Articles Feature

Trotter Retires After Speaking ‘Truth to Power’

by richard0843

Sportswriter Cites ‘Personal,’ ‘Professional Factors’
NABJ Leaders Begin to Talk About Anti-DEI Gains
NABJ Board Votes to Lower-Case ‘White,’ ‘Brown’
Writers Note Racial Factors in Panama Canal Threat
Zuckerberg Continuing a ‘War Against Journalism’

Globally, 54% See Inequality as ‘Very Big Problem’
Bean Pies Make Chicago Tribune Food Pages
The Changes Media Must Make to Cover Trump 2.0
Reporters Urged to Focus on Gun Violence Survivors

‘Bad Bunny Wants to Read You the News’
Authorities Suspend Al Jazeera Yet Again
LGBTQ-Friendly Site to Close, but ‘Black Joy’ to Stay
D.C.’s Derrick Ward Dies, Reported on His Hometown

Short Takes: “Black Journalists Will Figure in Carter’s Legacy” — the conversation; closing of Univision Portland; NPR-Religion News Service partnership; net neutrality setback; Simone Biles; Sia Nyorkor; Bobby Caina Calvan; Angela Pace; Francine Pope Huff; subsidizing photojournalists; Military Veterans in Journalism and NAHJ; Tina Griego and Tracy Jan; Alicia Montgomery; media projects on Black men; “PBS News Hour” on aid to sub-Saharan Africa; cartoonists in jeopardy; danger for press in Latin America.

Homepage photo: Jim Trotter. Credit: The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz

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Jim Trotter accepts the “Journalist of the Year” award on Aug. 5, 2023, at the National Association of Black Journalists convention in Birmingham, Ala. He is flanked by Somara Theodore and DeMarco Morgan, both of ABC News. (Credit: NABJ)

Sportswriter Cites ‘Personal,’ ‘Professional Factors’

Jim Trotter, the award-winning former NFL writer who last fall settled a lawsuit he filed against the football league over racial discrimination, and has been the National Association of Black Journalists’ “Journalist of the Year,” is retiring.

Since May 2023, Trotter was a national columnist for The Athletic. He is also a Bill Nunn Award winner, and Lacy-Smith Award recipient, as well as a lecturer at San Diego State University.

“There’s no back story. Personal and professional factors led me to this decision,” Trotter, 61, messaged Journal-isms on Wednesday, two days after announcing his decision on the BlueSky social media platform. “My plan is to enjoy family and friends and to pursue purpose-driven projects should they arise.”

He told a BlueSky follower, “My only plans are to have no plans. 🙂 “

In addition to his issues with the NFL, Trotter had complained on X, formerly Twitter, about The Athletic’s editing of his Oct. 29 column about what he considered a double standard over San Francisco 49ers defensive end Nick Bosa wearing a white baseball cap with the words “Make America Great Again.”

“Bosa has every right to support whomever he chooses,” Trotter wrote. “As the saying goes, it’s a free country. But the display — and the intentionality behind it — was curious considering the NFL has gone to great lengths over the last eight years to stop players from making political expressions at games.

“In 2018, two years after Colin Kaepernick first protested police brutality against Black and Brown people by silently taking a knee during the national anthem, the league modified its pregame policy. In a vote that received 30 yeas and two abstentions, the owners required players to stand during ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ or remain in the locker room until its conclusion.” (Photo at Journal-isms Roundtable, October 2024, by Jeanine L. Cummins)

After publication, Trotter tweeted, “Full disclosure, this is the watered-down version of the original column. I was not allowed to properly, IMO, contextualize the significance and consequence of the moment because, I was told, I’d be in violation of The [Athletic’s] journalistic standards regarding sports and political commentary,” according to Awful Announcing.

Bosa eventually was fined $11,255 for violating NFL uniform rules — wearing a hat that contained a personal message, writer Ken Stone told readers in November.

Stone then asked, “Is Trotter worried he’ll be muzzled by The Athletic on future stories?

“ ‘I think there’s always a concern about that, as an opinion writer,’ he told me. ‘It can be a delicate dance … between writer and editor or writer and, you know, organizational policies.’ ”

Stone also wrote, “But he concedes: ‘Every paper and website I’ve ever worked at has had some considerations beyond my control that I couldn’t do what I wanted to do.’ ”

The NFL settled a lawsuit with Trotter on Oct. 9, just over a year after the journalist, then a reporter for the NFL Network whose contract was not renewed, sued the league. Trotter said the contract was not renewed because he repeatedly spoke out about pro football’s lack of diversity at the league office, among its coaches and within its media arm.”

