Articles Feature

Suspect in Reporter’s Killing Set Free

by richard02509

Alleged Witnesses Are No-Shows in Court
Almaguer Suspended Over Retracted Pelosi Story
Editorial Page Editor: Affirmative Action Is Personal
Facebook Cuts to Hurt Publishers of Color

Short Takes: on-air reporter helps stabbing victim; helping Hispanic community on health; Marcos Ortiz; Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh

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“Until we get justice for Sierra we will not let up. ONCE WE GET JUSTICE (because we will) we will continue to keep her name and purpose alive,” a friend wrote on Twitter. Supporters created the Twitter handle @thesierrajproject. (Credit: Twitter)

Alleged Witnesses Are No-Shows in Court

The accused killer of up-and-coming reporter Sierra Jenkins and two others walked free in Norfolk, Va., this month when two men believed to be witnesses failed to show up for a court hearing. The prosecutor, colleagues and friends are hoping they will honor a second order from the judge and do so on Nov. 30.

“When people don’t want to be found, they don’t want to be found,” Ramin Fatehi, Norfolk commonwealth’s attorney, told Journal-isms by telephone on Tuesday. “I even sent my prosecutors looking” for them, “which we don’t normally do, but they did not show. It’s a complete heartbreaker,” Fatehi said, adding that he hopes the men will do “the right thing.”

Jenkins, an education reporter for The Virginian-Pilot and Daily Press, was one of three people killed in a March 19 shooting outside a popular nightspot in downtown Norfolk. When an editor learned early that Saturday that several people had been shot in downtown Norfolk, he called Jenkins repeatedly to ask her to cover it. But she couldn’t be reached. She had been killed there, days after her 25th birthday.

Police have said the shooting followed an argument over a spilled drink. Jenkins had been at the nightspot with her best friend, according to her family, local news reports said. The restaurant-bar was closing when an argument started outside, and Jenkins was caught in the line of fire as she left. The shooter fled the scene, and it took two months for a suspect to be arrested.

The tragedy resonated with fellow journalists. Dorothy Tucker, president of the National Association of Black Journalists, said in a statement, “The NABJ family is wrapping our arms around Sierra’s family, friends and colleagues. This is a tragic loss of a blossoming reporter with a beautiful spirit who had already begun to make her mark in the industry. We are saddened that such a horrific act ended her life and career too soon.”

Antoine M. Legrande Jr., 24 at the time, was charged with the triple homicide, but has now been released. His lawyer, Eric Korslund, has told Journal-isms that his client “was not there at the time of the shooting.”

At the start of the Nov. 1 hearing, Scott Miles, deputy commonwealth’s attorney, called the names of three witnesses his office had subpoenaed, but only one was in court, Jane Harper reported for the Virginian-Pilot. Fatehi said all three were at the nightspot the night of the shooting.

After the two witnesses failed to come forward when their names were called, District Judge Michael Rosenblum issued show cause orders that will require them to appear in court Nov. 30 to explain why they weren’t there.

“A subpoena is not an invitation, it’s a court order to appear,” Fatehi said after the hearing.

Fatehi said the charges against Legrande could be brought back later if prosecutors are able to gather enough evidence and witnesses, and called on anyone who might have information to come forward.

Meanwhile, the Virginia Press Association and Virginia Press Foundation are funding a Sierra Jenkins Scholarship Fund administered by the Hampton Roads Community Foundation.

“Sierra was a special person and a wonderful journalist,” said Kris Worrell, editor-in-chief of The Pilot and Daily Press. “She was all the things you look for in a journalist: curious, energetic, smart, driven. She loved being an education reporter for her hometown newspaper and she had a way of getting people to talk to her. Maybe because she was so warm and such a good listener. People trusted her.”

Harper also reported, “Gov. Glenn Youngkin and Attorney General Jason Miyares announced a new law enforcement initiative this month that would in part help provide funding for a state Victim Witness Protection Program. The program could help protect those who testify in court from retaliation and also help witnesses with lodging or transportation or provide funds for those who wish to relocate.”

Almaguer Suspended Over Retracted Pelosi Story

“NBC Today show correspondent Miguel Almaguer has been suspended pending an internal investigation after NBC News had to retract his reporting that inflamed right-wing conspiracy theories about the brutal assault on Paul Pelosi, Confider has learned,” Lachlan Cartwright reported Monday for the Daily Beast.

