Short Takes

• Seth Prince, sports editor at the Oregonian in Portland, has accepted "a great job with Student Media at the University of Oklahoma," he told colleagues. Prince is Cherokee and Choctaw. He is to be digital and design adviser. 
  
  
• Maxie C. Jackson III, who in April 2013 left the National Federation of Community Broadcasters, where he was president and CEO, has been named manager of 90.3 WCPN ideastream in Cleveland. "ideastream is a public service, multiple-media organization with a mission to strengthen our communities," according to a news release. Jackson has also been senior director, program development for New York Public Radio (WNYC), and radio program director for WETA-FM in Washington. 
  
  
• Sylvester Monroe, veteran journalist at such publications as Time, Newsweek and Ebony and most recently senior editor at American Public Media, based in Los Angeles, is joining the Washington Post as an assistant foreign editor, Monroe told colleagues. He said he starts Aug. 25.
  
  
• Fannie Flono, associate editor at the Charlotte (N.C.) Observer, where she writes editorials, is retiring after 30 years there, she told Journal-isms. "I don't have any plans," Flono said, adding that she was awaiting "the next chapter" and that "I hope they replace me with a female and another minority."
  
  
• "Less than two years after being named Editor of Spanish-language daily La Opinión, Reynaldo Mena is no longer with the paper,"Veronica Villafañe reported Thursday for her Media Moves site. "His last day was yesterday. The same day, impreMedia, the paper's parent company, announced that Gabriel Lerner was promoted to Editorial Director, replacing Mena. . . ."
  
  
• Jose Antonio Vargas, the journalist-turned-immigration activist, is relocating to San Francisco. "I made a big personal decision, which is better for my health and creative being: I am coming home — home being the SF Bay Area, where my family and family of friends live," he told social media colleagues. "Ten summers ago, I left San Francisco and moved to Washington, D.C., where I lived for five years. Then I moved to NYC, where I've lived for the past five years. Now it's time to come home. I will still be traveling a lot but, starting in August, my shoes will be in one place in San Francisco. . . ."
  
  
• "Ken Armstrong, an investigative reporter for The Seattle Times, will join the staff of The Marshall Project in the coming weeks, Marshall Project editor-in-chief Bill Keller confirmed Tuesday,"Benjamin Mullin reported Thursday for the Poynter Institute. Keller, former executive editor of the New York Times, told Journal-isms in March that site founder "Neil Barsky and I agreed from our first conversation that The Marshall Product would recruit a diverse staff. The criminal justice system, which will be the focus of our reporting, touches people of color disproportionately, as is distressingly evident from the population of our overstuffed prisons, the profiles of the victims, and the impact on families and communities." However, Simone Weichselbaum, formerly of the Daily News in New York, is the only black journalist hired to date. 
  
  
• Eva Rodriguez, who oversaw coverage of Europe and the Americas on the foreign desk of the Washington Post, is leaving the Post to become a senior editor at Politico magazine, Post editors told staffers on Thursday. She is the second Latino journalist who has announced plans to leave the newspaper recently. Ernesto Londoño, a reporter and former foreign correspondent, is joining the New York Times editorial board. Rodriguez has been at the Post since 2007 and has been an editorial writer and deputy editor of the Style section.

NABJ, NAHJ Move Toward Joint Convention

July 31, 2014

Meeting Could Assemble Most Journalists of Color Since '08

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Meeting Could Assemble Most Journalists of Color Since '08

The associations representing journalists from the nation's two largest groups of color — blacks and Hispanics — have signed a memorandum of understanding to hold a joint convention in 2016, Bob Butler, president of the National Association of Black Journalists, and Hugo Balta, president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, announced on Thursday.

The two presidents held a news conference at the NABJ convention in Boston, which had attracted 1,984 paid registrants as of Wednesday night and is expected to exceed 2,000 on Thursday. The prospect of a joint 2016 meeting could attract 3,000 journalists in that election year, the presidents said. "I want a [presidential] debate at NABJ-NAHJ 2016," Butler said at the news conference.

A convention of 3,000 journalists of color would make it the largest such conference since the 2008 Unity: Journalists of Color meeting in Chicago. Some 7,550 attended on its final Sunday, though that figure includes sponsors and others who were not registered.

The 2012 Unity conference, held without NABJ but including NAHJ, the Asian American Journalists Association, the Native American Journalists Association and the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association, registered 2,385 people, Unity's executive director said at the time.

The idea of a joint convention between NABJ and NAHJ was broached a year ago at the Hispanic journalists convention in Anaheim, Calif., as Balta made a case to his members for withdrawing from the Unity: Journalists for Diversity coalition. NABJ had already withdrawn, citing governance and financial issues. NAHJ followed later in 2013.

