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Sharpton, Rights Leaders to Face Facebook

Fear Social Media Giant Aids Voter Suppression

How Hundreds Die in U.S. Marshals’ Custody

Deadspin Staff Quits After ‘Sports Only’ Directive

Story on Ogletree Illness ‘an Absolute Must-Read’

AP Adds Reports From Indian Country Today

Public Wants Better Coverage of Addiction, K-12

Journalists Make Essence’s ‘Woke 100’ List

Pittsburgh Black Reporters Say Racism Takes Toll

Cummings Praised as Champion of Transparency

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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg poses for a photo with engineers at a startup called Andela in Lagos, Nigeria, in September 2016. Facebook said Wednesday it uncovered a covert Russian influence campaign targeting the domestic politics of eight African countries. (Courtesy Facebook)

Fear Social Media Giant Aids Voter Suppression

Facebook Inc. Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg will meet with civil rights leaders including Al Sharpton next week in California amid concerns about the company’s policy of letting politicians lie on its platform,” Ben Brody and Naomi Nix reported Thursday for Bloomberg.

“ ‘I have deep concerns that this policy is a misinformation vehicle that could aid voter suppression and voter misinformation efforts, and it should be stopped immediately,’ the long-time civil rights activist said. . . . ”

Meanwhile, “Facebook said on Wednesday it had suspended three networks of Russian accounts that attempted to interfere in the domestic politics of eight African countries, and were tied to a Russian businessman accused of meddling in past U.S. elections,” Jack Stubbs and Joseph Menn reported for Reuters.

“The campaigns used almost 200 fake and compromised accounts to target people in Madagascar, Central African Republic, Mozambique, Democratic Republic of Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Cameroon, Sudan and Libya, Facebook said. Between them, the accounts amassed more than 1 million followers. . . .”

Sharpton said in a statement, “Last week, I sent a letter to Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, requesting a face-to-face meeting with me and other national civil rights leaders to discuss Facebook’s policy to decline to fact-check the accuracy of politicians’ content on Facebook. I have deep concerns that this policy is a misinformation vehicle that could aid voter suppression and voter misinformation efforts, and it should be stopped immediately.

“I received a letter back from Mr. Zuckerberg agreeing [to] my request and I will meet with him early next week in California to press our concerns. I expect to be joined in the meeting by Marc Morial of the National Urban League, Derrick Johnson of the NAACP, Sherrilyn Ifill of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, Vanita Gupta of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, and Kristen Clarke of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under the Law, among others.

“The fact that Twitter and even some Facebook employees have taken strong stands on this issue only furthers the need for Mr. Zuckerberg to reconsider his position. In an era of voter suppression, we must press with all we have to protect our civil rights and voting rights. This is not an issue of free speech; this is an issue of voter misinformation and voter suppression.”

Russian government-backed online interference in the 2016 election aggressively targeted African Americans more than any other group, according to a major report from the Senate Intelligence Committee, as Grace Panetta reported Oct. 8 for Business Insider.

“Research from the Senate Intel Committee and other investigations, including special counsel Robert Mueller’s massive 400-page report into Russian interference in the 2016 election, have previously found extensive evidence that Russia’s interference efforts stoked racial tensions in an effort to depress African-American voter turnout,” Panetta wrote.

Donie O’Sullivan added Oct. 24 for CNN Business, “Mark Zuckerberg last week invoked Black Lives Matter in explaining why he believes it’s so important to allow free expression on Facebook. But real black activists remember how Facebook (FB) allowed its platforms to be used to take advantage of BLM and African Americans, standing by as Russian trolls created fake pages and events and allowing for the biggest BLM page on the site to be a scam run out of Australia. They don’t trust Facebook to stop that from happening again and so they are taking the fight into their own hands. . . .”

Derrick Johnson, president and CEO of the NAACP, told the Journal-isms Roundtable in Washington last month the group had been in conversation with Internet platform providers about Russian disinformation targeting African Americans and began a largely unsuccessful “log-off Facebook” campaign (Facebook) last year.

