Articles Feature

Not Even the ‘Blacksonian’ Is Safe from Trump

by richard0820

President Says Smithsonian Portrays U.S. as Flawed
Comedian Dropped From Correspondents’ Dinner
FCC Chairman Targets Disney Over DEI
SNCC Says: ‘It’s Dark, But It’s Not Midnight’

Cuban Journalist in U.S. Facing Forced Return (March 31 update)

Short Takes: Black teen as ‘human shield’ in West Bank; low arrest rate in Chicago shootings; meeting on elimination of Philadelphia Inquirer Communities desk; Tyler Perry seeks next wave of filmmakers; San Antonio reporter Jaime Peluffo; return of LZ Granderson; Patrick Soon-Shiong; L. Brent Bozell III; Tracie Powell; Journalist Safety Urgent Care Helpline.

From March 28: Trump Frees Ozy Co-Founder Carlos Watson

Homepage photo: Oprah Winfrey at the opening of the “Watching Oprah” exhibit at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, December 2023. (Credit: Screen grab, National Museum of African American History and Culture)

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In 2017, a year after the opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, General Motors invited a group of Black journalists to drive a new Buick from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C. There, they took a private tour of the museum and discussed the meaning of the museum to them, in a talk moderated by Ed Gordon. (Credit: YouTube)

President Says Smithsonian Portrays U.S. as Flawed

“President Donald Trump’s order accusing the Smithsonian Institution of not reflecting American history notes correctly that the country’s Founding Fathers declared that ‘all men are created equal,‘ ” Bill Barrow wrote from Atlanta Saturday for the Associated Press.

“But it doesn’t mention that the founders enshrined slavery into the U.S. Constitution and declared enslaved persons as three-fifths of a person for the purpose of the Census.

“Civil rights advocates, historians and Black political leaders sharply rebuked Trump on Friday for his order, entitled ‘Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.’ They argued that his executive order targeting the Smithsonian Institution is his administration’s latest move to downplay how race, racism and Black Americans themselves have shaped the nation’s story.”

Black journalists won’t be too far behind. When their convention took place in Washington in 2016, members of the National Association of Black Journalists toured what would become the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, then still under construction.

Spokesperson Fleur Paysour had messaged Journal-isms earlier in the year, “Out of a commitment to tell the compelling story of the black press in America, the new museum has collected a wide range of objects including photos by Teeney Harris and a printing press from The Chicago Defender.”

Megastar Oprah Winfrey, whose career began as a local television journalist, contributed more than $20 million to the sponsorship of the museum and has its theater named after her. Book signings and other gatherings populated by Black journalists have found a home there. The space provides inspiration to tell the stories many wish their own news organizations would pursue and has motivated some to tell them by other means, such as in books.

“ ‘It seems like we’re headed in the direction where there’s even an attempt to deny that the institution of slavery even existed, or that Jim Crow laws and segregation and racial violence against Black communities, Black families, Black individuals even occurred,’ said historian Clarissa Myrick-Harris, a professor at Morehouse College, the historically Black campus in Atlanta,” the AP’s Barrow continued.

“The Thursday executive order cites the National Museum of African American History and Culture by name and argues that the Smithsonian as a whole is engaging in a ‘concerted and widespread effort to rewrite our Nation’s history.’

CBS News reported in 2022, “Four million images that are considered to be the most valuable documentation of 20th century African American history will soon have a new home,” the Smithsonian prominent among the recipients. “The winning bid for the images, which were taken for ‘Ebony’ and ‘Jet’ magazines, came in at $30 million at a private auction.” CBS News correspondent Adriana Diaz provided details. (Credit: CBS/YouTube)

‘Instead of celebrating an ‘unparalleled legacy of advancing liberty, individual rights, and human happiness,’ the order argues that a ‘corrosive … divisive, race-centered ideology’ has ‘reconstructed the nation ‘as inherently racist, sexist, oppressive, or otherwise irredeemably flawed.’

