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Update: Alexi McCammond Not Returning to Biden Beat

by richard05935

February 14, 2021, update

In light of White House press aide TJ Ducklo’s resignation Saturday, Journal-isms asked Axios Sunday whether its reporter Alexi McCammond, romantically involved with Ducklo, would be returning to the White House beat.

No, said Axios spokesperson Yolanda Taylor Brignoni.

“Our current statement remains the same (see below), and we are declining further comment,” Brignoni messaged.

Brignoni repeated the original statement: “Alexi disclosed her relationship with TJ to her editors in November and asked to be taken off of the Biden beat. We reassigned her to cover progressives in Congress, the progressive movement, and Vice President Kamala Harris. Alexi is a valued member of the Axios team, and we stand behind her and her coverage.”

Politico’s editor said on CNN’s “Reliable Sources,” “so many women including myself have these types of stories to tell.” (video)

Meanwhile, Politico Editor Carrie Budoff Brown said Sunday that the sexist behavior acknowledged by Ducklo is “all too familiar” to female reporters.

She told CNN “Reliable Sources” host Brian Stelter, “Brian, we have seen — and I think what was so fascinating on Friday when this became more widely known, the outpouring from my female journalists who have said this is all too familiar, and to take this kind of pushback, to take this kind of, frankly, you know . . . abuse, whether it’s on Twitter or in one-on- one conversations with sources, this happens way too often.

“And if there is one silver lining out of this, it’s that it’s widely known that this happens and also that it’s not acceptable. And I will certainly hold that ground as the editor of this publication covering people in power.

“And I think what we saw as Kaitlan Collins showed and other female journalists, this press corps covering the White House is heavily female. My own White House team is predominantly female. And, yet, so many women including myself have these types of stories to tell.

“We often have had to take it. Times have changed. That’s not acceptable.”

Update: White House Press Aide Resigns

February 13, 2021, update

White House Press Aide Suspended in Fallout From Affair

Said ‘I Will Destroy You’ in Attempt to Kill Story

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TJ Ducklo eventually sent an email saying he was ‘sorry he lost his cool,’ but didn’t apologize for the threats or inappropriate language, the Daily Beast reported.

Said ‘I Will Destroy You’ in Attempt to Kill Story

“White House deputy press secretary TJ Ducklo attempted to kill a Politico story about his romantic relationship with Axios political reporter Alexi McCammond, who had covered Joe Biden’s presidential campaign.

“According to a Vanity Fair report, Ducklo threatened Politico reporter Tara Palmeri (pictured) during a heated phone call, telling her ‘I will destroy you’ in an effort to intimidate her from running the story,” Justin Baragona reported Friday for the Daily Beast.

“Following the Vanity Fair story, White House press secretary Jen Psaki announced Ducklo had been placed on a one-week suspension and ‘will no longer be assigned to work with any reporters at Politico.’ (video)

“Ducklo also reportedly made derogatory and misogynistic comments during the off-the-record call, telling Palmeri that she was only reporting on his relationship because she was ‘jealous’ that another man had ‘wanted to fuck’ McCammond ‘and not you.’

“The call prompted conversations between the White House and Politico in January in which White House officials acknowledged Ducklo’s behavior was inappropriate but also accused Palmeri of ‘breaking an off-the-record agreement.’ Ducklo eventually sent Palmeri an email saying he was ‘sorry he lost his cool,’ but didn’t apologize for the threats or inappropriate language. . . .”

Alexi McCammond told People magazine, “When TJ was diagnosed … I had a sense then how much he meant to me and I’m just grateful that I get to be there for him now every step of the way as his partner.” She was reassigned from covering the Biden campaign to covering progressive lawmakers in Congress and progressives across the U.S.. as well as Vice President Kamala Harris.

Caleb Ecarma had written in Vanity Fair:

“The confrontation began on Inauguration Day, January 20, after Palmeri, a coauthor of Politico’s Playbook, contacted McCammond for comment while one of her male colleagues left a message for Ducklo, according to the sources.

“Ducklo subsequently called a Playbook editor to object to the story, but was told to call the Playbook reporters with his concerns. But instead of calling the male reporter who initially contacted him, Ducklo tried to intimidate Palmeri by phone in an effort to kill the story. ‘I will destroy you,’ Ducklo told her, according to . . . sources, adding that he would ruin her reputation if she published it.”

On Twitter, some found fault with the White House handling of the incident, while others said that perhaps Ducklo deserved a break because he has stage 4 cancer. Still others raised racial, gender, or journalistic concerns.

David Folkenflik, NPR media reporter, tweeted, “The WH has known about this for 2+ weeks

“Got ahead of Politico reporting w soft profile in People (a publication Biden team gave access to during campaign)

“Actions only known to have been taken after VF broke details of Ducklo’s threat & behavior”

Maggie Haberman, who covered Donald Trump in the White House for The New York Times, tweeted about “the main issue here. It’s not just the threat, which is not unique. It’s the misogyny, which is disgusting.”

Another, writing under the name Jaja Dingdong, responded, “Where was this energy when Trump verbally abused female reporters, especially Black female reporters, like April [Ryan] & Yamiche [Alcindor]? As well as spending 5 years calling the media ‘the enemy of the people’, he also went after specific journalists, usually women, minorities or foreigners.”

In Washingtonian magazine, Andrew Beaujon wrote of “a bigger truth: Press officers are not your friend. That goes for press officers who behave impeccably, too.

“Even if Psaki’s team were unerringly great at their jobs, overwhelmingly good for the country, and nothing but noble in their public service, even if they are a welcome break from the mendacity and hostility of their predecessors, even if they were to do stuff that could merit the love and affection of 99 percent of the country, reporters must always, always, be part of the other 1 percent.”


Change of Beats Amid White House Romance

Bosses Oblige Axios Reporter Alexi McCammond
Cori Murray Named Lead Editor at Essence
Pedro Gomez, