Differences in Holdout’s Life Experience at Work?
9/11 Postscript: ‘Being Brown Remains Hazardous’
Phoenix to Pay $100,000 in Reporter’s Handcuffing
Wayback Machine Says It Kept Vanished BET Articles
AP Spurns Trump’s Name Change for Lake Ontario
Essence Proposes 365-Day Festival Presence
‘Sneaker Journalism’ Course Gets Trial Run at U.Md.
Festival Crowd Praises Film on Killing of Palestinians
Cuban Freelance Couple Log 22 Acts of Harassment
Short Takes: Richard Prince and Ruha Benjamin; Adam C Powell III; McClatchy layoffs; MLive ending print editions; Yvonne Latty; intercepting Va. journalists’ phone calls; covering Gary, Ind., outages; The Bulwark with Springfield, Ohio, Haitian community; Karen Attiah;
SPJ’s Dori Maynard Diversity Leadership Program; Victor Blackwell; Regina Mobley; diversity in Mexican journalism; Venezuela’s detained journalists; Guatemala’s worried journalists; legal support fund for West African journalists
Homepage photo: Latarsha Sanders, via NBC10 Boston (WBTS-CD)
“New information has been reported about the ‘holdout’ juror in the Lindsay Clancy case,” Court TV reported Friday. “After a juror recently spoke out in an exclusive interview, the juror confirmed the holdout juror was a black man, and there was only one black man on the jury. Law&Crime’s Sierra Gillespie was inside the courtroom and now knows exactly who the holdout juror was.” (Credit: YouTube)
Differences in Holdout’s Life Experience at Work?
The disclosure that the holdout juror in the Lindsay Clancy case is a Black man has changed the dynamic of the closely covered trial of the white woman who strangled her three children, her lawyers claiming she was suffering from postpartum psychosis, or temporary insanity.
The revelation took place on national television. The initial coverage focused on the interviewer, Gayle King.
“ ‘CBS Mornings’ anchor Gayle King was stunned when a juror in the high-profile Lindsay Clancy trial revealed the holdout was the lone black person on the panel,” the New York Post wrote Friday.
“During a discussion on the demographic details of the nine female and three male jurors that failed to reach a unanimous verdict in the triple murder trial, Paula Devlin explained how 11 members of the panel were white and just one was a person of color.
“Was the person of color a woman or a man?” King, 71, interjected during the Friday interview. . . .”
Then, on Friday’s 11 p.m. news, WBTS-CD in Nashua, N.H., known to viewers as NBC10 Boston, dropped a bombshell:
“Court documents and interviews with family members reveal a history of domestic violence allegations. We discovered a pending eviction case tied to months of not paying rent,” Ryan Kath reported.
“The NBC10 Boston Investigators also found an active restraining order against him, while he was listening to evidence in the case.
“Those details raise questions about the jury selection process and how the Plymouth County resident was picked for the high-profile case that ended in a mistrial.
“NBC10 Boston has repeatedly attempted to contact the juror at home, where his landlord is currently trying to evict him.”
The disclosure raised questions of violations of privacy, with some warning that identifying the holdout invites harassment and threatens the safety of future jurors.
The Associated Press guidlines on racial identiication, used widely by other media outlets, say, “Include racial or ethnic details only when they are clearly relevant and that relevance is explicit in the story.”
That the holdout was a Black man in his thirties suddenly did become relevant.
“America Wasn’t Ready for a Black Man to Sit in Judgment of a White Woman Who Murdered Her Three Children” headlined a Saturday blog post by Stacey Patton, Ph.D., who teaches journalism at Morgan State University, an historically Black institution.
“I don’t know if this man is a father. But could he have been sitting there wondering what would have happened if a Black man had strangled his three children? Would anybody in that courtroom be working so hard to afford him that much psychological complexity and grant him mercy? Or would a Black man just be a monster with no backstory?
“I dunno.”
Marcela García, a Boston Globe columnist, had already put the issue into a Latina context on Friday. Garcia mentioned Amalfis Guzmán, originally from the Dominican Republic.
