’47’ Calls Blacks ‘Biggest Beneficiary’ of Presidency
Dunia Elvir Wins Re-Election as NAHJ President
Back in the Day, Scott Colom’s Dad Was a WaPo Intern
Trump Cartoon Shows Attacks on Journalists
Press-Freedom Group Wants FCC Chair’s Impeachment
Asian American, Indigenous Journos Blast Stereotypes
Cuba Said to Want to Force Journo Out of the Country
Homepage photo: Stephen A. Smith and President Trump (screenshot)
’47’ Calls Blacks ‘Biggest Beneficiary’ of Presidency
Stephen A. Smith interviewed President Trump for more than 40 minutes at the White House Thursday in a conversation that touched on historically Black colleges and universities, unemployment among Black women, immigration enforcement, Trump’s view of his accomplishments for African Americans, and a boast that he could beat Barack Obama, whom Trump deemed “highly overrated” and “a divider.”
Smith said later in the day on “CNN’s’ “Laura Coates Live,” “I wasn’t shocked that he said that he’d think he’d beat him, but I was shocked that he’d be so dismissive and disrespectful of Barack Obama. I certainly didn’t think that would happen, to be quite honest with you,” Smith said.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the 47th president cast himself as “a person that brings people together” and put forward what many would call an overly generous view of himself and his accomplishments.
“I asked, he answered,” Smith began. “Weeks ago when I visited the White House for dinner with the president of the United States and Bill Maher, I made sure to slide in a request that he would sit down with me to conduct an interview. The president promised that he would do so, and that’s exactly what he did. This is Stephen A. Smith. I am with you right now inside the White House, the famous Roosevelt room. And I am here with the president of the United States of America.”
Such an interview with a journalist of color is rare, and didn’t go unnoticed by those on the White House beat.
“I’m not begrudging Stephen A. Smith an interview,” April Ryan, the longest-serving Black White House correspondent, messaged Journal-isms. “A lot of presidents have done that, bringing people from outside for an exclusive interview.. That is the president’s prefence. OK.
“However, it’s outrageous because Trump have overly qualified Black journalists at the White House who happened to be Black and cover him daily and he mocks us, but brings in somebody else to do an interview. That’s crazy.
“Darlene Superville of the AP, Rachel Scott of ABC, Akayla Gardner of MS NOW to name three qualified Black people and myself of the Contrarian news who has been doing this for 30 years to interview him.”
Taking place just a week after the Republicans’ midterms disaster, the Trump-Smith conversation naturally turned to Trump’s culpability, with Smith summarizing, “He’s not somebody that considers himself to have been on the ballot. To me, that was inconsistent with what he had been saying, talking about people putting him on the ballot.” .
The commentator added, “That was a request that he made to the American people out there, and obviously, when they lost, the way that they lost during the midterms, he thinks it was more about them than him. Obviously, that’s something that a lot of people will disagree with, but nevertheless, that’s the situation. That’s the position that he took.”
In response to a question about Black America, Trump declared, that “The Black community is the biggest beneficiary of what I’ve done.”
The statement came after Smith said, “I’m thinking about the man that rolled down the escalator. I’m giving him out. I’m thinking about the guy that walked into the Black community before the 2016 election, and you looked at folks and you said –”
Trump answered, “The Black community.”
“What [have you] got to lose? You ask that question,” Smith continued.
“The Black community is the biggest beneficiary of what I’ve done. I did criminal justice reform. Yes, you,” said Trump. “Did,” Smith said, completing the sentence,
“I did things. I saved the historically Black colleges and universities. They were out of business. I have a list of things that I wrote here,” Trump said.
“Read the list,” replied Smith.
Trump did so, and his recitation included criminal justice reform, which he said was “bigger than all of this stuff put together. I did criminal justice reform at the request of a lot of Black journalists. One in particular that I told you about. I think he’s a disgrace because he was very unthankful. They came to my office. They had no chance of getting criminal justice reform. They had many senators that would never have voted. And they came, they made their case to me. They’ve been trying to get it for 25 years, and I got criminal justice reform done.”