In exchange for the settlement, the NFL pledged financial support for a scholarship foundation for journalism students at historically Black colleges and universities.

Terms of the settlement were not publicly disclosed.

Jim Trotter posted this photo on BlueSky Jan. 6, writing, “No better way to spend the first full day of retirement.”

Trotter’s lawsuit said NFL Media did not have a single Black person in a managerial position or on its news desk.

After the settlement was announced, Trotter told the Oct. 29 Journal-isms Roundtable that he was disappointed in the lack of support from some African Americans in the NFL, leading to a larger question for some about the state of Black solidarity.

But fellow Black sportswriter Mike Freeman wrote then for USA Today, “Trotter’s story may not get the most attention or clicks but it still is important and historic. Trotter’s goal was to bring attention to the NFL Network newsroom that he says lacked people of color as key decision-makers in a space where the majority of players are people of color.

“The reason Trotter’s actions hit a lot of Black journalists directly in the heart is because many newsrooms have this issue. Trotter’s case is a proxy for a number of people who have battled this problem. He’s been a beacon, fighting the good fight.”

Stone’s profile of Trotter ran in the Times of San Diego, the city where Trotter lives and spent 18 years at the Union-Tribune. It was headlined, “Ethical Prodigy: Ex-U-T Reporter Spoke Truth to Power Decades Before NFL Suit.”

“For the past 10 years, the annual Black history campaign has been a part of McDonald’s during February,” the New York Amsterdam News reported in 2013. “Faces of Black History was created to salute and honor Black history makers throughout the community and the country, from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks to present-day heroes.” (Credit: New York Amsterdam News)

NABJ Leaders Begin to Talk About Anti-DEI Gains

As Meta, Amazon and McDonald’s announced they are dropping or altering their diversity, equity and inclusion programs, leaders of the National Association of Black Journalists disclosed at their board meeting Saturday that they had been asking companies their stances on the issue.

Former NABJ President Barbara Ciara met with a staff member of the Federal Communications Commission and President Ken Lemon spoke with with ABC executives, who assured him they are still committed to diversity and will keep the network’s race and culture unit. Lemon said NABJ also plans to meet leaders of the Wall Street Journal, in light of the departure of Brent W. Jones last fall from the company and the Journal masthead.

Among other achievements, Jones (pictured) introduced talent diversity partnerships for the Journal and expanded Dow Jones’ HBCU Media Collective program his team launched in 2023 for Barron’s and MarketWatch to provide global exposure at five News Corp properties in the United Kingdom, the company said in November as it announced Jones’ departure. Jones was masthead editor for culture, training and outreach. Others of color followed Jones’ exit.

At NABJ’s summer and fall board meetings, Rodney Brooks, finance chair, warned the board that the forces against diversity, equity and inclusion would continue to make gains that would escalate should the Republicans win the presidency. However, the withdrawal of some corporate DEI programs had not yet affected NABJ, he said then.

While Brooks’ statements were not met with much response, NABJ treasurer Jasmine Styles did say at an August membership meeting that budget projections were conservative because of possibilities that anti-DEI forces would threaten contributions. “We keep our numbers low,” Styles told Journal-isms at the time.

The anti-diversity forces have only gained steam since then. “Even McDonald’s!” exclaimed Executive Director Drew Berry in his presentation.

“McDonald’s said Monday it will retire specific goals for achieving diversity at senior leadership levels,” Dee-Ann Durbin reported for the Associated Press. “It also intends to end a program that encourages its suppliers to develop diversity training and to increase the number of minority group members represented within their own leadership ranks.”

NABJ did not respond to a question about how much support it gets from McDonald’s, but other groups did.

Adam K. Pawlus, executive director of NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ Journalists, and Francine Compton, associate director of the Indigenous Journalists Association, said their organizations had not received support from the fast-food restaurant company.

Yaneth Guillen-Diaz, executive director of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, said, .”We have not received any support from McDonald’s in the last few years, so I do not anticipate any financial changes on our end,.

At the Asian American Journalists Association, Ai Uchida, chief operating officer, said, “McDonald’s supported us in 2023 as well as in 2022. We did not receive their support in 2024. We welcome opportunities to work with them again and our door is always open.”

McDonald’s was listed as a sponsor of the 2017 NABJ convention in New Orleans.

For years during Black History Month In the New York City tri-state area, McDonald’s honored several local journalists for their contributions to radio, print and television journalism. “This year is the eighth anniversary” of the ceremony, “and McDonald’s honored 13 Black media legends and trailblazers who have had an impact on the community through their achievements and positive examples,” the New York Amsterdam News reported in 2015.