How Hundreds Die in U.S. Marshals’ Custody

In 2017, Isac Garcia-Wislar was living in Gardendale, Texas[,] on a plot of land he’d bought to live on with his children and grandchildren,” Seth Freed Wessler and Alissa Escarce reported Oct. 23 for Latino USA. “One spring morning, he was riding in his cousin’s car when they were pulled over for speeding.

“Garcia-Wislar, a 51-year-old undocumented immigrant from Mexico, was referred to Border Patrol and charged with illegal reentry. He had been deported once before to Mexico, 15 years earlier, which meant that he could be charged with a federal felony.

Isac Garcia

“As he waited to be sentenced, Garcia-Wislar became one of about 60,000 people detained each day by the U.S. Marshals Service, an arm of the Department of Justice responsible for holding people charged with federal crimes until they’re sentenced or set free.

“But the Marshals don’t operate their own detention centers. Instead, they have agreements to pay more than 1,000 local jails around the country to hold detainees for them.

“Garcia-Wislar was placed in a county jail in West Texas. A few months into his stay, he told the nurse he was having intense pain in his back and shoulder, and was having a hard time breathing.

“Over the next few days, Garcia-Wislar’s pain became unbearable, but the jail stalled on getting him serious medical care. By the time he was sent to the hospital, Garcia-Wislar could barely hold his body up. He died three days later of illnesses doctors say could likely have been treated if not for the delays in care.

“In a yearlong investigation with Mother Jones and Type Investigations, Latino USA brings you a first-ever look into the sprawling detention system run by the U.S. Marshals. The agency’s detention population has ballooned since the Trump Administration started criminally prosecuting nearly everyone caught crossing the border without papers.

“But the Marshals Service has repeatedly failed to make sure its detainees are held in safe conditions — even after hundreds of people have died on its watch. . . .”

Deadspin Staff Quits After ‘Sports Only’ Directive

The entire staff of around 20 writers and editors at Deadspin have announced their resignations or otherwise left the publication in recent days, leaving the future of the popular sports website in question and signaling the end, at least in its current form, of a brash, iconoclastic and sometimes controversial blog that grew into one of the most influential voices in sports media,” Ben Strauss reported Friday for the Washington Post.

“The announcements, which started Wednesday and continued into Friday, arrived days after a new directive to publish only sports and sports-adjacent content was issued by chief executive Jim Spanfeller and editorial director Paul Maidment of G/O Media, Deadspin’s parent company. Interim editor in chief Barry Petchesky was fired Tuesday, and subsequently the entire staff quit, a stunning development that gutted one of the landmark online sports publications.

“On Friday, the accomplished Washington-based writer Dave McKenna confirmed he had quit, leaving the site without any of its editorial staff, according to its former editor. A spokesman for G/O Media said Deadspin intends to hire a new team of writers. . . .”

Pam and Charles Ogletree walked together at a park in Cambridge, Mass. Amid their losses, they hang on to this. (Credit: Suzanne Kreiter/Boston Globe)

Story on Ogletree Illness ‘an Absolute Must-Read’

This Sunday Boston Globe story was an absolute must-read: ‘As his Alzheimer’s looms, Charles and Pam Ogletree take one last walk in love,’ Brian Stelter reported Wednesday for his “Reliable Sources” newsletter. “And it remains No. 1 on the Globe’s website two days later. . . .”

“The Globe is out with a followup about how Jenna Russell reported and wrote the sensitive story with care and compassion. Russell says Pam ‘was reserved at first, but she made time for me, in a series of meetings spanning about six weeks this fall, first with her alone and later including Charles. As we established a foundation of trust, our conversations quickly became very deep and rewarding. Her honesty and directness were stunning. I found myself contemplating marriage and commitment in ways I never had before.’ I did too, while reading the story. . . .”

The Indian Country Today newsroom at the Iowa presidential forum in September. (Courtesy Indian Country Today)

AP Adds Reports From Indian Country Today

“On October 1, an Associated Press headline read, ‘Indigenous filmmaker strikes playful tone with showcase ad. The story — one of the 2,000 the AP’s members could select from the wire service that day — was the first the AP picked up from Indian Country Today, the nation’s leading outlet for news from Native America,” Valerie Vande Panne reported Monday for Columbia Journalism Review.

