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K.C. Star Names First Black Top Editor

by richard0455

Managing Editor Andale Gross Once Led AP’s Race Coverage

 

Homepage photo: Andale Gross, second from bottom, left, in blue tie, and the Kansas City Star news staff. (Credit: Kansas City Star.) 

Andale Gross speaks in 2023 at the Society of Professional Journalists’ Regions 4 and 5 Conference at DePaul University’s Center for Journalism Integrity and Excellence.

Managing Editor Andale Gross Once Led AP’s Race Coverage

Andale Gross, managing editor at the Kansas City Star, Tuesday was named the news organization’s first Black top editor, just five years after the Star published a six-part package apologizing for a racist past that it said “robbed an entire community of opportunity, dignity, justice and recognition.”

Gross, 54, became managing editor in 2023 after nearly four years as race and ethnicity editor at the Associated Press. From that experience, he told Journal-isms later, it became even clearer to him “just how much race intersects with all that we cover as journalists. There are race stories to tell on health, politics, business, education, law enforcement and many other beats.

“That’s why it’s so important for news organizations to urge their reporters to not shy away from tackling stories about race and racism. And it shouldn’t just be journalists of color or the race coverage teams who are expected to do stories about race. It should be the responsibility of all the news gatherers. (Phoro shows Gross in his AP days. Credit: Associated Press)

“We’ve made progress as a news industry in covering race. But we have a lot more work to do. A lot of coverage is still done in reaction to racial incidents.

“More needs to be done on racial disparities and how inequality affects our daily lives. Coverage should also look more into the systemic racism that goes unchecked in numerous institutions from hospitals and schools to financial agencies and the military.”

Gross succeeds Greg Farmer, who this summer became executive vice president at McClatchy Media, leading local news operations across the company’s 30 markets, which include the Star, the Miami Herald and the Sacramento Bee, the Star reported Tuesday.

“I’m excited for the opportunity to lead at this level,” Gross messaged Journal-isms Tuesday. “It’s not lost on me the significance of being The Star’s first Black executive editor in its long history. But mainly I’m honored to be working with a talented group of journalists who believe in the importance of local news.”

Of the transition, Farmer said in an email to the newsroom that his partnership with his successor “has lifted me up every day,” the Star reported.

“Through his thoughtful leadership and excellent journalism chops he has earned this opportunity to lead a newsroom I’ll always be honored to call home,” Farmer said of Gross and the newspaper.

“As managing editor, Gross led The Star’s breaking news and follow-up coverage of the Chiefs rally shooting last year and was part of the leadership team that made The Star a top newsroom in McClatchy for readership and subscriber engagement,” the Star continued.

Gross also helped lead his newsroom to a Scripps Howard Journalism Award last year for the Star’s joint news and opinion coverage, with the Wichita (Kan.) Eagle, of the now-infamous police raid on the Marion County (Kan.) Record.

(You can see more about that raid in this video of the awards ceremony — and interviews of Editorial Page Editor Yvette Walker and reporter Glenn E. Rice, starting at 3:13.)

The Star’s mea culpa on race — undertaken while Gross was still at the AP — was among several by news organizations after the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police.

The Star said it “brought together an advisory board of diverse and accomplished business leaders, activists and public servants” to “work with editors and reporters to ensure that our coverage of Kansas City’s communities of color is fair, expansive and all that this city deserves.”

A column Gross wrote for the Waterloo-Cedar Falls (Iowa) Courier in September 1996 after attending a National Association of Black Journalists conference in Nashville, Tenn., outlines the standards Gross has adhered to for decades. (Credit: Pat Kinney Substack)

Pat Kinney wrote last year for the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. “Gross is a native of Moberly, Mo., a city with a population of 13,000 on U.S. Highway 63 about 30 miles north of Columbia, where the University of Missouri is located. He graduated in 1993 from ‘Mizzou,’ where he was a magazine editor.”

Kinney continued, “ ‘I think at the time I was the first Black reporter at the Monitor-Index, so I took it upon myself to write as much as I could about people I dealt with in the Black community,’ he said. ‘Because I don’t think otherwise they would have had stories written about them.

” ‘My mother has a very big family — she’s the youngest of 14 — so I think I got all my aunties into the paper somehow,’ he said, laughing. ‘I got all the mothers and fathers of the Baptist church I grew up in into the paper.’

