Obama Surprised by Wilmore’s N-Word

President ‘Appreciated the Spirit’ Expressed

Sonya Ross, AP Race Editor, Files Bias Suit

Judge Blocks Move of Louisville Confederate Statue

Sports Anchor Loses Job Over Prince References

Viewers Kick In $25,000 to Help Blind Boy See

Bronx Suspects Not Given Benefit of Doubt

In Forest, Black Anchor Interviews Klan Leader

Short Takes

President ‘Appreciated the Spirit’ Expressed

The White House was blindsided by comedian Larry Wilmore’s decision to use the N-word at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner Saturday night, but White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters Monday that the president “appreciated the spirit of the sentiments that Mr. Wilmore expressed.”

“The Comedy Central host ended his speech Saturday night with a seemingly heartfelt riff about the historical importance of Obama being the first black president,” as Jordan Fabian reported Monday for the Hill.

” ‘When I was a kid, I lived in a country where people couldn’t accept a black quarterback,’ Wilmore said.

” ‘Now think about that. A black man was thought by his mere color not good enough to lead a football team,’ he continued. ‘And now to live in your time, Mr. President, when a black man can lead the entire free world.’

“He then turned to Obama, pounded his chest, and said, ‘Yo, Barry, you did it my n—-!’

“Obama smiled and hugged Wilmore after he wrapped up his remarks. . . .”

Wilmore’s use of the term “my nigga” was instantly debated on social media and elsewhere, with African American reaction markedly influenced by generation.

Some younger journalists and commentators called it a term of affection that two black men had a right to express publicly. Others called it disrespectful, especially when directed toward the president of the United States, and bemoaned what they called a lack of understanding of history.

David A. Love, writing in theGrio.com Monday, defended Wilmore after noting that he understood the views of those who opposed use of the word. “Larry was the hired entertainment, and people knew what they were getting,” Love wrote. “You’d better believe the brother and his speech was vetted, and Obama, Michelle and them knew what the man was going to say. . . .”

However, White House spokeswoman Addie M. Whisenant told Journal-isms, “There was no visibility into Larry’s speech from our team.” Another conclusion from Love — that “the president visibly and approvingly acknowledged Wilmore” — “seems to be a personal view of the author,” she said in an email.

On Monday, Fabian’s report continued, “American Urban Radio Networks Washington correspondent April Ryan peppered Earnest with questions (video) about whether Wilmore’s comments were inappropriate.

” ‘Comedians are gonna go right up to the line,’ Earnest said.

“He said that such criticism is nothing new, noting that comics such as Stephen Colbert and Wanda Sykes also came under fire for making controversial statements in their correspondents’ dinner routines.

“ ‘I’m confident that Mr. Wilmore used the word by design. He was seeking to be provocative,’ Earnest said, adding that a ‘fair reading’ shows ‘he was not using the president as the butt of a joke.’ ”

Van Jones, a former Obama aide, activist for progressive causes and a CNN commentator, tweeted Saturday, “Not that I’ve been asked to do so recently. But I will never appear on any program with @larrywilmore as a host. #Disgraceful #NerdProm.”

Jones also wrote, “Comics tell jokes — some funny; some not. But nobody (not even black comic) should call POTUS ‘my n-word.’ #NotCool #NerdProm” and “Everyone’s fair game. Some jokes worked. But after 7 yrs defending O from racist attacks, that stung.”

However, after another tweeter countered, “respectfully I just think ‘I’d like to sit down and explain why that word at that time is no good’ vs ‘I’ll never go..’ is better,” Jones replied, “Good point. You are probably right. Thanks for that.”

Stephen Battaglio of the Los Angeles Times quoted the Rev. Al Sharpton on Sunday. ” ‘Many of us are against using the N-word period,’ Sharpton said at MSNBC’s after party . . . at the Washington Hilton. ‘But to say that to the President of the United States in front of the top people in media was at best in poor taste.’ . . . ”

And in one of the few times when Sharpton and Juan Williams, the Fox News commentator, agreed, Williams said on “Fox News Sunday,” “Wilmore just dropped into the most [scurrilous] kind of language and racial language after praising the president as the first black man, leader of the free world.

