Articles Feature

NAHJ President Wants to Reboot Unity

by richard02220

Balta Says He’s Motivated by Trump’s Attacks

Has Gillum Put Us in Historic Moment?

. . . Garcia Could Make History in Arizona

Relief! Trump’s Newsprint Tariffs Overturned

Black Press Group Seeks Editor of D.C. News Service

Rana Cash Named Sports Editor at Courier-Journal

Miss Black America Pageant Found Wanting

Some Puncture Holes in Media’s Praise for McCain

Students Visit Town Where Ancestors Were Slaves

Series Examines Effects of Exposure to Violence

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NABJ-NAHJ-2016-smallerIn 2016, after both the National Association of Black Journalists and National Association of Hispanic Journalists had left Unity, the two associations held a joint convention in Washington. Here, Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential candidate, answers reporters’ questions. Republican candidate Donald Trump declined to attend. (Credit: Twitter)

Balta Says He’s Motivated by Trump’s Attacks

Hugo Balta, who led the National Association of Hispanic Journalists out of the now disbanding Unity: Journalists for Diversity coalition in 2013, declared Wednesday that “now, I think is the right time to start conversations about reunification.”

Balta returned to the NAHJ presidency in June. In a blog post, he cited President Trump’s attacks on the press as a reason for journalists of color groups and the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association, now called NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ Journalists, to renew the coalition.

Balta’s idea was met with caution by Sarah Glover, president of the National Association of Black Journalists, which pulled out of the group in 2011 over financial and governance issues, and by Neal Justin, the last president of the coalition, which voted in February to start the dissolution process.

“There are many ways for the diversity journalism groups to work together to advocate, train members, and fellowship collectively,” Glover messaged. She also said, “Unity closing its doors this year underscores that the Unity convention business model was not the optimal model for success for all groups. Working collaboratively can and should be more than a convention model.”

Justin messaged, in part, “One thing we’ve learned from the past couple years is that it [is] extremely difficult, if not impossible, to raise money and make [a] significant impact without the involvement of all five major diversity groups. Personally, I also think it’s imperative that the work — and there’s a LOT of work — be chiefly handled by people who are not otherwise engaged with loads of other responsibilities to their respective organizations. . . .”

Hugo Balta
Hugo Balta

In his blog post, Balta noted, “The organization born Unity: Journalists of Color in 1990 struggled after founding members NABJ and NAHJ seceded for a number of reasons including finances.

“I led the departure of NAHJ during my first term as president by successfully arguing that Unity, as a business proposition, no longer served the best interest of NAHJ. Still, NAHJ leaders and I believe in Unity’s [core] mission of collaboration in championing for the recognition and professional advancement of minorities in the news industry. NAHJ still works on independent projects with diverse journalism groups including another founding Unity member, the Native [American] Journalists Association (NAJA) which participated at this year’s NAHJ conference in Miami.

“Now that Unity no longer exists or any of the constraints which motivated the exit of some of its founding members; now, I think is the right time to start conversations about reunification. In this unprecedented time where the President of the United States is inciting the public by calling journalists the enemy and widening the rift between communities, often exploiting it for political gain — the reuniting of journalists of color is of the utmost importance. In addition, that includes the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association (NLGJA) whose members proudly wave a multicolored flag. . . .”

In its final iteration, Unity: Journalists for Diversity consisted of the Asian American Journalists Association, the Native American Journalists Association and NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ Journalists.

The coalition originated with the National Association of Black Journalists, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, AAJA and NAJA, and for most of its life was known as Unity: Journalists of Color.

However, NABJ pulled out in 2011 and NAHJ followed in 2013. The remaining members voted to add NLGJA.

Glover offered these thoughts Wednesday on behalf of NABJ:

“NABJ is unified with the other minority journalism groups and stands solidly on the same footing to advocate for media diversity, inclusion, and the journalistic principles of the free press.