“In an on-air report that went viral soon after it aired Almaguer suggested Nancy Pelosi’s husband was not in danger when cops arrived at their San Francisco home.

“ ‘After a “knock and announce,” the front door was opened by Mr. Pelosi. The 82-year-old did not immediately declare an emergency or [try] to leave his home but instead began walking several feet back into the foyer toward the assailant and away from police,’ Almaguer reported on the morning of November 4. ‘It’s unclear if the 82-year-old was already injured or what his mental state was, say sources.’ ”

“Hours later, the report — which was based on an unnamed source seemingly contradicting the claims of both prosecutors and police — was retracted and video of the segment was scrubbed from NBC’s website. ‘This piece has been removed from publication because it did not meet NBC News reporting standards,’ NBC wrote in a note replacing the article.

“Right-wing media figures immediately took the report and its retraction as proof of a politically motivated cover-up — after a week of grasping at various conspiracy theories to dismiss the assault, which left Pelosi with a cracked skull.

“ ‘We don’t comment on personnel matters,’ NBC News spokesman Stephen Labaton told Confider when quizzed about Almaguer’s suspension. Almaguer did not respond to a request for comment.”

Editorial Page Editor: Affirmative Action Is Personal

“When I started my journalism career more than 30 years ago, I was considered a ‘minority hire,’ ” Marcus Breton (pictured), editorial page editor of the Sacramento Bee, wrote Monday.

“The term ‘minority hire’ is like a code for fraud. It meant you only got your job because you were a racial and ethnic minority, a reality that smacked 23-year-old me like a brick to my face.

“Back then, I had little understanding of how my entry into my chosen profession coincided with efforts to make American newsrooms more reflective of their communities.

“Since 1965, when the Los Angeles Times tried to cover an uprising in the Black community of Watts with a white staff, my industry has been rightly criticized for its hiring practices. Diversity in newsrooms was still bleak when I came along 20 years after Watts.

“My parents were from Mexico, I grew up in an immigrant household, and so it was upon graduating from San Jose State University that my career goals became entangled with the backlash against affirmative action. My experience as a ‘minority hire’ was a microcosm of a broader American cultural war where terms such as ‘affirmative action’ and ‘diversity’ inspired dread and anger. . . .”

Breton also wrote, “There are many strongly held positions about affirmative action, but they often skirt the real reason why people want to kill it: competition for coveted jobs and placement in universities. . . .

“Affirmative action is getting dismantled because its implementation makes enough people feel aggrieved. As a former colleague once said to me, ‘I’m all for affirmative action as long as it doesn’t affect me.’ ”

Breton also wrote, “In 1996, California voters approved Proposition 209, which amended the state constitution to prohibit state institutions from considering race as a factor in college admissions and government hiring.

“Despite the myth of California as a ‘progressive state,’ voters in 2020 rejected affirmative action again. . . .

“It’s the regret of my adult life that my generation has fought so hard to kill affirmative action programs that were working. I only hope to be around long enough to see the death of racial animus that can live like cancer within us if we let it.”

Breton’s bio notes, “Marcos Bretón oversees The Sacramento Bee’s Editorial Board. He’s been a California newspaperman for more than 30 years. He’s a graduate of San Jose State University, a voter for the Baseball Hall of Fame and the proud son of Mexican immigrants.”

Facebook Cuts to Hurt Publishers of Color

“Among the mass layoffs at the company formerly known as Facebook last week are several roles that have served as a bridge between the news industry and the sprawling tech company,” Sarah Scire reported Monday for Nieman Lab.

Facebook’s (later parent company Meta’s) journalism scholarship program gave students more than $1 million over the last five years through the journalist-of-color organizations and NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ Journalists, although the National Association of Hispanic Journalists grew uncomfortable with the program and didn’t mind that the program was quietly expiring and not being renewed.

“The Meta Journalism Project Accelerator’s David Grant, a program manager, and Dorrine Mendoza, who led local news partnerships for the platform, were both laid off,” Scire continued. “Other journalism-adjacent positions eliminated include the head of news partnerships for South East Asia, a program manager for news, two program managers for news integrity, and multiple news communications jobs.”