“He uses the ‘n’ word and talks about my ‘n’ word. It was so awful. It was embarrassing to America. But I think to black people, to black America, it was awful — it was degrading and — and suggested somehow that this president is only to be judged in that manner. I just — I was so disappointed because I — I was hoping for Larry Wilmore to knock the ball out of the park.”

Roland S. Martin, the TV One host, tweeted, “So @larrywilmore closed his #WHCA #NerdProm set with the N-word. Y’all know I have zero tolerance for that. But I can salute the rest.” Columnists Leonard Greene of the Daily News in New York and Jonathan Capehart of the Washington Post took issue with full columns.

On the other hand, a younger African American said of the word on Facebook, “We should always reserve the right to use it as an endearment with each other.

“Their complaints about not being able to freely use it come from the history of past & present, [blatant] and subtle racism……..Until we are equal in the administration of the law, we own the n word.”

Supporters of this view also shot back. “If a black man saying ‘nigga’ upsets you as much or more than black folks being treated like niggers, save us your indignation and tears,” Jamil Smith of MTV News tweeted.

Edward Wyckoff Williams, a television producer, correspondent, and writer, declared Monday on vice.com, “It was an important moment in American history, even if it made many people (both black and white) cringe. At its most pure, this was an example of ‘code-switching’ for both Barack Obama and Wilmore, upper-middle-class African American men who, despite their mainstream success, identify with the broader black culture and speak its language. . . .”

Gregory Carr, associate professor  and chair of Howard University’s Department of Afro American Studies, addressed the issue on ebony.com Monday from an academic perspective.

“Perhaps the word cannot be excised,” Carr wrote. “Perhaps it can only be occupied, marginalized, outgrown and then transcended, like some other more debilitating trace elements of Western Civilization itself.’

“By showing a wider public a glimpse of a marker of private Black spheres on Saturday night, perhaps Larry Wilmore edged us a little closer to sapping that ‘niggerization’ of its power and, in so doing, forcing us to choose whether to finally discard it completely and to abandon the roles of ‘negro’ and ‘nigger’ that have been so useful to maintaining our common oppression. . . .”

Carr concluded, “The Last Poets still have it right, as far as I’m concerned. The last words of their 1971 song ‘Die Nigga!!’ (video) place the challenge squarely before us:

“Die nigger!

“So Black folks can take over.”

On his “Nightly” show on Comedy Central, “Wilmore nodded briefly to the reaction to his D.C. performance at the top of Monday’s show, asking his cheering crowd: ‘So how was your weekend?,’  Brian Steinberg reported for Variety.

“ ‘Mine was pretty good,’ he continued. ‘I hosted a little dinner party with a few friends — me, Don Lemon, the President. You know, my boys. Right?’

“Wilmore admitted his use of  ‘n—a’ could be seen as polarizing. ‘Now, there was a lot of reaction online. Many people were upset about it. Many people supported it. Like the President himself, the reaction was mixed. Oh, shoot. I did it again!’ he joked.

“ ‘I’m fine,’ he told the audience, though he acknowledged that the reaction was understandable. ‘I completely understand why people would be upset about that. It’s a very charged word. I get it.’ . . .”

Steinberg also wrote that Wilmore took to task Piers Morgan, the British journalist and former CNN personality, for the way he interpreted his remarks.

“The term ‘n—a,’ explained Wilmore . . . ‘is a term of endearment some black people use between each other to take back that power.’ Morgan’s use of the word in his article, on the other hand, is how ‘white people used to denigrate, demean and dehumanize black people,’ Wilmore said. . . .”