“NABJ pursues partnerships and opportunities for collaboration with minority journalism groups and other like-minded organizations that are in alignment with the NABJ Strategic Plan 2017-2020.

“There are many ways for the diversity journalism groups to work together to advocate, train members, and fellowship collectively. NABJ pursues meaningful and impactful ways to advocate for minorities in journalism, and that advocacy by all groups should be happening beyond a singular convention.

“The previous Unity convention model did not serve all the organizations well, and that fact is well documented, and why NABJ and NAHJ left.

“Further, Unity closing its doors this year underscores that the Unity convention business model was not the optimal model for success for all groups.

“Working collaboratively can and should be more than a convention model. The minority journalism groups can do so throughout the year to improve diversity and inclusion in the media industry. The scale of those efforts [requires] effort and resources now.

“Regional programming and conferences, joint statements, industry meetings and briefings, training and professional development and networking opportunities are all ways that the minority journalism organizations can continue to work together year round. NABJ and its affiliate chapters have spearheaded and participated in some of these opportunities with the other minority journalism groups in recent years. But, all of the groups can do more to organize in this realm. Monetary support and resources are required to further advance media diversity objectives with a collective impact.”

Michelle Ye Hee Lee, incoming national president of the AAJA, said by email, “I can tell you that inclusion and reaching out to all communities of color in the post-UNITY era was a big topic of discussion at our national board meeting at convention. As outlined in AAJA’s 2020 strategic plan, we are committed to being leaders in DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] issues: AAJA is dedicated not just to our AAPI community but creating opportunities for all journalists of color. For our 2019 AAJA convention, we are returning to the site of the first UNITY convention 25 years ago. We are excited to find opportunities to engage all communities of color in the coming years.”

Bryan Pollard, NAJA president, did not respond to requests for comment. Dillon Lewis of NLGJA referred the question to Justin.

Justin messaged, “I welcome any and all discussion about re-booting UNITY. These conversations really won’t have meat unless ALL the major groups are involved. I had reached out to NAHJ and NABJ early in my term to have some informal talk about re-unification but didn’t have much success in getting the ball rolling. Perhaps it’s time to try again.

“One thing we’ve learned from the past couple years is that it [is] extremely difficult, if not impossible, to raise money and make [a] significant impact without the involvement of all five major diversity groups. Personally, I also think it’s imperative that the work – and there’s a LOT of work – be chiefly handled by people who are not otherwise engaged with loads of other responsibilities to their respective organizations. Perhaps UNITY should be headed by those who aren’t already serving on their group’s boards? (I’m just speaking for myself here, NOT the board).

“For the record, a formal vote on [dissolution] has not taken place yet, but the process is moving quickly.

“Even if we formerly dissolve next month, there is nothing stopping a new effort to take root. I am happy to help in any such effort.

“If Hugo or any other journalists have ideas on moving forward, I am always available to chat.”

Andrew Gillum, mayor of Tallahassee, Fla., and Democratic nominee for Florida governor, joins “MTP Daily” on MSNBC Wednesday to respond to his opponent’s claim that he is a socialist. (Credit: YouTube)

Has Gillum Put Us in Historic Moment?

“What we are experiencing right now is absolutely historic,” Shaun King wrote Wednesday for the Intercept. “The United States does not currently have a single black governor — not one. Florida, Georgia, and Maryland have never had a black governor. No black person has ever been the Democratic Party nominee for governor in Florida or Georgia. But that seems poised to change.

“On Tuesday night, Andrew Gillum pulled off a stunning win in Florida’s Democratic primary for governor. He joins Georgia’s Stacey Abrams and Maryland’s Ben Jealous as the third brilliant, successful, and progressive black leader elected to represent the Democratic Party in a gubernatorial race this November. Each of those elections will be a brutal nail-biter, but success is possible.

“I’m sorry if you’ve heard me say this before, but it’s hard to understand a moment in history when you are in it. History is better seen, understood, and valued in retrospect. Still, we can already tell that we’re witnessing something potentially monumental. I won’t go as far as calling this moment the new Reconstruction, but we haven’t seen the possibility of this type of political representation at the state level since the years following the Civil War.