“It empowers Vice President JD Vance to review all properties, programs and presentations to prohibit programs that ‘degrade shared American values’ or ‘divide Americans based on race.’

“Trump also ordered Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to determine if any monuments since January 2020 ‘have been removed or changed to perpetuate a false reconstruction of American history’ or ‘inappropriately minimize the value of certain historical events or figures.’ Trump has long criticized the removal of Confederate monuments, a movement that gained steam after the May 2020 murder of George Floyd.

“Critics argued the order is the latest move by the Trump administration to quash recognition of Black Americans’ contributions to the nation and to gloss over the legal, political, social and economic obstacles they have faced.

“Trump’s approach is ‘a literal attack on Black America itself,’ Ibram X. Kendi, the race historian and bestselling author, said. ‘The Black Smithsonian, as it is affectionately called, is indeed one of the heartbeats of Black America,’ Kendi argued, and ‘also one of the heartbeats’ of the nation at large.

“Congressional Black Caucus Chair Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., suggested that Trump wants to distort the national narrative to racist ends. . . .”

Would the purging stop with the Smithsonian? No, says Kendi.

“Kendi noted that many museums and educational centers across the country — such as San Francisco’s Museum of the African Diaspora, The Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration in Montgomery, Alabama, and the International African American Museum in Charleston, South Carolina — exist with little to no federal or other governmental funding sources. Some already are struggling to keep their doors open,” Barrow wrote.

“ ‘To me, that’s part of the plan, to starve these institutions that are already starving of resources so that the only institutions that are telling America’s history are actually only telling political propaganda,’ Kendi said. . . .”

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Comedian Dropped From Correspondents’ Dinner

“The comedian who was set to perform at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner was fired from the gig Saturday — after the Trump administration took offense at what she said on The Daily Beast Podcast,” Liam Archacki reported for the Daily Beast.

“ “On Thursday, Amber Ruffin (pictured) had sparked MAGA rage when she said that she wouldn’t try to make sure that her jokes targeted both sides of the political spectrum during her set, as she had been instructed to do by the White House Correspondents Association (WHCA).

“She told hosts comedian Samantha Bee and Beast Chief Content Officer Joanna Coles that the Trump administration are ‘kind of a bunch of murderers,’ adding that playing to both sides ‘makes them feel like human beings, but they shouldn’t get to feel that way, ‘cause they’re not.’

“A Saturday letter from Eugene Daniels (pictured), the president of the WHCA, to its members announced that he had been ‘re-envisioning’ the April 26 dinner ‘for the past couple of weeks.’ The WHCA is independent from the White House.

“ ‘As a first step, I wanted to share that the WHCA board has unanimously decided we are no longer featuring a comedic performance this year,’ wrote Daniels, who is also a political correspondent for MSNBC. ‘At this consequential moment for journalism, I want to ensure the focus is not on the politics of division but entirely on awarding our colleagues for their outstanding work and providing scholarship and mentorship to the next generation of journalists.’ . . .

“On Friday, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Taylor Budowich lashed out at Ruffin over her comments on the Beast’s podcast, calling her a ‘2nd rate comedian.’”’

“ ‘What kind of responsible, sensible journalist would attend something like this?’ he wrote. ‘More importantly, what kind of company would sponsor such [a] hate-filled and violence-inspiring event?’ . . .

“Neither Trump nor Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt will attend this year’s correspondents’ dinner. Right now, the administration is reportedly in the process of creating its own event to rival the WHCA’s event, according to Politico. . . .”

NABJ said of the academy, “Participants undergo a high-level leadership training process that includes workshops led by news and media industry executives and modules focusing on hiring and retention, business acumen, character, personal and professional branding, and leadership development. Participants are also paired with national news and media leaders to receive mentorship throughout the program.” (Credit: NABJ)

FCC Chairman Targets Disney Over DEI

“After launching investigations into the diversity, equity and inclusion policies and practices of Comcast and Verizon, the Federal Communications Commission is setting its sights on Disney next,” Lucas Manfredi reported Thursday for The Wrap.