In another development, CNN’s Don Lemon posed with Wilmore after the dinner and tweeted, “All in good fun. I love @larrywilmore. #WHCD.”

In his routine, Wilmore had given a shout-out to some of “America’s finest black journalists” in the house. “Don Lemon is here, too,” he added, “prompting the CNN host to flip him the bird on camera,” as the Daily Beast reported.

• Stephen Battaglio, Los Angeles Times: Sharpton: Larry Wilmore’s calling Obama the ‘N-word’ was in ‘bad taste’
• Wayne Bennett, the Field Negro: “They use it so why can’t we?”
• Lauren Victoria Burke, NBCBLK: Colour 100: Honoring Women of Color in Media
• Jonathan Capehart, Washington Post: Why Larry Wilmore is not ‘my n – – – – -‘
• Gregory Carr, Ph.D, Ebony: Did Larry Wilmore Finally Break the N-Word By Using It at the President?
• Cox Media Group National Content Desk: Larry Wilmore called President Obama the N-word
• Mary C. Curtis, NBC BLK: Was the Obama-Wilmore Duo Too Black for the Room?
• Rachaell Davis, Essence: An Epic Mic Drop & a Harriet Tubman Shoutout: President Obama’s Final WHCD Speech Was Everything!
• Leah Donnella, NPR “Code Switch”: Was It Good, Bad, Or Ugly? Takes On Larry Wilmore’s Jokes At Correspondents’ Dinner
• Maria Elena Fernandez, vulture.com: The Story Behind Black-ish’s Provocative N-Word Episode (Sept. 23, 2015) [Larry Wilmore is a creator of “Black-ish”]
• Leonard Greene, Daily News, New York: Larry Wilmore made a not-so-funny mistake dropping the N-word on President Obama
• Paige Lavender, Huffington Post: Watch Obama’s Remarks From The 2016 White House Correspondents’ Dinner
• David A. Love, theGrio.com: Larry Wilmore’s ‘Barry, you did it my n*gga!’ moment was expected and 100% authentic
• Aimée Lutkin, jezebel.com: Everybody Seemed Pretty Mad at Larry Wilmore at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner
• Frank Pallotta and Mark Mooney, CNN Money: Larry Wilmore missed a chance to boost his sagging ‘Nightly Show’
• James Warren, Poynter Institute: What Larry Wilmore’s jokes about the press reminded us about the press
• Edward Wyckoff Williams, vice.com: What It Means When Larry Wilmore Calls President Obama ‘My Nigga’
• Matt Wilstein, Daily Beast: Larry Wilmore Roasts the Press in White House Correspondents’ Monologue

Sonya Ross, AP Race Editor, Files Bias Suit

“Sonya Ross, the race and ethnicity editor at the Associated Press, filed a discrimination lawsuit Monday that accuses the news organization of marginalizing her and denying her opportunities for promotion because of her race, age and gender,” Zoe Tillman reported for the National Law Journal.

“Ross, a former White House reporter, claimed the AP retaliated against her after she complained about disparate treatment. According to the lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs found the AP tolerated a workplace climate of hostility towards African American employees.

“A spokesman for the AP declined to comment. Ross referred an interview request to her lawyers, Lisa Alexis Jones, a solo practitioner with offices in New York and Washington, and solo practitioner Cynthia Goode Works, who is based in Largo, Maryland.

“Ross joined the AP in 1986 as an intern. After spending several years as a general assignment and state politics reporter in Georgia, she moved to the Washington bureau.

“In 1995, Ross was assigned to cover the White House. She was the first African American woman permanently assigned by AP to the White House beat. On Sept. 11, 2001, Ross was aboard Air Force One as President George W. Bush was evacuated. The following year she was promoted to supervisor of the World Services desk, and then became news editor for Washington-based regional reporters in late 2004.

