Articles Feature

What Else Is Fox Fabricating for Ratings?

by richard02516

Indulging Racial Grievance Has a Long History
Don Lemon Missing Friday After Apology for Gaffe
Drake to Pay for Photoshopping Fake Vogue

Short Takes: Barbara Brandon-Croft; Melissa Harris-Perry and “The Takeaway”; Sam Lacy; TheHistoryMakers; Maudlyne Ihejirika; A.P. African American studies

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From the June 20, 2022, edition of Fox News’ ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight’ Screenshot)

Indulging Racial Grievance Has a Long History

“The most prominent stars and highest-ranking executives at Fox News privately ridiculed claims of election fraud in the 2020 election, despite the right-wing channel allowing lies about the presidential contest to be promoted on its air, damning messages contained in a Thursday court filing revealed,” as Oliver Darcy reported Thursday for CNN.

Which raises a question: How much of Fox News’ race-baiting is expressing the genuine convictions of its hosts and commentators, and how much is a ploy to gain ratings and allegiance from those who feel threatened by the nation’s changing demographics?

The messages in the lawsuit against Fox, “included in a legal filing as part of Dominion Voting System’s $1.6 billion lawsuit . . . showed that Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, and Laura Ingraham brutally mocked lies being pushed by former President Donald Trump’s camp asserting that the election was rigged,” Darcy continued.

“In one set of messages revealed in the court filing, Carlson texted Ingraham, saying that Sidney Powell, an attorney who was representing the Trump campaign, was ‘lying’ and that he had ‘caught her’ doing so. Ingraham responded, ‘Sidney is a complete nut. No one will work with her. Ditto with Rudy [Giuliani].’

“The messages also revealed that Rupert Murdoch, the chairman of Fox Corporation, did not believe Trump’s election lies and even floated the idea of having Carlson, Hannity, and Ingraham appear together in prime time to declare Joe Biden as the rightful winner of the election. . . .” He then decided against that.

Using bigotry to appeal to receptive eyes and ears is nothing new.

“Racially inflammatory and even racist rhetoric has been part of the company’s DNA going back to his British tabloids,” David Folkenflik, author of 2013’s “Murdock’s World: The Last of the Old Media Empires,” messaged Journal-isms Friday.

“Needless to say this is not true of everyone, every title or every program. Many Fox and Murdoch journalists are appalled by such things. But it is a notable and consistent feature.  

“When things get extreme enough, rebukes are handed out. Sometimes. And then we find ourselves right back in it.” 

A racial breakdown of the Nielsen ratings tells the story:

For the fourth quarter of 2022:

Hannity: 0.85% of the total U.S. audience watches the show, but only 0.09% of Black people watch.

Tucker Carlson: 1.01 percent of the total U.S. audience watches the show; 0.11% of Black people do.

Total day viewing for FOX Newschannel: 0.47% of the total U.S. audience watches; 0.05 percent of Blacks do.In 1988, Roger Ailes, the man who founded Fox News, was working on the George H.W. Bush presidential campaign and promoted the infamous “Willie Horton” ad (pictured), projecting the image of Horton, depicted as a menacing Black man who received a weekend pass from prison on the watch of Bush’s Democratic opponent, Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis. “Horton fled, kidnapped a young couple, stabbing the man and repeatedly raping his girlfriend,” a male narrator intoned.

“Even the candidate himself recoiled at trafficking in race-baiting,” Gabriel Sherman writes in his 2017 book, “The Loudest Voice in the Room: How the Brilliant, Bombastic Roger Ailes Built Fox News — and Divided the Country.” ” ‘Here’s a man who has an exemplary record on civil rights,’ Bush chief of staff Craig Fuller recalled. The Bush family hated it. . . .”

When Bush said he wanted to “get back on the issues,” Ailes replied, “We plan to do that November ninth” — the morning after election day. “Bush won by a commanding eight-point margin. It was validation that Ailes’ brand of divisive politics could win national majorities.”

In 2007, after Murdoch bought the Dow Jones Co., which produces The Wall Street Journal, there were changes in its journalism, Folkenflik wrote in “Murdoch’s World.”

“In the spring of 2009, shortly after [President Barack] Obama’s controversial stimulus bill passed Congress, the paper’s new top editors ordered up a story reporting that the bill was creating so much uncertainty among companies that it threatened the economic recovery.

