Reporter Alleged to Have Staged Scene Containing F-Bomb
‘Reimagined’ Essence to Include Longer-Form Journalism

Short Takes: New Black public radio network; NABJ’s executive director search; Renae Merle; Elon Musk and harm to Black communities; Chelsea Curtis and missing and murdered indigenous people; The Emancipator; ESPN’s David Roberts; Taylor Jennings-Brown at Q-City Metro; mixing up Kanye West and Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs;

New York Amsterdam News’ planned National Center; diversity in streaming movies; Eva McKend; press access during Venezuela’s earthquakes; harassment of Cuban journalist; “pretrial detention” of Nigerian journalist; attempt to snatch Kenyan journalists; training Indigenous women journalists in Indonesia; closure of Uganda media outlets.

Homepage photo: September 2025 protest where KPBS reporter recorded a live stand-up with a sign reading ‘F— ICE’ visible in the background. (Credit: X/@amyforsandiego)

From July 17:
NBC Said to Fire Security Guard in Melvin Incident:
Suspect Held, Has Homeless, Racial, Mental Issues

Undercover Journos Link Western Donors, Settlers
LULAC’s Media Outfit Becomes a Player in ICE Coverage
Paramount Gifts FCC Free Tickets as It Weighs Merger
N.Y. Times Counters EEOC Claim of Bias Against White Men
Ewart Rouse, Longtime Philly Journalist, Dies at 85

Terence Shepherd’s lawsuit quotes from a performance review that said, “Terence’s commitment to journalistic standards, serving under served communities, expanding our footprint and ensuring KPBS stands out from the competition is providing a solid foundation for growth and success.”

Reporter Alleged to Have Staged Scene Featuring F-Bomb

Terence Shepherd, past chairman of the Radio Television Digital News Association and past two-time president of the South Florida Black Journalists Association, has filed suit against KPBS in San Diego, saying he was terminated as news director for reporting what he believed to be an FCC violation.

“The lawsuit, filed May 19 in California Superior Court in San Diego County, claims that the station violated a California labor law that prohibits employers from terminating employees for reporting wrongdoing,” Tyler Falk reported June 29 for Current.

“The lawsuit says that on Sept. 17, 2025, Shepherd ‘became aware’ that KPBS reporter Alexander Nguyen (pictured) had ‘apparently staged a protest scene about which KPBS was reporting.’  A protestor in the allegedly staged ‘live shot’ was holding a placard that said ‘FUCK ICE.’

Both Shepherd’s supervisor, Nancy Worlie, and Nguyen declined to comment, according to KPBS.

A hearing in the lawsuit is scheduled Oct. 23.

According to the online publication Sandiegoville, “One of the more notable allegations in the complaint is that Shepherd says he continued receiving favorable performance evaluations after raising the issue.

“According to the lawsuit, a November 2025 review, roughly two months after he reported the alleged FCC concern, praised his ethics, leadership and stewardship of the newsroom. Shepherd contends that positive review undermines any suggestion that his subsequent dismissal resulted from poor performance rather than retaliation. He ultimately was informed in February that he was no longer serving as  news director after approximately four years in the position. (Caption: The dispute stems from a September 2025 protest where KPBS reporter Alexander Nguyen recorded a live stand-up with a sign reading ‘F— ICE’ visible in the background. [Credit: X/@amyforsandiego])

“Central to the lawsuit is whether the broadcast could have implicated FCC regulations. Federal law prohibits broadcasters from airing obscene content at any time and restricts indecent or profane material over the public airwaves during certain hours. The FCC evaluates complaints on a case-by-case basis, and enforcement actions can range from warning letters to monetary forfeitures. License revocation is authorized under federal law but is rarely pursued in practice.

“Whether the appearance of a protest sign in the background of a live news broadcast would ultimately constitute an actionable FCC violation remains unclear and has not been determined by any court or regulatory agency.”

Before switching to audio news, “Terence was a business editor at the Miami Herald and held various editing positions at the Boca Raton News,” KPBS noted in 2022, when Shepherd was hired.

“He is a past chairman of the Radio Television Digital News Association, the first Black person to hold that position, and the association’s former ethics chair and Region 13 director. He is currently a trustee of the Radio Television Digital News Foundation. Terence also is a two-time past president of the South Florida Black Journalists Association.”