“According to the complaint, the trouble began in 2008, when the former Washington bureau chief, a woman, was replaced by a white man, whose name is not included in the complaint. He is referred to as ‘Employee A.’ Ross claimed the new supervisor created a hostile and abusive work environment, singling her out for criticism, speaking to her harshly in front of another reporter, and undermining her efforts at advancement.

“Ross said that when she became Race and Ethnicity Editor in 2010, the move was announced as a promotion, but AP failed to give her the necessary resources to do the job. She said she was promised a ‘meager’ pay raise at her insistence, and did not receive it until she protested three years later. . . .”

Judge Blocks Move of Louisville Confederate Statue

A circuit judge in Jefferson County, Ky., issued a restraining order Monday to block removal of the controversial Confederate monument near the University of Louisville, Chris Kenning and Phillip M. Bailey reported for the Courier-Journal.

As reported in this space on Friday, Neil Budde, executive editor of the Courier-Journal, credits an op-ed piece in his paper from Ricky L. Jones, chair of Pan-African Studies at the school, as the final impetus for the decision to remove the statue.

“Judge Judith McDonald-Burkman issued the order Monday morning against Mayor Greg Fischer and metro government, barring them from moving, disassembling or otherwise tampering with the 70-foot-tall monument,” Kenning and Bailey wrote.

“GOP congressional hopeful Everett Corley filed the temporary restraining order in Jefferson Circuit Court to stop Fischer and U of L President James Ramsey from removing the monument from the school’s campus. Also listed as plaintiffs are the Sons of Confederate Veterans, Kentucky Division, and its ‘Chief of Heritage Defense,’ and political activist Ed Springston.

“A hearing is set for Thursday at 10:30 a.m. to consider their motion for a full temporary injunction. . . .”

Keith Runyon, opinion pages editor for 42 years at the Courier Journal, will have a role determining the monument’s disposition, Bailey reported on Monday.

“Louisville is not a Confederate city: That’s according to Keith Runyon, Fischer’s co-chair of a newly minted historic preservation task force that was announced Monday morning,” Bailey wrote. “He said the memorial is ‘totally inappropriate’ for that location and there’s a difference between remembering a historic event and honoring the Confederacy.

” ‘The old South and the Antebellum shtick that Louisville has sometimes attached to is not productive,’ said Runyon, a former Courier-Journal editorial page editor. ‘Louisville succeeded in part because it was a Union city, and once we moved away from the commerce in people it was a great day for our city and heritage.’ ”

Runyon was opinion pages editor and books editor from July 1969 to April 2012, according to his LinkedIn profile.

• W. Ralph Eubanks, New Yorker: Mississippi, the Two-Flag State
• Greg Fischer and James R. Ramsey, Courier-Journal, Louisville, Ky.: Monument’s removal explained
• Michael A. Lindenberger, Dallas Morning News: If we remove all the Confederate monuments, how will we remember the lessons they teach?

Sports Anchor Loses Job Over Prince References

“A Nashville television sports anchor has apparently lost his job because he mixed Prince lyrics into a recent broadcast,” David Ammenheuser reported Monday for the Tennessean in Nashville.

“WZTV Fox-17 sports anchor Dan Phillips used a Prince-themed sports report on April 21.

“When contacted by The Tennessean, he would not confirm that was why he was fired from the Sinclair Broadcast Group-owned station and said he did not want to comment. Phillips worked at the station for 10 years.

“However, Phillips posted on his Facebook page that was the reason he was let go.

“He posted on Facebook:

“First of all, I want to thank everyone for the kind words, comments and positive feedback on this tribute I did to Prince last week. It really means a lot.

“Unfortunately, there were apparently some viewers, as well as management at the station, who did not feel the same way. They felt I was insensitive. And as a result, I was terminated today. . . .”

Tim Kenneally added Saturday for theWrap.com:

“Dan Phillips of WZTV Fox-17 started the segment off with a lengthy citation of Prince’s ‘Let’s Go Crazy,‘ intoning, ‘Dearly beloved, we are gathered together to get through this thing called life. An electric word life, but I’m here to tell you, there’s something else: The NHL playoffs.’

