Articles Feature

Kim Godwin’s Power ‘Diminished’ at ABC

by richard02062

First Black Top News Exec at a Broadcast Network
CBS’ Pegues, 2 at BET Among Paramount Layoffs
‘A Clinic in High-Profile Black Womanhood’
Reporter Arrested at News Conference Wins $112K
Teachers Cutting Back on Political, Social Topics
70% of World’s Slain Journalists Were Palestinian
Commentators Dispute Coverage of Biden’s Age
Candidates to Be Invited, but Will They Accept?
When Copy Editors Sabotaged Black Reporters

Short Takes: Aaron Foley, Damaso Reyes and N.Y. Amsterdam News; Dale R. Anglin and Press Forward coalition; George Washington’s teeth; “migrant” term; perpetuating religious stereotypes; police use of deadly “spit hoods”; failures of NFL concussion settlement; Charles Schulz’s Black character, Franklin; Geraldo Rivera; Fox News and white nationalist rhetoric; new Frederick Douglass bust; Swati Sharma; Justin Chang; Carlos Frías’ discrimination complaint; release of Tyre Nichols recordings; suicides in Maryland jail; Daryl Bell;

Wayne Dawkins and Charles “Lefty” Driesel; Baltimore Afro-American; Roy Wood Jr. and Hasan Minhaj; attacks on journalists in India; lawsuit against Senegal; danger in covering Russian invasion of Ukraine; Botswana’s digital harassment of the press; Sudan fighting threatens 100-year news archives.

Homepage photo illustration: The Cut; ABC photo

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Black organizations in particular took pride in Kim Godwin’s success. Here, Godwin, an alumna of Florida A&M University, announces Disney’s $1 million grant to FAMU’s journalism school during the university’s Homecoming Convocation on Oct. 28, 2022. (Credit: Florida A&M University)

First Black Top News Exec at a Broadcast Network

Kim Godwin was named president of ABC News nearly three years ago, with the National Association of Black Journalists lustily cheering the appointment of the first Black executive to run a broadcast-network news operation.

But on Thursday, the parent Disney Co. placed an executive over Godwin, and on Friday, Alexandra Steigrad wrote under this New York Post headline, “Staffers cheer ABC News shakeup as President Kim Godwin’s days could be numbered: sources.”  

“Embattled ABC News president Kim Godwin’s days could be numbered despite getting her contract renewed — as staffers quietly cheered her effective demotion, The Post has learned,” Steigrad began.

“The Disney-owned network elevated veteran exec Debra OConnell on Wednesday to helm a new division that would encompass ABC News — putting Godwin under her — amid softening ratings at top-ranked shows ‘Good Morning America’ and ‘World News Tonight with David Muir.‘ . . .”

Reports in the New York Post are justifiably treated with skepticism, but the day before, Jeff Pegues, who was laid off at CBS, praised Steigrad’s reporting. “Alexandra Steigrad, a good journalist is balanced, fair and doesn’t print lies from a source with an ax to grind,” Pegues wrote on Threads, commenting on his own situation.

When Godwin was named ABC News president, she was to report directly to Peter Rice, chairman of Disney General Entertainment Content, the man who announced her appointment. That’s changed.

National Association of Black Journalists celebrates Kim Godwin’s appointment in 2022.

Oliver Darcy came to much the same conclusion as the New York Post Thursday for CNN in his “Reliable Sources” column: “It’s clear who is now really leading ABC News — and it’s not president Kim Godwin. A day after being appointed to a new division that includes ABC News, Disney executive Debra OConnell got to work. Multiple sources texted me this morning to note that OConnell ‘showed up predawn’ at ‘Good Morning America’ to meet and chat with staff and the anchors — something they say Godwin rarely showed interest in doing.

“As one media exec put it to me, it was a ‘clear signal of hands-on leadership and engagement in the number one money earner for the network.’ Later, I’m told OConnell attended the network’s daily morning editorial meeting, arriving before Godwin. While Godwin is playing nice with OConnell, it is clear that her power has been diminished at the network, and it’s hard to find anyone inside or around ABC News who believes she’ll be in her position for the long haul. “

Stephen Battaglio added in the Los Angeles Times: “The division’s signature shows, ‘ABC World News Tonight With David Muir’ and ‘Good Morning America,’ remain the most-watched morning and evening news programs on television but have seen their audiences erode with the decline of linear TV due to the migration to online video. Both programs have lost more than 20% of their viewers in the 25-to-54 age group that advertisers target, more than its competitors at CBS and NBC.”

An ABC News spokesperson referred questions to the Disney Co., which has not responded to a query.

