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NABJ Hears From Laid-Off Producer of Viral Video

by richard0699

NABJ Hears From Laid-Off Producer of Viral Video:
Urges Journos to Fight Trump Efforts to Control Media
NABJ Talks Fail Over Executive Director Contract
Winner: DEI Champion in Red Texas
A Second Chance to Pay Tribute to Michael Days

Paul Valentine Dies, Covered Civil Rights, Anti-War Eras
Rudolph Brewington, a Twin, a Journalist, a Navy Man
Trump’s Favorability Falls Among Hispanics
Press Group for Americas Cites Anti-Journo Hostility
‘Silent Genocide’ Against Cuba’s Independent Journos

Short Takes: Charlamagne Tha God and election night coverage; White House press access; Haitian American journalist as Miss Haiti; DeWayne Wickham; Eugene Robinson; NAHJ’s “Cultural Competence Handbook”; full-body restraints and human rights; ICE recruits with criminal backgrounds; Boston basketball press play against coaches;

Maria Ressa Prizes for Courage in Journalism; Indira Lakshmanan; little-discussed “maid routes” on Atlanta transit; Stephen A. Smith vs. LeBron James; American Journalism Project grants; Columbus, Ohio’s Chuck White; Multicultural Media Correspondents Dinner; British commentator held by ICE; California Spanish-language news desert; remembering Mexican journalists killed while reporting; Gaza Tribunal on targeting journalists; boycotting New York Times’ Opinion section; arrested Senegalese journalists; Uganda’s restrictions on coverage.

Homepage photo credit: TMZ

Trey Sherman said he knew his video would be widely viewed. He told the National Association of Black Journalists, “My desk at CBS — they renovated the newsroom and we are all on display — my desk is right next to the entrance. I had a vision that I would one day storm the set.” (Credit: YouTube)

Urges Journos to Fight Trump Efforts to Control Media

A laid-off Black producer at CBS News whose video outlining the racially disproportionate impact of cutbacks in his unit went viral found a welcome reception Saturday in a surprise appearance before the board of the National Association of Black Journalists.

Trey Sherman told the group it must expand its purview to include growing media consolidation and the Trump administration’s efforts to control the media. “Because if you control the media, you control the country. . . . it is our obligation as journalists to fight back,” he said.

“What you did was courageous, it was bold, we are really proud of you,” NABJ President Errin Haines (pictured) told Sherman, whom she said she invited to address the board. The meeting was streamed via Zoom to interested members.

“Sherman had worked for the now-cancelled ‘CBS Evening News+’ since February, as well as the network’s just-eliminated Race and Culture Unit,” Alex Hammer reported Friday for the Daily Mail.

‘” ‘I just got laid off from my job at CBS, and every producer on my team who got laid off is a person of color,’ he said in the clip, which had racked up more than 2.6 million views as of Friday morning.

” ‘Every person who gets to stay and will be relocated within the company is a white person.’

“Sherman then recounted a meeting he said he had with an unnamed executive.

“The executive said he did everything in his power to save staffers and provide them with new positions, Sherman said.

” ‘It wasn’t until I went downstairs thinking that me and all of my colleagues had been laid off that I ‘found out that it was only the people of color,’ he said. . . .”

Sherman spoke to the NABJ board for about 27 minutes, an unusual amount of time in the board’s first public meeting with Haines as president. But Haines announced Friday that “this meeting will look and feel different than what you may be used to.

“On Wednesday night, I made the decision to completely reimagine our plan for this meeting. It felt too much like ‘business as usual,’ and this moment is anything but.

“The truth is…YOU are the agenda.” She altered the meeting to hear from representatives of key NABJ constituencies. Haines said she reached out to Sherman.

The producer, who has become a presence in video portions of social media, said he decided to go public “out of rage and frustration. I knew this had the potential to go viral and reach a lot of people. Three million people have viewed that Tik-Tok. That’s on par with the  . . . viewers that the ‘CBS Evening News’ gets now.”

Part of his mission, Sherman said, is to “amplify the voices of queer people of color,” and he said he was disturbed by the network’s coverage of the slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who had trafficked in what many have called racist tropes, and with its coverage of the Middle East.