“From there, he peppered in numerous references to other Prince songs, including ‘When Doves Cry,’ ‘1999,’ ‘Purple Rain’ and ‘Little Red Corvette.’

“Phillips posted the segment online on April 21 — the day that Prince died at age 57 — with the message, ‘A little tribute to my favorite musical artist. Enjoy.

“Or just laugh at the idiot making as many Prince references as he can in four minutes. . . .”

• Brian Hiatt, Rolling Stone: A Final Visit With Prince: Rolling Stone’s Lost Cover Story
• Emma Nelson and Dan Browning, Star Tribune: Judge confirms appointment of special administrator on Prince’s estate
• The Onion (satire): Disappointing Prince Vaults Found To Contain 37,000 Hours Of Billy Joel Covers
• Jack B. Osborn, Los Angeles Times: How could someone rich and famous like Prince die without a will? It’s not unusual. Just ask an estate lawyer
• Tonya Pendleton, BlackAmericaWeb.com: Can Prince Get Some RESPEK?
• Rochelle Riley, Detroit Free Press: Flowers Prince got after death I’m giving Wonder now

Viewers Kick In $25,000 to Help Blind Boy See

“Thursday night, ABC News reported the story of a 12-year-old Virginia boy born legally blind who was able to see his mother for the first time using a kind of electronic ‘glasses,‘ ” Mark Joyella reported Friday for TVNewser.

“The boy, Chris Ward, had hoped to buy a pair of the glasses, called eSight, but the family’s fundraising was far short of the $15,000 cost— until immediately after the story aired on World News Tonight.

“After the broadcast, the family’s fundraising page jumped from under $9,000 to well over $25,000 — more than enough to buy Ward his glasses. . . .”

• Avianne Tan, ABC News: Legally Blind 5th Grader Sees Mother for 1st Time Through Electronic Glasses

Bronx Suspects Not Given Benefit of Doubt

“On the morning of April 27, in concert with the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI and the BATF, the NYPD conducted what authorities described as a ‘gang raid’ on the Eastchester Gardens and Edenwald House housing projects in the Bronx, arresting roughly 100 people on a series of charges,” Adam Johnson reported Monday for Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting.

“The New York media, apparently tipped off ahead of time and present with cameras ready for the wholly-pointless-except-for-police-PR perp walk, jumped into action — trying and convicting the suspects as gang members solely on the say-so of the NYPD and federal officials.

“The Daily News (4/28/16) kicked it off with the most salacious and prejudicial headlines . . .”

Johnson also wrote, “Former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, a rich, politically connected white man, was given radically different treatment by the Daily News the very next day. Despite having admitted to a judge that he had molested several children, the Daily News referred to Hastert’s crimes as ‘alleged’ . . .”

In Forest, Black Anchor Interviews Klan Leader

“The Imperial Wizard of the Rebel Brigade Knights of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) said the group is not a hate group, but a new study has identified them as one of 32 active in Virginia,” Chris Thomas, anchor at WWBT-TV in Richmond, Va., and an African American, reported Friday.

Thomas also reported, “The Imperial Wizard for the Rebel Brigade of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan is now breaking his silence. He agreed to a no holds barred interview, but it had to be on his turf. My photographer and I followed the Imperial Wizard into Jefferson National Forest. Deputies accompanied us just to make sure things remained peaceful.

“When we arrived, we were greeted by men wearing shirts that read ‘Straight out of Dixie’ and “the original boys in the hood.”

“We shook hands, and the interview was soon underway.

” ‘Does the KKK hate? Is it a hate group?’ I asked the Imperial Wizard for the Rebel Brigade Knights of the KKK.

” ‘No, we are not a hate group. We hate no one.’ replied the Imperial Wizard. . . .”

Thomas also wrote:

” ‘You’re paying attention to the presidential elections this time? In your own personal opinion, who is best for the job?’ I asked the Imperial Wizard.

