What About ‘As Nasty as They Wanna Be,’ Luke?

Will Sutton Named Columnist at New Orleans Paper

Editor and Publisher Sold; Nu Yang Becomes Editor

What About ‘As Nasty as They Wanna Be,’ Luke?

“Luther ‘Luke’ Campbell, the former 2 Live Crew frontman and self-described “original bad boy of hip-hop,” “absolutely torched Kamala Harris a few weeks after she announced her bid for president,” Christopher Cadelago wrote Tuesday for Politico.

“Writing in the Miami New Times, Campbell argued many blue-collar African Americans, especially men, had made up their minds not to vote for the onetime prosecutor. He lumped her in with politicians who have denied defendants rehabilitation and targeted innocent people.

“And in a riff that critics slammed as sexist, Campbell questioned Harris’ marriage to a white man. He even suggested she used a romantic relationship with former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown to advance her career. . . .”

A turning point came at the National Association of Black Journalists convention in Miami last month, Cadelago wrote.

“Campbell sat for an interview with Tiffany Cross, founder and managing editor of the Beat DC, a newsletter on the intersection of politics, policy and people of color. ‘She brought up his column about Harris, noting a lot of people considered it sexist.

“ ‘He was like,  ‘Oh, God. Here we go,’  Cross recalled.

” ‘In his piece, Campbell had taken issue with Harris’ marriage to Doug Emhoff, describing him as ‘a rich white lawyer.’ He also called her a ‘mistress’ of Brown, ‘a powerful black man.’

“Cross wanted to know when he became the moral authority on relationships.

“ ‘I mean, should we revisit “As Nasty As They Wanna Be,” and all the albums and things you put out about women?’ Cross asked. She said it was fair game to probe Harris’ record, but the personal shots went too far.

“When it was over, she texted a contact at the Harris campaign. Cross felt like Campbell was open to persuasion.

“It wasn’t combative, but he didn’t have a counterpoint to a lot of the things I raised with him,” she said.

“Campbell did another long interview at the Miami event, this one with The Atlantic’s Jemele Hill, who previously had Harris on her show. Late in the podcast, the senator came up again. Hill argued Harris had created one of the most progressive prisoner reentry programs in the country. Hill also told Campbell he should pay attention to [former vice president Joseph R.] Biden for not apologizing for his tough-on-crime record.

“Campbell’s aversion to Harris was melting. . . .”

Will Sutton Named Columnist at New Orleans Paper

“Will Sutton, a New Orleans native who worked as an editor and reporter in Pennsylvania, Indiana and North Carolina, is returning to his home city as a columnist for The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate,” the newly combined paper reported Monday.

“Sutton will write columns and editorials and will serve on the board that helps decide the newspaper’s editorial positions. In addition, he will be a professional in residence at Loyola University New Orleans’ School of Communication and Design, teaching and helping diversify the news industry in Louisiana by recruiting high school and college students into the profession. . . .”

Sutton, a former president of the National Association of Black Journalists, added on Facebook, “I’ll be advising the recently-formed (NABJ) National Association of Black Journalists student chapter at Loyola, helping with diversity efforts, recruiting and teaching. I helped Dr. Sonya Duhe and Skye Ray, the campus NABJ president, get the chapter going with support from former NABJ Region III director Ken Lemon. . . .”

Sutton said in the Times-Picayune/Advocate: “I’ve had a great career, and I welcome the opportunity to live, work and play in the beautiful and romantic place that is New Orleans. I look forward to reconnecting with family, friends, fraternity brothers and others who have been a part of my life as I meet and connect with others to make New Orleans the delicious gumbo city it is.”

Sutton most recently was director of public information for the Northeast Delta Human Services Authority in Monroe, La.

He was a reporter and editor for the Courier-Post in Cherry Hill, N.J., and the Philadelphia Inquirer. He went on to Gary, Ind., and became editor of the Post-Tribune, and left there to be deputy managing editor at the News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C.

“After his newspaper career, he worked for Hampton [University] and Grambling State University,” the Times-Picayune/Advocate reported.

Jarvis DeBerry, a black journalist who worked for 22 years at the Times-Picayune, most recently as its most prominent African American columnist, left for cleveleand.com in June when the Times-Picayune was sold to the owners of the Advocate.