The “Black journalist” in question was apparently CNN commentator Van Jones.
“You’re talking about Van Jones, who you asked me to call,” Smith replied. “I called them. He said he has thanked and thanked and thanked you time and time again on camera, off camera. He knows. He said for the record, he knows that he came to you and you were the one that got the five Republican senators inside of an hour” to help.
Smith also challenged a Trump statement that although more than 300,000 Black women lost their federal jobs, “they’re flourishing in the private sector.”
“And they’re getting more money,” Trump said. “Look, you can’t have a federal government where you have 10 people to do one job. The federal government, and if I wanted to leave everybody in the federal government and the system, you’d have a country that would fail. Those people, for the most part, went out and got better jobs, better paying job, and they liked the job more. They love going to work as opposed to working for the federal government where you sit around doing nothing. Somebody had to do something about it, and I did it. Black women, Black men, and I did very well with the Black men.”
Smith said of the comment that Black women and the private sector, “they tell me that’s not true,” but no fact-checkers were part of the interview. Fact-checkers for the Poynter Institute, however, have found that of previous Trump statements, 3 percent were true, 7 percent mostly true, 11 percent half true, 19 percent mostly false, 39 percent false and 20 percent “pants on fire.”
Trump went on to defend the immigration policies developed under the guidance of Stephen Miller, whom Trump just named chief of staff. Those policies have been challenged in court and in Congress as unnecessarily cruel, violating due process and sweeping up innocent people — and in two cases, leading to the killing by authorities of American citizens.
“Let me give you some background about Stephen Miller because you know it,” Smith said. “So I’m going to regurgitate this. Leading supporter of Trump first term, zero tolerance immigration policy in 2018 resulting in thousands of family separations, press dramatic reductions in refugee admissions.
“Champions administration’s immigration enforcement expansion supported by approximately 170 billion that Republicans allocated in a big, beautiful bill, developed and defended the administration’s executive order that restricted entry by nationals of several Muslim majority countries, advocated for penalizing legal immigrants who received public benefits and making it harder for them to obtain citizenship.
“And in the second term, pushed ICE to make at least 3,000 immigration arrests per day. I want to say for the record, I’ve asked Stephen Miller to sit down with me and interview me.”
Trump replied, “I can defend that record.”
“”So we had people in our country that if we didn’t have ICE, they would still be here. They were murderers. So we had thousands and thousands of murderers brought into our country. Many of them murdered more than one person. Those people had to get out. We brought them out. When you talk about detention, Obama is the one that built the jails. You know the jails for the kids? They all said Trump built it.
“And then somebody got up and said, no, actually they were built during Barack Hussein Obama and Obama built those jails. They gave me a bad rap with the jails and all of a sudden, and these are jails for children. And all of a sudden it turned out that it was Obama that built those jails for the children. We have now gotten out some of the worst criminals, Trend de Aragua, which is a gang that makes our gangs look like nice people. . . .”
Smith took heat after the Oct. 15 dinner with Trump, Maher and Kid Rock, which followed a Thumbs Down from the National Association of Black Journalists for “a recurring public pattern of disparaging commentary directed at prominent Black women across politics, sports, and media” and his decision to defend himself on Sean Hannity’s Fox News program ‘”Hannity” to which Smith returned Thursday night.
Media critic Eric Deggans tweeted, “If a con man calls you and says ‘@Lets sit down and talk about the state of your finances,’ do you assume they are making a good faith effort or do you wonder what the con is? Come on brother — how many times does Trump have to use Black celebrities as props before his intentions are obvious?”
Smith said after that Oct. 15 dinner, “I’ve known Donald Trump for roughly 25 years, well before he ever ran for office. I attended numerous boxing events at his Atlantic City casinos. I saw him at Knicks games. In 2006, during Quite Frankly on ESPN2, he sat in as a guest for an hour while he was hosting The Apprentice.”
“More significantly, in 2014 — when Trump was trying to purchase the Buffalo Bills— he called me directly. NFL owners were resisting, and he told me: “If those MFs get in my way and prevent me from purchasing the Buffalo Bills, I’m going to get them all back, Stephen A. I’m going to run for president.”
“The price was $1.4 billion; he had about $1.1 billion. They blocked him. He was furious. And, true to his word, he ran.
“Given that history, I wasn’t about to miss this opportunity.”
- C-SPAN: President Trump Meeting on Criminal Justice Reform (June 10, 2020)
- Chandelis R. Duster, NBC News: Trump praised as ‘pro-black’ at White House prison reform event (Aug. 1, 2018)
Dunia Elvir Wins Re-Election as NAHJ President
Dunia Elvir (pictured), the incumbent who recently switched from anchoring at Telemundo to freelancing, defeated Reuters journalist Julio-Cesar Chavez in online-only balloting for president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, the association announced Friday night.
Elvir won 258 votes, or 59.04 percent, to 173 for Chavez, or 39.5 percent, the Elections Committee said. However, Chavez’s running mate, Arelis Hernandez, a Washington Post reporter, defeated incumbent secretary Jackie Padilla, senior analyst, digital monetization at E.R. Scripps.
Elivir, 53, who left her longtime anchor job at KVEA, Telemundo 52 in Los Angeles, now freelances for Telemundo stations.
“I want to leave NAHJ stronger, more visible, and with more opportunities for its members — an organization that doesn’t just represent Hispanic journalists, but helps them lead,” she said on her website.
Chavez, 31, (pictured) has been the NAHJ vice president/broadcast for the last six years.
He said during the campaign: “My plan centers on three things:
• “Growing our membership to 4,500 by our 45th anniversary, and giving every member a reason to stay engaged.
• “Diversifying our revenue, including a new Board of Advisors that connects our staff to funding we haven’t traditionally reached.
• “Giving our current and future leaders the tools to succeed so no chapter or task force has to start from scratch.”
Online-only voting for the NAHJ election began Nov 2 and continued until Nov. 13, away from the excitement of a convention.
Members voted in 2024 to separate the association’s elections from the annual NAHJ conference in July, Sofia Esparza wrote in July for the convention’s Latino Reporter.
” ‘It was a lot of work and too confusing for members to have to deal with an election at the same time when you have to focus on the sessions that you want to go to,’ Elvir said.” Her presidential challenger, Chavez, also supported the change.
Rather than in-person convention appearances, the candidates posted videos. There were no candidate debates.
Journal-isms reported last year that NAHJ was the nation’s fourth-largest association of journalists, behind Investigative Reporters & Editors, the National Association of Black Journalists and the Society of Professional Journalists.
Wil Colom talks about the family work ethic on CNN’s “Laura Coates Live.”
Back in the Day, Scott Colom’s Dad Was a WaPo Intern
Wilbur Colom, the father of the first Black senator from Mississippi since Reconstruction, Scott Colom, knows about politics, knows about his state — he’s a sixth-genetration Mississippian — and he knows about the law. And maybe a little bit about journalism.
While at Howard University from 1968 to 1972, Wil Colom, now 76, also worked at the Washington Post.
“William Raspberry arranged for me to be hired as an intern only while at Howard,” Colom messaged Journal-isms Friday. “I was never permanent or full time. I actual authored several articles published in the magazine.”
He mentioned two. “‘Incense, Jazz and a Black Christ” [July 31, 1971] and ‘Gospels The Sunday Sounds Carries from The Daly’s” (Sept. 19, 1971), he said.
Craig Herndon, a copy aide at the time who went on to become a Post photographer, says, “We used to hang as a couple. He and his wife were very bright, fun, highly intelligent, people. Wilbur could have been the ‘first’ himself. I think he saw politics in his future.”
Politics — and the law. Father and son both have law firms, and both have run for office. Wil Colom’s wife, and Scott’s mother, Dorothy Colom, is a pioneering municipal judge who became the first Black person elected to her region’s Chancery Court.
“There are election-night reactions, and then there are the tears of a man who has spent decades watching Mississippi change – often painfully, slowly and against seemingly impossible odds,” Phenix S Halley wrote Thursday for The Root.
“Wilbur Colom is not simply Senator-elect Scott Colom’s father. He is a Mississippi attorney who participated in the civil rights struggles of the 1970s and early 1980s, served on Ronald Reagan’s presidential transition team and once navigated the state’s political landscape as a Republican. So when he says he never thought he would witness his son’s historic victory, those words carry the weight of generations.”
Halley also wrote, “Colom believes that work ethic helped propel his son across the finish line, even with a campaign operating on significantly fewer resources than its competitors.
“ ‘Scott and I sat and talked about what we were going to do in Mississippi in the coming years,’ Colom continued in the interview. ‘So, you know what he’ll do tomorrow? He’ll get up, and he’ll get to work. And what he’ll do Friday: he’ll get up, and he’ll get to work.’
“Scott’s father’s Republican history makes this moment especially interesting. According to Scott’s Senate campaign website, Colom supported former President Reagan, served on his transition team, participated in Thad Cochran’s Senate campaign and ran unsuccessfully for state treasurer as a Republican in 1987. His son’s victory represents a different political chapter for the family and Mississippi.”
Dad was with his son when it “seemed like a crazy long-shot that afternoon in November 2024 when Chuck Schumer,” the Senate Democratic leader, “agreed to have Colom and his father over for lunch. Those were the days when Colom had already set his mind to run but was struggling to get national buy-in,” Edward-Isaac Dovere reported for CNN.
Not that Wil Colom was wedded to only one side of the aisle. Raspberry, the late longtime Black Post columnist who met Colom while teaching at Howard, wrote in 1967 about his former student and fellow Mississippian.
“I’m concerned about a really dangerous trend that’s developing in the South and elsewhere: the trend that has blacks rapidly segregating themselves into the Democratic Party — and out of power,” Raspberry quoted Colom as saying. “It’s dangerous to be in the position {as with the nomination of Robert Bork for the U.S. Supreme Court} of being able to articulate our disagreement only from the outside.
“The second reason is that I honestly don’t believe that conservatives are the nemesis of black people. I think what has happened is that we have refused to move our thinking from the ’60s. I’ve as much right to say that as anybody. I got arrested in Mississippi and New York. I worked with Rap Brown and Stokely Carmichael. I worked with the National Welfare Rights Organization. I don’t think anyone can have any more liberal credentials than I have. But what I see now is a black leadership that cannot move us to the next step: economic parity.”
Raspberry also wrote, “Colom’s affinity for conservatism — he was a group captain on the Reagan transition team — dismays many of the state’s black traditionalists, who consider him some sort of renegade who cares only about making money.
” ‘You get that from people who don’t know me, people who let sentiment rule their business decisions. The people who know me understand what I’m doing — even when they disagree politically. There’s a black guy here who owns a real estate company who got started through me. There are probably five or six guys here who own construction companies. I represent them all.
“I represent every black elected official in the area, because they know I’ll help them raise money and lead them to the technical expertise they need. On the issues that are important to them in terms of civil rights, I’m very much in line with them. I’m very much out of line with them in my view of where black people need to go in terms of economic parity.’ ”
- Kate Brumback, Associated Press: Scott Colom makes history in Mississippi. Two other Black men did the same 150 years before him
- Ibram X.Kendi, the Emancipator: Where’s the Post-Election Narrative on Black and Latino Economic Anxiety?
- Charles P. Pierce, Esquire: I Can Feel the Tremors of History Rumbling Beneath Scott Colom’s Victory
- Corey Williams, Associated Press: Black voters view Scott Colom’s historic US Senate win through lens of Mississippi’s racial legacy
Click cartoon to view.
Trump Cartoon Shows Attacks on Journalists
Investigative Reporters & Editors and the National Assocation of Hispanic Journaists are strongly protesting an animated video from President Trump depicting UFC CEO Dana White as the new White House press secretary — with a team of professional fighters on hand to physically attack reporters.
“The video, posted on Truth Social, undermines the role of the press in a functioning democracy,” IRE said in a statement Tuesday. “It makes light of the violence that many journalists face while simply doing their job. Last year, assaults on journalists nationwide more than doubled compared with the year before, according to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
“IRE joins the Chauncey Bailey (pictured) Project in denouncing President Trump’s juvenile and dangerous message. The Chauncey Bailey Project was established to finish the work of its namesake, the editor of the OaklURED-and Post who was assassinated 19 years ago while walking to work. In 2023, IRE renamed its signature fellowship for journalists of color in Bailey’s honor. . . .”
NAHJ said Thursday, “Questioning public officials is fundamental to journalism and essential to holding those in power accountable. Portraying violence against reporters as entertainment is particularly troubling as journalists face increasing threats and intimidation for doing their jobs.”
Toria Sheffield reported Sunday for People, “The president, 80, shared the cartoon on his Truth Social account on Sunday, Nov. 8, one day after offering the press secretary role to White.
“The roughly one-minute video, which appears to have been created using AI and is animated in a style resembling Family Guy, shows a cartoon version of White, 57, standing behind the lectern in the White House press briefing room, flanked by several UFC fighters.”
“Trump made me press secretary. I brought help,” the animated version of White tells the assembled reporters.
“The fictional press briefing quickly descends into chaos as White calls on the fighters to physically confront reporters who ask questions. At various points, the journalists are tackled, dragged away and chased out of the briefing room.. . . ”
Trump later said the job offer to White was a joke.
Brendan Carr’s leadership of the Federal Communications Commission has “raised serious concerns about press freedom and editorial independence,” the National Association of Black Journalists said in August.
Press-Freedom Group Wants FCC Chair’s Impeachment
The international press-freedom group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) Thursday urged the incoming Congress “to impeach Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chair Brendan Carr and prioritize the agency’s independence in its oversight agenda.
“Under Carr’s leadership, the FCC has been weaponized against independent journalism, systematically targeting media, undermining their editorial independence, and threatening media pluralism,” it said.
” This is indeed the first time RSF ever called for the removal of a US official,” spokesperson Sarah Zaaim told Journal-isms. The Paris-based organization, which has an American component, was founded in 1985.
The National Association of Black Journalists in August gave Carr one of its five Thumbs Down awards.
“Since assuming leadership of the FCC, Carr has repeatedly used the agency’s regulatory authority in ways that have raised serious concerns about press freedom and editorial independence,” NABJ said.
“His actions have targeted news organizations through licensing scrutiny, while amplifying efforts to pressure media and communications companies to dismantle diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. Together, these actions have contributed to a chilling environment for independent journalism and threatened the diversity of voices essential to serving the public interest.”
RSF took the same tack. “Carr’s tenure as FCC Chair has been defined by his campaign to intimidate and punish media organizations disfavored by the president. He has launched baseless investigations into news organizations, seized on vaguely written regulations to punish news outlets for speech deemed anti-Trump, threatened the broadcast licenses of TV and radio networks based on their editorial lines, gutted rules against media ownership consolidation, put his thumb on the scales of massive media mergers to benefit Trump allies, and improperly supported midterm campaigns. His consistent abuse of his office demands urgent action from Congress, ” said Clayton Weimers, executive director, RSF North America.
- Journal-isms: How Far Will Latino Journos Go for Press Freedom? (Oct. 30)
The Indigenous Journalists Association wants an apology in print.
