Covering Marginalized Can Lead to Personal Attacks

Writing Against Slavery Could Get You Killed

Days Named Philly Company’s V.P. for Diversity

SPJ Names Hicks to Help Rebuild Trust in Media

Truong to Lead Poynter’s Training, Diversity Efforts

Ruby Bailey Starts as Editor of Columbia Missourian

Michelle Lee Unopposed for AAJA President

Native Journalists Announce Board Candidates

When the Fourth of July Was a Black Holiday

‘The Wall’ Series on Border to Be Shown in 10 Cities

Short Takes

Covering Marginalized Can Lead to Personal Attacks

“[F]or years journalists — women and journalists of color especially — were expected to absorb the threats and hatred in silence, while others, often in the very same newsrooms, had the luxury of being blissfully unaware,” Helen Ubiñas wrote Tuesday for the Philadelphia Inquirer.

“Part of the job. We all get it. Buck up.

“That was BS then. And it’s BS now.

“But then came a president who at least in one regard doesn’t discriminate: The ‘elite liberal press’ — no matter the gender or ethnicity — is ‘the enemy.’

“And suddenly the reporters who had the privilege of dismissing the vitriol since it didn’t affect them got a taste of what many reporters have faced for years.

“Gripes turned murderous when the Annapolis Capital and Maryland Gazette journalists were gunned down in their own newsroom by a guy with a long-running dispute with the papers. A columnist had written, accurately, about a criminal harassment case against him.

“As the horror in Maryland unfolded — five people dead, two injured, a newsroom and a community rocked — other newsrooms rushed to protect their people, forced to acknowledge the reality that merely doing their jobs can put a target on journalists’ backs. . . .”

She added, “It also makes me think of how slow we are in journalism to deal with our own issues, whether it be lack of diversity and inclusion, wage disparity, or hostile work environments — issues we’d pounce on if they were happening in another organization. . . .”

Ubiñas also wrote, “I’m talking about news cycles that are not just relentless, but incredibly personal especially for — again — women and journalists of color, as the rights of women and marginalized communities are increasingly threatened, as we cover the stories and struggles of people who look like us, our immigrant parents, our black and brown sons and daughters and nieces and nephews.

“During an especially bad week that included immigrant children being separated by their families, caged and abused, and the announced retirement of the Supreme Court justice who provided the swing vote on critical human-rights cases, I found myself looking for someone to talk to about the stress that I could feel spilling over, and when I couldn’t find anyone, I found a private corner in the newsroom to engage in some self-care, which for me meant a short rage cry.

“And then later that day, I came across some young journalists of color huddled together, talking about how exhaustingly personal the news cycle felt, and how they weren’t sure whom to talk to or how to deal with it. The exhaustion isn’t in the same league as dodging bullets, but it’s all part of a continuum in which journalism today comes with personal costs — and that newsrooms need to address. . . .”

Asked Thursday about the reaction she received, Ubiñas messaged, “Mixed. Some readers/colleagues have been supportive. Some have said eye-opening.

“A lot of angry readers screaming #fakenews! Readers saying we deserve that, and more. One guy who said I get the calls because I don’t deserve to be columnist…affirmative action hire, etc. A lot of people who seemed to miss the point that my colleague Jonathan Lai — who posted a typical reader call about the subjects of his latest story (the other side of this discussion) — and I keep taking about: that journalists open themselves to feedback, including criticism and outright hostility and trolling, which is part of the job. But that there is a difference between being criticized for what you write and say and being criticized for who you are, what you look like, etc.”

On Thursday, Inquirer columnist Stu Bykofsky, who is neither a woman nor a journalist of color, offered a contrasting view. It was headlined, “Note to U.S. journalists: Whine not.”

Writing Against Slavery Could Get You Killed

“Before the Civil War, running a newspaper could be pretty dangerous if an editor ran pieces against slavery,” Becky Little wrote Monday for the website of History magazine. “Basically, you had to accept that violence was part of the job: There were more than 100 mob attacks against abolitionist newspapers, including one 1837 riot that killed editor Elijah Lovejoy.

