Articles Feature

Outrage Over Handcuffing of Black Reporter

by richard03227

Phoenix Police Already Under Federal Scrutiny

Homepage photo: Phoenix police handcuff Dion Rabouin, from cellphone video by Katelyn Parady

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Katelyn Parady’s cell phone captured the detention of Wall Street Journal reporter Dion Rabouin at a Chase Bank branch in Phoenix. She told Dave Biscobing of KNXV-TV, “My husband’s a journalist. He’s also white, as am I. And in that moment, I just knew he wouldn’t be in handcuffs if things had gone the same way. And it doesn’t really matter to me that he was a journalist. No one should have been cuffed with that kind of speed when there was no problem.” (Credit: Arizona Republic)

Phoenix Police Already Under Federal Scrutiny

“The Wall Street Journal is asking for answers from the Phoenix Police Department after one of its Black reporters was handcuffed and detained shortly after conducting interviews outside of a Chase Bank. The department said it has launched an internal investigation into the incident,” Jonathan Franklin reported Saturday for NPR.

“The incident between reporter Dion Rabouin and the Phoenix police officer took place in November, but became public this week after Phoenix TV station ABC15 [KNXV] reported on the incident.

Matt Murray, Wall Street Journal editor in chief, wrote Interim Police Chief Michael Sullivan on Dec. 7, “Naturally, I am relieved that Mr. Rabouin’s interaction with Phoenix police officers ended peacefully. But I am appalled and concerned that officers at your department would attempt to interfere with Mr. Rabouin’s constitutional right to engage in journalism and purport to limit anyone’s presence in a public location. Such conduct is offensive to civil liberties, and also a pretty good news story.”

The Arizona Association of Black Journalists said Friday that it had requested a meeting with Sullivan. “If this can happen to one journalist, it could happen to any of us; and this is completely unacceptable,” the group said in a statement.

The Committee to Protect Journalists noted Thursday that the Phoenix Police Department is one of several under federal investigation to evaluate their practices, including whether they engage in discriminatory policing.

The Justice Department told Journal-isms in 2021, “Among other things, each investigation is examining the police departments’ handling of protest activities, including police interactions with journalists” (scroll down). It urged affected journalists to reach out to the Civil Rights Division’s Special Litigation Section. In Phoenix, the contact email is Community@usdoj.gov and the toll-free number is (866) 432.0335.

Franklin of NPR continued, “On Nov. 23, Rabouin (pictured), who is a finance reporter with the Journal based in New York, was detained in a Phoenix police car after conducting interviews about savings accounts outside a Chase Bank [for this story]. Rabouin was in street clothes because he did not want people to believe he was trying to sell them something, ABC15 reported.

“As Rabouin was standing outside on a sidewalk, he told ABC15, two employees asked him what he was doing — and then walked back inside the building. Rabouin said he was unaware the sidewalk in front of the bank was private property and that the bank’s employees did not ask him to leave.

“Shortly after that, a Phoenix police officer arrived on the scene.

” ‘I saw a police car pull up. And the officer came out, walked into the branch, after about five minutes came out, and talked to me,’ Rabouin told ABC15 in a recent interview.

” ‘He asked me what I was doing. I identified myself. I said, “I’m Dion Rabouin. I’m a reporter for The Wall Street Journal. I’m working on a story. I told the people in the branch what was going on.” And he said, ‘Well you can’t do that.’

“The officer, later identified as Caleb Zimmerman, accused Rabouin of trespassing on the property and later took him into custody, according to a police report.

“In video captured by a bystander shows Zimmerman handcuffing Rabouin and placing him in the back of a police car. The video shows Rabouin repeatedly identifying himself to Zimmerman as a reporter for the Journal, but despite Rabouin’s numerous attempts to identify himself, Zimmerman did not respond. . . . “

Rabouin, 36 at the time of the incident, is an Ithaca College graduate who joined the Journal in October 2021 after working at such outlets as Axios, Yahoo Finance, Reuters and International Business Times.

In 2016, he sued the International Business Times for refusing to pay him for his final week there. He told Journal-isms that a court ruled in his favor and that he was paid.