“How did this happen? . . .”

. . . Garcia Could Make History in Arizona

David Garcia
David Garcia

“David Garcia, an Army veteran and education expert, won the Democratic nomination on Tuesday to challenge Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, giving him a chance to become the state’s first Latino chief executive in more than 40 years,” Kevin Robillard reported for HuffPost.

“Garcia’s main competition in his party’s primary was Steve Farley, a state legislator. But operatives in both parties had long expected Garcia to triumph, and Republican groups have already spent millions of dollars attacking him, mostly on the issue of immigration.

“The general election will pit Ducey’s well-funded re-election bid ― he and the Republican Governors Association have already reserved more than $9 million worth of airtime for the race, and he’s a longtime favorite of the Koch political network ― against grassroots anger over the state’s public schools. . . .”

Relief! Trump’s Newsprint Tariffs Overturned

“The International Trade Commission (ITC) announced Wednesday that it reversed newsprint tariffs after concluding that Canadian imports of uncoated groundwood paper do not cause material harm to the U.S. paper industry,” Sara Fischer reported for Axios.

“Why it matters: Newspapers were aching under the tariffs, and in many cases were forced to lay off dozens of people due to the burden the tariffs put on their businesses.”

David Chavern, president and CEO of the News Media Alliance, a trade organization of newspaper publishers, said, “Today is a great day for American journalism. The ITC’s decision will help to preserve the vitality of local newspapers and prevent additional job losses in the printing and publishing sectors … The end of these unwarranted tariffs means local newspapers can focus once again on playing a vital role in our democracy by keeping citizens informed and connected to the daily life of their communities.”

Among those feeling the burden of the tariffs was the black press. “The financial sustainability of the Black Press of America is now facing a catastrophic and a possible deadly impact, because of these new tariffs,” Benjamin F. Chavis Jr., president and CEO of the National Newspaper Publishers Association, the trade group for black-press publishers, wrote in a July 9 op-ed.

Black Press Group Seeks Editor of D.C. News Service

Dorothy R. Leavell
Dorothy R. Leavell

The trade group representing black-newspaper publishers is seeking an editor to turn its Washington news operation into a “black Associated Press,” Dorothy R. Leavell, chairman of the National Newspaper Publishers Association, told Journal-isms by telephone on Thursday.

The editor-in-chief must “coordinate and keep the latest news on the wire” and “provide fresh content,” she said. The person “has to have a passion for this” and “be able to bring the freshest news and the greatest coverage.”

The post is vacant with the departure last week of Freddie Allen, a national NNPA correspondent who assumed the top job at the NNPA News Service in 2015 after the late George E. Curry resigned. The NNPA board had voted to cut the salaries of Curry and his two correspondents by 50 percent, pleading financial issues.

Leavell said “the publishers were not happy” with the service, which under Curry was run by a journalist with stature in the industry and numerous contacts among movers and shakers. Curry died in 2016 at age 69.

Leavell, publisher of the Chicago Crusader and Gary (Ind.) Crusader, said she was also looking for a new chairperson of the board’s newswire service committee.

Those interested in the news service position should contact Benjamin F. Chavis Jr., president and CEO of NNPA, at 202-588-8764.

The salary is open, “but we know we are going to have to pay for it to get what we need. Whatever is happening in our communities, we ought to have it first,” Leavell said.

Rana Cash Named Sports Editor at Courier-Journal

Rana Cash
Rana Cash

Rana Cash, NFL editor at the Star Tribune in Minneapolis, has been named sports editor at the Courier-Journal in Louisville, Ky., the Courier-Journal announced internally, making her a rarity: a black female sports editor at a metropolitan daily.

“I look forward to building on the tremendous work the staff is already doing there covering Louisville, Kentucky, horse racing and preps,” Cash wrote Wednesday on Twitter.

