Disputes Account of Meeting in Woman’s Apartment
Don Lemon Says He Was Sexually Harassed at CNN
John Johnson, Miss. News Director, Dies at 77
From March 17:
How Much Did Apartheid Shape Elon Musk?:
Views, Actions on Race Make for Open Question
Trump-Targeted Voice of America Increased Diversity
Use of DEI Phrase Drops 60% Among Top Companies
NABJ Strategy: Circumvent Anti-DEI Backlash
Atlanta NABJ Members Impeach Their Officers
Black Press Called Mirror, Movement, Refuge
K.C. Startup Claims Role in City Manager’s Suspension
Film on Media Greed to Be Streamed for Free
Short Takes: Kimberly R. Moffitt; Columbia J-School and Mahmoud Khalil; Sean Combs; Walt Elder; “Journalistic History of Asian Pacific America“; interviewing an Afro-Ukrainian; Kurt Bardella and Stephen A. Smith; Craig Newmark J-School’s AI Community Engagement Lab; Geri Alumit Zeldes and Jarrad Henderson.
Support Journal-ismsDonations are tax-deductible.
Wesley Lowery told The Washington Post he “left her apartment when she asked,“and “he denied saying he would feel ‘used’ if he wasn’t invited into her apartment,” the Post reported. (Credit: Jeff Watts/American University )
Disputes Account of Meeting in Woman’s Apartment
Wesley Lowery, who resigned from American University last week after allegations that he made inappropriate comments to students, also was accused of making “unwanted sexual advances and actions toward journalists, according to interviews and records reviewed by the Washington Post,” Will Sommer reported late Monday for The Post.
Since the Columbia Journalism Review last Wednesday provided more details about Lowery’s resignation as top editor of an investigative workshop and as a tenured associate professor of investigative journalism, Lowery has resigned as co-chair of the National Association of Black Journalists’ 50th anniversary convention, to be held in his hometown of Cleveland.
[NABJ President Ken Lemon said there are no plans to replace Lowery, who was one of three co-chairs, NABJ told Journal-isms Wednesday.].
He likewise left the Allbritton Journalism Institute, where he was a senior instructor, Sommer reported.
Sommer and the Post, former employer of both Sommer and Lowery, had already been working on a story about Lowery, Sommer’s story indicated.
Sommer left this month for the Bulwark. But the 1,693-word story carrying his byline — with a credit to Molly hensley-Clancy as contributer- – said, “Two professors filed five complaints against Lowery on behalf of six women, the records show, including to the university’s Office of Equity and Title IX, which enforces the federal law barring sex-based discrimination and harassment at schools. One student filed her own complaint.
“University officials found that three of the complaints were not potential Title IX violations, records show. A fourth was closed when a student denied the allegations made by one of the professors, according to records reviewed by The Post, and a fifth after the student involved declined to be interviewed. The result of the sixth was unclear.”
It continued, “an interview last week, a day before his exit was announced, Lowery denied the allegations made in the complaints. He said he was only contacted about one of the complaints, after the Title IX office declined to take it up.”I have never been under Title IX investigation,’ he said.
“I’ve got a very clear track record of opening doors for people and never doing anything to close doors on anyone,” he said. “That doesn’t excuse any behavior that makes anyone uncomfortable or causes any harm.”
“Lowery broadly blamed a colleague for ‘attempting to drum up as many complaints as possible, in some cases for the explicit purpose of leaking them to attempt to publicly attack and embarrass me.’
“That colleague, former Post journalist and adjunct professor Cara Kelly, filed her own hostile-work and Title IX complaints last year, accusing Lowery of mistreating students and retaliating against her. Kelly said she was told they did not meet the Title IX office’s standards and does not know what came of her HR complaints.
“Kelly left [the Investigative Reporting Workshop] last summer, saying in her resignation letter that she was ‘increasingly alarmed’ by Lowery’s behavior. In interviews with The Post, she stood by her actions, saying she was trying to protect students and journalists.
