On assignment

Question Raised About What ICE Is Hiding

Berry, NABJ Insider, Named Executive Director

Question Raised About What ICE Is Hiding

A Mexican journalist whose case has been championed by U.S. journalism groups since he arrived in the United States 10 years ago has been freed from U.S. immigrant detention, media outlets reported Friday.

“Emilio Gutierrez Soto fled to the U.S. with his teenage son a decade ago after Gutierrez said he was threatened by the Mexican military,” Kate Linthicum reported from Mexico City Friday for the Los Angeles Times.

Gutierrez’s release does not mean he will be granted asylum, but he will be able to join the 2018-19 Knight-Wallace Fellowship class at the University of Michigan as a senior press freedom fellow.

“With so many challenges to press freedom, and in the midst of a crisis around immigration policy, it is easy to feel powerless,” said fellowship director Lynette Clemetson, who met with Gutiérrez in April at the El Paso detention facility to invite him to join the fellowship program. “Emilio’s release, due to the efforts of many, is a reminder that we all can do something” to effect change.

A single parent, Gutierrez appeared with his son, Oscar, and two other Mexican journalists in 2011 at the National Association of Hispanic Journalists convention near Orlando. Alejandro Hernandez Pacheco was granted asylum three months later; Ricardo Chávez Aldana won asylum in 2015.

U.S. authorities initially determined that Gutierrez had “credible fear” of returning to his home country and allowed him to settle in New Mexico. Last summer, however, an El Paso immigration judge denied Gutierrez’s asylum request, raising doubts about his credentials as a journalist and about the dangers facing him in Mexico, according to the National Press Club.

In his 2011 appearance before NAHJ, Gutierrez said he first received threats in 2005 after writing stories about alleged military involvement in drug trafficking in the state of Chihuahua. Two years later, his house was ransacked and he received more threats. He fled the country with his then-15-year-old son, now 25.

As Steve Coll reported in May for the New Yorker, “By the time Gutiérrez Soto’s asylum case had reached its final hearing, in December, 2016, it had become a highly visible cause for American defenders of journalism. The National Press Club, the Committee to Protect Journalists, Reporters Without Borders, and many other media and human-rights organizations spoke out or filed papers on his behalf.” However, Coll added, “In the polarized age of Donald Trump’s populist assaults on the press, . . . there is always the possibility that such support only causes skeptics of the media to take a harder line.”

Linthicum continued, “The pair have been held at a detention center in El Paso since their asylum claims were denied by a judge in 2017. In May, the Board of Immigration Appeals found that additional information should be considered in the case and sent it back to immigration court for a new hearing.

“Lawyers for Gutierrez demanded he be released while he waited for the new case to be heard. They said President Trump’s frequent attacks on Mexicans and journalists were evidence that Gutierrez, who has long been an outspoken critic of U.S. immigration policies, was a victim of discrimination.

“They pointed to a document, uncovered in a public records request, that showed Gutierrez was on a list used by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to target immigrants for arrest. The list typically includes the names of people suspected of violent criminal acts, not journalists seeking asylum, said Eduardo Beckett, an attorney for Gutierrez.

“Earlier this year, a judge agreed there was enough evidence to require the government to explain its continued detention of Gutierrez and his son. Days before the government was due to appear at a hearing to make its case for continuing to detain the pair, they were abruptly released Thursday night. . . .”

In an editorial Friday, updated Saturday, the Houston Chronicle said it was not satisfied. “Now, by releasing the journalist before the court deadline, the government won’t have to reveal why he was detained and won’t be required to explain who was involved in formulating ICE’s ‘Non-Detained Target List,’ which was created just after Trump took office.

“That is not acceptable. Government officials should not be allowed to violate rights with impunity. Gutierrez and his son deserve to know why they were arrested during a routine check-in, why they were handcuffed and on the verge of being deported. . . . .

“Gutierrez’s freedom should be celebrated, but questions about his case persist. Is merely criticizing the government reason enough to deprive someone of liberty? Maybe in Russia. Not in America.”

• Peter Sterne, Freedom of the Press Foundation: Did ICE detain this Mexican journalist for criticizing U.S. immigration policy?

Berry, NABJ Insider, Named Executive Director

Drew Berry, a former television executive and veteran of the National Association of  Black Journalists who has been the go-to guy to run the NABJ national office when executive directors have resigned or otherwise left abruptly, has been named to the job himself, NABJ announced on Friday.

He succeeds Sharon Toomer, who served relatively briefly before delivering a blistering five-page letter to NABJ leaders criticizing the “degree of bad business culture” she said the board of directors exemplified. Her resignation was announced June 22 in a statement that also said Berry had already been hired to assist with convention planning and “will work on national office operations.”

Berry served as a “consultant” in 2009 and 2010 after Karen Wynn-Freeman left as executive director; and was “executive consultant” from 2015 to 2017 with the departure of Darryl R. Matthews Sr. He has also been finance committee chair and is a lifetime member.