“A command to gather material for the story went out to writers across the paper. The stimulus bill included some $19 billion to encourage adopting the use of electronic medical records. A reporter working on the story told me his sources at big health IT companies said the stimulus had led to an uptick in business for their firms. But that didn’t make it into the article. Was that a journalistic choice, an ideological one, or both?”

Only last May, The New York Times published Nick Confessore’s three-part, multimedia investigation of Carlson’s embrace of white supremacy and the “great replacement theory.”

The race-baiting continues. Under the headline, “Fox News’ coverage of the Ohio train derailment turned toward racial grievance and climate mockery when it became opportune,” Evlondo Cooper wrote Thursday for Media Matters for America:

Michael Regan, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, and other representatives assured residents of East Palestine, Ohio, Thursday that all air and municipal water quality testing so far has not detected any chemicals at levels of concern. Tucker Carlson asserted on Fox News Channel that “if the derailment had occurred in ‘the favored cities of Philadelphia and Detroit’ there would have been a more robust federal response.” (Credit: WEWS-TV)

“The most odious narrative pushed by Fox asserted that the East Palestine disaster had not received much attention because the area is mostly white and rural. During the February 13 episode of his show, Carlson hinted at the idea of anti-white bias when he stated, ‘What we can tell you: The Biden administration doesn’t seem too concerned about it. … Donald Trump got over 71% of the vote in the county in the last presidential election. That’s not exactly the Democratic Party’s core demographic.’

“During the February 14 episode of The Five, co-host Greg Gutfeld used the train derailment to bemoan ‘wokeism.’

“These dog whistles eventually became more explicit appeals to white grievance politics. During the February 14 episode of Jesse Watters Primetime, host Jesse Watters questioned Environmental Protection Agency Director Michael Regan’s knowledge ‘about the environment,’ asking, ‘Is this his idea of fighting environmental racism? Spilling toxic chemicals on poor white people in Ohio?’

“On the February 14 episode of Tucker Carlson Tonight, Carlson asserted that if the derailment had occurred in ‘the favored cities of Philadelphia and Detroit’ there would have been a more robust federal response. ‘But it happened to the poor, benighted town of East Palestine, Ohio, whose people are forgotten and, in the view of the people who lead this country, forgettable.’ . . .”

It’s tempting to ask what a similar court challenge would reveal about these comments.

The CNN co-host later apologized, saying, “A woman’s age doesn’t define her either personally or professionally. I have countless women in my life who prove that every day.’ (Credit: New York Post/YouTube)

Don Lemon Missing Friday After Apology for Gaffe

“The premise of a good morning-news show is that it helps viewers wake up with their morning coffee. CNN’s new A.M. entry is quickly turning into a place where the coffee is being thrown,” Brian Steinberg wrote Thursday for Variety.

“Don Lemon, one of the three anchors of ‘CNN This Morning,’ apologized Thursday afternoon for remarks made on the morning’s broadcast about when women are in their prime, during a segment about comments from new Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley regarding the age of some of her political rivals.

“ ‘She says people, you know, politicians or something are not in their prime,’ Lemon said on the program. ‘Nikki Haley isn’t in her prime, sorry. A woman is considered to be in their prime in 20s and 30s and maybe 40s.’ The comment spurred co-anchor Poppy Harlow to try to get Lemon to modify his stance. ‘What are you talking about, wait — prime for what?’ she asked, a move that resulted in Lemon stepping even further into his position. ‘If you Google “when is a woman in her prime,” it’ll say 20s, 30s and 40s,’ he replied.

“The on-air dust-up has drawn attention both inside and outside the Warner Bros. Discovery cable-news outlet, according to a person familiar with the matter, with younger staffers taking offense and others asking how CNN can try to book prominent female politicians and newsmakers after one of its best known anchors seemed to inveigh against older women. . . .

“Lemon apologized Thursday via Twitter for his comments. ‘The reference I made to a woman’s “prime” this morning was inartful and irrelevant, as colleagues and loved ones have pointed out, and I regret it,’ he said. ‘A woman’s age doesn’t define her either personally or professionally. I have countless women in my life who prove that every day.’ . . .”

Lemon “was conspicuously absent from ‘CNN This Morning’ on Friday just 24 hours after he put his foot in his mouth,” Ariel Zilber reported for the New York Post.