“One of the professional journalists mentioned in Kelly’s resignation letter was employed by a small news organization and, in July 2023, began working with IRW staffers to craft a grant application for $175,000 to fund a reporting project, including $50,000 for the journalist.
The National Association of Black Journalists’ 50th anniversary convention takes place in Cleveland Aug. 6-10. Lowery, originally a co-chair, graduated from Shaker Heights High School in 2008. He was its commencement speaker in 2023, and commencement speaker in 2017 at his alma mater Ohio University in Athens. (Credit: NABJ)
“The woman, who is early in her career, spoke with The Post on the condition of anonymity, citing concerns about her career prospects if she spoke out. (The Post does not typically name victims of alleged sexual misconduct unless they asked to be named.) She shared the same account last year with Kelly, who included it in her resignation letter. But the letter did not include the woman’s name, and the woman said she never heard from investigators.
“Though she was friends with Lowery, the woman said she had previously rebuffed his advances and ‘was expecting to be taken seriously.’ But after meeting for dinner and drinks to discuss the project and catch up, the woman said, Lowery insisted that he wanted to enter the woman’s apartment, adding that if she didn’t take him upstairs, he would feel that he was being ‘used’ for the IRW grant money, the woman recalled. She took that to be an offer of a sexual quid pro quo over the future of her reporting contract, meaning that Lowery would cut off the project if she didn’t invite him into her apartment.
“She relented, she said, telling Lowery he could come inside for a brief tour and reiterating that she wasn’t interested in sex. Once inside, she said, Lowery spent several hours propositioning her, trying to kiss her and attempting to take off her clothes, only to be rebuffed each time. He eventually left.
“The woman talked to her boss at her news organization and said they should drop out of the IRW collaboration because she was unable to work with Lowery after the incident — a decision the woman said cost her the tens of thousands of dollars she had counted on from IRW. She and her boss ended the partnership, the woman said, citing work on an unrelated project as an excuse to avoid what she feared could be retaliation from Lowery.
“In an interview, the woman’s boss confirmed that the woman shared her account at the time and that they lied to IRW about why they were ending the collaboration.
“The woman told IRW’s Kelly about the alleged incident last spring. After Kelly summarized the allegations in her resignation letter, Lowery sent the woman an email, which was reviewed by The Post.
“ ‘I just want to say that I never intended to use the prospect of us working together to leverage anything romantic between us,’ he wrote. ‘Given the sometimes romantic nature of our personal relationship, I thought we could balance working together while still figuring things out. Clearly I was wrong, and I screwed up the balance of that. I’m sorry that anything I did or said made you feel that one was contingent on the other.’ . . .
“Lowery told The Post that he disputed the woman’s account of the evening, saying that they kissed consensually before leaving the dinner meeting and that he did not attempt to remove her clothes. He left her apartment when she asked, he said, and he denied saying he would feel ‘used’ if he wasn’t invited into her apartment.
“ ‘It’s clear that [she] experienced that night differently than I thought she had initially, and certainly was different than what I intended,’ Lowery said. ‘But I also understand that my intentions are not the only thing that matters, and impact matters a lot as well.’ . . .”
Don Lemon Says He Was Sexually Harassed at CNN
“
“Joining Bill Maher for his ‘Club Random’ podcast in a nearly two-hour conversation, the journalist said that he never went to HR or management over such instances because he feared ‘they may find a way to get rid of me.’ (Lemon was fired from the network in 2023 amid accusations of misogyny and workplace misconduct.)
“ ‘I have been harassed by women and men in the work[place]. And some things are not even — it’s ridiculous,’ Lemon said. ‘Now look, there are some things that are really egregious, but not everything is Harvey Weinstein-level.’
“That’s when Lemon shared details of encounters with two women he worked with in Atlanta. One involved a ‘young lady’ who comically ‘tweaked my nipples’ in the cafeteria and exclaimed ‘Oh, it’s cold in here!’
“ ‘I said, “OK, you realize if I did that they’d be walking me out the door right now?’ But I didn’t care to go to HR,’ Lemon recalled. ‘I didn’t say anything because I was just like, it’s a double standard, it’s fine.’ . . . .”