“Outside the Plymouth courthouse, pink-shirted women had rallied behind Lindsay with signs reading ‘the system failed you,’ ‘she needed help,’ and ‘you’re a good mom.’
“ ‘Who is standing up for the lives of those three innocent children?’ asked Guzmán.
“She worried that Cora, Dawson, and Callan were disappearing from a public conversation consumed by their mother. “Recognizing the seriousness of mental illness does not mean that we should stop protecting innocent lives or excuse what happened to those children,” Amalfis wrote. And: “Where were the grandparents, the aunts, and the uncles?”
“I’ve heard a version of that question in every conversation about this case with Latina relatives and friends: Shouldn’t the adults around a mother in crisis carry responsibility, too?”
If no image is visible, please consider using a different browser.
A video raising more profound questions (above) had drawn more than 70,100 “likes” on Facebook by Sunday afternoon. In it, Neal K. Shah, a healthcare researcher focused on caregiving for the aging, raises both race and class issues.
Shah argues that Black women, more often without a partner than white women, are expected to soldier through the same issues that Clancey faced without complaint. Further, a similar case involving a Black woman, Latarsha Sanders (pictured, below), as Glenn Jones, Kaitlin McKinley Becker and Amelia Fabiano reported Thursday for NBC Boston, had a different outcome.
“Last month, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court threw out the conviction, saying that Judge William Sullivan had erred, denying Sanders a fair trial because her entire psychiatric history was not shared with the jury.”
Could it be, asked Shah, that a Black man would look at the Clancy case and see elite privilege? The issue “highlights one of the deepest fault lines in our society,” Shah said.
Sarah J. Glover, vice president of news and civic engagement at Philadelphia’s WHYY public station, saw the video as well.
“If you are a working journalist or working at a media company, please take 20 minutes to watch/listen to this analysis by Neal K. Shah,” Glover, also a former president of the National Association of Black Journalists, wrote Sunday on LinkedIn.
“I do not know his work nor do I agree/disagree with his analysis. He provides perspective and in-depth context in the Lindsay Clancy juror saga, thus I’m sharing to suggest news media take the effort to hear all points of view and consider in the framing of your stories. The world we live in remains complex with racial over/under tones. Footnote: I’d suggest he not refer to the juror as a minority but rather — a Black man — what he is. News media should follow the same.”
- Travis Andersen, John R. Ellement, Sarah Rahal, Shelley Murphy, Milton J. Valencia and Jenna Reyes, Boston Globe: Can there be consequences for a holdout juror? Our reporters answered your Lindsay Clancy trial questions.
- Austin Mirmina, Stamford (Conn.) Advocate: Who is the lone holdout juror in the Lindsay Clancy case? Here’s what we know
- Jessica Schladebeck, New York Daily News: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis offers asylum to Lindsay Clancy juror holdout
The first issue of The New Yorker to publish after 9/11 featured Françoise Mouly and Art Spiegelman’s mournful black-on-black cover. In a new video, Mouly describes how she went about drawing the image to convey what felt like “the complete collapse of the world.”
9/11 Postscript: ‘Being Brown Remains Hazardous’
“Today, even at a point when 40 percent of the country is too young to remember the 9/11 attacks themselves, being brown remains hazardous to one’s career as a public figure,” wrote Garrett Graff, journalist and author of “The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11,” a Pulitzer Prize finalist.
“One of Trump’s more frequent targets for bigoted insults has been Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, a Somali-born Muslim who at times has required a 24-hour security detail because of the threats against her. During 2021’s 20th anniversary of the attacks, she decried the way 9/11 has been turned against Muslims. ‘As Americans, as people who are living here, we were also attacked,’ she said. ‘This is our community, this is our country, and there were Muslims who lost their lives in those towers, who were Muslim firefighters, who lost their lives.’ ”
The consequences for being brown and/or Muslim extends not just to public figures. Leonard Greene and Rebecca White reported for the Daily News in New York Friday that “speaking at the 9/11 memorial ceremony, the son of one of the victims, in an impassioned plea, called on troublemakers to stop using the day to spread Islamophobia and hate. Yet, even as he shared his heartfelt message, a far-right rabblerouser was doing just that a few blocks away.”
