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NABJ Members Vote to Remove VP From Ballot

by richard02283

Contentious Meeting Overturns Board of Directors
Janai Norman Blasts ABC Over Nolan Wells Story
Michael Holley Faints on ‘PFT Live,’ Recovers Quickly

Members of the board of directors at Friday’s business meeting of the National Association of Black Journalists. From left: Parliamentarian Sia Nyorkor, Vice President/Digital Roland Martin, President Errin Haines, Vice President/Broadcast Walter Smith Randolph; Vice President/Print Eva D. Coleman and Secretary Khorri Atkinson. Nathaniel Chambers, interim executive director, is at right. (Credit: Richard Prince)

Contentious Meeting Overturns Board of Directors

Members of the National Association of Black Journalists voted Friday to overturn their board of directors and remove Vice President/Print Eva D. Coleman from the ballot as she seeks re-election, an action portrayed as an existential question of who is a journalist in this era of multiple platforms, redefined roles, “citizen journalists” and in some cases, second and third jobs.

The vote at the contentious business meeting at the Atlanta convention came after members took a seemingly unprecedented step: Removing the NABJ parliamentarian’s authority for the duration of the session after the officer, Sia Nyorkor, ruled that the membership could not overturn a board decision.

Former Parliamentarian Robin Washington then took over as the meeting fluctuated between having, and not having, a quorum.

Coleman is lifestyle and culture editor for I Messenger Media, part of the Black press, but holds an additional job as director of communications at a local Texas school district. By a vote of 45 yes, 40 no and 14 abstentions, members at the business meeting said the communications job disqualified her from serving in a position reserved for those “whose principal livelihood comes from creating, producing or supervising the creation of journalism,” in the words on the NABJ constitution.

Afterward, Coleman called the action “disgusting and disappointing,” building on an emotional response during the meeting in which she maintained that she has long considered herself a journalist and characterized the moves against her as personal. “This appetite for chaos is so strong within this organization,” she said. “I know who I am.”

The membership action means that President Errin Haines will appoint the next vice president/print, as Coleman was running unopposed.

The question of who is a journalist has been with the organization since its 1975 founding, and two of its founders, DeWayne Wickham and Sandra Dillard, as well as past presidents Vanessa Williams and Sarah J. Glover, insisted that holding another job as a communications director is disqualifying.

Wickham said he had simultaneously done work for CBS News, BET, radio host Tom Joyner, USA Today and Gannett News Service, but it was “all journalism — it’s a debate that is as old as NABJ.”  Dillard said the founders were clear about who a journalist is — someone involved in “the dissemination of news.”

Veteran print journalist Betty Winston Baye noted that NABJ had created separate categories for those practicing public relations, who are students or academics or who are in media-related jobs, but as the number of print journalism jobs declines, “we need to be represented by somebody. I’m not confused about what a journalist is,” she said.

However, others argued that “print journalism is a lot different today that it was 50 years ago,” and that, as argued Konah Williams, who describes herself as “producer and strategic communications professional” and was similarly decertified this year as a candidate, NABJ ‘s actions are out of step with “where the industry is now.” Moreover, when Black people and Black journalists are under attack, Williams maintained, such actions are divisive.

The Press-Gazette in Britain reported in July, “In 2025, we found at least 3,434 journalism job cuts in the UK and US. In 2024, the tally was at least 3,875 and in 2023 it was about 6,000.”

Janai Norman and Kim Godwin, former ABC News president, appeared at this non-NABJ event in Atlanta on Friday. They spoke candidly, but the session was off the record.

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Janai Norman Blasts ABC Over Nolan Wells Story

“Last month, former ‘Good Morning America Weekend’ host Janai Norman locked eyes with the camera and recorded a video in which she delivered scathing criticism of her former employer, ABC News,” Oliver Darcy reported Thursday in his subscription-only Status newsletter.

“In the video, shared across her social platforms, Norman torched the Disney-owned network for how ‘GMA’ host Michael Strahan interviewed the parents of Nolan Wells, the 18-year-old who was found dead in Mississippi after a boating trip with his friends. The odd circumstances surrounding the death of Wells have fueled speculation that there may have been foul play — and the family’s attorney has indicated there is a ‘distrust’ of law enforcement.

“Strahan asked why their son would have stayed behind on an island alone — appearing to accept without skepticism the account the friends of Wells have offered in the aftermath of the death. Norman scolded Strahan, said it was ‘not an objective question,’ and added that ‘subjectively, I would say it was insensitive.’

” ‘Many news organizations haven’t yet learned that they cannot trust law enforcement as credible sources of information, and that is what plays into racial divisions,’ Norman continued, adding that ‘by ignoring the context, news organizations become complicit in upholding white supremacy.’ ”

It was an argument also made at NABJ’s plenary session Wednesday, “The New Power Structure: Black Politics in the Age of Resistance,” with journalist Joy Reid, the New York Times’ Nikole Hannah-Jones and author Kimberlé Creshaw. House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., Wells’ parents, attorney Benjamin Crump and Al Sharpton of the National Action Network also participated in the plenary.

Norman’s “was both a weighty and sharp criticism to direct toward Strahan and ABC News,” Darcy continued. “But it has hardly been the only time that Norman has gone after her former employer in such blistering terms. Indeed, over the last few weeks, Norman has regularly posted stinging critiques of ABC News’ coverage of the Wells story. In one video, she accused the network of ‘gaslighting’ the public. In another, she declared an ABC News digital story to be ‘problematic’ and ‘blame the victim.’

“It’s not only the Wells story. Norman has blasted ‘World News Tonight with David Muir’ for its coverage of Meta being ordered to pay a hefty fine in a New Mexico child safety lawsuit, saying the story the network broadcast ‘almost protects Meta.’ She knocked Jon Karl’s interview with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. And she went after Stephen A. Smith of ABC’s sister company, ESPN.

“While the videos have not gained much press attention, they are striking and have raised eyebrows among many at ABC News, I’m told.

“It has traditionally been rare to see a former news anchor level such hefty criticism against her former employer and its top talent, especially only months after exiting. While some of Norman’s criticisms of ABC News are fair (that Strahan question could have certainly been better), it’s another matter entirely to use a clumsy interview to accuse her former colleagues of enabling white supremacy. And while Norman has critiqued other news organizations, it seems clear that she is largely focused on ABC News. . . .”

“ABC News defended Strahan in a statement to TheWrap on Friday,” A.J. Katz reported for The Wrap. ‘Michael is an invaluable and highly respected member of the ABC News family. He is a trusted anchor and journalist, and we have complete confidence in his editorial judgment, integrity, and professionalism,’ an ABC News spokesperson said.”

Mike Florio, left, and Michael Holley. Credit: ‘PFT Live’

Michael Holley Faints on ‘PFT Live,’ Recovers Quickly

“For those watching PFT Live on Friday morning, the broadcast took an alarming turn when co-host Michael Holley became overheated and fainted on camera, Sam Neumann reported for Awful Announcing.

“Before losing consciousness, Holley appeared visibly unwell as Mike Florio discussed Troy Aikman’s recent comments about his alleged conflict of interest in his dual role as a Monday Night Football analyst for ESPN and a consultant with the Miami Dolphins.

“With Florio in the middle of a diatribe, Holley’s eyes widened, and his body began to sway as he blinked repeatedly before he tipped backward in slow motion and slumped out of the side of his chair, disappearing from the frame in his home studio, which immediately alerted Florio.
“PFT Live cut to commercial pretty shortly after.

“ ‘Michael was in the studio at his home,’ Florio told Awful Announcing in a statement. ‘It’s very warm in there. He hadn’t had anything to eat or drink before the show. He became overheated during the show and passed out. I didn’t notice until he slumped in his seat, because I was looking at the camera, not the monitor. We went to break right away to try to get him assistance, if he needed it.