Berry once wrote, “My daughter, who is an Executive News Producer with WABC-TV in New York, frequently asks me, ‘Dad, why do you go through the stress of NABJ politics when you really don’t have to do it?’ My answer is simple. ‘I love the organization.’ ”

NABJ President Sarah Glover said in the announcement, “NABJ is excited that Drew Berry is joining our staff as Executive Director. His executive experience and media industry knowledge, coupled with his knack for fundraising and member relations, are some of the significant skills he brings to this vital position. Our members and partners will be well served with Drew at the helm.”

Last year, having returned in 2015 after NABJ dismissed Matthews as part of cost-cutting to address a $400,000 deficit, Berry told Facebook friends, “Mission accomplished with NABJ!” The organization had achieved its projected $1.2 million surplus for 2016.

Berry helped to accomplish a similar turnaround for NABJ in 2010 and later was active in monitoring the organization’s finances, sometimes as part of a group of activist members critical of the association’s leadership.

This year, he has steered the annual convention in Detroit, which is targeting millennials, and is predicting a success that will be exceeded only by next year’s in Miami.

Berry has been president of Drew Berry & Associates, LLC, based in Baltimore; was a visiting professional at Hampton University from 2010 to 2017, and was vice president, general manager, station manager and news director at WMAR-TV in Baltimore from 1996 to 2007.

“I am very excited about the opportunities for engagement with NABJ leadership, members and partners to further build on a very solid financial and programmatic foundation,” Berry said in the news release.  “We are already discussing new partnerships, NABJ enterprises and organizational efficiencies to benefit all NABJ stakeholders.”

‘It Starts a Dictatorship’

July 27, 2018

White House Boots Reporter It Did Not Like

Station’s Apology Doesn’t Satisfy Protesters

Jemele Hill to Leave Sports to Tackle Race, Gender

Blacks, Indians Disproportionately Sedated

N.Y. Daily News Cuts Made Before Plan Was in Place

Newsprint Tariff Takes Toll on Navajo Times

Univision Reportedly Eliminating 6% of Workforce

L.A. Times Finds Sanctuary Cities Don’t Deliver

Warren Brown, Washington Post Auto Writer, Dies

Short Takes

White House Boots Reporter It Did Not Like

“On Thursday, White House correspondent April Ryan hammered President Donald Trump’s former campaign official Steve Cortes after he mocked the freedom of the press,” Dominique Jackson reported Thursday for Raw Story.

“CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins was booted from a public White House event after she asked President Trump questions he did not like on Wednesday.

[The Washington Post reported late Friday that such action has been a wish of long standing. “President Trump has sought repeatedly to punish journalists for the way they ask him questions, directing White House staff to ban those reporters from covering official events or to revoke their press credentials, according to several current and former administration officials,” according to a story by Philip Rucker, Josh Dawsey and Ashley Parker.]

“Cortes started off by saying that banning Collins from the event was wrong, but placed the blame on the media.

“ ‘The White House believes and I think correctly so, that the generally, the media is so antagonistic towards the White House, and literally so biased,” Cortes said.

“Ryan called it all ‘foolishness.’

“ ‘I’m laughing to keep from crying because you believe this foolishness,’ Ryan said. ‘This president came out saying we are the enemy of the people. We did nothing to him. From the moment he was elected president, even before that, when he thought he was going to be president. He did not want us in the White House. So the antagonism started with this administration. There is not a bias.’

“ ‘April, that’s ridiculous,’ Cortes responded.

“ ‘No, it’s not ridiculous. This is what the president is doing. We have a right to ask. We have a right to ask. She is a credentialed member of the press in the pool. And I’m going to say this to you, when you start oppressing and censoring the press, it starts a dictatorship,’ Ryan said. . . .”

Pete Vernon added for Columbia Journalism Review, “CNN’S Kaitlan Collins did her job, and then got punished by the White House for it. The aggressive retaliation by government officials drew outrage from journalists, rival networks, and the White House Correspondents Association.

“Collins, serving [as] the television pool reporter at an Oval Office photo opportunity on Wednesday, called out questions to President Trump about his former lawyer’s taping of conversations and Vladimir Putin’s failure to accept an invitation to Washington. This is common practice among White House reporters. Trump declined to answer the questions, which is his right. But then things took a turn, as Collins says she was called before Press Secretary Sarah Sanders and newly appointed deputy chief of staff Bill Shine and told that she would not be allowed to attend an open press event in the Rose Garden later in the day. . . .”

Vernon also wrote, “The outrage from journalists to Collins’s banning was palpable, but in order to have an impact they must also make it clear to the public why this story matters beyond the understandable anger and frustration from CNN. After all, the White House allowed CNN cameras and other network reporters to cover Trump’s afternoon event, so is this dust-up really all that important?