Nancy Lane, CEO of the Local Media Organization, “which worked closely with the Meta Journalism Project and was chosen to execute a number of the U.S.-based programs,” told Scire “she thought publishers of color, in particular, would be hurt by the changes at Meta. (‘Meta made sure that 50% of their programs were allocated to BIPOC publishers,’ she said. I wasn’t able to confirm this number, though at least some Meta programs list half of their participants as Black-owned news organizations.)”

Short Takes

  • During the COVID-19 pandemic, Tibisay Zea, a bilingual Venezuelan journalist based in Boston, noticed that health misinformation was increasingly circulating within Hispanic communities throughout the United States. Social media platforms were spreading inaccurate news about the virus, the effects of the vaccine, and possible cures, Jorge Rodriguez and Isabella Rolz reported Nov. 9 for Current. Zea received a $10,000 grant from the International Center for Journalists to produce four episodes of Salud, a podcast about underreported health issues in the Hispanic community. “With the participation of Boston’s GBH [branding for public broadcasting’s WGBH], Salud is now expanding and moving to radio as well. The station is contributing production and marketing resources to support eight more episodes of the show. Experts from Harvard Medical School and the Boston Public Health Commission also serve as advisors. . . .”

Racism Still Baked Into the Election Process

November 13, 2022

Democratic Victors Overcame the Obstacles
Fred Hickman, Sports Anchor, Dies at 66
L.A. Times, BuzzFeed Inc, WaPo Lead on Diversity
Maribel Perez Wadsworth Leaving Gannett
People Are More Than What Ails Them

Short Takes: Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists; Amanda Barrett; Judy Woodruff, Amna Nawaz and Geoff Bennett; Jesse J. Holland and “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”; Drake, 21 Savage and Vogue; Robin Washington, Ye and Kyrie Irving; Emma Carew Grovum; Porsha Grant; Twitter’s swift closure of Africa office; Ethiopian guidelines on reporting cease-fire; BBC response on “Focus on Africa” move; arrest of Senegalese journalist; suspension of TV channel in Mali, shuttering of Venezuela radio stations.

Homepage photo of Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes in July 2021 after announcing his candidacy for the U.S. Senate, by Angela Peterson/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

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Democratic Victors Overcame the Obstacles

It takes nothing away from the impressive and historic victories by women and people of color in the midterm elections to note that were it not for racist dog whistles and voter suppression, the wins might have been greater — an inference we can draw from a small but significant number of astute reporters and commentators.

As Adriana Gomez Licon summarized for the Associated Press, “A Massachusetts Democrat is the country’s first openly lesbian candidate to be elected to the office of governor. In Maryland, voters elected the state’s first Black governor. Vermont will finally send a woman to Congress, after being the only state never to have had female representation in the House.”

“Across the country, women, LGBTQ and Black candidates broke barriers Tuesday as part of a new generation of politicians elected to governor’s offices and seats in Congress. . . .”

(Let’s note that Wes Moore, the Maryland governor-elect, comes from a journalism family. See end of this item.)

The Washington Post, whose print edition nearly always leads with national or international news, made Wes Moore’s election in Maryland, part of its circulation area, its banner story. (Credit: Twitter)

One could add that in addition to disproving pundits’ predictions of a “red wave” for Republicans, younger voters and Black men, particularly, helped put Democrats over the top.

But they had to battle scare tactics over crime and immigration, fueled, as some commentators noted, by racism.

LZ Granderson, writing in the Los Angeles Times, took note of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis‘ re-election victory, cementing his status as the leading challenger to Donald Trump for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

“As far as I’m concerned, DeSantis began to prepare his White House bid the day President Donald Trump lost,” Granderson wrote.

“In June 2019, DeSantis had visited Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, on the third anniversary of the mass shooting that left 49 dead. He promised $500,000 for a permanent memorial. He looked at the photos of the victims, many of whom were Latino and/or gay. He wrote: ‘Florida will always remember these precious lives.’

“Now there’s a signature law from this governor that discourages teachers from talking about those precious lives.

“What’s changed?

“Oh, that’s right. Trump lost. DeSantis saw an opportunity for advancement if he tacked to the right. . . .”

Significantly, white women responded to DeSantis and those of like mind, Karen Attiah wrote in the Washington Post.

“If there was ever a time for White women to mobilize at the ballot box, it should have been the year that Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization overturned abortion rights,” Attiah wrote. “I’ve seen and reported on Black women who are fighting for all women’s rights, children’s rights and better education. And yet those favors and efforts are not returned to us. And the polls consistently show that.

