Holman of Tulane University. We received answers from more than 500 sheriffs — roughly 1 in 6 nationwide. . . .

“Among the takeaways, we found that sheriffs — the vast majority of whom are White and male, according to a previous study — are also far more conservative than Americans as a whole, and largely approve of Trump’s performance as president.”

However, Chammah also wrote, “Most sheriffs who ran on progressive platforms have not been in power long enough to properly assess their impact,” but “Some progressive sheriffs are seeking bigger budgets in order to provide better care in their jails, and they may eventually clash with some on the left who want to abolish sheriffs entirely.

“Although that movement remains small, at least one sheriff has found the idea persuasive.

“Our survey led us to who in 2018 became the first woman elected sheriff in Doña Ana County, New Mexico, and the state’s first openly gay sheriff. She’s running for reelection this year, but wrote to us, ‘Sheriff candidates should have to meet certain education and experience levels or abolish the office entirely.’ In a follow-up interview, she blasted her peers’ broader focus on guns and immigration.

“ ‘The cowboy hat and the six-shooter on their hip tells me so much about their mindset,’ she said, adding that it doesn’t help sheriffs look relevant in the eyes of the public. ‘More of us need to speak out and say, “This doesn’t represent us.” ’”

 

This video tribute to Bernard Shaw was shown at the celebration of Shaw’s life Thursday. (Credit: Howard Mortman/YouTube) 

Bernard Shaw Tribute Elevates Old-School Values

The late CNN anchor Bernard Shaw, the first in that role when the cable network debuted in 1980, was honored at a celebration of life at the National Press Club Thursday in a 90-minute ceremony that not only praised the man, but the old-school journalism values he exemplified.

“His legacy to journalism . . . is the importance of being able to risk and to bring the best that we know of truth, regardless of who the person may be,” said the Very Rev. Nathan D. Baxter, sixth dean of the Washington National Cathedral.

Anchor Wolf Blitzer, who arrived at CNN in 1990 from print journalism, said Shaw showed him the ropes and instructed. “Remember, Wolf, we are not performers on television, we are journalists.”

Tom Johnson, CEO of CNN during Shaw’s tenure at the network and a longtime friend, said by video that the two shared the same guiding value: “The news comes first.”

Others described Shaw, who died Sept. 7 at 82, as “unflappable,” “one of the great interviewers of all time,” “always the adult in the group,” and a “shining example of excellence.”

In a career spanning 40 years, Shaw might be best known for delivering live news reports from Baghdad at the onset of the Gulf War in 1991, reporting on the student revolt in Tiananmen Square in May 1989, perhaps for covering the 1995 terrorist bombing in Oklahoma City, or asking Democrat Michael Dukakis the toughest question in the 1988 presidential debate.

Shaw retired as CNN anchor in 2001 because he did not want to miss seeing his children grow up, another decision for which he was praised. Though Shaw left the network 22 years ago, he still “drew this crowd,” remarked Judy Woodruff, a Shaw co-anchor at CNN — her “work husband.” Today, Woodruff is longtime anchor of the “PBS NewsHour.”

Other speakers included Sam Feist, senior vice president of CNN; Sandy Kenyon, former CNN reporter, and Vito Maggiolo, former CNN assignment editor.  The event drew 150 to 175 people, the press club said.

CNN organized the tribute in consultation with Shaw’s wife of 48 years, Linda Allston-Shaw, and most of the audience appeared to be employees of CNN’s Washington bureau. They included camera operators, producers, technicians and editors.

Although Shaw’s status as a towering pioneer among Black television journalists was evident, it was not foremost on most minds. The bishop called him a “conscious Black man,” and CNN founder Ted Turner was shown observing that while other network anchors were white men, his team was a Black man and a woman, and he liked it that way. A handful of Black journalists could be seen in the room.

The session was streamed and on Saturday, broadcast on C-SPAN. You can watch here.

Short Takes

  • The joint convention of the National Association of Black Journalists and National Association of Hispanic Journalists drew 4,750 registrants, NABJ Executive Director Drew Berry told the NABJ board on Saturday. NABJ drew 3,417 and NAHJ 1,333 to Las Vegas for the Aug. 3-7 event. Treasurer Walter Smith Randolph reported a year-to-date convention net surplus of $861,624.42, as of Sept. 30.

  • Less than 2 percent of sperm donors at the leading four cryobanks in the United States are Black, according to a Washington Post analysis, Amber Ferguson (pictured), a senior video editor at the Post, wrote Thursday. “The severe shortage of Black sperm donors is forcing Black women to make a painful decision: choose a donor of another race and have a biracial child, or turn to risky and potentially dangerous apps and Facebook groups to find a Black donor.” In an email promoting the piece, Ferguson wrote, “My story details the reasons why Black men don’t donate, the tactics sperm banks use to both recruit and drive away diverse applicants, and the compromises Black women make. . . . This is a reproductive justice story we need to discuss. I hope it begins a conversation that helps Black women make informed, expansive choices when it comes to becoming a mom.”