Also on Friday, “CNN’s chairman, Chris Licht, opened his daily 9 a.m. editorial call by saying that the remarks by Mr. Lemon, which were widely viewed as sexist and insensitive, had left him ‘disappointed,‘ ” Michael M. Grynbaum and John Koblin reported for The New York Times.

“ ‘His remarks were upsetting, unacceptable and unfair to his co-hosts, and ultimately a huge distraction to the great work of this organization,’ Mr. Licht told his staff, according to a recording of the call obtained by The New York Times.

“It is unusual for a network chief to criticize a star anchor in such stark terms — but the situation involving Mr. Lemon and CNN’s struggling morning show is approaching a crisis point just months after its debut. . . .”

Drake to Pay for Photoshopping Fake Vogue

“Drake and 21 Savage have agreed to pay magazine publisher Condé Nast over a fake edition of Vogue the duo created and publicized last year,” Max Tani reported Thursday for Semafor.

“In November, Vogue’s parent company filed a trademark infringement lawsuit seeking $4 million after the two rappers created a fake edition and cover of Vogue as part of the promotion for the duo’s collaborative album Her Loss.

“In an internal memo first obtained by Semafor, Condé Nast general counsel Will Bowes told staff that the company this week had received a permanent injunction barring further commercial uses of Vogue trademarks. Thursday’s memo did not disclose the settlement amount, but said that the company was granted a monetary settlement that will ‘bolster our ongoing creative output, including Vogue editorial.’

“ ‘As a creative company, we of course understand our brands may from time to time be referenced in other creative works,’ Bowes said. ‘In this instance, however, it was clear to us that Drake and 21 Savage leveraged Vogue’s reputation for their own commercial purposes and, in the process, confused audiences who trust Vogue as the authoritative voice on fashion and culture.’

“Before taking legal action, Condé Nast repeatedly asked Drake and 21 Savage to stop using the fake cover and magazine, which featured Drake with a photoshopped image of a younger Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour. Bowes said the duo ignored the requests, leaving the company with ‘no other option but to take legal action.’ . . .”

Short Takes

  • Barbara Brandon-Croft’s new book, “Where I’m Coming From: Selected Strips, 1991-2005,” hit bookstores Feb. 7 with pieces in both the New York Times and Washington Post. “The overdue salute not only provides a nostalgic trip through the lives of Brandon-Croft’s nine central female characters; the book also includes essays and letters that spotlight just how unique her achievement was,” The Post’s Michael Cavna wrote of the nation’s first nationally syndicated Black female cartoonist. “ ‘I felt like I was pushing against history,’ the Queens-based Brandon-Croft says last month during a Zoom interview. Yet she was undaunted in her early 30s, a fledgling Detroit Free Press cartoonist who was full of ‘nerves and spunk. . . . “
“The producers, editors, directors and team of @TheTakeaway deserve SO MUCH BETTER than this,” tweeted Melissa Harris-Perry.
  • “WNYC is canceling one of its longest-running shows,” Max Tani reported Friday for Semafor. “The New York public radio station told staff on Friday that it would not renew The Takeaway after the show’s contract runs out in June, ending a 15-year run for a daily radio program that was originally launched as WNYC’s answer to NPR’s Morning Edition.” The show is syndicated to other public radio stations. “In an email to partner stations, WNYC leaders said the show’s cancelation was the result of a loss in listeners in recent years.” In a tweet Friday afternoon, current host Melissa Harris-Perry said, “The producers, editors, directors and team of @TheTakeaway deserve SO MUCH BETTER than this. This team is exceptional. Cancelling this show in this way is an act of institutional cruelty and abuse by the executives of @WNYC. I will stand for them until the end.”
  • “In February for Black History Month, USA TODAY Sports is publishing the series ’28 Black Stories in 28 Days.’ ” the publication declared. “We examine the issues, challenges and opportunities Black athletes and sports officials continue to face after the nation’s reckoning on race following the murder of George Floyd in 2020.” The third installment of the series, by Stephen Borelli, featured the pioneering Sam Lacy (pictured) under the headline, “Before Stephen A. Smith and other Black sports journalists, there was the great Sam Lacy.”
  • “On Sunday, February 19th, at 7pm ET/PT, CBS’ 60 Minutes will air a segment featuring The HistoryMakers – the nation’s largest repository of African American video oral history,” CBS News announces in a media advisory. “The segment will focus on how the achievements of historically significant Black Americans are at risk of going unpreserved as important figures die without documenting their stories for future generations. 60 Minutes’ Bill Whitaker explores how The HistoryMakers is trying to prevent that by creating an expansive digital archive of first-person accounts of the Black experience. . . .” The HistoryMakers’ Media category features 457 of us.
  • Maudlyne Ihejirika (pictured), who spent 29 years with the Chicago Sun-Times as an award-winning reporter and columnist, has joined the Field Foundation in Chicago, managing its Media & Storytelling portfolio, the foundation said Friday. From 2016 to 2022, Ihejirika wrote “Chicago Chronicles” — long-form columns of diverse and untold narratives focusing on racial, social, and economic justice issues. When she retired from the Sun-Times in December, she wrote that she planned to write another book. “Between work and raising a family, Escape From Nigeria: A Memoir of Faith, Love and War took 17 years to complete. My second, third, fourth book can NOT take 17 years,” Ihejirika wrote on social media.

‘I Sure Hope He’s Not Black’

Charges Dismissed Against NewsNation Reporter
How Should Non-Natives Cover Natives? ‘Don’t’
County Pulls Funding for ‘Black Power’ Station
Black Startup Launching 2nd Local Newsroom in Gary
2 Freelancers Each Awarded $100,000 Prize
Journalism Luminaries to Teach Young Hopefuls

Short Takes: ‘LatinX’ term; Buffalo mass killer’s sentencing; Black college students’ extra life responsibilities; $2 million to renovate Afro’s archives; $2 million to boost Howard U. research center; nominations open for ’10 News Publishers That Do It Right,’ Blavity commerce; Rashida Jones; Haitian journalist kidnapped.

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Michigan State University Police and Public Safety release photo of shooter Monday night. (Credit: YouTube)

Black Press Ignores MSU Mass Shooting

The nation’s biggest and most tragic news story on Tuesday was the mass shooting at Michigan State University: Nine people were shot, the gunman and three students dead, with five others in critical condition.

Amid the reporting came a cringeworthy moment for many Black readers and viewers: Authorities released a photo of the perpetrator. He was Black.

But you couldn’t tell that from the statewide Black newspaper, the Michigan Chronicle, nor the national news service from the National Newspaper Publishers Association, the Black-press trade association, nor the websites of such Black news sources as Blavity, The Root, The Grio, Ebony, Black America Web, HuffPost Black Voices or the new Capital B.

They all ignored the story and went on with business as usual.

Even the NAACP, in a statement decrying the shootings and calling for action on gun legislation, made no reference to the fact that this was a Black shooter, and that at least one of the victims was Black.

(On the internet, the digital “Roland Martin Unfiltered” lists this among the topics Wednesday: “There have been over 70 mass shootings in 2023 after the recent shooting at Michigan State University. We will discuss this recent phenomenon and why the rate of mass shootings is rising.”)

[Feb. 18 update: bet.com was an exception, with two pieces on the shooter and the Black shooting victim.]

For mainstream newspapers, publishing the photo of the suspect, Anthony Dwayne McRae, 43, who died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, was sufficient reference to his race.

After all, the standard guidelines on racial identification, developed after years of protest that such identification was being used to vilify African Americans, say that such IDs should be used only if their relevance can be established.

“We did not have any lengthy discussions about whether or not to identify the MSU shooter by race, but I suspect that’s because we do not typically identify someone’s race unless it is relevant or a point of issue,” Gary Miles (pictured), editor and publisher of the Detroit News, messaged Journal-isms. “For example, I expect we would have had that conversation if police had told us that the crime was racially motivated. There has been no such suggestion here.

“So I’d like to think that, instinctively, we’re no more likely to identify someone’s race in a story like this than their hair color or build.

“(We did identify the race of the man police were searching for Monday night when they were able to provide a more complete description).”

It may prove true that McRae’s actions are more attributable to his individual issues than his race, which, as some point out, is a social construct.

Nevertheless, the shooter was a member of the Black community. Just last week, the National Newspaper Publishers Association closed a story about its midwinter conference with words from its president and CEO Benjamin F. Chavis Jr. (pictured), who, “gracious but overwhelmed, stated that the NNPA is devoted to keeping its readers, constituencies, and supporters informed, engaged, and empowered through breaking news, cultural excellence, and visionary opinions and editorials.”