“I want the interests of NABJ to be bigger,” he said. “The true story is about the consolidation of media,” which has seen media companies back away from diversity, equity and inclusion commitments in order to secure approval for that consolidation.

“It’s money, it’s not about anyone’s personal beef,” Sherman continued. “Because if you control the media, you control the country. . . . it is our obligation as journalists to fight back.”

As for his own next steps, Sherman said he is receiving a severance package and that “my thought is to write an essay, and to put out an accompanying video on my own platform.”

A spokesperson for CBS did not respond to a request for comment.

In a related development, TMZ reported Friday that “News that Gayle King is getting booted from ‘CBS Mornings’ is news to her … because she says the network powers that be are singing a much different tune in her office!

“TMZ caught up with GK as she left her NYC studio Friday morning, and she tells us from what she’s hearing, she’s not only doing a great job, but she’s well-liked at CBS … and she says the feeling’s mutual — she loves what she does and the coworkers with whom she does it.”

Four members of the Howard University Association of Black Journalists attended a weeklong CNN Academy Bootcamp at the network’s Atlanta headquarters. They were among 88 students from 19 universities, Jada White reported Sunday for the Howard University News Service. But some of the lesser-known HBCUs are not adequately preparing their journalism students, Saturday’s NABJ board meeting was told. (Credit: YouTube)

NABJ Talks Fail Over Executive Director Contract

Negotiations between the National Association of Black Journalists and Elise Durham (pictured), with whom the previous administration had signed a contract to become executive director, have failed, NABJ President Errin Haines said Saturday. It was a brief mention at the end of a day-long meeting of the board of directors.

The new board voted Aug. 20 in an unpublicized meeting to rescind the contract with Durham, despite an assertion from its now-dismissed attorney of record that such a move could leave it open to lawsuits charging breach of contract and defamation of character — and perhaps a hefty financial penalty.

It notified the membership of the decision the following month.

“We are moving forward with our executive director search,” Haines said without elaboration as Saturday’s meeting ended.

She said in a message to the membership on Friday, “As I previously shared, the board voted in August to rescind the executive director contract, but not the offer itself. We remained open to negotiation and made multiple attempts to come back to the table, but unfortunately, NABJ was not taken up on our offer to renegotiate under the new terms. As a result, we are closing this chapter and will move forward with a new executive director search. You can expect more details in the coming days, communicating our next steps with transparency and clarity, as we conduct this process in accordance with our constitution.”

Neither Durham nor her representatives responded to inquiries.

Haines messaged Monday, “I don’t have anything further to say at this time regarding the executive director search. . . . As I mentioned in my message to membership and reiterated at the board meeting, the board will keep the membership informed and will have updates soon on next steps.”

Nevertheless, Haines has made transparency one of her promises, and asked board members at the Saturday meeting to recite a list of commitments, including one “to holding myself and this board accountable to the values we profess.”

Also at the meeting, members heard that the attacks on diversity were one of the factors taking their toll on the success of NABJ’s summer convention in Cleveland. Revenue was $2 million less than projected and expenses were $1.1 million higher, treasurer Jasmine Styles told the group, though she said there was no need for the organization to dip into reserve funds.

“Extreme times call for extreme measures,” Styles added, calling for changes in planned spending and innovative ways to raise revenue, such as banding together with groups in other fields similarly affected by the anti-DEI climate.

An NABJ webinar last month on “Mergers and Acquisitions” won praise from some as the kind of programming the organization should continue to offer. (Credit: YouTube)

Entrepreneurial journalist Roland Martin, newly elected vice president-digital, made good on a campaign promise to press for a “Jubilee Endowment Campaign” in which 100 members would pledge $100,000 over time, which would allow NABJ to expand programming without reliance on corporate dollars.

Moreover, “We have to stop members thinking as employees — they are CEOs of their careers,“ Martin said. “It’s a business conversation. We need members who can talk about the business of journalism. We have to prepare for more contraction.” Under Trump, “there will be more mergers,” he said.

As Haines promised, much of the meeting was given over to comments from NABJ stakeholders, such as chapter presidents, students and academics, as well as from others in the membership.