“The real reason why this is significant is that Trump’s constant attacks on the press — so regular that they barely register anymore — have now been backed by concrete action from his minions. As with any number of individual incidents involving this administration and the media, the specific action won’t hasten the end of the free press as we know it, but the sum of Trump’s deliberate attempts to undermine trust in journalism has long-lasting consequences. . . . ”

• Jeremy Barr, Hollywood Reporter: Former Fox News Exec Bill Shine Oversees White House Crackdown on Press
• Charles M. Blow, New York Times: Trump, ‘He’s Like a Rapper’

• Rachel Dicker, Mediaite: Fox’s Shepard Smith Calls Out ‘Personal Friend’ Bill Shine For Banning CNN Reporter From White House Event
• Editorial, Chicago Sun-Times: It’s called real news, Mr. President. Nothing fake about it
• David Edwards, Raw Story: April Ryan reveals Trump banned White House reporter because ‘he is upset’ at Melania for watching CNN
• John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable: Trump Threatens Investigation of Twitter
• Tony Norman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Why President Trump can’t get no satisfaction!
• Jason Schwartz, Politico: ‘We are fighting for information about war’: Pentagon curbs media access
• Erik Wemple, Washington Post: The White House smears a CNN correspondent

Station’s Apology Doesn’t Satisfy Protesters

“About 40 supporters of Nia Wilson, the woman stabbed to death on a BART platform Sunday, marched to the headquarters of KTVU protesting the news station’s use of a photo showing the 18-year-old victim holding a gun,” David DeBolt reported Thursday for the Bay Area News Group.

“The march began at 14th and Alice streets Thursday morning and ended at the gate of the news station located in Jack London Square, where protesters blocked the entrance for more than two hours.

“Wilson was stabbed in the neck at around 9:30 p.m. while she and her two sisters waited for a BART train on the MacArthur station platform. One of her sisters, Latifa Wilson, was also stabbed and suffered serious injuries but is out of the hospital. John Lee Cowell, 27, has been charged in Alameda County court with murder and attempted murder after his arrest Tuesday evening.

“Protesters handed a list of six demands to KTVU reporter Paul Chambers, who met with members of the Wilson family outside KTVU and later interviewed Oakland community leader and rapper Mistah Fab. One of the demands called for the termination of the people responsible for posting the picture of Nia Wilson. . .  .

“Mistah Fab, also known as Stanley Cox, later read a message KTVU news director Amber Eikel sent him. Eikel said one person was responsible for selecting the photo, which she called a ‘horrible’ and ‘split-second’ decision. Eikel apologized in the private message, Mistah Fab said. . . .”

On Facebook, evening anchor Frank Somerville Monday posted an apology.

“I had nothing to do with the picture being used,” Somerville wrote in part.

“I wasn’t even at work.

“But as a leader in the newsroom I felt it was my job to speak up and apologize.

“There is no excuse for we did.

“Repeat: No excuse! . . .”

By Thursday night, the posting had received 2,900 comments, was shared 3,500 times and garnered 6,400 “likes.”

Many, including journalists, responded that Somerville’s apology was insufficient.

One wrote, “It’s very difficult for me to accept that it was a mistake. This happens all too frequently and it’s difficult to believe that no one in the newsroom took notice that this was not an appropriate photo for this story. If an error like this can be made, then there needs to be some significant and swift changes at KTVU. While I respect you and your reporting, I disagree with categorizing this as a mistake. These type of ‘mistakes’ never happen in our favor…..”

• David DeBolt, Bay Area News Group: Black community sees racial hate motive in BART slaying
• Ricardo A. Hazell, Shadow League: Nia Wilson: Race, Murder And The Faux Ambiguity Of Mainstream Media
• Maynard Institute: NABJ, BABJA and Maynard Institute Condemn KTVU FOX 2’s Improper Use of Photo of Stabbing Victim, Nia Wilson
• Alyssa Pereira, SFGATE.com: #SayHerName Nia Wilson tributes roll in from Kehlani, Anne Hathaway, Bruno Mars and others
• Elise Solé, Yahoo: People are angry about a photo of stabbing victim Nia Wilson holding a ‘gun’ to her head
• Al Tompkins, Poynter Institute: A news station aired a photo of a stabbing victim holding what looks like a gun. Here’s why that’s problematic

Jemele Hill to Leave Sports to Tackle Race, Gender

“Jemele Hill will no longer stick to just sports,” Peter Bukowski reported Thursday for ozy.com. “After 12 years at ESPN, the Detroit native — who appeared on OZY Fest’s main stage on Sunday — announced in front of a packed crowd that she’s making plans to leave the world of sports for life behind the camera, where she will focus on stories about race and gender.

“Earlier this year, Hill moved from her role as host of the 6 p.m. SportsCenter on ESPN specifically to take on the issues of race and gender in sports at the company’s Undefeated platform.