“This was not Lovejoy’s first brush with mob violence. In 1833, he’d become the editor of the St. Louis Observer in his home state of Missouri and started publishing anti-slavery editorials. Missouri was a slave state, and these editorials quickly made him a target. Threats of mob violence forced him to flee to the city of Alton in the free state of Illinois, just across the Mississippi River. There, he began publishing the Alton Observer and resumed his support of abolition in his editorials.

“However, the fact that Illinois was ‘free’ didn’t mean white citizens were necessarily against slavery’s existence; and it certainly didn’t mean they were in favor of emancipated black people living freely throughout the U.S. On November 7, 1837, armed rioters stormed Lovejoy’s warehouse and destroyed his printing press. This was actually Lovejoy’s fourth printing press because mobs had destroyed his previous three. It was also his last — he died in a shootout.

“ ‘This was the most violent of these actions to date’ says John Nerone, a communications professor at the University of Illinois and author of Violence Against the Press.

“It was also a calculated political move. One of the mob organizers was Usher F. Linder, the anti-abolitionist attorney general of Illinois. Before the rise of corporate advertising and the professionalization of journalism, newspapers aligned themselves with political parties or groups to cover issues in a way that was mutually beneficial. For anti-abolitionist papers aligned with political parties, this involved framing abolitionists in a negative way and even staging events. . . .”

• David Bauder, Associated Press: Maryland attack tells journalists to take threats seriously
• Capital Gazette, Annapolis, Md.: Today, we’re walking in the Fourth of July parade to help Annapolis heal
• E.B. Furgurson III, Capital Gazette, Annapolis, Md.: Congressman’s office confirms White House declined initial request to lower U.S. flags for Capital victims
• Alberto Ibargüen, Miami Herald: Support local news — it’s crucial to our lives and our democracy
• Stephen Matrazzo, former editor, Dundalk (Md.) Eagle: Our open door policy was considered critical to our connection with the community (Comments section below)
• Joy Mayer, Medium.com: A more nuanced understanding of “journalism” is desperately needed  —  and we need our communities’ help
• Tony Norman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: We, the Enemy of the American People
• Clarence Page, Chicago Tribune: Annapolis newsroom attack feels like a home invasion
• Thomas Peele, Bay Area News Group: Oakland knows too well the story of a murdered journalist
• Leonard Pitts Jr., Miami Herald: As America celebrates freedom, remember blood has been spilled to ensure that you have a free press
• Tim Prudente and Erica L. Green, Baltimore Sun: Newsrooms fall silent to remember attack on Capital Gazette
• Greg Sargent, Washington Post: After shooting, will Trump stop abusing journalists? Let’s revisit that conversation about ‘civility.’
• Student Press Law Center: More than 450 organizations and individuals sign on to joint statement condemning mass murder at the Capital Gazette and negative environment for journalists
• Matt Shuham, Talking Points Memo: Capital Gazette: ‘We Won’t Forget Being Called An Enemy Of The People’
• Kelly Virella, New York Times: After Capital Gazette Shooting, Readers Reflect on Their Community Newspapers
• Brigette White, Afro-American, Baltimore: Community Responds to Gazette Shootings

Days Named Philly Company’s V.P. for Diversity

Michael Days, editor for reader engagement and vice president of the Philadelphia Media Network, parent company of the Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Daily News and philly.com, on Monday was promoted to vice president of diversity and inclusion for PMN, Terry Egger, president of the company, announced.

“In this newly created position, Mike will help us systematically formalize how we fully embrace diversity and inclusion throughout our company and better reflect the community we are here to serve,” Egger said.

He outlined such duties as “Partner with PMN’s senior leaders and their teams to ensure that diversity and inclusion is embraced in all that we do as a core part of our business values,” and “Lead the effort to develop and coordinate all diversity and inclusion efforts across the organization by creating a strategic and durable approach that lends itself to a meaningful and long-term impact. . . .”

Days, formerly editor of the Philadelphia Daily News, was named to the reader engagement post on March 1, 2017, becoming “the public face of PMN, meeting and talking with readers across the region about news and news-gathering, seeking to better understand how the news organization can serve the community.”

SPJ Names Hicks to Help Rebuild Trust in Media

“In an effort to address the issue of dwindling trust in the media, the Society of Professional Journalists has named veteran journalist Rod Hicks as its first Journalist on Call,” the organization announced Monday.