Rabouin’s last name is pronounced Ra-BO-in, he explained in 2020 on Twitter. “The name is French from the slave owners in France who took my ancestors from Africa and changed their last name to signify that they were their property. I’m not Haitian or Creole.”

The reporter wrote Friday on LinkedIn, “I don’t have much more to say about the situation with Phoenix PD. Just about all of the details can be found in Dave’s report here. Thanks to everyone who has reached out to offer support. We’re hoping to hear back from the chief or someone at the department soon.”

Suzanne Malveaux Leaving CNN After 20 Years

Jan. 6, 2023

In 2015, CNN correspondent Suzanne Malveaux talks about the personal significance of the #ALSIceBucketChallenge: “It’s about my mother Myrna Malveaux and her quality of life.” (Credit: YouTube)

Plans Include Work with Mandela Great-Grandson

CNN “is losing one of its longest-tenured on-air journalists, national correspondent Suzanne Malveaux, who told colleagues Friday that she will depart the cable news channel to spend more time with her family, and to pursue new endeavors,” Alex Weprin reported for the Hollywood Reporter. One project is with Nelson Mandela’s great-grandson.

“ ‘After 20 years of delivering groundbreaking stories for the audiences of CNN, I’ve made the heartfelt decision to put myself and my family first and to pursue my long-desired professional passions: using storytelling to promote wellness, resiliency and social justice,’ Malveaux wrote in a note Friday morning. . . .

Malveaux is shown with her partner White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre at Paramount White House Correspondents’ Dinner after-party at the French ambassador’s residence in Washington on April 30. (Credit: ABC News)

Malveaux said “she approached CNN executives last fall about pursuing new opportunities and projects,” and a second bout with COVID around the holidays crystallized that decision. Malveaux and Jean-Pierre have adopted a baby daughter.

“There is nothing like being quarantined in your basement to help one gain some momentum from contemplating to actually exploring what lies ahead,” Malveaux wrote.

Weprin continued, “ ‘I’m thrilled one of those projects will be a collaboration with a great grandson of Nelson Mandela to tell stories and spotlight communities in conflict poised to find peace. Stay tuned,’ she wrote. . . .

“Malveaux joined CNN in 2003 as a correspondent after working in a similar role at NBC News. She would go on to anchor a dayside news hour, and the program Around the World, and work for more than a decade as a CNN White House correspondent.

“After Jean-Pierre was named press secretary, Malveaux stopped covering politics, the White House, and Capitol Hill to focus on other beats. . . .”

Jeremy Barr added for The Washington Post, “Malveaux’s departure is unrelated to a recent round of cost-cutting at the network in which hundreds of employees were laid off, a CNN spokesperson told The Post. . . .

“In addition to a 10-year run covering the White House for CNN, anchoring shows and later assignments in Ukraine and around the world, Malveaux reported on her late mother’s battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, work that she said Friday was her proudest accomplishment. She is working on a book about her parents and said she ‘will have more to share soon on my next chapter. ‘ ‘”

Malveaux focused on ALS in a 2013 series “reporting on three unique faces of ALS and how their families are coping,” CNN said at the time.

“ALS is no stranger to Malveaux, on Tuesday’s edition of the series Living with ALS will focus on how the disease has affected her mother, Myrna Malveaux. She pulls back the curtains of her family’s journey to care for her mother and overcome her near death experience. Living with ALS documents Mrs. Malveaux’s journey from a Mardi Gras party host on her birthday to an ALS survivor. Despite being unable to walk, eat or breathe on her own, she has taken her message to Capitol Hill. . . .”

Malveaux is a lifetime member of the National Association of Black Journalists and has hosted its awards presentations.

Rana Ayyub says, “Money laundering has become like the latest tool for the Indian government, the latest charge that the Indian government has been leveling against all journalists, critics and activists in India.” (Credit: PBS/YouTube)

PBS Reports on India’s Persecution of the Press

“Indian journalist and Washington Post contributor Rana Ayyub is one of the main critics of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu-nationalist government,” the “PBS NewsHour” reported on Friday.

“She recently won the highest award for press freedom from the National Press Club but is now headed back to India to face trial for sham charges of money laundering. Ayyub joined Amna Nawaz to discuss the government’s latest attempt to silence her.”

