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Why Farrakhan Is Incendiary but No Trump

by richard2 1220

Nation of Islam Leader’s Rhetoric Called Out

Journalists of Color Warned Everyone About Trump

Anti-Media Attitudes Affecting Local Journalists

Al Roker Denounces Blacks Appearing in Whiteface

Networks Said to Ignore Voter Suppression

PR Industry Takes Steps to Boost Diversity

Fox Guest Blames Migrants for Wiped-Out Disease

Short Takes

Support Journal-isms

Minister Louis Farrakhan is flanked by images of images of Nation of Islam figues Elijah Muhammad, left, and Fard Muhammad. (Credit: Final Call)
Minister Louis Farrakhan is flanked by images of Nation of Islam figures Elijah Muhammad, left, and founder W.D. Fard. (Credit: Final Call)

Nation of Islam Leader’s Rhetoric Called Out

In the rush to appear “fair” and not to lay all the blame for today’s poisoned and polarized political atmosphere at the feet of President Trump, some journalists have pointed to Minister Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam as evidence that anti-Semitism comes from the left as well as the right, though the Nation’s emphasis on separatism and self-reliance makes it an unlikely part of the “left.”

Consider this exchange on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. It came after a week of numbing tragedy and near-tragedy: the mass shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue Saturday that left 11 dead; the mailing of undetonated pipe bombs to former CIA director John Brennan, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, among others; and the slaying of two black grandparents by a white gunman Wednesday at a Kroger supermarket in a suburb of Louisville, Ky.

Host Jake Tapper said to Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: “All the hate that we’ve seen in terms of the three incidents we’ve talked about this week were from the right, far, far right. But Jonathan, you know, that there’s anti-Semitism and bigotry on the left as well. And we see it, and I’m not equating the two, and the moral equivalence police out there, I’m not saying it’s the same thing. But Lou Farrakhan is out there calling Jews termites and preaching hatred, and he is somebody who recently was on stage with several former presidents at a funeral.”

WEISMAN: “That was shocking. I mean, I — I go around the country talking about this. And I talk about Louis Farrakhan as bigoted and as horrific as anything you would see. What comes out of his mouth is as awful as anything you would hear coming out of David Duke’s mouth.”

TAPPER: “It’s pretty much the same. Yes.”

WEISMAN: “It’s pretty much the same. But I’d like to say look, Farrakhan’s power kind of peaked in 1995 with the Million [Man] March and has gone downhill.

"State of the Union" panel: From left; CNN political commentators David Urban, Nina Turner, Jonathan Weisman and Amanda Carpenter with Jake Tapper.(Credit: Screen grab)
“State of the Union” panel: From left; CNN political commentators David Urban, Nina Turner, Jonathan Weisman and Amanda Carpenter with host Jake Tapper.(Credit: Screen grab)

“That line that I’ve used was so undermined by that image at Aretha Franklin’s funeral of Bill Clinton sitting next to Louis Farrakhan. It made me sick. It really did. And I think that look, the left needs to be speaking out as forthrightly as the right. No question, no question.”

TAPPER: “Again I’m not saying it’s the same thing, but — I’m not saying it’s the same thing but how — why would we tolerate it on either side? . . .”

In an Oct. 14 speech in Detroit, Farrakhan said, “When they talk about Farrakhan, call me a hater, call me an anti-Semite; stop it I’m anti-termite.

“I don’t know anything about hating anyone because of their religious preference. But just like they called our ancestors in the 1930s ‘voodoo people,’ they figure ‘anti-Semite’ would be a good thing to put on us. . . .

“You cannot find one Jew that one who follows me has plucked one hair from his head. You haven’t found us defiling a synagogue. Our Qur’an teaches us if we see something like that stop it. . . .”

In an Aug. 21 tribute to Franklin, Farrakhan explained why he might have been asked to sit on that stage.

“In 1972, when I was minister in New York City, Temple No. 7, the police attacked our mosque. Within a few hours, Aretha Franklin came to the mosque, to my office, and said that she saw the news and came as quickly as she could to stand with us and offer us her support. She asked me if Rev. Jesse Jackson had been there to show support. I said, not yet. She said, he’ll be here within 48 hours. Rev. Jackson came and stood with the Muslims.

“We marveled at her show of courage, fearlessness which was rooted in her profound love for her people and her desire for justice for us. Her activism, her selflessness caused her to stand with Dr. Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement as she joined the struggle of our people for liberty, equity and justice. . . .”

The presence of Farrakhan on that stage was enough to cause revulsion from Weisman and others, such as Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen.

But it was the incendiary “anti-termite” line that prompted Facebook to remove a video clip of the Oct. 14 speech for violating Facebook’s terms of service. Twitter let the clip remain, saying that its proposed new policies around “dehumanizing” tweets had not yet gone into effect.

The reference was also cited by Jewish leaders and some commentators in the wake of the synagogue massacre.

Those commentators might be surprised by how two African Americans who have followed Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam saw his comments.

Amy L. Alexander, who two decades ago edited an anthology called “The Farrakhan Factor: African-American Writers on Leadership, Nationhood, and Minister Louis Farrakhan,” featuring 15 black “thought leaders,” told Journal-isms by email Tuesday, “Minister Farrakhan has voiced anti-Semitic rhetoric for nearly a half-century. It is odious and unacceptable — but should by now be completely expected.

“The only difference now is that social media platforms such as YouTube and Twitter are bringing Farrakhan’s words forward faster and sending them to potentially larger audiences than in past.

“His actual ‘influence’ on audiences however is nil, quite unlike the way that language from the 45th United States president activates some people. Where Trump’s racist and [anti-Semitic] rhetoric literally inspires his Cult followers to take up arms and kill or attempt to kill people, Farrakhan’s anti-Semitic ramblings only succeed in riling up some folks (including journalists) who vastly over-estimate his impact.

“At the same time, I do think that Twitter should ban Farrakhan if he makes obvious threats — much as it should sanction 45 when he hurls insults and threats. That Twitter can’t define or stick to its own rules contributes to our current anxious atmosphere of Americans ‘debating’ what constitutes hate speech.

“Farrakhan’s [anti-Semitism] is certainly toxic, but it’s a long-running schtick that now pales next to 45’s. It’d be great to not have any public figure use such hate speech but let’s keep perspective, and avoid making false equivalency: Farrakhan is not remotely as dangerous as 45 is.”

Karl Evanzz, author of several books on black Muslims, including his latest, a revised version of “The Judas Factor: The Life and Death of Malcolm Shabazz,” messaged about Farrakhan, “I try to ignore anything he says or does. He generally says something outlandish when he needs money. It’s a ploy he’s used for decades. Since he’s never had a real job (and thus no pension or Social Security benefits), he will say something bigoted, generate a backlash, and then claim that he’s being attacked for ‘telling the truth.’ His gullible supporters then open their wallets to show their love for the Emperor with no clothes, no nation, no nothing but a big mouth.”

Journalists of Color Warned Everyone About Trump

“Jamelle Bouie tried to tell us,” Joel Mathis wrote Tuesday for The Week. “So did Nikole Hannah-Jones. Jelani Cobb spoke up, as did Vann Newkirk II, Adam Serwer, and Jenée Desmond-Harris.

John Dickerson hosts "Face The Nation" from the site of the second Presidential debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton at the Washington University Law School in St. Louis, MO on Sunday October 9, 2016. Guests on set include Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook, Bob Schieffer, Nancy Cordes, Norah O'Donnell, Major Garrett, Anthony Salvanto, Peggy Noonan, Jamell Bouie, John Heilemann and Susan Page. Photo: Chris Usher/CBS © 2016 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All rights reserved.
Jamelle Bouie (Credit: Chris Usher/CBS)

“Back in 2016, these journalists of color all used their platforms to send a warning about the racist undertones of Donald Trump’s presidential candidacy. All too often these writers were dismissed as alarmists, or as race-obsessed practitioners of ‘identity politics.’ But as the events in Pittsburgh last weekend and those in Louisville last week have demonstrated, these writers were absolutely right.

“This country needs more minority journalists in its newsrooms. And we fellow Americans need to do a better job of listening to them.

“Is this really an issue? After all, the writers I’ve named here work or have worked for places like The New York Times, Slate, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic — all of them prestige publications. Most of them have widespread followings on social media. Hannah-Jones was named a MacArthur Genius in 2017.

“But you don’t have to look much beyond the surface to detect a real problem with minority representation in newsrooms. A 2017 survey showed that just one in six American newsroom employees are racial minorities — and the situation is even worse for women of color. That’s not good enough: America needs these voices. Journalists of color can and often do point out America’s blind spots.

“Paging through Bouie’s 2015 and 2016 dispatches for Slate, one is struck by their stubborn prescience, informed by a deep familiarity with this country’s history and a refusal to view that history through rose-colored glasses. . . .”

Anti-Media Attitudes Affecting Local Journalists

“The hostility she’s felt from the public recently wasn’t necessarily the last straw in television news photographer Lori Bentley-Law’s decision to quit the business after 24 years, but it was one of them,” David Bauder reported Monday for the Associated Press.

“Bentley-Law’s recent blog post explaining why she was leaving Los Angeles’ KNBC-TV hit home for many colleagues. While President Donald Trump’s attacks on the media are usually centered on national outlets like CNN and The New York Times, the attitudes unleashed have filtered down to journalists on the street covering news in local communities across the country.

“When a president describes the press as enemies of the people, ‘attitudes shift and the field crews get the brunt of the abuse,’ she wrote. ‘And it’s not just from one side. We get it all the way around, pretty much on a daily basis.’

“The Radio Television Digital News Association is spreading safety and self-defense tips to journalists, most notably advising limits on the use of one-person news crews. The RTDNA has begun compiling anti-press incidents, like last week when an intruder was shot after kicking down glass doors at Fox’s local station in Washington. The National Press Photographers Association is developing workshops to spread safety advice to its members.

“ ‘The environment has changed,’ said Chris Post, a photographer for WFMZ-TV in Allentown, Pennsylvania. ‘I’ve witnessed the transition.’ . . .”

Lester Holt as Susan Boyle (Twitter)
Lester Holt as Susan Boyle (Twitter)

Al Roker Denounces Blacks Appearing in Whiteface

“Longtime Today anchor Al Roker has denounced whiteface amid the recent conversations stemming from Megyn Kelly’s blackface comments, and singled out Marlon and Shawn Wayans’ 2004 film White Chicks in which the two actors appear in whiteface as two undercover FBI agents posing as Caucasian women,” Patrick Shanley wrote Monday for the Hollywood Reporter.

” ‘Dude, didn’t see that movie. But let me jump in the DeLorean with Doc Brown and travel to 2004 to denounce it,’ Roker said in a tweet responding to a user who posted a picture of the Wayans brothers in the film and asked if NBC News, fellow Today anchor Craig Melvin and Roker thought whiteface was okay.

“Roker’s response comes in the wake of Kelly’s much-publicized exit from Today after making comments about blackface on the show last week.

“Critics on both sides have taken issue with Kelly’s remarks, in which she said, ‘What is racist? Because truly you do get in trouble if you are a white
person who puts on blackface at Halloween or a black person who puts on whiteface for Halloween. Back when I was a kid, that was okay as long as you were dressing up as like a character.’ She later apologized for her statements. . . .”

Separately, Caleb Howe of Mediaite published a photo Monday of “NBC Nightly News” anchor Lester Holt dressed as British pop singer and YouTube sensation Susan Boyle in a wig and dress but with his face painted white, and another of NBC’s Hoda Kotb dressed as Blake Shelton, standing with the actual Blake Shelton.

However, Howe added, “No one should confuse the context, though. It is that context that doomed Kelly’s segment. Because there is a difference.

“Blackface has a long racist past in the United States. Blackface goes back to ‘minstrel shows’, which were cruel, mocking, paternalistic shows where white people would slather grease on their face in a grotesque caricature and act out terrible stereotypes for the amusement of white crowds. . . .”

voter suppression

Networks Said to Ignore Voter Suppression

“With the midterm elections a week away, and tensions building daily, a bipartisan rallying cry grows louder: People must get out and vote,” Margaret Sullivan wrote Monday for the Washington Post.

“But how possible is that, exactly, for some Americans?

“In North Dakota, thousands of Native American voters may be prevented from voting next week in a key Senate race because of an ugly technicality that amounts to targeted voter suppression.

“In Georgia, hundreds of thousands of citizens were ‘purged’ from the voting rolls in what election-law experts have called the worst disenfranchisement of voters in modern American history.

“And in Kansas — where restrictive voting laws have been championed by Secretary of State Kris Kobach — the majority-Hispanic residents of Dodge City can no longer vote in their community after its single polling place was closed.

“Yes, voter suppression is alive and well in the United States.

“But Americans who rely on the broadcast news networks for their information, and they still number in the millions every night, probably don’t know about it.

“Obsessed with all things Trump — caravan invasion, anyone? — and occupied with breaking news about hurricanes and mass shootings, the networks have almost ignored voter suppression.

“With the consequential midterm elections only a week away, the near silence is deafening. . . . .”

PR Industry Takes Steps to Boost Diversity

Acknowledging that the public relations industry has a diversity problem, leading PR associations are launching an initiative that begins with a book in which more than 40 people of color in PR describe what it’s like to be isolated and/or the objects of unconscious bias. They also offer tips and lessons for those entering the field.

Nationwide panel discussions to follow.
Nationwide panel discussions to follow.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the ethnic makeup of the PR industry in the United States is 87.9 percent white, 8.3 percent African American, 2.6 percent Asian American and 5.7 percent Hispanic.

In the 2017 survey of the American Society of News Editors, covering newspapers and online outlets, the figures were 83.16 percent white, 5.64 percent black, 5.66 percent Hispanic, .36 percent American Indian, 4.28 percent Asian, .13 percent Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, .57 percent other and .29 percent unknown.

“Diverse Voices: Profiles in Leadership” is published by the PRSA Foundation and Museum of Public Relations and edited by Shelley and Barry Spector, founders of the museum.

Among the participating writers are Neil Foote, a former reporter at the Miami Herald, Dallas Morning News and Washington Post who is president/CEO of Foote Communications LLC, a principal lecturer at the Mayborn School of Journalism at the University of North Texas and president of the National Black Public Relations Society. Another is Rochelle Tillery Larkin Ford, dean of the School of Communications at Elon University who has taught at Howard University and the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University.

In the book, Kim L. Hunter warns, “The kids today . . . won’t join an agency unless they see that there are minorities who succeeded before them.” Hunter is founder and chairman of the LAGRANT Foundation, which provides scholarships to students of color.

The organizers say in an announcement, “In 2019, the PRSA Foundation will facilitate ‘Diverse Voices’ talks at colleges and universities, using the book’s participants as speakers when possible [PDF]. The intention is to provide diverse students with guidance to get a head start upon graduation and begin successful career trajectories in the communications field. . . .

“The book is supported by: The Public Relations Society of America, The Public Relations Student Society of America, Page, PR Council, Institute for Public Relations, The LAGRANT Foundation, The International Association for Measurement and Evaluation of Communications, the National Black Public Relations Society, Hispanic Public Relations Association, The Plank Center for Leadership in Public Relations, The International Communications Consultancy Organization and The Society for New Communications Research of The Conference Board, among others.”

Fox Guest Blames Migrants for Wiped-Out Disease

“As immigration opponents continue to froth over the caravan making its way from Central America toward the United States, some are floating the idea that asylum-seekers will bring disease with them — including one that was wiped out nearly 40 years ago,” Tanya Basu and Tracy Connor wrote Monday for the Daily Beast.

“The right-wing magazine The New American ran a story over the weekend headlined: ‘Will Migrant Caravan Kill Your Child—With Disease?’

“ ‘What about diseases?’ Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade asked Monday. Later, Fox News contributor Sidney Powell suggested that the current outbreak of acute flaccid myelitis (AFM) affecting children was because of migrants — prompting host Lou Dobbs to correct her on air.

“And former immigration agent David Ward, also appearing on Fox, cited a disease that doesn’t actually exist anymore.