“Moberly is in a section of north-central Missouri along the Missouri River historically known as ‘Little Dixie,’ where, prior to the Civil War, white migrants from Southern states like Virginia and Kentucky brought slavery with them. Segregation was perpetuated through the decades after the war. Gross, as a young journalist, sought to tell that history in his hometown.”

Gross covered education for the Star from 1994 to 1996.

 

Trump Berates Alcindor in Return to Form

Sept. 8, 2025
‘That’s Why You’re Second-Rate,’ President Says

 

From Sept 7:

Crime Is ‘Genetic,’ Says Trump. Rebuttals Needed:
Nazis Had a Name for It: ‘Criminal Biology’
Being a Black Journalist: ‘Can’t Make Any Mistakes’
Trust in News is Partisan, Including for Latino Outlets
Investigative Reporting Lives in Dallas, Denver

IRE Claims Title of Nation’s Largest J-Organization
‘Face the Nation’​ Now Won’t Excise Misinformation
Hundreds of Outlets Demand Press Freedom in Gaza
Proposed Rules Restrict Foreign Reporters in U.S.
‘People’ Tops List of U.S. Magazine Media Brands

Short Takes: Charles M. Blow; Manuel Bojorquez; Ann M. Simmons; ending public access to police channels; ‘good old-fashioned discrimination’ against publications aimed at LGBTQ+, other diverse audiences; Spike Lee and Colin Kaepernick; “Inside the NFL”; where not to spend too much time on your smartphone; USA Today’s Deborah Barfield Berry in Angola; Seattle Medium and AI; Gina Chua; indigenous films at Toronto film festival; Youssou N’Dour and failing independent media in Senegal.

 

“Listen. Be quiet. Listen,” President Trump demanded of Yamiche Alcindor. “You don’t listen. You never listen. That’s why you’re second-rate.” (Credit: YouTube)

‘That’s Why You’re Second-Rate,’ President Says

In a repeat of his clashes with Black female journalists who questioned him during his first term, President Trump berated NBC’s Yamiche Alcindor at the White House Sunday after she asked about his repeated threats to send the military into Chicago.

“Are you trying to go to war with Chicago?” Alcindor asked, a day after Trump threatened the city with the “Department of WAR” in a social media post.

“When you say that, darling, that’s fake news,” Trump fired back, Ed Mazza reported Sunday night for HuffPost.

“When Alcindor tried to ask a follow-up, Trump lost it,” Mazza wrote.

“Listen. Be quiet. Listen,” he demanded. “You don’t listen. You never listen. That’s why you’re second-rate.”

Trump also denied “war” with Chicago.

“We’re not going to war. We’re gonna clean up our city. We’re gonna clean ’em up so they don’t kill five people every weekend,” he said. “That’s not war. That’s common sense.”

Trump on Saturday posted an image of himself in a scene from “Apocalypse Now” with the phrase “Chipocalypse Now” (pictured, Truth Social screen shot) over it and an image of the city’s skyline with military choppers behind him.

“I love the smell of deportations in the morning,” Trump posted. “Chicago about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR.”

Gerren Keith Gaynor added Monday for the Grio, “The blistering tirade recalled previous clashes with Alcindor and other Black female journalists during his first term, and drew swift criticisms from Black leaders, including the president of the nation’s largest association for Black journalists.”

If image is not visible, please consider using a different browser.

“ ‘Respect for journalists and their work is more important than ever. When journalists show up to do their jobs, they should not be personally attacked and impounded by subjects they cover,‘ said NABJ President Errin Haines, who emphasized journalism as ‘the foundation of democracy.’

“NABJ will continue to champion Black journalists like our 2020 Journalist of the Year, Yamiche Alcindor, who show up every day with integrity, rigor, and clarity, and who carry out this mission every day with professionalism and courage,” said Haines. “We will continue to show up, ask the necessary questions, and do so with professionalism, rigor, and respect for our democracy.”

She added, “When we protect the press, we protect the people.”

Yamiche Alcindor’s report for NBC on Trump’s remarks. It does not mention her own encounter. (Credit: YouTube) 

Gaynor went on to cite Trump’s clashes with April Ryan, Abby Phillip and Alcindor during his first term.

Trump was also displeased with the questioning he received from ABC’s Rachel Scott during the 2024 NABJ convention in Chicago during the presidential campaign.