“That move followed from a pair of controversial moments for Hill on Twitter, one in which she called President Donald Trump a white supremacist, and another in which she suggested the best way to have NFL owners hear fan voices on social issues was to boycott advertisers. That latter outburst netted Hill a suspension.

“’Even before everything happened, I was already in the mindset of wondering what was next,’ she says. She had planned to wait out her contract. But her suspension and the backlash ‘have made me think about it sooner and [to] plot out what the next 10–15 years of my life would be.’

“Hill and her college roommate recently started a production company last August. The next iteration of her career? Creating content behind the camera. ‘As much as I’d like to tell you about Golden State’s latest game or tell you about why Jacksonville can win the Super Bowl, some days I just didn’t give a shit because of everything else that was happening in this country.’ . . .

“Hill sees an opportunity to give voice to underserved people, particularly women of color. . . .”

Hill is to be awarded “Journalist of the Year” at next week’s convention of the National Association of Black Journalists in Detroit.

• DeAsia Paige, Detroit Free Press: Bobby Brown is ready to tell his own story at NABJ convention in Detroit
• National Association of Black Journalists: Doni Holloway Named 2018 NABJ Student Journalist of the Year
• National Association of Black Journalists: NABJ Visual Task Force Founder Felecia D. Henderson to Receive Legacy Award at 2018 Convention
• WWJ-TV, Detroit: Michigan Matters: NABJ, Media Legends and Politics

Blacks, Indians Disproportionately Sedated

“More than 60 doctors, bioethicists and academics signed onto a federal complaint this week alleging Hennepin Healthcare conducted high-risk ketamine research on more than 100 unwitting participants while ignoring ethical practices and federal safeguards,” Andy Mannix reported Wednesday for the Star Tribune in Minneapolis.

“Public Citizen, a consumer rights advocacy group, has asked the Food and Drug Administration and the Office for Human Research Protection to conduct investigations into whether the hospital complied with federal regulations during two clinical trials — one completed, the other suspended amid ethical inquiries — involving paramedics sedating people with ketamine before bringing them to the hospital. . . .”

If the percentage of unwitting participants in the research who are black or American Indian approximates the percentage to whom police gave ketamine as an emergency sedative, then half are people of color.

Six weeks ago, the Star Tribune obtained and reported on a draft study focused on the use of ketamine during emergency calls. The city’s Office of Police Conduct Review released the final version to the public Thursday, and presented its findings to City Council members.

“Minneapolis police should create protocols for officers dealing with emotionally disturbed people, receive training on how to work with emergency responders and establish rules for their involvement in clinical research, according to recommendations presented by city police oversight staff Thursday,” Mannix reported.

Mannix also wrote, “Similar to the draft, the report details several occasions where Minneapolis police officers urged paramedics to sedate people with ketamine, and in some cases held the person down during the injection.

“The Minneapolis Office of Police Conduct Review on Thursday released its first public version of its report on the use of ketamine to subdue people . . .

“The popularity of ketamine as an emergency sedative is revealed by its mention in police reports, soaring from two in 2010 to 62 last year, according to the report.

“Of these cases, 40 percent of the people were black, 39 percent white and 10 percent American Indian, according to the report. Seventy-two percent were men, and the most common age groups were 18-24 and 24-34 years old. . . . .”

• Lorenzo Gudino and Karen Michel, Madison magazine: What it means to be Native American in today’s society (July 19)

N.Y. Daily News Cuts Made Before Plan Was in Place

“As he takes over a newsroom that was just reduced by half, the New York Daily News’ new top editor, Robert York, is asking his embattled staff for time to chart a new course,” Tom Kludt reported Tuesday for CNN.

“Addressing the newspaper’s employees for the first time on Tuesday, York asked those remaining in the newsroom to stay at the Daily News for 30 days to give him time to demonstrate that he is taking the publication in the right direction, according to a staff member who was present.

“But York heard complaints that the Daily News sports department had been gutted by Monday’s layoffs, as well as open confusion over the long-term strategy of the tabloid’s parent company, Tronc. The source said that York spent much of the meeting saying he might end up rebuilding and reorienting existing talent to cover the parts of the paper that have been eviscerated by the layoffs.

“The hastily arranged meeting served as York’s introduction to a Daily News staff still reeling from Tronc’s announcement on Monday that the editorial team has been reduced by 50%.

“Joining York in leading the hour-long meeting was Tronc executive vice president and general manager, Grant Whitmore.

“They both encountered anger and frustration when they addressed the Daily News staff on Tuesday, according to an employee who was there. The source said that many employees were upset, and that there was ‘widespread confusion about why the layoffs happened before a strategic plan was developed.’ . . . ”

As reported on Tuesday, photographer Enid Alvarez, who is Latina, was identified as among the casualties, as were Rob Ng, a sports copy editor, and Daniel Johnson-Kim, audience engagement editor, who are Asian American.