“If the old adage — that good journalism is the first draft of history — is true, then October 1, 2019, marked the first time in mainstream US media that history was written by a Native publication about Indian Country. (Indian Country is the common and general reference to communities of Native Americans and all tribal governments in the United States.)

“ ‘In the whole history of media this hasn’t happened before,’ says Aliyah Chavez, Kewa Pueblo, the author of the story the AP picked up. ‘It’s super exciting.’ . . .”

In a separate development, the Native American Journalists Association announced Wednesday a partnership with Mathison, a Los Angeles firm “committed to bridging the gap between underrepresented communities and employers committed to equity and inclusion,” to expand job opportunities for NAJA members. “With support from the Knight Foundation, the project aims to increase career opportunities for underserved communities while helping employers build a more inclusive hiring process. . . .

“This project supports NAJA’s long term strategic goal of increasing the number of Indigenous journalists working in mainstream newsrooms from 0.2 to 2 percent within the next 10 years. . . .”

Public Wants Better Coverage of Addiction, K-12

African Americans have lower trust in most local institutions — especially local law enforcement and businesses — but they have slightly more confidence in local news than white and Hispanic respondents do,” the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation reported Tuesday.

“Still, less than half of African Americans express confidence in local news (44%). . . .”

The survey, conducted with the Gallup Organization, also found, “Almost twice as many respondents are dissatisfied with the amount — rather than quality —  of coverage of drug addiction, the local environment and K-12 education in their local area. Conversely, majorities of those unhappy with coverage of weather, politics, sports and crime are dissatisfied with the quality of the coverage of these topics, as opposed to the amount of coverage.

“Insufficient attention to drug addiction, the local environment and education may point to a mismatch between the importance Americans attach to these issues and the amount of coverage local media give them. Public dissatisfaction with the quality of local political coverage is consistent with Americans’ frustration with the job that local news is doing at holding local leaders accountable for their actions. . . .”

Ava DuVernay, bottom, left, and Gayle King, top, right, are among those on the Essence “Woke 100” list. Family members Willow Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith and Adrienne Banfield-Norris, who have a talk show on Facebook, complete the bottom row. (Credit: Essence)

Journalists Make Essence’s ‘Woke 100’ List

Essence Magazine has created a 2019 “Woke 100” list that includes at least 10 current or former journalists or communicators “who exemplify the true meaning of being change agents and power players and are inspiring communities around the world,” the magazine announced Monday.

The emailed news release also said, “ESSENCE’s entire ‘Woke Issue’ is dedicated to stories reflecting activism, political reform, human rights and social justice. Articles include Free at Last, which features interviews with Cyntoia Brown and Alice Marie Johnson — both released from prison after public outcry and now on a mission to reform the criminal justice system.

“In addition, ESSENCE’s cover story Enchanting features Queen & Slim star Jodie Turner-Smith — who delivers a powerful performance in a timely tale about the community’s fraught interaction with law enforcement. . . .”

In a sign of the times, the list is liberally inclusive of transgender people.

Among the 94 people listed:

Pittsburgh Black Reporters Say Racism Takes Toll

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania has a reputation as one of the most livable cities in the nation,” Letrell Deshan Crittenden, program director and assistant professor of communication at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, wrote Oct. 25 for Columbia Journalism Review. “This piece, however, argues that reporters of color working within the Pittsburgh media ecosystem have a much lesser quality of life both inside and outside of the newsroom.”

Letrell Deshan Crittenden

In a piece originating at Columbia’s Tow Center for Digital Journalism, Crittenden continued, “Previous studies related to diversity and inclusion within Pittsburgh’s media ecosystem highlighted two issues.

“First, Pittsburgh news media over-represents African Americans as a criminals. Additionally, newsrooms in the area are woefully underrepresented in terms of diversity.

“Based on a series of 20 interviews with journalists who are currently or have worked within the Pittsburgh news media — including 16 who identify as individuals of color — this goes beyond numbers, and gains insights on issues of diversity and inclusion directly from newsroom workers, and documents a number of concerns journalists of color have about their working conditions within the Pittsburgh media ecosystem. . . .”