The White House incident  with Alcindor took place a day before a federal appeals court upheld an $83.3 million jury award against Trump for defaming writer E. Jean Carroll in 2019, after she accused him of a decades-old rape in a Manhattan department store — an attack for which he was separately found liable for sexual abuse,” as Benjamin Weiser reported Monday for The New York Times.

Crime Is ‘Genetic,’ Says Trump. Rebuttals Needed

Sept. 7, 2025

Crime Is ‘Genetic,’ Says Trump. Rebuttals Needed:
Nazis Had a Name for It: ‘Criminal Biology’
Being a Black Journalist: ‘Can’t Make Any Mistakes’
Trust in News is Partisan, Including for Latino Outlets
Investigative Reporting Lives in Dallas, Denver

 

IRE Claims Title of Nation’s Largest J-Organization
‘Face the Nation’​ Now Won’t Excise Misinformation
Hundreds of Outlets Demand Press Freedom in Gaza
Proposed Rules Restrict Foreign Reporters in U.S.
‘People’ Tops List of U.S. Magazine Media Brands

Short Takes: Charles M. Blow; Manuel Bojorquez; Ann M. Simmons; ending public access to police channels; ‘good old-fashioned discrimination’ against publications aimed at LGBTQ+, other diverse audiences; Spike Lee and Colin Kaepernick; “Inside the NFL”; where not to spend too much time on your smartphone; USA’s Deborah Barfield Berry in Angola; Seattle Medium and AI; Gina Chua; indigenous films at Toronto film festival; Youssou N’Dour and failing independent media in Senegal.

 

 

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Nazis Had a Name for It: ‘Criminal Biology’

Wes Moore of Maryland, the nation’s only Black governor, went on a tear Wednesday against President Trump’s claims that crime is genetic, a continuation of Trump’s smears of Black and brown people, as well as of migrants. Although their plates get fuller by the day, more journalists, particularly opinion writers, should be joining Moore.

On Tuesday, a reporter asked Trump if he planned to deploy the National Guard to Chicago, Danielle J. Brown reported for Maryland Matters. “In his reply, Trump looped in Baltimore, describing both cities as ‘a hellhole right now’ citing gun violence, homicides and other crimes.

“Without saying when, Trump said he planned to send troops into Chicago — despite fierce opposition from the governor and mayor there — and insisted that ‘we have a right to do it, and that includes Baltimore.’ But he also said it would be better if Moore and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker asked for the help.

“ ‘I would love to have Gov. Moore call, because I watched him over the weekend trying to explain, “Baltimore, what we need is housing,” ‘ Trump said. ‘No, they don’t need housing. They need to get rid of the criminals.

“ ‘These are hard-core criminals,’ he said. ‘They’re not going to be good in 10 years, in five years, in 20 years, in two years they’re going to be criminals. They were born to be criminals.’ ”

Moore continued, “‘And I want to speak clearly to our children as well. And please hear me loud and clear. Do not listen to what the president called you yesterday. When the president, from the Oval Office, calls you natural born killers, children who are ‘born to be’ violent, I say this: I respect the office, but I will never honor ignorance. To our children, you are loved and you are needed. We believe in you and we invest in you. . . We love you and we will make sure that you are never bullied. . . . Here in Maryland, we believe in you, we support you, we’re going to make sure you’re safe.”

On Wednesday, Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., joined Rep. Glenn Ivey, D-Md., the organization Free DC and several D.C. Council members.

“DC is personal to me,” Pressley said. “even before serving as a congresswoman, many years ago, I lived and worked in Chocolate City, and now my staff live and work here. My godchildren, two young Black boys, live here, and they are afraid.

“Afraid to walk to school, afraid to go to their summer jobs, afraid because Donald Trump himself has said that young people like them were, ‘born to be criminals.’

“It’s no secret, he’s targeting our immigrant neighbors and Black kids, specifically Black boys. That is dangerous, that is dehumanizing, and that rhetoric, combined with military presence, is meant to keep communities living in fear, which makes everyone less safe.”

After Trump made similar statements about migrants last fall, the Los Angeles Times ran an op-ed by Benjamin Carter Hett (pictured), a professor of history at Hunter College and the Graduate Center at City University of New York, and author of “The Nazi Menace: Hitler, Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin, and the Road to War.”

“In a recent interview, Donald Trump claimed that 13,000 ‘murderers’ have been admitted to the United States through an ‘open border,’ Hett wrote. “He continued that for murderers, ‘it’s in their genes. And we’ve got a lot of bad genes in our country right now.’

“That criminal activity is rooted in an offender’s genetic makeup is an old, largely discredited idea. For Trump to spout questionable science is hardly new. But the disturbing implications in what he said raise the specter of far worse crimes than anything one murderer could do.

“The Italian physician and criminologist Cesare Lombroso came up with the idea of the ‘born criminal’ in the 1870s. Lombroso thought that criminals were ‘primitive’ humans born into the modern world — identifiable by their thick hair, dark skin and small craniums. Reflecting the racism of his day, he equated criminals to Africans, Indigenous Americans, Sinti and Roma, even southern Italians. In the fifth and final edition of his book, “Criminal Man,” he concluded that the ‘struggle for existence’ should ‘shield us from pity’ for born criminals, who were ‘not of our species but the species of bloodthirsty beasts.’ Ironically, his criminology became a justification for mass killing.

“In the early 20th century, Lombroso’s ideas gradually fell out of favor. But they made a comeback in Germany under the Nazis, as what the Nazis called ‘criminal biology.’ When the Nazis got control of German police, criminal biology became their paradigm for identifying and punishing lawbreakers.

“For the Nazis, the role of the criminal police was not only to catch crooks after the commission of an offense but to engage in preventive crime fighting. The Nazis’ criminal police were empowered to send anyone they suspected might commit a crime in the future to a concentration camp — based on their supposed criminal biology. . . .”

Trymaine Lee speaks with Verite News about his new film and book about Hurricane Katina, “Hope and High Water,” on Aug. 26. (Credit: Christiana Botic/Verite News and Catchlight Local/Report for America)

Above, from Reveal News: “Being Black in America Almost Killed Me, Part 1.” The conversation about Black journalists begins at 22:02. (podcast)

Being a Black Journalist: ‘Can’t Make Any Mistakes’

“Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Trymaine Lee was in the middle of writing his first book when the unthinkable happened,” Al Letson told listeners of his “More to the Story” podcast Wednesday for Reveal News. “At 38, a massive heart attack nearly took his life.

“That near-death experience forced him to reckon with the toll his reporting has taken on his life, including the years he’s spent chronicling gun violence involving Black men in America, as well as his own family’s history marred by slavery, lynching, and even murder. . . .”

After recounting that wrenching experience, the discussion turned to New York Times fabulist Jayson Blair and the effect of that 2003 scandal on Black journalists.

“. . . He was saying he was in Oklahoma and was in the sports department and it was just a mess,” Lee said. “And there was this ripple effect I remember, a chilling effect of what it means to be Black. Now are they going to see us like that? And other people saying, the kinds of jobs that we were taking, some people didn’t want the so-called ghetto beat, which meant you were covering urban affairs and Black life in cities.

“But I think for some of us, that’s the reason why we’re doing this, is to not just shine light in dark spaces, to remind the world of who we are and tell our story because no one loves us but us. And that’s the bottom line. No one cares about us. We’re still grappling with ‘the Negro problem’ in this country. And so the weight that that comes with, of navigating these white newsrooms, it’s like the plantation.

“And every day we have to walk into the big house with our nice clothes, paid for by the plantation ,and convince them that what’s happening in the back corner of the plantation matters. That every day when it rains, people are getting sick because they’re stuck in the mud, and every day it can’t get the kids to school because the school, they got the hole in the roof because y’all haven’t … And they’re like, ‘Hmm, I know some Black people back there, and I don’t know if that’s true.’

“And then you got to go back to the plantation and they’re like, ‘Man, you’re looking real clean. I see you in the big house because you eating well.’ And you’re like, ‘Yeah, my grandma and them from around here. Y’all know me.’ I’m trying to tell them. So that’s this dynamic.”

Al Letson: “It is not just the dynamic of having to code switch and leave a part of you behind to go into this space and specifically be able to advocate for the stories that you’re trying to tell outside the space, it’s also coming to the space and them looking at you like (makes a questioning sound) I don’t know. I don’t know. ”

Trymaine Lee: “I don’t know. And you’re right, we haven’t fully talked about it. And all of us who as Black journalists who tell these stories, who are mission-driven, who are purpose-driven, who our North Star is telling the whole truth about how we experienced this country, there is also this assumption or this perceived bias. Because we understand the experience so well, there has to be a bias. We have to have some jaundiced vision because we see it too clearly.

“And so you have to be so good. You have to be so sharp, and you can’t make any mistakes because you will find yourself without a job. No, it’s a lot, but especially then, because there was this emotional heat of the moment, but there was also this fire, right. So we’re engaging with America tearing at its threads and what it means to value Black life. And people say, enough is enough. And how do we cover that through the mainstream lens has never been easy. And I’m not sure we figured out a way to do it, except for to go out there time and again and tell the truth. . . .”

Trust in News is Partisan, Including for Latino Outlets

“Democrats and independents who lean toward the Democratic Party are much more likely than Republicans and GOP-leaning independents to both use and trust a number of major news sources,” Pew’s Jacob Liedke,
Elisa Shearer, , and reported Tuesday for the Pew Research Center.

“These include the major TV networks (ABC, CBS and NBC), the cable news networks CNN and MSNBC, major public broadcasters PBS and NPR, and the legacy newspaper with the largest number of digital subscribers, The New York Times.

“Republicans, meanwhile, are much more likely to distrust than trust all of these sources. A smaller number of the sources we asked about are more heavily used and trusted by Republicans than Democrats, including Fox News, The Joe Rogan Experience, Newsmax, The Daily Wire, the Tucker Carlson Network and Breitbart.”

You can find the reports on individual news outlets here.

The link between political preferences and news-outlet choices held for Univision and Telemundo, the Spanish-language networks in the survey.

Of those who regularly get their news from Univision, 4 percent were Republican or leaning that way, and 7 percent were Democratic or leaning toward that party, Pew found in June.

For Telemundo, 5 percent were Republican or leaning that way, and 7 percent were Democratic or leaning in that direction.

The two networks were the lowest among the 30 networks surveyed in having college graduates among their audience; 16 percent for Telemundo and 15 percent for Univision.

“Most Americans who regularly get news from these outlets are Hispanic, and Hispanic adults in the United States are less likely to have a college degree than U.S. adults overall (20% vs. 36%),” Pew’s Mary Randolph and Michael Lipka wrote Aug. 18.

  • Inter American Press Association: The IAPA honors Daniel Coronell [president of Univision News] with the 2025 Grand Prize for Press Freedom (Aug. 29)

Investigative Reporting Lives in Dallas, Denver

“Three years ago, Texas passed a tough anti-abortion bill, making the procedure a felony punishable with a life prison term, and with only rare exceptions,” Bill Grueskin reported Friday for Columbia Journalism Review’s Darts and Laurels column.

“At the time, physicians warned that the restrictions could lead to deaths of patients who needed the procedure when facing troubled pregnancies.

“How did Texas address that problem? By making it almost impossible to detect the problem, after the state’s Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Review Committee decided it wouldn’t investigate maternal deaths from 2022 and 2023.

“Well, Texas made it almost impossible. Dallas Morning News reporters Lauren Caruba, Marin Wolf, and María Ramos Pacheco culled hundreds of pages of autopsies and other records involving maternal deaths to find heartbreaking cases of patients who died after hospitals declined or delayed the procedures, despite the women’s dire prognoses. One example: Brenda Yolani Arzu Ramirez, who was five months pregnant when she arrived at the hospital feverish and vomiting, showing signs of sepsis. Rather than perform an abortion, doctors induced delivery, with a fatal result for mother and child.

“Physicians told the Morning News team that their decision-making in cases involving pregnancy loss is now riddled with fear. “I think doctors are terrified,” said one ob-gyn who practiced in Austin for almost four decades before retiring.

“The story is part of a package the Morning News has been doing for months, titled ‘Standard of Fear.’ Each piece is riveting.”

At the Denver Post, meanwhile, the newspaper’s analysis of state data found that “almost all of the 25 schools that could face closure for poor performance under a new Denver Public Schools policy disproportionately enroll students of color and children from lower-income families.“

Jessica Seaman wrote June 23, “The schools failed to meet state expectations on standardized tests, academic growth and preparing students for life after high school, earning them a spot on Colorado’s Accountability Clock.

“Sixteen of the Denver schools have spent two or more years on the clock, meaning they are ticking toward state intervention, or, in the case of Abraham Lincoln High School, already there.

“ ‘It’s a call to action, as a system, that we need to be doing better in supporting our communities, especially our communities of color, our language learners,’ said Joe Amundsen, DPS’s executive director of school transformation.”

 

IRE’s 50th Anniversary Gala, its first such fundraising dinner, takes place Sept. 15 at Gotham Hall in midtown Manhattan.

IRE Claims Title of Nation’s Largest J-Organization

Investigative Reporters and Editors, “a grassroots nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the quality of investigative reporting,” is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year with an added distinction: it is now the nation’s largest journalism organization.

“IRE has a membership that regularly hovers around 4,800 to 4,900, sometimes rising to 5,000 and sometimes dipping slightly below 4,800 — since our current system allows people to join / renew online at any time, the exact number fluctuates hourly,”  Executive Director Diana Fuentes messaged Journal-isms.

“And we review applications because of our bylaw requirements, so some are denied. You have to be a working journalist, journalist educator or student to be a member. We have friends in the PR, media relations . . . and media law worlds, but they don’t qualify for membership.

“On June 1, we were at 4,845.”

By comparison, the National Association of Black Journalists had 4,259 voting members, according to figures announced at its convention membership meeting last month; the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, 3,654, according to spokesperson Andrew Sherry. The Society of Professional Journalists had about 3,800 members as of Aug. 31, President Emily Bloch said.

The Asian American Journalists Association claims “more than 1,500 members across the United States and Asia” on its website, though its spokespersons did not respond to an inquiry. The Online News Association has 1,885, said spokeswoman Karolle Rabarison.

The Indigenous Journalists Association has “around 750,” according to Executive Director Rebecca Landsberry-Baker, and the Radio Television Digital News Association membership “generally averages between 1,200 and 1,500,” said Dan Shelley, president and CEO.

 At the Journalism and Women Symposium (JAWS), “We currently have about 200 paid members but are aiming to increase that significantly this year with an awareness campaign. Women journalists need our support now more than ever,” said new president Tanya Gazdik of MediaPost. [added Sept. 10]#jou

IRE’s 50th Anniversary Gala, its first such fundraising dinner, takes place Sept. 15 at Gotham Hall in midtown Manhattan. Tables start at $10,000, with proceeds supporting IRE´s training programs. Speakers include actor Michael Keaton, broadcast legends Scott Pelley and Judy Woodruff, New York Times publisher AG Sulzberger and Paul Sagan, the ProPublica chairman.

‘Face the Nation’​ Now Won’t Excise Misinformation

“Days after complaints over the handling of an interview with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on ‘Face the Nation’ (pictured), CBS News said Friday it would no longer allow editing of its guests’ words on the Sunday morning public affairs show, David Bauder reported Friday for the Associated Press.

Noem charged that CBS had “shamefully edited the interview to whitewash the truth” about Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whose mistaken deportation to El Salvador made him a symbol of controversies about President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. Her interview had been taped in advance

CBS said it had edited four minutes out of its Noem interview for time. On social media, Noem focused on an excised clip where she made a series of unproven accusations about Abrego Garcia, which she said emphasize “the threat he poses to American public safety.” 

“The network’s news division is being watched closely for how it deals with the Trump administration following the FCC’s recent approval of its parent company’s takeover by Skydance Media,” Bauder continued. Shortly before Paramount Global’s sale to Skydance was given the OK, Paramount paid $16 million to settle a lawsuit from Trump over a “60 Minutes” interview with Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris.

The issue of transmitting inaccurate information is also before the National Association of Black Journalists.

“At the rate journalists are being killed in Gaza by the Israeli army, there will soon be no-one left to keep you informed,”  said Thibaut Bruttin, Reporters Without Borders general director. (Credit: United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East)

Hundreds of Outlets Demand Press Freedom in Gaza

“Hundreds of media outlets, brought together by the campaigning platform Avaaz and Reporters Without Borders (RSF), are waging a campaign calling for the protection of Palestinian journalists in Gaza, the emergency evacuation of reporters seeking to leave the Strip, an end to impunity for Israeli crimes against Gaza’s reporters and that foreign press be granted independent access to the territory,” Reporters Without Borders announced on Aug. 31.

“According to RSF data, 220 journalists have been killed by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip in less than 23 months. On the night of 10 August alone, the Israeli army killed six journalists in a targeted strike against Al-Jazeera correspondent Anas al-Sharif. Less than a week ago, on Monday, 25 August, the Israeli army killed five journalists in two consecutive strikes.

“Today, hundreds of media outlets in over 50 countries are mobilising in solidarity with Palestinian journalists in the Gaza Strip, alongside RSF and Avaaz. This international operation consists of an entire or partial blackout of the front pages of print media, banners on online news sites, and audio or video messages broadcast by radio and television stations.

“In line with the call launched by RSF and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) in June, the media outlets involved in this campaign are making three demands.

“We demand the protection of Palestinian journalists and an end to the impunity for crimes perpetrated by the Israeli army against them in the Gaza Strip.

“We demand the foreign press be granted independent access to the Gaza Strip.

“We demand that governments across the world host Palestinian journalists seeking evacuation from Gaza.

“We demand the protection of Palestinian journalists and an end to the impunity for crimes perpetrated by the Israeli army against them in the Gaza Strip. . . .”

“We demand the foreign press be granted independent access to the Gaza Strip.

“We demand that governments across the world host Palestinian journalists seeking evacuation from Gaza. . . .” 

Reporters Without Borders cited the case of Turkish-born Ph.D. student Rümeysa ÖztürkVo, who was taken into custody in March after co-writing an article critical of Israel’s war in Gaza as an example of how the proposed rule “could lead to self-censorship and even the deportation of journalists whose only misstep was to report the news honestly.”

Proposed Rules Restrict Foreign Reporters in U.S.

“The Trump administration is proposing new, severe restrictions on how long foreign journalists would be permitted to live and work in the United States,” Reporters Without Borders said Wednesday, opposing “the proposed visa change as it serves no purpose other than to erect unnecessary barriers for foreign reporters and will produce a chilling effect on press freedom. RSF calls on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to abandon the proposal,” it said.

“On August 28, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published a proposal to introduce a fixed term for the visas used by foreign journalists to work and live in the United States. Currently, these visas last indefinitely as long as the visa holder remains in compliance with certain terms. Under the new proposed system, these visas would be restricted to 90 days for Chinese nationals and 240 days for citizens of other countries. A DHS press release alleged, without evidence, that the current visa system for journalists pose ‘safety risks.’

“These changes would create an undue burden for journalists, requiring them to repeatedly clear bureaucratic hurdles every seven months and creating a great deal of uncertainty every time a renewal deadline approaches. Even more dangerously, it sets up a system with high potential for abuse, as the Trump administration systematically punishes journalists and news outlets that criticise its policies, and has repeatedly tried to deport non-US citizens for their political expression. . . .”

  • Rebekah Riess, Dalia Faheid, CNN: Tufts University student Rümeysa is released after spending six weeks at a Louisiana detention center (May 9)

‘People’ Tops List of U.S. Magazine Media Brands

The Alliance for Audited Media Tuesday released its list of the Top 10 U.S. Magazine Media Brand Audiences for the second quarter of 2025.

The list shows the magazine brand, followed by the total brand audience:

People (96,019,000)

AARP the Magazine (51,259,000)

Allrecipes (50,339,000)

Sports Illustrated (40,537,000)

Good Housekeeping (39,424,000)

Time (27,475,000)

Southern Living (25,944,000)

Cosmopolitan (25,769,000)

National Geographic (24,720,000)

Women’s Health (24,180,000)

Short Takes

  • Manuel Bojorquez (pictured), national correspondent for CBS News for 13 years, has left the network, he announced on social media. “I’m moving on from CBS News grateful for the experiences and people I’ve met along the way,” he wrote. At the 2023 convention of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, Bojorquez described himself (scroll down) as “a gay man and an immigrant” and said he saw part of his role as adding context that might be missing in other stories.
  • Ann M. Simmons (pictured), former Moscow bureau chief for the Wall Street Journal, has been named executive editor of Northeastern Global News at Northeastern University, the school announced​ Wednesday. She was a Nieman fellow at Harvard University and, in spring 2025, a resident fellow at Harvard’s Institute of Politics. Last month, at the National Association of Black Journalists​ convention in Cleveland, ​Simmons accepted NABJ’s Percy Qoboza Foreign Journalist of the Year award.
  • “The Oakland Police Department’s plan to shield its officers’ conversations from the public hit an unexpected snag this week,” Jakob Rodgers reported Thursday for the Bay Area News Group. “The agency on Thursday said ​’unexpected technical issues​’ delayed its plan to encrypt its police channels and end public access to live radio feeds, which for decades provided by-the-minute transparency about crime — and its officers’ actions — in the city. ​’The prospect of dozens of agencies joining Oakland in hiding their radio traffic is “deeply frustrating,” said Tracy Rosenberg, executive director of San Francisco-based nonprofit Media Alliance and advocacy director of Oakland Privacy. . . . ‘This is a huge blow for journalism,​’ Rosenberg said. ​’Some of the best journalism in the country comes directly from the scanners. The transparency is a check on disturbing actions by police.​’ ”” (Credit: Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)