Editor and Publisher Sold; Nu Yang Becomes Editor

Nu Yang, former managing editor of Editor and Publisher, which in print was a bible of the newspaper industry, will become the magazine’s new editor-in-chief as the publication assumes new ownership, E&P announced on Tuesday. Former assistant editor Evelyn Mateos will be managing editor. The October 2019 issue is to be the first under the new ownership.

“Duncan McIntosh, president and group publisher of the Duncan McIntosh Co., Inc. and owner of Editor and Publisher (E&P), has announced today the sale of the trade magazine to media consultant Mike Blinder and a newly formed company: The Curated Experiences Group,” the publication announced Tuesday. “The sale closed on Aug. 30. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. . . .”

Yang, managing editor since 2011, wrote in 2017 about negative feedback to the magazine’s too-pale annual “25 Under 35” list:

“Here at E&P we believe our next generation of newspaper leaders should come from all backgrounds; we also believe as a whole, our industry needs to work harder at hiring and promoting minorities,” she wrote. “As an Asian-American woman, I have been the only minority in a newsroom.

“When I go to newspaper conferences, I notice the majority of attendees are white and male. And the statistics show we still have a long way to go. . . .”

“So, I want to ask that you help us recognize the diverse talent in your newsrooms.” Yang urged readers to send in story ideas and personnel announcements and hoped that they came from “a wide range of backgrounds.”

In December, she interviewed a diverse group of editors for a piece headlined, “Critical Thinking: Does Racial Background Affect How a Reporter Covers a Story?”

While the internet brought forward a wealth of competing operations covering the news media, Editor and Publisher has remained an online player, focusing on newspapers.

“I learned a lot about the news industry during my eight years working with Duncan, and I’m excited to see where Mike takes E&P to next,” Yang said in the magazine. “After helping newspapers for more than two decades, Mike understands the needs and wants of the news publishing audience, and I know he’s passionate about the industry.”

Brexit Stories Miss Racial Connection

Aug. 31, 2019

‘The Driving Force . . . Was Racism’

‘Words Matter,’ Says Anchor Compared to Gorilla

USA Today Journeys to Angola for 1619 Project

Washington Post Examines How Slavery Is Taught

USA Today’s Wadsworth Wins Award for Diversity

Roberts Is Highest Paid News Anchor of Color

3 Groups Team to Fund Investigative Project

China Expels Wall Street Journal Reporter

ONA Honors Journalists of Color Network

Takei Airs Series on Japanese American Camps

Short Takes

‘The Driving Force . . . Was Racism’

Brexit is back in the news after new British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s audacious move to suspend Parliament, but few in the media are making the connection between Britons’ desire to leave the European Union and the resurgence of racism in Britain and on the continent.

The connection has been there all along.

“The discussion in Britain has mostly missed . . . one of the biggest divides that the vote uncovered: 53% of White voters wanted out and 73% of Black voters wanted to stay in the EU,” Kehinde Andrews, a professor at Birmingham City University in the UK, wrote for ebony.com on June 29, 2016, shortly after the referendum. “Black voters overwhelmingly supported staying in, not because of any love for the union but because they recognized that the driving force behind the desire to leave was racism.

“Being part of the EU means being subject to European laws and Vote Leave campaign’s motto was to ‘take back control’ of the nation from the bureaucrats in Europe. Vote Leave’s supporters argued that Britain ‘could be great again’ if the country did not have to send hundreds of millions of pounds to Europe, and have its hands tied by such inconveniences as the European Court of Human Rights. But when Vote Leave was undercut by virtually every economist and the vast majority of business leaders, many of whom predicted the economic chaos, the organization played its Trump card: immigration. . . .”

(Not surprisingly, Britain’s departure was egged on by then-U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump.)

Since the vote, the racial tie has only become stronger.

“Ethnic minorities in Britain are facing rising and increasingly overt racism, with levels of discrimination and abuse continuing to grow in the wake of the Brexit referendum, nationwide research reveals,” Robert Booth reported in May for the Guardian.

“Seventy-one percent of people from ethnic minorities now report having faced racial discrimination, compared with 58% in January 2016, before the EU vote, according to polling data seen by the Guardian.

“The data comes amid rising concern at the use of divisive rhetoric in public before this week’s European parliament elections, where some leading candidates, including Ukip’s Carl Benjamin and the independent Tommy Robinson, have records of overt racism. . . . .” Ukip refers to the United Kingdom Independence Party, a right-wing to far-right political party.