ESPN Lauded, Snares Viewers in NFL Emergency

Jan. 5, 2023

‘One of the Most Chilling Moments in Sports History’

ESPN is winning praise for its quick thinking and professionalism in handling the frightening collapse of Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin during “Monday Night Football’s” Bills-Bengals game.

“Hamlin has shown what physicians treating him are calling ‘remarkable improvement over the past 24 hours,’ the team announced Thursday, three days after the player went into cardiac arrest and had to be resuscitated on the field,” John Wawrow reported for the Associated Press.

“ ‘While still critically ill, he has demonstrated that he appears to be neurologically intact,’ the Bills said in a statement. ‘His lungs continue to heal and he is making steady progress.’ ”

On Thursday afternoon, Kris Rhim added for The New York Times, “The doctors treating N.F.L. safety Damar Hamlin said Thursday that he was ‘awake and breathing,’ and was able to communicate by writing with pen and paper on Wednesday night, and asked who won the game between the Bills and Bengals where he had a cardiac arrest.”

The fateful NFL showdown, which was postponed in the first quarter after Hamlin collapsed on the field, was the most-watched “Monday Night Football” telecast in ESPN history, averaging 23.8 million viewers, according to preliminary ratings, Jennifer Korn and Oliver Darcy reported Wednesday night for CNN.

“Nielsen said Wednesday that the broadcast had an average of 23,788,000 viewers across ABC, ESPN and ESPN2 from approximately 8:30 pm to 10:09 pm. The massive audience makes it the most-watched “Monday Night Football” broadcast since the NFL moved the series to ESPN in 2006, surpassing the previous record of 21.8 million viewers for a Packers-Vikings game in 2009.”

But it was ESPN’s in-the-moment response that won the first plaudits.

“Live television is never easy,” Richard Deitsch wrote for The Athletic. “It becomes exponentially difficult when tragedy breaks and little information exists. To review how ESPN did on Monday night is, of course, insignificant against Hamlin’s injury. But how they presented what we saw impacted how all of us processed the horrible scenes. You want thoughtful people on air. You want people who don’t speculate. You want people with basic humanity. . . .”

In The New York Times, John Koblin wrote, “ESPN’s coverage showed the benefits of having a newsroom and analysts it can deploy when there is a stunning turn of events. The N.F.L. is beginning to strike deals with tech companies — YouTube just got the league’s Sunday Ticket package, and Amazon has ‘Thursday Night Football’ — that don’t have those resources to fall back on.

“Within minutes, ESPN transformed from being a broadcaster of a football game to being at the center of a major and unexpected breaking news event. The question everyone wanted to know, including those at the sports network: What had happened to Mr. Hamlin, and would he be OK? . . .”

USA Today’s Chris Bumbaca wrote, “The network’s reporters and broadcasters delivered in an unprecedented situation. 

“Almost immediately, the network gave viewers an idea of the gravity of what transpired by showing the traumatized faces of Bills and Bengals players. The zoomed-out view provided some level of privacy during an unfolding public tragedy. ESPN made the right call in not replaying Hamlin’s hit and subsequent collapse multiple times. . . .”

It was, wrote Washington Post sports columnist Jerry Brewer, “one of the most chilling moments in televised sports history.” As the moments passed, “It felt like a vigil. It was painful yet meaningful television.”

Brewer widened his lens to the game itself.

“That was the real NFL, not the slickly produced gladiator glorification that normalizes pain and human disposability.

“ ‘That’s not what we wake up to do in this game,’ said ESPN analyst Ryan Clark, a former NFL safety, during a ‘SportsCenter’ conversation about players dealing with the trauma. ‘That’s not what we’ve been conditioned to move on from.