“John had the ability to make WTOK feel like home away from home for so many young broadcasters as they got their start in this business,” said current WTOK News Director Lauren Carson. (Credit: WTOK/YouTube)
John Johnson, Miss. News Director, Dies at 77
John Johnson, a retired news director at WTOK-TV in Meridian, Miss., died Monday at a local nursing home “after a lengthy battle with an extended illness,” the station reported. He was 77.
“He was a Meridian legend who worked at WTOK for over 32 years. His last day was December 30, 2016.
“ ‘He had a way to make people feel comfortable and that they mattered,’ said Tim Walker, a former WTOK General Manager. ‘He was just an all-around good person that shaped WTOK’s image in the community and he had an ability to make people feel that they were the most important person in that moment.’
“ ‘I don’t know that there’s anybody who’s had a bigger impact on my adult life than John Johnson,’ were the words of former WTOK News Anchor Wade Phillips. ‘I think back not on stories we did or big events we covered. I think back on the hours and hours that I spent in his office talking about life. He cared about people. He wanted to know about your family and your kids. He cared about that far more than he cared about what the next news story was. I think that’s his legacy. He just cared about people.’ ”
Although Johnson was African American, most accounts of his death did not mention his race and the station was not immune from protests from the local Black community. Meridian is 62.5 percent Black and surrounding Lauderdale County is 45.1 percent Black. The ABC affiliate is owned by Gray Television.
“Protesters spent about two hours Wednesday voicing their disapproval of what they call unfair treatment of African Americans by the media in general and WTOK in particular,” the station reported in June 2016, shortly before his December retirement. “The protest comes in response to Wednesday’s story about a video showing a black teenager who appears to have been beaten, and continuing to be beaten while having racial slurs thrown at him. They say they are upset about the timing of the release of the story. . . .”
Johnson was a 1968 graduate of Rust College in Holly Springs, and a graduate of the University of Iowa with an advanced degree in 1972.
“Johnson has served on several national, state and local boards during his career,” the Meridian Star reported in 2011. “He currently serves on the Board of Trustees at Meridian Community College. He was president of the board in 2010-11. He is also a member of the Community Foundation of East Mississippi and West Alabama. In 2006, he was inducted into the Mississippi Associated Press Broadcasters Hall of Fame, a result of his work leading WTOK-TV’s top rated news department for 26 years, and for his work with Mississippi Public Broadcasting.”
How Much Did Apartheid Shape Elon Musk?
March 17, 2025
Views, Actions on Race Make for Open Question
Trump-Targeted Voice of America Increased Diversity
Use of DEI Phrase Drops 60% Among Top Companies
NABJ Strategy: Circumvent Anti-DEI Backlash
Atlanta NABJ Members Impeach Their Officers
Black Press Called Mirror, Movement, Refuge
K.C. Startup Claims Role in City Manager’s Suspension
Don Lemon Says He Was Sexually Harassed at CNN
John Johnson, Miss. News Director, Dies at 77
Film on Media Greed to Be Streamed for Free
Short Takes: Kimberly R. Moffitt; Columbia J-School and Mahmoud Khalil; Sean Combs; Walt Elder; “Journalistic History of Asian Pacific America“; interviewing Afro-Ukrainian; Kurt Bardella and Stephen A. Smith; Craig Newmark J-School’s AI Community Engagement Lab; Geri Alumit Zeldes and Jarrad Henderson.
Updated March 18.
Support Journal-ismsDonations are tax-deductible.
ELON: THE WOKE MIND VIRUS IS CREATING AN ARTIFICIAL MENTAL CIVIL WAR
“To summarize the woke mind virus, it consists of creating very, very divisive identity politics.
It actually amplifies racism, it amplifies sexism and all the -isms, while claiming to do the opposite.… https://t.co/6DUdc5bdyZ pic.twitter.com/BAUDcczsaO
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) February 26, 2025
(If image is not visible, please consider using another browser.)