In July, Malorie Blackman, a best-selling black British author, told the Sunday Times Magazine, “I’ve heard more racist comments in the past three years than I’ve had in the last 30. There’s now more open hostility; it’s like people feel they can say whatever they want. I’ve had people deliberately barging into me while shopping — stuff I haven’t had to put up with for years. . . .”

Tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets across the country on Saturday to protest against Johnson’s move to suspend parliament.

The American news media are acknowledging that they have underplayed the role of race in the rise of Trump. Perhaps they will also do a better job of reporting the racial factor in Britain and the rest of Europe.

• BBC [Wales]: Brexit ‘major influence’ in racism and hate crime rise (June 20)
• Stephen Castle, New York Times: What’s Next for Brexit? Six Possible Outcomes
• Detroit News: Fox 2’s Roop Raj responds to critical post: ‘This country looks like you AND me’
• Lyndon Mukasa, the Voice, Britain: How Is Brexit Going to Affect Black Britain? (March 24)
• Ijeoma Oluo, the Guardian, Britain: White supremacists ‘swatted’ my home to silence me. I will not be silent
• Charu Sudan Kasturi, ozy.com: Beyond the Border: Learn how migration is reshaping societies around the globe.
• Farai Sevenzo, BBC: Britain’s African migrants who backed Brexit (June 28, 2016)
• Martin Shaw, the Guardian, Britain: Vote Leave relied on racism. Brexit: The Uncivil War disguised that ugly truth (Jan. 8)

‘Words Matter,’ Says Anchor Compared to Gorilla

The story of a white TV anchor in Oklahoma City who compared her African American co-anchor to a gorilla during a broadcast went international and spread quickly via social media.

Black co-anchor Jason Hackett accepted the apology of KOCO-TV anchor Alex Housden with a lesson that “words matter,” Chacour Koop reported Monday for the Kansas City Star.

Housden, a morning anchor, finished a segment about a gorilla at the Oklahoma City Zoo by comparing the animal to co-anchor Hackett.

“Kind of looks like you,” Housden said.

Koop wrote, “Hackett accepted Housden’s apology and said she’s one of his best friends — but that the comment hurt his feelings.

“ ‘What she said yesterday was wrong,’ Hackett said. ‘It cut deep for me, and it cut deep for a lot of you in the community.’

“Hackett said the apology was a ‘teachable moment’ to say that ‘words matter.’

“ ‘We’re becoming a more diverse country, and there’s no excuse. We have to understand the stereotypes. We have to understand each other’s backgrounds and the words that hurt, the words that cut deep,’ Hackett said. ‘We have to find a way to replace those words with love and words of affirmation as well.’. . .”

• National Association of Black Journalists: NABJ President Dorothy Tucker Addresses KOCO-TV Anchor Comparing Black Co-Anchor to Gorilla
• Dorothy Tucker, National Association of Black Journalists: NABJ Advocacy: Addressing Diversity and Sensitivity Issues in the Media (Sept. 1)

Angola was barely mentioned in the history of the slave trade. USA Today invited Wanda Tucker there to search for her roots. (Credit: USA Today)

USA Today Journeys to Angola for 1619 Project

“The 1619 series, 1619.usatoday.com, overseen by Managing Editor Kristen Go, is an exhaustively researched examination of the journey, the protagonists who defined that moment of history and the pain and repercussions that continue today,” Manny Garcia, standards and ethics editor for the USA Today Network, wrote Tuesday for USA Today.

Garcia was referencing the landing 400 years ago of enslaved Africans at the British colony of Virginia, the subject of commemorations on both sides of the Atlantic, including most prominently the New York Times Magazine’s 1619 Project.

“Our journalists traveled from Virginia to Angola and beyond to produce a vivid, multi-part series that includes the Tucker family’s quest to connect with its past,” Garcia continued.

“Wanda Tucker, who traces her family roots to the 1800s in Virginia, has been trying to connect her family history back to William [Tucker] — the first recorded African baby baptized in Virginia, a child born to Anthony and Isabella, survivors of the White Lion, a privateer that anchored at Point Comfort, where its captain traded human beings for supplies.

“We traveled with Wanda Tucker to Angola; USA TODAY underwrote her journey so we could be alongside her to document her quest, starting at the port city of Luanda and moving deep into the interior to the point of origin of the Portuguese trade, the historic Ndongo Kingdom. Portuguese slave ships, one even named San Juan Bautista — Saint John the Baptist — would sail from Luanda with innocents below deck, never to see their homeland again.