 ‘Reimagined’ Essence to Boast Longer-Form Journalism

“Essence was a monthly in my youth days. It became a six-times-a-year publication, then a quarterly publication,” Will Sutton reported July 3 in his column for NOLA.com.

“In recent years, the company published six magazines in 2022, 2023 and 2024, and four in 2025. The ‘Special Collector’s Edition’ shared on Thursday is the first of 2026. The print edition didn’t go away, but it wasn’t as popular. Now, there’s a ‘reimagined’ Essence magazine, according to Richelieu Dennis, founder and executive chair of Sundial Group, which owns and produces the Essence Festival.

“Announced during an Essence Festival of Culture media kickoff, the new Essence magazine features a larger format, high-quality paper, highly stylized photography, and a combination of listicles and longer-form journalism. It includes beauty, fashion, a Black-focused horoscope, and a story headlined ‘A Country’s Unpaid Debt.’ Another headline reads ‘Dollars and Disparities’ with ‘Black Tax’ examples and a summary about how to make it work. . . .

“Essence and Sundial Media representatives said the magazine is likely to be published at least thrice a year going forward. . . .”

• Jasmine Robinson, Verite News: Q&A: Kirk McDonald, CEO of Essence’s parent company, talks future of Essence Festival in New Orleans (July 3)

• Keith Spera, nola.com: Here’s what the 2026 Essence Fest got right and what needs to be improved (July 10)

Short Takes

• “Fifteen stations that serve Black audiences are creating a network to focus on their future success,’  Tyler Falk reported June 29 for Current. “Founded by Ernest Walker, GM of KTSU in Houston, the Black Public Radio Network was created to ‘ensure the long-term sustainability, relevance, and growth of public radio stations that serve Black audiences and communities across the country,’ according to a Monday press release. . . .”

• “Today, Capital B is launching its biggest project ever,” Akoto Ofori-Atta, cofounder and chief audience officer, announced June 29 for Capital B. “For the Record: A Black Oral History Archive is a collection of over 100 firsthand stories from Black Americans across regions, generations, and identities. Since last year, our reporters and partners have been gathering recollections from Black people that paint a vivid picture of resistance, resilience, invention, and celebration. These stories now live in a growing library at ForTheRecordArchive.org.“

• Without a permanent executive director since Drew Berry  left last year and new board members rejected Elise Durham, the previous board’s choice, the National Association of Black Journalists has announced a search committee to work with a search firm to help shape the process of finding a new executive director, review candidates and recommend finalists to the Board of Directors, which will make the final hiring decision. Proposals for an executive search firm to help guide the recruitment and selection are due July 21, NABJ President Errin Haines said June 30. The search committee is chaired by Raelyn Johnson (pictured), vice president of weekend programming at MS NOW.
• “The Houston Chronicle has named Renae Merle (pictured) as its new business editor,” the Chronicle announced June 22. “ A veteran journalist and newsroom leader, Merle brings more than two decades of experience covering and editing some of the most consequential stories shaping the nation. Merle joins the Chronicle after nearly 25 years at The Washington Post, where she most recently helped oversee national coverage with reporters stationed across the country responding to breaking news and producing ambitious enterprise journalism . . . .”

• Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI has installed 59 natural gas turbines for its Colossus 2 data center project in Tennessee without securing federal clean air permits, according to communications between regulators and xAI representatives,” Disha Raychaudhuri and Valerie Volcovici reported Tuesday for Reuters. “Potential emissions from the turbines are far beyond the threshold that would require a federal permit, and would be released near predominantly Black communities already estimated to be suffering disproportionately high rates of lung disease, according to a Reuters analysis based on government data and information in the correspondence with regulators.

• “Chelsea Curtis (Diné) (pictured), is the recipient of the 2026 Richard LaCourse Award for Investigative Journalism “for her groundbreaking work using digital tools to document Missing and Murdered Indigenous People (MMIP) and to create an interactive reporting database and map at the Arizona Luminaria, the Indigenous Journalists Association announced. The organization’s convention takes place July 22-24 in Portland, Ore.

