Media Rarely Discuss Physiology of Race

Karen Attiah Named NABJ’s Journalist of Year

What if Central Park 5 Had Received Death Penalty?

ESPN Uses Dominican Connections on Ortiz Story

Confusion Fans Casual ‘N’ Word Use in School

Latino Media Called Key Vehicles for Pushback

A Columnist-Radio Host Leads a Philly Protest

Tony Winner Calls for More Diversity Among Critics

Short Takes

Media Rarely Discuss Physiology of Race

“Whether we are discussing Angela Bassett’s flawless face after the Oscars, or trying to figure out how it’s possible the pretty sister at work still looks 25 when we know she’s pushing 40, the African American community turns to this trusty, old school adage: Black don’t crack,” Elizabeth Wellington, a lifestyle writer at the Philadelphia Inquirer, reported Wednesday.

“Now thanks to a Rutgers New Jersey Medical School study, grandma’s quip is truer than ever. And the reasons are far deeper than the melanin that shelters darker skin from the ultraviolet rays that lead to wrinkles. It goes right on down to the bone. . . .”

Wellington’s story stands out for a number of reasons, not least because for all the reporting of how race affects social dynamics, it is rare that the news media discuss the physiology of race. Why do people of different races look the way they do? And, biologically speaking, what are the pluses and minuses of those attributes? Too often the discussion is superficial, stopping at how closely nonwhite people approximate Caucasian beauty standards.

Wellington continued, “Black people are not only born with denser bones in our faces, those bones also don’t break down as quickly — especially the bone between the eyes and the cheekbones — as our Caucasian counterparts. The result: Black faces maintain structural support for a longer period of time so we have younger-looking skin for longer.

“ ‘This is why black people look like themselves longer,’ said Boris Paskhover, a facial plastic surgeon at Rutgers who spearheaded the study as a way to better understand the aging process as it relates to the bones in the face. As we get older, Paskhover said, black faces, like all faces, change, but the bone structure in black people doesn’t change at the same rate as in Caucasian faces, he said. ‘If we can understand what causes the face to look older, then we can perhaps one day understand how to prevent the aging process without surgery.’ . . .”

Wellington messaged Journal-isms she discovered the story when “Someone passed along a press release from Rutgers [University]. And, in all honesty, I put my sister girl spin on it…”

Being able to view the topic through a “sister girl” vantage point, Wellington agreed, is another argument for newsroom diversity. “[E]ven the scientist was feeling some kind of way about using the term ‘black doesn’t crack.’ ” Wellington added. “He thought it was pejorative. . . . I was like ‘that’s a serious compliment/smug moment…’ ”

This wasn’t the first time Wellington had written about the notion that “black don’t crack.” The headline for a January story was, “‘Black don’t crack’ on the outside, but it could be cracking on the inside.”

Wellington wrote then, “[N]ow is not the time to get it twisted: Just because we are flawless on the outside doesn’t mean we should stop paying attention to our overall health. In fact, it’s now more important than ever. . . . ‘Inside we are suffering, but outside we are smiling,’ said Shelley Leaphart-Williams, founder and executive director of Lifesavers U, a nonprofit focused on mental health and suicide prevention in minority communities. ‘In other words, we are dying internally because our internal age is so much older than our physical age.’ The reasons are many, Leaphart-Williams said. . . .”

Fortunately for Inquirer readers, Rutgers writer Patti Verbanas was able to turn a jargon-filled report in JAMA Facial Plastic Surgery into a readable news release that landed in the Philadelphia newsroom.

And both the public-relations and science-writing businesses are recognizing the need to greater diversity in those fields.

The PRSA Foundation is honoring diversity efforts in its industry at a New York gala on June 25.

Two weeks ago, the National Association of Science Writers announced Rodrigo Pérez Ortega, Helen Santoro and Anuradha Varanasi as recipients of its 2019 Diversity Fellowships. Pérez Ortega, Santoro and Varanasi are each to receive $5,000 to help defray relocation and living costs associated with completing a summer internship.

A 2018 membership survey [PDF] showed the association’s membership to be 88 percent white, 5 percent Asian/Pacific Islander, 3 percent Hispanic or Latino, 2 percent South Asian, 1 percent black, 1 percent Native American and 1 percent other.

Karen Attiah Named NABJ’s Journalist of Year

Karen Attiah, the Washington Post global opinions editor who worked tirelessly to keep before the public the killing of Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, whom she edited, was named Journalist of the Year Wednesday by the National Association of Black Journalists.

In November, Attiah tweeted, “I said it before, and I will say it again. #Khashoggi’s killers messed with the wrong paper (@WashingtonPost)

“And in me, the wrong editor.”

NABJ emphasized Attiah’s body of work, rather than solely her advocacy for Khashoggi and press freedom.

President Sarah Glover said in a news release, “Karen has courageously used her commitment to her craft to provide thought-provoking commentary and insights that have led to positive dialogue and the visibility of issues that have not only impacted people of color and minority communities, but also journalists around the globe.

“I’m especially proud to see how Karen has propelled the tragedy of her writer’s death into a purpose-driven calling to further the cause for press freedom.”