"We need to be there in Washington, D.C.," Balta told Journal-isms then. Butler said Thursday, however, that the choice of cities would depend on "who's going to give us the best deal."

Still to be resolved are such issues as revenue- and cost-sharing between the two groups. Once those are settled and the two organizations contract to hold the convention together, a request for proposals is to be published. Darryl R. Matthews Sr., the NABJ executive director, said he expected the process to be "wrapped up" by the end of the year.

Unity: Journalists for Diversity, which includes AAJA, NAJA and NLGJA, has not announced its plans for 2016.

However, Butler said, the NABJ-NAHJ event should not be compared with Unity. "Unity was an organization. This is two organizations working collaboratively to have a convention."

NABJ's Boston attendance figures are comparable to those from its 2013 meeting in Orlando, Fla. On the Tuesday of that convention, then-NABJ Executive Director Maurice Foster said 1,937 people were registered, a figure that includes exhibitors. The previous year, NABJ attracted 2,586 registrants in New Orleans.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Matthews said he was more excited that NABJ had reached $1 million in "partnerships," a word he preferred to sponsorships because it places the two parties on an equal footing. The $1 million figure exceeds that of the last two years, he said.

This is the first time NABJ has met in Boston, and that "sends a big message that in Boston we are moving forward," Mayor Martin J. Walsh told the assembled journalists on Thursday. As Wayne Dawkins noted in the NABJ Journal, the organization's magazine, "Despite a more relaxed, inviting atmosphere in today's Boston, many NABJ members' experiences there were seared during the city's hostile racial era during the 1970s through early 1990s."

Walsh, speaking at the downtown John B. Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention Center, urged attendees to consider seeking jobs in his city, noting that "Boston is a very different place today" and that two-thirds of residents under 19 are black and Latino.

The convention opened just after the American Society of News Editors released its annual diversity survey. It showed that the number of journalists of color in newspaper and online newsrooms increased by 1 percentage point, to 13.34 percent, while the figure for black journalists declined from 1,790 to 1,754.

"It almost seems as though ethnic diversity is coming at the expense of African American journalists," Butler told Journal-isms. He said he was disappointed that the decline took place "despite all of the efforts of NABJ" and despite the outcry this year about the lack of inclusion at new, online  journalism ventures. In March, NABJ wrote an "open letter to media startups."

Also on Thursday, Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee, defended voter identification laws, saying he had collected affidavits that documented voter fraud in Wisconsin. Priebus said he wanted a system where "voting is easy but it's hard to cheat." Critics have called such laws voter suppression aimed at audiences likely to vote Democratic, principally people of color and young people.

Priebus also called on Republicans to become more active in pressing their cause between elections. "If you don't show up until five hours before the election, you're not giving people a choice," he said. Priebus noted that only 6 percent of African Americans vote Republican; that his mother was born in Khartoum, Sudan; and that he had clerked for the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund in Los Angeles.

The chairman said those are not reasons for switching to the GOP, but "All of us have a story to tell, but if nobody's there to tell the story, then we're not going to move the dial."

The GOP chairman also said he "sat down with Bob Johnson," co-founder of Black Entertainment Television, who "wants companies to diversify executive leadership."

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., the Democratic National Committee chair, is scheduled to address the organization Friday.

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, appearing on his 58th birthday, opened Thursday's events with a challenge to journalists not to confuse political drama and substance.

"We need you to challenge the leaders who say they want to get results but then actively refuse to act: like the folks who say we need to rebuild our highway system then refuse to fund the Highway Trust Fund, or who say they want fiscal discipline then push the federal government into default, or the folks who say Americans should have the security of health insurance then vote to take it away.

"We need you to challenge the racist bullies who claim you are the ones playing the race card when they are the ones dealing it.

"We need you to ask why, in a country whose public is ready for pragmatic and compassionate solutions, some leaders offer immigrant hatred in the place of immigration reform. . . ."

Also at the convention:

• Harvard Law School Professor Charles Ogletree, an early supporter of President Obama's White House aspirations, said of his friend, "In the next 2 1/2 years, he'll have to talk more about race. We will not tolerate him sitting back and being passive about race. George Bush was outraged by Rodney King. He said this is wrong." Obama must speak out "not because he's black but because he's president of the United States." Ogletree participated in a luncheon conversation about race Thursday with broadcast journalist Ed Gordon, in which he also said first lady Michelle Obama should be drafted to run for president.
  
  
• Carole Simpson, the retired anchor at ABC News now based in Boston, complained that the theme song from the Boston-located "Cheers" TV show should not have been chosen as music for the ceremony because there were no blacks on the show. Simpson was co-hosting Wednesday's opening reception ceremony. Manuel Smith, a member of the production team, told Journal-isms that the "Cheers" reference was supposed to be part of a comedy routine but that Simpson took the reference in another direction. 

Members previewed "Get On Up," the new biographical drama about entertainer James Brown, to favorable notices. The film opens Friday.

• Nelson George, New York Times: His Own Godfather: James Brown Is Celebrated in 'Get On Up'
  
  
• Trymaine Lee, msnbc.com: Reince Priebus: GOP gains among minorities won’t happen overnight
  
  
• David Remick, New Yorker: The Possessed: James Brown in Eighteen Minutes

Follow Richard Prince on Twitter @princeeditor

Facebook users: "Like""Richard Prince's Journal-isms" on Facebook.

Redskins' Website on Team Name Gets 3 Pinnochios

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

The Washington Post's "Fact-Checker" column has awarded three Pinocchios— "significant factual error and/or obvious contradictions"— to the Washington Redskins' new website defending the team mame.

Glenn Kessler wrote Thursday, "The Washington Redskins have been paying for ads promoting a new Web site, RedskinsFacts.com, which supposedly sprung up organically from frustrated former players who wanted to defend the team's embattled name, which many find offensive. (Slate turned up evidence that the Web site is tied to image-makers Burson-Marsteller, which was later confirmed by the team.)

"'We believe the Redskins name deserves to stay,' the Web site says on its 'facts' landing page. 'It epitomizes all the noble qualities we admire about Native Americans — the same intangibles we expect from Washington's gridiron heroes on game day. Honor. Loyalty. Unity. Respect. Courage. And more. On this page, you can read more about the storied history of the Redskins identity.'

"Anytime an organization sets up a 'facts' Web site, it calls out for fact checking. . . ."

• Mike Dyce, fansided.com: Hillary Clinton amongst those who think the Redskins should change their name
  
  
• Editorial, Washington Post: Redskins name gets even harder for Daniel Snyder to defend
  
  
• Hadas Gold, Politico: Washington Business Journal to ban 'Redskins'
  
  
• Indian Country Today Media Network: Yo, Daniel Snyder! D.C. Dumped These Demeaning 'Redskin' Images in 1958
  
  
• Mike Wise, Washington Post: Time to admit: The area’s NFL team belongs to Virginia
  
  
• Hansi Lo Wang, NPR "Code Switch": At Washington's Training Camp, Fans Are Split On Name Change(July 26)

Walker, Formerly of McClatchy-Tribune, Lands at Scripps

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.Harry Walker, who lost his job as director of McClatchy-Tribune Photo Service in Washington after Tribune Publishing assumed full ownership of the news and information business, joins the Naples (Fla.) Daily News next month as director of visuals, Daily News Editor Manny Garcia announced to staff members on Tuesday.

"During his career, he has coordinated coverage or photographed numerous national and international events, including the Gulf War, presidential inaugurations, and political conventions, Olympics, Super Bowls, the NCAA Final Four and more," the announcement said.

"Harry is unselfish with his time and talent and is focused on leading our terrific visuals team to even greater successes. He's a cheerleader, teacher, forward- thinking, colleague and mentor.

"He often works with the Poynter Institute, Visual Edge, National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) Best of Photo Journalism Contest, National Association of Black [Journalists] and Ohio News [Photographers] Association (ONPA). Harry and his teams have received numerous honors, including the White House News Photographers Association and NPPA Best of Photojournalism contest. . . ."

The announcement quoted Kenny Irby, Poynter Institute senior faculty, visual journalism and diversity and director of community relations: "He's a visionary leader who will help the entire company excel to the next level of journalistic quality and service."

Walker was features and weekend photo editor at the Kansas City Star. He started his photojournalism career as a staff photographer for the Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch.

Garcia told Journal-isms that the E.W. Scripps Co., owner of the Naples Daily News, reached out to Walker after learning of the threat to his job in Journal-isms.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Latinos-as-White Stories Called Damaging as Well as Wrong

A May story on the New York Times website that asserted that more Latinos are considering themselves white riled some Latino journalists so much that a panel on the subject took place Friday at the National Association of Hispanic Journalists convention in San Antonio.

It wasn't simply discussed. Signs with a range of Latino faces and the hashtag "#What Latinos Look Like" were placed around the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center.

The panel's consensus: Stories about Latinos and race require a level of nuance and understanding too great to be left to reporters with no background in the subject. And if mishandled, the results can be damaging. The Times misrepresented the study it reported on, they said.

"I cringed, but I knew exactly how it got there," veteran journalist Ray Suarez, now a host on Al Jazeera America, said from the audience about the Times piece. "Nobody should have been surprised."

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

The original item was by Nate Cohn for the Upshot, a Times blog on demographics. Its editor, David Leonhardt, former Times Washington bureau chief, has stood by the story but the Times did not respond to an invitation to appear in San Antonio, according to panel organizer Julio Ricardo Varela, founder of the Latino Rebels website. The item gained traction as Cohn returned to the subject in a subsequent posting and the idea was picked up on television.

The researchers whose preliminary work was cited by Cohn wrote their own report this week on the U.S. Census Bureau website.

"We wonder if Cohn will take back his initial reporting?" Varela wrote Wednesday on Latino Rebels, pointing to the researchers' latest work. "He clearly only reported one part of the study and made some incredibly sweeping generalizations that never made sense to us."

No sense and damaging, panelists said. "Latinos are a multiracial identity. It's as simple as that,"Roque Planas, the editor of HuffPost LatinoVoices who describes himself as a white Hispanic, said in his opening remarks. "There is no mestizo box, no mulatto box in the census. . . . The questions are confusing."

Racial categories in the United States are not the same as in Latin America, said Blanca E. Vega, director of the Higher Education Opportunity Program at Marymount Manhattan College. Her family is from Ecuador, and she said she had mostly African but also Native roots.

"In the United States, a different process of racialization occurs," Vega said. That process accelerated after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the racial profiling that resulted, she said.

Yvonne Latty, an NAHJ board member whose parents are Dominican and Jamaican, said it was difficult for her to discuss the subject without emotion.

"I felt, 'here we go again,'" she said. The study was saying "you, too, can still live the American dream, like the Irish and the Italians, but if you're black, you're the minority again. This was very, very divisive. In my childhood in New York City, all the Puerto Ricans and the Dominicans wanted to be white. I was always (considered) ugly, and it hurt. The first time I was called a nigger was by Puerto Ricans. . . . The voices of Afro-Latinos, I don't feel like we're heard. We're not seen."

Planas said, "We have a problem of racism within the Latino community that nobody talks about."

Latty, a journalism professor at New York University, later led her own discussion of Afro-Latinos in a corner of the convention's job fair. Her list of Latino groups that needed more black participation included NAHJ. "If you show more diversity within the organization, it makes people want to join who are black," she said.

Mekahlo Medina, who is running unopposed for NAHJ president, told Journal-isms that he agreed with Latty that NAHJ could be more diverse.

Vega advocated more conversation among journalists, educators and politicians. She said the Times piece follows a troubling media narrative.

First, she said, it was, "Watch out, the Latinos are coming.""Then, watch out, black folks, Latinos are going to pass you now.""Now we have, wait a minute, Latinos are going white, if you can't beat 'em join 'em.

"They scare the hell out of the population."

Latty urged journalists to "be bold" and speak out against such representations. Planas said his social media campaign on the Times' pieces "was hands down the best thing we've ever done."

"We're in a world where it's OK to say as a journalist, 'This is what matters to us,'" Varela said.

• Melanie Balakit, Latino Reporter: NAHJ and NABJ Agree to Convention as Unity Mulls Decision


• Alex Corey, Latino Reporter: What do Latinos look like? (Aug. 9)

Barnett Named Executive Editor of Whitlock's ESPN Site

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

"ESPN Digital & Print Media today announced that award-winning journalist Amy DuBois Barnett will join ESPN as Executive Editor of Jason Whitlock’s upcoming site that will provide coverage, commentary and insight about sports and culture directed [toward] an African-American audience," the sports network announced on Thursday.

"In this role, Barnett will manage editorial operations for the site. She will report to Whitlock, founder and Editor-in-Chief.

“ 'Amy’s impressive resume across a wide range of publications and brands, as well as her leadership experience, will ensure that the site will be at the forefront of news and commentary relevant to African-Americans,' said Whitlock.

"'Together, we aim to serve audiences with quality and innovative journalism when the site debuts.'

“We continue to attract highly-acclaimed editors that bring a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the ESPN Digital & Print Media team, and Amy is a prime example,” added Patrick Stiegman, vice president and editorial director, ESPN Digital & Print Media. 'She and Jason are building a tremendous team that will speak to, entertain, inform and serve African-American audiences about sports and culture.'

"Most recently, Barnett was Editor-in-Chief of Ebony, the oldest and largest African-American magazine in the country. At Ebony, Barnett executed the publication's first top-to-bottom redesign in its 68-year history and also re-launched Ebony.com, both to critical acclaim. . . ."

Robert Lipsyte, the ESPN ombudsman, wrote of the Whitlock site last month, "If the new moon rises and fulfills the expectations of ESPN president John Skipper, its most prominent champion, it will have the potential of becoming the media empire’s signal social achievement.

"The rewards for success are enormous, for ESPN, Whitlock, the staff and the audience. It is also the riskiest of the affinity sites. Race is America's greatest historical problem and its deepest divide. Sports, paradoxically, is the area of greatest visible progress in racial equality as well as greatest hypocrisy. To open a meaningful, ongoing discussion while giving opportunities to a new generation of journalists of color would be an incalculable contribution, well beyond sports.

"'We want to be a birthplace for careers,' says Skipper, who added: 'It's also a commercial move. African-Americans believe ESPN is their TV network, but they are more ambivalent about ESPN.com as their site. We want to be the place to go when the community wants some conversation about Jay Z becoming an agent, about the racial aspects of Richie Incognito and Jonathan Martin. African-Americans are big sports fans, and we want that audience.' . . ."

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

ESPN Suspends Le Batard Over Billboard Mocking LeBron

"ESPN television and radio host Dan Le Batard was suspended for two days after he paid for billboards in Cleveland that mockingly read 'You’re Welcome LeBron; Love, Miami' and displayed the two title rings he won with the Heat,"Chris Chase wrote Thursday for USA Today.

"The billboards were a sly reference to James’ famed letter to Cleveland, which seemed to thank everybody except for Miami fans and their four years of support. The top line was written in Comic Sans, of course.

"The network released a statement about the suspension on Thursday.

"'Dan LeBatard will be off the air for two days, returning Monday. His recent stunt does not reflect ESPN's standards and brand. Additionally, we were not made aware of his plans in advance.'

"Le Batard had been joking for weeks about playfully sabotaging LeBron's big welcome home rally in Akron. At first, he debated taking out a full-page newspaper ad. Then, he researched the costs of pulling a banner with an airplane. Finally, he and his show took out the billboards. . . ."

• John Harper, Northeast Ohio Media Group: 'You're Welcome, LeBron,' reads billboard purchased by Miami radio host
  
  
• Jason McIntyre, the Big Lead: Dan Le Batard Suspended Two Days by ESPN for Buying 'You're Welcome LeBron' Billboard [UPDATE]

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Lester Holt Jams With the Roots on "The Tonight Show"

"I can't tell you how many times I've walked down the 6th floor hallway of 30 Rock and heard The Roots rehearsing behind closed doors just outside 'The Tonight Show' studio, wishing I could muster the nerve to walk in, hang out and watch,"Lester Holt, weekend NBC News anchor, wrote Thursday for the network. "Or maybe (dare I dream) even jam with them.

"Well, Wednesday night was that night and a whole lot more. It began last week with an email saying: 'The Roots would love to have you sit-in with them during a taping of 'The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon.' My reply was an emphatic YES!

"As many of our viewers know, my other passion aside from news is music. I’ve played the bass, both guitar and upright, since I was a kid, and from time to time I have been able to combine my passions. Most recently I was invited to perform a few impromptu songs on stage at The Newport Jazz Festival while I was doing a story on its 60th anniversary for 'Nightly News.'

"Performing with The Roots, however, was something entirely different. . . ."

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

BuzzFeed Boasts a Dozen Latino Staff Bylines

"Online news outlets have been gaining on print when it comes to getting minorities in their newsrooms,"Dennis Romero wrote Tuesday for LA Weekly. "There, one in five journalists is a person of color. One publication, BuzzFeed, says it's showing the way forward when it comes to covering Latinos in the United States:

"The site has gone on a hiring spree this year, adding about a dozen Latino bylines to its staff, although about three of those people are temporary fellows. . . . A majority of those folks are in BuzzFeed's airy Los Angeles office on Beverly Boulevard.

"The growth represents an explosion, as BuzzFeed employed only a pair of Latino reporters before its hiring spree this summer and spring. Already this month, BuzzFeed received a National Association of Hispanic Journalists Media Award for 'truly humanizing stories about Latinos fighting, protesting, fasting for immigration reform.'

"The driving force behind the stories, and the man directing BuzzFeed's Latino coverage, is its new Latino editor, twentysomething Adrian Carrasquillo. Appointed to the position in April, he's been covering the shooting of an unarmed black teenager in Ferguson, Missouri, reporting on the child immigration crisis on the border, and sorting BuzzFeed's Latino content so that it gets to the virtual front-pages of the site.

"'I want to respect the audience and I want people to feel we come from an authentic place,' he says.

"Carrasquillo has corralled a team of young, hungry reporters for BuzzFeed, including Juan Gastelum. Interviewed along with a half-dozen other Latinos at BuzzFeed's L.A. office, Gastelum says that the site has had to reconcile the fact that the dominant Latino faction in the U.S., Mexican Americans, reside mostly in the Southwest, even as the news industry has a strong northeast bias. . . ."

• Gabe Rosenberg, contently.net: Journalism Has a Diversity Problem. How Can We Fix It?

Short Takes

• Image may be NSFW.
  Clik here to view.Marcus Mabry, a digital editor of the New York Times and an author, was elected president of the Overseas Press Club of America, "a 75-year-old organization that awards the most prestigious prizes devoted exclusively to international news coverage," the press club announced on Thursday.
  
  
• "Nogales, Ariz., municipal officials are engaged in a dispute about free speech and journalism ethics with commentators at the city's top radio station, claiming the on-air personalities have a financial motive for a perceived smear campaign against them,"Paul Giblin reported Thursday for the Arizona Republic. Nogales Mayor Arturo Garino and the City Council "claim that news coverage and commentary about city matters on KOFH-FM 99.1 turned negative after the city stopped paying the radio station for news interviews when Garino took office in 2011. . . ."
  
  
• "Imagine our dismay Tuesday morning when we opened the paper to read a most offensive subhead atop a Loop item about Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro and his staff,"Al Kamen and Colby Itkowitz wrote Tuesday in their "In the Loop" column for the Washington Post. "The copy editor who wrote it — a brilliant and supremely reliable colleague who had a bad day — was attempting to evoke the Texas origins of the secretary and his aides. He has apologized." The National Association of Hispanic Journalists Friday condemned the subheadline, "We'll send more fajitas." NAHJ President Mekahlo Medina said the Post should not have waited a day to apologize and that the incident shows the need for more Latinos on staff. The Post reported a newsroom 2.7 percent Latino in the latest census [PDF] of the American Society of News Editors.
  
  
• Gerrick Kennedy, music writer for the Los Angeles Times and the National Association of Black Journalists'"Emerging Journalist of the Year" for 2012, is profiled in the gay pubication the Advocate as one of the 40 emerging voices under 40.
  
  
• Three journalists of color have been hired at WEYI-TV/WBSF-TV/EEYI-TV in Flint, Mich., owned by conservative commentator Armstrong Williams: Jesse Gonzales, photographer; Jiquanda Johnson, digital producer, and Nicky Zizaza, reporter.
  
  
• A. Peter Bailey, an aide to Malcolm X and recent author of a book about their time together, wrote a column for TriceEdneyWire.com this week, "The Numerous Ways That Black Folks Sustain White Supremacy," that is reminiscent of the philosophy Bailey and Malcolm shared.
  
  
• Essence Communications Friday announced an extended agreement with the state of Louisiana and the city of New Orleans to host the annual Essence Festival, held on the July 4 weekend, through 2019.
  
  
• Keith Harriston, metropolitan editor at the Washington Post from 1985 to 2008, on Monday joined George Washington University as senior managing editor of GW Today, the official online news source for the university.
  
  
• "Liberian journalists are said to be of no exception to the night time nationwide curfew imposed by President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf but the Press Union of Liberia (PUL) has written the Information Ministry to grant reprieve to journalists during the curfew hours," the News in Monrovia reported. Liberia is struggling with efforts to contain the Ebola virus. A Wednesday announcement said that only health workers, utility workers and airline passengers and crew are exempt from the curfew.
  
  
• "The Venezuelan Association of Foreign Journalists (Apevex) put out a statement on Wednesday denouncing the government of Nicolás Maduro over their attempts to 'silence journalists and independent media,'” PanAm Post reported on Friday. "In the last week, the Venezuelan government shut down the Radio Caracas Radio (RCR) program Aquí entre tú y yo (Between You and Me) and suspended the 22-year-old independent radio station Sensacional 94.7 FM. . . ."
  
  

Follow Richard Prince on Twitter @princeeditor

Facebook users: "Like""Richard Prince's Journal-isms" on Facebook.

William Greaves,  Pioneering Documentarian, Dies at 87

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view."William Greaves, a producer and director who helped bring an African-American perspective to mainstream America as a host of the groundbreaking television news program 'Black Journal' and as a documentary filmmaker, died on Monday at his home in Manhattan,"Mel Watkins reported Aug. 26 for the New York Times. "He was 87.

"His daughter-in-law Bernice Green confirmed his death.