“SPJ’s Journalist on Call is a unique, three-year position, developed and funded by the Sigma Delta Chi Foundation, which supports the educational mission of SPJ.

“Hicks, a native of Birmingham, Alabama, has experience at numerous news organizations across the country. Most recently, he served as an editor for The Associated Press at its Philadelphia-based East Regional Desk, which manages news coverage in 10 states. In this role, he worked on several major national stories including the Sandy Hook school shooting in Connecticut, the Boston Marathon bombing and the sexual assault trials of Bill Cosby. . . .

“Hicks will serve as something of an ombudsman, helping journalists understand why the public doesn’t trust them and what they can do to re-earn more trust. He will also spend time with the general public, local officials and community groups to explain the important role ethical journalism plays in society. A great deal of the focus will center on how the media and public can work together in crisis situations. He will begin July 16. . . .”

On June 12, the AP announced it was moving its East Regional desk, responsible for the Northeast, from Philadelphia to AP’s headquarters in New York. Of the eight non-management editors in Philadelphia, four were people of color: Sharyn Flanagan, Dino Hazell, Hicks and Janet McMillan.

Truong to Lead Poynter’s Training, Diversity Efforts

Doris Truong, Washington Post homepage editor and former president of the Asian American Journalists Association, has been hired as Poynter Institute’s first director of training and diversity, Tina Dyakon reported June 28 for the institute.

“The role was created to grow Poynter teaching, both online and in-person, and embody Poynter’s mission of increasing diversity in all aspects of its programs.

“ ‘Doris has spent the past 15 years on the front lines of The Washington Post’s transformation from traditional media to one of the most dynamic, forward-thinking digital newsrooms in America,’ ” said Poynter president Neil Brown. ‘Her distinguished record of journalistic achievement, passion for training and experience elevating diversity within the industry will help Poynter add to and improve its programming.’

“As director of training and diversity, Truong’s duties will include evaluation, execution and creation of Poynter training. She will focus not only on developing content that elevates journalism about under-covered communities and examines cultural issues in society, but also on recruiting more diverse participants and instructors for all Poynter programs. . . .”

Ruby Bailey Starts as Editor of Columbia Missourian

Ruby L. Bailey, formerly a local news editor at the Sacramento Bee, began a new role on July 1 as executive editor of the Columbia Missourian.

She is the first woman to lead the Missourian’s coverage in the newspaper’s 109 years.

Bailey was introduced to Missourian readers on May 13 as a “journalist whose reporting has ranged from hyperlocal coverage of Michigan suburbs to the Iraq War and whose editing has spanned the evolution of print and digital editions.”

The Missourian also wrote, “In addition to holding the title of executive editor, Bailey will hold the Missouri School of Journalism’s Missouri Community Newspaper Management Chair. In that role, she will work with community newspapers across Missouri to help improve their coverage and operations. . . . ”

Michelle Lee Unopposed for AAJA President

Michelle Ye Hee Lee, a reporter on the national political enterprise and accountability team at the Washington Post, is running unopposed to become national president of the Asian American Journalists Association, AAJA announced Monday.

Voting begins Wednesday, July 18, at 5 p.m. PT and continues until Friday, Aug. 10, at 12 p.m. CT. AAJA, which has about 1,400 members, meets in Houston for its annual convention from Aug. 8 to 11.

Lee covers money and influence in national politics. She has also been a reporter on the Washington Post Fact Checker column. Prior to joining the Post in 2014, Lee was a government accountability reporter at the Arizona Republic.

Also running uncontested are Pia Sarkar,who oversees coverage of autos, airlines and energy as an editor at the Associated Press, seeking to be AAJA’s vice president of civic engagement; and Ted Han, a leader in development and strategy for journalism products, vice president of finance.

Native Journalists Announce Board Candidates

Four candidates have filed for three seats on the board of directors of the Native American Journalists Association, NAJA announced on Monday.

They are Tristan Ahtone, Kiowa, associate editor for tribal affairs at High Country News; Sterling Cosper, Muscogee (Creek) Nation of Oklahoma, media manager of Mvskoke News, the tribal newspaper; Lenzy Krehbiel-Burton, Cherokee Nation, a freelance reporter based in Tulsa, Okla.; and Bryan Pollard, Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, director of communications at the Indigenous Food and Agriculture Initiative at the University of Arkansas School of Law in Fayetteville, Ark.