FCC chairman Brendan Carr told Punchbowl News he’s putting the ‘finishing touches’ on a letter to the ABC parent company. He declined to reveal which specific DEI initiatives he was concerned with, but said the letter would outline similar concerns raised with Comcast and Verizon and ‘whether they’re engaged in any of this sort of DEI discrimination that could run afoul of our EEO rules or potentially our public interest standard.’

“ ‘We’re going to get to the bottom of everything that is ongoing here and stay tuned on that one,’ he added.

Todd Spangler added Friday for Variety: “ ‘I have asked the @FCC’s Enforcement Bureau to open an investigation into Disney & ABC,’ he wrote in a post on X Friday. ‘While Disney started as an iconic American company, it recently went all in on DEI. I am concerned that their DEI practices may violate FCC prohibitions on invidious forms of discrimination.’

“Disney last month scaled back its DEI policies — as other companies also have done in the wake of the Trump administration’s aggressive push to eliminate DEI in government and the private sector. In Disney’s case, the company announced that it was ending ‘Reimagine Tomorrow,’ an initiative intended to promote stories from underrepresented communities. . . .”

Punchbowl also reported, “The FCC also reinstated a ‘news distortion’ complaint against ABC affiliate WPVI-TV over the network’s fact-checking of Donald Trump during a presidential debate.”

The National Association of Black Journalists announced in August the launch of a four-year commitment from Disney and ABC News Group to invest in and partner with its NABJ Leadership Academy.

“The investment will provide NABJ with financial support for the next four years to build on and enhance the programming and training opportunities provided to participants. The partnership will begin for the upcoming 2024-2025 cycle.

“Now in its third year, the academy trains NABJ members working in broadcast, print, and digital who are current news and media managers — or interested in transitioning to leadership — to ascend to the executive suite. Training takes place during the Convention and year-round, with discipline-specific modules and career development training,” the announcement said.

Meanwhile, the University of Michigan announced cuts to campus-wide diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives Thursday, effective immediately, and Tyler Falk reported Tuesday for Current, which covers public broadcasting, that “New guidance from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has neutralized a diversity provision in NPR’s collective bargaining agreement with the Screen Actors Guild–American Federation of Television and Radio Artists union.

“The agreement had required that at least 30% of external candidates interviewed for open bargaining unit positions be from underrepresented groups “who would advance NPR’s diversity, equity, and inclusion priorities, including but not limited to persons of color, women, members of the LGBTQ+ community, people with disabilities, and military veterans.”

As individual columnists weighed in on the continuing attack on DEI, Perry Bacon Jr. (pictured) of the Washington Post wrote, “What Native Americans, women and other groups who have often experienced discrimination in America really need is not DEI, but PFJ — power, freedom and justice.”

Bacon also wrote provocatively, “diversity often falls prey to what the Georgetown University philosophy professor Olúfémi O. Táíwò refers to as ‘elite capture’ — the individuals who get the spoils from a focus on diversity often don’t share the interests of the broader group.

“For example, there are more African Americans than ever in top roles in the Democratic Party. But I don’t know how useful it was to the average Black person last year to have a Black presidential nominee (Kamala Harris) and House Minority Leader (Hakeem Jeffries of New York) who spoke more passionately about defending Israel than issues that affect Black people in the United States.”

In the Boston Globe, Renee Graham (pictured) wrote March 23 that “Recent news that several major sponsors are withdrawing financial support from San Francisco’s Pride parade in June is less of a surprise than it is more evidence of corporate America’s gutlessness in the insidious anti-LGBTQ Elon Musk/President Trump era.”

With their sponsorships, Graham said the corporations gained brand loyalty, “But loving LGBTQ spending power is not the same as loving the LGBTQ community. I’m reminded of a comment once made by comedian Jon Stewart of ‘The Daily Show’: ‘If you don’t stick to your values when they’re being tested, they’re not values. They’re hobbies.’

“As Trump demands total capitulation, some of corporate America is proving that its values aren’t even hobbies — people defend their hobbies. We should remember that generally speaking, what a corporation values most is its bottom line. And anything viewed as a threat to that is expendable, including the fight for human rights.”