Derek Reed, a photo editor who is African American, photographers Marcos Santos, who is Hispanic, and James Keivom, who is Asian American, were also affected. So were Michael Cruz Espinal, a librarian who is Latino, and Michael Nam, home page editor, who is Asian American.  “[A]ll of the staff photographers were dismissed,” reported Clodagh McGowan of NY1.

“Grew up reading the Daily News and honored to have worked at this great NYC institution. Onward and upward,” the librarian tweeted. “The Daily News Library is officially closed.”

Nam messaged, “As for the future, who knows. I’ll probably keep looking in the journalism field for the time being.”

Newsprint Tariff Takes Toll on Navajo Times

The financial toll that the Trump administration’s tax on Canadian newsprint is exacting on U.S. publishers has also affected Indian Country.

Tom Arviso Jr.,  CEO/publisher of the independently published Navajo Times in Arizona, was not at last week’s Native American Journalists Association conference in Miami.

“I wish that I could’ve attended but our financial situation right now is really taking a toll on our business operations and travel,” Arviso messaged Journal-isms on Thursday. “We only sent one staffer — Pauly Denetclaw — and usually I send at least 5-7 staff to NAJA.

“We are truly feeling the effects of the publishing business struggles and the tariffs on newsprint from Canada. Everything is costing more and revenue is going down. We are independent and operate on our own revenue generation. This is the first time that we have really struggled as a business. However, I have not had to lay-off any staff and I want to keep it that way. We just have to weather the story and re-strategize!”

Arviso also wrote,”Many tribal publications receive their funding from their tribal governments and so they don’t feel the crunch like we do. We are one of the very few independent Native American owned and operated newspaper publishing companies. In fact, maybe the only one in North America. We are survivors though and we will get bigger, stronger and smarter as we fight this battle. We have a loyal readership and advertising base and we will continue to produce quality journalism and publish a great newspaper each week.”

The U.S. Department of Commerce is expected to decide by Aug. 1 whether to maintain the tariff, Joseph Spector, Albany Bureau for Gannett, reported Wednesday.

• Maria Curi, Politico: Congress steps up efforts to reverse newsprint tariffs (July 17)
• Editorial, Buffalo News: First Amendment is under attack by newsprint tariffs
• Editorial, Orange County Register: Newsprint tariffs threaten print journalism across the country (July 4, updated July 5)
• Jerry Zremski, Buffalo News: Trump administration faces bipartisan pressure to end newsprint tariffs

Univision Reportedly Eliminating 6% of Workforce

“Univision is announcing layoffs this morning, the next major step in the Hispanic media giant’s complete makeover,” Dade Hayes reported Wednesday for Deadline: Hollywood. “Numbers are not specified in the company-wide memo, but a source close to the company tells Deadline 6% of jobs will be eliminated. Before the reductions, the company had a workforce of about 4,000 people, meaning the ranks of the departed will number about 250.

“Vince Sadusky, who succeeded Randy Falco as CEO in June, said in a memo to employees . . . that he is implementing a return to basics after the company pursued ‘many experiments’ during the Falco regime. ‘One of the benefits of coming into a company with fresh eyes is that it is easier to have a clear look at these efforts without emotion and history,’ he said. ‘In doing so, it became clear to me that many of these new ideas had eaten up a disproportionate part of our resources, whereas some of our most core activities had been significantly under-resourced.’

“In a statement, the company offered more context for the layoffs and the plan to refocus on what the company called its ‘core mission’ of serving the U.S. Hispanic community.

“ ‘We have concluded a company-wide strategic review aimed at reorienting our operations to ensure we are positioned to most effectively compete in an evolving media marketplace,’ the statement said. ‘We are implementing a plan to rejuvenate and re-energize the company with a re-dedication to our core mission of serving the U.S. Hispanic community. As part of this plan we are both reducing our workforce in various divisions around the company, as well as adding resources and capabilities to strengthen our core business.

” While it is extremely difficult to lose valued employees, we are confident that our actions — along with our previously-announced process to explore the sale of the Gizmodo Media Group and The Onion portfolio — will enable us to focus on and invest in our core assets, which is necessary to ensure we remain the leading and unwavering voice, advocate and source of information for the Hispanic community.’ . . .”

• Daniel Shoer Roth, Miami Herald: Crisis at Univision grows: High profile reporters part of new layoffs

L.A. Times Finds Sanctuary Cities Don’t Deliver

“As the debate about immigration reform hit a new decibel this year, sanctuary cities, which have existed in some form for three decades (Berkeley, unsurprisingly, was the first), have become politicized to the point of distortion,” the Los Angeles Times writes in introducing a story package in its California Sunday magazine.

“In 2017, California passed its strongest statewide sanctuary laws with the California Values Act and the Immigrant Worker Protection Act. The laws were at once championed for protecting hardworking undocumented immigrants from deportation and lambasted for sheltering violent criminals. The reality: They do neither.”