“Today, we humbly start this series, to honor lives lost and the spirit to survive. Our journalists have been deeply affected by their work. . . .”

• Gene Demby, NPR: This Family Believes They Can Trace Their Ancestry To The U.S.’s First Slave Ship
• Lesli Foster, WUSA-TV, Washington: 1619: The First Africans in Virginia and the Making of America
• Leonard Pitts Jr., Miami Herald: ‘Where do we go from here?’ After 400 years, African Americans continue to walk a long and winding road
• DeWayne Wickham, USA Today: Aaron Burr’s lawyer owned my family. It has been a long, tragic journey from slavery. (Aug. 22)

Washington Post Examines How Slavery Is Taught

“The Washington Post today released ‘Teaching Slavery,’ a new project that looks at how slavery is taught in schools,” the Post announced by email on Wednesday.

“For this project, The Washington Post interviewed more than 100 students, teachers, administrators and historians throughout the country and sat in on middle school and high school history classes in Birmingham, Ala.; Fort Dodge, Iowa; Germantown, Md.; Concord, Mass.; Broken Arrow, Okla.; and Washington, D.C. The articles examine the lessons students are learning about slavery, obstacles faced by teachers in teaching this difficult subject, the right age to introduce hard concepts about slavery to young students and how teachers connect the history of slavery to 21st-century racism and white supremacy. . . .”

For one part of the series, by Joe Heim, the Washington Post “asked noted historians to write an essay on aspects of slavery that are misunderstood, poorly taught or not covered at all in the nation’s classrooms. . . .”

The responses:

• Hasan Kwame Jeffries, Ohio State University: Yes, there was rebellion. But smaller acts of resistance defined the daily lives of the enslaved.
• Daina Ramey Berry, Keffrelyn D. Brown, Anthony L. Brown, University of Texas at Austin: Slavery’s horror included family separation, despite the portrayal in some history textbooks
• Walter Johnson, Harvard University: ‘Extermination and enslavement’: The twin horrors of the American dawn
• Leslie M. Harris, Northwestern University: Enslaved people toiled on plantations. They also built America’s cities.
• Andrés Reséndez, University of California at Davis: The other slavery: Native Americans also faced a vast and degrading system of bondage

USA Today’s Wadsworth Wins Award for Diversity

Maribel Perez Wadsworth, president of the USA Today Network and publisher of USA Today, has been selected for the 2019 Robert G. McGruder Award for Diversity Leadership, the News Leaders Association announced Tuesday.

“Wadsworth, who oversees Gannett’s 109 daily newspapers and USA TODAY, set about rebuilding Gannett’s once industry-leading commitment to diversity by not just talking about the need for diversity, but putting systems in place to ensure that her vision is carried out,” said the organization, which combines the American Society of News Editors and the Associated Press Media Editors.

“Under her leadership, she has demanded that a diverse pool of candidates be considered for every open position in the consumer division and that the hiring team also include a diverse mix of decision-makers.

“To cement these new standards, she backed the creation of a position focused on developing a diverse pipeline of internal and external talent.

“Mizell Stewart III, current president of the News Leaders Foundation, oversees the talent pipeline.

“ ‘She is deserving not only for championing diversity in hiring and promotion, but reinforcing the business case for diversity and inclusion,’ Stewart said. ‘To survive and thrive, news organizations must truly serve a changing America, and responding to a diverse mix of consumers is critical to our future.’

“Currently, 26 percent of all of the USA TODAY Network’s managers in local news and 24 percent of USA TODAY’s managers are people of color, a notable improvement from before Wadsworth assumed her current role, according to her nomination letter. Among Gannett’s eight regional editors, four are minorities. In the past two years, Wadsworth hired a diverse group of top editors at several of the company’s sites, including Indianapolis, El Paso, Corpus Christi [Texas] and Evansville [Ind.] . . . .”

Meanwhile, a new executive committee will begin leading the News Leaders Association as of Sept. 8, with Michael Days, vice president of diversity and inclusion of the Philadelphia Inquirer, the first president of the new organization, NLA announced Friday.