[March 31 update: “Three House Democrats launched an investigation Monday into FCC chair Brendan Carr,” Oliver Darcy reported for his Status newsletter. “Reps. Frank Pallone, Doris Matsui and Yvette Clarke announced the probe in a letter to Carr, accusing the Donald Trump appointee of launching ‘sham investigations into entities disfavored by President Trump, Elon Musk, and the Republican Party to censor journalists and news coverage.’ The Democrats added, ‘In the absence of actual agency authority and any real evidence of wrongdoing, your pursuit of these actions is clearly intended to punish and burden broadcasters and other media companies by inflicting incalculable reputational harm and excessive costs to defend themselves’” Carr, oddly, did not respond to our request for comment. But earlier in the day he threatened ABC’s broadcast license during a Fox News interview.”]

Walt Carr, 92, presents old-school solutions to the nation’s current predicament.

SNCC Says: ‘It’s Dark, But It’s Not Midnight’

The SNCC Legacy Project released this statement Wednesday:

We are living in dark times. Every day, with every news cycle, we sink deeper and deeper into what seems like an abyss. But the night is getting shorter. There is a need to resist despair. We are not powerless. We have never had the luxury of waiting around for those who we expect to represent our interests to do the heavy lifting. In fact, their inaction should be expected if we knew our history. It has always been us. 

When left without any recourse in the early days of organizing in Mississippi, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) working alongside the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) created a new vision for the state, and eventually the country, with the determination to fight for one person one vote. Without that radical assertion, the second half of 20th century America would have looked much different. It has always been us. We have always had the wherewithal within our own moral universe to shape the new political agenda to escape the darkness that is enveloping us. 

It is only dark right now. We have been fighting for a long time for the light. But human history is long. It takes a long time to imagine that everything must and can change. And then live it. We have been fighting for a long time for the light. It still shines within us. It still shines within everyone who has greeted this moment with anger. It still shines within everyone who has greeted this moment with some resolve. It even still shines within everyone who has greeted this moment with that shrug off, “what did you expect?”

It is in the darkness where we can begin to see that a world without racist and sexist oppression is possible. A world where there are no empires, where we study war no more. A world that allows children to live and be protected. Where healthcare is not a corporate game. Where our food systems feed everyone and work alongside the environment rather than against it. Where we can teach the truth in our educational institutions without fear of reprisal. Where we can affirm how each person sees themselves.

We all deserve a world where we might live our truths.

But, most importantly it still shines within everyone who has greeted this moment with a recommitment to do the work: To think and organize together for more just systems. To think and work toward shared and equitable power. To think and organize to enhance our capacities to change. (Photo: Frank Smith, left, Bob Moses and Willie (Wazir) Peacock in Greenwood, Miss., in 1963., credit: Danny Lyon)

And to those who have made it their duty to act, these lights still shine. We must act and we must organize. We must find where our neighbors, classmates, communities, and loved ones are. We must meet them. We must act together. We must translate the reasons for the despair and the harm that we witness in the media spotlight into opportunities for radical actions. We must organize. And sometimes that means disobey. To create a new life for our people, we must have the courage to know the difference between an unjust law and justice.

We will break through the darkness.

And with our renewed commitment to ourselves and our peoples, we will greet a new morning, ready and willing to make human history respond to our imperative, to make freedom — real freedom — our only agenda. This is what movement taught us. It has always been us.

The message closed with a request for donations.

Cuban Journalist in U.S. Facing Forced Return

“The independent journalist and former Cuban political prisoner Lázaro Yuri Valle Roca (pictured) is facing an imminent risk of deportation in the United States due to the recent implementation of more restrictive immigration measures by the Donald Trump administration,” the independent website CiberCuba reported Saturday.

“Valle Roca, who was imprisoned for nearly three years, left the country in June 2024, after his wife, Eralidis Frómeta, arranged at the U.S. Embassy in Havana the possibility of obtaining humanitarian parole.