"Mr. Greaves was well known for his work as a documentarian focusing on racial issues and black historical figures. In his later years he was equally known for his most uncharacteristic film, 'Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One.' Made in 1968, it mixed fact and fiction in a complex film-within-a-film structure that made it a tough sell commercially, and it waited almost four decades for theatrical release. When it finally had one, in 2005, it was warmly praised as ahead of its time.

' a monthly hourlong National Educational Television newsmagazine that made its debut in 1968 in response to a call by the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders to expand coverage of black affairs. It was the only nationally telecast series devoted to black issues in the 1960s.

Watkins also wrote, "He went on to write, produce or direct films including the well-received PBS documentaries 'Ida B. Wells: A Passion for Justice' (1989) and 'Ralph Bunche: An American Odyssey' (2001), as well as explorations of contemporary political and cultural issues like 'Black Power in America: Myth or Reality?' (1986) and 'That’s Black Entertainment' (1989). His work won awards at numerous festivals. . . ."

Public Stations Get $6.2 Million More for Dropout Efforts

"American Graduate: Let's Make It Happen, CPB's dropout prevention initiative, announced Wednesday another $6.2 million in grants to 33 stations and unveiled plans for a third daylong national broadcast produced by New York’s WNET,"Dru Sefton reported Aug. 27 for Current.org.

"The funding targets communities where graduation is especially low among students of diverse races, ethnicities, incomes and disabilities, and where students struggle with limited English skills.

"In addition, 20 stations will receive a total of $200,000 from Newman’s Own Foundation, the late actor Paul Newman’s charity, to bolster outreach for American Graduate–related donations.

"The support is the latest infusion to the initiative that CPB announced with an initial $4.4 million grant in 2011 and ramped up with $20 million and a PBS partnership earlier this year.

"'Education is at the core of public media’s mission,' said CPB President Pat Harrison in Wednesday’s announcement, adding that more than 1,000 organizations are partnering with stations in American Graduate work nationwide. 'We are proud of public media’s content and on the ground engagement that has raised awareness to achieve 80 percent graduation rates nationally and helped America see the potential in every student.' . . ."

Sulzberger on Honeymoon in His Year for Diversity

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr., the chairman and publisher of the New York Times who appointed its first African American executive editor this year in Dean Baquet, is honeymooning with his new bride. She is Gabrielle Elise Greene, a partner in an investment firm who is also African American.

The couple were married Saturday on Martha's Vineyard, the Times reported on Sunday.

"The bride, 54, is taking her husband's name. She is a general partner in Rustic Canyon/Fontis Partners, an investment firm in Pasadena, Calif. She works in New York, where she manages the firm's investments in private companies. She is on the boards of Whole Foods Market and Stage Stores and is a former member of the boards of the Boston Children's Museum and the Boston Partnership, which promotes diversity initiatives. She graduated from Princeton and received a law degree and an M.B.A. from Harvard," the story said.

"Mrs. Sulzberger is a daughter of Patricia Ainspac of Wilmington, N.C., and the late Gregory F. Simms, and a stepdaughter of Robert C. Ainspac. The bride’s mother, a pianist, retired as an accompanist and vocal coach in the Department of Music at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. She and the bride's father were part of a group that founded Escuela Hispana Montessori, which operates schools in New York. Later, the bride's father worked as the developer of an early reading development program that was published by Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc. Her stepfather retired as a history teacher at the Lawrenceville School in Lawrenceville, N.J. . . ."

Sulzberger, 62, messaged that the two met at a black corporate directors conference where he was a speaker. The couple were much in evidence at the National Association of Black Journalists convention July 30-Aug. 3 in Boston.

• Gabrielle Greenebio

Jason L. Riley

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.Jason L. Riley, the only black member of the Wall Street Journal editorial board, has "Please Stop Helping Us: How Liberals Make It Harder for Blacks to Succeed" (Encounter Books, $23.99).

Riley is the latest black conservative to recycle attacks on "black liberals" and progressives of all races to the applause of the like-minded. The book jacket features praise from those who might be considered the usual suspects: Charles Krauthammer, Juan Williams, John McWhorter and Robert L. Woodson Sr. Thomas Sowell wrote, "There is nothing to match Mr. Riley's book as a primer that will quickly bring you up to speed on the complicated subject of race in a week, or perhaps over a weekend." Riley has been so eager to spread his message that he has used the police killing of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., as a platform to charge that black leaders are ignoring black-on-black crime, an inaccuracy and change of subject for which he was called out.