Courier-Journal Editor Richard A. Green wrote staffers Wednesday that Cash “has developed a top-notch reputation for her editing skills and track record for coaching reporters. . . . She’s done sterling work at several other newsrooms, including senior editor at The Sporting News, reporter and editor at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and sports reporter at the Miami Herald and Dallas Morning News.

“I’ve been discussing the opportunity here in Louisville for two months with her, and I’ve been impressed by her dedication and passion to this business, her commitment to elevating reporters’ work and a tireless work ethic that I’ve observed from afar. She brings digital acumen and high standards to the job (not to mention experience overseeing Super Bowl coverage) and I can’t wait for her arrival. . . .”

When Lisa Wilson joined the Undefeated in 2017 from the Buffalo News, where she was executive sports editor, Wilson and Jewell Walston, sports editor of the Winston-Salem (N.C.) Journal, were the nation’s only two black female sports editors of metropolitan dailies.

Wilson is leaving the Undefeated for the Athletic, another online startup, the Athletic announced last week.

Miss Black America Pageant Found Wanting

The 50th anniversary of the Miss Black America pageant received favorable media coverage as well as $100,000 from Kansas City to bring the pageant there a year after the NAACP issued an advisory warning black people about the dangers of traveling in Missouri.

But according to some of the participants, the real story hasn’t been told.

“Oh the pageant was a mess!” Lauren Meredith Poteat, who represented Maryland, told Journal-isms by email on Wednesday. “All 23 girls including the winner left disgusted. They treated us horribly and on some days didn’t even properly feed us. That pageant . . . didn’t even have crowns and sashes for the winners. A few girls have taken to Facebook and made live videos on their horrible experience that [cost] $1500, just for registration.”

Poteat is Washington editor for BlackPressUSA, news service of the National Newspaper Publishers Association.

De’Vaughnn Williams, one of the contestants, describes “a hard and trying week” in a video she made for Facebook. She wonders why there were so few community people at the welcome reception, and why the pageant founder was not present. There was no real orientation, she says, and while the contestants were fed plenty of salads, she longed for substantial meals.

On Aug. 17, a Kansas City Star editorial noted that “Mayor Pro Tem Scott Wagner pushed to fund the pageant founded in 1968 by Philadelphia businessman J. Morris Anderson. Wagner said the pageant was the perfect opportunity for young, talented African Americans and others to experience the city.

“The local 12th Street Heritage Development Corporation, an African-American-led nonprofit, helped organize the event. Funding came from the city’s tourism budget. . . .”

However, the Star said, “The pomp and pageantry of this weekend’s event won’t resolve the ongoing issues that compelled the civil rights group to issue the travel advisory, the first of its kind in the nation. . . .”

It concluded, “The travel warning was a setback for Kansas City and Missouri. But having Miss Black America in town was a positive step toward changing the city’s reputation. And local leaders deserve some credit for that. But the pageant was only a start. . . .”


Sen. John McCain’s children, Doug, Sidney, Jimmy and Jack McCain, greet people who came to pay their respects to their father at the Arizona state capitol. (video) (Credit: David Wallace/Arizona Republic)

Some Puncture Holes in Media’s Praise for McCain

It did not take long for some to have had enough of the unbridled praise for the late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., the “maverick” war hero and two-time Republican presidential candidate.

“This weekend the news broke that Senator John McCain had passed away after a long battle with brain cancer,” Blue Telusma wrote Wednesday for theGrio.com. “The widely praised war hero was considered a class act who composed himself with a dignity and grace that arguably seems to be foreign in the GOP.

“And while I don’t doubt that the 81-year old was probably a great husband and father, a part of me has been confused this week and left to wonder, ‘Why are BLACK people mourning his death so hard?’

“Now, I’m not going to lie, death is some sobering ish, and when I first heard about the politician’s passing, I admit that my first thought was ‘Wow. His daughter must be devastated.’

