Anti-DEI Mood Leads to Revenue Shortfall
Boston’s Byron Barnett Dies, Battled Cancer
Homepage photo: NABJ board of directors on Tuesday (Credit: Richard Prince)
Updated Aug. 7
NABJ President Ken Lemon introduces Elise Durham as executive director Tuesday at a hastily called news conference. (Credit: RIchard Prince)
Anti-DEI Mood Leads to Revenue Shortfall
Ken Lemon, president of the National Association of Black Journalists, announced a new executive director for the organization Tuesday, rebuffing prominent NABJ veterans and candidates for NABJ office who urged the board to go slow on the selection process and to make it transparent.
Lemon, whose term ends on Sunday and is running for re-election, answered sharp and angry questions at a hastily convened news conference at Cleveland’s convention center, site of the organization’s 50th anniversary celebration. It officially begins Wednesday.
Lemon defended the timing of the choice of Elise Durham, a communications strategist and television news manager in Atlanta with a long history with NABJ, saying it was necessary because the convention offered Durham a chance to met with NABJ staff members who work remotely, to meet with granters and potential partners and to shadow the current executive director, Drew Berry, who is retiring.
Among the objections to the timing was the prospect of board members elected later this week preferring a different candidate. Current board members, such as Amir Vera, vice president-digital, said they learned of the announcement news conference only by happenstance.
Durham urged members and observers, “notwithstanding the tension, to give me a chance to see what I can do in this organization,” one she loves as an “NABJ baby” who grew up professionally with the organization.
The announcement came after an hours-long board of directors meeting at which:
- Berry announced a “shortfall of revenue because of anti-DEI headwinds,” but said that “we had planned for this day.”
- Lemon said that NABJ had discussed a partnership with diversity advocates assembled earlier this year by Marc Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League, who was enthusiastic about the idea.
- Eva Coleman, vice president-print, said that the Washington Post had committed to establishing a two-year internship program for students of color. A Post spokesperson did not respond to a request for elaboration, but Executive Editor Matt Murray confirmed those plans in a July 29 letter quoted below .
Kathy Chaney (pictured), former NABJ vice president-print, said the elections committee barred her from attending a candidates forum scheduled for this Thursday, as well as other election-related events. The committee asserted that she had “intimidated, threatened, and bullied” Walter Smith-Randolph, vice president-print. Cheney called the accusations “categorically false, unsupported by the facts, and defamatory.”
Among other requests, Chaney asked the board to “initiate a special review of the Elections Committee’s actions in this matter” as well as of Smith-Randolph’s conduct in sharing confidential information. She asked for his suspension during the investigation.
The convention theme is NABJ’s 50th anniversary, with events, convention programs and a film built around it. Berry said the conference has so far attracted just under 3,000 attendees, with 135 sessions, nine meal functions and 19 networking receptions.
About the shortfall, Berry said, “We’ve planned for a case like this. We haven’t had to cut programming. We’ve made cuts, but nothing that’s going to impact our members.” He said the shortfall “could be $6- $7- $800,000,” but that that amount was more than covered elsewhere.
The overture from Morial was made public in May when he said his coalition of 20 or so groups fighting to continue diversity, equity and inclusion policies is “trying to figure out a way to include” NABJ and the trade group for Black-press publishers, the National Newspaper Publishers Association.
Although there was no public response, Lemon said Tuesday that he, Berry and Smith-Randolph (pictured) met with Morial three or four weeks ago and that Morial was “more than excited about working with NABJ.”
Lemon said he told the Urban League leader that there were certain actions in which NABJ, as an organization of journalists, could not participate, such as joining in protests.
Urban League spokesperson Teresa Candori, asked to elaborate on the partnership, messaged, “National Urban League has no comment at this time.”
The discussion with the Washington Post was accompanied by one with the Wall Street Journal, Coleman said.
NABJ asked for a meeting with the Post last week after the newspaper endured likely the largest exodus of Black talent in its history, coming after a buyout offer that drained the newsroom of journalists of all races and after policy changes by owner Jeff Bezos widely viewed as efforts to appease President Trump.
The Post agreed to meet again with NABJ representatives after the convention. In addition, wrote executive editor Murray, “Among other things, we are launching a two-year internship program for young journalists of color.
“And I, along with several of my colleagues, will be attending NABJ’s 2025 Convention & Career Fair next week in Cleveland where we’ll be actively recruiting for many open roles. Of course, ultimately, we know we will be accountable for what we do to build The Post’s next chapter, not just what we say.”