Cathy Nedd (pictured), the new president of the Real Times Media News Group, based at the Michigan Chronicle, could not be reached. Real Times owns the Chronicle, the Chicago Defender, Atlanta Daily World, Atlanta Tribune and the New Pittsburgh Courier.

To one Black media observer, the conclusion was simple: “It’s a breaking news story that they are not on. Not even a wire story.”

Said another Black press veteran: “Oh my. I didn’t know he was Black. Hadn’t seen the photo.”

  Clint C. Wilson II (pictured), longtime Black-press scholar and author of 2014’s “Whither the Black Press? Glorious Past, Uncertain Future,” provided Journal-isms his observations Wednesday. Wilson is emeritus professor of journalism and communication, culture and media studies at Howard University’s Cathy Hughes School of Communications.

“(1) The publication schedule of most Black weeklies precludes response to the event that occurred Monday evening. Those papers generally publish later in the week (Thursdays or Fridays). However, the papers that maintain online platforms should have been able to issue coverage within 24 hours.

“Nevertheless, the few online papers to which I personally subscribe (L.A. Sentinel, Washington Informer, Dallas Weekly, the Skanner in Oregon) have not yet covered the event although the shooter’s racial identity was made known as early as Monday night.

“(2) I suspect the shooter’s race angle caught many off-guard because Michigan State is a predominately White institution. The fact that one of the three initial fatalities is a Black female student will play into whatever coverage we see in the next day or so. 

“As you know, the fact these mass killings have overwhelmingly been perpetrated by young White males, their actions are almost always attributed by the White press to mental illness and/or the result of troubled and abusive childhoods etc. Therefore, I expect the Black press will follow suit in that regard.

“Finally, I believe the Michigan State shootings will immediately rekindle the age-old utterance among Black folks whenever news breaks in such cases prior to revelation of the perpetrator’s race: ‘I sure hope he’s not Black.’ “

Biden Order Might Aid ‘Small Disadvantaged’ Media

“President Joe Biden on Thursday ordered the federal government to do more to address racial inequality as the challenges and complexities of systemic racism are again drawing the public’s attention,” Josh Boak and Darlene Superville reported Thursday for the Associated Press.

Asked by Journal-isms whether the “executive order affects media companies of color. For example, the placement of federal ad dollars in media outlets owned by people of color,” a spokesperson replied after a press briefing:

“The Executive Order directs the Office of Management and Budget to support implementation of the annual agency Equity Action Plans through the President’s budget request to Congress. The Executive Order also formalizes the President’s goal of increasing the share of federal contracting dollars awarded to small disadvantaged business (SDBs) by 50 percent by 2025, and instructs agencies to expand procurement opportunities for small disadvantaged businesses through grants from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, Inflation Reduction Act, and other investments and programs that flow through states and local entities.”

On Twitter, Evan Lambert posted his response to the dropping of charges.

Charges Dismissed Against NewsNation Reporter

“Charges have been dismissed against a reporter who was arrested last week while covering a news conference on the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, Dave Yost, the Ohio attorney general, said in a statement on Wednesday,” Christine Hauser reported for The New York Times.

“On Feb. 8, the reporter, Evan Lambert, had been waiting for the news conference about the status of the derailment, about 50 miles northwest of Pittsburgh, to start at 3 p.m. But the event was delayed for two hours, clashing with his scheduled live shot for NewsNation, the cable channel where he works. . . .

“ ‘While journalists could conceivably be subject to criminal charges for trespassing in some situations, this incident is not one of them,’ Mr. Yost said. . . .”

How Should Non-Natives Cover Natives? ‘Don’t’

“So how does a well-meaning reporter who isn’t Native American cover Indigenous communities?

“First, I gently suggest, don’t. Your newsroom might be wise to hire someone who is Indigenous, from the community you seek to cover, to do the work. And pay them well for their expertise. . . .”

Thus wrote Valerie Vande Panne Tuesday for the Poynter Institute under the headline, “Here are some tips for covering Indigenous communities, for non-Natives:”

“Reporters think they do ‘marginalized communities’ a favor by covering them. But that coverage is too often extractive and riddled with racist tropes,” Panne continued. She did, nevertheless, supply other coverage tips.

Protesters gather outside the Uhuru House in St. Petersburg, Fla., before a June 2020 march. On Tuesday, the Pinellas County Commission revoked funding it had previously approved for Black Power 96, the radio station that operates out of the house. (Credit: Dirk Shadd/Tampa Bay Times)

County Pulls Funding for ‘Black Power’ Station

“The Pinellas County Commission voted on Tuesday to revoke funding it approved last year for a radio station serving St. Petersburg’s Black communities,” Jack Evans reported for the Tampa Bay (Fla.) Times.

“The decision came days after Commissioner Chris Latvala raised concerns about the station’s association with the Uhuru Movement, the political group whose St. Petersburg headquarters were raided last year by the FBI.

“The commission approved the expenditure in November, as part of its first round of small allocations to nonprofits from the American Rescue Plan Act, the federal COVID-19 relief program.

“Of the more than $2 million allocated to 34 Pinellas organizations, about $36,800 went to the African People’s Education and Defense Fund, an Uhuru-affiliated nonprofit. The Fund’s application said the money would be spent on radio equipment and computers for WBPU 96.3 FM, also known as Black Power 96.

“The station broadcasts from the Uhuru House at 1245 18th Ave. S in St. Petersburg. The house was raided by federal agents in July amid the Uhuru Movement’s alleged connections to a Russian national accused of working with U.S. groups to spread pro-Russia propaganda and interfere with elections. . . .”

Black Startup Launching Local Newsroom in Gary

“Capital B, the one-year-old nonprofit news startup for Black Americans, has announced plans to launch its second local newsroom in Gary, Indiana,” Sarah Scrire wrote Wednesday for Nieman Lab.

“Gary is a small city on Lake Michigan where 78% of the 68,000 residents are Black. Local news coverage there, residents have told Capital B, is often dominated by journalism from and about the much-larger city of Chicago just 25 miles away. . . .

“Capital B’s announcement comes as part of a larger effort to expand local news in Indiana. The Indiana Local News Initiative, announced Wednesday, launches with more than $10 million in funding from the American Journalism Project, Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust, Herbert Simon Family Foundation, and others.

“As part of the partnership, a 25-person news organization will launch in Central Indiana. (The job listing for the editor-in-chief role is online.) Existing outlets TheStatehouseFile.com, The Indiana Citizen, The Indianapolis Recorder,” a member of the Black press, “and Indiana News Service are also receiving support. . . .”

“Journalism, at its best, tells stories that linger, that simmer, that gently or forcefully pose questions we feel compelled to answer,” said Foundation Board Chair Liz Simons. “Our American Mosaic Journalism Prize winners do this and lift the curtain on communities of people who have been misrepresented, under-represented, and all too often, marginalized and oppressed. By connecting us via our common humanity, these journalists make it impossible for us to turn away.”

2 Freelancers Each Awarded $100,000 Prize

Carvell Wallace, a writer and podcaster based in Oakland, Calif., and Cerise Castle, a freelance journalist based in Los Angeles, have won the American Mosaic Journalism Prize, “an unrestricted cash prize of $100,000 per recipient — making it one of the largest dollar amounts given for a journalism prize in the United States,” Brian Eule of the Heising-Simons Foundation announced Tuesday.

“Throughout his career, Wallace has explored complex and difficult topics and writes about them with empathy and compassion. The prize judges reviewed pieces such as ‘What if my mother had an abortion: Who might she have been?’ in which he questions the trajectory of his mother’s life and how it may have been less tragic had she not given birth as a teenager, and, ‘Justin Williams can see the future,’ written about one of the nation’s few Black bike racers, which takes an in-depth look at a man who is challenging the lack of cultural, economic and racial diversity in the sport of cycling. . . .

“In the wake of the George Floyd protests of 2020 and after more than six months of investigative research, Castle wrote ‘A Tradition of Violence,’ the first history of deputy gangs inside the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, the largest local law enforcement agency in the United States.

“The investigation was published as a 15-part reporting series for Knock LA exposing 18 gangs, 19 documented murders — all of whom were people of color — and over $100 million dollars in lawsuits paid for by the people of Los Angeles. . . .”

Full disclosure: Journal-isms Inc. is a Heising-Simons grant recipient.