“ ‘We have these individuals coming in from all over the world that have some of the most extreme medical care in the world,’ Ward said. ‘And they’re coming
in with diseases such as smallpox and leprosy and TB [tuberculosis] that are going to infect our people in the United States.’ . . .”

Short Takes

  • The National Association of Black Journalists is selling out of its hotel blocks for its 2019 convention in Miami, though the event does not take place until Aug. 7-11. NABJ “is positioned to break NABJ attendance records,” members have been told by email. Space is at a premium at four overflow hotels. On a telephone conference call among board members Sunday to which members could listen in, treasurer Greg Morrison said NABJ had a $1.2 million surplus, the largest in memory. NABJ plans to meet in Las Vegas in 2022, after a joint convention with the National Association of Hispanic Journalists in Washington in 2020 and a conference in Houston in 2021.
  • Chicago-based Angela Ford, visiting Washington to discuss her fascinating project to digitize 9 million stored images from the black press (Facebook membership required) that haven’t been seen in decades, told the Journal-isms Roundtable last week that her Obsidian Collection Archives has partnered with the Google Cultural Institute, a nonprofit initiative. “Google Arts & Culture is hosting Obsidian’s collection on its site. They have over 1,000 collections from all cultures, all around the world on their infinite search engines. . . and they were picked up, because these are images of our culture that aren’t shared because they’re, you know, in the basement,” she told the roundtable. Video: < https://youtu.be/Yo2nmb5j6dk >
  • Ntozake Shange
    Ntozake Shange

    The death at 70 Saturday of poet and playwright Ntozake Shange, author of “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/ When the Rainbow is Enuf,” didn’t get sufficient attention from her local paper, the Washington Post, according to Post alumni participating Monday on their listserve. The substantial obituary by Harrison Smith was “consigned to [a] back page of Metro, while big splash on front of Style reserved for [River] Phoenix, who died 25 years ago and is still dead,” alum Tracy Thompson wrote. Another suggested lack of diversity among the decision-makers was at work. The Post did not respond to a request for comment. Soraya Nadia McDonald wrote in the Undefeated; Regina R. Robertson in Essence.

  • Thomas Scott
    Thomas Scott

    Thomas Scott, sports reporter at the Selma (Ala.) Times-Journal, has been named sports editor at the Beaumont Enterprise in Texas, Enterprise editor Ronnie Crocker confirmed Wednesday. “We are excited about having Thomas join us as sports editor on Nov. 26. He’s still going through all the pre-employment checks, but I don’t anticipate any hiccups,” Crocker said by email. Scott is a 2013 Morehouse College graduate and a 2014 alum of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.

  • A one-hour BET News program, “Angela Rye’s Midterm Election Special: Our Vote. Our Power,” (video) which aired Sunday, is to be repeated on Nov. 4 at 10 p.m. Eastern time. Taped before a live audience in BET’s Times Square studio, it features an all-star panel that includes Valerie Jarrett, former adviser to President Barack Obama; Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J.; journalist Shaun King and voting rights activist/rapper Remy Ma and others.
  • “Cosby” show alum “Geoffrey Owens visited CBS This Morning on Monday to discuss his life after making headlines in September for working at Trader Joe’s,” Katherine Schaffstall reported Monday for the Hollywood Reporter. She also wrote, “Owens then criticized the news outlets that exploited the story in an attempt to ‘appeal to our worser natures.’ He said, ‘I do not so readily forgive.’ “
  • “Back in 1998 and 1999 something happened to cause the deaths of so many homeless and Native American men,” Tim Giago wrote Oct. 15 for indianz.com. “Was it all a colossal set of circumstances? Most Native Americans living in and around Rapid City [S.D.] think not. They believe that somewhere there is a murderer or murderers walking around laughing about all of the Indians they killed. After the mysterious deaths of Indians and homeless men stopped the same thing began happening to Indian and homeless men in and around Denver. If there was indeed a murderer running [loose] did he relocate to Denver? . . .”
  • Ervin Hester Sr.
    Ervin Hester Sr.