The Emancipator staff at their new home at Howard University in Washington. (Credit: The Emancipator)

“Today feels like a full-circle moment for me as we relaunch The Emancipator,“ Ibram X. Kendi wrote July 2. “My full circle moment is America’s full circle moment. As much as abolitionist Americans of the 1820s would hardly recognize much of anything about the United States at the 250th anniversary, there may be a few elements they recognize. They may recognize the actions and inaction of the mainstream media in maintaining the status quo of racism as it did slavery in their day. They may recognize the antiracist journalist as the rebirth of the antislavery journalist. They may recognize the need yet again for The Emancipator.” Now published at Howard University, the Emancipator was formerly published at Boston University.

“In August, after 22 years with the company, David Roberts “”will step down from his role as ESPN executive vice president and executive editor of sports news and entertainment,” Jesse Washington reported June 25 for Andscape. “During his tenure, he helped elevate ESPN personalities such as Mike Greenberg, Andraya Carter, Chiney Ogwumike, Rich Eisen, Malika Andrews and Stephen A. Smith. His purview includes all news and editorial coverage, audio and podcasts, and studio shows including SportsCenter, First Take, Get Up, Pardon the Interruption, NBA Today and NFL Live.”

Taylor Jennings-Brown (pictured) introduced herself June 25 as editor of QCity Metro, serving the Black community in Charlotte, N.C. “I’m a storyteller with experience working with various mediums for diverse audiences: including editorial writing, editing, and audio journalism at major media organizations including NPR and Dotdash Meredith,’ she says on LinkedIn.

• The “CBS Evening News” mistakenly aired an image of rapper Kanye West instead of Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs in a July 3 report that President Trump was mulling a pardon of Combs, who was sentenced to 50 months in a high-profile federal sex-crimes case, Matthew Chapman reported for Raw Story, citing the New York Post.  Although “the error was quietly fixed in the ‘Evening News’ West Coast broadcast and for digital and streaming,” it “has raised fears of ongoing short-staffing.”

• ” ‘Pick your hard’: Black independent journalism isn’t as simple as Substack,” reads a headline over a May 7 cautionary piece by Fallon Brannon on ObjectiveJournalism.com. “While it might be simple to suggest that reporters launch a newsletter or an independent newsroom when laid off from corporate media, those career pivots cost more than just money — particularly for Black independent journalists.”

“We urgently need to raise $100,000 to cover immediate, non-grant costs to turn our historic Harlem home into a National Center celebrating the Black press and publishers,” said Elinor R. Tatum, in red. (Credit: GoFundMe)

• “The acclaimed Black architectural team of Angel Ayon and Jerome Haferd has officially finalized the architectural plans to turn our historic 1941 Harlem headquarters into a state-of-the-art National Center,” Elinor Tatum, publisher and editor-in-chief of the New York Amsterdam News, told readers July 5. “The designs are stunning, deeply respectful of our heritage, and ready to move forward.

• “Despite the global success of Netflix’s Oscar-winning ‘KPop Demon Hunters,‘ which was directed by Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans, UCLA’s Hollywood Diversity Report has found that diversity in streaming movies is falling overall, following in the footsteps of theatrical releases,” Matt Minton reported June 17 for Variety.
• Al Jazeera has hired former CNN national politics correspondent Eva McKend (pictured) as a Washington correspondent, Martin Holmes reported July 3 for TV Insider. McKend weighed in herself on LinkedIn.

• “Coverage of Venezuela’s earthquakes has become the first major test for the country’s press since Nicolás Maduro’s removal, revealing greater freedom to report but also persistent censorship and restrictions on information access,” César López Linares reported July 1 for LatAm Journalism Review. “On June 27, three days after two earthquakes devastated Venezuela, the government restricted access to the coastal state of La Guaira, the hardest-hit area, citing public health concerns. Officials began requiring prior registration to enter, and foreign journalists, who had initially been transported by authorities on buses to the disaster zones, were now required to complete a bureaucratic accreditation process. . . . “

In Cuba, the State Security interrogated independent journalist Austin Llerandi (pictured), director of the community media outlet Amanecer Habanero, for more than an hour at the Marianao police station, and threatened to imprison him for directing and distributing the newsletter of that outlet,” CiberCuba reported Wednesday. “The most disturbing threat of the interrogation pointed directly at the journalist’s family: the officer referred to Llerandi’s wife’s pregnancy and warned him: ‘If you distribute the bulletin, the next time I call, give your wife a kiss on the belly, because you’re going to jail. ‘ . . .”