Pollard is the incumbent president and Krehbiel-Burton is secretary.

NAJA, which counts 500 members, is meeting July 18-21 in Miami with the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. The newly elected board will then choose its officers.

• Tim Giago, indianz.com: Native American Journalists Association still going strong

A reading of Frederick Douglass’ “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” (Credit: WGBH Forum Network, Boston)

When the Fourth of July Was a Black Holiday

“What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July?” Famed black abolitionist and former slave Frederick Douglass posed this question before a large, mostly white crowd in Rochester, New York on July 5, 1852,“ Ethan J. Kytle and Blain Roberts wrote Tuesday for the Atlantic. “It is ‘a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim,’ Douglass explained, adding that he felt much the same: ‘I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! … This Fourth [of] July is yours not mine.’

“A little over a decade later, however, African Americans like Douglass began making the glorious anniversary their own. After the end of the Civil War in 1865, the nation’s four million newly emancipated citizens transformed Independence Day into a celebration of black freedom. The Fourth became an almost exclusively African American holiday in the states of the former Confederacy — until white Southerners, after violently reasserting their dominance of the region, snuffed these black commemorations out.

“Before the Civil War, white Americans from every corner of the country had annually marked the Fourth with feasts, parades, and copious quantities of alcohol. A European visitor observed that it was ‘almost the only holy-day kept in America.’ Black Americans demonstrated considerably less enthusiasm. And those who did observe the holiday preferred — like Douglass — to do so on July 5 to better accentuate the difference between the high promises of the Fourth and the low realities of life for African Americans, while also avoiding confrontations with drunken white revelers. . . .”

• Jarvis DeBerry, NOLA.com | Times-Picayune: This July 4th, think of the immigrant children torn from their parents
• David Mindich, Philadelphia Inquirer: How a speech from 1852 offers wisdom for our troubled political times
• Syreeta McFadden, NBC Think: ‘What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July?’ Frederick Douglass’ 1852 speech still resonates in 2018
• Thom Shanker, New York Times: The Times at Gettysburg, July 1863: A Reporter’s Civil War Heartbreak
• Brent Staples, New York Times: The Legacy of Monticello’s Black First Family

‘The Wall’ Series on Border to Be Shown in 10 Cities

“Last fall, the USA Today Network published a multimedia, multi-newsroom series on the U.S./Mexico border,” Kristen Hare reported Monday for the Poynter Institute. “That series, ‘The Wall,’ won the network a Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting.

“Now, the project’s feature-length documentary is hitting the road. Screenings are planned in Washington, D.C.; Phoenix; Nashville; El Paso; Lafayette, Louisiana; Los Angeles; Austin; Murfreesboro, Tennessee; Louisville and Corpus Christi starting July 14.

“The mission with the entire project has been to educate the audiences about border and immigration issues, said Liz Nelson, USA Today Network’s vice president of content development. Some people will read the stories, others will watch the VR, ‘and still others by going to the border with our journalists in this film.’

“For the project, journalists mapped 2,000 miles along the border. ‘The Wall’ included a podcast, a newsletter, 360-degree video, stories and photography. Journalists from USA Today Network newsrooms in California, New Mexico, Texas, Michigan and Wisconsin contributed to the project. . . .”