Asian American, Indigenous Journos Blast Stereotypes
The Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA) is condemning the choice of words in coverage about Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, and the Indigenious Journalists Associaton is condemning the Albuquerque Journal’s decision “to publish an editorial cartoon by John Trever that relies on racist stereotypes to depict New Mexico Governor-elect Deb Haaland, a citizen of the Pueblo of Laguna.”
“Huang recently apologized to his family for having an affair and now is being investigated by Nvidia for possibility exposing information about the company to a Chinese spy,” Randall Yip reported Wednesday for AsAmNews.
“In separate articles, the two publications used puns that AAJA fears ‘come at the expense of perpetuating racial stereotypes or casting entire communities under suspicion.”
“According to AAJA, the Economist November 9th article used the tag line ‘Two Huangs don’t make a right’ Huang reportedly had an affair with Alice Huang (no relation). China has denied she is a spy, but U.S. intelligence agencies disagree.
” Similarly, the New York Post used “HUANG HUANG BANG BANG” as its Nov. 9 front-page headline covering the same controversy,” AAJA said. “While wordplay may seem harmless, turning a common Asian surname into a punchline in a story about espionage and national security risks reinforcing harmful associations between identity and suspicion, wrongdoing or divided loyalties. The punchline reinforces stereotypes that real people have to live with.
Asked whether the Albuquerque Journal would respond to the Indigenous Journalists Association complaint, Managing Editor James Bennett replied Friday, “I am publishing a column on it later. Please feel free to look under the Opinion section of our web site.”
Bennett wrote a column Friday praising the cartoonist on his 50th anniversary at the Journal, under the headline, “John Trever ranks among the all-time greats.”
The Indigenous Journalists urged the Journal to:
- “Publish an apology in print and online that names the racist stereotypes in the cartoon and takes responsibility for publishing it.
- “Explain how the cartoon was approved and identify what editors will change in their review of cartoons and other opinion content.
- “Provide opportunities to educate staff in order to report for the community it serves rather than further marginalizing the Indigenous community.
- “Seek and utilize resources provided by IJA and other journalism organizations. IJA provides newsroom training to ensure coverage of Indigenous issues, people and communities is accurate, ethical and culturally appropriate through the Indigenous Media Initiative.”
Cuba Said to Want to Force Journo Out of the Country
Independent Cuban journalist Henry Constantín (pictured) director of the media outlet La Hora de Cuba and vice president of the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) for the region, has been imprisoned in Kilo 7 prison in Camagüey, Cuba, for almost two months, “while State Security agents seek to psychologically wear him down and force him to leave the country, [according to] his partner, journalist Alejandra García,” ADN Cuba reported Tuesday.
Separately, the Madrid-based Prisoners Defenders headlined Thursday, “Cuba closes October with 39 new political prisoners and a new record of 1,353 in total.”
“The new additions reflect the criminalization of protest and political expression, with minors being prosecuted for ‘sedition,’ held in pretrial detention, subjected to restrictions on their freedom, and facing serious health vulnerabilities,” the report said. “The growth of repression is alarming, widespread, does not distinguish between ages, sex, or manifest states of vulnerability, and demonstrates the repressive hell that the Cuban population is experiencing.”
ADN Cuba continued, “Constantín received a family visit last Friday, November 6, after spending 15 days in solitary confinement. During the visit, his relatives found him thinner. García estimates he has lost about eight pounds and expressed concern about the food and water quality he receives in prison, according to statements given to Martí Noticias.
“The family tried to deliver water purification supplies to the journalist, but prison authorities prevented them from reaching him. García also reported that his belongings have been stolen from him inside the prison and that he is not receiving all the medications and food his family brings to help him maintain adequate health.
“The journalist’s partner also reported threats of violence against Constantín and pressure from State Security to force him to leave Cuba. Despite these circumstances, she stated that she found him calm during her visit and asked the media and international organizations to keep his case visible. . . .”