Joe Flint and Isabella Simonetti went more deeply Saturday for The Wall Street Journal. “Godwin has become a polarizing figure inside the network,” they wrote. “Detractors say she and her inner circle are stifling discussion and dissent while failing to rise up to challenges facing the unit — including sagging ratings. Several of the ousted veterans were replaced with executives with less hard-news experience.

“Godwin’s supporters counter that as the first Black person to run a broadcast network news division, she is the target of constant second-guessing by a cadre of longtime ABC News staffers who set out to undermine her from day one.

“Many of the employees who were pushed out last spring were part of a clubby culture at the network, they said, and their management style clashed with the culture of inclusion and collaboration Godwin sought to build. . . .”

Flint and Simonetti also wrote, “At a lunch in New York last February,” Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger “was pressed by some Black talent at ABC News about what they perceived as unfair treatment of Godwin, who was also in attendance, according to people familiar with the matter. Iger reassured attendees” that he and Dana Walden, the co-chairman of Disney Entertainment who is seen as a potential successor to Iger, “had Godwin’s back and were ‘invested in her success.’ ”

The Journal reporters also quoted a prominent Godwin defender.

“ ‘I’ve been at ABC News for 20 years now under four different presidents and I’ve never had a stronger relationship than with Kim,’ said Jonathan Karl, chief White House correspondent and co-anchor of the Sunday morning political show ‘This Week.’ ”

“Karl said criticism that Godwin is disengaged ‘certainly does not reflect the reality of who she is,’ adding, ‘she’s a crazy workaholic.’ He credited Godwin with breaking down in-house competition between various news shows and instilling a one-for-all approach, improving how people treat each other, and encouraging more of a work-life balance.

“Since joining ABC News, Godwin has tried to create a gentler office culture. She ends her emails with ‘People Are Our Priority’ and is known for leading happy birthday singalongs for employees.”

NABJ put out a news release last May celebrating Godwin’s second anniversary in the job: “The blessing of landing the top job also comes with an added burden,” it said.

“The public glare of the spotlight is frequently harsh on those in the top roles, but we here at NABJ note the glare on Kim Godwin appears to be unblinking and appears to be even harsher than on predecessors in that role. Black women in top roles frequently talk about the challenges of acceptance by others when they have such a person in charge of their areas. In spite of that, her supporters say Godwin is shaping a newsroom built on mutual respect, inclusivity and diversity. Those qualities do not negate Godwin’s drive, pursuit of excellence and battle-tested competence for the position. . . .”

Jeff Pegues speaks at the 2023 Eradicate Hate Global Summit last Oct. 19 in Pittsburgh. (Credit: YouTube)

CBS’ Pegues, 2 at BET Among Paramount Layoffs

CBS News reporter Jeff Pegues and at least two journalists at Black Entertainment Television, Wendy L. Wilson and Madison J. Gray, are among the journalists of color laid off as Paramount Global, the owner of CBS, BET and other broadcast and cable networks, looks to reduce costs and grow revenue.

Paramount’s move came just days after its CBS network saw record-breaking advertising sales and the highest-rated telecast for the Super Bowl, Liam Reilly and Oliver Darcy reported for CNN.

“The company’s chief executive, Bob Bakish, announced the layoffs in a memo to employees Tuesday obtained by CNN. While Bakish did not specify the number of layoffs, sources familiar with the matter told CNN around 800 employees, or roughly 3% cut of the company’s workforce, will be affected. . . .

“The cuts will impact staffers around the world, with those in the US being notified by the end of business Tuesday, Bakish wrote.”

Pegues, who joined CBS in 2013 after 10 years at WABC-TV in New York, was chief national affairs and justice correspondent.

“Thank you for all the well wishes,” Pegues wrote Wednesday on Threads. “Thank you to the viewers I meet in cities across America who appreciate my reporting and appreciate that I represent them. I have spent most of my career covering law enforcement while also meeting with families who have lost loved ones in excessive force incidents. It has always been my goal to give the viewers the whole story. That’s what journalism is and should be! I still believe there are good people on both sides of the divide between Black and Blue.”

Pegues wrote a book by that title, published in 2017, “Black and Blue: Inside the Divide Between Police and Black America.”

Pegues continued, “That’s what defines who I am and what I’ve endeavored to do over the last 30 years. Today I began a new chapter in my life! Stay tuned and you’ll see how good it will be. Good luck to CBS News and the friends I leave behind.”

At the 2022 joint conference of the National Association of Black Journalists and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, Pegues talked about the severe anxiety he developed covering violence. “You think you get used to it, but you don’t,” he said, Lauren Sue reported at the time for the Daily Kos.

Moreover, “Sometime in 2017, Jeff began noticing problems with his voice whenever he would record for work, hearing that it was becoming strained,” Callie (Carlos) Cadorniga wrote for Distractify. “At the same time, he was also going through a divorce.

“He was eventually diagnosed with spasmodic dysphonia, a neurological condition that causes an involuntary tightening in one’s vocal cords.

“Though the disorder doesn’t have a known cure as of this writing, Jeff has since confirmed with medical professionals that his condition was brought on by severe anxiety. . . . “ (because of a technical glitch, two additional paragraphs that should be here are instead at the end of the column.)

Wilson, executive editor at BET.com/ BET Digital, and Gray, senior editor at BET Digital, (pictured) were among the layoffs, both displaying #OpentoWork hashtags on their LinkedIn pages. “Turns out the layoffs at Paramount have affected me and after four years of great editorial work, I’ve been laid off. So I’ll be looking for a new role in journalism for a newsroom leader, manager, or editor. Looking to remain in the NYC area, or work remotely. Please feel free to reach out here on LinkedIn, or via email,” Gray wrote.

BET spokesperson Luis Defrank referred to Paramount spokespeople questions about the impact of the BET layoffs. At Paramount, Allison McLarty replied, “We do not have a comment.” Asked about the effect of the layoffs on diversity at CBS News, she said, “We do not have a comment or info to share generally or specific to our businesses at this time.”

Errin Haines said on “The ReidOut” panel, “If you’re a Black woman in this country, you don’t have to be a district attorney prosecuting the former president of the United States to really understand what it means to have your integrity or professionalism questioned or the urge to defend your character or reputation.” (Credit: MSNBC/YouTube.)

‘A Clinic in High-Profile Black Womanhood’

“Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis took the witness stand Thursday and forcefully pushed back against what she described as ‘lies’ about her romantic relationship with a special prosecutor during an extraordinary hearing over misconduct allegations that threaten to upend one of four criminal cases against Donald Trump,” Kate Brumback and Alanna Durkin Richer wrote Thursday for the Associated Press.

But to three women of color discussing the case that day on Joy Reid’s “The ReidOut” on MSNBC, the case was also about Black women, how they are treated and what is expected of them.

This is how that part of the conversation went:

Reid: Let’s talk about Fani Willis as a witness and as a prosecutor, because to me, that tells me she’s nothing to play with.

Errin Haines, editor-at-large, The 19th: Yeah, I mean, Joy, I mean watching this, you can see Fani Willis was, if standing on business, was a witness. That’s what we saw today.  

“What we also saw today was a clinic in Black womanhood and particularly high-profile Black womanhood. If you’re a Black woman in this country, you don’t have to be a district attorney prosecuting the former president of the United States to really understand what it means to have your integrity or professionalism questioned or the urge to defend your character or reputation. That’s what you really saw on display today. Yes, she was angry, but she was also insulted, offended.  . . .

Reid: “And the thing is, Katie, as a woman of color standing in the courtroom, you know this all too well. Look, I have a book about this, about the way they did this to Myrlie Evers-Williams. Be pretty but not too pretty, be forceful but not too forceful. Don’t be loud, don’t be angry.

“Excuse me, if you’re questioning my integrity and accusing me of hiring somebody that I was having an affair with when I’m telling you the timeline and then asking did my kids live at my house? You want to know how much money I have? Did he give me cash? She was insulted and rightfully so. The idea that women of color have to sit there and be demure and take it, there are people on social media saying, ‘Oh, she’s coming in too hot.’ She was offended and she had a right to be offended.”

Katie Phang, lawyer and MSNBC host:  “I’m glad you bring about the example of being a woman of color, especially in a courtroom. There are more women in law school than there ever were when I was in law school, but when it comes to women of color, we’re so sorely, sorely underrepresented, especially when it comes to trials, when it comes to trial lawyers.

“And so for a woman to have to defend the fact that she makes her own money, the fact her daddy told her to make sure that she had money stashed away, my mom told me the same damn thing. (Reid and Haines nod in agreement.) Make sure that you have money stashed away to take care of yourself because you shouldn’t count on someone else. Right, Errin? And that’s the thing. Why should anybody have to defend this? . . .”

NewsNation broadcast shows law enforcement arresting journalist Evan Lambert on Feb. 8, 2023. (YouTube)

Reporter Arrested at News Conference Wins $112K

“A city and county in Ohio have agreed to pay $112,000 to resolve NewsNation journalist Evan Lambert’s federal civil rights lawsuit, which stemmed from his unlawful arrest last year while covering a press conference about the derailment of a train carrying toxic chemicals in East Palestine, Ohio,” the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press reported Feb. 7.