Views, Actions on Race Make for Open Question
On Friday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared that South Africa’s ambassador to the United States “is no longer welcome in our great country.“
President Trump and Elon Musk, first buddy, or as some describe him, co-president, have alleged that white farmers in that country are being discriminated against. They cite land reform policies that South Africa’s government says are necessary to remedy the legacy of apartheid.
Meanwhile, Musk’s Tesla car company has faced multiple lawsuits for workplace discrimination during the past decade. Sworn statements from more than 200 Black former employees and contractors have characterized the production floor as a “hotbed for racism.”
Then there are the posts on X that Musk made in January, claiming that efforts to diversify workforces have made air travel less safe. Musk offered no evidence for the claim.
More: Last month, Musk reinstated the staff member who resigned from his quasi-government role after The Wall Street Journal found that he had written posts last year declaring, “I was racist before it was cool” and “normalize Indian hate.”
Some see the Musk-headed DOGE, an effort to reduce the federal workforce, as taking away jobs from a population that is disproportionately people of color and women.
In addition, the dismantling of the Agency for International Development, also orchestrated by Musk, will leave people of color around the world in dire straits and, it is predicted, lead to thousands of deaths.
Musk grew up in apartheid South Africa in an era where “Black Lives Matter” wasn’t yet an article of faith.
Is that a factor in Musk’s views and actions on race?
“He has, for instance, promoted conspiracies of white genocide in South Africa. He also has accused the South African government of promoting racist laws, most notably a requirement that foreign companies operating in South Africa give some ownership to historically disadvantaged groups. So maybe that provides some clarity but it’s still hard to know what to make of his time living in South Africa and how much he is driving Trump’s agenda on the country.”
Eligon and Chutel’s 2022 story provides fodder for whichever side the reader wishes to take.
“Interviews with relatives and former classmates reveal an upbringing in elite, segregated white communities that were littered with anti-Black government propaganda, and detached from the atrocities that white political leaders inflicted on the Black majority,” they wrote.
“Mr. Musk, 50, grew up in the economic hub of Johannesburg, the executive capital of Pretoria and the coastal city of Durban. His suburban communities were largely shrouded in misinformation. Newspapers sometimes arrived on doorsteps with whole sections blacked out, and nightly news bulletins ended with the national anthem and an image of the national flag flapping as the names of white young men who were killed fighting for the government scrolled on the screen. . . .”
“ ‘As far as being sheltered from it, that’s nonsense. They were confronted by it every day,’ recalled Errol, who said he belonged to the anti-apartheid Progressive Party. He added, ‘They didn’t like it.’
“Still, Errol offered a description of their lives that underscored how removed they were from the country’s violent reality. . . . “
Eligon says he is revisitng the issue. “I am very much interested in learning more about Elon’s time in South Africa,” he messaged. “It’s tough reporting because he left such a long time ago and at a relatively young age, so it’s difficult to find people who knew him well when he was growing up here.”
David Vandy interviews Sierra Leonean gospel sensation Gilleh for the Voice of America’ s “African Beat” show. (Credit: Voice of America)
Trump-Targeted Voice of America Increased Diversity
“For more than 80 years, Voice of America transmitted the news into countries, many of them authoritarian, where reliable sources of information about the outside world were often hard to come by,” David Enrich reported Sunday for The New York Times.
“Now those broadcasts — long viewed as an important part of U.S. efforts to promote democracy and transparency overseas — are flickering out.
“Hours after President Trump signed an executive order on Friday calling for the dismantling of the federal agency that oversees Voice of America, hundreds of journalists, executives and other employees at the organization’s headquarters in Washington were informed that they were being put on paid leave. Employees said they quickly lost access to their work email and other communications programs.
The Voice of America presents news to the world from a diverse array of employees — as befits an agency with a global audience.
Zippia Inc., which provides online recruitment services, reports that 59 percent of its employees are female vs. 40 percent male, and that Blacks or African Americans are 16 percent of the workforce; the figure for whites is 51 percent, for Hispanics or Latinos,13. 8 percent.
Glassdoor, a website that in 2020 launched a rating system to hold companies accountable on diversity and inclusion, says “Voice of America has [an] ‘equality, diversity and inclusion’ rating of 3.9 out of 5 stars, based on 37 anonymous employee ratings.”
“Voice of America is one of 145 organizations in 30 countries that participate in a project collecting data about gender representation in the media,” the agency said in 2022.
The coordinator of the “50-50 Project,” Gary Butterworth, noted VOA’s growing percentage of female employees and said then, “Diversity and inclusion might seem like buzzwords, but really, it’s part and parcel of good journalism. So, it’s encouraging to see this catching on around the world.”
Ani Chkhikvadze wrote Monday for the conservative Washington Examiner, “Critics say that VOA leans politically left. Like many newsrooms around the world, this might be partly true as many journalists share leftist politics. But I can attest for a fact that the VOA newsroom has journalists from very diverse backgrounds.
“It includes people who grew up under communism or autocracy, leading them to greatly value American democracy and its founding principles. I can also state for a fact that some VOA journalists are conservative! This diversity helps VOA maintain balanced and honest reporting. It helps consumers of VOA content to believe that what they’re hearing and seeing is objective news and analysis rather than partisan spin.”
- Mithil Aggarwal, NBC News: How a land law sparked Elon Musk’s accusations of ‘genocide’ against his home country (Feb. 10)
- Nicholas Benequista, Center for News, Technology & Innovation: We Just Lost Our Best Chance in a Generation to Expand Media Freedom (Feb. 27)
- Sacha Biazzo, Columbia Journalism Review: Trump’s Tariffs Are Causing Chaos for Newspapers
- Alex Gangitano, The Hill: Trump signs order to dismantle seven federal agencies focused on media, libraries, homelessness
- Ted Johnson, Deadline: Don Lemon Posts Contentious Elon Musk Interview; Billionaire Defends Use Of Ketamine, Says He May Endorse Presidential Candidate “In The Final Stretch” (March 18, 2024)
- Lottie Joiner, the Guardian: ‘There’s quite a similarity’: US civil rights pioneers warn of ‘surge backwards’ under Trump
- Gretel Kahn, Marina Adami and Eduardo Suárez, Reuters Institute: Shattered by a perfect storm: How Trump’s cuts are crippling journalism beyond the United States
- Arthur L. Kellermann, Forbes: Elon Musk Equates DEI With Racism. An ER Doc Offers A Different Take (April 2)
- Michel Martin, NPR: Aid workers in Africa discuss the consequences of U.S. cuts to foreign aid programs
- Tyler Pager, New York Times: Trump Orders Gutting of 7 Agencies, Including Voice of America’s Parent
- David Remnick, New Yorker: Hundreds of Thousands Will Die
- April Ryan, Daily Beast: A Free White House Press Corps is In Peril. I Demand to Meet Trump
- Carmen Sesin, NBC News: Cuban human rights groups worry about shutting down amid lack of U.S. funding
- Frank Sesno, “Amanpour and Company,” YouTube: Trump and the Press: Frank Sesno on the State of Journalism
- Brandon Tensley, Capital B: What Trump’s Cabinet Picks Mean for Black Americans as Hearings Continue (March 4)
- Nora Gámez Torres, Miami Herald: Trump orders the dismantling of Radio and TV Martí, and employees are placed on leave
- Pranshu Verma and Trisha Thadani, Washington Post: Anger at Elon Musk turns violent with molotov cocktails and gunfire at Tesla lots
Use of DEI Phrase Drops 60% Among Top Companies
So far this year the number of companies in the Standard and Poor’s 500 that used the language “diversity, equity and inclusion” in their annual financial filings has fallen by nearly 60 percent from 2024, Emma Goldberg, Aaron Krolik and Lily Boyce reported Thursday for The New York Times.
The S&P 500 is a stock market index tracking the stock performance of 500 of the largest companies listed on U.S. stock exchanges.