    “ABC11 reported on Thursday the passing of Ervin Lee Hester, Sr., a former WTVD anchor who made history in the early 1970s as the first African-American anchor in the southeast,” Brooke Cain reported Thursday for the News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C. “Hester, who was 81, died Thursday. . . . He worked at WTVD as a reporter and weekend anchor and hosted a community affairs program called ‘Reel Perspectives’ as well as a magazine show called ‘Primetime.’ Hester left WTVD in 1996. . . . He was inducted into the NC Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 1996 — the first African-American to receive that honor. . . “

  • “Camille Williams has revealed that she is no longer at KARE,” Neal Justin reported Oct. 24 for the Star Tribune in Minneapolis. “The journalist,who co-anchored the weekend news with husband Cory Hepola, shared the news on Twitter.
  • “NBC News Digital has hired Janell Ross (formerly from the Washington Post) as a reporter for NBC BLK, NBC News’ digital vertical covering stories, issues and opinions of the Black community,” NBC announced on Monday. Ross was sidelined at the Post in January after she participated in a private gathering in November attended by Democratic lawmakers and liberal activists, including the billionaire benefactor George Soros.
  • Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of the Columbia Journalism Review, and Jelani Cobb, director of the Ira A. Lipman Center for Journalism and Civil and Human Rights at Columbia University School of Journalism, plan a frank discussion with a panel of experts about race, representation and the media on Nov. 5. The event, on the eve of the midterm elections, will serve as the kickoff for CJR’s fall print issue due out that day, devoted to the subject of race. The event is to be streamed.
  • “For some local newsrooms, mugshots — which are often public records, and easy to obtain from local law enforcement — remain a staple, even as others turn away from them,” Corey Hutchins wrote Oct. 24 for Columbia Journalism Review. Ted Gest, a founding partner of John Jay College’s Center on Media, Crime, and Justice, says, “My question would be: Is it fair to people if you don’t show the disposition of the case?”
  • “A community dialogue project produced by Alaska Public Media that aimed to bridge social divides is the winner of Current’s 2018 Local That Works contest, Tyler Falk reported Friday for Current.org. “Now in its second year, Local That Works spotlights innovative projects in public and nonprofit media that can be replicated by other organizations. . . .”
  • “Filmmaker Ava DuVernay is collaborating with TIME as the guest editor of our next Optimist issue,” Time wrote on Tuesday. “To celebrate, we’d like you to participate in the project. Send us a short video, capturing anything that makes you feel optimistic. We may include your clip in the upcoming special project. . . .”
  • “Negocios Now founder Clemente Nicado received the ‘Latino Publisher of the Year’ award during the National Association of Hispanic Publications (NAHP) convention, held October 24-26 in Las Vegas,” Negocios Now, a business-to-business Hispanic publication based in Chicago,  announced. “He was hired by the Chicago Tribune in 2003 to launch HOY, Chicago’s first daily Hispanic newspaper. . . .”
  • Corinne Chin
    Corinne Chin

    “In our 11th edition of Behind the Byline, our interview series helping you get to know the journalists who bring you the news, we talk to video editor Corinne Chin about the power of visuals and how she developed a passion for telling untold stories,” Amy Wong wrote in a Q-and-A Thursday for the Seattle Times.