“And that’s evident when [Bills Coach] Sean McDermott and [Bengals Coach] Zac Taylor meet in the middle of the field or they meet in the tunnel and they say, ‘We can’t go do this.’ They couldn’t put these men back out on the field to do something they’ve been built to do their whole lives, because no one should have to deal with what Damar Hamlin is dealing with tonight. They don’t teach us this. We don’t talk about this. We don’t converse about this. They’re not trying to build us up enough so that this is okay, because it’s actually not okay. ‘ ”

“The health of the independent journalist and Cuban political prisoner, Lázaro Yuri Valle Roca, became complicated again while he remains incarcerated in the Combinado del Este dungeons, in Havana,” Mateo Orozco reported Wednesday for Cubanos Por El Mundo. “As reported by his wife, Eralidis Frómeta, through social networks, the journalist grew again that kind of tumor in his head that affected him so much a few weeks ago, and what is added to his hypertension, diagnosed in the last hours.” (Credit: Composition Cubanos Por El Mundo)

Cubans Flee, Oppression by Government a Factor

Is there a link between the influx of asylum seekers and the lack of human rights — including repression of journalists — in the countries they are fleeing?

It would seem so, though not all U.S. news media are willing to acknowledge it.

On Monday, Pedro Portal of the Miami Herald reported, “So many people from Cuba are arriving in the Florida Keys that days could go by before federal officials are able to pick up migrants on the side of U.S. 1 to be processed, according to local law enforcement.

“Since Friday, more than 500 Cubans arrived in the island chain. So many landed in a group of sparsely inhabited islands off Key West that the federal government was forced to close the Dry Tortugas National Park on Sunday. 

“The situation is frustrating local officials. Monroe County Sheriff Rick Ramsay issued a statement Monday calling the scenes playing out on the sides of the Keys’ only major highway a ‘federal failure’ that is ‘creating a humanitarian crisis.’ ” 

On Wednesday, the Herald’s Nora Gámez Torres and Syra Ortiz-Blanes followed up with, “Desperation is driving latest surge of Cuban rafters arriving in the Florida Keys.”

“Cubans are also reaching the U.S.-Mexico border in the tens of thousands,” they wrote. “In November, U.S. Customs and Border Protection had 35,849 encounters with Cuban nationals nationwide, mainly at the border with Mexico, a figure higher than in any month in fiscal year 2022. 

“According to official data, almost 225,000 Cubans arrived in the United States in 2022, among the largest numbers since Fidel Castro took power in 1959, and one that has no end in sight, as few Cubans on the island believe their lives will improve under the current government.”

Cuban migrants from Cardenas land on Key Largo Tuesday. Customs and Border Protection came to process them. (video) (Credit: David Goodhue/Miami Herald)

The reporters quoted Armando Sardiñas, 22, who was imprisoned for participating in the anti-government July 11 protests in 2021. “He and other young Cubans now openly discuss their travel plans on social media and their belief that they have no choice but to flee.

 “ ‘Everything comes [down] to politics,’ Sardiñas said. ‘Some emigrate for the economy; others are forced to flee for opposing the government since they are harassed, fined and even imprisoned as I was.’ 

“He thinks the migration wave is so significant that it will eventually bring change to the country.

 “ ‘The current exodus will lead the Cuban government to accept its failure as a government and of its communist ideology, and there will be a change,’ he said before noting he doesn’t believe the political change would necessarily lead to a return of democracy in Cuba. ‘The people are already desperate; many fear for their future here in Cuba if the current government continues to rule this country.’ ”

The press freedom group Reporters Without Borders declared last year, “Cuba remains, year in and year out, the worst country for press freedom in Latin America.

“Arrests, arbitrary detentions, threats of imprisonment, persecution and harassment, illegal raids of homes, confiscation and destruction of equipment – all this is the daily lot for journalists who do not follow the Castroist party line. Likewise, officials control foreign journalists’ coverage by granting accreditation selectively, and expelling reporters considered ‘too negative’ toward the regime.”

On Reporters Without Borders’ Press Freedom Index ranking 180 countries, Cuba ranks 173. Other countries sending large numbers of asylum seekers to the United States border also rank low. Venezuela is 159, Nicaragua 160, Mexico 127 and El Salvador 112.

In discussing Cuba, however, a program such as the left-wing “Democracy Now!” which professes to be the “exception to the rulers,” focuses its attention on the U.S. embargo on Cuba, a look at its roster of programs shows, rather than on the repression of its anti-democratic rulers.