• The Committee to Protect Journalists Wednesday called on Nigerian authorities “to immediately release Secret Reporters journalist Stanley Ugagbe, who was remanded to prison on Tuesday for two months of pretrial detention, and to drop the cybercrime and defamation charges against him and his publisher, Tega Oghenedoro, also known as Fejiro Oliver. . . . On July 14, an Abuja court charged Ugagbe and Oliver on six counts over their June investigation into a Central Bank of Nigeria executive’s involvement in alleged corruption and infidelity, according to a copy of the charge sheet, reviewed by CPJ. It described Oliver, who is outside Nigeria, as a suspect ‘now at large.’ “

• The Committee to Protect Journalists has urged Kenyan authorities to investigate the June 27 attempt by heavily armed men to snatch The Standard Group Associate Editor Alex Kiprotich from his car, days after the president criticized the media house, and ensure that those behind the incident are brought to justice.”

• “Through two capacity-building trainings organized by the Indigenous Peoples Alliance of the Archipelago (AMAN) in collaboration with Tempo Witness and supported by UNESCO’s International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC), 30 Indigenous women journalists from across Indonesia strengthened their reporting skills, enhanced their safety awareness, and expanded their ability to amplify Indigenous voices often overlooked in mainstream media,” UNESCO  reported July 7.

• “The leader of Uganda’s military — who is also the son of the country’s long-ruling dictator [⁠President Yoweri Museveni] — ordered the closure of two of its biggest media outlets, the latest sign of democratic erosion in Africa,” Semafor reported June 29. “Muhoozi Kainerugaba, who has been touted as a possible successor to his octogenarian father, said he did not believe in ‌a free press,’ adding that the newspaper and broadcaster he shut down would only be allowed to reopen with his permission. Press freedoms in the continent are already weak, with most nations ranking in the lower half of an influential press freedoms index, while numerous recent coups have contributed to a weakening of norms in Africa, where only six countries are considered a democracy.”

NBC Said to Fire Security Guard in Melvin Incident

June 17, 2026

In 2023, Torrance, Calif., police officers talk with Andrew Truelove in the parking lot where he has been sleeping. Officer J. Craft, right, a homeless liaison for the department, connected Truelove with an advocate to help him get off the street. (Credit: Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)

• July 18 update: ‘TODAY’ Intruder Spotted on Broadcast Minutes Before Storming the Studio?! (TMZ)

Suspect Held, Has Homeless, Racial, Mental Issues

NBC News has fired a security guard after the security breach at the “Today” show Thursday that ended with an intruder confronting co-anchor Craig Melvin and calling him the N-word, TMZ and the New York Post’s Page Six reported.

Andrew Truelove, 41, who has been homeless and served prison time, was arraigned Friday in Manhattan on hate crime, burglary and menacing charges, with bail set at $10,000 cash / $10,000 insurance company bond.

According to the complaint against him, Truelove was asked by “Informant 2” — presumably Melvin — “That’s what you wanted to get arrested for?”

“The defendant replied in substance, I always wanted to call a Black famous person the N-word,” the complaint said.

The Post told readers that Truelove “had spent years cycling through the criminal justice system, including prison time, homelessness in California and multiple recent arrests in New York.”

The Daily News’ Jessica Schladebeck and Rebecca White added Friday that Truelove “grew up with a racist father and was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia in college, according to a family member.

“ ‘Our father was racist, took Andrew to hear David Duke speak, denied the Holocaust despite being Jewish, used frequent slurs, and so on,’ a woman who only identified herself as Truelove’s sister said in text messages with the Daily News. ‘It would seem my brother took some of that to heart.’ ”

NBC News was not commenting on the reports that the security guard had been fired, and 32BJ SEIU, the union representing service workers, including security guards, did not respond to requests for comment.