• Cindy Carcamo, Los Angeles Times: For many waiting in Tijuana, a mysterious notebook is the key to seeking asylum
• Phillip Connor and Jens Manuel Krogstad, Pew Research Center: For the first time, U.S. resettles fewer refugees than the rest of the world
• Editorial, Kansas City Star: Officer breaking immigration lawyer’s foot makes ICE look as heartless as advertised
• Emil Guillermo, Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund: No reunification in a divided America, when freedom takes a holiday
• Jason Le Miere, Newsweek: White People Will Be Outnumbered by Hispanics in Texas Within 5 Years, New Census Data Indicates (June 25)
• Norman Y. Mineta, Time: I Was Detained in a U.S. Internment Camp. Here’s Why America’s Current Tragedies Have the Same Causes (June 21)
• Ruben Navarrette Jr., Washington Post Writers Group: Honestly, here’s how I’d fix immigration
• Andrés Oppenheimer, Miami Herald: Unless we help curb violence in Central America, frightened people will flee to our border
• Trudy Rubin, Philadelphia Inquirer: New Holocaust Museum exhibit reminds of how U.S. rejected desperate refugees before
• Albor Ruiz, Al Día, Philadelphia: Congratulations to President Trump on Independence Day
• Mary Sanchez, Kansas City Star: What made an ICE agent go rogue and shove an immigration lawyer?
• Fabiola Santiago, Miami Herald: The real fireworks this 4th of July? National anxiety. What’s happening to our country?
• Seattle Times: ‘I am grateful that my parents were allowed to come to the United States’: Readers’ immigration stories
• Lisa Riordan Seville and Hannah Rappleye, NBC News: Trump admin ran ‘pilot program’ for separating migrant families in 2017

Short Takes

• “The newspaper industry has declined faster and fallen further than some of the most famously collapsing sectors of the American economy,” Evan Horowitz wrote Tuesday for the Boston Globe. “Coal mining, steel manufacturing, fishing: They can’t match the job losses and wage erosion in the newspaper business over the past few decades.” Horowitz also wrote, “Since 2000, however, newspaper employment has fallen by more than 60 percent. That’s as big a fall in 18 years as the coal mining industry has suffered over the last 27 years. And while the job losses in steel and other much-eulogized American manufacturing sectors have started to level off, or even turn around, in recent years the newspaper industry has continued to shed roughly 1,000 jobs per month. . . .”
• “If you thought Bill Shine’s enemies in the right-wing media might be able to hold up his appointment, you thought wrong,” Brian Stelter wrote Thursday in his “Reliable Sources” newsletter. “The White House made it official around 1pm on Thursday — Shine, a former co-president of Fox News, will be deputy chief of staff for communications — essentially filling the vacant comms director role. This is a victory for Sean Hannity, who reportedly pushed for Trump to hire Shine. And it’s yet another sign of the backscratching relationship between Fox and Trumpworld. . . .”
• “Our new report, ‘Black Men Making It In America,’ [PDF] spotlights two pieces of particular good news about the economic well-being of black men,” W. Bradford Wilcox, Wendy R. Wang and Ronald B. Mincy wrote Tuesday for CNN. “First, the share of black men in poverty has fallen from 41% in 1960 to 18% today. Second, and more importantly, the share of black men in the middle or upper class — as measured by their family income — has risen from 38% in 1960 to 57% today. In other words, about one-in-two black men in America have reached the middle class or higher. This good news is important and should be widely disseminated because it might help reduce prejudicial views of black men in the society at large, and negative portrayals of black men in the media. . . .”
• “#RolandMartinUnfiltered will be a daily show broadcast from Washington, DC, that will focus on news, politics, culture, entertainment, social justice, sports, education, business, and finance” (video), the host of TV One’s “NewsOne Now,” canceled last year, announced on Monday. “If it’s important to you, we will cover it,” Martin said in a video promoting the daily digital show, which debuts Sept. 4.
• “More than 2 million people are incarcerated in the United States, more than in any other country in the world, and tens of billions of taxpayer dollars are spent annually to keep them there. . . . ” Jonathan Peters wrote Tuesday for Columbia Journalism Review. “But it’s difficult for journalists to cover them. The First Amendment does a generally fine job of guaranteeing rights to communicate, but it’s a fickle source for access rights. . . . “

• 

  “Glenn Martin McNatt, a longtime Baltimore Sun editorial writer and arts columnist who adored James Brown and Bach, died Friday of lung cancer,” Christina Tkacik reported Tuesday for the Sun. “He was 69. ‘He liked to ponder great issues and figure out, “What can we do about this?” ‘ said his wife, Marian Holmes of Washington. Tkacik also wrote, “Mr. McNatt became a full-time editorial writer for The Sun in 2009, but a high point of his career came a year before that. He wrote The Sun’s endorsement for Barack Obama, whom he called ‘that rarest of public servants, an inspirational leader who would transcend any enduring racial barriers and call upon the best in the American character.’ ” A memorial is planned for August.