They discussed ramping up efforts to deal with journalists’ mental health, training for working across platforms, crafting a “professional survival kit,” countering a decline in Black journalism faculty and making members feel safer in the digital space.

They also mentioned the failure of some of the less-well-known historically Black colleges to prepare their students adequately for internships, even being improperly dressed in highlight reels.

Winner: DEI Champion in Red Texas

Mia Moody, Ph.D., two-term chair of the Department of Journalism, Public Relations & New Media at Baylor University and a fearless diversity advocate, is the 2025 recipient of the Barry Bingham Sr. Fellowship, given “in recognition of an educator’s outstanding efforts to encourage minority students in the field of journalism.”

Moody is also the incoming president of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. She is leaving teaching for the time being, having concluded her tenure as department chair in July. . . .  Continued

Edward Days and his mother, Angela P. Dodson, in a prolonged hug after his remarks at the Oct. 25 Celebration of Life. “I’ve never seen anything more powerful than what Edward Days said about his father,” Pat McLoone, former managing editor of the Philadelphia Daily News, said at the repast. (Credit: Laura Elam)

A Second Chance to Pay Tribute to Michael Days

Those who missed the celebration of life for Michael I. Days, the veteran Philadelphia journalist, will have another opportunity.

Days died at 72 two weeks ago after a heart attack in Trenton, N.J. However, he was born in Philadelphia.

A memorial service is planned in that city from 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 10, at WHYY studios, 150 N. 6th St. The celebration is co-hosted by Days’ friends and family and by NABJ-Philadelphia, of which Days was founding president.

“Michael I. Days was born in North Philadelphia and loved his hometown,” NABJ-Philadelphia said in statement.

“This memorial gives his friends, colleagues and supporters an opportunity to personally remember and honor him. He was a newsroom leader as the former editor of the Philadelphia Daily News and vice president at the Philadelphia Inquirer. He mentored hundreds of journalists across the Philadelphia region and beyond, and had a huge impact on the news industry. Outside the newsroom, he was a listener who paid attention to what the community had to say.”

The WHYY event is free and open to the public, but registration is required. Refreshments will be served. You can register here.

Some 400 to 500 people filled Sacred Heart Church in Trenton on Oct. 25, as estimated by presiding Monsignor Dennis Apoldite. The mourners came from around the country, given Days’ status in national media circles, including leadership in the Associated Press Managing Editors and the National Association of Black Journalists.

But Days was also a father, husband, active Roman Catholic, friend, mentor, role model and editor who in 2010 led reporters at the Philadelphia Daily News to a Pulitzer Prize.

In a posthumous tribute, Philadelphia’s City Council honored Days with a resolution that passed unanimously and was accompanied by a moment of silence. Inquirer columnist Jenice Armstrong asked NABJ members and working journalists “whose lives have been impacted by Michael Days” to stand during her remarks, Marco Cerina reported for the Philadelphia Tribune.

For its part, NABJ-Philadelphia created a Michael I. Days Scholarship Fund.

Those at the Oct. 25 celebration left knowing more about Black Catholics, Days’ newsroom leadership style and the centrality of his role in supervising the work that garnered his reporters the Pulitzer.

“We wouldn’t have won it without Michael,” Daily News reporter Wendy Ruderman said at the repast, held at Mountain View Golf Course in suburban Ewing Township.

Retired Daily News managing editor Pat McLoone said there, “How many people can you say honestly is the best person in the world you’ve ever met?”

The monsignor spoke of Days’ participation in the choir at his home church, Holy Cross Blessed Sacrament Our Lady of the Divine Shepherd, in the same parish, service on several committees and membership in the Knights of St. John, the Catholic men’s fraternal organization that provided an honor guard as it participated in the service.

Some of the members of the National Association of Black Journalists in attendance at the repast; they were joined earlier by NABJ President Errin Haines. (Credit: NABJ-Philadelphia)

It will be difficult for the upcoming service to match the emotional impact of the Oct. 25 remarks by Edward Days, one of the Days’ four adopted children.

“Imagine children so hungry that they had to steal their grandma’s snuff,” he began, discussing his life before his adoption.

“Imagine when the caseworker pulls up to your house and there’s no running water.

“You open the cabinet and there’s no cups. We were too poor. We had to save the vegetable cans.”

Such a child was so used to rejection, Edward said, that when with the Days family, he resorted to figuring out how to steal from an ATM as a “business decision” for when he would be rejected again.

When Michael Days found out, he expressed his disappointment and repeated to Edward that he had told him that he would always love him, no matter what.

“This was a man who dedicated his life to [seeing] that his children became something,” said Edward, now 43. “This was a man who was willing to give of himself to see that his family would thrive.

“And nothing ever got in his way,” Edward said.

The remarks were greeted by a standing ovation, with more than a few tears and a prolonged hug from his mother, Angela P. Dodson, whose role in planning the service was central.

The video of the celebration, recorded by journalist Roland Martin, can be seen here, with Edward’s remarks beginning at 47:39.

As of Sunday, the video had been viewed more than 10,500 times.

In 2019, Paul Valentine, left, and his wife, Elizabeth, attended a celebration of the induction of the Washington Post Metro Seven into the National Association of Black Journalists Hall of Fame.  Retired Post editor Michael Hill is at right. The Metro Seven filed a discrimination complaint against the Post in 1972. (Credit: Sharon Farmer/sfphotoworks)

Paul Valentine Dies, Covered Civil Rights, Anti-War Eras

Paul W. Valentine, an old-fashioned storyteller who covered the civil rights and anti-war movements in the 1960s and 1970s, then went on to write three novels, died of prostate cancer and other ailments Oct.15 in his Baltimore home, his wife Elizabeth Valentine, told Journal-isms. He was 90 and was surrounded by his family.

“Paul was a consummate DC reporter: knew the city, knew his work, knew the Post. Trusted him completely,” wrote former Washington Post publisher Donald Graham.

“Paul was a completely dependable professional, never calling attention to himself, ready to take on any assignment,” messaged former Post executive editor Leonard Downie Jr.

Another Post colleague, Thomas Lippman, said, “He had an encyclopedic knowledge of every far-out fringe group, left or right — so much so that I urged him to write a book about them all, but he never did. One reason was that he was never a self-promoter — he didn’t want to move to the New Yorker or TV.”

A third, Eugene L. Meyer, called Valentine “the best of the best. A dogged damn good street reporter whose first novel ‘Crime Scene [at] O Street’ captured well the world of cops and crime in DC in the 80s.

“At the Post, he was the house expert on radical groups at both ends of the political spectrum. He was also, as I recall, the Post’s short-lived Baltimore bureau after he and Elizabeth moved there. He was one of the reporters that best exemplified the creed of ‘without fear or favor.’ On top of all that, he was one hell of a nice guy. R.I.P.”

Valentine appeared in this column in 2018 in a recollection of what it was like for white reporters to cover the uprisings of 1968 after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.  The Post dispatched him to Memphis as part of a Black-white team. A separate column reported on the coverage from Black journalists’ perspectives.

Valentine joined the Post in 1965, the same year as fabled executive editor Benjamin C. Bradlee. He had covered the civil rights movement at the Columbia (S.C.) Record from 1960 to 1963 and at the Atlanta Journal from 1963 to 1965.

In Columbia, ”Paul covered more than a dozen executions when he was working in South Carolina,” recalled Post colleague Ivan C. Brandon. “After a few drinks he would relate these stories in graphic detail. I loved the guy.” At the Atlanta Journal Valentine covered the 1964 killing of Lemuel Penn (pictured), the assistant superintendent of Washington, D.C., public schools and a Black World War II veteran.

A jury failed to convict the Ku Klux Klan members behind the killing, but “the federal government successfully prosecuted the men for violations under the new Civil Rights Act of 1964, passed just nine days before Penn’s murder. The case was instrumental in the creation of a Justice Department task force whose work culminated in the Civil Rights Act of 1968,” according to the Zinn Education Project.

Post colleague Hollie I. West remembers Valentine recounting the attempted assassination of former Alabama Gov. George Wallace, who was shot in Laurel, Md., in 1972 while running for president.

Carl Bernstein, a friend and colleague best known for his Watergate reporting, called Valentine the Post’s chief demonstration reporter, “a great rewrite man, very fast” and one who wrote “with considerable grace.”

A 1980 story by Valentine began, “A vast throng of 200,000 Christian worshippers, many of them clapping, singing, speaking ‘in tongues’ and shouting joyous hallelujahs, rallied on the Mall yesterday as their leaders urged them to save America from the jaws of sin.”

Moreover, Valentine was one who understood the significance of the anti-war movement, something editors were slow to realize, Bernstein said.

Outside the newsroom, Valentine played the autoharp and guitar, was a wilderness camper and enjoyed his progeny. He cut short his career in 1999 to help care for an ailing son.

Like many in newsrooms, Valentine had quirkiness. “Paul loved to collect unusual names. Any time he had some free time he would pull out a telephone book, open it to a randomly selected page and search it for weird or unusual names,” said Brandon. “Many times, after he had turned in a story he would go and get a phone book and start looking for names. I found out that he used his collection of names for characters in his novels.”

It was emblematic of the best qualities of old-fashioned newsrooms. Some of the tributes solicited above, messaged Tom Grubisich, “remind me how much seeing him in the newsroom or reading his stories in The Post always made me feel good and also proud to be in local journalism.”

Services will be private, Elizabeth Valentine said.

Rudolph Brewington, second from left, shown in February, with, from left, Mattie Blackshear, former wife Weida Tucker, Bruce Sampson and son Carter Brewington. (Credit: Hugh Jones)

Rudolph Brewington, a Twin, a Journalist, a Navy Man

Rudolph W. Brewington, one of the very few Black journalists with an identical twin who also went into broadcast journalism, died Oct. 21 at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in North Las Vegas, Nev. He would have been 79 on Nov 2 and had been hospitalized for multiple illnesses, said his friend, former D.C. journalist and mayoral press secretary Lurma Rackley.

Brewington was also a U.S. Marine, worked for the Navy as a public relations officer, was a broadcaster for several local and national outlets based in Washington, D.C., and was a lifelong Navy man. Much of that career is detailed in The HistoryMakers.

Brewington summarized it less formally in an email in 2017, referencing legendary D.C. anchors Max Robinson, Jim Vance, Maureen Bunyan, J.C. Hayward and Gordon Peterson:

“When I came back from Vietnam in 1968, I worked as a plane unloader at National Airport, then did other miscellaneous jobs, including a bus driver for O. Roy Chalk’s DC Transit. One day driving past WUST Radio, decided I could do that, went to University of Maryland for journalism while working at WUST, then WOOK Radio as a newsman (this was circa 1975ish). Wasn’t too many black folk as news reporters at that time; some at the [Washington] Post like Milton Coleman and LaBarbara Bowman, and a handful of broadcasters like Jim Vance (another person I worked with!)

“Got a chance to be an intern at WTOP-TV for over a year with Max and Gordon, where I met Maureen and later JC Hayward.

“Loved working with those guys, especially Max, every evening after work at WOOK helping them put the newscast together. Gordon was a former US Marine Corps Captain, and since I was an enlisted Marine in Vietnam, we respected each other. Max was Max…we had a lot of laughs and a few drinks together. I loved the brother, and always regarded him as a mentor and role model to me! I hurt when I saw him years later after the AIDS thing and I didn’t recognize him! I used to call him Maxwell!” Robinson died in 1988 after being diagnosed with HIV/AIDS.

“At the time, Maureen and others got together on forming the NABJ, but I was busy working and never met with them.

“Yet although I thought the NABJ organization knew about what me and Ron were accomplishing (long before what some of our successors did in broadcasting, they never honored us, the only black twins who have done what we did in broadcasting!

“Now that we’re 70 years old, Ron is still a broadcaster with his much-regarded TV/national cable show (‘ACTOR’S CHOICE’), is a college professor teaching broadcasting, we’re listed on the HistoryMakers and other places, and I’m into a whole other thing helping physically feed and clothe the black community here in Sin City, loving living in Vegas . . .  traveling (just back from Hong Kong), and my Jesus has blessed us immensely, we remember all our friends/colleagues from the past and wish you all the very best and the best of blessings!!!”

Services are scheduled for 1 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 15, at St. James the Apostle Church in Las Vegas.

Danny Peguero, “Latinx Identity: The Voices of the Diaspora” (1980s–1990s)” illustrates the New York City tourism agency’s list of events for Hispanic Heritage Month, which ended Oct. 15. (Photo: Lauren Winn)

Trump’s Favorability Falls Among Hispanics

“President Donald Trump’s favorability has fallen among Hispanic adults since the beginning of the year, a new AP-NORC poll shows, a potential warning sign from a key constituency that helped secure his victory in the 2024 election,” Adriana Gomez Licon and Amelia Thomson-Deveaux reported Oct. 24 for the Associated Press.

“The October survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that 25% of Hispanic adults have a ‘somewhat’ or ‘very’ favorable view of Trump, down from 44% in an AP-NORC poll conducted just before the Republican took office for the second time. The percentage of Hispanic adults who say the country is going in the wrong direction has also increased slightly over the past few months, from 63% in March to 73% now. . . .”

Separately, Juan Carlos Ramirez wrote Sept. 27 for the North Texas News, serving the University of North Texas, “From the increase in Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids to the recent Supreme Court ruling clearing the way for racial profiling, fear is overcoming joy in celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month. While this month is meant to honor the culture, art, food, music and history of Hispanic and Latino communities, this year has met these communities with pressing challenges that cannot be ignored.”

Ramirez’s piece, headlined “Celebrating Hispanic heritage should also include resisting ongoing issues in Latino communities,” was one of several highlighted by the National Association of Hispanic Journalists as examples of the work student NAHJ members are pursuing.

During the inauguration of the 81st General Assembly of the Inter American Press Association (IAPA), which met in the Dominican Republic, President Luis Abinader said that freedom of the press constitutes a fundamental pillar for democracy, and maintained that a government that fears the press fears the truth. (Credit: De Ultima Minuto)

Press Group for Americas Cites Anti-Journo Hostility

“The conclusions of the 81st General Assembly of the Inter American Press Association (IAPA), following four days of presentations and conferences, warned about the deterioration of press freedom across the continent amid a growing climate of hostility toward journalism fueled by official discourse,” the association, meeting in the Dominican Republic, reported Oct. 19.

“The report also denounced murders, imprisonments, exiles, and judicial harassment of journalists, as well as economic sanctions and censorship in several countries of the region. Despite this adverse outlook, positive developments were highlighted, including court rulings in Costa Rica that strengthen the right to information and free criticism, and a historic ruling in Colombia recognizing crimes against journalists as attacks on democracy.”

“Journalist Jorge Bello, who is imprisoned, suffers facial paralysis and it takes 5 hours to get him to the hospital,” ADN Cuba reported Friday. “The nurse at the Guanajay prison referred him to the hospital at 11:15 am on Wednesday, and the transfer occurred five hours later, due to an alleged lack of transportation.” Bello is serving a 15-year sentence for ongoing sabotage, theft with force, public disorder, and contempt, due to his involvement in mass protests in July 11, 2021. (Credit: Facebook)

‘Silent Genocide’ Against Cuba’s Independent Journos

“During its General Assembly , the Inter-American Press Association (IAPA) denounced the ‘silent genocide’ against the independent Cuban press, as well as the repression in other regimes such as Nicaragua and Venezuela,”  Karla Pérez reported Oct. 20 for the independent outlet ADN Cuba.

“At their 81st General Assembly, held from October 16 to 19 in Punta Cana,” in the Dominican Republic,  “experts noted that the island’s independent journalists are ‘witnesses’ and must report on the profound crisis facing the population.

“They mentioned, for example, that the salary is equivalent to about $15 a month, the high cost of basic necessities, and the lack of water and electricity, among other problems.

“According to the report released by the IAPA, ‘in Cuba there are laws on access to information, communication, association, and freedom of expression, but journalism is not protected, but rather threatened or prohibited.’

“They added that ”the State has not taken a single visible step toward preventing threats, attacks, or assaults on journalists and media outlets.’

“They mentioned the cases of Cuban journalists such as Henry Constantín, regional vice president of the IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, who is being systematically harassed on the island; as well as that of José Gabriel Barrenechea, who is on trial and facing a possible six-year prison sentence for demanding that the regime restore power after a prolonged blackout.

“IAPA members also lamented the situation of freedom of the press and expression in other countries such as Honduras, Mexico, Paraguay, Chile, El Salvador, and the United States. . . . ”

The previous week, the Miami Herald’s Nora Gámez Torres (pictured), describing her acceptance of the Maria Moors Cabot award at Columbia University, wrote on social media, “I ended my speech with a reminder of the situation faced by Cubans imprisoned for exercising the right to free speech. As journalists, we need to tell their stories.”

Short Takes

  • After decades of gradual growth, the number of Black students enrolling at many elite colleges has dropped in the two years since the Supreme Court banned affirmative action in admissions, leaving some campuses with Black populations as small as 2% of their freshman class, according to an Associated Press analysis,” Collin Binkley reported Oct. 23 for the AP. “New enrollment figures from 20 selective colleges provide mounting evidence of a backslide in Black enrollment. On almost all of the campuses, Black students account for a smaller share of new students this fall than in 2023. At Princeton and some others, the number of new Black students has fallen by nearly half in that span. . . .”

”

  • The Enoch Pratt Library in Baltimore plans to unveil its new DeWayne Wickham Room and Collection Nov. 12, showcasing the work of Wickham (pictured), founding dean of the Morgan University School of Journalism and Mass Communication and former columnist. “This event will highlight a Banned Books documentary followed by a discussion with Dr. Carla Hayden, 14th Librarian of Congress, and Journalist DeWayne Wickham, moderated by journalist and President of the National Association of Black Journalists, Errin Haines, discussing Journalism and Democracy in the Crosshairs. A ribbon cutting ceremony and viewing of the new room will follow the discussion. . . . “

  • A “near-total secrecy” surrounding deportation flights and the use of full-body restraints onboard is raising ‘serious human rights concerns,’ a group of 11 Democratic U.S. senators wrote in a letter Thursday to top immigration officials, “ Jim Mustian and Jason Dearen reported Thursday for the Associated Press. Sens. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland was joined by Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Cory Booker of New Jersey, Alex Padilla of California, Tammy Duckworth of Illinois and six others. They cited an AP investigation this month “that revealed several examples of ICE using the device on people — sometimes for hours — on deportation flights dating to 2020.”

 

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  • Media covering the Boston Celtics were supposed to play a pickup game among themselves at Boston’s practice facility on Tuesday. Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla had other plans. The Celtics told reporters that they could use the Auerbach Center courts for a media game after practice. When asked about the game, Mazzulla shared news of a change,” Anthony Gharib wrote for ESPN on Oct. 14. ” ‘Don’t want to break it to you, but you’re not playing against each other. You’re playing against the coaches,’ he told reporters. The game went exactly how one would anticipate it to go. Mazzulla and his staff dominated the 12-minute game, winning 57-4. . . .”
  • Myanmarese documentarian Shin Daewe, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, The New York-based Haitian Times and student journalists at UCLA, Indiana University and Columbia University have been selected as the 2025 winners of the Maria Ressa Prizes for Courage in Journalism, the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism announced Oct. 8. Journalists who died  covering the war in Gaza received a special citation. The Haitian Times “bravely told the truth about the conspiracy theories amplified by then-candidate Donald Trump and others about Haitian refugees during the 2024 campaign.”

Award-winning journalist Indira Lakshmanan (pictured) joins public radio’s Here & Now as its next co-host, debuting late next month alongside Scott Tong and Robin Young, NPR and WBUR announced Tuesday. “She will be based in Boston. Lakshmanan brings deep national and international reporting experience to the job. . . .”