Although NABJ has not responded to questions about how much support it has more currently received from McDonald’s, Lemon (pictured) described his meetings with media managers.

“The meetings with media managers have been helpful. Managers tell me presidential election years are usually a big year for revenue,” Lemon messaged. “That didn’t happen in 2024, and they said the year after is usually a slow year for revenue. They told me candidates spent less in traditional media.

“Some media groups have already had layoffs and cut hiring of nonessential jobs.

“They say cuts can depend on several factors, some of which may not be controllable, but they shared a few general suggestions.

“Managers place more value on journalists who are great at enterprising stories, seek professional development and training and see the benefit in line workers who can manage others.

“As a result we are working on training that includes certification where possible, explores management opportunities, and looks at enterprising news.

“We will continue meetings with managers as a regular function to learn more. I will do that individually and in group meetings with board members. I hope it wall also build relationships between managers and board members.”

The National Association of Black Journalists prepared this trailer for a documentary about the organization for its 50th anniversary this year. Leaders hope to enter the finished product in film festivals. It’s “not going to be warts and all,” co-founder Allison Davis said.(Credit: YouTube)

NABJ Board Votes to Lower-Case ‘White,’ ‘Brown’

With little discussion, the board of directors of the National Association of Black Journalists voted unanimously Saturday that its style guide should not recommend capitalizing “white” and “brown” when referring to race or ethnicity.

The organization did not respond to a request for an explanation of its rationale. It has been on both sides of the issue. On June 11, 2020, NABJ recommended that “whenever a color is used to appropriately describe race then it should be capitalized, including White and Brown.”

However, the New York Times took the opposite position that same year as it adopted a capital “B” for “Black.” “We will retain lowercase treatment for ‘white.’ While there is an obvious question of parallelism, there has been no comparable movement toward widespread adoption of a new style for ‘white,’ and there is less of a sense that ‘white’ describes a shared culture and history. Moreover, hate groups and white supremacists have long favored the uppercase style, which in itself is reason to avoid it.

“The term ‘brown’ as a racial or ethnic description should also generally remain lowercase and should be used with care. ‘Brown’ has been used to describe such a disparate range of people — Latin, Indigenous, Asian, Middle Eastern — that the meaning is often unclear to readers. A more specific description is generally best.”

The Washington Post does capitalize “White.” It said the same year — amid the 2020 “racial reckoning” after the police murder of George Floyd:

“Stories involving race show that White also represents a distinct cultural identity in the United States. In American history, many White Europeans who entered the country during times of mass migration were the targets of racial and ethnic discrimination. These diverse ethnicities were eventually assimilated into the collective group that has had its own cultural and historical impact on the nation. As such, White should be represented with a capital W.

“In accordance with our style change, people who do not want to be recognized as a color also have the choice of representing themselves by their cultural background, as they currently do, identifying as German American, Irish American, Italian American or other representations of national heritage.

“Separately, we will limit the uppercase version of the racial categorization Brown to direct quotations and use it sparingly in other instances. Although the term has gained general acceptance, the designation is seen by many as a catchall to describe people of color of vastly diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds who are not Black.”

“Accidents and diseases took the lives of 5,000 workers, mostly Black Caribbean migrants,” notes this video from Alex Gendler, “Demolition, disease, and death: Building the Panama Canal.” (Credit: YouTube)

Writers Note Racial Factors in Panama Canal Threat

“Donald Trump’s recent remarks about reclaiming control of the Panama Canal disregard international law and undermine the legacy of the Black Caribbean workers who built it,” Janvieve Williams Comrie and Amicar Priestley wrote Jan. 3 in the New York Amsterdam News, part of the Black press. “His statements come at a critical moment as Panama is led by President José Raúl Mulino, whose right-wing administration has already displayed an alignment with neoliberal and foreign business interests, raising serious concerns about how the nation will respond to Trump’s threats.

“The Panama Canal, constructed through the backbreaking and often deadly labor of mostly Black workers, primarily from the Caribbean — not the U.S., as Trump falsely stated, is a global symbol of resilience and sacrifice. For decades, their contributions were overlooked, even as the Torrijos-Carter Treaties of 1977 eventually secured Panama’s sovereignty over the canal in 1999. . . .”

The comments by the activists are not the only ones referencing the racial and colonialist overtones of Trump’s threats, Writers in the U.S, and in Panama have weighed in.