“Seventy-eight percent of companies — 297 out of the 381 that have filed their reports so far this year — continue to discuss various diversity and related initiatives, according to the Times analysis, which examined a decade of financial filings known as 10-Ks that public companies submit each year to the Securities and Exchange Commission,” the reporters wrote.
“But many of them have softened or shifted previous language, by removing the word ‘equity,’ for example, or emphasizing ‘belonging’ rather than D.E.I.
“Major corporations began to shy away from taking strong stances on D.E.I. before President Trump re-entered office, but the trend accelerated rapidly after.
“These filings aren’t the only reflection of what companies are doing, or declining to do, to promote diversity, equity and inclusion — but they offer one view of changing stances in the words of the companies themselves. Plenty of language in these filings changes from year to year, though the Times analysis focused specifically on language about D.E.I.
“In some ways, the shift reflects a pattern of companies chasing what seems most socially and politically expedient. After the killing of George Floyd in May 2020 and the Black Lives Matter protests that followed, many companies denounced racial injustice.
“By 2022, over 90 percent of the S&P 500 had language about D.E.I. in their annual filings. . . .”
A teaser for “Beyond the Headlines . . . NABJ Journey,” which has been submitted to 24 film festivals, NABJ co-founder Allison Davis told the board of directors Saturday. (Credit: YouTube)
NABJ Strategy: Circumvent Anti-DEI Backlash
“This anti-DEI stuff is real,” Executive Director Drew Berry told a board meeting of the National Association of Black Journalists Saturday, as leaders outlined a strategy that involved finding ways around the backlash against diversity, equity and inclusion, rather than protesting it.
The board met in Cleveland, site of its 50th anniversary convention this summer, announcing that the three convention hotels are already sold out and raising the possibility that the Aug. 6-10 event might be the association’s most successful. The board was told by David Gilbert, director of tourism-boosting Discover Cleveland, that “You’re going to know you’re feeling welcome” and “our goal is nothing less than having you think this is the best convention you ever had.”
On tap for conventiongoers are an Aug. 6 visit to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and one of the city’s “custom experience tours” Saturday that focuses on the history of Black Cleveland.
NABJ President Ken Lemon said he had spoken to executives at ABC, NBC, Paramount, Politico and the Wall Street Journal about creating pathways to middle management. Berry said national membership stood at 4,568, a quarter of them students, boding well for the future. Lemon and Berry said the organization has yet to see how the anti-DEI movement will affect sales of career fair booths, but almost half are sold. However, some potential sponsors pleaded, “please don’t share information about what we’re doing,” Berry said.
The anti-DEI backlash means the organization must think about “how we have to market ourselves differently and how we write contracts and things like that,” as well as seeking non-media sponsors and multiple revenue streams and burnishing relationships, he added.
Nevertheless, NABJ has $1.7 million in the bank, Berry said.
As part of its “advocacy day,” board members visited local media outlets. They learned that cleveland.com/the Plain Dealer has no Black editors, attributed to low turnover; and urged some outlets to balance negative news with other stories. “Every time you see a news truck,” one community member had said, “it means it’s bad news.” That perception must be reversed, board members said.
Cleveland.com Editor Chris Quinn messaged Journal-isms on Monday, “I did say we don’t get many openings these days but quite recently, when we do, we are finding it easier to field groups of diverse candidates. We have not had diversity in our editor ranks since a staff buyout six years ago, and we hope to find a diverse panel of candidates when our entertainment editor retires in a few months.”
Meanwhile, Bob Butler, a former NABJ president, found enthusiasm from board members for an exchange program with journalists from Sierra Leone.
As for the sold-out hotel rooms, members were urged to continue to check in with the hotels, which receive cancellations.
- Johanna Alonso, Inside Higher Ed: Cultural Residential Communities Under Attack Amid DEI Rollbacks
- Anson Frericks, New York Times: Working at Anheuser-Busch, I Saw What Went Wrong With the D.E.I. Movement
- Journalism and Women Symposium (JAWS): Stands in Strong Support of Continuing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Efforts
- Mya Trujillo, Washington Informer: The Fight for Diversity in U.S. Diplomacy Amid Trump’s DEI Suppression
- Quintessa Williams, Word In Black: Black Students Are the Future of Journalism
A portion of a multipart message to members of the Atlanta Association of Black Journalists posted on Facebook March 7 by Steve Crocker, a television anchor who is regional director of the National Association of Black Journalists. (Credit: Facebook.)