“Fortunately, he recovered quickly and is fine.’ . . . ”

NABJ Wants Members Taking Care of Business

Aug. 13, 2026
Andrew Young Visits; V.P. Wins Fight to Stay on Ballot
. . . Young Sees ‘Special Calling for Black Journalists’
. . . NABJ V.P. Survives Effort to Oust Her From Ballot
​Everett Marshburn Dies, NABJ ‘Journalist of Distinction’

Photos of NABJ convention by Richard Prince

Andrew Young Visits; V.P. Wins Fight to Stay on Ballot

The board of directors of the National Association of Black Journalists opened the first convention of NABJ’s 51st year with plans to counter anti-DEI headwinds by empowering members to become more business-savvy; urging more revenue-creating measures, including higher dues and more contributions from board members; hearing from civil rights icon Andrew Young and sparing a vice president the fate of losing her bid for re-election over charges that she isn’t the full-time journalist envisioned in the NABJ constitution.

The conference opened in Atlanta, sometimes called a “Black Mecca,” with 4,451 members, 3,907 convention registrants and a projected $1.8 million in the bank after the event, Nathaniel Chambers, interim executive director, told the board at an all-day session Tuesday.

“Our fiscal position remains strong,” Chambers said, adding that the convention will be the second- or third-highest in attendance in the organization’s history. The most well-attended was Chicago’s in 2024, with 4,336 registrants, followed by the 2019 Miami convention, with 4,105 registrants.

 NABJ veterans Roland Martin, vice president/digital, and Sheila Brooks repeated that too many entrepreneurial journalists spend 80 percent of their time developing content but only 20 percent on the business side. Brooks and Delano Massey of Axios, chair of NABJ’s Entrepreneurial Accelerator Committee, announced a partnership with the National Business League, founded in 1900 by Booker T. Washington, aimed at “building stronger Black media institutions.” (Pictured: Sheila Brooks and Delano Massey.)

The 16-week program is to kick off in March. “What about building wealth in our own communities?” asked Brooks, committee co-chair and a former NABJ board member who 36 years ago founded her own communications company, which now has 14 full-time employees. “We should be giving them the economics of media in college,” added Massey.

NABJ President Errin Haines approvingly cited the NABJ constitution, which declares that one purpose of the organization is “Encouraging and supporting Black journalists aiming to become media entrepreneurs and/or work independently.”

Ken L. Harris, Ph.D., president and CEO of the National Business League, raises his pen as he prepares to sign the memorandum of understanding with NABJ President Errin Haines at NABJ’s opening reception on Wednesday. Sheila Brooks is at the lectern.

Ken L. Harris, Ph.D., president and CEO of the National Business League, and Haines signed the memorandum of understanding at Wednesday’s opening night reception at the Marriott Marquis Hotel, where Atlanta figures including Sen. Raphael Warnock, Rep. Nikema Williams, Mayor Andre Dickens, former mayor Shirley Franklin, Bernice A. King of the Martin Luther King Jr. Center, former gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams and comedian George Wallace welcomed NABJ to the city by video.

“The internet no longer allows for borders. We are now a global entity,” Harris told the crowd. “Now is the time for us to own the story as opposed to participating in it.”

At the NABJ board meeting, Brooks, as chair of NABJ’s Strategic Planning Committee, urged the board to expand its reach beyond media companies to other philanthropic organizations dedicated to nonprofits, establishing a board fund-raising committee, resurrecting NABJ’s development office, with people who “can fund-raise, not order-take,” to encourage those who have succeeded to “give back,” and pitching NABJ to sports celebrities and teams seeking nonprofits to support. A dues increase is long overdue, Brooks said. Annual dues for professionals, only one category of membership, are now $100.

Brooks also called for a constitutional amendment requiring board members to give or raise money. “You have to pay to play,” she said. “The point is 100 percent giving,” agreed Haines, who said she found the proposals “might I say, revolutionary.”

Rodney Brooks, who chairs the Finance Committee and is married to Sheila Brooks, endorsed having a standing fund-raising committee and said he was exploring having a branded NABJ credit card that would  offer benefits for members as well as raise money for the organization. Martin has had his own proposals, such as the “Jubilee Endowment Campaign” already underway.

The effect of the Trump administration’s assault on diversity, equity and inclusion has been cited as having a negative effect on fund-raising, but those with academic connections called on NABJ to look additionally at the administration’s efforts to chill free speech and to target immigrants on campuses.

A’Lauren Gilchrist, the student representative, cited the cancellation of a talk at Norfolk State University, which she attends, by columnist and author Michael Harriott in January 2025. 

“I’ve pretty much confirmed that it was cancelled because of Trump’s DEI Executive order,” Harriot messaged Journal-isms. “I wrote a little about it here.”

Gilchrist told the board, “Whoever is in office at the time decides what we’re able to report on.”

Nicole Carr, a visiting assistant professor at Morehouse College, one of her many roles, told the group, “On campus, we have to be on the front lines to defend the students.”

The Journal-isms Roundtable discussed this issue last year after the University of Alabama suspended two student magazines — one aimed at the university’s Black community, the other at women on campus.The university had cited the anti-DEI policies of the Trump administration.

Meanwhile, the Legal Defense Fund and NABJ are exploring a partnership, according to Academic Representative Lisa Armstrong. “During the 2026 NABJ Convention & Career Fair, LDF will convene closed-door, confidential individual conversations with NABJ members to discuss the challenges, trends, and realities they are encountering in their workplaces and in their reporting,” a message said.

“This discussion will provide an opportunity for participants to candidly share their experiences in a trusted setting and help inform LDF’s ongoing communications, advocacy, and legal efforts. We invite NABJ members who are interested in participating to complete the interest form linked here. Space will be limited, and responses will help us ensure a productive and representative discussion.”

The controversy last month over NABJ revising the dates for its 2027 convention, even though they conflict with those of the already-scheduled conference of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, was not discussed. The previous conference dates were “badly misaligned with our traditional conference window of early August,” Haines said then. The earlier dates would allow college students, parents and other members to have greater flexibility to attend, she said.

Andrew Young, who has been a Martin Luther King Jr. lieutenant, member of Congress, mayor of Atlanta and ambassador to the United Nations, with the board of directors of the National Association of Black Journalists in Atlanta on Tuesday. 

. . . Young Sees ‘Special Calling for Black Journalists’

It was 42 years ago that Andrew Young put the National Association of Black Journalists in the news when, in the 1984 presidential campaign, Young said at NABJ’s convention in Atlanta that Democratic candidate Walter Mondale’s bid for the White House was being run by a group of “smart-ass white boys who think they know it all.”

On Monday, Young was again at an NABJ convention in Atlanta, and he answered a question about that quote by elaborating on what he meant then. He also used the occasion to urge that conversations about democratic socialism not be used to divide Blacks and Jews, and to argue that having endured so many injustices, Black people, including Black journalists, should be the peacemakers and explainers.

“Whether you admit it or not, the more hell you’ve been through, the smarter you are,” Young told the NABJ board of directors Tuesday. “There’s a special calling for Black journalists in times that are messed up like they are now.

“It was not an accident that Ralph Bunche,” who is Black, won the Nobel Peace Prize for having arranged a cease-fire between Israelis and Arabs during the war that followed the creation of the state of Israel in 1948. He was the first African American to be so awarded.

With a number of anecdotes, Young, now 94, outlined how Jews have been African Americans’ allies. “The progress that we have made has been putting people together — because democratic socialism . . .  is going to be used by our opposition to divide us, and I’d rather not see that happen,” Young said. “I am probably deep in my heart a democratic socialist, but I don’t want to advertise it.”

Chantelle Lee wrote for Time magazine last month, “There isn’t one universal definition of democratic socialism. According to the website of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), democratic socialists view capitalism as ‘a system designed by the owning class to exploit the rest of us for their own profit’ and want to ‘replace it with democratic socialism, a system where ordinary people have a real voice in our workplaces, neighborhoods, and society.’ ”

Other Young anecdotes amplified advice he was given as a child: When attacked, don’t get violent, get smart, as the mind is one’s best weapon. He also praised the Barack Obama approach to dealing with Iran and the Middle East, contrasting it with today’s “people who started a war and didn’t look at a map,” and “have really f—ed up the whole world.”