“Now, it could be affected by the cancellation of the parole programs for foreigners from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, as well as for their immediate family members, announced by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on March 25.

In a message posted on his Facebook profile, Valle Roca expressed his distress over the possibility of being deported and reaffirmed his opposition to the Cuban regime.

“‘Well, brothers, friends, and supporters, how sadistic life can be at times. They want to send us back to death, but we have FAITH in God, our father, and in all our brothers and friends. If they return me to my beloved Homeland, I will enter as always shouting #DownWithTheCubanDictatorship,” the journalist wrote. . . .”

The Madrid-based Prisoners Defenders lists five independent journalists imprisoned in Cuba: Jorge Bello Domínguez, José Gabriel Barrenechea Chávez, Yeris Curbelo Aguilera, Luis Ángel Cuza Alonso and Humberto Paz Gutiérrez.

“The Cuban activist Anamely Ramos González raised her voice once again to denounce the situation of more than 700 political prisoners who, according to human rights organizations, remain incarcerated in Cuba,” CiberCuba reported separately Saturday.

“Through a video shared on social media, the art teacher stated that the country’s prisons have become ‘centers of death,’ where constant human rights violations are reported, including deaths due to lack of medical assistance, mistreatment, prolonged isolation, and arbitrary transfers. . . . ” [Added March 31]

Short Takes

    • It’s rare to see Black people as part of the West Bank- Gaza story, but CBS News’ Debora Patta told viewers Wednesday that in the West Bank, “CBS News met 14-year-old Omri Salem, a studious kid who dreams of being an engineer. His family has been in the area for generations. He told CBS News that, along with his nine-year old cousin, he was ordered by the IDF [Israeli Defense Forces] to search a four-story apartment building. He didn’t want to do it. ‘I was so scared,’ he said. ”Then they started beating us.’ Omri remains deeply emotionally scarred by the soldiers, whom he says forced him at gun point to be their human shield.” The young man tells his story at 2:48 in the video.

    • “A new Chicago Sun-Times investigation shows that the department made arrests in just 6 percent of the city’s twenty-three hundred nonfatal shootings last year,” the Columbia Journalism Review reports, awarding it one of its “laurels” Friday. “Around half of these investigations are ‘suspended’ — meaning officers have stopped investigating them — within a month after the shooting. And at least 80 percent of them are suspended each year. . . .”

    • Los Angeles Times columnist LZ Granderson (pictured) is back at the newspaper after having been away since November for hip replacement surgery and recuperation. “I’m also on a once a week publication schedule like my other colleagues,” Granderson told Journal-isms. The publication frequency of the “left-leaning” columnists was reduced as part of owner Patrick Soon-Shiong’s effort to move the paper to the right. Granderson said last month that he was not affected by that decision, saying, “As you know, it’s illegal for my employer to reduce my workload or pressure me to take a buyout while I’m on sick leave or to do so upon my return.” He declined to explain why his column is running once a week after all. Granderson’s work reappeared on March 7.

    • “Black-owned media should be thinking about adjusting their approach to funding — but not in ways that compromise their mission, values, or voice,” Tracie Powell (pictured), founder of the Pivot Fund, told John Celestand of the Local Media Association, Powell reported Wednesday. “The environment is shifting. The post-2020 surge of interest in racial equity is fading, and philanthropic priorities are changing. That means we must be even more strategic, nimble, and clear about our value. That doesn’t mean diluting our purpose — it means finding creative ways to make our mission resonate in a climate that demands results, metrics, and alignment with evolving priorities. . . .” The Pivot Fund “centers and invests in BIPOC-led, community news organizations.”

