Crime Is ‘Genetic,’ Says Trump. Rebuttals Needed:
Nazis Had a Name for It: ‘Criminal Biology’
Being a Black Journalist: ‘Can’t Make Any Mistakes’
Trust in News is Partisan, Including for Latino Outlets
Investigative Reporting Lives in Dallas, Denver
IRE Claims Title of Nation’s Largest J-Organization
‘Face the Nation’ Now Won’t Excise Misinformation
Hundreds of Outlets Demand Press Freedom in Gaza
Proposed Rules Restrict Foreign Reporters in U.S.
‘People’ Tops List of U.S. Magazine Media Brands
Short Takes: Charles M. Blow; Manuel Bojorquez; Ann M. Simmons; ending public access to police channels; ‘good old-fashioned discrimination’ against publications aimed at LGBTQ+, other diverse audiences; Spike Lee and Colin Kaepernick; “Inside the NFL”; where not to spend too much time on your smartphone; USA’s Deborah Barfield Berry in Angola; Seattle Medium and AI; Gina Chua; indigenous films at Toronto film festival; Youssou N’Dour and failing independent media in Senegal.
Homepage cartoon by Dave Granlund
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Nazis Had a Name for It: ‘Criminal Biology’
Wes Moore of Maryland, the nation’s only Black governor, went on a tear Wednesday against President Trump’s claims that crime is genetic, a continuation of Trump’s smears of Black and brown people, as well as of migrants. Although their plates get fuller by the day, more journalists, particularly opinion writers, should be joining Moore.
On Tuesday, a reporter asked Trump if he planned to deploy the National Guard to Chicago, Danielle J. Brown reported for Maryland Matters. “In his reply, Trump looped in Baltimore, describing both cities as ‘a hellhole right now’ citing gun violence, homicides and other crimes.
“Without saying when, Trump said he planned to send troops into Chicago — despite fierce opposition from the governor and mayor there — and insisted that ‘we have a right to do it, and that includes Baltimore.’ But he also said it would be better if Moore and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker asked for the help.
“ ‘I would love to have Gov. Moore call, because I watched him over the weekend trying to explain, “Baltimore, what we need is housing,” ‘ Trump said. ‘No, they don’t need housing. They need to get rid of the criminals.
“ ‘These are hard-core criminals,’ he said. ‘They’re not going to be good in 10 years, in five years, in 20 years, in two years they’re going to be criminals. They were born to be criminals.’ ”
Moore continued, “‘And I want to speak clearly to our children as well. And please hear me loud and clear. Do not listen to what the president called you yesterday. When the president, from the Oval Office, calls you natural born killers, children who are ‘born to be’ violent, I say this: I respect the office, but I will never honor ignorance. To our children, you are loved and you are needed. We believe in you and we invest in you. . . We love you and we will make sure that you are never bullied. . . . Here in Maryland, we believe in you, we support you, we’re going to make sure you’re safe.”
On Wednesday, Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., joined Rep. Glenn Ivey, D-Md., the organization Free DC and several D.C. Council members.
“DC is personal to me,” Pressley said. “even before serving as a congresswoman, many years ago, I lived and worked in Chocolate City, and now my staff live and work here. My godchildren, two young Black boys, live here, and they are afraid.
“Afraid to walk to school, afraid to go to their summer jobs, afraid because Donald Trump himself has said that young people like them were, ‘born to be criminals.’
“It’s no secret, he’s targeting our immigrant neighbors and Black kids, specifically Black boys. That is dangerous, that is dehumanizing, and that rhetoric, combined with military presence, is meant to keep communities living in fear, which makes everyone less safe.”
After Trump made similar statements about migrants last fall, the Los Angeles Times ran an op-ed by Benjamin Carter Hett (pictured), a professor of history at Hunter College and the Graduate Center at City University of New York, and author of “The Nazi Menace: Hitler, Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin, and the Road to War.”
“In a recent interview, Donald Trump claimed that 13,000 ‘murderers’ have been admitted to the United States through an ‘open border,’ Hett wrote. “He continued that for murderers, ‘it’s in their genes. And we’ve got a lot of bad genes in our country right now.’
“That criminal activity is rooted in an offender’s genetic makeup is an old, largely discredited idea. For Trump to spout questionable science is hardly new. But the disturbing implications in what he said raise the specter of far worse crimes than anything one murderer could do.