The “smart-ass white boys” reference was to the advisers to Mondale, then the Democratic presidential candidate, who were spending a lot of money on television, which Young considered misplaced. The former congressman and mayor of Atlanta said, “I spent all my money with Black folks and Ted Turner stations — and I won.”

Eva D. Coleman makes her case for remaining on the NABJ board.

. . . NABJ V.P. Survives Effort to Oust Her From Ballot

Eva D. Coleman, vice president/print of the National Association of Black Journalists, survived an effort to remove her from the ballot in her bid for re-election Tuesday.

Opponents, who included some former NABJ presidents, said that even though Coleman is lifestyle and culture editor for I Messenger Media, part of the Black press, her additional job as director of communications at a local school district disqualified her from serving in a position reserved for those “whose principal livelihood comes from creating, producing or supervising the creation of journalism,” in the words on the NABJ constitution.

Coleman argued that she has been a journalist for 34 years and remains one. But “as a widowed mom, I’ve always had multiple jobs to support my daughters” and herself.

Public records show that she earns approximately $81,120 at the Aubrey Independent School District in Texas, though Coleman did not make that salary information public herself, a demerit in the eyes of critics.

The challenge arose when the NABJ elections committee disallowed another candidate, Konah Williams,  who describes herself as “producer and strategic communications professional,” on grounds she did not meet the criteria.  However, the committee allowed Coleman’s candidacy to proceed.

The question of how to limit membership has been with the organization since its inception.  There are now separate categories for ‘”media-related professionals,” “academic members” and “honorary or corporate members, among others. They are not all eligible to vote for all offices.

Past presidents such as Will Sutton and Vanessa Williams, part of a group of past presidents who became involved in this case, argued that the challenge was not personal, but that “the candidates were treated differently,” as Sutton said. Williams maintained that serving as a director of communications is not being a journalist.

Coleman cited her years of service to NABJ and called it ‘”disheartening that my career and my credibility is being questioned.”

After hours of discussion, the vote to overturn the elections committee failed to obtain the required two-thirds vote, with 6 voting yes, 5 no and two abstentions.

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Everett Marshburn Dies, NABJ ‘Journalist of Distinction’

Everett Marshburn, producer of Milwaukee PBS’ “Black Nouveau” who was named “Journalist of Distinction” by the National Association of Black Journalists in 2018, died Monday as he was preparing to attend the NABJ convention in Atlanta.  He was 78.

“He had some health issues but we don’t know what caused his death,” messaged his friend James E. Causey, columnist at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “We are assuming it was natural causes. I don’t think the family will do an autopsy. He was at home and he was planning to come to NABJ.”

Causey wrote in 2024 for the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters, “Ask anyone who’s worked with award-winning television producer Everett Marshburn to describe him, and the consensus is clear.

“ ‘Great storyteller.’

“ ‘He’s committed to telling the untold stories of the Black community and the Black condition.’

“ ‘Great listener and ultimate professional.’

“ ‘Whatever he puts his stamp on, you know it’s going to be great.’

“ ‘He is a great researcher who understands how to showcase a story.’

“ ‘Incredible eye and a man loaded with an encyclopedia of journalistic knowledge. . . . ‘

“Marshburn has accomplished much and received many honors in his nearly 60 years in public television. He’s won five Emmy Awards, 14 National Association of Black Journalists Salute to Excellence Awards, and two Milwaukee Press Club Awards. He was the 2014 recipient of the Bayard Rustin Leadership Award from Diverse and Resilient in Milwaukee, the 2012 Black Excellence Awardee in the field of Media from The Milwaukee Times, and a was a 2013 Inductee into Maryland Public Television’s Alumni Wall of Honor.

“In November, it was announced that Marshburn would receive one of the highest honors in television when he was inducted into the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences 2024 Gold Circle, the first person in the state to be bestowed with this honor. . . .”

Koli Tengella, who calls Marshburn “my beloved surrogate father and mentor,” has created a GoFundMe page to help “with funeral/ memorial expenses, the archiving, preserving of his body of journalistic work and the establishing of a grant or scholarship in his name to support the work of African-Americans in the field of journalism.”

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