Atlanta NABJ Members Impeach Their Officers
The vote was 53 to replace the board, with one abstention, the confirming member said.
“At this point, I don’t believe President Brown is in a position to provide the necessary clarity on chapter finances to build confidence in the board, while also producing a successful ‘Welcome to Atlanta’ event and preparing the chapter to successfully host next year’s convention,” scheduled for Aug. 12-16, 2026, the Birmingham, Ala., anchor/reporter wrote.
“Thus I recommend he resign, cease doing chapter business and surrender chapter financial records from at least January 2024 to the present.
“I am also asking existing board members to think about what an effective board of directors looks like and either dedicate themselves to becoming that board or finding another way to serve the chapter. Finally, I’m asking you, the members, to step up.”
The new board members, reportedly asked not to discuss the action publicly, did not respond to requests for comment.
Denise Rolark Barnes, publisher of the Washington Informer, told the Metropolitan AME Church congregation, “We serve a God who commands us to speak for those who cannot speak for themselves.” (Credit: Richard Prince)
Black Press Called Mirror, Movement, Refuge
Black journalists in both the Black press and the mainstream media joined Washington churchgoers to celebrate “Black Press Sunday,” with speakers reminding all within earshot of the historic mission of the Black press to speak for those who cannot speak for themselves.
“We are called to be truth tellers, justice seekers, and hope bearers in a world that often seeks to silence us,” said Denise Rolark Barnes, publisher of the Washington Informer, which is celebrating its 60th year.
“Let us recommit ourselves to the calling of the Black press to be bold, to be fearless, and to be unwavering in our mission, whether in print, online or on the airwaves,” she said from the pulpit of the historic Metropolitan AME Church. “Let us continue to shine a light on our mission and uplift the voices that need to be heard. Let us leave here today, reminded that journalism is not a profession. It is a purpose. Just as the Black church has been our refuge and foundation, the Black press will continue to be our mirror, our metaphor and our movement.”
The Rev. William H. Lamar IV urged the congregation to appreciate that today’s Black press represents the “same love that the Black press used from 1870 to 1930, when mothers and fathers and children had not seen each other, when enslavement pulled us apart — you can find the ads in these papers, mothers looking for sons, son looking for father. Their work is rooted in love for us and love for people and we must support them.”
The event — which included a shout-out by Barnes to the watchdog role played by Journal-isms — was co-sponsored by the Washington Association of Black Journalists, the Informer, and the Baltimore Afro-American. Benjamin Chavis, president of the National Newspaper Publishers Association, trade association for the Black press, sat near the pulpit. Members of the day’s congregation ranged from representatives of The Final Call, the Nation of Islam newspaper, to Julia Wilson, dean of Hampton University’s Scripps Howard School of Journalism and Communications.
It followed a Howard University commemoration of Black Press Week, at which “Chavis called for a renewed partnership between the Black Press, Black churches, HBCUs, and Black-owned businesses to proactively plan for the future rather than merely react to oppression. He urged publishers and clergy in every city to organize mass meetings — historic gatherings that have long served as mobilization platforms for Black communities — to discuss progress and collective action,” Stacy M. Brown reported for NNPA.
- Rev. Dorothy S. Boulware, Word In Black: Black Press Sunday: Celebrating 200 Years, Praying for 200 More
K.C. Startup Claims Role in City Manager’s Suspension
As the Kansas City Star reported March 6, Lucas announced that day that Platt was suspended with pay, an action that “comes one day after the former director of communications for the Kansas City government won a whistleblower lawsuit against the city, alleging that Platt demoted him in 2022 because he resisted Platt’s encouragement to lie to the news media. In a letter to Platt shared with members of the media Thursday night, Lucas wrote that the Kansas City Council will make a decision on Platt’s employment status during the council’s March 20 meeting.”