Islamophobia was but one thread in the coverage of the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Journalists shared their own memories. Commentators said it marked the true beginning of the 21st century; some said it was a loss of the country’s innocence: It could, indeed, happen here.
News pegs included the release by Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration of more than 170,000 pages of previously withheld city records about the air quality around the World Trade Center site after the attacks. “More people are believed to have died from illnesses related to the attacks than the nearly 3,000 people who were killed on Sept. 11,” Caitlyn Freeman wrote in the New York Times.
Graff wrote for Politico about how “9/11’s most lasting ‘forever war’ turns out to be the one launched on us, as citizens,” and that the Department of Homeland Security “has swelled over the last quarter-century into a giant, sprawling, inchoate amalgam of agencies with an annual budget so vast it exceeds the entire military budgets of all-but four countries — the U.S., China, Russia, and Germany — and larger than the entire annual government budgets of New Zealand, Hungary or the Philippines.”
Will Bunch added for the Philadelphia Inquirer, “Many recall that the president, George W. Bush, visited the Islamic Center of Washington, D.C., to insist that U.S. Muslims ‘love America as much as I do,’ had no connection to the foreign extremists, and that ‘‘Islam is peace.‘
“Less well-remembered is the federal operation that targeted thousands of Muslims and South Asians — especially men under the age of 45 — in the weeks immediately after the attacks. They were detained, interrogated, fingerprinted, or subjected to deportation proceedings.
“In a new piece, the ‘war on terror’ historian Spencer Ackerman chronicled how agents went through a Brooklyn neighborhood known as Little Pakistan, dropping cards under doors with instructions such as: ‘This is the FBI. This is the INS. This is the NYPD. We need to talk. I have questions. Call me. ASAP.’ It’s believed that thousands found the post 9/11-climate so hostile that they left Little Pakistan…and the United States. . . . ”
- Sarah Bahari, Dallas Morning News: Texas Muslims are navigating a new surge in Islamophobia, 25 years after 9/11
- Michael D. Bolden, LinkedIn: My reflections on September 11
- Will Bunch, Philadelphia Inquirer: Islamophobia: A 9/11 legacy that refuses to die
- Democracy Now!: “Horror to Last a Lifetime”: Juan González on Covering 9/11 Attacks in NYC 25 Years Ago Today
- Editorial, Washington Informer: Despite the Tragic Results, 9/11 Remains a Unique Day in U.S. History When the Only Colors That Mattered were Red, White and Blue
- Garrett M. Graff, Boston Globe: Twenty-five years after 9/11, to be Muslim in America is to be suspect
- Leonard Greene and Rebecca White, New York Daily News: Stop using 9/11 to ‘hate on Muslims,’ WTC victim’s son pleads
- Phenix S Halley, the Root: 25 Years After 9/11: Remembering the 12 Black Firefighters Who Gave Their Lives to Save Others
- Karl W. Hardy, LinkedIn: Remembering 9/11 25 Years Later
- Roy S. Johnson, al.com: I was a New Yorker on 9/11. America was a different nation 25 years ago
- Marwan Kreidie, Philadelphia Inquirer: While our country mourned the thousands dead in New York, we Arab Americans also had to mourn our place in American society
- Maya King and Jeffery C. Mays, New York Times: Facing Islamophobia, Mamdani Keeps Focus on 9/11 Victims
- South Asian Journalists Association: SAJA Marks 25th Anniversary of 9/11, Reflecting on Its Role Helping Journalists Understand South Asia
- Liam Stack and Maya King, New York Times: After 9/11, Islamophobia Shaped a generation of Muslim New Yorkers
KNXV-TV in Phoenix, known as ABC 15, reports in 2024 on the city ‘s conclusion that a police investigation into the handcuffing of reporter Dion Rabouin was flawed. Investigators never asked whether race played a factor in Officer Caleb Zimmerman’s decision to detain the journalist and Zimmerman received retraining instead of suspension; the incorrect policy was applied, the city concluded. (Credit: YouTube)
Phoenix to Pay $100,000 in Reporter’s Handcuffing
Phoenix has agreed to pay $100,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by a former Wall Street Journal reporter, who was handcuffed and illegally searched by a Phoenix police officer while working on a story,” Dave Biscobing reported Thursday for KNXV-TV in Phoenix, known as ABC 15.
“The Phoenix City Council approved the settlement in a unanimous 9-0 vote, with no discussion. The vote was bundled with dozens of other agenda items.
“The settlement closes a case that began on November 23, 2022, when Phoenix police Officer Caleb Zimmerman handcuffed and searched Dion Rabouin outside a Phoenix Chase Bank branch.
“Rabouin was attempting to interview people about savings account interest rates but was unaware the sidewalk where he was standing was private property. At no point did the bank ask him to leave before police were called.”
“For a long time, I thought that I had to let the police disrespect, mistreat and abuse me. I thought that there was nothing I could do about it. For Black folks in America, this has long been our reality. Police can talk to us any way they want, push us around, beat us, kick us and laugh in our faces as they do it. Those days are ending.
“The police are public servants who exist to protect us — all of us. They can treat us with respect or they can cut the check.”
View this post on Instagram
If no image is visible, please consider using a different browser.
Wayback Machine Says It Kept Vanished BET Articles
“In September 2026, BET removed its news archive from bet.com — more than two decades of reporting on Black culture, politics, music and public life, gone from the live web,” the Internet Archive announced.
“The articles themselves survived, because the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine had been capturing them all along. This site makes those captures searchable again.”
‘How Trump Is Wielding Power to Stifle Speech‘
“The Justice Department has sent F.B.I. agents to reporters’ homes to serve subpoenas and, in at least one case, flashed a warrant to seize devices. The Pentagon has fired the editor and publisher of its traditionally independent newspaper, Stars and Stripes, and blocked access to other journalists who refused to sign pledges that would limit their reporting,” Jim Rutenberg and Maggie Haberman reported Saturday for The New York Times under the headline “How Trump Is Wielding Power to Stifle Speech.”
The story led the print edition of the Sunday newspaper.
“Regulatory agencies are using their powers to pressure media organizations over their content,” they continued. “The administration has stripped funding from public television and radio. Angry over stories he does not like, President Trump has sued major news organizations and the White House has taken control of the previously independent press pool that tracks the president, deciding which outlets can participate.
“Almost 20 months into Mr. Trump’s second term, his long-running media clashes have grown into a sweeping campaign to control speech in America that stands out for applying so many levers, so fast, all at once. . . .
“ ‘There’s not a week that goes by where they’re not taking a new step to curtail press freedom in the country,’ said Clayton Weimers, the executive director of the North America division of Reporters Without Borders. ‘We have measured a substantial diminishment of press freedoms.’ ”
- Charles M. Blow, the Guardian: ‘Don’t I deserve a little grace?’: Lonnie Bunch on pressure from Trump and leaving the Smithsonian on his own terms
- Paloma Chavez, People: JD Vance Says Republicans Got Tired of Being ‘Called Racist’ for Noticing America ‘Becoming Dirtier’
- Editorial, Philadelphia Tribune: Bunch exit from Smithsonian latest casualty in Trump’s war on Black history
- Molly Gibbs, Bay Area News Group: Conservative group files federal civil rights complaint against East Bay school district; Complaint alleges Oakland Unified’s academic programs for Latino youth discriminate against white students
- Liam Knox, Bloomberg: DOJ finds UC Berkeley law school admissions racially discriminatory
AP Spurns Trump’s Name Change for Lake Ontario
The Associated Press Tuesday announced its decision to keep “Lake Ontario” despite President Trump’s executive order changing the U.S. government designation of the Great Lake to “Lake America.”‘
Its style guidance:
“Lake Ontario, Lake America
“U.S. President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to rename Lake Ontario to Lake America. The border between the United States and Canada runs through Lake Ontario. Trump’s order only affects how the United States government refers to the body of water. Canada, as well as other countries and international bodies, are not required to recognize the name change, and Canada has said it will not.
“Lake Ontario has carried that name for more than 400 years. Refer to it by its original name. If it is relevant to the story, acknowledge and explain the name Trump has chosen.
—
“Explanation
“. . . The Associated Press will refer to the lake by its original name, while acknowledging and explaining the name Trump has chosen if it is relevant. As a global news agency that disseminates news around the world, the AP must ensure that place names and geography are easily recognizable to broad audiences.
“There is no single body that determines names of international bodies of water. Trump has wide latitude over how the U.S. government recognizes geographic places and landmarks.
“Lake Ontario has carried that name for more than 400 years. The word ‘Ontario’ is derived from the northern Iroquoian language family. The Canadian province of Ontario, founded in1867, took its name from the lake.
“There are examples around the world in which geographical places are referred to by different names. The AP strives to use terms recognizable to the broadest audience. For example, the U.S. government has designated the body of water that separates Baja California from mainland Mexico as the Gulf of California, while Mexico recognizes it as the Sea of Cortez. AP uses both terms depending on the context. The Persian Gulf is known as the Arabian Gulf in many Arab countries. The AP calls this body of water the Persian Gulf, and includes the name Arabian Gulf when relevant.
“Previously, Trump issued an executive order to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. The body of water forms a shared border between Mexico and the U.S. The AP calls it the Gulf of Mexico, noting Trump’s chosen name when relevant. Trump also signed an executive order to revert the name of North America’s tallest peak, Denali in Alaska, to Mount McKinley. The AP uses the official name change to Mount McKinley. The area lies solely in the United States and as president, Trump has the authority to change federal geographical names within the country.
“This paragraph can be included in stories as needed to explain our decision-making:
“ ‘The Associated Press will refer to Lake Ontario by its original name, including the name Trump has chosen when relevant. As a global news agency that disseminates news around the world, the AP must ensure that place names and geography are recognizable to broad audiences.’
“AP maps, graphics and interactives will use Lake Ontario.
“The AP regularly reviews its style guidance regarding name changes, in part to ensure its guidance reflects common usage. We will continue to apply that approach to this guidance and make updates as needed.”
In February 2025, the Associated Press sued the Trump administration for barring it from major presidential events over its refusal to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America. The case is pending before a federal appeals court.
Essence events at New Orleans’ Ernest N. Morial Convention Center are free. (Credit: Carlie Kollath Wells/Axios)
Essence Proposes 365-Day Festival Presence
“Essence Fest organizers and New Orleans leaders are figuring out what comes next in their 30-year relationship,” Carlie Kollath Wells reported Thursday for Axios.
“The big picture: Essence leaders met in New Orleans on Wednesday with Mayor Helena Moreno’s steering committee to see if there’s a way forward, the administration confirmed.
- “Festival organizers want more financial support from the city and state, saying their costs have grown along with their impact.
- “The city wants more accountability. It’s also re-evaluating its return on investment for all major events, including Essence.
- “The state legislative auditor chimed in last week, advising the city to get a thorough accounting of how previous public contributions were spent, The Times-Picayune reports.
“Zoom in: Organizers said in a statement that they want to negotiate a ‘sustainable’ multiyear agreement with ‘shared investment.’
- “Essence’s proposal includes the festival and a year-round presence across southeast Louisiana called Essence 365.
- “Sundial Media & Technology Group, the festival’s parent company, is asking for $10 million to $12 million annually, with most of that going toward Essence 365.
- “The festival currently gets $750,000 annually from the city and the New Orleans Tourism and Cultural Fund, writes Joni Hess with The Times-Picayune.
“Yes, but: The steering committee told organizers the multimillion-dollar amount is ‘simply unfeasible in the current environment,’ reports Blake Paterson at The Times-Picayune. . . .”
- Will Sutton, NOLA.com: Essence talks are underway as LIV Golf goes bust, owing Louisiana $1.2M
‘Sneaker Journalism’ Course Gets Trial Run at U.Md.
A “sneaker journalism” course debuted on a pilot basis at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland in the spring, conducted seminar-style with nine students.
The course was designed by Jamaal Abdul-Alim (pictured, below), an investigative journalist and adjunct journalism instructor known as Professor J.
The website for the project says, “Sneaker theory is the study of sneakers and their impact and influence on society and the world — culturally, economically and otherwise.
“We believe that if you’re old enough to select a certain brand of sneaker, you’re old enough to study sneakers and the sneaker industry.
“We believe that educators should harness the affinity that U.S. kids, teens and young adults have for sneakers and channel it to teach a range of important concepts and skills.
“Sneakers can be used to teach just about any subject – from social studies to STEM.
“For instance, a high school economics teacher could explore how sneaker company stocks have performed since the students were born. That could yield important insights on whether it’s better to invest in sneakers — as a growing number of people are doing — or sneaker stocks.
“Then there’s a lot that could be done with art and architecture. For instance, at the college level, architecture majors could be challenged to design a sneaker-shaped library. At the elementary school and even pre-school level, art educators can guide students to design and sketch their dream sneakers.
“Our theory is that if educators can harness the affinity that America’s young people have for sneakers and use it to teach a variety of lessons, schools would be unwise not to try it.”
Coincidentally, in the same Prince George’s County, Md., journalist Jesse J. Holland and his wife, Carol Holland (pictured), opened a running shoe store in February. Haraka Run and Walk uses the word for “speed” or “quick” in Swahili.
Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor look drawn and solemn amid strong applause for Golden Lion Contender ‘NAZA’ exposing Israeli targeting of civilians in Gaza #VeniceFilmFestival pic.twitter.com/hqyzoZhwHM
— Deadline (@DEADLINE) September 10, 2026
If no image is visible, please consider using a different browser
Festival Crowd Praises Film on Killing of Palestinians
“NAZA,” a documentary that shows “in detail the systems behind Israel’s calculated mass killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza,” according to its official synopsis, “earned a massive 24.5-minute ovation at its Venice Film Festival premiere on Thursday,” Ellise Shafer and Nick Vivarelli reported Thursday for Variety.
On Friday, however, former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, in a post on X, called the film “a horrific blood libel against our sons and daughters. What makes it especially painful and infuriating is that this lie comes from Israeli filmmakers and is now being spread around the world,” Zac Ntim reported for Deadline.
The Variety reporters continued, “The hot-button doc, which was shot in secrecy at night on the rooftops of Tel Aviv, features revelatory interviews with 24 Israeli military intelligence officers and soldiers. ‘NAZA,’ a term that appears throughout the documentary, is an acronym for collateral damage used by Israeli intelligence to indicate the number of civilians it expects will be killed in an airstrike. . . .”
Cuban Freelance Couple Log 22 Acts of Harassment
“The Cuban Institute for Freedom of Expression and Press (ICLEP) reported that Cuban authorities are carrying out political persecution against journalists Yunia Figueredo and Frank Correa, a freelance reporting couple, and extending the harassment to their daughter,” LatAm Journalism Review reported Wednesday, quoting the institute.
“According to ICLEP, on September 4, a local police sector chief in Jaimanitas, a Havana neighborhood, verbally notified Figueredo without a court order that she must report to the police station on the 10th of every month as a precautionary measure in an open proceeding against her for organizing, participating in, and reporting on recent local protests, despite no sentence having been handed down. . . .
“According to ICLEP data, the couple has been subjected to at least 22 acts of harassment in little more than a year. . . .”
- Ciber Cuba: Journalism is failing in Cuba: University of Havana seeks students from other majors (Sept. 3)
- Edith M. Lederer, Associated Press: Cuba says US sanctions are blocking its efforts to open the economy to private investment (Aug. 21)
Short Takes
- Richard Prince and Ruha Benjamin, Ph.D. (pictured), at the Everett C. Parker Award and Lecture ceremonies Thursday in Washington presented by the United Church of Christ Media Justice Ministry. The “Journal-isms” author, accepting the Parker award, spoke of the importance of believing in others and in oneself in this perilous time for journalists of color; Benjamin told the crowd that the people and companies behind the screen, not the technology itself, are responsible for the harms of artificial intelligence. More here. (Credit: United Church of Christ)
“We have shut down the USC election cybersecurity programs effective immediately and I have stepped down as head of DC programs effective with our last program on Dec. 8,” veteran journalist Adam C. Powell III messaged Journal-isms Sunday, referencing the University of Southern California. “A new policy sent to all faculty and staff last week requires advance approval for classes or meetings with elected or appointed public officials and candidates for political office. That makes our work impossible, since that’s what we do every day — and we reach thousands of elected and appointed election officials and campaign workers every week. Some faculty are, to put it mildly, upset. . . .”
- “McClatchy, whose titles include The Miami Herald and The Sacramento Bee, executed its most severe layoffs in years on Thursday, cutting newsroom staff at some papers by upwards of 40%,” Angela Fu reported Thursday for the Poynter Institute. More than 90 journalists across the country were affected, according to estimates by the unions representing journalists at various papers owned by McClatchy, which is owned by private investment firm Chatham Asset Management. . . .”
- “MLive Media Group has announced it will no longer produce printed editions of its eight newspaper titles, calling it the next step in its digital evolution and a response to long-shifting audience trends,” Danielle Salisbury reported for the company on Sept. 2 .”MLive’s eight titles are: The Ann Arbor News, The Bay City Times, The Flint Journal, The Grand Rapids Press, Jackson Citizen Patriot, Kalamazoo Gazette, Muskegon Chronicle and The Saginaw News. . . . “
Reporter and producer Yvonne Latty (pictured), director of Temple University’s Logan Center for Urban Investigative Reporting, is the recipient of the International Women’s Media Federation’s 2026 Gwen Ifill Award, the organization announced Thursday. “This award recognizes Latty — a journalist, author, filmmaker, and educator — for her transformative mentorship and commitment to expanding diversity in investigative reporting.”
- “The FBI monitored several phone calls between a Virginia congressman and Virginia State Senator L. Louise Lucas as part of an investigation, according to a statement from Rep. Suhas Subramanyam‘s office, Washington’s WJLA-TV reported Sept. 2. “Reporters with The Virginian-Pilot, Radio IQ and VPM [Virginia Public Media] have received letters that their phone calls with the senator were intercepted,” the Virginia Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists said in a letter of protest on Sept. 4. In July, Kate Seltzer reported for the Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, “A U.S. District Court judge authorized the FBI to monitor state Sen. Louise Lucas’ phone communications between March 6 and April 5, according to sealed federal court records. Those communications included correspondence with journalists . . . .“
“On August 11, a powerful wind storm tore through northern Indiana, toppling trees and utility poles and causing almost 375,000 outages across the Northern Indiana Public Service Company’s service territory,” Evlondo Cooper (pictured) reported Aug. 28 for Media Matters for America. “As power returned elsewhere and remaining outages became increasingly concentrated in the predominantly Black city [of Gary], coverage increased. Once the focus shifted, CNN and MS NOW consistently connected Gary’s prolonged outage to race and poverty, while Fox News did not. Corporate broadcast segments documented many of the same hardships but rarely provided the climate and environmental justice context necessary for viewers to have a fuller understanding of the story.”
“If you’re near Dayton, Ohio on September 25th, we’d be honored if you’d join us at the Dayton Masonic Center,” The Bulwark messaged on Saturday. We’re still sorting out some of the details, but here’s what you can expect: a memorable night out with The Bulwark crew, likely some special guests, and most importantly, helping us raise money for the Springfield community, whose response to such unnecessary cruelty has been so inspiring to us. Outside of a Senator with a spine and a sense of decency, which Ohio currently lacks, the best way to help Springfield and its Haitian community is time or money. See you there, I hope. Get Your Tickets Now!”