“The amount includes $80,000 to compensate Lambert for his injuries and $32,000 in attorneys’ fees and costs for the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and the First Amendment Clinic at Case Western Reserve University School of Law, whose attorneys represented Lambert in the action.

“Lambert accepted an $80,000 offer of judgment made by the city of East Palestine and Columbiana County in late December, roughly a month after he sued the government entities and several law enforcement officials for violating his rights under the U.S. Constitution and Ohio law. Rather than fight Lambert’s claims, the city and county quickly agreed to have the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio enter judgment against them in the journalist’s favor. Lambert then voluntarily dismissed his claims against the individual officer defendants. . . .”

Lambert, a Black journalist, “was giving a live report during NewsNation’s ‘Rush Hour’ when he was told by law enforcement personnel at the news conference to be quiet because Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine was speaking,” Tyler Wornell reported at the time for NewsNation.

“Lambert finished the live report but was then asked to leave by authorities, who tried to forcibly remove him from the event. The charges Lambert is facing are disorderly conduct and criminal trespassing.”

In South Carolina, attendees crowded into the Lexington-Richland Five School Board’s July 17 meeting, many wearing blue in support of a Chapin High School teacher whose lesson on Ta-Nehisi Coates’ “Beyond the World and Me” was halted earlier in the year. The teacher, Mary Wood, plans to teach the book again this year. (Credit: Ian Grenier/Post and Courier)

Teachers Cutting Back on Political, Social Topics

“A majority of American teachers are circumscribing lessons on political or social topics due to worries over parental complaints, and amid a wave of legislation that has reshaped how educators are allowed to discuss race, history, sex and gender in the classroom, according to a national study released Thursday,” Hannah Natanson reported for The Washington Post.

“A report by Rand Corp. found that of a nationally representative sample of 1,400 K-12 teachers, 65 percent reported restricting instruction on ‘political and social issues.’ This is nearly double the percentage of teachers who reported actually being subject to state laws that restrict discussion of race, sex and gender in the classroom, according to the report.

“A Washington Post analysis found that, as of late 2022, legislators in 25 states had passed 64 laws restricting what teachers can teach and what children can do at school. More than two dozen similar laws passed in 2023.”

“Teachers’ most common reason for curtailing some forms of education, the report found, was their worry that school or district leaders would not support them if parents expressed concerns — and teachers working in politically conservative areas were more likely to censor themselves.”

Dr. Mohamed Elfar, a plastic and reconstructive surgeon who is part of the American Medical Team with Rahma Worldwide, an independent humanitarian organization that also includes Jordanian and French doctors, tells Al Jazeera that a lack of supplies means he’s practicing “18th century medicine” at the European Hospital in Gaza. He said Palestinian journalist Ismail Abu Omar, whose leg has been amputated, may lose another limb and part of his fingers. Israel said Omar is actually a deputy company commander with Hamas. (Credit: YouTube/Al Jazeera)

70% of World’s Slain Journalists Were Palestinian

“Over 70% of the journalists who were killed around the world in 2023 were Palestinian reporters who died in Israeli attacks on Gaza, according to a new report released Thursday,” Liam Scott reported for the Voice of America.

“Out of the 99 journalist and media worker killings identified by the Committee to Protect Journalists last year, 77 were killed in the Israel-Hamas war. The vast majority of them — 72 — were Palestinian reporters killed in Israeli strikes, in addition to three Lebanese and two Israeli journalists, according to the annual report from the Committee to Protect Journalists.

“ ‘It’s unprecedented,’ CPJ Chief Executive Officer Jodie Ginsberg told VOA. ‘We are entirely reliant on Palestinian journalists, who are not only reporting the war but living the war, to bring us the news and information from Gaza.’ “

According to the report, “The conflict claimed the lives of more journalists in three months than have ever been killed in a single country over an entire year.“

“Investigating the circumstances of these war-related deaths – which included three Lebanese and two Israeli journalists – was particularly challenging, not only because of the large number of killings in a short time, but also because . . . many journalist victims’ families were killed along with them in Gaza, their colleagues [had] died or fled.

“ ‘Journalists in Gaza are bearing witness on the frontlines,’ said Ginsberg. ‘The immense loss suffered by Palestinian journalists in this war will have long-term impacts for journalism not just in the Palestinian territories but for the region and beyond. Every journalist killed is a further blow to our understanding of the world.’ ”

Meanwhile, Al Jazeera reported Tuesday, “Israeli occupation forces targeted the Al Jazeera crew in the Mirage area, north of Rafah, by a drone, seriously injuring Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent Ismail Abu Omar (pictured), which led to the amputation of his leg, and the serious injury of photojournalist Ahmed Matar.

“Al Jazeera Media Network confirms that targeting of the correspondent Ismail and the photojournalist Ahmed is a full-fledged crime added to Israel’s crimes against journalists, and a new part in the series of the deliberate targeting of Al Jazeera’s journalists and correspondents in Palestine. . . .”

However, the Israeli army on Wednesday said the wounded journalist “was a Hamas militant who filmed himself at a kibbutz during the October 7 attack,” Agence France-Presse reported.

“The broadcaster itself reported on Tuesday that Arabic language reporter Ismail Abu Omar and his cameraman Ahmad Matar were both seriously injured north of Rafah and taken to hospital for treatment.

“But the Israeli military described Omar as ‘a deputy company commander in Hamas’s Eastern Battalion of Khan Yunis’. . . .”

In addition, Emanuel Fabian reported Monday for the Times of Israel, “A Palestinian journalist working for Al Jazeera appears to also be a commander in Hamas’s military wing, according to images and documents recovered by the IDF in the Gaza Strip during the ongoing war against the . . . Palestinian terror group.

“ ‘In the morning, he’s a journalist on the Al Jazeera channel, and in the evening, a terrorist in Hamas!’ wrote Lt. Col. Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, in a Sunday post to social media platform X.

“Adraee said that several weeks ago, troops found a laptop in a Hamas base in northern Gaza that belonged to a man by the name of Mohamed Washah.

“Washah, from central Gaza’s Bureij neighborhood, has been featured in Al Jazeera broadcasts in recent months, with the Qatari-owned station calling him one of their journalists. . . .”

Viewers of this panel of high-wattage political journalists learned Thursday about some of the decision-making shaping 2024 campaign coverage. NPR’s David Folkenflik moderated the panel for the News Literacy Project. Participating were Kristen Welker of NBC, Geoff Bennett of the “PBS NewsHour,” Mary Bruce of ABC and Major Garrett of CBS. Bennett’s colleagues were envious when he said the “PBS NewsHour” devoted a seven-minute segment to the age issue, too long for half-hour news shows. (Credit: News Literacy Project/YouTube)

Commentators Dispute Coverage of Biden’s Age

“Joe Biden is old, and he looks and acts his age. There is no getting around that fact. Americans believe it, and so, I am sure, [do] his handlers. He jumbles his words at times, and his memory is not what it should be.

“Donald Trump is also old. And contrary to what MAGA world believes (and his gold mirror tells him) he looks and acts his age as well. Maybe even more so than Joe Biden. But, the American media being what it is, a narrative must be spun, and that narrative is that Joe Biden is the older, less capable, and more senile of the two men.”

So wrote Wayne Bennett, aka the Field Negro, a court administrator and child support master in Philadelphia whose blogs dispense deceptively simple homespun wisdom.

But Bennett, and of course supporters of President Biden, aren’t the only commentators declaring as wrongheaded news media coverage of special counsel Robert Hur’s report on his yearlong investigation into Biden’s handling of classified materials, though they might differ on what made the coverage questionable.

[New York Times publisher A. G. Sulzberger, in an interview with Eduardo Suárez of the Reuters Institute published Feb.19, pushed back. “We are going to continue to report fully and fairly, not just on Donald Trump but also on President Joe Biden. He is a historically unpopular incumbent and the oldest man to ever hold this office. We’ve reported on both of those realities extensively, and the White House has been extremely upset about it,” Sulzberger said.]

The 388-page document, made public Feb. 8, concluded that no charges were warranted because the evidence wasn’t sufficient to support a conviction. Most resonant in the media, however, was Hur’s suggestion that, in deciding whether to prosecute, he had considered that Biden would likely present himself to a jury as a “sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”

As the hubbub subsided, the “PBS NewsHour” Thursday devoted a seven-minute segment (video) to what happens to our brains and memories as we age.

Slips of the tongue? Dr. Dan Blazer, a professor emeritus of psychiatry and behavioral studies at Duke University, said, “First off, these types of slips are not uncommon with older persons, especially when they’re having to recall a number of facts in a fairly brief period of time, and also when they’re under the pressure of having to respond quickly and briefly to questions that are being posed. (video)

“That doesn’t necessarily at all relate to their ability in judgment. What — another element of that judgment is something we call executive function. That’s ability to make judgments, to really see the big picture. So, I think the bottom line for me is that you have to test these individuals in terms of how well they’re doing their job, not how well they may perform in a particular situation. If they slip on a particular topic, forget something, I think you have to look at the big picture.”

And that picture, according to New York Times columnists Charles M. Blow and Jamelle Bouie (pictured), both Black journalists, is that, as Bouie put it, “It’s not that there aren’t legitimate reasons to be concerned about Biden’s age. He is already the oldest person to serve in the Oval Office. The issue here is one of proportion and consequence. Biden may be unable to do the job at some point in the future; Trump, it seems to me, already is.” Bouie wrote under the headline, “Trump Is Losing It.”

Bouie gave examples of how “It is not just that Trump is ignorant on . . . vital questions; it is that he is incoherent.”

To Blow (pictured), “This is one of the truly remarkable aspects of the current presidential cycle: the degree to which our collective memory of Trump’s litany of transgressions has become less of a political problem for him than might otherwise be expected. Even the multiple legal charges he now faces are almost all about things that happened years ago and, to many citizens, involve things that the country should put in the rearview mirror. . . .

“Many Americans experienced the Trump years as traumatic, and one of the most bewildering aspects of this year’s presidential race is the way that so many other Americans are disregarding or downgrading that trauma. . . .

“Too many people have settled into a hagiographic view of Trump’s presidency, even though you can make a solid case that today’s economy is stronger than the one Trump left behind and that Trump did — and still does — gush over the world’s dictators and agitate America’s allies. . . .

“But the threat that Trump poses to our country hasn’t diminished. It has increased. He keeps saying things — he won’t be a dictator ‘except for Day 1’ — that demonstrate he is not only a danger to the country but also to the world order.

“And in the end, that is the most important issue in this election, not Biden’s memory or disagreements over his foreign policy or migrants at the border or economic anxiety. You can’t make the country better without saving it first.

“Those fighting to save our democracy can never lose sight of that, particularly since many of those supporting Trump now see his multifarious sins through rose-tinted glasses.”

Candidates to Be Invited, but Will They Accept?

The journalists-of-color chapters in Washington, D.C., along with the Journalism and Women’s Symposium (JAWS) and the NLGJA: Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists, are jointly touting a “Presidential Candidate Forum” they are planning for Sept. 24 at George Washington University.

However, none of the presidential candidates has actually accepted an invitation to be there, and no Republican presidential candidate has appeared before a journalists-of-color convention in 20 years — the last being George W. Bush at Unity: Journalists of Color in 2004. (video).

John McCain (2008), Mitt Romney (2012) and Donald Trump (2016, 2020), also the likely 2024 nominee, have all declined.

In fact, Trump’s antipathy toward the press and to groups of journalists has become part of his persona. “Trump not only believes reporters are enemies of the people, but now also wants to restrict and punish and ‘make them pay’ for critical coverage,” Michael Bugeja has reported for the Poynter Institute.

Trump famously refused to attend the White House Correspondents’ Dinner each year during his term.

“You can say that I’m the guy behind it, as one of the resident journalists at George Washington University and as the School of Media & Public Affairs Associate Director,” longtime journalist Jesse J. Holland (pictured) messaged, speaking of the 2024 candidate forum, “but it wouldn’t have happened without the SMPA team and Brandon Benavides, the NAHJ DC Chapter President. Brandon and SMPA Professor Nikki Mayo came to us with the idea to put together the 2024 Presidential Candidate Forum and we were able to make it happen here at GW along with the coalition of organizations! . . .

“We expect both candidates to see the advantage of talking directly to the constituency represented by these minority and diverse journalistic groups, considering this is expected to be one of the closest presidential elections in history AND the 2024 Presidential Candidate Forum is scheduled to happen less than two months before Election Day. We’ll have a national audience watching, and I expect the presidential campaigns to be eager to talk about their positions and platforms at one of the top universities in the United States.”

Warren Brown “brought race and class-conscious insights to his coverage of the automotive industry over three decades,” Adam Bernstein wrote in Brown’s Washington Post obituary.

When Copy Editors Sabotaged Black Reporters

Warren Brown was a well-liked Washington Post reporter and columnist who covered the automotive industry. He died at 70 in 2018 after years of issues related to kidney disease.

Brown was also, in 1970, “the first African-American full-time journalist at a [white] daily newspaper in New Orleans,” the States-Item, writes Bala Baptiste, a professor of mass communication and chair of the Division of Communications at Miles College.

“Brown’s views were conservative,” Baptiste wrote Jan. 16 for Black Perspectives, a publication of the African American Intellectual History Society.

“He supported the United States involvement in the Vietnam [War], and he opposed [tenets] of the Black Power Movement. He interpreted the movement as advocating hatred and violence that were embedded in pronouncements such as ‘kill whitey.’ Such extreme activism was anathema and in conflict with his values. He graduated in 1969. . . .

“This author contends that a white copy editor despised Black people and attempted to cause management to fire Brown. By inserting typographic and spelling errors into Brown’s articles, a copyeditor sought to undermine Black concerns and mock the Black journalist and his intelligence. The inserted errors, however, did not affect Brown’s employment. Brown reported at the States-Item for a year, then worked at Ebony and Jet magazines and other newspapers before settling at the Washington Post.”