The CIA concluded that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the assassination and dismemberment of Khashoggi, a contributing columnist to the Post, in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, in October.

Attiah was his fiercest Post champion, although Post Publisher Fred Ryan and editorial page editor Fred Hiatt completed an outspoken Post team demanding that the United States and the international community not permit the Saudis to cover up the assassination. Khashoggi and other heroes of press freedom were named Time’s Person of the Year for 2018.

Attiah was born in Desoto, Texas, to a Nigerian-Ghanaian mother and Ghanaian father. “Attiah has leveraged her platform to bring light to systematic issues that gravely impact the black community worldwide,” and used her writings to underscore the importance of diversity in media, NABJ noted.

Attiahe wrote on Facebook,  “[W]hen I got the call a month ago, I nearly cried. Out of all the recognitions and awards, this one means so much to me, to be in the company of so many black journalists I have watched and admired over the years. @nabjofficial, thank you for this honor. And thank you to all my friends and family that have supported my wild ideas and dreams. Last but not least, this is for you #JamalKhashoggi. Rest well, my friend.”

The award is to be presented during NABJ’s National Convention & Career Fair Aug. 7-11 in Miami.

What if Central Park 5 Had Received Death Penalty?

The success of Ava DuVernay’s Netflix miniseries, “When They See Us,” dramatizing the case of the Central Park Five, can be measured by the growing number of organizations shunning Linda Fairstein, the prosecutor of the five black and Latino teens accused of a brutal rape who served sentences that ranged from six to 13 years . DNA evidence later cleared them.

However, that success has not produced apologies from the media organizations that helped whip New York City into a frenzy, as outlined in a 2013 column in this space.

One media exception is the Miami Herald, which editorialized Monday that the case should be used as a warning to forestall the executions of any innocent men and women who might be on death row. Florida is one of 29 states with the death penalty.

“There are 340 people on Florida’s death row,” the editorial began. “Without a thorough investigation into the state’s criminal justice system and a full review of every capital conviction, the next execution could be of an innocent person. Many state leaders seem OK with that.

“Those leaders, like Gov. Ron DeSantis, should binge watch some television. ‘When They See Us,’ a four-part series on Netflix dramatizing the infamous case of the Central Park Five — five young black and Latino boys falsely accused and wrongfully convicted of the brutal rape of a New York jogger in 1989 — vividly demonstrates how badly flawed the justice system in America can be.

“It took more than a decade for the boys’ unjust convictions to be overturned, but the damage to their lives and reputations can never be repaired. It could have been worse, though. The oldest boy was tried as an adult. He could have received the death penalty — and he could have been executed before he was exonerated. . . .”

• Xavier Best, Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting: Decades After False Convictions, ‘When They See Us’ Highlights Media Failure
• Carroll Bogert, Los Angeles Times: How the media help drive harsh criminal justice policies (May 31)
• Joyce Ferriabough Bolling, Boston Herald: Reflecting on pride and prejudice 
• Keir Bradford-Grey, Philadelphia Inquirer: ‘When They See Us’ is a call for criminal justice reform
• Gabrielle Bruney, Esquire: The Central Park Five Were Falsely Convicted. Here’s How the Truth Came Out. (June 1) 
• Julia Dahl, Columbia Journalism Review: What I learned about journalism at the New York Post (2017)
• Julia Dahl, Poynter Institute: We were the wolf pack: How New York City tabloid media misjudged the Central Park Jogger case (2011) 
• Editorial, New York Times: The Jogger and the Wolf Pack (April 26, 1989)
• Lisa Respers France, CNN: Central Park Five prosecutor Linda Fairstein says ‘When They See Us’ defames her
• Renée Graham, Boston Globe: Justice belatedly catches up with Linda Fairstein
• Monica Hesse, Washington Post: The slippery moral calculus of Linda Fairstein
• Elizabeth Hinton, the Atlantic: How the ‘Central Park Five’ Changed the History of American Law (June 2) 
• History.com: The Central Park Five (June 5)
• Ken Makin, the Undefeated: ‘When They See Us’ exposes a legacy of hatred aimed at black males
• Bethany Mandel, New York Post: ‘Canceling’ a heroine: the mobbing of Linda Fairstein (June 5)
• Clarence Page, Chicago Tribune: Netflix series about Central Park 5 renews ‘mob mentality’ accusations
• Azi Paybarah, New York Times: Why the Central Park Five Matter (June 3)
• Leonard Pitts Jr., Miami Herald: Central Park 5 series will break your heart — and make you mad
• Rashad Robinson, the Guardian: Netflix’s harrowing Central Park Five demands a new fight against racism (June 3)
• Robert Rorke, New York Post: ‘When They See Us’ does justice to Central Park Five’s brutal story (May 31) 

(Credit: YouTube)

ESPN Uses Dominican Connections on Ortiz Story

With its Domincan connections, ESPN and ESPN Deportes claimed an early edge in reporting the shooting Sunday of Boston Red Sox great David Ortiz in his native Dominican Republic.

“Throughout the night and today, ESPN and ESPN Deportes reporters Enrique Rojas and Marly Rivera have been documenting the story, providing updates on SportsCenter and other ESPN news and information platforms — including ESPN.com and ESPNDeportes.com — and transcribing Spanish-language news reports for fans on Twitter,” ESPN said Sunday.

“We are lucky to have incredible journalists that we have collaborated with for many, many years in the Dominican Republic, in particular Dionisio Soldevila [a sports editor with Periodico Hoy, a newspaper in the Dominican Republic] and Ortiz’s friend and business assistant, Leo López. That collaboration with Dominican journalists, and well as Enrique’s close relationship with David’s father, Leo Ortiz, has been essential to our reporting.”

Maria Cramer and Michael Levenson reported Wednesday for the Boston Globe, “Six people, including the alleged gunman, have been arrested and accused of attempting to kill David Ortiz to collect an $8,000 bounty, authorities in the Dominican Republic said Wednesday, as the retired baseball star remained in intensive care in Boston from a single gunshot wound to the back.

“At a press conference Wednesday, Ney Aldrin Bautista Almonte, director of the Dominican National Police, and Attorney General Jean Alain Rodríguez Sanchez said the coordinator of the murder plot, whom they did not identify, had been offered 400,000 Dominican pesos, or roughly $7,800, to kill Ortiz, a native of the Caribbean nation. . . .”

Columnist Rubén Rosario suggests that Minnesota schools invite Neal Lester, foundation professor of English and founding director of project humanities at Arizona State University, to discuss the ‘N’ word. “You cannot reclaim a word that was never yours,” Lester says. (Credit: YouTube)

Confusion Fans Casual ‘N’ Word Use in School

Teen use of the ‘N’ word has become so widespread in some Minnesota schools that even a white teacher used it, while a confused associate principal told teachers to allow black students to use the word as long as it ended in “a.”

The situation led columnist Rubén Rosario of the Pioneer Press in St. Paul, to call Sunday for the schools to bring in an expert on the ‘N’ word, about which the columnist firmly declared, “That word and its variants should be stricken from everyone’s tongue unless it’s to teach or educate about its dark, ugly historical meaning. The word should still bite the conscience because there’s still racism and inequality out there. But I live in the real world of modern usage among the young, so I know that won’t be easy.”

A self-described Nuyorican (New York Puerto Rican), Rosario added, “I mentioned in our chat [with the expert] that most persons of Puerto Rican descent I know would not tolerate the use of the word spic or any variant of it in most settings.

“A museum in New York City was forced to apologize and change the title of an art collection that contained the S-word several years ago after major pushback from that city’s Puerto Rican community.”

Rosario recounted some of what led to his column. “In Burnsville in late December, Metcalf Middle School Principal Shannon McParland was caught on a student’s cellphone video saying to staffers, ‘Like, seriously, you’re going to call me a f—in’ n—–?’ after a female black student uttered the expletive and the racial slur at her. McParland is white.

“McParland later apologized twice, in a statement and later at a community gathering formed to discuss the incident.

“ ‘Words have power, and few words have a more hateful and destructive history,’ McParland said in the prepared statement. ‘I sincerely apologize to the students, parents and staff and community members for the pain my words have caused.’

“But the Metcalf incident apparently laid bare allegations of discrimination, lack of leadership, increased use of the N-word by white students and heightened racial tensions to the point that the St. Paul chapter of the NAACP fired off a letter to the Burnsville-Eagan-Savage school board and the district superintendent requesting a probe.”

Rosario quoted Laura Ngeh, the only black teacher at Metcalf and whose contract was not renewed, “This has been poorly handled by the school, bad decisions made by honorable white people trying to be cool.”

“Added Greta Krupke, a veteran teacher who teaches sixth grade: ‘We were told that black students were reclaiming the word. We were basically left in the dark about how to address the word in our classes no matter who said the word. I get a lot of pushback from students (non-black). ‘(Ms. McParland) can say it, then so can I.’ ”

Rosario suggested the schools invite Neal Lester, Ph.D., an English professor and director of Project Humanities at Arizona State University, adding, “He is also an authority on the root history of the N-word and the black experience in America. . . . ”

“ ‘You cannot reclaim a word that was never yours,’ explained Lester during a brief chat. ‘As Toni Morrison wrote: Definitions belong to the definers, not the defined. . . .”

• Journal-isms: Age, Gender Influence Approval of ‘N’ Word (April 11)

Latino Media Called Key Vehicles for Pushback

“If Hispanic media are going to survive the transition to the digital age, they are going to have to find ways to fund professional development opportunities to support American-born, Spanish-language journalists; establish a bilingual news portal to translate and bridge across communities; and provide support for citizen oversight of Hispanic media to be a community resource against hate,” according to a new study of the state of the industry by Jessica Retis, associate professor of journalism at California State University, Northridge.

“The changes taking place within the Spanish-language and Latinx-oriented media have happened in parallel to the demographic shifts in the country and a corresponding rise of anti-immigrant and anti-Hispanic sentiment,” Retis said, according to a June 4 university release. “Spanish-language media are important resources for information and self-representation, and can be an important resource for pushing back against anti-immigrant narratives that pervade some mainstream media.”

The release added, “Retis’ report, ‘Hispanic Media Today: Serving Bilingual and Bicultural Audiences in the Digital Age,’ was published last month by the nonprofit Democracy Fund. In it, Retis reviews the evolution of U.S. Spanish-language newspapers, radio and television, and outlines the challenges she sees facing Hispanic media in the digital age.”

It also said, “Spanish-language and bilingual media in the United States need to understand the history of Hispanic media in the U.S., and appreciate the country’s complex and diverse Hispanic population if they are going to survive the digital age. . . .

” ‘In order to understand the current situation with Hispanic media, you need to go back in time, more than 200 years,’ she said. ‘In doing so, we cannot talk about one homogeneous group of Hispanic media because there is no one homogeneous group of Latinos in the U.S. We are very diverse ethnically, as well as in the languages we speak, from Spanish to Spanglish. . . .’ ”

A Columnist-Radio Host Leads a Philly Protest

“ ‘Off the streets! Off the streets!‘ ” Chris Palmer reported Friday for the Philadelphia Inquirer.

“Those words echoed off the walls of Philadelphia Police Headquarters on Friday afternoon as more than 150 people gathered in front of the building, popularly known as the Roundhouse, to protest alleged police Facebook posts.

“Demonstrators called for the benching, if not firing, of about 330 active city cops recently accused of making racist or otherwise offensive posts.

“The protest, organized by Solomon Jones, a WURD radio host who also writes opinion columns that appear in The Inquirer, featured remarks from a variety of community members and public officials, including Jones; the Rev. Greg Holston, executive director of the interfaith community group POWER; recently acquitted inmate Hassan Bennett; longtime local activist Asa Khalif; and State Rep. Stephen Kinsey (D., Phila.).

“Each denounced what they said was a culture within the Police Department that tolerates public airing of biased remarks. Most speakers, without identifying specific posts or officers, agreed that cops with Facebook posts cataloged on the Plain View Project database, published Saturday by advocates studying police bias, should be removed from street duty or taken off the force. . . .”

In a follow-up column in the Inquirer on Tuesday, Jones credited the demonstration to a coalition of activist groups. Jones wrote of next steps: “In addition to setting up meetings with Police Commissioner Richard Ross and others, we are looking to public officials to pen resolutions denouncing the hate expressed in those Facebook posts. We are seeking to strengthen accountability for police officers who engage in this kind of behavior. And we have lawyers on standby in case we need to take legal action to force change.

“All power to the people. That’s what I saw at Friday’s rally. And now that we know just how powerful we are, we can stand up together, and win.”

Tony Winner Calls for More Diversity Among Critics

At Sunday’s Tony Awards, perhaps the most diverse in its history, “director Rachel Chavkin, the only woman to direct a musical on Broadway this season, blasted the industry during her acceptance speech for not giving more opportunities to women and people of color to helm the theater world’s biggest productions,” Marina Fang reported Monday for HuffPost.

“And we need to see that racial diversity and gender diversity reflected in our critical establishment, too,” Chavkin, the director of “Hadestown,” said.

Journal-isms asked Adam Feldman, theatre and dance editor for Time Out Media and president of the New York Drama Critics’ Circle, if there were critics of color among its 19 members.

“Hilton Als was a member until he stepped down as the New Yorker’s critic this year,” Feldman replied. “(I am hoping that Vinson Cunningham, one of his replacements at the New Yorker, will join the group this year, but he’s only just started at the magazine.)” Both are African American.

In 2017, American Theatre magazine announced it was helping to administer “an arts journalism track as part of the Rising Leaders of Color Program, a Theatre Communications Group initiative geared toward nurturing a new generation of theatre leaders of color.”

On May 30, the Theatre Communications Group announced the program’s 10 latest participants.

“After two successful years with Portland-based writer TJ Acena and St. Louis-based writer Rosalind Early, the RLC’s theatre criticism and journalism track continues with Cristina Pla-Guzman, an arts educator and theatre journalist working in Miami,”  a news release said.

“Designed to help widen and deepen the talent pool of voices documenting, reflecting, and challenging the field, the RLC journalism track has already diversified the coverage in American Theatre, as both Acena and Early have become trusted go-to correspondents among the magazine’s national roster of freelance writers.

‘TJ and Rosalind have added immeasurably to our coverage and content over the past few years, and we look forward to working with Cristina,’ said Rob Weinert-Kendt, the magazine’s editor-in-chief. . . .”