Human Rights Watch, which reports that “The actions taken by the Cuban government violate a range of human rights protected under several treaties,” nevertheless is also critical of the embargo as providing cover for the Cuban government’s enablers. It says, “Efforts by the US government to press for change by imposing a sweeping economic embargo have proven costly and misguided. Rather than isolating Cuba, the decades-long policy has isolated the United States by enabling the Cuban government to garner sympathy abroad while simultaneously alienating Washington’s potential allies.”

The group urged that “The United States, Canada, the European Union, and governments in Latin America should ensure a multilateral and coordinated approach towards Cuba that expresses support for the rights of Cuban protesters, journalists, and activists, and condemns repression in the country.”

Led by Oprah Winfrey, first row, center, 25 female journalists who were influenced by Barbara Walters, first row, at right, say goodbye to her during her final co-host appearance on “The View” in 2014. Winfrey thanked Walters for opening so many doors for women in news. (Credit: Ida Mae Astute /ABC)

Women of Color Pay Tribute to Walters

Women of color in broadcasting joined their counterparts this week in remembering Barbara Walters, the broadcast legend who became the first woman to co-host a network morning and evening newscast. Walters died at age 93, ABC News announced on Friday.

Julianne McShane of NBC News compiled some of the tributes:

“ABC News correspondent Deborah Roberts wrote in an Instagram post that Walters ‘taught me so much and took me under her wing’ after asking her to join her on ABC’s ’20/20,’ where Walters was an anchor, in 1995.

” ‘Her powerful legacy lives on in all the women journalists who were influenced by her passionate work and searing interviews,’ Roberts wrote. (A report published last year by Women’s Media Center found that women make up 43% of prime-time weekday broadcast and cable TV news anchors and correspondents.) . . .

“Former ‘ABC World News Tonight’ co-anchor Elizabeth Vargas — who became the third female anchor of a network evening newscast, after Walters and Connie Chung of ‘CBS Evening News’ — tweeted that Walters ‘shattered glass ceilings and blazed a trail for so many women in television news who would follow her…like me. I will never forget her.’

For Mother’s Day 2002, Barbara Walters interviewed Whoopi Goldberg and her daughter Alex, born when Goldberg was 15 years old, on a special “20/20” that explored the relationship between mothers and daughters. (Credit: Virginia Sherwood/ABC)

“In a statement provided to NBC News, Chung said: ‘Barbara fought the all-boys world of television journalism with her indefatigable drive, brains and confidence — to tower above the men. She paved my path as she “Mom’d” me, consoling me when I hit roadblocks. No one will replace Barbara. . . .’

“ ‘Good Morning America’ anchor Robin Roberts tweeted that Walters was ‘a true trailblazer.’

“ ‘Forever grateful for her stellar example and for her friendship,’ Roberts added. . . .

” ‘Barbara Walters a true G.O.A.T.,’ Gayle King, co-host of ‘CBS [Mornings]’, posted on Instagram. ‘She was in a class of one and all I can say in this moment is thank you Barbara for so many things….’

” ‘You paved the way for all of us, dear Barbara, wrote CNN journalist Lisa Ling. ‘What an honor it has been to know you and to have been the beneficiary of your titanic spirit and wisdom.’ . . .”

Separately, Tamron Hall, broadcast journalist and television talk show host called Walters “The Legend. The Blueprint. The Greatest.”

And while not a newswoman, Democratic Party strategist Donna Brazile said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” “Well, I was in awe. I couldn’t believe that I was on the same set with Barbara Walters, after spending practically my childhood. . . . watching this amazing woman. She was phenomenal in every sense of the word. She had grace. She had wit. She was smart. And she knew how to follow up. She was someone who I believe many women admired because Barbara Walters could command the room and yet make everyone feel at home.”

On Tuesday, “The View” dedicated its hour to paying tribute to her life and legacy, ” blogger Emmanuel Levy wrote. Joy Behar, Whoopi Goldberg, Sunny Hostin, Sara Haines and Alyssa Farah Griffin were joined by Meredith Vieira, Star Jones, Debbie Matenopoulos, Lisa Ling, Sherri Sheperd and Elisabeth Haselbeck either in-person or virtually. Behar, Vieira, Jones and Matenopoulos were on the original panel with Walters, who spent 17 years on the show before her 2014 departure and retirement from journalism.”