The others on the board are:

Vice president: George Stanley, editor, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and regional editor, USA Today Network Wisconsin; treasurer: Mark Baldwin, executive editor, Rockford (Ill.) Register Star; secretary: Manny Garcia, senior director, standards and ethics, USA Today Network; leadership initiatives officer: Robyn Tomlin, executive editor, the News & Observer and the Herald-Sun (N.C.), and Southeast regional editor, McClatchy; membership initiatives officer: Alison Gerber, editor, Chattanooga (Tenn.) Times Free Press; immediate past president: Nancy Barnes, senior vice president of news and editorial director, NPR.

Also, Sarah Nordgren, Associated Press; Nancy Ancrum, Miami Herald; Katrice Hardy, Greenville (S.C.) News, and regional editor for the South, USA Today Network; Mandy Jenkins, Compass Experiment (Ohio); Ingrid Ciprian-Matthews, CBS News; Carla Minet, Centro de Periodismo Investigativo; Emilio Garcia-Ruiz, Washington Post; Mark Horvit, University of Missouri School of Journalism; Audrey Cooper, San Francisco Chronicle; Sewell Chan, Los Angeles Times; Lucy Dalglish, Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland; Paul Cheung, Knight Foundation; Brian McGrory, Boston Globe; Dennis Anderson, GateHouse, and Peoria (Ill.) Journal-Star.

• Jeff Gammage, Philadelphia Inquirer: The United States is becoming more diverse — and quickly, in certain places
• Daniel Holloway, Variety: CBS Chief Joe Ianniello Touts Reforms in Diversity and Inclusion Memo
• Journal-isms: USA Today: Those of Color Were 50% of Promotions (Nov 15, 2018)

Roberts Is Highest Paid News Anchor of Color

Robin Roberts, co-host of ABC’s “Good Morning America,” is the highest paid news anchor of color, followed by Lester Holt of NBC News, according to Brian O’Connell, reporting Sunday for The Street.

Commentator Sean Hannity of Fox News, whose presence on a list of news anchors some would question, was ranked highest paid overall.

“Roberts took an alternative route to news broadcasting, working for ESPN before leaving for ABC in 2005,” O’Connell wrote. “Roberts earns an annual salary of $18 million at ABC. A cancer survivor, Roberts is a frequent speaker on the subject of illness and recovery, and has earned four Emmy awards for her work at ABC.”

O’Connell also wrote, “Broadcasting the news has taken a hit in the information age, as more and more media consumers get their news from digital platforms rather than turning on Fox, CNN or some of the other ‘alphabet’ TV news networks. The average U.S. news anchor salary stands at $58,964, according to Payscale.com, O’Connell wrote.

The list:

1. Sean Hannity, Fox News, $40 million.
2. Diane Sawyer, ABC News, $22 million.
3. Robin Roberts, ABC, $18 million
4. George Stephanopoulos. ABC, $15 million
5. Anderson Cooper, CNN, $12 million

6. Shepard Smith, Fox News, $10 million
7. Maria Bartiromo, Fox Business Network, $10 million
8. Joe Scarborough, MSNBC, $8 million
9. Bret Baier, Fox News, $7 million
10. Scott Pelley, CBS News, $7 million

11. Rachel Maddow, MSNBC $7 million
12. Tucker Carlson, Fox News, $6 million
13. Lawrence O’Donnell, MSNBC, $5 million
14. Lester Holt, NBC News, $4 million
15. Erin Burnett, CNN, $3 million

3 Groups Team to Fund Investigative Project

“The Fund for Investigative Journalism (FIJ), the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ), and the Miami Herald Media Company today announced a fellowship project that seeks to expand investigative reporting opportunities for diverse journalists,” the groups announced on Tuesday.

“The unique partnership will offer freelance journalists an opportunity to complete an investigative project that digs into issues of consequence and of interest to readers of the Miami Herald and el Nuevo Herald. The content produced during the three-month fellowship will be edited and published by the Miami Herald Media Company’s flagship publications — the Miami Herald and el Nuevo Herald — in both English and Spanish.

“The fellow will receive a $30,000 grant financed by FIJ and NAHJ. Miami Herald Media Company will provide the fellow with workspace and other editorial support. The fellowship will fund work-related travel, and other expenses, plus a stipend. . . .”

China Expels Wall Street Journal Reporter

“The Wall Street Journal’s publisher confirmed Friday that Chinese authorities have declined to renew one of its reporters’ press credentials, effectively expelling him from the country, following an investigative story he worked on about a cousin of Chinese President Xi Jinping,” Steven Jiang reported Friday for CNN Business.