Antoinette Bueno and Oli Coleman reported late Thursday for the New York Post’s Page Six, “Sources tell us that security video shows two guards on duty when the terrifying breach happened. In the tape, one guard steps away, and the other guard misses the intruder as he slips in.

“It’s unclear which of the guards was the one to lose their job over the security debacle, but insiders say that show staff were sad to learn of the dismissal because he was a well-liked presence in the building.”

The incident follows another racial incident involving a Chicago news crew.

There, “A CBS News Chicago reporter and photographer were attacked by three men who yelled racial slurs, damaged their equipment, and commanded a dog to attack them near the Adler Planetarium, according to police and the news station,” the Chicago Sun-Times reported June 30. The three were arrested.

In the Melvin case, Truelove allegedly slipped into a restricted vestibule near Studio 1A at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan.

The police complaint said:

“I am informed by an individual known to the District Attorney’s Office (‘Informant 1’), who works on the security team at the above-described location, that the defendant went into the lobby at that location, followed behind an employee, who used their identification to scan in, past an [employees] only area.

 

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“I am informed by another individual known to the District Attorney’s Office (‘Informant 2’), that he observed the defendant at the bottom of a stairwell that was inside of the employee’s only area of the aforementioned location. I am further informed by Detective Ashley Breton, Shield No. 2387 of the Hate Crimes Taskforce, that he is informed by Informant 2 that the defendant called out Informant 2’s name and then stated in substance, where is Roker?,” a reference to the “Today” show’s co-host and weatherman, Al Roker, who is Black.

“I am further informed by Detective Breton, who is informed by Informant 2, that the defendant then proceeded to take steps toward Informant 2 and stated in substance, you’re a n*****. I am informed by Informant 2 that the defendant’s conduct made him fear for his safety.”

In 2023, Connor Sheets of the Los Angeles Times wrote a 6,181-word piece about Truelove headlined, “From a one-way flight to sleeping in a parking lot: Diary of a California dream gone sour.”

“His is a familiar story, a modern iteration of the starry-eyed striver headed west with a dollar and a dream. But in 2023, the landing for a troubled person at the end of his rope can be brutal,” Sheets wrote.

“His experiences at the bottom of L.A.’s economic ladder raise difficult questions about what role society should play in caring for those who have the least but need the most. . . .

“Truelove has PTSD and a related mood disorder and no friends or family in California. He got off supervised probation two days before he left the East Coast. Before that, he had been in prison for the latest in a string of felony convictions.”

“Western governments claim to oppose Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and uphold international law,” Al Jazeera says. “However, undercover reporters from Al Jazeera expose how donors based in some Western countries fund the expansion of illegal settlements.” (Credit: YouTube)

Undercover Journos Link Western Donors, Settlers

“An undercover investigation by [Al Jazeera] says it has uncovered evidence that charities and donors in the United Kingdom and Canada are helping channel tax-deductible donations to Israeli settler organizations in the occupied West Bank, despite laws prohibiting charitable funds from supporting illegal settlements,” Drop Site News reported Friday.

“Posing as prospective donors, Al Jazeera’s undercover reporters were allegedly told by pro-settler organisations that donations could be routed through registered charities before being used to expand settlements, campaign for the demolition of Palestinian homes, and provide military-grade equipment, including drones, to settlers.”

 

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LULAC’s Media Outfit Becomes a Player in ICE Coverage

A little-known media organization was namechecked in the coverage of the killing by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston, the first of three such killings in recent weeks to enrage those who already believe the federal agency needs reining in.

The organization was El Grito News, a small outfit created by the League of Latin American Citizens, the veteran civil rights organization known as LULAC.

It has only two or three journalists and eight young aspiring fellows, but it became a trusted repository for footage taken by businesses whose witnessed the killing of Salgado Araujoa (pictured), a Mexican who lived in the U.S. for decades, as the homebuilder drove his construction crew to a Houston job site.

The death July 7 of the 52-year-old husband and father set off protests in Texas’ largest city and calls from Democrats and Salgado Araujo ‘s family for an independent investigation.

The Department of Homeland Security claimed Salgado Araujo rammed an ICE vehicle when it was chasing his white van and that an officer opened fire in self-defense. Surveillance and eyewitness videos show an aggressive pursuit leading up to the incident, a lack of standard police identifiers, and the immediate aftermath of the shooting.