 

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Attorney Stephanie Lehman, representing Marilee Fiebig, above with T.J. Holmes, said she has been working with Holmes’ counsel to “move [Fiebig and Holmes’] divorce forward privately, expeditiously and as amicably as possible.” Holmes and Amy Robach remain off-air pending ABC’s internal investigation. (Credit: T.J. Holmes/Facebook)

T.J. Holmes’ Estranged Wife Breaks Silence

“T.J. Holmes’ estranged wife said she is ‘disappointed’ in the ‘GMA3’ host in her first public comments since his highly publicized affair with co-anchor Amy Robach,“ Caroline Blair reported Wednesday for the New York Post’s Page Six.

“Marilee Fiebig released a statement via her divorce attorney, Stephanie Lehman, on Wednesday, one week after Holmes filed paperwork to end their nearly 13-year marriage.

“ ‘During the holiday season and in light of the challenging times, Marilee’s sole focus has remained on the overall best interest of her 9-year-old daughter [Sabine],’ Lehman told the Daily Mail.

“Lehman emphasized that she has been working with Holmes’ counsel to ‘move [Fiebig and Holmes’] divorce forward privately, expeditiously and as amicably as possible.’

“She added, ‘Notwithstanding, we continue to be disappointed by T.J’s lack of discretion, respect and sensitivity toward Marilee and the party’s daughter.’

“Lehman concluded her statement by noting that Fiebig, 45, ‘has been touched by the outpouring of support’ since the scandal first made headlines in November 2022 and ‘looks forward to a new beginning in this new year.’

“Fiebig, an immigration lawyer, previously stayed tight-lipped on the matter . . . In the meantime, Holmes and Robach’s romance appears to be steamier than ever, as they were photographed making out like teenagers during a getaway to Miami over the holidays before returning home to New York City together.”

(Credit: MSNBC)

Ukraine’s Success a ‘Miracle,’ Terrell Starr Says

“By all accounts, what Ukraine has accomplished in holding back Russia is ‘a miracle,” Terrell Jermaine Starr, the only African American journalist consistently reporting from Ukraine, told MSNBC’s Ali Velshi on Christmas Day.

“ ‘Putin doesn’t understand the Ukrainian people.’ Despite Russia’s attack on key civilian infrastructure, many Ukrainians would rather freeze to death than to be forced to live under Russian rule, reports Starr. ‘Eight years ago Ukraine was a military on paper…Now, that they are able to fight back Russia eight years later? It’s a miracle.’ ”

At a meeting of the Journal-isms Roundtable last April, Starr told the group, “the fewer Black journalists in this part of the world, the fewer options for us to really understand what’s happening. I believe that Black people have a better understanding of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine than anybody who isn’t Ukrainian or from that part of the world. I think that because of our own experiences in dealing with white supremacy in this part of the world, I think we can provide unique context with the Russian supremacy that’s going on against Ukraine.”

Starr tweeted Thursday, “I don’t think most people (especially on the left) understand Ukrainians when they express their grievances with Russians. As a Black person, the best analogy I have is that Russia is a land of Slavic Karens (liberals) and Trump voters (many others) towards Ukrainians.

“And many in the white male line up talking about Russia lack the cultural diversity in their persona to break Russia-Ukraine relations down in ways most Americans can really understand it. They talk to think tanks, not the rest of us.

“Just as Black America challenges whiteness in the U.S., Ukrainians are teaching us that they are confronting ‘Russian Supremacy’ when dealing with its neighbor.

“Different worlds, but the same problem: one group of people feels superior to the other.”

Meanwhile, “Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed into law a controversial statute expanding the government’s power to regulate media groups and journalists in the country,” Brad Dress reported on New Year’s Day for The Hill.

“Zelensky signed the legislation on Thursday over the objections of media unions and press freedom organizations that warned it will have a chilling effect on free speech.

“Under the new law, the National Television and Radio Broadcasting Council, whose members are appointed by the president’s administration and by members of parliament, will have broader authority over Ukrainian media organizations and journalists. . . .”