“Beijing-based reporter Chun Han Wong was the co-author of a report published in the Journal last month that detailed alleged involvement of Xi’s cousin in high-stakes gambling and potential money laundering in Australia.

“When asked about Wong’s effective expulsion, the Chinese government insisted that it handles foreign journalists’ press credentials in accordance with law.

” ‘We are firmly opposed to the malicious smearing and attacks against China by certain foreign journalists, who are not welcome in China,’ the Chinese foreign ministry said in a statement Friday. ‘At the same time, we will facilitate newsgathering work that complies with laws and regulations for foreign journalists in China.’

“The Journal reported Friday on Wong’s removal from China, linking Beijing’s decision to his story last month.

” ‘Mr. Xi’s private life and that of his relatives are considered sensitive by Chinese authorities,’ the Journal said in its story. ‘Prior to publication, (foreign) ministry officials urged the Journal not to publish and warned of unspecified consequences.’ . . .”

ONA Honors Journalists of Color Network

“We are pleased to announce the selection committees have granted the 2019 James Foley Award for Conflict Reporting to Honduran writer and photojournalist Tomas Ayuso, and the 2019 ONA Community Award to the administrators of the Journalists of Color Slack channel (JOC Slack),” the Online News Association announced on Tuesday.

“Tomas Ayuso is the fifth recipient of the James Foley Award, which honors digital journalists who produce exceptional reporting under the most challenging conditions. The selection committee was impressed with his unflinching coverage of conflict in Latin America as it relates to the drug war, forced displacement and urban dispossession. His work includes the ongoing project ‘The Right to Grow Old,’ a series of stories that examine why Hondurans are fleeing their country, how they do it and their displacement in Mexico.

“This year’s ONA Community Award recognizes the dedication and industry impact of the JOC Slack administrators: Aaron Williams, Sisi Wei, Tauhid Chappell, Erik Reyna, Julia Chan, Lam Thuy Vo and Lo Bénichou. As volunteers, this group has helped to create a community that puts journalists of color in the same ‘room,’ forming a support network that travels with them throughout their careers. . . .”

Takei Airs Series on Japanese American Camps

“For more than six decades, including his best-known role as Mr. Sulu on the original ‘Star Trek’ television and movie series, George Takei has aimed to tell one story,” Peter Wong wrote from Atlanta on Aug. 10 for the Portland (Ore.) Tribune.

Now, in 10 episodes that began Aug. 12 and continue through Oct. 14 on AMC, “Takei said ‘The Terror: Infamy’ will tell the story of what happened to more than 100,000 Japanese Americans imprisoned during World War II.

“As a 5-year-old boy born in Los Angeles, Takei was one of them, his family sent from Los Angeles to Camp Rohwer in Arkansas, and later to Camp Tule Lake on the California-Oregon border.

“The family returned to Los Angeles in 1946 after Tule Lake was closed.

“During the recent national convention of the Asian American Journalists Association, Takei, now 82, said he is taken aback by the number of people who are unaware of what happened to people like him.

” ‘They are shocked — and I am shocked they are shocked,’ he said.

“This is an American story. The fact that there are so many Americans who still to this day are unaware of that to me is very troubling. It is particularly troubling because we are the echoes of what is happening today on the southern border.’ . . .”

Wong also wrote, “The first episode was shown near the close of a daylong segment of the Asian American Journalists convention aimed at developing skills of minorities to produce content and tell stories.

“Takei appeared on a discussion panel afterward with Alexander Woo, producer and writer; Lily Mariye, director, and Derek Mio, lead actor who plays Chester Nakayama, a second-generation Japanese American who eventually opts for U.S. Army service. . . .”