“The Italian physician and criminologist Cesare Lombroso came up with the idea of the ‘born criminal’ in the 1870s. Lombroso thought that criminals were ‘primitive’ humans born into the modern world — identifiable by their thick hair, dark skin and small craniums. Reflecting the racism of his day, he equated criminals to Africans, Indigenous Americans, Sinti and Roma, even southern Italians. In the fifth and final edition of his book, “Criminal Man,” he concluded that the ‘struggle for existence’ should ‘shield us from pity’ for born criminals, who were ‘not of our species but the species of bloodthirsty beasts.’ Ironically, his criminology became a justification for mass killing.
“In the early 20th century, Lombroso’s ideas gradually fell out of favor. But they made a comeback in Germany under the Nazis, as what the Nazis called ‘criminal biology.’ When the Nazis got control of German police, criminal biology became their paradigm for identifying and punishing lawbreakers.
“For the Nazis, the role of the criminal police was not only to catch crooks after the commission of an offense but to engage in preventive crime fighting. The Nazis’ criminal police were empowered to send anyone they suspected might commit a crime in the future to a concentration camp — based on their supposed criminal biology. . . .”
- Emell Derra Adolphus, Daily Beast: Nelson Mandela’s Great-Grandson Accuses Trump of Harboring Criminals (June 25)
- Zeeshan Aleem, MSNBC: There’s a cost to the way Muriel Bowser is trying to play the game with Trump
- Associated Press: Most say crime is a major problem in America’s cities, but few support a federal takeover of police departments (Aug. 27)
- Hayes Brown, MSNBC: Trump’s deportation machine is writing its own rules (July 16)
- Kayla Cobb, The Wrap: Trump Says ABC News ‘Should Pay Me More’ in Rant About Donna Brazile
- Mary C. Curtis, Roll Call: Inner-city Americans deserve respect — and crime policies that work
- Erica L. Green, New York Times: In Trump’s Federal Work Force Cuts, Black Women Are Among the Hardest Hit
- Joe Heim, Washington Post: Resistance to Trump’s D.C. crackdown is taking many forms
- Jess Kung, Leah Donnella, Gene Demby, Xavier Lopez, Courtney Stein, Christina Cala, Dalia Mortada, B.A. Parker, Veralyn Williams, “Code Switch,” NPR: How Trump’s D.C. takeover criminalizes homelessness (Aug. 20)
- Marco Margaritoff, HuffPost: Dem Strategist Says Trump ‘Would Absolutely Try To Exterminate’ People Based On Genes (Oct, 8, 2024)
- Brian O’Neill, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Federal hiring diversity pushback ignores that outsiders help protect America
- Clarence Page, Chicago Tribune: Don’t know much about history? That’s OK with President Trump
- Michelle L. Price, Associated Press: Trump says migrants who have committed murder have introduced ‘a lot of bad genes in our country’ (Oct. 7, 2024)
- Konrad Putzier and Rachel Wolfe, Wall Street Journal: Black Americans Are Losing Jobs in a Warning for the Economy

Trymaine Lee speaks with Verite News about his new film and book about Hurricane Katina, “Hope and High Water,” on Aug. 26. (Credit: Christiana Botic/Verite News and Catchlight Local/Report for America)
Above, from Reveal News: “Being Black in America Almost Killed Me, Part 1.” The conversation about Black journalists begins at 22:02. (podcast)
Being a Black Journalist: ‘Can’t Make Any Mistakes’
“Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Trymaine Lee was in the middle of writing his first book when the unthinkable happened,” Al Letson told listeners of his “More to the Story” podcast Wednesday for Reveal News. “At 38, a massive heart attack nearly took his life.
“That near-death experience forced him to reckon with the toll his reporting has taken on his life, including the years he’s spent chronicling gun violence involving Black men in America, as well as his own family’s history marred by slavery, lynching, and even murder. . . .”
After recounting that wrenching experience, the discussion turned to New York Times fabulist Jayson Blair and the effect of that 2003 scandal on Black journalists.
“. . . He was saying he was in Oklahoma and was in the sports department and it was just a mess,” Lee said. “And there was this ripple effect I remember, a chilling effect of what it means to be Black. Now are they going to see us like that? And other people saying, the kinds of jobs that we were taking, some people didn’t want the so-called ghetto beat, which meant you were covering urban affairs and Black life in cities.
“But I think for some of us, that’s the reason why we’re doing this, is to not just shine light in dark spaces, to remind the world of who we are and tell our story because no one loves us but us. And that’s the bottom line. No one cares about us. We’re still grappling with ‘the Negro problem’ in this country. And so the weight that that comes with, of navigating these white newsrooms, it’s like the plantation.
“And every day we have to walk into the big house with our nice clothes, paid for by the plantation ,and convince them that what’s happening in the back corner of the plantation matters. That every day when it rains, people are getting sick because they’re stuck in the mud, and every day it can’t get the kids to school because the school, they got the hole in the roof because y’all haven’t … And they’re like, ‘Hmm, I know some Black people back there, and I don’t know if that’s true.’
“And then you got to go back to the plantation and they’re like, ‘Man, you’re looking real clean. I see you in the big house because you eating well.’ And you’re like, ‘Yeah, my grandma and them from around here. Y’all know me.’ I’m trying to tell them. So that’s this dynamic.”
Al Letson: “It is not just the dynamic of having to code switch and leave a part of you behind to go into this space and specifically be able to advocate for the stories that you’re trying to tell outside the space, it’s also coming to the space and them looking at you like (makes a questioning sound) I don’t know. I don’t know. ”
Trymaine Lee: “I don’t know. And you’re right, we haven’t fully talked about it. And all of us who as Black journalists who tell these stories, who are mission-driven, who are purpose-driven, who our North Star is telling the whole truth about how we experienced this country, there is also this assumption or this perceived bias. Because we understand the experience so well, there has to be a bias. We have to have some jaundiced vision because we see it too clearly.
“And so you have to be so good. You have to be so sharp, and you can’t make any mistakes because you will find yourself without a job. No, it’s a lot, but especially then, because there was this emotional heat of the moment, but there was also this fire, right. So we’re engaging with America tearing at its threads and what it means to value Black life. And people say, enough is enough. And how do we cover that through the mainstream lens has never been easy. And I’m not sure we figured out a way to do it, except for to go out there time and again and tell the truth. . . .”
- Olivia Haynie, the Forward: What Black journalists covering Confederate monuments taught me about fighting antisemitism today
- Ariama C. Long, New York Amsterdam News: Journalist Trymaine Lee reveals strength of Katrina survivors in hopeful documentary (Aug. 28)

Trust in News is Partisan, Including for Latino Outlets
“Democrats and independents who lean toward the Democratic Party are much more likely than Republicans and GOP-leaning independents to both use and trust a number of major news sources,” Pew’s Jacob Liedke,
Elisa Shearer, Kirsten EddyMichael Lipka Katerina Eva Matsa reported Tuesday for the Pew Research Center.
“These include the major TV networks (ABC, CBS and NBC), the cable news networks CNN and MSNBC, major public broadcasters PBS and NPR, and the legacy newspaper with the largest number of digital subscribers, The New York Times.
“Republicans, meanwhile, are much more likely to distrust than trust all of these sources. A smaller number of the sources we asked about are more heavily used and trusted by Republicans than Democrats, including Fox News, The Joe Rogan Experience, Newsmax, The Daily Wire, the Tucker Carlson Network and Breitbart.”
You can find the reports on individual news outlets here.
The link between political preferences and news-outlet choices held for Univision and Telemundo, the Spanish-language networks in the survey.
Of those who regularly get their news from Univision, 4 percent were Republican or leaning that way, and 7 percent were Democratic or leaning toward that party, Pew found in June.
For Telemundo, 5 percent were Republican or leaning that way, and 7 percent were Democratic or leaning in that direction.
The two networks were the lowest among the 30 networks surveyed in having college graduates among their audience; 16 percent for Telemundo and 15 percent for Univision.
“Most Americans who regularly get news from these outlets are Hispanic, and Hispanic adults in the United States are less likely to have a college degree than U.S. adults overall (20% vs. 36%),” Pew’s Mary Randolph and Michael Lipka wrote Aug. 18.
- Brier Dudley, Seattle Times: Too many Americans are losing faith in the role of journalists (Aug. 29)
- Editor & Publisher: Inside Trump’s decade-long war on the press: 75,000 posts, 3,500 direct attacks
- Josie Harvey, the Guardian: Why more and more people are tuning the news out: ‘Now I don’t have that anxiety’
- Inter American Press Association: The IAPA honors Daniel Coronell [president of Univision News] with the 2025 Grand Prize for Press Freedom (Aug. 29)
- Richard Tofel, Substack: How to Wrest the News Agenda Back from Trump

Investigative Reporting Lives in Dallas, Denver
“Three years ago, Texas passed a tough anti-abortion bill, making the procedure a felony punishable with a life prison term, and with only rare exceptions,” Bill Grueskin reported Friday for Columbia Journalism Review’s Darts and Laurels column.
“At the time, physicians warned that the restrictions could lead to deaths of patients who needed the procedure when facing troubled pregnancies.
“How did Texas address that problem? By making it almost impossible to detect the problem, after the state’s Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Review Committee decided it wouldn’t investigate maternal deaths from 2022 and 2023.
“Well, Texas made it almost impossible. Dallas Morning News reporters Lauren Caruba, Marin Wolf, and María Ramos Pacheco culled hundreds of pages of autopsies and other records involving maternal deaths to find heartbreaking cases of patients who died after hospitals declined or delayed the procedures, despite the women’s dire prognoses. One example: Brenda Yolani Arzu Ramirez, who was five months pregnant when she arrived at the hospital feverish and vomiting, showing signs of sepsis. Rather than perform an abortion, doctors induced delivery, with a fatal result for mother and child.
“Physicians told the Morning News team that their decision-making in cases involving pregnancy loss is now riddled with fear. “I think doctors are terrified,” said one ob-gyn who practiced in Austin for almost four decades before retiring.
“The story is part of a package the Morning News has been doing for months, titled ‘Standard of Fear.’ Each piece is riveting.”
At the Denver Post, meanwhile, the newspaper’s analysis of state data found that “almost all of the 25 schools that could face closure for poor performance under a new Denver Public Schools policy disproportionately enroll students of color and children from lower-income families.“
Jessica Seaman wrote June 23, “The schools failed to meet state expectations on standardized tests, academic growth and preparing students for life after high school, earning them a spot on Colorado’s Accountability Clock.
“Sixteen of the Denver schools have spent two or more years on the clock, meaning they are ticking toward state intervention, or, in the case of Abraham Lincoln High School, already there.
“ ‘It’s a call to action, as a system, that we need to be doing better in supporting our communities, especially our communities of color, our language learners,’ said Joe Amundsen, DPS’s executive director of school transformation.”
IRE’s 50th Anniversary Gala, its first such fundraising dinner, takes place Sept. 15 at Gotham Hall in midtown Manhattan.
IRE Claims Title of Nation’s Largest J-Organization
Investigative Reporters and Editors, “a grassroots nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the quality of investigative reporting,” is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year with an added distinction: it is now the nation’s largest journalism organization.
“IRE has a membership that regularly hovers around 4,800 to 4,900, sometimes rising to 5,000 and sometimes dipping slightly below 4,800 — since our current system allows people to join / renew online at any time, the exact number fluctuates hourly,” Executive Director Diana Fuentes messaged Journal-isms.
“And we review applications because of our bylaw requirements, so some are denied. You have to be a working journalist, journalist educator or student to be a member. We have friends in the PR, media relations . . . and media law worlds, but they don’t qualify for membership.
“On June 1, we were at 4,845.”
By comparison, the National Association of Black Journalists had 4,259 voting members, according to figures announced at its convention membership meeting last month; the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, 3,654, according to spokesperson Andrew Sherry. The Society of Professional Journalists had about 3,800 members as of Aug. 31, President Emily Bloch said.
The Asian American Journalists Association claims “more than 1,500 members across the United States and Asia” on its website, though its spokespersons did not respond to an inquiry. The Online News Association has 1,885, said spokeswoman Karolle Rabarison.
The Indigenous Journalists Association has “around 750,” according to Executive Director Rebecca Landsberry-Baker, and the Radio Television Digital News Association membership “generally averages between 1,200 and 1,500,” said Dan Shelley, president and CEO.
At the Journalism and Women Symposium (JAWS), “We currently have about 200 paid members but are aiming to increase that significantly this year with an awareness campaign. Women journalists need our support now more than ever,” said new president Tanya Gazdik of MediaPost. [added Sept. 10]
IRE’s 50th Anniversary Gala, its first such fundraising dinner, takes place Sept. 15 at Gotham Hall in midtown Manhattan. Tables start at $10,000, with proceeds supporting IRE´s training programs. Speakers include actor Michael Keaton, broadcast legends Scott Pelley and Judy Woodruff, New York Times publisher AG Sulzberger and Paul Sagan, the ProPublica chairman.
‘Face the Nation’ Now Won’t Excise Misinformation
“Days after complaints over the handling of an interview with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on ‘Face the Nation’ (pictured), CBS News said Friday it would no longer allow editing of its guests’ words on the Sunday morning public affairs show, David Bauder reported Friday for the Associated Press.
Noem charged that CBS had “shamefully edited the interview to whitewash the truth” about Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whose mistaken deportation to El Salvador made him a symbol of controversies about President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. Her interview had been taped in advance
CBS said it had edited four minutes out of its Noem interview for time. On social media, Noem focused on an excised clip where she made a series of unproven accusations about Abrego Garcia, which she said emphasize “the threat he poses to American public safety.”
“The network’s news division is being watched closely for how it deals with the Trump administration following the FCC’s recent approval of its parent company’s takeover by Skydance Media,” Bauder continued. Shortly before Paramount Global’s sale to Skydance was given the OK, Paramount paid $16 million to settle a lawsuit from Trump over a “60 Minutes” interview with Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris.
- Allison Joyner, NABJ Black News & Views: Black journalists tell their story in documentary traversing film festival circuit
- New York Times corrections policy: “The Times recognizes an ethical responsibility to promptly correct all factual errors, large and small. We encourage you to contact us if you think you see a mistake. . . . .”
- Sharon Waxman and Adam Chitwood, TheWrap: Bari Weiss Set for Top Role at CBS News as Paramount Closes in on Free Press Acquisition
- Alex Weprin, Hollywood Reporter: CBS News Hires Ombudsman From Conservative-Leaning Hudson Institute (Sept. 8)

“At the rate journalists are being killed in Gaza by the Israeli army, there will soon be no-one left to keep you informed,” said Thibaut Bruttin, Reporters Without Borders general director. (Credit: United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East)
Hundreds of Outlets Demand Press Freedom in Gaza
“Hundreds of media outlets, brought together by the campaigning platform Avaaz and Reporters Without Borders (RSF), are waging a campaign calling for the protection of Palestinian journalists in Gaza, the emergency evacuation of reporters seeking to leave the Strip, an end to impunity for Israeli crimes against Gaza’s reporters and that foreign press be granted independent access to the territory,” Reporters Without Borders announced on Aug. 31.
“According to RSF data, 220 journalists have been killed by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip in less than 23 months. On the night of 10 August alone, the Israeli army killed six journalists in a targeted strike against Al-Jazeera correspondent Anas al-Sharif. Less than a week ago, on Monday, 25 August, the Israeli army killed five journalists in two consecutive strikes.
“Today, hundreds of media outlets in over 50 countries are mobilising in solidarity with Palestinian journalists in the Gaza Strip, alongside RSF and Avaaz. This international operation consists of an entire or partial blackout of the front pages of print media, banners on online news sites, and audio or video messages broadcast by radio and television stations.
“In line with the call launched by RSF and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) in June, the media outlets involved in this campaign are making three demands.
“We demand the protection of Palestinian journalists and an end to the impunity for crimes perpetrated by the Israeli army against them in the Gaza Strip.
“We demand the foreign press be granted independent access to the Gaza Strip.
“We demand that governments across the world host Palestinian journalists seeking evacuation from Gaza.
“We demand the protection of Palestinian journalists and an end to the impunity for crimes perpetrated by the Israeli army against them in the Gaza Strip. . . .”
“We demand the foreign press be granted independent access to the Gaza Strip.
“We demand that governments across the world host Palestinian journalists seeking evacuation from Gaza. . . .” 
Reporters Without Borders cited the case of Turkish-born Ph.D. student Rümeysa ÖztürkVo, who was taken into custody in March after co-writing an article critical of Israel’s war in Gaza as an example of how the proposed rule “could lead to self-censorship and even the deportation of journalists whose only misstep was to report the news honestly.”
Proposed Rules Restrict Foreign Reporters in U.S.
“The Trump administration is proposing new, severe restrictions on how long foreign journalists would be permitted to live and work in the United States,” Reporters Without Borders said Wednesday, opposing “the proposed visa change as it serves no purpose other than to erect unnecessary barriers for foreign reporters and will produce a chilling effect on press freedom. RSF calls on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to abandon the proposal,” it said.