Short Takes

• “The White House Office of Public Liaison has hired Nicole Frazier, Sen. Cory Gardner’s [R.-Colo.] regional director, as the new head of African American outreach, three sources familiar with the hire told Axios,” Alayna Treene reported Tuesday for axios.com. She also wrote, “Omarosa Manigault Newman, who served as the most senior African American staffer in the White House until she was fired in December 2017, had handled African American outreach as part of her job. . . .”
• Five years after Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote “The Case for Reparations” for the Atlantic, New Yorker editor David Remnick asked Coates whether there are candidates that he takes more seriously than others on the subject. “Yeah, I think Elizabeth Warren is probably serious,” he replied. “I think she means it. I mean — I guess it will break a little news — after ‘The Case for Reparations’ came out, she just asked me to come and talk one on one with her about it. . . .” What would reparations look like? “A policy for repair,” Coates said. I think what you need to do is you need to figure out what the exact axes of white supremacy are, and have been, and find out a policy to repair each of those. In other words, this is not just a mass payment. . . . “
• Journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates, the late Ebony magazine publisher John H. Johnson and 20th century scholar W.E.B. Du Bois, editor of the NAACP’s “The Crisis,” are among those featured in a traveling exhibition from the Smithsonian that “presents the narrative of a nation through the profiles of significant African American men who are icons in the country’s historical and cultural landscape,” the Smithsonian announced Monday. ” ‘Men of Change: Power. Triumph. Truth.’ launches a three-year, 10-city national tour at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati Aug. 17.  The Smithsonian Affiliate museum will host the exhibition through Dec. 1. . . .”

• 

  “MSNBC implemented a big shakeup in programming this week, Mediaite has learned, appointing SVP of programming and development Jonathan Wald and MSNBC executive editor Dan Arnall to lead dayside,” Aidan McLaughlin reported Wednesday for Mediaite. “The former head of dayside, NBC News SVP Janelle Rodriguez, will take control of NBC News Now, the network’s streaming service. . . . NBC’s SVP of Specials Rashida Jones, who launched NBC News Now, will turn her focus to editorial projects, including debates and town halls in anticipation of the 2020 election. . . .”

• “YouTube, under fire for initially taking no action against a right-wing vlogger who has chronically bullied a gay Hispanic video journalist, said it will take ‘a hard look at our harassment policies with an aim to update them,’ ” Todd Spangler reported June 6 for Variety. “Carlos Maza, a Vox video producer, said in Twitter posts May 30 that since he began working at Vox in early 2017, videos by conservative YouTuber Steven Crowder responding to Maza’s video series ‘Strikethrough’ have consistently included ‘repeated, overt attacks on my sexual orientation and ethnicity.’ . . . ”
• “Six days after YouTube said it would ban supremacist content and remove videos that deny well-documented atrocities like the Holocaust, accounts belonging to some of the most prominent purveyors of hate in the US, such as white supremacist Richard Spencer and former KKK leader David Duke, are still on the platform,” Kaya Yurieff reported Tuesday for CNN.
• For Gayle King, host of “CBS This Morning,” the March appointment of Susan Zirinsky as president of CBS News “was a game-changer,” Marisa Guthrie reported Wednesday in an extensive feature on King for the Hollywood Reporter. “Asked if she would still be at CBS News had Zirinsky not been named to head up the division, she quickly says: ‘No, I would not. I had other things that were interesting to me, and I was giving them serious consideration. But I believe in her and I think she believes in me. Let’s just start with that.’ . . .” Robin Givhan added Tuesday for the Washington Post, “King is, perhaps, what the culture needs right now: a soothing voice of reason, an adult who isn’t drowning in cynicism, who is still capable of being let down by her fellow humans if only because she still has faith in them. Someone who lives in this real-world ‘Truman Show’ without feeling the need to perform. . . .”

• 

  “A week ago today, I called for the ouster of the president of the Society of Professional Journalists, after she freaked out (not for the first time) on a conference call,” Michael Koretzky wrote Monday on his journoterrorist.com blog “But it was a half-empty threat. “As I emailed my fellow SPJ board members midweek, I didn’t really want to impeach Alex Tarquinio… I prefer Alex simply apologize for her rude behavior and vow never to do it again. I also want her to respect the board’s wishes. Only if Alex refuses to apologize and change will I make a motion to remove her – because really, what are our options at that point? On Friday, SPJ released a letter signed by Tarquinio, president-elect Patti Newberry, and treasurer Matt Hall — in which they all apologized and vowed to ‘dedicate ourselves to civil and productive discourse.’ . . . ”

• “New York Times executive editor Dean Baquet and MSNBC president Phil Griffin met last week amid tensions between their two news organizations,” Brian Stelter reported Tuesday for CNN. “But the lengthy lunch did not resolve the issues at hand, according to four sources with knowledge of the sit-down. The executives remain at an impasse. The specific issue is about television appearances by Times reporters on Rachel Maddow’s MSNBC show. The larger issue is about the line between news versus opinion on cable networks, including CNN. . . .”
• At the FBI, “the distinct and deadly threat of white supremacist violence is now unnamed and merely folded into the too-broad ‘racially motivated extremism’ category,” Natasha Lennard wrote Saturday for the Intercept. She also wrote, “The new nomenclature reflects the Trump administration’s ideological commitment to enabling white supremacists. But the new classifications are more than semantic: They render it impossible for the public, or even elected officials, to know whether the FBI is dedicating resources to investigating the very real threat of white supremacist terror or if those resources are going toward the harassment of Black Lives Matter and civil rights activists. . . . “
• “Asian American Podcasters, a membership group launched earlier this year, counts roughly 300 podcasts created by Asian American Pacific Islanders—out of more than 700,000 podcasts total,” Eileen Guo reported Monday for Columbia Journalism Review. “A new podcast, Self Evident, aims to better reflect the myriad experiences and communities that fall under the vague umbrella term ‘Asian American,’ while emphasizing that, ultimately, Asian American stories are also American stories. . . .”