Short Takes

• Tamron Hall left NBC “after losing her “Today” co-host slot when Megyn Kelly was brought onboard in 2017,” Kathryn Shattuck reported Friday for the New York Times. “And how she has rebounded, stronger than ever, by creating her own syndicated daytime talk show. That project, ‘Tamron Hall,’ which starts on Sept. 9 and was developed with Disney, grew wings over the last two years as Hall roamed the country on a speaking tour. She discussed female empowerment before the Women’s Foundation for a Greater Memphis, her fight against domestic violence at a Points of Light conference in Seattle and her return to television — attributing some tears of emotion to ‘mommy hormones’ — at the Essence Festival in New Orleans. ‘We’re all having the same conversation,’ she said. ‘And I thought: “This is the show. This is it.” . . .’ ”
• “The Washington Post today launched Post Opinión, a new page in its Global Opinions section featuring original and translated Spanish-language op-eds,” the Post announced Wednesday. “Post Opinión will highlight perspectives from newsmakers and underrepresented voices from Latin America, Spain, the U.S., and beyond. . . .”
• “Joe Biden courted a small group of black reporters representing major news outlets, holding an exclusive, free-wheeling question-and-answer session with the journalists,” Naomi Lim reported Wednesday for the Washington Examiner. Lim also wrote, “For 90 minutes, Biden, 76, was peppered with questions from 10 black journalists who cover the campaign or broader race issues on Tuesday afternoon in Washington, D.C., ahead of his two-day swing of South Carolina, where African American Democrats comprise the majority of the primary electorate. Reporters in attendance included ABC News’ Averi Harper and Rachel Scott, the Associated Press’ Errin Haines and Juana Summers, the New York Times’ Astead Herndon, Politico’s Nolan McCaskill, the Washington Post’s Vanessa Williams, and USA Today’s Deborah Berry. . . .”
• “While the past few years have been dominated by the narrative that diversity and inclusion on television and in film are moving in a positive direction, a new study from USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative has found that for Latinos, underrepresentation and stereotypical portrayals remain firmly in place,” Sonaiya Kelley reported Monday for the Los Angeles Times. Kelley also wrote, “The study found that among 1,200 popular films released between 2007 and 2018 (a sample of the top 100 films per year), just 4.5% of more than 47,000 speaking or named roles went to Latinx actors. Only 3% were lead or co-leads. . . .”
• “CNN contributor April Ryan has broken her silence about the incident earlier this month where her bodyguard forcibly ejected a reporter from her speaking engagement,” Ken Meyer reported Aug. 25 for Mediaite. “Ryan has been criticized for her silence lately, ever since New Brunswick Today editor Charlie Kratovil was allegedly assaulted by her security staff while trying to cover her event. In an interview with CNN’s Brian Stelter, Ryan was asked if she ordered the bodyguard to handle Kartovil the way he did. ‘I did not order anyone to do anything,’ Ryan said. ‘I didn’t know what was going on or said. I was on stage at the time.’ . . .”

  

• “Can the Memphis mayor’s race get any uglier?” Deborah Douglas asked Saturday for MLK50. “Already, the top two male candidates refuse to set foot on a debate stage with the other front runner, Tami Sawyer, a black woman. But then the September cover of Memphis magazine rendered in caricature the hideousness of a contest with an image many Memphians say is a racist, sexist and demonizing depiction of Sawyer. . . .” [Sept. 1 update: Memphis Magazine Halts Distribution of September Issue After Criticism of Caricatures of Mayoral Candidates]
• “Dianne Solis is returning to . . . The Dallas Morning News as senior immigration reporter,” Veronica Villafañe reported Aug. 8 for her Media Moves site. “Solis, who worked at the DMN for 22 years, was one of over 40 people laid off from the paper in a round of cuts in January. . . .”
• “The United States reporter who called South African president Cyril Ramaphosa an ‘unidentified leader’ has corrected her mistake,” Renee Moodie reported Tuesday for allafrica.com. “About 12 hours after she was taken to task by South Africans on Twitter, Darlene Superville — who is the White House reporter for Associated Press — tweeted the same picture with a new caption in which she names Ramaphosa, who is attending the G7 Summit in France.” AP spokesperson Lauren Easton emailed Journal-isms, “While South African President Cyril Ramaphosa is properly identified in the photos AP published from the G-7, an AP reporter sent a tweet that failed to identify the president in a photo. A new tweet that identified President Ramaphosa was later published by the reporter. We acknowledge the omission. When a mistake is made, AP moves to correct it as swiftly and completely as possible.”
• “Fremantle, in partnership with Steve Harvey Global, will launch local versions of Family Feud in Ghana and South Africa, the companies said Monday,” Paige Albiniak reported Monday for Broadcasting & Cable. “Harvey will host both versions just as he does on the U.S. syndicated version and on ABC’s Celebrity Family Feud. They will be produced by Fremantle’s local production partner in Africa, Rapid Blue. . . .”