Journalism Luminaries to Teach Young Hopefuls

“The Dow Jones News Fund, best known for providing training and internships for college students, is expanding its scope to provide foundational skills reinforcement for young journalists in their early years in a newsroom. The pilot program will launch Feb. 16-17 in Nashville, with the opening session featuring former Poynter Institute president Karen Brown Dunlap and Pulitzer-prize winning reporter Wesley Lowery,” the fund announced Tuesday.

“The News Fund, in a partnership with McClatchy, will train 13 journalists from five of its local newsrooms as the first cohort of Early Career Training Fellows. Most participants are beat reporters with less than three years of experience. . . .

“Veteran news executive Sandra Long Weaver (pictured) is the coordinating director for the pilot. She has lined up more than a dozen distinguished journalists to lead interactive sessions that will give the Fellows a stronger foundation and teach tricks of the trade that can be put to use immediately. Trainers include Dean Baquet of the New York Times, Cheryl W. Thompson and Keith Woods of NPR, Michelle Faust Raghavan of NextGen Radio and Maria Reeve of the Houston Chronicle. . . .”

Short Takes

(Credit: NBC News)

  • Editorializing on the life sentence given Payton Gendron, 19, for last May’s racist mass killing at the Tops supermarket in Buffalo N.Y., which left 10 dead and three wounded, the Buffalo News wrote, “But now, a federal trial looms and, there, Gendron faces the possibility of execution. You can oppose the death penalty and still believe that if anyone ever qualified for it, he does. . . . If a federal trial, rather than a guilty plea, allows prosecutors to shine a light on the racism coursing through parts of the internet and to show how 18-year-olds can be radicalized into committing mass murder based on hatred, then it could be worth putting this defendant on trial – whatever becomes of him.” (Photo: Derek Gee/Buffalo News)
  • Editor & Publisher is seeking nominations for its list of “10 News Publishers That Do It Right,” to be published in its April issue. “Never meant to be a ’10 Best’ list, instead, this feature allows you to help us find special news operations (print, digital, broadcast, or newsletters) that have performed a notable achievement over the past 12 months that deserve spotlighting to the entire industry,” the publication says. It is seeking a diverse list of candidates. Deadline: Feb. 28.
  • MSNBC President Rashida Jones (pictured) was asked about making tough decisions Wednesday in a New York Urban League Champions event, part of a fireside chat with Avra Rice, CEO and president of the New York Urban League: “Any executive is going to have to make a tough decision. I think about the teams that I develop, the newsrooms I fill. Am I doing my responsibility to center building a pool of diverse leadership, a pool of diverse talent, a pool of diverse perspectives? And I think that’s what’s most important is the culture that you’re building, is the dream that you’re building. There are going to be times where you have to make tough decisions.”
  • . . . . Jones also said, “For us, rather than looking at a political culture or a political perspective, what we focus on is the truth. Are the angles that we’re hitting representative of truth and democracy and the rights of humans across the board? We can get stuck into both sides for a fair amount or however you look at it. You can’t sacrifice the truth. Sometimes the truth isn’t pretty. Sometimes the truth might be critical of this group or that group. Rather than trying to keep a scorecard of, well, we had X number of perspectives in this party, and X number of perspectives in this party. It’s gotten a little bit more nuanced than that. That’s one of the things we’ve done really well, that nuance.” 
  • “A reckoning that most media companies contend with, Blavity Inc has started the revenue diversification efforts of moving from a display advertising-first business model to include more reader revenue options, like commerce,” Kayleigh Barber reported Tuesday for Digiday. “To help with the transition, Melody Brown was hired as Blavity Inc’s new associate vp of consumer media in Sept. 2022 from Travel + Leisure to help with the construction of this revenue stream, including launching a new home interior brand ‘Home & Texture.’ But the push into commerce doesn’t stop there. Brown said on the latest episode of the Digiday Podcast that the company’s lifestyle brand 21Ninety and travel title Travel Noire were both also pivoting to a commerce-first business model to both bring in a new revenue stream, but also to give readers more assistance from the content they’re already reading. . . .”
  • “Suspected gangs have kidnapped another Haitian journalist as colleagues demanded his release, a government office announced Wednesday,” the Associated Press reported Feb. 8. “The journalist was identified by the Office of Citizen Protection as Jean Thony Lorthé (pictured), who works for Radio Vision 2000. Local media reported that Lorthé was headed to a funeral with two other people including his brother, who is a professor, when they were kidnapped last Friday in the Laboule 12 neighborhood of Port-au-Prince. . . .”

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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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