  

• “Tonya Mosley is the new co-host of Here & Now, the midday news and talk show from NPR and WBUR in Boston,” Dru Sefton reported June 6 for Current. “Mosley will join co-hosts Robin Young and Jeremy Hobson Aug. 5 on the program that airs on 475 stations, NPR and WBUR announced Wednesday. Mosley has worked as the Silicon Valley bureau chief since 2017 for San Francisco’s KQED. She also hosts the station’s Truth Be Told podcast, an advice show by and for people of color. . . .”
• “We have another entrant into the streaming wars: BET,” Tim Baysinger reported Monday for the Wrap. “Viacom plans to launch a streaming service focused on the African-American cable network called BET+, the Wall Street Journal reports. The upcoming service, which will launch in the fall, will feature original content from Tyler Perry, who will be a financial stakeholder in the service. . . .”
• In East Oakland, Calif, “Pasa La Voz was designed to be a participatory local news service providing empowering, local information to Oakland’s Latino immigrant community through text messages,” Madeleine Bair reported June 5 for Reynolds Journalism Institute. “Each week, subscribers received news, resources, or information on issues such as health, housing, education, emergency preparedness, and immigration, and also had the opportunity to share their questions, concerns, or stories on that issue. . . . From the responses El Tímpano received from our audience, as well as data on subscriber engagement and growth, we see Pasa La Voz as a successful model of local, empowering reporting. . . .”
• Former “President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama are the latest to jump into the podcast game, under a pact with Spotify to produce a series of podcasts exclusively for the streaming platform,” Todd Spangler reported June 6 for Variety.”Under the multiyear deal between Spotify and Higher Ground Productions, the former first couple’s production company, Barack and Michelle Obama are set to develop, produce, and lend their voices to select podcasts on a wide range of topics. The agreement is with Higher Ground Audio, a new division of the Higher Ground production company, that is housing the Obamas’ move into podcasts. . . .”
• “”NBCU’s Spanish language network Telemundo is ramping up the rhetoric on the impact of severe weather, and it is not alone,” John Eggerton reported for Broadcasting & Cable. “Its Noticias Telemundo news department said Thursday it will now refer to a ‘climate emergency’ rather than ‘climate change’ or ‘global warming,’ neither of which relay the threat most scientists agree is clear and present. . . .”
  

  Smart. Curious. Ready. Meet @WSJ newsroom’s 2019 intern class! They’ll participate in rich work experiences, training sessions, mentor pair-ups & networking events. No doubt, we’ll learn from them as well! (#TEAMWORK: @srabil @TillDaldrup @DanaMadinah @MeganEDouglass Kate Ortega) pic.twitter.com/jXW7gp9jYi

  — Brent Jones (@TweetBrentJones) June 11, 2019

• “Renee Washington has been appointed as the vice president of news at NBC4, the station announced Thursday,” Mark Madler reported June 6 for the San Fernando Business Journal, referring to KNBC-TV in Universal City, Calif. “Washington had been serving as assistant news director for the Universal City broadcaster since last fall where she played a role in managing day-to-day operations of the newsroom. . . .”
• “The Pride Month 2019 celebrations and proclamations continue as couples openly celebrate,” Ebony reported on June 4. “NBC4 [Washington] anchor Meagan Fitzgerald announced on the air Sunday that she’s engaged to girlfriend Kelly Heath. . . .”
• Historian David J. Garrow created a firestorm with a May 30 report in the British magazine Standpoint. “Newly-released documents reveal the full extent of the FBI’s surveillance of the civil rights leader Dr Martin Luther King in the mid-1960s,” Garrow wrote. “They expose in graphic detail the FBI’s intense focus on King’s extensive extramarital sexual relationships with dozens of women, and also his presence in a Washington hotel room when a friend, a Baptist minister, allegedly raped one of his ‘parishioners’, while King ‘looked on, laughed and offered advice’. The FBI’s tape recording of that criminal assault still exists today, resting under court seal in a National Archives vault. . . .”
• “Driving while black in Missouri is becoming an even more perilous proposition,” the Kansas City Star editorialized Friday.”Two years after the NAACP issued a travel advisory warning black motorists of the potential problems with traveling through Missouri, a new report finds that in 2018, black drivers in Missouri were 91% more likely to be pulled over than white motorists. Our state has long had an abysmal record on racial disparities in vehicle stops, but Missouri keeps finding ways to regress further, the latest annual report released by Attorney General Eric Schmitt’s office shows. . . .”
• “On Tuesday ESPN announced it is shutting down its ESPN Deportes radio business on Sept. 8, and 10 full-time and 25 part-time employees will be let go,” Radio Ink reported Tuesday. “ESPN will close Deportes Radio’s Coral Gables, Fla., offices; some of its N.Y.-based sales employees also will be affected. . . .” ESPN said in a statement, “It’s no secret Hispanic fans skew heavily on digital and social which is why we made the decision to discontinue ESPN Deportes terrestrial radio in September. . . .”