“ ‘I think Donald Trump would be best for the job,’ said the Imperial Wizard. ‘The reason a lot of Klan members like Donald Trump is because a lot of what he believes in, we believe in. We want our country to be safe.’

“The Imperial Wizard said he supports Trump’s calls to temporarily ban Muslims from entering the United States.

” ‘If Donald Trump dropped out tomorrow I would support [John] Kasich before I would Ted Cruz because he is not an American citizen,” said the Imperial Wizard. ‘Even if I agree with some of the things that Ted Cruz says, I would not support him because he was born in Canada. He is not an American citizen.’ . . .”

Thomas quoted Marty Jewell, education chairman with the Richmond NAACP, who cited a deeper issue.

“ ‘It’s very clear that they are attracted to Donald Trump because he’s xenophobic,’ said Jewell. ‘It doesn’t hold water. They hate other people who are not white, and until they take off the robe and until they atone for their sins, nobody is going to believe that they are kinder or gentler'”

“Still, one has to admit times certainly have changed when a black reporter from a town once known as Bombingham, now working in the capital of the Confederacy, sits down to chat with the Ku Klux Klan. . . .”

In reporting on Thomas’ story for TVNewsCheck’s Marketshare, Paul Greeley asked,”What’s your station doing for May sweeps?”

• Charles M. Blow, New York Times: A Trump-Sanders Coalition? Nah.
• Lauren Victoria Burke, The Root: The 4 Black People Most Likely to Be Hired by ‘President Trump’ 
• Cindy Carcamo, Ruben Vives and Corina Knoll, Los Angeles Times: Trump spurs a fresh wave of Latino activism  
• Denise De La Cruz, OC Weekly: Trump Supporters Were Polite to Our Latina Reporter — And Then The Interview Stopped
• Lewis W. Diuguid, Kansas City Star: Trump’s charge of Clinton using ‘woman card’ now offered as ‘The Official Hillary for America Woman Card’
• Brandon Ecoffey, Lakota Country Times: LCT Backs Bernie Sanders for President (March 31)
• Alex Griswold, Mediaite: Trump: ‘The Indians Have Gone Wild’ Over Hillary’s ‘Off the Reservation’ Remark
• Cydney Hargis and Jared Holt, Media Matters for America: The New York Times’ New Myth Is That Hillary Clinton Is More Hawkish Than Donald Trump 
• Jan-Albert Hootsen, Fox News Latino: Trump’s tough talk on border could be helping U.S.-Mexico relations, experts say 
• Carlos Maza and Coleman Lowndes, Media Matters for America: VIDEO: Stop Calling Donald Trump “Controversial”
• Leonard Pitts Jr., Miami Herald: Sanders’ supporters are content to lose both the battle and the war
• Ben Schreckinger, Politico: Inside Trump’s Press Pen 
• Mario Trujillo, The Hill: Sanders supporters hound FCC with complaints about media bias 

Short Takes

• “Female voices were critically underrepresented on the Sunday interview shows of the main Spanish-language networks, Univision and Telemundo, in the first third of 2016,” Cristina Lopez reported Monday for Media Matters for America. Lopez also wrote, “The underrepresentation of female guests on Spanish-language Sunday shows is especially glaring considering that Latinas ‘are more politically involved than their male peers,’ according to Voto Latino president María Teresa Kumar, with issues like reproductive health and the wage gap likely driving them to the polls. . . .”
• “Bassam Khabieh, a Syrian freelance photographer covering the conflict in his homeland for Reuters, has won the Robert Capa gold medal from the Overseas Press Club, the New York Times reported Thursday. . . .”
• “ ‘NewsVision,’ a Howard University student-produced newscast, returns to WHUT-TV May 7 after a hiatus of more than 20 years,” the university news service announced on Friday. “It will immediately follow President Barack Obama’s address at the 148th Commencement Convocation at Howard University. The newscast, which originally debuted in the late 1980s under the direction of late White House correspondent Lee Thornton, provides students hands-on experience in all aspects of newscast production, ultimately preparing them for careers in the industry. . . .”