“On August 28, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published a proposal to introduce a fixed term for the visas used by foreign journalists to work and live in the United States. Currently, these visas last indefinitely as long as the visa holder remains in compliance with certain terms. Under the new proposed system, these visas would be restricted to 90 days for Chinese nationals and 240 days for citizens of other countries. A DHS press release alleged, without evidence, that the current visa system for journalists pose ‘safety risks.’
“These changes would create an undue burden for journalists, requiring them to repeatedly clear bureaucratic hurdles every seven months and creating a great deal of uncertainty every time a renewal deadline approaches. Even more dangerously, it sets up a system with high potential for abuse, as the Trump administration systematically punishes journalists and news outlets that criticise its policies, and has repeatedly tried to deport non-US citizens for their political expression. . . .”
- Marina Adami, Reuters Institute: OSINT, aid flights and trusted contacts: how journalists are covering Gaza’s story from afar
- Jon Allsop, Columbia Journalism Review: Journalists, As Such: What’s to be done about Israel’s killing of media workers—and other civilians—in Gaza?
- Herb Boyd, New York Amsterdam News: OP-ED: Being a journalist covering a war without end (Aug. 28)
- Editorial New York Times: Israel’s Gaza Media Ban Is Indefensible
- Angela Fu, Poynter Institute: Foreign journalists in the U.S. are self-censoring to protect themselves from the Trump administration (July 14)
-
International Federation of Journalists: Palestine: At least 221 journalists and media workers killed in Gaza
- International Federation of Journalists: Belgium: Media groups back fund to support Palestinian media
- Simon Levett, The Conversation: Local journalists and fixers are dying at unprecedented rates in Gaza. Can anyone protect them? (Aug. 31)
- Rebekah Riess, Dalia Faheid, CNN: Tufts University student Rümeysa is released after spending six weeks at a Louisiana detention center (May 9)

‘People’ Tops List of U.S. Magazine Media Brands
The Alliance for Audited Media Tuesday released its list of the Top 10 U.S. Magazine Media Brand Audiences for the second quarter of 2025.
The list shows the magazine brand, followed by the total brand audience:
People (96,019,000)
AARP the Magazine (51,259,000)
Allrecipes (50,339,000)
Sports Illustrated (40,537,000)
Good Housekeeping (39,424,000)
Time (27,475,000)
Southern Living (25,944,000)
Cosmopolitan (25,769,000)
National Geographic (24,720,000)
Women’s Health (24,180,000)
Short Takes

- Columnist Charles M. Blow (pictured), who left the New York Times in February to work with Henry Louis Gates Jr. at Harvard’s Hutchins Center for African & African American Research, wrote Monday in his new Substack column, “My last years at the paper weren’t my most pleasant. My job went from being one I would say, earnestly, I would do for free, to one I struggled to justify doing for pay. The zombie thing that came to be published under my name had a dwindling trace of my breath in it. It was no longer fully my voice. So, when I parted ways with The Times, it was without sorrow. On balance, my years at the paper were weighted towards the good.” On Tuesday, NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists named Blow to its LGBTQ+ Journalists Hall of Fame.
Manuel Bojorquez (pictured), national correspondent for CBS News for 13 years, has left the network, he announced on social media. “I’m moving on from CBS News grateful for the experiences and people I’ve met along the way,” he wrote. At the 2023 convention of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, Bojorquez described himself (scroll down) as “a gay man and an immigrant” and said he saw part of his role as adding context that might be missing in other stories.
Ann M. Simmons (pictured), former Moscow bureau chief for the Wall Street Journal, has been named executive editor of Northeastern Global News at Northeastern University, the school announced Wednesday. She was a Nieman fellow at Harvard University and, in spring 2025, a resident fellow at Harvard’s Institute of Politics. Last month, at the National Association of Black Journalists convention in Cleveland, Simmons accepted NABJ’s Percy Qoboza Foreign Journalist of the Year award.
“The Oakland Police Department’s plan to shield its officers’ conversations from the public hit an unexpected snag this week,” Jakob Rodgers reported Thursday for the Bay Area News Group. “The agency on Thursday said ’unexpected technical issues’ delayed its plan to encrypt its police channels and end public access to live radio feeds, which for decades provided by-the-minute transparency about crime — and its officers’ actions — in the city. ’The prospect of dozens of agencies joining Oakland in hiding their radio traffic is “deeply frustrating,” said Tracy Rosenberg, executive director of San Francisco-based nonprofit Media Alliance and advocacy director of Oakland Privacy. . . . ‘This is a huge blow for journalism,’ Rosenberg said. ’Some of the best journalism in the country comes directly from the scanners. The transparency is a check on disturbing actions by police.’ ”” (Credit: Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
- Publications aimed at LGBTQ+ and other diverse audiences are facing ‘good old-fashioned discrimination’ ‘as advertisers avoid them after political attacks on diversity and inclusion campaigns, editors have said,” Michael Savage reported Aug. 31 for the Guardian. “Senior figures at publications aimed at the gay community and other minority groups said a previous ’gold rush‘ to work with such titles was over.”