• 

  “The Wall Street Journal has hired Talal Ansari to cover U.S. news,” Chris Roush reported Tuesday for Talking Biz News. “Ansari has been at BuzzFeed since January 2015 as a national general assignment reporter with a daily beat focus on the Muslim American experience and proliferation of hate crimes in the U.S. . . .”

• “The headlines have been disturbing: Two black Dallas women, killed within a mile of each other in less than two weeks,” the Dallas Morning News editorialized Monday. “One of them had been brutally attacked by a mob a month before. Last month, another was stabbed several times and left for dead.”That these were transgender women in some ways is not what matters most. They were vulnerable citizens of our community and their deaths should outrage us all. . . .”

• “When she was about to graduate from college, Elaine Welteroth came up with a life plan: She’d hit the top of a magazine masthead, then move into TV, books, film and beyond,” Leanne Italie reported Tuesday for the Associated Press. “She wasn’t messing around. The 32-year-old is way ahead of schedule after making firsts at Teen Vogue, both as beauty-health director and top editor, and then checking off ‘book’ on Tuesday with the release of her memoir, ‘More Than Enough.’ . . .” Interview with Zora
• “The Supreme Court will hear case that could make it more difficult to bring a race discrimination challenge,” Ariane de Vogue reported Monday for CNN. “The case concerns a dispute between Entertainment Studios Network, an African American-owned media company that owns and operates television, against Comcast and Charter Communications. Entertainment Studios owns several networks that it wants to have carried on Comcast and Charter cable system. The companies ultimately declined to carry the networks. Entertainment Studios sued claiming race discrimination. . . .” The company is owned by entrepreneur Byron Allen.

  

• The new women’s rights organization UltraViolet “is saluting NBC for the diversity of its choices for moderators of the first Democratic presidential debate (Miami, June 26),” John Eggerton reported for Multichannel News. “The five moderators are Lester Holt, NBC Nightly News, Dateline NBC; Savannah Guthrie, Today; Chuck Todd, Meet the Press; Rachel Maddow, MSNBC; and José Diaz-Balart, Noticias Telemundo and NBC Nightly News Saturday. . . .”
• “Jeffrey Goldberg, Editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, was raked across the coals on Thursday [over] comments he made in an interview that white men are the only writers who produce extensive cover stories,” Ken Meyer reported June 6 for Mediaite. “After an initial backlash Goldberg took to Twitter to clarify his comments. . . .” National Association of Black Journalists response
• “The slaying of a radio reporter in Haiti has prompted media organizations to renew demands that police protect them and give them space to work, as attacks on journalists in the country escalate,” the Associated Press reported Tuesday. “An unidentified gunman shot journalist Rospide Petion as he drove home late Monday in a car owned by Radio Sans Fin. The 45-year-old reporter had just finished a radio program in which he talked about corruption allegations against the administration of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse. . . .”
• “Nicaraguan authorities on Tuesday freed 56 people detained during a harsh crackdown on dissent last year, including leaders of a wave of anti-government protests and independent journalists,” Ismael Lopez Ocampo and Mary Beth Sheridan reported for the Washington Post. “The move was perhaps the most important in a series of releases of people considered political prisoners by the opposition.” The government of  President Daniel Ortega “has come under increasing international pressure, with the Trump administration steadily ratcheting up sanctions on his aides and family members. The European Parliament has also called for targeted sanctions on Nicaraguan authorities. . . .” The Committee to Protect Journalists said it welcomed the release of Miguel Mora and Lucía Pineda Ubau, the director and news director of independent digital and cable news channel 100% Noticias.
• “Reporters Without Borders (RSF), along with 73 other NGOs, urges Hong Kong to abandon the bill that would allow China to extradite journalists and their sources,” the press freedom organization reported Tuesday. “In a letter sent on June 6th to Carrie Lam, Chief Executive of Hong Kong, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and a coalition of 73 NGOs call for Hong Kong to immediately withdraw the extradition bill. . . .”
• “In its report on press freedoms in Western Sahara, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) sheds light on a territory cut off from the rest of the world, a veritable news black hole that has become a no-go zone for journalists,” the press freedom group said Tuesday about what has been called “Africa’s last colony,” occupied by Morocco. RSF also said, “The silence enveloping the area stems principally from the constant persecution and repression of Sahrawi journalists who endeavor to practice their profession outside official Moroccan channels, but also from the fact that it is impossible for foreign journalists to work there. . . .”
• “The U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists has called on Nigerian authorities to “investigate and hold accountable the police officers” who allegedly beat and threatened journalist Kofi Bartels,” the Voice of America reported June 6. “CPJ said Bartels told the committee that on Tuesday he was beaten and arrested for trying to film several officers who he said were beating a young boy. . . .”
• “For the first time in one month, Venezuelan journalists forced their way into the building that houses the country’s National Assembly and called on the military to allow the press to cover upcoming sessions,” Teresa Mioli reported June 4 for the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas. “Journalists have been unable to enter the Federal Legislative Palace since April 30, when opposition leader and self-declared President Juan Guaidó — who has the support of the U.S. and other nations — called for a military uprising to force President Nicolás Maduro from power, according to the Associated Press. . . .”
• “Kenyan authorities should thoroughly investigate the attack on a Kenya Television Network news team at a Machakos county high school and hold the perpetrators to account,” the Committee to Protect Journalists said June 5. “On June 3, a group of students at St. Steven’s Girls High School, a boarding school in Machakos county, and their principal attacked a team of journalists with the privately owned Kenya Television Network, according to news reports and two journalists from the network, who spoke with CPJ. Students kicked, punched, and threw stones at reporter Carolyne Bii, driver Immaculate Joseph, and cameraman Bonface Kirera Magana, and their principal injured Magana with a rock, Bii told CPJ. . . . .Following the attack, police arrested the school’s principal, John Musyoki Kyalo, and charged him with assaulting Magana, committing malicious damage to property, arson, and inciting violence. . . .”