One critic, Ian Blair, wrote in Salon, "Many of Riley's criticisms echo the oft-cited talking points of the right wing. Which makes his polemic, one that excoriates liberals for 'more of the same' particularly laughable. It is not new ideas he yearns for, but old ones that conform with his limited pre-established political leanings. But on a deeper level, Riley’s invective sheds light on the twisted logic that continues to pervade Republican circles. He thinks that once the liberal spell is lifted, black liberation will be realized. That when blacks no longer drink the liberal Kool-Aid, believing in their status as victims, they will be made whole. Republicans, desperately trying to convince blacks to abandon the Democratic Party, have imparted the same messaging (evidence be damned): Liberals have made your lives worse; but we can save you. Rid yourselves of liberalism, and follow us down the road to salvation.

"But the truth is no political ideology can save black people from the tireless forces of racism. White supremacy knows no party or clique. . . ."

• Joe Saunders, bizpacreview.com: Top black journalist hammers Obama for playing 'healer-in-chief' while Holder stokes racial fears (Aug. 20)

Mark Whitaker

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.Mark Whitaker started working on "the first major biography of an American icon, comedian Bill Cosby," after leaving CNN in January 2013.

Scheduled for release Sept. 16, "Cosby: His Life and Times" (Simon & Schuster, $29.99 hardcover; $14.99 ebook) seems poised to become a best-seller.

Whitaker was executive vice president and managing editor of CNN Worldwide, but the more salient part of Whitaker's biography is his service at Newsweek magazine, where he was editor from 1998 to 2006.

The book reads with the flow of a newsmagazine article. "Each chapter is constructed in such an organic way that it sometimes feels like you’re reading a work of fiction," one reviewer wrote.

Critics of Cosby's personal responsibility message, such as social critic Michael Eric Dyson, won't find much sympathy here. "Respect for hard work is also a key to Cosby's much-debated views on racial issues," Whitaker writes in the prologue. "It's not that he is oblivious to racism — far from it. It's just that he believes that playing its victim has never gotten blacks very far, and that ultimately his people always have and always will have to work for any meaningful advances they achieve."

Whitaker also has a few words about Cosby and the news media:

"Experiences with the media have only compounded his wariness. As far as Cosby is concerned, it's been annoying enough that for fifty years reporters and critics have persisted in dwelling on the presence — or lack — of racial themes in his work, when he's always viewed himself as searching for universal humor that can touch anyone. But in recent decades, he's endured invasive coverage of a devastating family tragedy and an embarrassing personal scandal.

"He's had to respond to what he sees as deliberately mean-spirited questioning of his lavish philanthropy and his advanced academic degrees. He makes no secret that he doesn't trust reporters, and in return some of them have spiked coverage of him with words like angry and difficult to insinuate that there's another side to his personality besides the soft and playful one so openly on display with fans and friends. . . . "

The Hollywood Reporter ran an excerpt of the book as the cover story for its Aug. 20 Emmy award issue. Cosby is pictured holding his statuette.

Trade publications have produced glowing reviews. The marketing push includes a video in which Whitaker discusses his subject.

"We expect major review coverage for the book and Mark Whitaker will be doing several national media appearances this fall,"Maureen Cole, the book's publicist, told Journal-isms by email.

• Joe Hempel, topoftheheapreviews.com: [REVIEW] Cosby: His Life and Times — Mark Whitaker (Aug. 25)
  
  
• Kirkus Reviews: COSBY His Life and Times by Mark Whitaker (July 27)
  
  
• Publishers Weekly: Cosby: His Life and Times (July 28)
  
  

Follow Richard Prince on Twitter

Facebook users: "Like""Richard Prince's Journal-isms" on Facebook.

Donte Stallworth Explains Interest in National Security

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view."Donte Stallworth, the former NFL player hired to a fellowship at the Huffington Post, says that journalists Jeremy Scahill and Glenn Greenwald 'catapulted' his interest in national security reporting,"Erik Wemple wrote Thursday for the Washington Post.

"'I befriended Glenn, and we've been pretty close for a year now and same thing with Jeremy Scahill.' Last year, Stallworth, whose playing career spanned 11 years with teams such as the New Orleans Saints and the Cleveland Browns, last year co-hosted the Miami premiere of Scahill’s film 'Dirty Wars.'

"Now Stallworth will be working the beat for the Huffington Post, though he's not sure what topics he'll focus on. 'As I start to do some projects and start working with the guys and gals over there at Huffington Post, then we’ll get down to some specifics,' he says.

"As for Stallworth's experience in writing stories, he cited two pieces that he'd done for the lefty website Think Progress — one on Michael Sam and NFL 'distractions' and another on Robert Griffin III. According to Stallworth, that’s the extent of his published archive.

"But that doesn’t include Twitter, of course, a platform on which Stallworth has been prolific — perhaps too prolific. . . ."