• Sherwood Ross, a white former Chicago journalist who in 1966 handled publicity for civil rights activist James Meredith’s 220-mile “March Against Fear” from Memphis to Jackson, Miss., died June 21 at a nursing home in North Miami Beach, Fla., Maureen O’Donnell reported June 29 for the Chicago Sun-Times. He was 85. “After Meredith was shot in an ambush on the walk’s second day,” Ross “tended to the civil rights leader’s wounds. He rode with him to the hospital, telling the ambulance driver to speed things up, or he’d have blood on his hands. . . .”
• “Gina Carter-Simmers, GM of WJSU-FM in Jackson, Miss., died Tuesday after battling breast cancer for nearly two years,” Dru Sefton reported June 29 for Current. “She was 49. Carter-Simmers was active in public broadcasting for more than 20 years. She previously worked at WUAL-FM in Tuscaloosa, Ala.; KRWG in Las Cruces, N.M.; Public Broadcasting Atlanta, and Alabama Public Television. She had led WJSU since 2004. . . .”
• “What fun it would have been to see the next chapter up close, the NBA records piling up,” the Beacon Journal in Akron, Ohio, editorialized Monday about LeBron James’ decision to leave the Cleveland Cavaliers for the Los Angeles Lakers. “Instead, James is taking his game to Los Angeles, where the obvious challenge is reviving a storied franchise (along with sidelining the LaVar Ball show). One can see the smart thinking behind the move, starting with the shared instincts on the floor and beyond with Magic Johnson. This isn’t about winning a championship or reaching The Finals a ninth straight time. This is an older and wiser LeBron James doing what he sees best. In that way, he will always have Akron.”
• “CBS is putting its foot down,” Anna Chan reported Wednesday for Us Weekly. “After Big Brother fans expressed outrage that two season 20 contestants made racist comments and accused another player of sexual harassment, the network said that such behavior on its show will no longer be tolerated. ‘Big Brother is a reality show about watching a group of people who have no privacy 24/7 — and capturing every unfiltered moment and conversation in their lives. At times, the houseguests reveal prejudices and exhibit behavior that we do not condone,’
  reads CBS’ statement, which was shared with Us Weekly on Tuesday  . . .”
• “FCC chair Ajit Pai has proposed moving oversight of its Equal Employment Opportunity rules from the Media Bureau to the Enforcement Bureau,” John Eggerton reported Tuesday for Broadcasting & Cable. “That came on what Pai identified as the 50th anniversary of the FCC’s commitment to make sure the national policy against discrimination applied to broadcast licenses as well. . . .” The Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council (MMTC) said the 1968 decision to ban race and gender discrimination in broadcast employment “paved the way for Hon. Mignon Clyburn to become the first woman chair and first African-American woman commissioner of the FCC; and for Hon. Ajit Pai to become the first Indian-American chairman of the agency [PDF]. . . .”
• “Alan Diaz, whose photograph of a terrified 6-year-old Cuban boy named Elian Gonzalez earned him the Pulitzer Prize, has died. He was 71,” the Associated Press reported Wednesday. The story also said, “He had been freelancing for the AP in November 1999 when a boater found the Cuban boy floating in the waters off Fort Lauderdale. Diaz spent the next few months chatting with Gonzalez’s relatives and neighbors, earning their trust by respecting an order from the boy’s uncle to not speak to the child. Because of those relationships, he was the only photographer to capture the moment when U.S. immigration agents ended a bitter international custody battle with a pre-dawn raid the day before Easter in 2000. The Pulitzer-winning photo shows an armed agent reaching out to toward a terrified Elian, seconds before the boy was pulled out of his uncle’s home so he could be returned to his father in Cuba. . . .”
• “Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting has hired veteran journalist Bobby Caina Calvan as collaborations editor for Reveal Local Labs, a new role to foster news partnerships that produce investigative journalism in four communities over the next two years,” Reveal announced on Monday. “Calvan comes to CIR from the Fund for Investigative Journalism, a nonprofit in Washington, D.C. that funds and supports independent investigative journalists. . . .”
• “KUSA, the Tegna station in Denver, Colorado, has appointed Eric Valadez as the station’s director of content,” Stephanie Tsoflias Siegel reported June 29 for TVSpy. “In this newly created role, Valadez will oversee the vision, hiring and strategy for all 9News coverage and distribution of news across all content platforms. . . .”
• Rozina Ali,”a New York journalist who writes about the Middle East, the War on Terror and Islamophobia”; Allison Herrera, a Minneapolis multimedia journalist; and Yanick Rice Lamb, a Howard University professor and Washington-based independent journalist, are among recipients of nearly $75,000 in reporting grants from the Fund for Investigative Journalism, the fund announced June 29.
• “Karen Carter Richards, the first vice chair of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) and publisher of the Houston Forward Times, received the highly-coveted Publisher of the Year Award during the 2018 NNPA Foundation Merit Awards in Norfolk, Va.,” Stacy M. Brown reported Monday for the NNPA News Service. Brown also wrote, “The Miami Times took home 12 Merit Awards. The Birmingham Times won the John H. Sengstacke Award for General Excellence Award. The Miami Times also earned an award in the General Excellence category that focused on the number of points earned throughout the ceremony. . . .”