In the Washington Post, columnist Petula Dvorak reminded readers Dec. 26, “The social and racial divide along the Panama Canal Zone in its American heyday was stark: a silver and gold, segregated system of pay — and life.”

In Panama’s La Prensa, Alvaro Lasso Lokee, who describes himself as “simply a Panamanian citizen, proud of his land,” wrote Wednesday:

“It would seem that a broader objective is being pursued: to exert control in a dispute against an economic rival that has grown unexpectedly,” referring to China. “This confrontation reflects the internal dealings of global powers and has no connection to Panamanian interests. Regrettably, they are now involving us and seeking to blame us for other people’s mistakes.

“Questioning the Canal tariffs and demanding their reduction contradicts the principles of ‘free trade,’ a pillar of liberal economies. In addition, the central figure in this controversy has a history of tax evasion, labor abuse, and derogatory comments toward citizens of Hispanic origin.

“Although he presents himself as a leader of conservative nationalists, he also displays affinity with racist groups. Curiously, he avoids referring to dictatorships such as those in Nicaragua, Venezuela, or Cuba, the largest regional migration hotbeds. These omissions raise suspicions and suggest a veiled interest in destabilizing democracies, as he attempted to do in January 2020. . . .”

In a video, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg asserts that amid the debates around the harms from online content, “governments and legacy media have pushed to censor more and more.” (Credit: YouTube)

Zuckerberg Continuing a ‘War Against Journalism’

“Mark Zuckerberg’s recent statements, in which he openly brands journalism and fact-checkers as ‘biased,’ are just the culmination of a long war of attrition against journalism on Facebook,” Thibaut Bruttin, director general of the Paris-based global press freedom group Reporters Without Borders, said Friday.

Bruttin spoke after “Meta Platforms Inc. announced Tuesday it is making major changes to its content moderation policies, eliminating its fact-checking program and bringing more political conversations back to feeds on Facebook and Instagram, as part of a bid by CEO Mark Zuckerberg to ‘restore free expression’ on its platform,” as Alex Weprin reported for the Hollywood Reporter.

Bruttin continued, “Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has looked back at a decade of actions by Meta undermining professional journalism and access to reliable information, and in ten key points, the organization highlights how the social media giant has gradually built a technical, economic and political architecture hostile to quality journalism.”

Clayton Weimers, the U.S. director of the press freedom group, also addressed the issue in December at a Journal-isms Roundtable. He messaged Journal-isms Thursday, “Facebook’s fact-checking always had a lot of problems but just giving up on the concept of moderation is worse.

“Elon Musk set off a race to the bottom for disinformation on social media sites and Zuckerberg is chasing after him. The central problem is that these sites are still fundamentally a black hole. Users can’t know how or why information is reaching them because the algorithms are secret. RSF’s position is that for these sites to live up to being the digital town squares they claim to be, they need independent, transparent, and democratic guardrails.”

Weimers also said, “Tangentially related, we also have a technical solution for newsrooms, the Journalism Trust initiative, which offers an ISO [International Organization for Standardization] for trustworthy journalism. If it wanted to, Meta could just plug JTI into their algorithm to automatically boost content from trusted journalistic sources and correct for the competitive advantage that fake news and disinformation currently enjoy.”

Camille Grenier, executive director of RSF’s Paris-based sister organization, the Forum Information & Democracy, messaged Journal-isms, “Since 2019, we’ve been calling on States to act so that we don’t end up in this kind of situation. Right now we are monitoring what the video from Zuckerberg will mean for countries outside of the US and how we can promote a democratic information space based on . . . principles we established back in 2018.”

  • Oliver Darcy on “The Saturday Show” with Jonathan Capehart, MSNBC: On Mark Zuckerberg (video, via Threads)

Globally, 54% See Inequality as ‘Very Big Problem’

“In our 36-country survey, we asked respondents how large a problem various types of inequality are in their nation, including the gap between the rich and the poor, unequal rights for men and women, discrimination based on a person’s race or ethnicity, and discrimination based on a person’s religion,” Richard Wike, Moira Fagan, Christine Huang, Laura Clancy and Jordan Lippert reported Thursday for the Pew Research Center.

In addition, across “the countries surveyed, a median of 34% of adults say racial or ethnic discrimination is a very big problem where they live. Another 34% consider it a moderately big problem.

“Concerns are especially high in the sub-Saharan African and Latin American countries surveyed, as well as in Turkey and in the Asia-Pacific nations of Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka. . . .”