Irving H. Phillips Jr. covered the 1968 uprisings in Baltimore as the Sun’s first Black photographer. (Credit: Lloyd Fox/Baltimore Sun)

Irving Phillips, First Black Baltimore Sun Photographer

“Irving Henry Webster Phillips Jr., The Baltimore Sun’s first Black news photographer who shot Cal Ripken’s first home run and Johnny Unitas’ last game, as well as the 1968 riots, died of end-stage renal failure Dec. 22 at Loch Raven VA Medical Center,” Jacques Kelly reported on New Year’s Day for the Sun. “He was 79.

“Born in Baltimore, he was the son of I. Henry Phillips Sr., a newspaper photographer at The Baltimore Afro-American, and Laura Mackay Phillips, a homemaker and later the newspaper’s librarian.”

Kelly also wrote, Phillips “later recalled that he covered Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the South.

“’The Afro, they sent me down South. We’d go into a church where they were having those voter registration drives. They’d have Hosea Williams speak, and then Jesse Jackson, then Andy Young, Ralph Abernathy and then Dr. King,’ Mr. Phillips said in a 2015 Baltimore Sun story.

” He was [24] years old when a 1968 riot broke out in Baltimore after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

“ ‘He headed out with a camera, film and a handkerchief to press over his face in case there was tear gas,’ said a 2018 Sun story about Mr. Phillips, who was standing on Gay Street when its local businesses erupted into flames.

“ ‘Someone would call the cops and they’d run right up and get hit with stones and bottles while the people who set the fire escaped. It was wild. I had been in the Vietnam War,’ he recalled. ‘In the war I had a gun, and I knew I could always do to them what they were trying to do to me. In 1968 I just had a camera.’

“He also said of the experience, ‘I felt lucky to be there. History only happens once.’

“In 1969, The Sun hired him as its first Black news photographer.

“ ‘Irv was an easygoing guy,’ said Robert Hamilton, a retired Sun photography director. ‘He took me under his wing, and when I didn’t know anything, he brought me to city parks and showed me Baltimore’s rich African-American history. He was so proud of his days at The Afro paper and proud of his dad’s legacy.’ . . .

“Mr. Phillips collaborated with his son to compile an archive of thousands of images photographed by his father, his son and himself. In 2015, three generations of the Phillips family’s photography were exhibited at Baltimore City Hall.

“At the show, Mr. Phillips recalled advice his father gave him: ‘You’ve got to capture the moment. Don’t let them get away from you.’ ”

Short Takes

  • “Media businesses are slowly getting less white, male-dominated, stats from Condé, WSJ, NYT, others show,” Sara Guaglione reported Thursday for Digiday, quoting this columnist, Dorothy Tucker, president of the National Association of Black Journalists and others. Tucker and Richard Prince each cited progress on newsroom diversity, with Tucker adding, “This spring, the NABJ plans to survey its membership to gauge industry progress. Previous surveys have shown Black journalists were not satisfied with their experience at newsrooms and media companies. . . .”

  • Hugo Balta (pictured), twice president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, joined The Chicago Reporter more than a year ago as associate editor. On Tuesday he was promoted to the new position of executive editor. “We had gotten to a point where it became clear that running The Chicago Reporter would require another person dedicated to editorial strategy and oversight – someone with a strong sense of our stakeholders and deep knowledge in investigative journalism. We are fortunate to have someone of Hugo’s caliber step into the Executive Editor role to steer our strategic efforts and continue driving value for the TCR community,” Publisher Nicole Trottie said.