“White women’s political behavior, especially in the South, makes it difficult, if not damn near impossible for meaningful change to occur. The racists, misogynists and anti-LGBTQ forces in the GOP have been banking on this for a long time — and they are clearly still reaping the rewards. . . .”

Democrats were jubilant Saturday night when Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (pictured, by Wade Vandervut, Las Vegas Sun),the nation’s first Latina U.S. senator, pulled out a win in Nevada, ensuring Democratic control over the Senate.

But Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, the Black Democratic U.S. Senate candidate in Wisconsin, might have prevailed had he not been the object of racist dog whistles. Barnes was challenging white incumbent Republican Sen. Ron Johnson. Johnson garnered 50.5 percent of the vote to Barnes’ 49.5 percent.

During the campaign, columnist James E. Causey of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel wrote about Johnson’s “Racist ads that have darkened Barnes’ skin and tried to scare voters by claiming the lieutenant governor is soft on crime.“

The Marshall Project’s Jamiles Lartey and Weihua Li evaluated the “crime” issue, a key part of Republican talking points, and concluded, “Murders did increase at a troubling and dramatic rate nationwide in 2020, and have remained elevated, but murder is the least common form of violent crime.

“Overall, violent crime has remained roughly static since 2010, following decades of decline. . . . Public perception doesn’t line up well with reality, and hasn’t for quite some time. . . . “

Republicans fared less well with scare talk about immigration, according to Greg Sargent, writing in the Washington Post.

“House Republicans poured enormous sums into ads depicting the migrant ‘invasion’ in the vilest of terms,” Sargent wrote. “Republicans have long enjoyed a presumption of a major advantage on this issue, but aside from Trump’s 2016 victory, it keeps failing to deliver. The border was central in the 2018 and 2020 elections, and Republicans lost both (though with House pickups in the latter).

“Some will argue that Democrats neutralized immigration this time by keeping some of Trump’s border policies, and it’s true that the party hasn’t made a case for its own immigration vision. Still, GOP confidence that President Biden’s ‘disastrous open border’ would spark major electoral repudiation, giving Republicans space to hyper-radicalize their base around the issue, has proved wrong.

“And if Blake Masters loses in the Arizona Senate race — after openly embracing ‘great replacement theory’ and running ads featuring the most lurid and militarized ‘invasion’ imagery imaginable — that will only add more evidence against the political effectiveness of this GOP strategy.” Masters did in fact lose to incumbent Mark Kelly.

Racist appeals can be made even by candidates of the same ethnicity, as Emil Guillermo noted in his column for the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund.

“Shame on you, Michelle Steel,” Guillermo wrote.

“Make that Michelle Park Steel. That’s her name when the Korean American isn’t hiding behind her GOP operative husband’s surname and wants to show her AAPI-ness.

“Steel is going back to Congress representing California District 45, but she did it by lying and slurring the good name of her Democratic opponent Jay Chen.

“Steel used race twice in diabolical ways against Chen.

“First, she played the victim game by falsely claiming Chen was making fun of her accent. He wasn’t.

“But then as the race tightened in October, Steel doctored ads to make it look like Chen had ties to the Chinese Communist Party and was teaching propaganda in schools.

“That wasn’t a red wave, more a red splash of racist lies.

“Chen, a decorated Navy intelligence officer and a proud Asian American whose grandmother fled China for Taiwan, was being portrayed by Steel as a communist sympathizer.

“He definitely is not.

“But Steel made that her doubly racist, Asian-on-Asian weapon, pandering to her constituents in the Little Saigon part of Southern California’s Orange County. And then by defiling Chen’s good name.

“Steel already had the white conservatives in Orange County. But there’s nothing like a little racism to invoke generational trauma in the Vietnamese community to boot.”

Members of Oklahoma tribes protest Gov. Kevin Stitt at a June 2021 hearing. (Credit: Michael Noble Jr./Tulsa World)

In Oklahoma, the 39 Native American tribes opposed a second term for Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt, himself a Cherokee citizen, who sought reelection after feuding with the tribes for nearly his entire first term. Stitt prevailed, with an unofficial 55.5 percent of the vote.

Most notably, in Georgia, Black candidates were pitted against each other as Republican former athlete Herschel Walker challenged incumbent Rev. Raphael Warnock. An NBC News exit poll showed Warnock receiving 90 percent of the Black vote to 8 percent for Walker.