The researchers listed these “key takeaways“:

  • “A median of 54% across the countries surveyed say the gap between the rich and the poor is a very big problem. Smaller median shares say the same about the other types of inequality.
  • “In general, people in middle-income countries are more likely than those in high-income countries to see each form of inequality as a very big problem where they live.
  • In some countries, people on the ideological left are especially likely to see economic inequality, gender inequality, and racial and ethnic discrimination as very big problems when compared with those on the right.

Among the U.S. institutions that have sought to make inequality a priority are the financially troubled Center for Public Integrity, an investigative newsroom that adopted “investigating inequality” as its mission; and the Ford Foundation, which has a journalism component.

Yahya Muhammad, owner of Shawn Michelle’s Homemade Ice Cream parlor in Chicago, at his shop. The parlor offers two Bean Pie ice cream flavors. (Credit: Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune)

Bean Pies Make Chicago Tribune Food Pages

“In Black communities around America, the bean pie is a symbol of the varied Muslim communities that emerged from the Nation of Islam’s nearly 100-year history in the United States,” Ahmed Ali Akbar wrote Wednesday for the Chicago Tribune.

“For many, the dessert stands for Black pride and healthy eating. Much of its fame comes from charismatic street vendors such as [James] 40X, who spread the teachings of the late Minister Elijah Muhammad on city corners and at markets and fairs; those teachings include that the navy bean is a kind of superfood.

“In conversations with Black elders, community historians, restaurateurs, religious leaders, academics and one bean pie man in a suit and bow tie, I’ve learned a small part of how the South Side of Chicago holds the keys to the complex, core histories encoded within the bean pie. Despite unusually good access to the Nation of Islam and local community historians, much of the history was still difficult to verify. But it’s clear Chicago has some of the best claims to being the historic capital of the bean pie in the United States. . . .”

Akbar (pictured), a Pakistani-American born in Saginaw, Mich. He is a food reporter with a master’s degree in Islamic studies from Harvard Divinity School, and has been in Chicago only since last February.

Akbar formerly worked at BuzzFeed, and as a freelancer, won James Beard food writing awards for a 2021 piece, “Inside the Secretive, Semi-Illicit, High Stakes World of WhatsApp Mango Importing,” for eater.com.

Akbar’s Tribune story is not the first to have been written about bean pies, but at 2,600 words, it is one of the lengthiest and an example of approaching food writing as cultural reporting. It is also an example of diversity at a newspaper not especially recognized for that quality.

“I know hilal food,” Akbar told Journal-isms, referring to food that is “lawful” in Islamic teachings. “The media don’t focus on hilal food.” He said he was inspired to report this particular piece when he learned of Shawn Michelle’s Homemade Ice Cream parlor on the South Side of Chicago and in Olympia, Ill., in the southern suburbs. The parlors now offer two Bean Pie ice cream flavors.

His editors were supportive, Akbar said. They told him, “Do what you’re good at.”

Akbar followed that advice.

Boyle Heights Beat community reporter Alex Medina interviews a local resident about the re-opening of the 6th Street Bridge in Los Angeles. Kevin Merida cites Boyle Heights Beat as an example of a community organization joining forces with others. (LA Local News Initiative)

The Changes Media Must Make to Cover Trump 2.0

Here’s “what I’m most passionate about,” said Kevin Merida (pictured, below) former executive editor of the Los Angeles Times. “We need to get a better handle on our country. Our understanding of our fellow citizens is not sophisticated enough. We need to be more reportorially entrenched in our communities, including by talking to people who don’t have a relationship with the media or perhaps any institution.

“I suggest turbocharging what is taking place increasingly in our profession: partnership reporting. We’ll be more effective if we collaborate more and compete less — whether that is community news organizations joining forces, as we’re doing in Los Angeles with a new nonprofit initiative, or national outlets teaming up with local, regional and even college news organizations, as places like ProPublica and the New York Times have done.”

Merida was one of 10 “top journalists” asked by Jeremy Barr of the Washington Post, “How should the news industry cover Trump?”

Merida also said, “We need to know more about how Americans of every demographic are living and feeling, in real time, with stories that are deep and compelling — and not drive-by stops at the local barbershop. And if we do that well, it will inform coverage of this next Trump administration and every administration after.”

Don Lemon, former CNN host (pictured), told Barr, “The media must also cover less of what Trump says and more of what he does. Too often journalists let Trump’s latest cruel or bigoted comment rule the news cycle. Too rarely do they dedicate the front page to the radical actions of the man. There will be few guardrails in this second term. As Trump vows to carry out [a large wave of deportations], I pray an insult spat at a press conference doesn’t distract reporters from the work of showing the American people what it looks like to rip Black and Brown families apart.”