• “The National Press Club, the world’s leading professional organization for journalists, has chosen Edna Anne Rutland as the winner of its 2019 Diversity Scholarship Award,” the club announced Aug. 19. “The award is for graduating high school seniors and totals as much as $20,000 over four years. Rutland, who graduated this year from Central High School in Macon, Georgia, will use the scholarship to study journalism at Florida A&M University. . . .”
• ” In a continuation of OZY’s Take on America town hall series, OZY and Oprah have teamed up to produce televised conversations where 100 Black women participate in a moderated discussion, ozy announced on its website. “Tune in on Saturday nights for the four-part series or catch up on episodes on Oprah.com.” “Black Women OWN the Conversation” is hosted by Carlos Watson, former MSNBC host and founder of oxy.com.
• On Sept. 20, Suzan Shown Harjo, Native activist and former board member of the Native American Journalists Association, will be recognized for lifetime achievement by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian and the Institute of American Indian Arts, the Opportunity Agenda reported Tuesday. “In anticipation of the symposium where Suzan will be honored, the museum’s magazine published a profile of Suzan and her family. The event, ‘A Promise Kept: The Inspiring Life and Works of Suzan Shown Harjo,’ coincides with the museum’s anniversary and will be webcast. . . .”
• Nearly 20 years and millions of sales after his nonfiction debut, The New Yorker’s Malcolm Gladwell “is at something of a professional tipping point,” Amy Chozick wrote Friday for the New York Times. “He elicits from readers the kind of polarized reactions usually reserved for talk-radio hosts. To one camp, he is a master storyteller, pithily translating business concepts and behavioral science to a lay audience. To others, he is a faux intellectual, dressing up ordinary truths (such as an ‘Outliers’ argument that success results from a combination of hard work and opportunity) as counterintuitive genius. How ‘Talking to Strangers’ is received could cement Mr. Gladwell in one of those camps for good. . . .” Chozick confesses that she has become a believer.
• Maryland is “a solidly Democratic state that hadn’t favored a Republican presidential candidate since 1988 and wasn’t in play in 2016,” Dana Priest, Riin Aljas and Scott Gelman reported Wednesday for the Washington Post. “Yet, the IRA, the Russian troll factory U.S. prosecutors blame for the massive disinformation campaign during the 2016 campaign, devoted enormous attention and preparation to its Maryland operation, all in a likely effort, experts say, to widen racial divisions and demoralize African American voters. . . .”
• “Nigerian authorities should immediately release publisher Agba Jalingo and halt their harassment of journalists reporting on alleged corruption and other issues of public interest,” the Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday. “On August 22, in Lagos, police officers with Nigeria’s special anti-robbery squad arrested Jalingo, publisher of online news outlet CrossRiverWatch, according to Attah Ochinke, Jalingo’s lawyer, and Jeremiah Achibong, an editor at CrossRiverWatch, who spoke with CPJ over the phone. On August 23, authorities transferred Jalingo to a detention facility run by the anti-cult and anti-kidnapping police in Calabar, the capital of Nigeria’s southern Cross River state, and are holding him there without charge, Ochinke said. . . .”
• “Brazilian authorities must thoroughly investigate threats against reporter Adecio Piran, hold those responsible to account, and ensure the reporter’s safety,” the Committee to Protect Journalists said Friday. “Piran, from the local newspaper and website Folha do Progresso in the municipality of Novo Progresso, in the northern state of Pará, told CPJ that local groups of rural producers distributed a leaflet that contained his photo and written attacks on him and his reporting through social media and WhatsApp groups. He said that on August 28, he began receiving threats via messaging apps. . . . Amazonia Real reported that the threats to Piran were retaliation by local landlords and rural producers after Folha do Progresso reported this month that those groups were organizing a day of coordinated fires. Fires have been raging in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest for much of August, according to local and international reports. . . .”
  
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View previous columns (after Feb. 13, 2016).

• Diversity’s Greatest Hits, 2018 (Jan. 4, 2019)
• Book Notes: Is Taking a Knee Really All That? (Dec. 20, 2018)
• Book Notes: Challenging ’45’ and Proudly Telling the Story (Dec. 18, 2018)
• Book Notes: Get Down With the Legends! (Dec. 11, 2018)
• 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)

Columns below from the Maynard Institute are not currently available but are scheduled to be restored soon on journal-isms.com.

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