  • “It is unacceptable that your Sept. 16 issue, with a headline that declares ‘Democracy at Risk,’ contains not a single review by an African-American or any writer of color,” New York journalist Jill Nelson wrote in a letter published Oct. 19 in the New York Times Book Review. Nelson also wrote, “The message conveyed is that the erasure and contempt displayed by the current white supremacist occupants of the White House and at least half of Congress is too often mirrored by the so-called intelligentsia, willingly or not.”
  • “Monica Hernandez, who has been a reporter and fill-in anchor for WFAA/Channel 8, is leaving the station, news director Carolyn Mungo confirms, “Robert Philpot reported Monday for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “Hernandez has accepted a main anchor role out of state, Mungo said, without specifying what city. According to local TV-blogger Ed Bark, who first reported the departure on his Uncle Barky’s Bites website, it’s a station somewhere in the Northeast. . . .”
  • “A petition has been created to include the word ‘Afro-Latina’ in the dictionary. Poet Melania-Luisa Marte started the petition in hopes of bringing more visibility the term,” Latino Rebels reported on Tuesday.
  • Fredricka Whitfield of CNN appears to be the only journalist on the “Ebony Power 100,” compiled in conjunction with the magazine’s Power 100 Gala on Nov. 20 in Los Angeles.
  • “Journalists in Zimbabwe continue to push for the reform of oppressive media laws and a freer media environment following the violent aftermath of the first general election in the country since Robert Mugabe’s 37-year-long regime ended last year,” Sanna Pekkonen reported Oct. 24 for the International Press Institute.
  • “Impunity is entrenched in 14 nations, according to CPJ’s 2018 Global Impunity Index, which ranks states with the worst records of prosecuting the killers of journalists,” Elisabeth Witchel reported for the Committee to Protect Journalists. “Somalia tops the list for the fourth year in a row and two countries rejoin the list of offenders, including Afghanistan where a suicide attacker targeted a group of journalists in Kabul, killing nine. Colombia also reappeared on the ranks after a breakaway faction of a guerrilla group with alleged ties to drug trafficking kidnapped an Ecuadoran news crew near the border and murdered them in Colombian territory. . . .”
  • “On Sunday, Brazilians elected a racist, fascist, homophobe as their 39th president,” Kiratiana Freelon reported Tuesday for The Root. “Jair Bolsonaro captured 55 percent of the vote over center-left candidate Fernando Haddad. While Bolsonaro doesn’t take office until January, Brazilians are facing the instant ramifications of electing a president obsessed with machine guns and white supremacy. . . .”
  • “It is a cruel irony that Jamal Khashoggi’s last unpublished column for The Washington Post was a call for press freedom in the Arab world,” Robert Mahoney reported for the Committee to Protect Journalists. “His homeland, Saudi Arabia, has spent the last three decades and hundreds of millions of dollars to ensure that never happens. . . .”
  • “Jamal Khashoggi was murdered because he had become a critic of the Saudi regime, and . . . we call on Saudi Arabia to end its violence against journalists,” Reporters Without Borders said Thursday, updated Friday. “At least 28 Saudi journalists, columnists and bloggers who are in prison are there for the same reason, because their articles and their online posts annoyed the regime. . . .”
  • “Newsrooms of the state-owned media in Sri Lanka were targeted and editorial staff harassed following the controversial appointment of former president Mahinda Rajapaksha as the new Prime Minister by President Maithripala Sirisena on October 26,” the International Federation of Journalists reported Monday. According to reports, a group of loyalists of Rajapaksha’s Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (Sri Lanka People’s Front)  “barged into the layout section of the Daily News on October 26 night and changed the layout telling that they were acting under orders from the PM’s office. Similarly, the staff at the Sunday Observer . . . were pressured to publish a story of Rajapaksa being sworn in, and warned not to report any stories regarding [sacked prime minister Ranil] Wickremesinghe. Senior journalists at the paper had tweeted protest against it. . . .”

 

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2 comments

Greg Thrasher October 31, 2018 at 6:20 pm

The racist attack by those in both the White and Black Media Platforms against Farrakhan is a tiresome and predictable theme that is nothing more than a deflection and lazy journalism. There is no equivalency at all between Farrakhan and the carnage of White Domestic terrorists like Dylan Roof and the Synagogue Killer

I am disappointed that Journalism and other Black Media outlets have inserted this offensive narrative as part of their media coverage

BLM

Reply
Linn Washington November 1, 2018 at 10:37 am

Mr Prince (Richard)…or more accurately: Professor

Thanks for the instructive, illuminating 10/31 Journali-isms postings from items involving Farrakhan to that poignant account about newsroom prejudice(s) from Canadian journalist Sunny Dhillon.

As always, you fulfilled the dual missions that gave birth to First Amendment Press Freedom right: informing the people and being a watchdog on power.

-As 19th Century journalist and AME Bishop Levi Coppin wrote in the seminal 1891 book “The Afro-American Press and It’s Editors”:
“It is a mistaken idea for a journalist to suppose it is his business to take the “public pulse” and then adapt himself to whatever condition he finds to exist. It is his business to educate and elevate public opinion…”

Professor Linn Washington

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