Marc Lacey (pictured, by Sharon Farmer/sfphotoworks), a managing editor at the New York Times, said, “We’re going to need thick skin and a clear sense of mission as we report on how the Trump White House governs, oversees the largest economy in the world and guides the country through unforeseen crises. Independence and unflinching accountability are what our audience across the country and around the world expects of us. We intend to deliver. . . .”

Leroy Chapman (pictured), editor-in-chief of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, said, “Beyond politics, this newsroom’s primary mission will be to fully inform Georgians about what the Trump administration means for their daily lives. Candidate Trump promised sweeping change aimed at significantly reducing the power of the federal government to regulate business, education and local and state government.

“Most prominent are Trump’s plans for mass deportation, for demolishing the federal Department of Education, for imposing new tariffs and for reordering tax policy. Just those proposals could significantly impact law enforcement and local government, jobs, Georgia’s ports, the price for goods and our schools at every level.

“We will serve our community and state best by meticulously vetting these policy proposals and weighing the impact, speed and weight of change. We will be clear about the potential benefits and the potential harm and draw straight lines of accountability.”

Other responses were from Brian Williams, former broadcast television host and anchor; David Remnick, editor, the New Yorker; Jill Abramson, former executive editor, New York Times; Brian McGrory, former editor, Boston Globe; Katie Couric, former broadcast television host and anchor; and Sam Feist, chief executive, C-SPAN.

Reporters Urged to Focus on Gun Violence Survivors

“Gun violence coverage often focuses on people killed in shootings. And that’s for good reason — more than 48,000 Americans are shot and killed each year, according to recent research,” Kaitlin Washburn wrote Dec. 27 for the Association of Health Care Journalists.

“However, only focusing on fatalities misses a big part of the problem. A majority of people who are shot survive — about 115,000 nonfatal shootings occur each year. Survivors sometimes wrestle with the physical, emotional, and mental impacts of a gunshot wound for the rest of their lives.

“Amplifying the voices of survivors is critical for understanding the full extent of firearm violence. Survivors are left with chronic health problems, both physical issues and mental health disorders. There is also the provider side to this story, which would involve talking with trauma surgeons, emergency room doctors and nurses.

“We recently published a Q&A with two reporters who are investigating what happened to the children and adults who survived a mass shooting earlier this year during the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl celebration.

“Bram Sable-Smith, the Midwest correspondent for KFF Health News, and Peggy Lowe, an investigative reporter focused on public safety at KCUR, reported on the multi-part series. They spent months interviewing the survivors about their experiences coping with the physical and emotional toll of the shooting.

“One of the salient points they made was how survivors feel forgotten and left behind. . . .

“The following advice will leave you with story ideas, tips for approaching and speaking with shooting survivors sources for data and research on nonfatal firearm violence. . . .”

Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, aka Bad Bunny, is second from right. (Credit: Josian Bruno/ Wapa Digital)

‘Bad Bunny Wants to Read You the News’

“Perhaps you no longer watch your local news broadcast every morning, but Bad Bunny would like to change that,” Emily Leibert wrote Tuesday for the Cut.

“On the heels of his sixth studio album, Debí Tirar Más Fotos — a love letter to his homeland of Puerto Rico and its diaspora — the reggaeton star made a surprise appearance on Puerto Rican news channel NotiCentro al Amanecer Tuesday morning. Suited up like a freshly graduated broadcast journalism major, Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio made his debut as an anchorman on the news desk. . . .”

Authorities Suspend Al Jazeera Yet Again

“Israeli authorities have renewed a closure order on Al Jazeera’s office in the occupied West Bank, days after the Palestinian Authority suspended the network’s broadcasts for four months,” Al Jazeera reported Tuesday.

“Israeli soldiers posted an extension order on the entrance of the building housing Al Jazeera’s offices in central Ramallah, a city in the occupied West Bank under Palestinian Authority (PA) control, on Tuesday morning. The document renews the closure starting on December 22 for 45 days.

“According to Al Jazeera’s Arabic channel, the commander of the Israeli army in the occupied West Bank, Avi Balut, said that the order was justified because the office was being used for ‘incitement and support for acts of terrorism’. . . .

“The move followed a decision in May to ban Al Jazeera from broadcasting from Israel. The network’s offices were also closed for 45 days; an order that has been extended several times.

“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has long been at odds with Al Jazeera. Since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza last October, the network has faced repeated attempts to silence its reporting through arrests, imprisonment and attacks on its journalists. . . .”