Since neither won 50 percent of the vote, the two are headed for a runoff, an exercise with a troubling past.

“The history of the December 6 runoff election in Georgia starts back in the 19th century when the perceived threat of newly emancipated (male) slaves actually exercising their right to vote ushered in an increasingly systematic and violent campaign of voter suppression, of which the runoff election is one manifestation,” according to the US Vote Foundation.

The suppression continues. KALW in San Francisco, interviewing Ari Berman of Mother Jones, the go-to journalist on voter suppression, reported, “Last year, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp signed a bill that restricted voting access in more than a dozen ways, including a reduction in the number of drop boxes in metro Atlanta from 97 to 23, new voter-ID requirements for mail-in ballots, a far lower bar for rejecting ballots cast in the wrong precinct, less time to request and return mail ballots, a prohibition on election officials sending mail-in ballot applications to all voters, and a ban on giving voters food or water while they’re waiting in line.

“Georgia voter suppression law is having a clear impact this election cycle, reports Ari Berman. Conservative activists and election deniers have challenged the eligibility of more than 65,000 voters through the early voting period, claiming they no longer live at the correct address. Though 95 percent of the challenges have been dismissed at the county level, they have led to confusion and accusations of voter intimidation; in some cases, voters have showed up at the polls and been told they cannot vote because someone has challenged their eligibility.”

It’s not just Georgia. “According to the Brennan Center for Justice, lawmakers have passed at least 42 restrictive voting laws in 21 states since 2021,” Cheyanne M. Daniels reported Tuesday for the Hill. “Thirty-three of those laws contained at least one restrictive provision that was in effect for this year’s midterms in 20 states. Voter suppression disproportionately affects voters of color.”

The Associated Press sought to find out how the midterms were affected. “There have been no widespread reports of voters being turned away at the polls, and turnout, while down from the last midterm cycle four years ago, appeared robust in Georgia, a state with hotly competitive contests for governor and U.S. Senate,” Christina A. Cassidy and Gary Fields reported Sunday for the AP.

However, they added, “The lack of broad disenfranchisement isn’t necessarily a sign that everyone who wanted to vote could; there’s no good way to tell why certain voters didn’t cast a ballot. . . .”

The NAACP is one group that remains vigilant. Derrick Johnson, NAACP president and CEO, says in a fund-raising appeal, “the fight isn’t over yet. The Georgia Senate race is officially heading to a runoff in December — and we still face the overwhelming obstacle of voter suppression tactics that specifically target our communities to reduce turnout.”

Evan Milligan, lead plaintiff in the racial gerrymandering case Merrill v. Milligan, speaks after his side presented oral arguments before the Supreme Court in October. (Credit:Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)

Another such tactic is redistricting. In June, the Supreme Court reinstated a Republican-drawn congressional map in Louisiana that a federal judge had said diluted the power of Black voters. The court’s three liberal members dissented.

There is some chance that the news media will pay more attention to the racial aspects of the post-election story.

Fox News is where anchor Harris Faulkner, who is Black, reacted to Election Day by tweeting, “What is happening right now? Are Democrats so entrenched that they are okay with horrible crime statistics and victims by the hour here and many other Dem-led cities? Are the high prices not bothering Democrat voters?”

But Fox News and the Associated Press co-sponsored a survey of about 100,000 interviews with registered voters by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago.

“Interesting things happen when Fox News commissions research and publishes the results,“ Erik Wemple wrote Wednesday for the Washington Post. “One question in the survey concerned racism, which 72 percent of respondents said was a very or somewhat serious problem. That makes for a resounding clash of worldviews when one of Fox News’s central themes is downplaying the role of racism in American society. In recent years, Fox News has mounted a sustained attack on critical race theory, a doctrine holding that racism is a deep-seated scourge that lingers in our institutions and laws.

“On Fox News, however, the theory itself is the scourge — especially when it pops up in classrooms.”

Back to Wes Moore. From Short Takes, Sept. 3: “The son of two media people is the odds-on favorite to become the next governor of Maryland. The Washington Post’s Ovetta Wiggins reported Wednesday that Democrat Wes Moore “outraised Dan Cox, his Republican opponent, by roughly 10 to 1, giving Moore a massive financial advantage with 10 weeks before Election Day.” Moore is the son of the late Wes Moore Sr. (pictured), a Washington and Baltimore broadcast journalist who died of a rare disease in 1982 at 32, and Joy Thomas Moore, who runs a consulting business. She is a former freelance writer and field producer in the New York area and served in editorial positions at WMAL-AM radio, the ABC-owned and operated station in Washington.”