Karen Attiah (pictured), who won reinstatement to the Washington Post after an arbitrator’s decision last month, “was something of a problem employee,” former Post columnist Gene Weingarten wrote Wednesday in his Substack column. “Her editors had been compiling a case for her dismissal at the time the Charlie Kirk matter exploded and [Post managers] bumbled into the picture, upending everything. . . . I finally reached Attiah late last night. She said she didn’t want to ‘re-litigate … the whole narrative of performance concerns.’ I feel like this was something I addressed deeply with editors. I stand behind my work. Forgive me for not being interested in getting into this aspect of things.’ As to any remaining tensions, she said: ‘Everyone is so focused on whether this will be awkward for me — shouldn’t it be awkward for the people who made this completely absurd decision about me? I feel my feelings are so much beside the point.’ ”
“The Society of Professional Journalists has selected six journalists as the 2026 fellows for the Dori Maynard Diversity Leadership Program,” SPJ announced Wednesday. Jolene Almendarez, Ebony Curry, Idris Mohammed, Damilola Oduolowu, Morgan Shay and Tiffany Tan will participate in the program, which connects journalists from underrepresented backgrounds with industry leaders and opportunities to build professional networks and become more involved with SPJ. The program honors the late Dori Maynard (pictured) a pioneering journalist, SPJ leader and advocate for diversity in newsrooms.”
- Victor Blackwell, CNN television news anchor, is to be recognized “for excellence in journalism and for using the power of storytelling to illuminate the experiences, challenges and achievements of people and communities too often overlooked in the national conversation,” the National Organization of Concerned Black Men announced, providing details of its Sept. 17 celebration of its 50th anniversary.
“Regina Mobley (pictured) is retiring from the world of TV news after a storied 45-year career in Hampton Roads living rooms,” Gavin Stone reported Sept. 3, updated Sept. 4, for the Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, Va. “Mobley became a household name over her 26 years as an anchor and reporter with 13News Now, but joined WAVY-TV in 2020 following a brief stint in real estate. Mobley graduated from Norfolk State University in 1983 and got her start at local radio stations WNIS and WNOR before being hired as a reporter at WTKR, where she stayed for seven years. Her last WAVY broadcast will be Sept. 15.”
- A panel on “Coverage on diversity in Mexican journalism” is on tap at the International Seminar on Investigative Journalism at the University of Guadalajara in Mexico, to be held virtually Oct 6 and 7. It is to feature Aldo Castillo, director of Escenario Tlaxcala; Diana Manzo, Zapotec journalist and collaborator of Istmo Press; and David Adrián García, director of Editorial Altavoz LGBT.
- “Venezuela’s National Union of Press Workers (SNTP) on Sunday denounced that six journalists and workers in the sector ‘are still in court’ in the country,” Deutsche Welle reported Sept. 7. “In a post on the social network X, the organization demanded that there be full freedom for Jonathan Carrillo, Carlos Julio Rojas, Luis López, Gabriel González, Carlos Correa and for Rory Branker. In addition, there are ‘dozens who remain in exile, some of them under threat,’ according to the union, which called for ‘conditions for a safe return’ of these journalists to their country.”
“Journalists who fled Guatemala after being targeted for covering their former boss’s trial can now return following court rulings. But they worry the forces that drove them into exile are still in place,” Silvia Higuera reported Sept. 2 for LatAm Journalism Review. “It has been a little more than three years of uncertainty, fear, anger and, especially, disappointment for a group of former employees of Guatemala’s now-defunct news outlet elPeriódico who are living in exile because of their coverage of the case against their former boss, José Rubén Zamora.” Zamora is under house arrest.
- The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) has established a Legal Support Fund with an allocation of approximately GHS 544,000 (about $47,575 U.S.), it announced Sept. 7. “The Fund responds to growing concerns about the use of Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs) against critical journalists and media organisations in Ghana. It will, therefore, provide legal assistance to journalists and media organisations who face litigation, judicial harassment and other legal threats arising from their legitimate professional work.”