  • Spike Lee has had little to say about why his highly anticipated docuseries based on Colin Kaepernick’s activism will not be released because of “creative differences.” Columnist LZ Granderson of the Los Angeles Times wrote Aug, 23, however, that “After speaking off the record with several people familiar with the Kaepernick project, I can say this much seems true: . . . Lee wanted to make a documentary that was heavily focused on police brutality in America, and Kaepernick wanted it more focused on his lived experience. . . . There were times during the making of the project when the gap in their visions led to periods of the two not talking.” Granderson added, “After the murder of George Floyd in May 2020, Kaepernick’s earlier protests against police brutality were probably viewed more favorably by more people. Greenlighting a docuseries about his work in July 2020 probably felt comfortable for [ESPN Chairman Jimmy] Pitaro and ESPN. However, airing such content today could anger a president who’s targeted Kaepernick, the NFL and ESPN before. . . .”
  • “Inside the NFL wll return for the 2025-2026 season, The Hollywood Reporter has learned, but the long-running studio show is getting a wholesale reboot, changing formats, and moving to a new home: X, the tech platform controlled by Elon Musk,” Alex Weprin reported Thursday for the Hollywood Reporter. “Inside the NFL on X will debut its first episode on Sept. 8, with plans to release at least 10 short-form episodes each week leading up to next year’s Super Bowl on Feb. 8. NFL Films will continue to produce the series. Ryan Clark (pictured), the ESPN NFL analyst and former safety for the Pittsburgh Steelers, will host the show, though NFL Films executives suggest that other names could join him as the season progresses. . . . “

  • One place not to spend too much time reading the news on your smartphone: “Evidence suggests that high rates of bathroom phone use — combined with extended sitting times — are contributing to rising cases of haemorrhoids and related health issues,” Charity Kilei reported Thursday for Kenya’s Eastleigh Voice. “A new study has found that using a phone while on the toilet raises the risk of developing haemorrhoids by 46 per cent.“ The report cited studies published in PLOS One by Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre in Boston and the Turkish Journal of Colorectal Disease.

 

“Beyond visiting historic sites, members of the Tucker Family Angola Heritage Tour visited an orphanage where we donated items and joined the children in a painting activity,” wrote Deborah Barfield Berry, pictured. (Credit: Selina Brodie)

  • “Angola is still working on how to tap into the African American heritage tourism market,” Deborah Barfield Berry wrote Aug. 29 for USA Today, recapping a 10-day trip with a group commemorating the 50th anniversary of Angola’s independence from Portugal. “Ghana has long been a destination for African Americans hungry to learn more about their ancestors and slavery. It’s understandable given that Ghana is an English-speaking country with better infrastructure and known for its slave castles. But in December, Joe Biden became the first sitting U.S. president to visit Angola and acknowledged the ties to slavery.” The National Slavery Museum,  once a gateway for enslaved Angolans to board ships, houses reminders of that history. Shackles are in glass cases. Against a wall is a baptismal bowl that was used to baptize captured Africans before they were given new names and forced onto ships. . . .” Berry has since taken a USA Today buyout offer.
  • For Josiah Scott (pictured), digital and social media manager at the Seattle Medium, part of the Black press, “ has expanded the paper’s reach from a strong print tradition to a more ambitious digital future,” Editor & Publisher reported Aug. 21. “The results at the Seattle Medium have been striking. ‘For our digital reach on our website, we have about 70 to 100,000 people per month with spikes around the fall when we start our sports section,’ Scott said. ‘We actually were able to improve our newsletter subscribers by 228%. That is because of the initiatives we do through various campaigns throughout the year. We’ve been utilizing the Nota tool to free up more time for us to have those kind of ideas, but also to push people back to our website.”

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