Fred Hickman, left, and Nick Charles, co-hosts of CNN’s “Sports Tonight”, at the news desk in 1989.

Fred Hickman, Sports Anchor, Dies at 66

“Fred Hickman, a pioneering sports broadcaster and anchor who helped to launch two major cable networks and influenced and informed a generation of sports journalists and fans, has died,” Chris Isidore and David Close reported Thursday for CNN.

“Hickman, who turned 66 on October 16, died peacefully in hospital after battling liver cancer according to his widow Sheila.

“ ‘A light has gone out,’ Sheila Hickman told CNN.

“Hickman was one of the first anchors on CNN. On June 1, 1980, the network’s first day on the air, he and Nick Charles were the first hosts of ‘Sports Tonight,’ the 11 pm ET sports news and highlights program which competed with ESPN’s ‘SportsCenter,’ often winning the time slot. . . .

“He stayed with CNN and Turner Sports for most of the next 21 years . . .

“In 2001, Hickman moved to the YES Network, the regional sports network that airs Yankees and Brooklyn Nets games, among other programming. He was the first anchor to appear on the network’s initial broadcast on March 19, 2002, and its lead anchor for the network’s first three years. . . .

“After his time at YES, he moved to ESPN in 2004, serving as a host of ‘SportsCenter’ among other [programming] there through 2008. He then moved on to Fox, serving as pre- and post-game host for the Atlanta Braves broadcasts on the Fox Sports South and Sport South Networks, through 2011. . . . “

Over the next four years, the Los Angeles Times’ goal is to have Latinos make up at least one-quarter of the newsroom staff. (Credit: Los Angeles Times)

L.A. Times, BuzzFeed Inc, WaPo Lead on Diversity

A survey of self-reported diversity figures from major media companies finds the Los Angeles Times, BuzzFeed Inc. and the Washington Post coming closest to matching the percentage of white employees with the figure in the general population, Sara Guaglione wrote Monday for Digiday, with NPR, Vice Media Group and Vox Media not far behind. In other companies, whites overindexed.

The population in the U.S. in 2019 was 57 percent white, 20 percent Latino or Hispanic, 12 percent Black, 6 percent Asian, 3 percent two or more races, and 1 percent American Indian and Alaska Native, according to data collected by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Buzz Feed Inc. (51 percent), Los Angeles Times (43 percent) and the Washington Post (55 percent) fell below the 57 percent figure, with NPR at 59 percent, Vice Media Group at 59 percent and Vox Media 60 percent.

Other media companies surveyed were the Bleacher Report, Conde Nast, Gannett, G/O Media, Insider, Hearst, Meredith, The New York Times and USA Today, which is owned by Gannett.

Of the Los Angeles Times, the survey said, “Over the next four years, the company’s goal is to have Latinos make up at least one-quarter of the L.A. Times’ newsroom staff, according to the report. In 2021, 32% of employees at the L.A. Times overall were Hispanic or Latino – while this is up from 29% in 2020, it is still significantly disproportionate to the 49% Hispanic and Latino population in L.A. County, according to 2019 U.S. Census data cited in the report.”

Of course, most newspapers serve more than a single county. The Times claims to be “the largest metropolitan daily newspaper in the country, with more than 40 million unique latimes.com visitors monthly, Sunday print readership of 1.6 million and a combined print and online local weekly audience of 4.4 million.” 

Maribel Perez Wadsworth Leaving Gannett

“After more than 26 years with Gannett – many spent leading the company’s digital transformation and breaking barriers for women of color – the president of Gannett Media announced she will leave the company Dec. 31,” Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy and Bailey Schulz reported Wednesday, updated Friday, for USA Today.

Maribel Perez Wadsworth (pictured, by Sharon Farmer) was named president of Gannett Media in June after serving as president of news for Gannett, the nation’s largest news organization, and publisher of USA Today and the USA Today Network.

“Wadsworth, who is Cuban-American, was the first person of color to serve as publisher for USA TODAY, when she assumed the role in 2018.