- Spike Lee has had little to say about why his highly anticipated docuseries based on Colin Kaepernick’s activism will not be released because of “creative differences.” Columnist LZ Granderson of the Los Angeles Times wrote Aug, 23, however, that “After speaking off the record with several people familiar with the Kaepernick project, I can say this much seems true: . . . Lee wanted to make a documentary that was heavily focused on police brutality in America, and Kaepernick wanted it more focused on his lived experience. . . . There were times during the making of the project when the gap in their visions led to periods of the two not talking.” Granderson added, “After the murder of George Floyd in May 2020, Kaepernick’s earlier protests against police brutality were probably viewed more favorably by more people. Greenlighting a docuseries about his work in July 2020 probably felt comfortable for [ESPN Chairman Jimmy] Pitaro and ESPN. However, airing such content today could anger a president who’s targeted Kaepernick, the NFL and ESPN before. . . .”
“Inside the NFL wll return for the 2025-2026 season, The Hollywood Reporter has learned, but the long-running studio show is getting a wholesale reboot, changing formats, and moving to a new home: X, the tech platform controlled by Elon Musk,” Alex Weprin reported Thursday for the Hollywood Reporter. “Inside the NFL on X will debut its first episode on Sept. 8, with plans to release at least 10 short-form episodes each week leading up to next year’s Super Bowl on Feb. 8. NFL Films will continue to produce the series. Ryan Clark (pictured), the ESPN NFL analyst and former safety for the Pittsburgh Steelers, will host the show, though NFL Films executives suggest that other names could join him as the season progresses. . . . “
- One place not to spend too much time reading the news on your smartphone: “Evidence suggests that high rates of bathroom phone use — combined with extended sitting times — are contributing to rising cases of haemorrhoids and related health issues,” Charity Kilei reported Thursday for Kenya’s Eastleigh Voice. “A new study has found that using a phone while on the toilet raises the risk of developing haemorrhoids by 46 per cent.“ The report cited studies published in PLOS One by Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre in Boston and the Turkish Journal of Colorectal Disease.

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

- “Semafor’s executive editor Gina Chua (pictured), who joined this project in the spring of 2022 and has been a central figure in shaping and operating our growing news operation, has been named executive director of the Tow-Knight Center at the City University of New York’s Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism,” Semafor reported Sept 1. “Since 2010, the Tow-Knight Center at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY has served as an education hub, a research engine, and a convening platform for media leaders and innovators,” the center says.
- “Fifteen Indigenous films will premiere at the 50th Toronto International Film Festival — the most in the history of the festival – in what organizers say reflects the power of Indigenous storytelling,” Miles Morrisseau reported Thursday for ICT News. Some are nonfiction, such as “Ni-Naadamaadiz: Red Power Rising.”‘ The summary: “Award-winning Métis filmmaker Shane Belcourt and acclaimed Anishinaabe investigative journalist Tanya Talaga collaborate in a new documentary about a forgotten and ignored Indigenous uprising in Canada. Their work, ‘Ni-Naadamaadiz: Red Power Rising,’ will have its world premiere at TIFF. It tells the story of an Indigenous uprising in the year following the Wounded Knee occupation in 1973, which received widespread coverage in the United States and around the world.” The festival runs through Sept. 14.
“The Futurs Médias group (GFM) – which owns leading Senegalese media outlets including newspaper L’Observateur, radio station RFM and television channel TFM – says it is experiencing an ‘unprecedented’ crisis,” Melissa Chemam reported Sept 1 with Radio France Internationale. “With advertising revenue plummeting, print sales falling, rising costs and tax adjustments, the group has not paid some employees for three months. For its management there is only one option left: restructuring the company. The group was founded in 2003 by the internationally renowned musician and former culture minister, Youssou N’Dour (pictured), to provide an independent media platform that could offer diverse perspectives, countering the dominance of state-controlled media.
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