In the comments section, Mark Charles Roudané wrote, “As a seventh generation New Orleanian, I found this article on Warren Brown fascinating. I would like to point out, however, that there were several full-time Black journalists that worked for the New Orleans Tribune, America’s first Black daily newspaper (1864-69).”

Nine-second video shows Washington Post newsroom alumni Athelia Knight, front, left, and Martha Hamilton, front right, joining a New Orleans-style Second Line sendoff for Warren Brown on July 31, 2018, at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Washington’s Georgetown section. (Credit: Fred Sweets, former Washington Post photographer)

Short Takes

  • Dale R. Anglin (pictured) will become inaugural director of Press Forward, a coalition of local and national funders committed to investing more than $500 million to strengthen communities, democracy and local news, the coalition announced Tuesday. Anglin is vice president for proactive grantmaking at the Cleveland Foundation, the oldest community foundation in the country, where she led the effort to invest in a regional network of nonprofit journalism initiatives.  Q-and-A
  • Aaron Wiener’s Washington Post story about George Washington, timed for Washington’s birthday, begins, “We all know about the familiar stories about George Washington. . . . His wooden teeth (Except they weren’t — they were ivory dentures and real teeth extracted from his enslaved workers.) . . .”
  • On Jan. 31, the member-supported news organization Denverite, Colorado Public Radio and public radio station KRCC began moving away from using “migrant” “when referring to the group of recent arrivals and those who may yet be on the way,” Denverite editor Obed Manuel wrote Feb. 6. “After so much use, without self-interrogation by the media, we feel as a newsroom that the word has lost much of the humanity behind it. It also may not accurately describe a person’s reason for arriving in Colorado.”
Footage from a police body camera shows a Rochester, N.Y., police officer putting a so-called spit hood over the head of Daniel Prude, a Black man, in 2020. He died of suffocation, authorities said. (Credit: Rochester Police Department)
  • “In seven years since the NFL promised to pay every former player who developed dementia or several brain diseases linked to concussions, the NFL has paid out nearly $1.2 billion to more than 1,600 former players and their families — far more than experts predicted during settlement negotiations,” Will Hobson reported Jan. 31 for The Washington Post. “But behind the scenes, the settlement routinely fails to deliver money and medical care to former players suffering from dementia and CTE,” severe chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a brain disease linked to football, “a Washington Post investigation found, saving the NFL hundreds of millions of dollars, if not more. The Post reviewed more than 15,000 pages of documents relating to efforts by more than 100 former players to qualify for settlement benefits, including thousands of pages of confidential medical and legal records. The Post also interviewed more than 100 people involved with the settlement. . . .”

“The origin story for one of Peanuts’ most beloved characters, [this] special follows Franklin as he moves to a new town and navigates new friendships,” Apple TV+ tells us. “Franklin’s family is always on the move with his dad’s military job, and everywhere he goes Franklin finds support in a notebook filled with his grandfather’s advice on friendship. But when Franklin tries his usual strategies with the Peanuts gang, he has trouble fitting in. That’s until he learns about the neighborhood Soap Box Derby race – according to his grandfather, everyone loves a winner! He’s sure that winning the race will also mean winning over some new friends. All he needs is a partner, which he finds in Charlie Brown. Franklin and Charlie Brown work together to build a car and in the process become good buddies. But as the race nears, the pressure mounts – can their car and their newfound friendship make it to the finish line?” (Credit: YouTube)