“We were getting videos from small businesses. We became a trusted partner” for those who would not provide that evidence to the FBI or the district attorney’s office, Juan Proaño (pictured), CEO of LULAC, told Journal-isms on Friday.

“We became a source for traditional media. CNN was using our video,” Proaño said. “We were able to reach millions and millions of people.”

El Grito started about a year ago, but the idea of the nonprofit providing its own news goes back to 1935, he said, much like the NAACP’s The Crisis, which was created in 1910.

Unlike other Latino media, Proaño said, the focus is on civil rights. He is a board member of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.

Meanwhile, the National Hispanic Media Coalition Thursday joined Voto Latino and more than 50 interfaith, human rights, business, immigration, veteran and civil rights leaders “to demand the immediate introduction of articles of impeachment and a full congressional investigation into Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Markwayne Mullin’s handling of deaths in detention, shootings by ICE and CBP agents and other violence perpetrated by DHS.”

The New York Times wrote Tuesday about the lack of video footage of the fatal shooting of 26-year-old Joan Sebastian Guerrero in Biddeford, Maine; a vigil took place this week for a 28-year-old Mexican national, so far unidentified by name, who died in St. Augustine, Fla., after authorities say he ran from federal immigration agents and was struck by a semi-truck. And hundreds attended a wake Thursday for Salgado Araujo.

• Adrian Carrasquillo, the Bulwark: Shoot First, Smear Later

• Adrian Carrasquillo, Substack: ICE’s New Permanent Family Separation: Killing Latino Fathers

• Gabriel Piña , Mark Hugo Lopez , Sahana Mukherjee , Dalia Fahmy and Alexandra Cahn, Pew Research Center: U.S. Hispanics are divided on whether their identity helps or hurts them in America (July 9)

• Cole Reynolds, Washington Post: At least 17 motorists have been shot during immigration operations as the Trump administration ramped up enforcement, a Washington Post analysis finds.

• Jeanine Santucci, USA Today: Another ICE shooting in the news. Here’s what to do if you’re stopped

• Jazmine Ulloa, Hamed Aleaziz and Emiliano Rodríguez Mega, New York Times: ICE Killing in Houston Puts Focus on Surge in Immigration Arrests

Paramount Gifts FCC Free Tickets as It Weighs Merger

“The rich and famous who filed into the Kennedy Center’s opera house in December were there to enjoy one of the nation’s most exclusive celebrations of the performing arts: the center’s annual honors gala,” Corey G. Johnson reported Wednesday or ProPublica.

“The black-tie event, hosted by President Donald Trump, prioritized tickets to people who donated more than $75,000 to the center. This year, it feted Hollywood icon Sylvester Stallone, the legendary glam rock band Kiss and the Grammy Award-winning disco pioneer Gloria Gaynor.

“Among the attendees that evening were two lower-profile government officials whose regulatory decisions had been crucial to the future of the gala’s broadcast sponsor, CBS, and its parent company, Paramount.

“Five months earlier, Federal Communications Commissioner Olivia Trusty cast a decisive vote approving Paramount’s historic $8 billion merger with Skydance Media. Now, the commissioner and a guest enjoyed the star-studded celebration thanks to tickets gifted to her by Paramount worth more than $12,000, according to ethics disclosure records obtained by ProPublica.

“The other commissioner who approved the merger watched from a prized perch. FCC Chair Brendan Carr and his wife sat in a private skybox with Paramount CEO David Ellison and other executives from Paramount and CBS. Such seats sold for $125,000 a ticket, according to Kennedy Center guidelines.

“It’s unclear if Paramount gifted Carr the premium seats because the FCC has yet to make public his financial disclosure for last year. . . .”