LGBTQ-Friendly Site to Close, but ‘Black Joy’ to Stay

Reckon News, a website friendly to LGBTQ+ topics, is shutting down, with 11 staffers affected by layoffs, Digiday’s Sarah Shire reported Wednesday on X.

“Reckon was part of @AdvanceLocal and owned by Advance, owners of @CondeNast.”

Despite that shutdown, the Black Joy brand, newsletter, and two associated employees will be moved to New Jersey Advance Media. Black Joy editor Ryan L. Nave (pictured) messaged Journal-isms, “It was the largest Reckon newsletter and has 11.5k Followers on IG and also maintains dedicated TikTok, FB and X accounts. I’m helping move Black Joy to New Jersey, where it’ll be overseen by Ronnie Agnew and his team. I’m not sure what I’m doing next.”

Agnew, general manager of NJ Advance Media, messaged Journal-isms, “Black Joy enjoys a healthy national audience, and the staff is committed to growing the brand’s national footprint.” He said they will not be required to move to New Jersey.

A tribute from Derrick Ward’s colleagues at WRC-TV in Washington. (Credit: YouTube)

D.C.’s Derrick Ward Dies, Reported on His Hometown

“Derrick Ward, a member of the News4 family, died Tuesday following complications from recent cardiac arrest,” Washington’s NBC-owned WRC-TV reported Wednesday. “He was 62.

“A native of the District of Columbia, Ward grew up in Marshall Heights and the H Street Corridor in Northeast. He lived through the 1968 riots and documented his experiences on News4 as part of the station’s 40th anniversary coverage. Ward attended HD Woodson High School and the University of Maryland.

“Ward’s journalism career began in radio. He worked for WPFW, WAMU and WTOP, covering major stories such as the Iran-Contra hearings, the Sept. 11 attack on the Pentagon, and the Washington-area sniper shootings. . . .”

Joel Oxley, president of radio’s WTOP News and Federal News Network, said, “Derrick Ward was truly an outstanding journalist. His passion and dedication shown through every day. But what set him apart was what a great person he was. His warmth and caring were evident at every turn. Everybody liked Derrick. I saw why right away. He’ll be missed tremendously.”