  • “Media Matters found that Fox News’ three highest-rated evening shows — Jesse Watters Primetime, Hannity, and The Five — spread white nationalist rhetoric in nearly half of their immigration segments” in January, Alicia Sadowski and Isabella Corrao reported Tuesday for Media Matters for America. “Immigration segments on Jesse Watters Primetime and Hannity each contained white nationalist talking points in over half of the segments, at 55% and 53%, respectively. The Five, the most-watched cable news show in January, spread white nationalist rhetoric in 45% of such segments.  . . .”
L’Merchie Frazier, member of the State House Art Commission, left, Noelle Trent, president and CEO, Museum of African American History, State Senate President Karen E. Spilka and Nina Lillie LeDoyt, daughter of artist Lloyd Lillie, unveil the bust of Frederick Douglass in the Massachusetts State House Senate Chamber. (Credit: Robin Lubbock/WBUR)
  • A bust of famed abolitionist Frederick Douglass, publisher of The North Star and a journalistic icon, was unveiled in the Massachusetts Senate Chamber on Wednesday, the first bust of an African American to be permanently added to the Massachusetts Statehouse, Steve LeBlanc reported Thursday for the Associated Press. “It’s also the first bust to be added to the Senate Chamber in more than 125 years.”
  • Los Angeles Times film critic Justin Chang (pictured) has left the publication to join The New Yorker, where he started Monday. “He takes on the job at The New Yorker as longtime critic Anthony Lane, who has held the post for three decades, broadens his beat beyond film to write on a variety of subjects, including reported pieces and critical essays about the arts,” Caitlin Huston wrote Jan. 30 for The Hollywood Reporter. In a message to his staff, New Yorker editor David Remnick noted that Chang was named film critic of the year at the Los Angeles Press Club’s National Arts and Entertainment Awards, serves as chair of the National Society of Film Critics, reviews movies for NPR’s “Fresh Air” and teaches at the Annenberg School of Journalism at the University of Southern California.  
  • “Award-winning Miami journalist Carlos Frías (pictured) says his former employer, WLRN, discriminated against him by canceling his local talk show and firing its team of Latino journalists,” Martin Vassolo reported Feb. 7 for Axios Miami. “The Cuban American journalist and former ‘Sundial’ host filed a federal discrimination complaint Tuesday asserting that he and his staff experienced discrimination at the radio station, including being told by an editor that the show was ‘sounding very Latino.’ . . . “
  • Wayne Dawkins is one of the first journalists of color, if not the first, with a commentary on the death at 92 Saturday of basketball legend Charles “Lefty” Driesell (pictured), “the coach who put University of Maryland basketball on the map.” Dawkins, associate professor at Morgan State University, wrote on LinkedIn Sunday that Driesell “deserves appreciation as a sports racial change agent. Driesell played monumental roles in smashing the stonewall Whites-only college sports teams that were normal operating procedure until the late 1960s. Coach Lefty unwittingly desegregated the Atlantic Coast Conference, yes, the league where Black student athletes from North Carolina, Duke, Virginia, Wake Forest, Clemson, and others saturate the hardwoods with talent. . . .”
  • “Digitized records of the AFRO’s published works are already accessible to the public with a library card,” Lillian Reed wrote Sunday for the Baltimore Banner, referring to Baltimore’s Afro-American, the nation’s longest-running Black family-owned newspaper. “However, the physical collection — an estimated 3 million photos, clips, cartoons, event programs, letters, reporter notebooks and other artifacts — is temporarily being housed in a state-owned storage facility that is not open to the public. Archivist Megan McShea, who is overseeing the project, estimates her six-person team has processed just 5% of the entire collection since beginning the work in October. ‘It’s a huge undertaking,’ McShea said. ‘What we’re trying to do is stabilize it for research.’ . . . ”
  • “Roy Wood Jr. shared that fellow Daily Show correspondent Hasan Minhaj (pictured, with Wood) had been set to take over as host of the satirical news program following Trevor Noah’s departure, but it all ‘fell apart’ after that New Yorker profile,” Jessica Wang reported Tuesday for Entertainment Weekly. “The revelation came during Wood’s appearance on comedian Mike Birbiglia’s Working It Out podcast, after Birbiglia joked that Wood planted Minhaj’s story in the New Yorker. ‘That’s literally why everything fell apart,’ Wood said after a big laugh. . . .The September 2023 New Yorker reported that Minhaj embellished anecdotes in his standup material. Minhaj acknowledged that they were embellished, noting that the stories were rooted in ’emotional truth’ and that the broader points he was trying to make, about race in America, with them justified his hyperbole. ‘The punchline is worth the fictionalized premise,’ he said in the profile. . . .”
  • In India, “Broadcast journalist Jyotiranjan Mohapatra sustained serious injuries after an attack by four people riding motorcycles in the eastern Odisha state on February 10, while journalist Nikhil Wagle’s car was attacked by political activists in Maharashtra on February 9 in relation to social media posts,” the International Federation of Journalists reported Wednesday. IFJ “and its affiliate, the Indian Journalists Union (IJU), condemn the attacks, and urge authorities [to] ensure all investigations into the incidents are conducted thoroughly and transparently. . . .”

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Also at CBS, “Catherine Herridge (pictured) — an award-winning senior correspondent whose First Amendment case is being closely watched by journalists nationwide — was among the hundreds of employees at CBS parent Paramount who got pink slips on Tuesday,” Steigrad wrote.

As Jessica Toonkel and Joe Flint have explained in The Wall Street Journal. Black Entertainment Television, founded in 1980 by Robert Johnson with backing from cable mogul John Malone, “was the first national programming service primarily targeting Black viewers. Viacom, which is now called Paramount Global, acquired BET in 2000 for $2.3 billion in stock and the assumption of $570 million in debt.”

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