• Jeremy Barr, the Guardian: Conservative fight against license renewals for ABC stations heats up (July 6)

• Joe Flint and Terell Wright, Wall Street Journal: FCC’s Carr Says ABC Is Running a ‘Campaign of Misinformation’ on Probe (June 28)

• Freedom of the Press Foundation: We Just Sued Paramount over Trump Corruption (YouTube video)

• Kelcee Griffis, Bloomberg: FCC Near Rulings Against Disney Over ‘The View,’ TV Licenses

• Ted Johnson, Jill Goldsmith, Deadline: Judge Says She’ll Rule By Next Week On Emergency Motion In State AGs’ Challenge To Paramount-Warner Bros Discovery Merger

• Ted Johnson, Deadline: FCC Chairman Proposes Repeal Of National Ownership Cap, Sets August Vote

• Ted Johnson, Deadline: ABC Launches On-Air Campaign Warning Viewers Of FCC Actions And Urging Public Comment (June 29)

• Matthew Keys, the Desk: Groups file formal petition to deny over FCC’s probes into Disney, ABC (June 26)

In December, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Chair Andrea Lucas urged white men who believe they have been discriminated against to come forward. (Credit: YouTube) 

N.Y. Times Counters EEOC Claim of Bias Against White Men

“The New York Times has filed counterclaims against the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which is pursuing a lawsuit against the news organization for allegedly discriminating against a white male employee by passing him over for a promotion,” Winston Cho reported July 10 for The Hollywood Reporter.

“The Commission markedly deviated from its ordinary practices in almost every respect to file the flimsiest of lawsuits against The Times, a frequent target of the administration, on the heels of investigative reporting that brought to light scathing bipartisan criticism of the EEOC, its leadership, and its priorities from both inside and outside the Commission,” states the complaint filed on Friday in New York federal court.

“The EEOC initiated the legal battle in May when it accused the Times of implementing race and sex-based hiring goals that favor minorities and women in violation of civil rights laws. The government seeks a court order barring the company from carrying diversity, equity and inclusion policies, plus unspecified damages for the unnamed employee.

“The employee, Bryant Rousseau (pictured), allegedly lost a job as the deputy real estate editor to a multiracial woman, who allegedly didn’t have experience covering the field, according to the complaint. None of the final four candidates were white men, the EEOC said.

“In its complaint, the Times accuses the commission of filing the lawsuit in retaliation for its reporting in violation of the First Amendment. The EEOC omitted details it had learned during an eight-month investigation that undermine claims Rousseau was discriminated against, including offers for two others positions in 2024 that aligned with his career objectives, the publication says. . . . ”

Ewart Rouse, Longtime Philly Journalist, Dies at 85

Ewart Rouse, who spent more than 25 years as a reporter and editor at the Philadelphia Inquirer, died July 2 in Voorhees, N.J. He was 85, the Fertig Funeral Home in Harrison Township, N.J., reported July 8.

“When I arrived at the Inquirer as an editing intern in the business department in the early 1980s, Ewart was the only black journalist in that department,” Vernon Clark, who spent 33 years at the paper, messaged Journal-isms.

“And he was a standout and a role model, smart and confident. He, like Acel Moore and many others, always expressed his support for me and the others who were quietly breaking the barriers. Years later, as I was reporting on the 150th anniversary of Philadelphia’s cricket clubs, I knew very little about the sport. I called on Ewart, who had left the paper. He generously shared his expert knowledge of the game. A natural teacher and a college professor, he gave me the information I needed to round out my articles. Ewart showed us, by example, how to be journalists.”

“A native of Trinidad in the West Indies, Mr. Rouse began his journalism career at The Guardian newspaper in Port-of-Spain,” the obituary continued.

“In 1969, he emigrated to the United States and later joined The Associated Press as a reporter covering South Jersey and Washington, D.C. politics.

“In 1974, he joined the Inquirer, where he spent more than 25 years as both a news reporter and editor. Mr. Rouse was passionate about cricket, a sport he grew up playing in the West Indies.

“In the late 1970s, he was one of the founding members of the Echelon Cricket Club in South Jersey. A prolific writer, he also authored a series of cricket-themed, fiction books known as the ‘Sticky Wicket’ trilogy. In addition, Mr. Rouse taught journalism at Temple, Arcadia and Rutgers universities, and enjoyed gardening, collecting music records, outdoor grilling and spending time with his family. . . .

“To honor Mr. Rouse’s wishes, there will be no public services. The immediate family will gather for a private memorial.”

• Briannia Robinson, Afro: Carolyn DuBose dies at 93