Short Takes

  • A video of a Sirius XM conversation about the Journal-isms column “Black Journalists Will Figure in Carter’s Legacy” has been featured by YouTube, and as a result, had surpassed a surprising 9,700 views Monday morning. Posted Jan. 5 and featured by YouTube on Jan. 8, the conversation took place Jan. 3 on Sirius XM’s “Urban View Mornings,” the successor to “The Joe Madison Show.” Participants were Journal-isms columnist Richard Prince and the day’s co-hosts, Lamont King and Greg Carr, chair of Africana Studies at Howard University. View the video
  • “Univision Portland will have its final newscasts on Tuesday, Dec. 31 after parent company Sinclair decided not to renew its affiliation contract with Univision,” the station announced on New Year’s Eve. “The KUNP channel will become an English-language channel. For 18 years, Univision Portland has been the only verified source of Spanish-language news for Latinos in Oregon and Southwest Washington.” The decision affects “around 500,000 Latinos in Oregon and southeastern Washington, creating a void between local government, regional leaders and the Hispanic community,” the announcement said.
  • “NPR and 11 member stations have teamed up with the nonprofit news organization Religion News Service to boost coverage of religion,” Austin Fuller reported Jan. 6 for Current. “Two grants are helping fund the initiative. NPR is receiving a two-year, $900,000 grant from the Lilly Endowment. Meanwhile, RNS landed an Arthur Vining Davis Foundations grant for $300,000 over two years, according to publisher Deborah Caldwell.” In response to a question, NPR spokesperson isabel Lara said, “we have a diverse team, with member station reporters and RNS colleagues from a variety of racial, ethnic and religious backgrounds. Our stories, and the people we cover, have been intentionally inclusive,” but declined to name the diverse team members.
  • Opponents of net neutrality “won a significant victory when judges on the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Federal Communications Commission didn’t have the right to impose such rules when it did so last year,” Mathew Ingram wrote Thursday for Columbia Journalisms Review. “Now critics say that the death of the rules could allow the internet to become distorted by partisan political and corporate interests. It could also make existing online even more difficult for news publishers and journalism in general. . . .”
  • “American gymnast Simone Biles has added another title to her resume,” ABC News reported Jan. 2. “The 11-time Olympic medalist was named Thursday by Sports llustrated as its 2024 Sportsperson of the Year. The honor comes after a year in which Biles took the 2024 Paris Olympics by storm, adding four new medals to her collection in team, all-around, vault and floor exercise. After her performance in Paris, Biles, 27, is now tied for the second-most decorated female gymnast in Olympic history, according to the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee. . . .”
  • Bobby Caina Calvan (pictured), global news manager at the Associated Press, is joining the Dallas Morning News as the government accountability team’s new deputy editor, editors at the Morning News announced. At the AP, Calvan was “responsible for such things as story scheduling and planning, enforcing journalistic integrity and making sure the AP serves its members. He has extensive experience in statehouse and political reporting, producing watchdog journalism and covering elected officials and institutions of power,” they said. “He previously worked as the collaborations editor for the Center for Investigative Reporting and director of operations for the Fund for Investigative Journalism. Bobby also reported for the Boston Globe and Sacramento Bee. . . .”
  • Francine Pope Huff (pictured), formerly Knight Chair for Student Achievement at Florida A&M University and a bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal, has been promoted to vice president of programs at Solutions Journalism Network. “I joined SJN in 2021 because of the organization’s commitment to leading a global shift in journalism that helps journalists report on how communities are solving problems,” she said on LinkedIn.
  • “CatchLight, a San Francisco-based visual media organization that seeks to provide inclusive, accurate, and locally contextualized information to the public through accessible and high-quality visual journalism . . . will fill the gap in underserved markets to reach local audiences wherever they consume their news by placing full-time photojournalists with salary subsidies in select newsrooms nationwide,” the organization announced Thursday. The initiative is undertaken with Report for America. Fellowship application deadline is Feb. 3.
  • Tina Griego and Tracy Jan (pictured) will join ProPublica as senior editors working with the Local Reporting Network, ProPublica announced Wednesday. Jan becomes one of the latest to leave the Washington Post, where she was a deputy health and science editor, amid its internal turmoil. At the Colorado News Initiative, Griego “helped lead efforts by Black, Latino, Indigenous and Asian American and Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander community members and journalists to improve local news coverage of these groups. . . . Griego will launch the network’s sustainability desk, a new program to support the work of former partner newsrooms and reporters; she starts on Jan. 14. Jan will work with newsrooms on sustained LRN investigative projects; she starts on Jan. 27.”
  • “After months of deliberation and soul-searching, I have decided to step away from leading the audio division at Slate,” Alicia Montgomery (pictured) posted Saturday on LinkedIn. “I’ll end my time as a Slatester on Friday, January 17th. This is a moment of great change and challenge in our profession and our country, and I plan to spend the coming days exploring where I can best serve, in and outside of journalism. . . .” Montgomery has been executive producer, podcasts at Slate and senior supervising editor/producer on “Morning Edition” at NPR, among other roles in public broadcasting.
  • Black men are the focus of at least two media projects this week. On Monday, online and broadcast platforms debut “Road Scholars,” a production of Investigative Media Group, Inc. in association with The WNET Group’s Chasing the Dream initiative. “In 2009, twelve at-risk Black teenage boys traveled the country to interview Black men from all walks of life, hoping the lessons they learned might keep them from the streets. More than 14 years later, they’re coming of age in a changing America, and they want to know how they can avoid becoming another statistic.” In New York, author and journalist Kevin Powell debuts as a film director Wednesday with “When We Free the World,” which he calls “a deep-dive about manhood, featuring 70 male voices of various identities, from teenagers to 90-somethings, 5 generations.” Trailer.

From the series. (Credit: PBS News Hour)

  • Reporters Without Borders paid “tribute to the journalists and cartoonists killed and injured in the terrorist attack on the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo on 7 January 2015 and points out that, ten years later, cartoonists and their journalistic freedom still need protecting.” It listed “20 emblematic cases from the past ten years, ranging from imprisonment for ‘state subversion’ in China to intimidation in Nicaragua and contempt of court charges in India, highlight the scale of the threats and harassment to which media satirists are subjected throughout the world. . . .”
  • “In a year when an incredibly high number of journalists lost their lives in conflict zones – Gaza in particular – Latin American countries still continue to land on lists of the most lethal places for the press,” Teresa Mioli reported Dec. 18 for LatAm Journalism Review. “Mexico is on RSF’s list of the top three most dangerous countries and territories for journalists this year, with at least five journalists killed there. In Colombia, RSF reports the killings of at least two journalists, which ranks the country sixth on the organization’s list. And in Honduras, at least one journalist was killed for his work. . . .”

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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@groups.io

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