The Journal, which lost its Black masthead voice last year with the departure of Brent Jones, senior vice president for training, culture and community, as well as other staffers of color, has interacted with NABJ “in a way they haven’t before,” Coleman said.
“Welcome to Cleveland” and NABJ’s 50th anniversary logo lined St. Clair Street in front of the Huntington Convention Center, where Black journalists are holding their convention. (Credit: Damaso Reyes)
The rebuke to Chaney followed a leaked series of emails in which Chaney implored Smith-Randolph to break with Lemon and Berry on the executive director process. “The bottom-line sentiment is that you’re scared to stay away from them and will always do what they want,” she wrote. “Stand on your own and vote to halt this mess.”
Eight NABJ candidates for office, including Lemon’s two challengers for the presidency, Errin Haines and Dion Rabouin, asked July 26 for “an immediate pause to the Executive Director search and ask that no hiring decision be made until the new Executive Board is seated.”
Veterans Sheila Brooks and past presidents Vanessa Williams and Gregory Lee Jr. were among others who weighed in. Lee himself was a candidate for the job.
Williams wrote on Facebook, “The process seems rushed and it’s not clear what we are doing or have done to make sure we get the best outcome for this important personnel decision. The future of our organization’s ability to better serve our members and our communities depends on it.”
Journal-isms asked Vera last week why NABJ members should care about this issue.
Vera (pictured) messaged then, “I know members are, at times, unhappy with the convention site or question why we do or don’t partner with certain companies and entities. What they don’t realize is that the executive director plays a major role in those and other significant decisions that directly affect every member of NABJ. . . .”
Lemon defended the selection process at the news conference and called Durham “a phenomenal choice to lead NABJ into its next 50 years,” and said “I have faith in the process. She knows NABJ” and will be effective in countering anti-DEI forces.
- Susan Glaser, cleveland.com: National Association of Black Journalists celebrates 50 years at Cleveland convention
- Journal-isms: Finance Chair: DEI Should Be NABJ’s Big Concern (scroll down) (July 31, 2024)
- Olivia Mitchell, cleveland.com: Amid Trump’s anti-DEI climate, National Association of Black Journalists finds solidarity in Cleveland (Aug. 6)
- Alexandra Steigrad, New York Post: Gayle King’s future at CBS murky as ratings for ‘woke’ morning show tank — and Skydance vows to scrap left-wing bias
Colleague Jonathan Hall said, “I see Byron as a person who can really sense other peoples’ loss.” (Screenshot).
Boston’s Byron Barnett Dies, Battled Cancer
“Byron Barnett, the retired longtime Channel 7 news reporter and a member of the Massachusetts Broadcasters Hall of Fame, has died, according to the station and his family,” Nick Stoico reported Monday for the Boston Globe.
“He was 69.
“Barnett spent 38 years with WHDH-TV before signing off in 2021. He died Sunday in his native Minneapolis surrounded by his loved ones, his longtime friend and WHDH colleague Jonathan Hall said in a social media post.
“ ‘Simply, everyone loved the man,’ Hall wrote. ‘He was such a good reporter and communicator who loved a nasty Nor’easter, or ball game, or presidential race. He covered many of them. . . .
“Barnett was battling cancer, which he faced ‘with unwavering courage,’ his family said.
“Barnett covered crime stories, court cases, fires, big weather events, and human interest features, and he was the host of the long-running WHDH public affairs show Urban Update.
“He was a staple on the presidential campaign trail in New Hampshire, covering every campaign since Ronald Reagan in 1984. . . .”
Rick Sobey added for the Boston Herald:
“Among the blockbuster stories Barnett covered were: the 1984 riots in Lawrence, the release of American hostages from a hijacked TWA flight in Lebanon, the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster that killed New Hampshire school teacher Christa McAuliffe and six other astronauts, the Oklahoma City bombing, and the trials and deaths of Aaron Hernandez and Whitey Bulger. . . .
“When Barnett was inducted into the Massachusetts Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 2017, his 7News colleague Jonathan Hall said, ‘I see Byron as a person who can really sense other peoples’ loss . . . Often we see people on their absolute worst day, and Byron Barnett is the kind of guy who’s a people person who can connect.’ . . .
“Barnett noted that one of his proudest accomplishments was working with other TV reporters to lobby the Massachusetts Legislature to outlaw non-compete clauses in contracts for broadcasters.
“An Emmy Award-winner, Barnett won many other awards including a Sigma Delta Chi Award, the National Association of Black Journalists’ Region One Journalist of The Year Award, YMCA Black Achievers Award, the 2013 Silver Circle Award from the Boston/New England Chapter of the National Association of Television Arts & Sciences, and several community service awards.”