The stories are by Elise Craig, Haley Cohen Gilliland, Jesse Katz, Mike Kessler, Andy Kroll, Ashley Powers and Joy Shan.

• Jarvis DeBerry, NOLA.com | Times-Picayune: What’s with all these police officers targeting Hispanic residents?
• Editorial, Houston Chronicle: Trump admin’s “illegal alien” directive continues dehumanization of immigrants 
• Khoi B, medium.com: When History Repeats Itself: Asian Immigrants in the Era of Trump
• Emily Kassie, New York Times: Sexual Assault Inside ICE Detention: 2 Survivors Tell Their Stories (July 17)
• Marshall Project with New York magazine: How Donald Trump’s war on immigrants is playing out in his hometown.
• Mary Sanchez, Kansas City Star: Let’s audit ICE, not abolish it, to keep America safe
• Roque Planas, HuffPost: A Single Trump Appointee Was Responsible For Keeping Hundreds Of Kids Locked Up Longer
• Miranda S. Spivack, Reveal from Center for Investigative Reporting: Immigration lawyers, judges vexed by new Trump policies

Warren Brown, Washington Post Auto Writer, Dies

“Warren Brown, a Washington Post reporter and columnist who brought race and class-conscious insights to his coverage of the automotive industry over three decades and who bared his personal health struggles in a book about the donated kidney he received from a colleague, died July 26 at a hospital in Manassas, Va.,” Adam Bernstein reported Thursday for the Washington Post. “He was 70.

“The cause was complications related to kidney disease, his family said. Mr. Brown received two kidney transplants, the first from his wife in 1999 and the second from a Post colleague in 2001. Neither transplant lasted, and he had long been on dialysis.

“Road & Travel magazine, which honored Mr. Brown in 2009 for career excellence, called him a ‘lively and detailed writer’ and ‘one of the most respected and influential automotive journalists in the industry.’

“He described himself as a ‘servant’ to his readers — a representative who looked out for their financial interests while also trying to satisfy car enthusiasts’ passions for details about fuel efficiency, horsepower and torque. But in writing about one of the largest sectors of the U.S. economy, he also challenged readers who might have preferred that he stick to interiors and exteriors, penning columns that could veer sharply into politics and race.

“Race, he once said, was a factor in his backing of the 2008 government bailout of Detroit’s auto industry amid recession. ‘They were the companies that gave my people a break,’ Mr. Brown, who was black, told C-SPAN in 2010. ‘We would not have a black middle class had we not had General Motors, Ford and Chrysler.’

“He observed in a 2008 column of detecting a sneer in the way ‘well-paid, well-known’ pundits seemed to summon outrage over lending money to unionized workers but did not write in high dudgeon over the government’s financial rescue of Wall Street leviathans. . . .”

Bernstein also wrote, “Mr. Brown suffered for years from high blood pressure, and hypertension ultimately damaged his kidneys. After his first transplant failed, a business section colleague, Martha McNeil Hamilton, volunteered to help a friend she described as a fellow ‘aging, ink-stained’ member of the section’s ‘elder pod’ who had stood by her amid her own family ordeals. . . .”

Kafi Drexel Brown posted these funeral arrangements on Friday:

Visitation: 6:30 p.m. Monday at Holy Trinity Catholic Church, 3513 N Street NW, Washington, DC 20007 (chapel)

Mass of Christian Burial/Celebration of Life, Tuesday, 10:30 a.m. (main church)

“We are kindly requesting no flowers and in lieu of that [we’re] working out donations in dad’s name, scholarship fund in his name, and other needs for my suddenly widowed mom with sadly not much financial preparation.”