“ ‘As a daughter of immigrants, to have such an opportunity to rise to a position of leadership and influence in this industry has been a great blessing,’ Wadsworth said during a Wednesday virtual meeting with staff. But ‘I really do welcome a moment to catch my breath and prioritize my family.’ “

In 2020, Gannett announced a broad initiative to make its workforce as diverse as the country by 2025 and to expand the number of journalists focused on covering issues related to race and identity, social justice and equality.

“ ‘I just don’t believe that we can do this important work to its fullest potential without the benefit of reflecting the communities we serve and the nation at large,’ Wadsworth said then. ‘I always say to my team, “Diversity and inclusion are choices.” To me, this is going to be reflective of that.’ ”

In a September 2021 update, Wadsworth wrote, “Gannett hired or promoted more than a dozen journalists of color to senior leadership roles and top newsroom positions since the 2020 survey was conducted,” among other achievements.

Ramaswamy and Schulz also wrote, “Wadsworth’s resignation follows the company’s reporting of a third-quarter loss on Nov. 3.

“Gannett, the owner of USA TODAY and local news operations in 45 states, posted a net loss of $54.1 million compared with a net income of $14.7 million in the same period a year earlier. A total net loss of $60 million to $70 million is [forecast] for the year.

“The company has been taking various cost-cutting measures as it works toward at least $200 million in annualized cost savings. About 400 employees, or 3% of Gannett’s U.S. workforce, were laid off earlier this year.”

Michael Reed, Gannett CEO and chairman, said Gannett will be restructuring its media organization in the interim.

In the interim, Newsquest President Henry Faure Walker is to oversee the U.S. news operations.

The Resolve Philly organization has a community engagement component. (Credit: Resolve Philly)

People Are More Than What Ails Them

Journalists can better gain the trust of people who have experienced homelessness, those in recovery from substance use disorder, and people with disabilities by describing them as human beings first rather than by stereotypical labels, according to a study from the University of Texas at Austin.

For example, instead of saying “drug abuser,” one can write “a person who struggles with substance abuse,” it said.

“The report is based on responses from people in stigmatized communities who read various news articles,” Victoria Holmes wrote for Editor & Publisher, describing the study from the university’s Center for Media Engagement in the Moody College of Communication. “Respondents then answered questions about how much they trusted the news article and its author, their intentions to engage with the article, and how well it represented their group.”

Caroline Murray, a senior research associate at the school and one of the authors, explained, “It was more about acknowledging that people have multiple identities. There’s not just one that grounds them in this world. And person-centered language is a way to acknowledge that and to bring some complexity to descriptions for people.”

To help journalists update what it calls dehumanizing language with person-centered terms, Resolve Philly is pioneering a community-informed style guide planned for release in early 2023. That organization helped implement the study and describes itself as an “unconventional journalism organization that challenges our industry to be more equitable, collaborative, and based in community voices and solutions.”

Short Takes

  • MSNBC has responded to a letter from Black leaders concerned about its failure to renew its contract with weekend host Tiffany Cross. It told theGrio in a statement that the network’s decision to cancel the program was not unusual, noting that “business decisions” like this happen “all the time,” theGrio reported Monday. “We received a letter signed by several organizations,” the network statement read. “We are proud of our long history celebrating diversity on and off air at MSNBC and throughout the News Group. This is an ongoing effort, and we’ll continue to elevate diverse perspectives and voices during this election season and beyond.” The group had asked for a meeting by Nov. 11.

  • “The Ethiopian Media Authority (EMA) has announced that guidelines are being prepared indicating . . . how the media should report on the AU [African Union]-led permanent cessation of hostilities agreement between the federal government and the Tigray people’s Liberation Front (TPLF) signed in Pretoria, South Africa,” the Addis Standard reported Wednesday. “Mohammed Idris, the Director General of the media authority, told the state daily that one of the issues mentioned in the permanent cessation of hostilities agreement is to refrain from reports that disturb the agreement. He also said that media reports that follow the agreement should be reported with a good perspective and as deserved. . . . “
  • “A Senegalese journalist has been arrested after being accused of spreading information harmful to public security,” Annika Hammerschlag reported Monday for the Voice of America. “The arrest comes after the journalist published articles about rape charges facing main opposition leader Ousmane Sonko. Pape Ale Niang, who runs the news website Dakar Matin, was detained Sunday while changing a car tire in downtown Dakar, according to local reports. Niang is an outspoken journalist known for his investigations into abuses of power. . . . Journalist arrests in Senegal are rare.”

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