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NABJ’s Tucker ‘Out Hustled’ Competitors

by richard12347

 

New Leader as Black Journalists Exert More Clout

 

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Dorothy Tucker, Investigative Reporter at WBBM-TV, reacts after winning the NABJ presidential candidate election on Friday at the JW Marriott Miami Turnberry Resort in Aventura, Florida. MARTHA ASENCIO RHINE/NABJ MONITOR
Dorothy Tucker, investigative reporter at WBBM-TV in Chicago, reacts after winning the NABJ presidential candidate election on Friday at the JW Marriott Miami Turnberry Resort in Aventura, Fla. (Credit: Martha Asencio Rhine/NABJ Monitor)

New Leader as Black Journalists Exert More Clout

Dorothy Tucker, who won a larger-than-expected victory to become president of the National Association of Black Journalists, said Wednesday that she believes she won because “I out hustled my competitors. I was told by a past president that if I was going to win,” out-hustling was what she had to do, Tucker told Journal-isms by email.

Tucker, an investigative reporter for WBBM-TV in Chicago and the NABJ vice president-broadcast, garnered 411 votes Friday, defeating Gregory H. Lee Jr., senior managing director of the Athletic website and a past NABJ president, who scored 203 votes; and Marlon A. Walker, education reporter at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and NABJ vice president-print, 138 votes.

NABJ, the largest and oldest of the journalist-of-color associations, set a record for its convention attendance, with more than 4,100 people in Aventura, Fla., outside of Miami. In addition, the association expected a surplus for a fifth year in a row.

The convening, dominated by millennials, took place at a time when black journalists are exercising more clout as the news media finally acknowledge the role of racism and white nationalism as part of the appeal of President Donald Trump.

Moreover, black journalists are increasingly forcing recognition of those issues as central to the very existence of the nation.

“The Fourth of July in 1776 is regarded by most Americans as the country’s birthday,” the New York Times Magazine declared Tuesday in introducing its “the 1619 project.”

“But what if we were to tell you that the country’s true birth date, the moment that its defining contradictions first came into the world, was in late August 1619?

“That was when a ship arrived at Point Comfort in the British colony of Virginia, bearing a cargo of 20 to 30 enslaved Africans. . . .”

At a Tuesday night kickoff for the event, The Times’ Nikole Hannah-Jones said, “Trust me, you’ve never seen anything this black in the New York Times. The # of black writers, black artists, black photographers, black poets. . .”

To ensure a place at the head of an organization whose members place high value on such coverage required being nimble, Tucker said by email.

“I was told by a past president that if I was going to win I had to out hustle my opponents. So that’s what I set out to do. What did that mean?” she asked.

“1. I started early reaching out to chapter presidents. The campaign officially started April 1. I called in to my first chapter meeting April 2nd. I emailed every chapter president asking for the opportunity to share my message. If I didn’t reach them via email I reached out on Facebook or contacted a member who might have a cell phone number. I either Skyped, called or personally visited 28 chapters meetings or social events.

“2. I attended the Millennial [Media] Summit [PDF], which I had done in the past and I attended every regional. I engaged as many members as I could. My goal was to hear their concerns. It became clear pretty early on that one of the biggest issues was the cost of the convention. Members, both young, mid-career and veterans complained about registration, events, hotels. I heard their pain and included solutions to make the convention more affordable in my campaign.

“3. I flooded social media. My goal was to send a FB post, tweet or IG every day. I wasn’t always successful but I was pretty close. Many of those posts were video messages where I shared my platform. I think the videos made it easier for members to remember my message.

“4. I shipped 3500 pieces of my campaign literature to Miami to be stuffed in convention bags. I was the only candidate to have materials in convention bag. I hope it sent a [signal] that I was serious about winning.

“5. I had four years of emails that I had collected during my term as Vice President, Broadcast and I asked my friends to send me emails of their NABJ friends. I sent two mass emails with personal video messages.

“6. I personally called as many members as I could. I spent about an hour before work and several hours after work on the phone calling members, like you, asking for your support and vote.

“7. I had an incredible number of committed supporters who signed on early to retweet, share my FB [Facebook] and IG [Instagram] posts, created their own, sent emails and texts to their friends, made phone calls and gave me the strength to keep hustling.”