Short Takes

• “Four winners from the USA, Madagascar, UK and Egypt were selected from over 500 global submissions and will be awarded $5000 US to continue their projects exploring fatherhood, feminism, culture and the African Diaspora,” Getty Images and ARRAY Alliance, a creative collective founded by filmmaker Ava DuVernay, announced on July 19. Among the winners is Shawn Theodore, “a Philadelphia based photographer, whose work encompasses investigations of African American and African Diasporic life within disappearing Black American neighborhoods.”
• “A new seven-days-a-week news outlet called The Daily Memphian will make its debut this fall, with many of the biggest names in Memphis journalism and a unique not-for-profit funding model,” Bill Dries reported July 16 for the Memphis Daily News. “The ambitious effort’s goal is to become the city’s definitive news source with reporting of, by and for Memphis. . . . The Daily Memphian begins with a staff of 27.” Dries’ story lists those who have signed on so far, including Otis Sanford as columnist/editor at large. He is professor at the University of Memphis and former editor for opinion and editorials at the Commercial Appeal.
• Chance the Rapper’s July 19 announcement that he now owns Chicagoist, as part of a deal with New York public radio’s WNYC, came in a new song: “I missed a Crain’s interview, they tried leaking my addy/ I donate to the schools next, they call me a deadbeat daddy/ But Sun-Times get in that Rauner business/ I got a hit-list so long I don’t know how to finish/ I bought the Chicagoist just to run you racist bitches out of business,” Christine Schmidt reported then for Nieman Reports. Bruce Rauner is Illinois governor.
• In a report published Wednesday, “Online harassment of journalists: the trolls attack,’ “Reporters Without Borders (RSF) voices concern about the scale of a new threat to press freedom, the mass harassment of journalists online,” the press freedom group said Wednesday, updated Thursday. “The perpetrators may be ordinary ‘haters’ (individuals or communities of individuals hiding behind their screens) or ‘troll armies’ of online mercenaries created by authoritarian regimes. In both cases the goal is the same, to silence journalists whose reporting annoys, often using exceptionally abusive methods. . . .”
• “In ‘Documenting Hate: Charlottesville,’ Frontline and ProPublica investigate the white supremacists and neo-Nazis involved in the 2017 Charlottesville Unite the Right rally,” Pro Publica announced.Wednesday. Correspondent A.C. Thompson shows “some of those behind the racist violence nearly one year ago went unpunished and continued to operate around the country. . . . Tune [in to] the premiere on PBS on Aug. 7 at 10 p.m. Eastern, 9 p.m. Central and online at pbs.org/frontline.”
• “WBUR in Boston announced Wednesday that Meghna Chakrabarti and David Folkenflik will take over as co-hosts of its weekday talk show On Point, produced at WBUR in Boston,” Tyler Falk reported Wednesday for Current.org. Chakrabarti, whose parents immigrated to Boston from Bombay before she was born, is to host the show Monday through Thursday from Boston, and Folkenflik takes over Fridays from New York. The new hosts begin Aug. 20.

  

• “News anchors around the country are rejecting the old rules of broadcast journalism — and wearing their hair on their own terms,” reads a headline over a July 20 piece by Khalea Underwood for refinery29.com.
• In New York, “WABC has named Marilu Galvez the vice president of community relations and development,” Stephanie Tsoflias Siegel reported Wednesday for TVSpy. “Marilu’s vast experience working within all aspects of our station, from Eyewitness News to Community Programming and events across our entire viewing area has prepared her to take on this key leadership role for WABC,” Debra O’Connell, president and general manager said in the announcement.
• “She’s bold, she’s confrontational, she’s a championing voice in the Asian American community — Nydia Han is on a mission to create a safer, more inclusive United States for minorities and people of color,” Aaron Mok wrote Wednesday for AsAmNews. “An award-winning Korean American reporter for 6ABC in Philadelphia . . . [h]er three-part series This is America takes a closer look at race relations nationwide, where she confronts racism at face value. . . .”
• “Jason Spencer, the Georgia Republican lawmaker who was fooled into repeatedly yelling a racial epithet on the comedian Sacha Baron Cohen’s television series, intends to resign effective July 31,” Sopan Deb and Alan Blinder reported Wednesday for the New York Times. “The decision was announced early Wednesday in an email from the office of David Ralston, the Georgia House speaker. It was the first real-world consequence of Mr. Cohen’s Showtime series, ‘Who Is America?’ . . .”
• “You have either read, heard or watched the following people in the Houston media for years,” Mike McGuff reported Tuesday for his television news website. “Now attorney and broadcast legal analyst Chris Tritico, former US Congressman and radio journalist Chris Bell and former newspaper journalists Andi Georgsson and James Campbell are newly minted podcasters. The quartet have come together to produce ‘What’s Left America,’ a news and pop culture podcast focusing on left-leaning politics. . . . ” Campbell, who now works in public relations, is a former reporter, editorial writer, columnist and readers’ representative at the Houston Chronicle.
• “With the support of Craig Newmark Philanthropies, the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) is expanding its TruthBuzz initiative, designed to find new ways to help verified facts reach the widest possible audience,” ICFJ announces. “TruthBuzz is currently looking for full-time Fellows to work in newsrooms in some of the most populous nations: India, Indonesia, Nigeria and the United States. . . .”
• “Ken Li will be joining Reuters next month as U.S. Media & Telecoms Editor . . .,” Tiffany Wu, Reuters regional editor for the Americas, wrote Wednesday, Chris Roush reported for Talking Biz News. “Ken left Reuters in 2014 to join Recode as one of the founding editors of the award-winning tech news site, where he helped set editorial strategy and became editor-in-chief. Most recently, Ken was executive editor at Newsweek where he ran an international news operation of about 60 journalists. . . .”
• “Black Public Media (BPM), the nation’s only nonprofit dedicated solely to media content about the black experience, has issued an open call to producers for nonfiction broadcast projects (individual programs or series pilots) and scripted or nonfiction digital web series,” the group announced July 19. “The third round of BPM’s 360 Incubator+ will see as many as 10 teams contend for up to $150,000 in funding to help produce the pilots or funding reels of their broadcast or digital projects. The program is designed to get quality programming and content into the pipeline and help move it to market. . . .” Deadline for submissions is Aug. 31.
• “During negotiations for Chicago’s 2012 budget, newly elected Mayor Rahm Emanuel and then-City Clerk Susana Mendoza agreed to hike the price of what was already one of the priciest tickets vehicle owners can get in the city. Citations for not having a required vehicle sticker rose from $120 to $200,” Melissa Sanchez of ProPublica and Elliott Ramos of WBEZ in Chicago reported Thursday. They also wrote, “But increasing the price of sticker tickets came at a devastating cost for thousands of Chicago’s poorest residents, particularly those from African-American neighborhoods, according to an investigation by ProPublica Illinois and WBEZ. . . .”