In Los Angeles, Megan Thee Stallion leaves the Hall of Justice for the courthouse Dec. 13 to testify in the trial of rapper Tory Lanez. (Credit: Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

  • “Members of the media, business and political community were mourning the death this week of Spanish-language media pioneer Walter Ulloa (pictured), the CEO and founder of Entravision Communication Corp,” Suzanne Gamboa reported Wednesday for NBC News. “Ulloa died of a heart attack on New Year’s Eve at age 74, according to a statement Entravision issued Tuesday.” Gamboa also wrote, “Entravision said in a statement that Ulloa (pronounced oo-YO-ah), transformed the company from ‘a traditional multi-linear Spanish language company that currently owns and operates 100 domestic television and radio stations to a global digital media powerhouse with a footprint that reaches across 40 countries.’ “

  • “Of the many companies trying to make money by selling smartphones, Google — which according to research firm Canalys accounts for only a small percentage of phones shipped in the United States — has been the most open about making its cameras more inclusive,” Chris Velazco reported Dec. 29, updated Dec. 30, in The Washington Post. “Starting in 2021, Google’s new Pixel smartphones have shipped with under-the-hood ‘Real Tone’ camera modifications the company claims will help them take better, more satisfying pictures of subjects of color. To test those claims, I took pictures of people visiting one of San Francisco’s holiday hotspots with Google’s $899 Pixel 7 Pro, and compared the results with photos from Samsung’s $1,199 Galaxy S22 Ultra and Apple’s $1,099 iPhone 14 Pro Max. It didn’t take long before one thing became clear: companies such as Google haven’t completely solved the problem. (Not yet, anyway.) . . .”

  • The Baltimore Banner, which debuted in June, is producing “life-affirming stories,” public editor DeWayne Wickham wrote Saturday. Such pieces “are the heart of the new journalism – a journalism that can only be produced with any consistency by news organizations that manage to escape the clutches of the ownership model that has forced the closure of thousands of daily newspapers and reduced many that survive to a shell of what they once were. . . .”

  • Report for America, “a national service program that places talented emerging journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered topics and communities,” has selected “nearly 30 new host newsroom partners, while opening applications for dozens of new reporting and photojournalism corps positions — to include a wide variety of beats — across the United States and Puerto Rico,” the organization’s Sam Kille announced Dec. 7. “Now that the newsroom selections have been made, Report for America is seeking talented, service-minded reporters and photographers to join its reporting corps—a two-year program (with an option for three years) that delivers a wide range of benefits to its corps members. . . . The deadline to apply is Jan. 30, 2023.”

  • “Beyond the ongoing news topics we cover at Native News Online, such as healthcare, climate change, and Indian boarding schools, we have identified four emerging stories we will be paying special attention to in 2023,” Levi Rickert (Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation), founder, publisher and editor, wrote on New Year’s Eve. They are: “Potential Recession in 2023 Impact on Indian Country”; “U.S. Supreme Court Brackeen v. Haaland Decision” on the constitutionality of the Indian Child Welfare Act; U.S. Sen. MarkWayne Mullin, R-Okla., “the first Native American to serve in the United States Senate since former Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell (Northern Cheyenne), who represented Colorado, retired in 2005″; and Buu Nygren (pictured), at 36 the youngest person ever elected president of the Navajo Nation.

  • “The House sergeant at arms, who was the head of the D.C. National Guard during the attack on the Capitol, told the Jan. 6 committee that the law enforcement response would have looked much different had the rioters been Black Americans,” Ryan J. Reilly reported Dec. 28 for NBC News. “William J. Walker, the head of the D.C. National Guard during the insurrection, also indicated he thought more people in the crowd would have died if the mob had been largely Black instead of overwhelmingly white. . . .”

 

Ethel Payne on assignment in Vietnam in 1967, interviewing a soldier from Chesapeake, Va. (Credit: Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Howard University Archives, Howard University)

  • “Al Roker’s colleagues shared the good news Tuesday that the beloved weatherman will be back on the air soon,” Lisa Respers France reported Tuesday for CNN. “Roker had been twice hospitalized after a blood clot in his leg traveled to his lungs. He has been off the air since early November. The health scare caused him to miss two annual events he’s long been a part of — the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and the lighting of the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center. His ‘Today’ family” at NBC “supported him throughout his recovery. . . .”

  • “After a 21-year run, Azteca América ceased operations in the United States,“ Veronica Villafañe reported Dec. 31 for her Media Moves site. “The network, born from a joint venture between Harry Pappas’s Telecasting and Grupo Salinas’s TV Azteca in 2000 and launched the following year on Los Angeles station KAZA-TV with the goal to compete with Univision and Telemundo, ended its rocky run today December 31, 2022. . . .”

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