From left, Shepard Smith, Rashida Jones, Noah Oppenheim, KC Sullivan, Ozzie Martinez (Credit: Virginia Sherwood/MSNBC)

  • “Leaning into education aggressively and uncommonly so for a media organization,” David Bauder reported for the Associated Press, NBC News made its leaders available to students Tuesday for a one-day digital seminar on how to succeed in the news business. “The effort is aimed primarily, but not exclusively, at students from diverse backgrounds. Cesar Conde, chair of the NBC Universal News Group, said in 2020 that his goal was to have a company workforce that was at least half women and half people of color, Bauder wrote in advance of the meeting. “Jose Diaz-Balart, Tom Llamas, Chuck Todd and Kristen Welker are among the NBC News personalities who have filmed video tutorials on such subjects as interview techniques and how to deal with sources. They’re available for any educator to use. . . .”

  • “The second cohort of the Fresno-area Journalists of Color training program has been selected,” Fresno State University announced Thursday. “There are now 14 students in the program designed to create a pathway that will offer greater diversity to the reporting staffs of San Joaquin Valley newsrooms. . . .The students are paid $300 monthly during the academic year and can stay in the program for up to five years, from their senior year in high school through four years of college. This is the second year of the program. . . .”

  • “A small but growing share of U.S. adults say they regularly get news on TikTok,” Katerina Eva Matsa reported Friday for the Pew Research Center. “This is in contrast with many other social media sites, where news consumption has either declined or stayed about the same in recent years. In just two years, the share of U.S. adults who say they regularly get news from TikTok has roughly tripled, from 3% in 2020 to 10% in 2022. . . .”

  • A Washington Post obituary Thursday of Daniel Smith, 90, (pictured) provides history many would rather we not know. Smith “was one of the last remaining children of enslaved Black Americans, and a rare direct link to slavery in the United States. Born when his father was 70, he was part of a generation that dwindled and then all but disappeared, taking with them stories of bondage that were told firsthand by mothers and fathers who, after enduring brutal conditions on Southern plantations, sought to build a new, better life for their families. ” Smith also said, “I remember hearing about two slaves who were chained together at the wrist and tried to run away  . . .  They were found by some vicious dogs hiding under a tree, and hanged from it. I also remember a story about an enslaved man who was accused of lying to his owner. He was made to step out into the snow with his family and put his tongue on an icy wagon wheel until it stuck. When he tried to remove it, half his tongue came off. . . . “

 

“As a Bostonian, born and bred, I never thought I would witness this beautiful sight: a newscast with an all Black team,” a viewer posted Oct. 2 to the Facebook page of the Boston Association of Black Journalists. “Kudos to WCVB-TV and to the talented reporters and anchor featured in this photo.” From left, meteorologist David Williams, reporter/anchor Rhondella Richardson and reporter Todd Kazakiewich.

  • “For the vast stretch of Mexico’s modern history, many denied that racism existed here at all,” Kate Linthicum reported from Mexico City Thursday for the Los Angeles Times. “They embraced the nation’s foundational myth that its people are mestizos, a single blended race of indigenous and Spanish blood, insisting that there could be no prejudice if all Mexicans were the same. But a growing social movement is challenging that thinking, thrusting discussions of discrimination based on skin color to the fore. . . . Mexico’s new racial reckoning has met resistance from parts of society, with some of the country’s top media personalities accusing activists of importing radical ideologies from the United States and seeking to divide the nation along racial lines. . . .”

  • “A BBC investigation — drawing on interviews with several current and former employees at Al Jazeera, and documentary evidence of inappropriate messages and staff complaints — has found several allegations of sexual harassment” against Kamahl Santamaria, a veteran television journalist who was just 32 days into his job at New Zealand’s top broadcaster TVNZ when he resigned, Suranjana Tewari reported Oct. 16 for the BBC. Santamaria had worked in the broadcaster’s Doha newsroom. “Some say he wasn’t the only one. They also accuse the company of fostering a toxic work culture where complaints of harassment, sexism, bullying and racism largely go unaddressed. . . .”

  • “As nationwide protests enter their fourth week in Iran, the government is increasing its crackdown on activists and journalists,” Deepa Parent reported Oct. 16 for the Guardian. “On 22 September Niloofar Hamedi, an Iranian journalist, was arrested after posting a picture she took of the parents of Mahsa Amini hugging each other in a Tehran hospital on the day of their daughter’s death. Amini, 22, died in police custody on 16 September after she was arrested for not wearing her hijab properly, which sparked the protests that then spread across the country. Mohammad Ali Kamfirouzi, Hamedi’s lawyer, tweeted the news of her client’s arrest and confirmed she was in solitary confinement in Evin prison, where she remains. Since then, at least 40 journalists have been arrested in Iran, according to a report by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Citing inside sources, the report said journalists were arrested at home and their devices confiscated. . . .”

  • “Investigative journalist Wang Zhi’an once exposed corruption, land seizures, and medical malpractice in China, with millions of viewers and a powerful platform: state broadcaster CCTV,” Dake Kang reported for the Associated Press. “Wang now lives alone in central Tokyo after being blacklisted in his homeland. His journey from on-air personality at the heart of China’s vast state media apparatus to reporter in exile illustrates how even government-backed critical reporting has been curtailed under Xi Jinping, China’s most authoritarian leader since Mao Zedong. Unlike many muckrakers, Wang hasn’t given up. . . .”

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