Tucker added, “The size of the victory was surprising. I thought it would be a much closer race because I was up against a past popular NABJ President and a respected VP of print. Looking back on the campaign and the response from supporters I think women in the organization turned out for me. I know there was some concern that our executive board could be all male if the two women running for the E-board [executive board] lost.

“I believe that may have prompted some of my sisters to work just a little harder to get out the vote for me and Cheryl [Smith, candidate for secretary]. I also heard from many members that I was ‘everywhere’ and was working hard for their vote so they rewarded me.

“‘What did I tell members on Saturday night?” when the new president traditionally addresses the membership?

“I didn’t so much tell them what they could expect I showed them. I immediately went to work, taking advantage of the attention and asking them to fill out the job satisfaction survey I had created and to look for more information on a membership drive. And I sent a message to our corporate partners, thanking them for their support and asking them to fill out an upcoming survey about the experiences at the job fair including how many of members were offered jobs.”

During the campaign, Tucker told Journal-isms she believed NABJ presidents such as the late Thomas Morgan were onto something in the 1990s when NABJ board meetings were covered by members for the membership.

“Better communications was a recommendation from a number of members,” Tucker said by email. “I think that includes reporting on board meetings. You’re always welcome to come or send a local representative when we’re not in DC. I also hope to do more video reports to keep our members informed.”

Lee, the presidential runner-up and a founder of the Sports Task Force, declined to discuss the contest. “I have no statements on my role because I always execute things behind the scenes and seek no credit,” he said by email.

Tucker campaigned on a pledge to boost entrepreneurship and had the endorsements of 11 of NABJ’s founders. Forty-four of them, not all still living, founded the group in 1975.

Karen Attiah, global opinions editor at the Washington Post, accepts her award as Journalist of the Year (Credit: Twitter)
Karen Attiah, global opinions editor at the Washington Post, accepts her award as Journalist of the Year (Credit: Twitter)

Other convention highlights:

  • Just as there is an increase in attention to racism, in some quarters there is renewed attention to diversity. The Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation celebrated Knight’s announcement of a $1.2 million investment “in a new in-depth equity and inclusion transformation program for newsrooms led by the Maynard Institute“Maynard’s new program will use Knight’s investment to embed a specialist in newsrooms for six-month periods to help them make structural changes to their business models and workplace cultures,” an emailed announcement said Aug. 5. “Maynard’s goal will be to make the organization’s reporting more effective for underserved communities while establishing more equitable and inclusive workplaces. . . .”
  • Karen Attiah, Global Opinions editor for the Washington Post, accepted NABJ’s designation as Journalist of the Year, told the group, “I never thought I would stand here as a personal reminder of the threats in our profession one has to face in 2019.” (Facebook video) As NABJ said in its announcement, “In 2018, Attiah was celebrated for raising her voice and using the power of her pen to bring attention to and offer ongoing coverage of the murder of fellow Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.”Attiah also said she was happy “to be speaking about international news and how there needs to be more of us, more of us speaking and writing because we’re a part of it. Too many times we see that it’s white males reporting about the world so I wanted to come and share my stories about how we got in this. . . .”
  • The “Best Practices” award went to “MLK50: Justice Through Journalism,” which “is produced by a team of committed journalists focusing on issues Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. cared about: jobs and wages, power and wealth, and black businesses.”
  • A “Thumbs Down” went to members of the American Society of News Editors who did not voluntarily provide information on staff diversity for its 2018 Newsroom Employment Diversity Survey. Just 17 percent — 293 news organizations — responded, the lowest response rate in the 40-year history of the survey.
  • A “Thumbs Down” also went to CNN. As the association said in a July 15 news release, “NABJ continues to call upon CNN to elevate and hire black employees with critical and executive-level, daily news-decision making roles. We are approaching nearly 150 days since NABJ publicly called for change at CNN and requested meetings with its leadership and parent organizations. NABJ’s requests also included a civil rights audit of its hiring and promotion practices . . . “
Marie Nelson
Marie Nelson
  • However, on July 30 ABC News announced that Marie Nelson was joining the network as senior vice president, integrated content strategy. “She comes to ABC from PBS, where she was the Vice President for news, public affairs and independent film, leading the programming strategy for its award-winning newscasts and series, including PBS NewsHour, Frontline, POV and Independent Lens,” ABC said. “This is an important new role for ABC News.  Marie will work closely with leaders across the news division to strengthen our brand with multicultural audiences.  She’ll help unify our efforts to diversify our content so it’s even more robust and identify opportunities to better connect with and understand our viewers, readers and listeners.  . . .”
  • News industry mergers provided a reminder of the need for skills training and being able to stand on one’s own. The week before the convention, “GateHouse and Gannett announced their intent to merge and form the largest newspaper chain in the country, a consolidation designed to save money. When the move was announced, there was a fear among many in the industry that layoffs would follow,” Tom Jones reported Tuesday for the Poynter Institute. Also on Tuesday, CBS and Viacom, which separated in 2006, announced their long-anticipated reunion. Workshops ranged from “Equal Pay: Getting Your Fair Share” to “Embracing Technology: Cameras, Satellites and Drones.”
  • Four presidential candidates — (Democrats Pete Buttigieg, Cory Booker and Bernie Sanders and Republican William Weld — appeared Thursday. Racism and white supremacy, Booker said, “If not always at the surface, then lurking not so far beneath it. And racist violence has always been part of that American story — never more so than in times of transition and rapid social change. Which is why at this moral moment in America, now more than ever, we need your voices, those in the media willing to tell the truth and to capture the truths too often excluded, too often ignored,” Rebecca Klar reported for the Hill.
  • A. Sherrod Blakely, chairman of the Sports Task Force, told task force members via email, “We delivered a level of Sports programming that NABJ has never seen before, beginning with our session on the merging lanes of the LGBTQ community and sports, mixed in with impactful panels such as the Big3 league co-founder and Hollywood Icon Ice Cube leading a session on diversity, in addition to having Basketball Hall of Famer Isiah Thomas present the first-ever Isiah Thomas Sports & Entertainment award at our Pioneer Awards ceremony. . . .”
  • On July 31, Diversity Committee Chairman Larry Graham of the Associated Press Sports Editors announced “the Diversity Pledge: A member organization can receive a free job ad at www.apsportseditors.com with a strong social media promotion if its sports editor (or newsroom equivalent) pledges to interview at least one diverse candidate for that job,” APSE announced. “In order to receive the free ad, the sports editor is required to have a short phone conversation with Larry at some point during the recruiting/hiring process. The organization is not required to bring candidates in for on-site interviews, although that is strongly preferred (a phone interview or something similar will satisfy the requirement).APSE has also built a database, which it continues to fortify, of diverse candidates for a variety of sports journalism positions. . . .”
  • The Arts & Entertainment Task Force produced a film festival with about 30 TV shows and movies over a four-day period.
  • Pap Saine, co-publisher and managing editor of The Point newspaper in The Gambia, West Africa, won the 2019 Percy Qoboza Foreign Journalist of the Year Award. “Throughout his career, Saine has overcome harassment by government authorities in The Gambia, never swaying from his dedication to his cause,” NABJ said Aug. 6. “According to the International Press Institute, which named him a World Press Freedom Hero in 2010, Saine has been arrested, criminally charged and imprisoned for simply doing his job as a reporter. In 2009, he was sentenced to two years in prison with five other journalists for using his platform to criticize then-Gambian President Yahyah Jammeh’s comments about press freedom and the unsolved murder of his colleague and The Point co-founder Deyda Hydara. While he was eventually pardoned, he continued to endure harassment from the government. Over the past year, he has spoken and written unapologetically about the role the former government leaders may have played in the death of his fellow newspaper colleague and the need for the government to strike down media laws that he describes as ‘draconian.’ . . . ”

 

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1 comment

Dianne Baskin August 19, 2019 at 5:44 pm

I applaud the organized campaign you ran to obtain the President position. This was an awesome effort that showed your ground game utilized multiple techniques and technologies to achieve your goal. You showed out Dorothy Tucker. Congratulations on a job well done. Wishing you a spectacular year as you assume your leadership role.

A Chicago viwer
#DorothyTucker

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