Atlanta maids leaving work ride MARTA bus route 706 from the Mt. Paran Rd. area to downtown Atlanta in December 2001. (Credit: Charlotte B. Teagle/AJC file photo)

  • An intriguing story (video) by Ernie Suggs of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution about the city’s transit system, the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority: “On weekday mornings in the 1970s, MARTA’s so-called ‘maid routes’ ferried an invisible army of women from Lindbergh Center into Atlanta’s most exclusive neighborhoods,” Suggs wrote Oct. 23. “The buses, numbered in the 700s, ran only twice a day — early enough to deliver Black maids, cooks, and nannies to mansions in Buckhead along Mt. Paran Road and Northside Drive before their employers’ children left for school and late enough to return them home after the dinner dishes were cleaned. These routes, championed by labor leader Dorothy Bolden, founder of the National Domestic Workers’ Union of America and a disciple of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., were never advertised. They were often scrubbed from MARTA maps and existed only through whispered word-of-mouth or discreet phone calls. . . .”

  • Stephen A. Smith (pictured, by the Pivot Podcast) and LeBron James have been locked in a feud for years, though tensions boiled over earlier this year,” Sean Keeley wrote Oct. 18 for Awful Announcing. “Things have mostly quieted down since then, but Smith, in an interview on The Pivot Podcast, laid down a new gauntlet in their blood feud, claiming that James’ treatment of certain media members is influenced by their race. ‘You ever see LeBron go at a white boy? Let’s call it what it is. You ever see him do that? You’ll say you saw him come at me,’ Smith said. . . .”
  • The American Journalism Project Tuesday announced $3.5 million in new support for three nonprofit local news organizations: Cardinal News in Virginia, Honolulu Civil Beat and the Nashville Banner. “The investments will help each newsroom grow sustainably to better serve their communities with trusted, independent local news.” Honolulu Civil Beat, which is receiving $1.5 million, plans an initial focus on expansion to “the neighbor islands. Civil Beat will aim to add reporters to beats covering pressing local issues. . . .  AJP support will grow the business operations team.  . . .“

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  • “Chuck White, the former longtime public affairs director at WBNS-10TV, has died at the age of 90, his family confirmed,” the Columbus, Ohio, station reported Oct. 16. “White joined WBNS in 1957 and spent 50 years with the company. Throughout his time at 10TV, he served as a reporter, producer, anchor and public affairs director, as well as a co-producer, co-writer and performer on the children’s show ‘Luci’s Toyshop.’  The family said in a statement, ‘Chuck shared his talents generously — whether through his 5 decades in broadcasting, his contributions to the local arts communities, his work in the schools with children, or the simple kindness he showed to everyone he met.’ .  . . “

  • “Attorneys for Sami Hamdi (pictured), a British political commentator being held by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in California, are challenging his detention in court, his legal team said Wednesday,” Christopher Weber reported for the Associated Press. “Hamdi, who is Muslim, was detained Sunday by ICE officers at San Francisco International Airport, according to federal officials. His lawyers say the arrest was triggered by his criticism of the Israeli government, while U.S. officials have pointed to comments he made after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, which they claim celebrated the violence. . . .”
  • KMUV 23, a Telemundo affiliate, was Central California Coast’s only local, Spanish-language television news station. “It abruptly shuttered in late September, eliminating one of the main sources of reliable information for viewers dependent on local reporting in their language,” George B. Sánchez-Tello reported Wednesday, updated Friday, for the nonprofit CalMatters, “Salinas, like elsewhere, has seen the vacuum of local news lead to a rise of social media content creators.” Sandy Santos, “the last producer at KMUV, acknowledged that reliance on social media for news is the new reality, but ‘likes’ and ‘shares’ are not the same as reported fact. It leads to chaos, misinformation and half-truth,’ Santos said.” The story was co-published with Voices of Monterey Bay.

  • “This weekend is ‘Día de los Muertos,’ or ‘Day of the Dead,’ a holiday celebrated in Mexico and other parts of Latin America,” John Yang reported Sunday for “PBS News Weekend.” “It’s a mix of grief and joy, honoring the dead. This year, people in Tijuana, Mexico, took the opportunity to remember journalists who have been killed while reporting. From member station KPBS in San Diego, Matthew Bowler reports.”

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