Crittenden also wrote, “If newsrooms truly seek to increase diversity within newsrooms, and improve coverage of communities of color, newsrooms must do more than simply hire more people of color. They must find ways to make journalists of color feel they can thrive within their newsroom environments, and directly challenge institutional systems of racism within their organizations.

“Nevertheless, diversity and inclusion efforts could still remain a challenge, if the larger community remains unwelcoming to people of color. For that reason, developing ways to locate and train individuals of color with roots within the Pittsburgh region may be the best way to ensure journalists of color are retained, and that news about communities of color remains a focus point within the larger news media ecosystem. . . .”


Rep. Elijah E. Cummings accepts the 2019 Sunshine in Government Award. (Credit: C-SPAN)

Cummings Praised as Champion of Transparency

News Media for Open Government, an alliance of press organisations of which RTDNA is a member, joins those who say goodbye to Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-MD-7) today, while remembering the popular Maryland leader and his tireless efforts to improve government transparency,” the alliance said Oct. 25 via the Radio Television Digital News Association.

Members of the alliance include the Associated Press, Association of Alternative Newsmedia, National Association of Broadcasters, National Newspaper Association, News Leaders Association, News Media Alliance, Online News Association, RTDNA, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and Society of Professional Journalists.

“Representative Cummings, Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, was presented NMOG’s 2019 Sunshine in Government Award in February for his unwavering efforts in pushing to strengthen the Freedom of Information Act in 2016,” the coalition continued. “He worked on a bipartisan and bicameral basis to write a clear presumption of openness into the law. He and his staff pushed agencies to do all they could to make FOIA work better. He also spent countless hours pushing back on overbroad and unnecessary proposals that would weaken FOIA.” Cummings died at 68 on Oct. 17.

John Conyers (Credit: Jason Miccolo Johnson)

Ibram X. Kendi, director of the Antiracist Research and Policy Center at American University and author of the new book “How to Be an Antiracist,” offered another perspective that contemplated Cummings’ age.

My father, God willing, will turn 72 in May, which is the average life span for black men in the United States,” Kendi wrote Oct. 24 in the Atlantic. “Black men have the nation’s lowest life expectancy, four years less than white men, seven years less than black women, nine years less than white women.

“It was no aberration for Cummings to die at 68 after a series of health problems. It was no hyperbole when, 25 years ago, a Brooklyn rapper nicknamed the Notorious B.I.G. titled his debut studio album Ready to Die. It is also no accident that black women are three to four times more likely to die during pregnancy than white women. Despite the mortality gap narrowing in recent decades, black life remains unexpected. . . .”

Kendi added, “mortality statistics on Asian and Native Americans are less available, and less accurate. But that does not take away from the need to recognize different forms of Latino deprivation, of Native deprivation, of Asian deprivation, and increasingly white deprivation, which is to say what white people are depriving themselves of by means of their own racism. . . .”

Cummings’ death was followed 10 days later by that of former Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., at 90.

He was a man who took great risk on the issues and on the people he fought for, to upend the status quo for what he believed,” columnist Bankole Thompson wrote Oct. 27 in the Detroit News.

“He doggedly championed civil and human rights from 1965, when he was first elected to Congress, up to the final moments of a congressional career that abruptly ended in 2017 after he faced mounting allegations of sexual harassment. . . .

“Conyers’ body of work is a testament to his unrelenting commitment to fight for those who are disenfranchised in American society. Over the decades, he authored key legislation that had an indelible impact on our national life.

“He also introduced H.R. 40, the bill to establish a commission to study the impact of the cruel institution of slavery. Known as the reparations bill, H.R. 40, first introduced in 1989, continues to linger in the House Judiciary Committee, which Conyers himself once led as its first African American chairman. . . .”

Conyers addressed the National Association of Black Journalists when it met in Detroit in 1992.

“Mr. Conyers exhorted the journalists, many of whom have had to struggle to get their jobs, ‘not to fear endangering your careers or getting yourselves fired,’Doron P. Levin reported then for the New York Times.

“Amplifying his remarks later, Mr. Conyers, who is black, said, ‘We need activists in journalism’ who will ‘challenge managerial practices.’ . . .”

Committee to Protect Journalists

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Diablo Valley College students protest incidents of racism. (Credit: Ethan Anderson)

(Credit: WLMT-TV) (video)

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