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‘Racist Lies’ About Kamala

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When Your Newsroom Gets It Wrong

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The Democratic National Convention Committee released excerpts from the Wednesday night remarks of Sen. Kamala Harris, nominee for vice president. (video)

When Your Newsroom Gets It Wrong

At least two journalists of color have called out their news organizations over their reporting on Kamala Harris, and a third, a columnist, wrote this week that, in the words of the headline, “I wasn’t a fan of Kamala Harris. It took President Trump to change my mind.”

“What’s changed for me, and I suspect for a lot of Black people who were initially less than enthusiastic about Harris as VP, has been the constant stream of racist attacks against her from Trump and his various minion mouthpieces,” Erika D. Smith wrote in the Los Angeles Times. “Lukewarm about her before, now we’re fired up and defensive.”

Former vice president Joe Biden’s selection of Sen. Harris, D-Calif., as his vice presidential running mate has many ecstatic. Too ecstatic, wrote Tom Jones, media columnist for the Poynter Institute, who called out one Black reporter as “so over-the-top in her praise of Harris that it bordered on out-and-out cheerleading.” (scroll down)

But it is true, as Emily DeRuy wrote for the Bay Area News Group Saturday, updated Wednesday, that Harris inspires several demographic groups. She “looks like the Bay Area,” DuRuy said.

“It was no accident that Kamala Harris’ first interview as Joe Biden’s running mate was with The 19th,” Brian Stelter and Oliver Darcy wrote Friday for their “Reliable Sources” newsletter for CNN. “Harris, who spoke with Errin Haines during The 19th’s inaugural summit on Friday, confirmed that it was done ‘on purpose.’ During the interview, Harris was asked about the message it sends to America that someone with her background was selected for a major party’s presidential ticket. ‘Errin let me also say this. I am not unique,’ Harris said. ‘There are a lot of people like me, there are a lot of books where I come from. I come from people.’ “

“She is Black and Asian-American, born in Oakland to a mother from India and a father from Jamaica who met in graduate school at UC Berkeley. She is Baptist, with a Sanskrit name that means ‘lotus’ from her Hindu heritage, but is known to her Jewish stepchildren as ‘Momala,’ a play on her first name and an endearing Yiddish term for ‘little mama.’

“She also looks like the future of America, where demographers say, by 2043 white people are expected to be a minority group. The number of multiracial Americans is expected to triple by 2060 to about 26.7 million.

“Yet,” DeRuy continued, “it took less than 48 hours from Joe Biden’s naming Harris his running mate for her blended background to become a campaign issue. While Democrats quickly celebrated what former President Barack Obama called Harris’ ‘life story … that I and so many others can see ourselves in,’ President Donald Trump stoked an incendiary claim that questioned Harris’ eligibility to serve as vice president because her parents were born outside the U.S.”

And that’s when the spit hit the fan.

Bill Grueskin reported in Columbia Journalism Review about NBC’s Geoff Bennett (pictured) and NPR’s Lulu Garcia-Navarro. “Bennett is not afraid to push back,” Grueskin wrote. “And we saw that intensity again late Thursday night, shortly after the official Twitter account for NBC News posted this: President Trump told reporters he had ‘heard’ rumors that Sen. Harris, a Black woman and U.S.-born citizen, does not meet the requirement to serve in the White House.

“The president said he considered the rumors ‘very serious.’ Within minutes, Bennett went public, castigating his own newsroom with a quote-tweet to his 100,000 or so followers: ‘This tweet stops short of saying Kamala Harris is fully eligible to serve and to suggest otherwise is a desperate and racist lie.’

“Minutes later, NBC deleted its tweet and posted a new one, with a tone much closer to Bennett’s: ‘Sen. Harris’ eligibility to be president is not in doubt, despite racist birtherism suggestions that were echoed by the president Thursday.’

“Then, to make sure everyone got the message, the network pinned that new tweet to the top of its feed — and left it there for several days so it would be the first thing that NBC News’s 7.7 million followers would see. . . .

“Nor was Bennett the only journalist to go public with concerns. After Trump’s press conference, NPR led its story much the way NBC had framed its tweet: ‘President Trump stoked a controversial theory being promoted by supporters — and his campaign — that Sen. Kamala Harris of California is not eligible for the vice presidency.’

“Lulu Garcia-Navarro, (pictured) the host of NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday who has won Peabody and duPont awards, told her 78,500 Twitter followers that ‘this language does our audience a grave disservice. It’s not a “theory.” It’s a lie.’ NPR changed the phrase ‘controversial theory’ to ‘an untrue conspiracy theory’ and went on to acknowledge on Twitter that its language hadn’t been ‘clear enough that suggestions Sen. Harris isn’t eligible are lies.’ Minutes later, Garcia-Navarro tweeted, ‘This is what a credible news organization does. I am proud to work at NPR.’

“And even some Newsweek journalists — including a top correspondent and a senior editor  — went public with their disgust. . . .”

Newsweek was first up among well-known media outlets to impugn Harris’ right to run. It felt the consequences. “Editor-in-Chief Nancy Cooper and the magazine’s recently hired opinion editor, Trump-backing conservative activist and attorney Josh Hammer, apologized on Friday after nearly a week of defending a right-wing law professor’s op-ed questioning Sen. Kamala Harris’ U.S. citizenship and her eligibility to be Joe Biden’s running mate,” Lloyd Grove reported for the Daily Beast.

Newsweek’s admitted wrongheadedness was reminiscent of the conflict last month at The New York Times, where an op-ed by Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., calling for the use of troops in American cities infuriated the newsroom and ended in the resignation of its top Opinion editor.

“Members of an internal group called Black@NYT organized the effort in a new Slack channel and agreed on a carefully drafted response,” Ben Smith wrote in The New York Times. “They would say that Mr. Cotton’s column ‘endangered’ black staff members, a choice of words intended to ‘focus on the work’ and ‘avoid being construed as hyperpartisan,’ one said.”

At Newsweek, it is not clear that Black reporters exist. When asked, spokesman Ken Frydman told Journal-isms by telephone Monday, “We don’t discuss personnel issues.”


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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@yahoogroups.com

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