• 

  “Maybe it’s because many of us are glued to the television watching the World Cup, or focused on President Trump’s latest lies about asylum seekers, but the bloodshed in Nicaragua — where more than 220 people have been killed in recent protests — should get much more international attention,  Andrés Oppenheimer wrote Saturday for the Miami Herald, updated Sunday. “Over the past two months, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega’s regime has killed more people in street protests in his country than did dictator Nicolás Maduro in last year’s brutal repression of protesters in Venezuela. And Nicaragua has a population of only 6 million, compared with Venezuela’s 32 million. Yet, amazingly, there is hardly an international uproar over what’s going on in Nicaragua. . . .”

• “After a slow and contentious start, Richmond’s Monument Avenue Commission has made a wise and inclusive recommendation about the Confederate statues that line the city’s most famous boulevard,” the Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch editorialized Monday. “The 10-person panel yesterday endorsed the removal of the memorial to Jefferson Davis, who was president of the Confederacy and who, unlike the other Civil War figures along the avenue, was not a Virginian. . . .”
• “Diego Sorbara is joining the staff as its first-ever standards editor,” ProPublica announced Monday. “Sorbara comes to ProPublica from The New York Times, where he most recently served as deputy editor of the international edition. . . .”
• “Angered by a New York Times investigation detailing how China seized ownership of a seaport in Sri Lanka, a group of Sri Lankan lawmakers denounced the newspaper on Monday, focusing their ire on two local journalists for the newspaper,” Maria Abi-Habib reported Tuesday for the Times. “On Monday night, the lawmakers, who are allies of the former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, held a televised news conference in which they claimed that the journalists, Dharisha Bastians and Arthur Wamanan, were working on behalf of the current government to malign Mr. Rajapaksa. One lawmaker displayed a close-up photo of Ms. Bastians’s face for the cameras. . . .”
• “Moroccan authorities should immediately release journalists Mohamed al-Asrihi and Hamid al-Mahdaoui and drop all charges against them,” the Committee to Protect Journalists said Tuesday. “Al-Asrihi, a video journalist and director of the independent news website Rif24, has been in prison since being arrested on June 6, 2017, after reporting on protests. . . . Al-Mahdaoui, an editor and reporter for the online outlet El-Badil, was arrested on July 20, 2017, while traveling to northern Morocco to cover the same protests . . .” CPJ also said, “The Casablanca Court of Appeals sentenced al-Asrihi on June 26 to five years in prison and a fine of 2,000 Moroccan dirhams (US$210), according to news reports; the court sentenced al-Mahdaoui to three years in prison and a fine of 3,000 Moroccan dirhams (US$315) in a separate case on June 28, according to news reports. . . .”
• “Advocacy group Right2Know (R2K) released a report on Wednesday documenting how South African journalists were spied on by various state security agencies and the private sector,” Jeanette Chabalala reported Wednesday for South Africa’s News24. “The report, titled Spooked — Surveillance of Journalists in South Africa, reveals how several journalists who have exposed corruption have been targeted. . . .”

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• February 2018 Podcast: Richard “Dick” Prince on the need for newsroom diversity (Gabriel Greschler, Student Press Law Center, Feb. 26, 2018)
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• 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)