    • “In response to escalating threats against press freedom in the US, the Journalist Safety Urgent Care Helpline will remain available through the first 100 days of the Trump administration, extending through the end of April,” PEN America reported Monday. . . .Through a collaboration among leading journalist safety organizations and experts, the Helpline offers one-on-one and newsroom-wide support in the face of doxing, threats, arrests, legal intimidation, and other security concerns. U.S. journalists and newsrooms can access these consultations by emailing urgentcare (at) electionsos.org with the word ‘SAFETY’ in the subject line.” A Knight-funded pilot project, the Helpline is a collaboration among PEN America, Committee to Protect Journalists, International Women’s Media Foundation, Freedom of the Press Foundation, Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the Press, “and the Aegis Safety Alliance — alongside four leading safety advisors, Yemile Bucay, Jeje Mohamed, Ramy Ghaly, and Viktorya Vilk. . . .”

Trump Frees Ozy Co-Founder Carlos Watson

March 28, 2025

A Commutation Hours Before Sentence Was to Begin

Comedian Dropped From Correspondents’ Dinner (March 29)

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CNBC reports news of the commutation. (Credit: CNBC/YouTube)

A Commutation Hours Before Sentence Was to Begin

President Trump commuted the sentence of Ozy Media co-founder Carlos Watson (pictured, below) Friday, just hours before Watson was due to report to prison for a nearly 10-year sentence in a financial conspiracy case. Watson, who is Black, had called the case a “modern lynching” and praised Trump profusely ror setting him free.

“His decision reflects his unwavering commitment to fairness and justice for those who have been wrongfully targeted,” Watson said, failing to mention Trump’s continued refusal to apologize for his 1989 call for the execution of the Black and Latino New York teenagers first known as the Central Park Five, then the “Exonerated Five” after they were proved innocent.

Separately, “Trump granted a pardon on Tuesday to Devon Archer, a felon convicted for his involvement in a scheme that defrauded over $60 million in tribal bonds from the business arm of the Oglala Sioux Tribe,” Levi Rickert reported Thursday for Native News Online..

“A former business associate of Hunter Biden, the son of former President Joe Biden, Archer was convicted in 2018 for his role in fraudulently issuing tribal bonds,” Rickert continued. 

“Watson was arrested in February 2023 after two of the company’s top executives pleaded guilty to fraud charges,” Chris Megerian reported for the Associated Press.

“Prosecutors said Watson deceived investors and lenders by inflating revenue numbers and suggesting deals were final when they were not. At one point, Watson’s co-founder pretended to be a YouTube executive on a phone call with potential investors, according to prosecutors.

“After Watson’s sentencing, then-Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said the jury had determined that ‘Watson was a con man who told lie upon lie upon lie to deceive investors into buying stock in his company.’

“Ozy Media ‘collapsed under the weight of Watson’s dishonest schemes,’ Peace said.

Posted Friday night on X. (If no image appears, please consider using another browser.)

“But Watson, who is Black, called the case ‘a modern lynching” and argued that he was the victim of ‘selective prosecution.’

“ ‘I made mistakes. I’m very, very sorry that people are hurt, myself included,’ Watson said, but ‘I don’t think it’s fair.’

“U.S. District Judge Eric Komitee said during sentencing that the ‘quantum of dishonesty in this case is exceptional.’ “

Megerian also reported, “Trump has aggressively used his presidential power to commute sentences and issue pardons for people who he believes were treated unfairly by the justice system. The president himself was convicted last year in a case involving hush money payments, part of what he has described as a politically motivated witch hunt against him.

“Watson’s commutation was among a string of other acts of clemency revealed by the White House on Friday. They included Trevor Milton, the founder of electric vehicle company Nikola, who had been sentenced to four years for fraudulently exaggerating the potential of his technology and was pardoned; and three entrepreneurs who founded and helped run the cryptocurrency exchange BITMEX, which was ordered to pay a $100 million fine earlier this year after prosecutors said it ‘willfully flouted U.S. anti-money laundering laws to boost revenue’.

“They had been sentenced to probation and were also pardoned. . . .”

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Richard Prince’s Journal-isms originates from Washington. It began in print before most of us knew what the internet was, and it would like to be referred to as a “column.” Any views expressed in the column are those of the person or organization quoted and not those of any other entity. Send tips, comments and concerns to Richard Prince at journal-isms+owner@groups.io

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