“While McCain’s friends and white conservatives as a whole grieve (which is their right), at what point did we as Black Americans suddenly forget that John McCain has never had our backs when it counted? . . .”

Telusma pointed out that McCain staunchly opposed the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday in 1983, later admitting his mistake.

Telusma also wrote, “As if he had learned absolutely nothing from his MLK faux pas, McCain continued to vote in ways that adversely affected and/or blatantly discounted the Black community until the end. .  . . ”

More recently, McCain voted to confirm Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, “a woman who is actively attempting to increase the education gap between minority students and their white peers, while also playing around with the idea of using taxpayer dollars (meant for books and materials) to put guns inside the classroom. . . .”

In the Chicago Tribune, the libertarian Steve Chapman wrote, “overall, his time as a Republican presidential nominee exposed a different side of McCain that should not be forgotten, even as the nation mourns his passing. Often his campaign was nasty, dishonest and irresponsible. Worse, it helped turn the Republican Party into a vehicle that could be commandeered by Donald Trump. . . .”

In Politico Magazine on Monday, Jack Shafer wrote, “I’m almost certain that a samizdat chapter of the Associated Press Stylebook exists that prohibits journalists from writing anything praiseful about Republicans — except when one dies or if the Republican’s name is John McCain.

“Sen. McCain, who died Saturday, went to his grave festooned with a bundle of the most radiant tributes from the reporters who covered him. Taking to Twitter, the airwaves and print, journalists choked back tears to gush about how much the man meant to them. . . .”

Student journalists from the Hoya at Georgetown University interview residents of Maringouin, La. (Credit: Derrick Arthur Cudjoe/the Hoya)
Student journalists from the Hoya at Georgetown University interview residents of Maringouin, La. (Credit: Derrick Arthur Cudjoe/the Hoya)

Students Visit Town Where Ancestors Were Slaves

“Elizabeth Thomas was 23 when she first stepped into the town where her ancestors had been enslaved,” Taylor Blatchford reported Wednesday for the Poynter Institute.

“She’d heard stories about Maringouin, Louisiana, from her mother, grandparents and extended family. But until 2017, she’d never visited the small town of 1,000 people outside Baton Rouge.

“The trip with her mom and cousin came after Thomas learned she was a descendant of slaves sold to Maringouin by Jesuit leaders in 1838 to keep Georgetown University financially afloat. She and her brother, Shepard Thomas, both decided to apply to Georgetown after the university offered descendants of the 272 slaves legacy status for admission.

“This May, Elizabeth traveled back with Shepard and seven journalists from the Hoya, Georgetown’s independent student newspaper. . . .”

"The Children of Central City” details how repeated exposure to violence alters a child’s brain development and other systems in the body. (Credit: Brett Duke).
“The Children of Central City” details how repeated exposure to violence alters a child’s brain development and other systems in the body. (Credit: Brett Duke).

Series Examines Effects of Exposure to Violence

“In their work covering crime in New Orleans, Richard Webster and Jonathan Bullington often saw neighborhood kids who’d been witnesses, lost family members and were present at crime scenes,” Kristen Hare reported Wednesday for the Poynter Institute.

“And they wondered — what does that do to kids?

“The two NOLA.com | Times-Picayune reporters spent one school year finding out. Their series, ‘The Children of Central City,’ tells the story of a group of kids, their families and schools, but also the science behind trauma and what it means for all of them.

“The project came out in June. Since then, it has:

  • “Led to a unanimous resolution from the New Orleans City Council calling on all schools to address the realities of childhood trauma.
  • “Led to another unanimous resolution from the city council to drastically change how childhood trauma is understood, prevented and treated.
  • “Inspired a billboard campaign by a local nonprofit that shares the message from the project — kids that experience and witness violence are #sadnotbad.

“The project shows what local journalism can do when it takes time, care and a willingness to think past the limitations. . . .”

The series was produced as a project for the Dennis A. Hunt Fund for Health Journalism, a program of the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism.

Short Takes

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