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View previous columns (after Feb. 13, 2016).

• Diversity’s Greatest Hits, 2018 (Jan. 4, 2019)
• Book Notes: Is Taking a Knee Really All That? (Dec. 20, 2018)
• Book Notes: Challenging ’45’ and Proudly Telling the Story (Dec. 18, 2018)
• Book Notes: Get Down With the Legends! (Dec. 11, 2018)
• Journalist Richard Prince w/Joe Madison (Sirius XM, April 18, 2018) (podcast)
• Richard Prince (journalist) (Wikipedia entry)
• February 2018 Podcast: Richard “Dick” Prince on the need for newsroom diversity (Gabriel Greschler, Student Press Law Center, Feb. 26, 2018)
• Diversity’s Greatest Hits, 2017 — Where Will They Take Us in the Year Ahead?
• Book Notes: Best Sellers, Uncovered Treasures, Overlooked History (Dec. 19, 2017)
• An advocate for diversity in the media is still pressing for representation, (Courtland Milloy, Washington Post, Nov. 28, 2017)
• Morgan Global Journalism Review: Journal-isms Journeys On (Aug. 31, 2017)
• Diversity’s Greatest Hits, 2016
• Book Notes: 16 Writers Dish About ‘Chelle,’ the First Lady
• Book Notes: From Coretta to Barack, and in Search of the Godfather
• Journal-isms’ Richard Prince Wants Your Ideas (FishbowlDC, Feb. 26, 2016)
• “JOURNAL-ISMS” IS LATEST TO BEAR BRUNT OF INDUSTRY’S ECONOMIC WOES (Feb. 19, 2016)
• Richard Prince with Charlayne Hunter-Gault,“PBS NewsHour,” “What stagnant diversity means for America’s newsrooms” (Dec. 15, 2015)
• Book Notes: Journalists Follow Their Passions
• Book Notes: Journalists Who Rocked Their World
• Book Notes: Hands Up! Read This!
• Book Notes: New Cosby Bio Looks Like a Best-Seller
• Journo-diversity advocate turns attention to Ezra Klein project (Erik Wemple, Washington Post, March 5, 2014)

Columns below from the Maynard Institute are not currently available but are scheduled to be restored soon on journal-isms.com.

• Book Notes: “Love, Peace and Soul!” And More
• Book Notes: Book Notes: Soothing the Senses, Shocking the Conscience
• Diversity’s Greatest Hits, 2015
• Diversity’s Greatest Hits, 2014
• Diversity’s Greatest Hits, 2013
• Diversity’s Greatest Hits, 2012
• Diversity’s Greatest Hits, 2011
• Diversity’s Greatest Hits, 2010
• Diversity’s Greatest Hits, 2009
• Diversity’s Greatest Hits, 2008
• Book Notes: Books to Ring In the New Year
• Book Notes: In-Your-Face Holiday Reads
• Fishbowl Interview With the Fresh Prince of D.C. (Oct. 26, 2012)
• NABJ to Honor Columnist Richard Prince With Ida B. Wells Award (Oct. 11, 2012)
• So What Do You Do, Richard Prince, Columnist for the Maynard Institute? (Richard Horgan, FishbowlLA, Aug. 22, 2012)
• Book Notes: Who Am I? What’s Race Got to Do With It?: Journalists Explore Identity
• Book Notes: Catching Up With Books for the Fall
• Richard Prince Helps Journalists Set High Bar (Jackie Jones, BlackAmericaWeb.com, 2011)
• Book Notes: 10 Ways to Turn Pages This Summer
• Book Notes: 7 for Serious Spring Reading
• Book Notes: 7 Candidates for the Journalist’s Library
• Book Notes: 9 That Add Heft to the Bookshelf
• Five Minutes With Richard Prince (Newspaper Association of America, 2005)
• ‘Journal-isms’ That Engage and Inform Diverse Audiences (Q&A with Mallary Jean Tenore, Poynter Institute, 2008)Chrissie Gale, Jennifer Davidson and Nigel Cantwell, the Conversation: Child migrants around the world are being denied their human rights