• 

  “Suspended NJ101.5 hosts Dennis Malloy and Judi Franco apologized Thursday for racist remarks about New Jersey’s attorney general, Gurbir Grewal, the station announced,” Chris Sheldon reported for NJ Advance Media for NJ.com. “It also said the hosts of the ‘Dennis and Judi’ show had received 10 day suspensions. Grewal, the nation’s first Sikh attorney general, was referred to as ‘turban man’ and ‘the guy with the turban’ as Malloy and Franco discussed Grewal’s recent move telling municipal prosecutors not to pursue charges for marijuana arrests. . . .”

• “I am writing about the recent escalation of violence in southern Syria and to request your help with the protection of scores of journalists who remain in the country at grave risk,” Courtney Radsch, advocacy director for the Committee to Protect Journalists, wrote the European Union on Wednesday. “The more than 60 journalists are in danger of arrest and torture because of their work. We are seeking the assistance of European Union member states to provide safe haven for some of the journalists and your help in ensuring that Jordan, Israel, and Turkey provide safe passage. . . .”
• “Two Mexican journalists have been murdered in separate attacks since the beginning of July, raising the number of killings of journalists in the country to nine so far in 2018,” the International Press Institute reported. “Rubén Pat Cahuich, director of the Playa News online news site, was shot dead in the street outside a bar in Playa del Carmen, in the state of Quintana Roo, on July 24. . . . Earlier this month, Luis Pérez García, the 80-year-old director of the magazine Encuesta de Hoy, was found dead in the rubble of his burnt house in Iztapalapa, Mexico City. . . .”
• Reporters Without Borders said Wednesday, updated Thursday, that it “urges for immediate release of Chinese political cartoonist, Jiang Yefei, who was sentenced on July 13 to six and a half years on charges of ‘subversion of state power.’ On July 13, 2018, in a trial kept secret until yesterday,” the cartoonist was sentenced “on charges of ‘inciting subversion of state power’ and ‘illegally crossing the border’ . . . ”
• “Yesterday the Nigerian Senate held a public hearing on a bill to amend the Press Council Act,” Ray Ekpu wrote Tuesday for the Guardian in Lagos. “It was a very draconian legislation and the press, angered by its obnoxious content, decided to give it a cold shoulder. In a strong show of unity and unanimity, the three arms of the Nigerian Press Organisation . . . refused to nominate their members to serve on the Council. With that deft move the Decree was dead on arrival. . . .”
• “Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) has restored prior censorship of newspapers after a five-year hiatus,” Radio Dabanga, a radio station broadcast by Sudanese and based in the Netherlands, reported Thursday. “Prior censorship means that officers from the security apparatus come to the printing press once the newspaper is ready to be printed, and review and remove material they do not want to be published. Previously, before the prior censorship was lifted, security officers would come to the newspaper’s headquarters at night; prevent the publication of articles that do not agree with their policies, however, censorship has directly moved from press headquarters to printing presses. . . .” Separately, “On Wednesday, the security authorities summoned the editor-in-chief of El Jareeda newspaper Ashraf Abdelaziz and Akhbar El Watan editor-in-chief Hanadi El Siddig in connection with articles criticising the government and investigating corruption in the civil service. . . .”
• “The collapse of press freedom began in Cambodia a little less than a year ago, as Prime Minister Hun Sen and his Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) took the first steps to secure their victory in the 2018 general election this Sunday,” Sanna Pekkonen wrote Monday for the International Press Institute. “Using tax laws and other legal instruments, the government has effectively silenced the country’s independent media, closing down newspapers and radio stations. . . .”
• “Almost three-quarters of Venezuela’s newspapers have closed during five years of recession in the once-prosperous OPEC member country, according to the national journalism association, leaving El Nacional as the last independent national daily,” Angus Berwick and Vivian Sequera reported Thursday for Reuters. “Press watchdogs warn that media freedom declined over the past year, which saw President Nicolas Maduro win a fresh six-year term in May at elections boycotted by the opposition. . . .”

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• 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
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• Diversity’s Greatest Hits, 2011
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• 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)