• “Kevin A. Tatum, 64, of Voorhees, N.J., an Inquirer sportswriter for almost three decades, died Friday at Cooper University Hospital in Camden of throat cancer,” Sofiya Ballin reported Monday for philly.com. “Before joining the Inquirer’s sports staff, where he covered college teams, Mr. Tatum worked for several other newspapers, including the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the now-defunct Washington Star in Washington, D.C. . . .”
• “The National Association of Black Journalists has selected the late Dale R. Wright as the recipient of the association’s 2016 Lifetime Achievement Award,” NABJ announced on Monday. Wright, who died in 2009 at 86, “was the first African American reporter to work at The New York World-Telegram and Sun and focused on investigative journalism. Among his most important and legendary works was a series on migrant workers entitled ‘The Forgotten People.’ In order to report the story, Wright went undercover and spent six months traveling the east coast from Florida to New York. . . .”
• “In a rare starring turn as an actress, Oprah Winfrey is set to topline HBO Films’ The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks, which has been greenlighted for production,” Nellie Andreeva reported Monday for Deadline Hollywood. ” . . . The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks tells the true story of Henrietta Lacks, an African-American woman whose cells were used to create the first immortal human cell line.
• “Black Lives Matter activist DeRay Mckesson deserves high props,” Julianne Malveaux wrote for the National Newspaper Publishers Association. “The young man used his activism as a platform to run for Mayor of Baltimore, and he placed better than expected in the April 26 election. . . .” However, Juan Williams wrote Monday in the Hill, “The biggest loser in American politics in the last month is the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. In a year of populist passions, history will show that Sen. Bernie Sanders’s anti-establishment campaign was unable to beat former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s more centrist politics because he never won over black voters. And Clinton’s success with those critical black voters occurred despite non-stop static from the BLM movement. . . .”
• “Sometimes as sportswriters we forget the real world exists,” Dan Levy wrote Monday for billypenn.com. “. . .  And sometimes you write a headline for a baseball story with the headline ‘Meet The KKK-illies.’ . . .” Levy also wrote, “Lindsey Adler, sports reporter at [BuzzFeed], maybe put it best: ‘A mistake, sure, fine. A “K” is shorthand for a strikeout, yes, and the article was about all the Phillies strikeouts. But how can someone not look at that and see how incendiary the headline is once it’s posted? How is Philly.com’s editorial process so lax that this headline even made it past one person? . . .”
• “After a year or so of reporting on matters of diversity, Complex Media website NTRSCTN (read as ‘Intersection’) is calling it a standalone day,” Richard Horgan reported Monday for FishbowlNY. “. . . . The good news is that all four members of the NTRSCTN team are staying on at Complex in new roles starting today. . . . “
• “Wesley College students are speaking out against the school’s independently-run student newspaper, The Whetstone, after it published two racially offensive cartoons Friday,” Taryn Finley reported Wednesday for HuffPost BlackVoices. “The first cartoon features a caricature of a black woman saying, ‘Would you look at the time… I’m late for my abortion’ while wearing a shirt that reads ‘Black Lives Matter.’ The second drawing depicts a gardening hoe asking a black man ‘Who is you calling a hoe?’ The man in the cartoon responds ‘I’m sorry ma’am, you just look like a hoe.’ . . . . While some students took the cartoons — drawn by Bryheim Muse, a black man — as a joke, others found it racist and sexist. . . .”
• “Media outlets, journalists, NGOs and prominent figures on every continent have joined in calling for the appointment of a ‘journalists’ protector’ with the position of special representative to the UN secretary-general for the safety of journalists, in accordance with a proposal by Reporters Without Borders,” the press freedom organization reported on Friday.