“In reporting this piece, numerous City Hall employees, nonprofit leaders, and even council members spoke candidly off the record, describing a pervasive climate of racism, fear, and intimidation under Platt’s leadership. Yet, many refused to go on record — not because they lacked evidence, but because they feared retribution.”
How did Sorrell know that his report led to the mayor’s action? “I have several sources inside city hall (as well as on the city council) who told me it was a significant contributor to his suspension,” Sorrell messaged Journal-isms. “It is of course impossible to prove the piece single-handedly caused the suspension, but one city council member told me she sent my reporting to the entire council and the mayor and that many people in city hall were sharing it and she believes it was one of the key reasons (in addition to the lawsuit settlement) that Platt was suspended.”
The Pivot Fund, created to support journalism in marginalized communities, championed the Defender’s work. “The Kansas City Defender is proving why independent, community-driven journalism matters. With the support of The Pivot Fund, they continue to break stories, expose corruption, and ensure the public has access to information that empowers them to demand change,” it said Wednesday.
The Defender also won praise in 2022, when it reported that a 22-year-old Black woman had been abducted and tortured for weeks and locked in a basement in a suburb of Kansas City, Mo., while police and mainstream media dismissed Black concerns that a serial killer was targeting Black women and girls.
Film on Media Greed to Be Streamed for Free
In 2012, Greg Moore was leading the Denver Post to what would be Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of a mass shooting inside a Century 16 movie theater in Aurora, Colo., when the hedge fund that owned the Post, Alden Global Capital, told him that profits weren’t sufficient and asked Moore to submit a plan to cut costs.
“I can’t believe that in the middle of covering the biggest story, one of the biggest stories in Colorado history, I’ve got a guy sending me a note asking me to come up with a plan to cut some of the very people who are working on this story,” Moore says in the documentary film, “Stripped for Parts: American Journalism on the Brink.” “I’m just not going to do it.”
Others of color in the film include Jiquanda Johnson of FlintBeat.com in Michigan, Fernando Diaz, editor and publisher of the Chicago Reporter, and Elizabeth Hernandez, reporter for the Denver Post.
As the film points out, hedge funds interested first and foremost in building wealth don’t see communities of color as profit centers that will attract advertisers, hence this much-needed continuing discussion about which media business models can best serve the public interest.
Producer-director Rick Goldsmith, a two-time Academy Award nominee, tells Journal-isms, “We’ll also be having our first national virtual screening on March 29th at 8pm ET/5pm PT in partnership with the Media And Democracy Project — a non-partisan, all-volunteer, grassroots civic membership organization fighting for a more informative and pro-democracy media operating in the public interest.”
A notice says, “The screening will be followed by a discussion with Director Rick Goldsmith and others about the loss of local journalism jobs, its impact on our democracy and actions you can take to FIGHT FOR local journalism. If the film hasn’t made it to your area yet, this is a great opportunity to catch it. Register here.“
- Journal-isms: J-Group Says Hedge-Fund Papers Unwelcome (March 3, 2024)
Short Takes
- “Regina Mayakovska is an Afro-Ukrainian woman who was forced to flee her native Donetsk after Russia invaded in 2014,” Black Diplomats’ Terrell Jermaine Starr posted Feb. 22 on YouTube. Starr “sat with her in Kyiv to discuss how she feels about Trump’s push for a ‘peace’ deal, the debate over the Russian and Ukrainian languages, growing up in Eastern Ukraine, working as a model during war, what it means to be Afro-Ukrainian and what it feels like to live just hours away from a home you may never return to. . . .”
- The AI Community Engagement Lab at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY, developed in partnership with the Center for Community Media and with support from the Walton Family Foundation, on March 6 introduced a “phenomenal group of 18 journalists, editors, publishers, and media leaders. This group will explore how AI can help community newsrooms strengthen audience engagement, build trust, and expand their reach. . . .”
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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@
View previous columns (after Feb. 13, 2016).
View previous columns (before Feb. 13, 2016)
- 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)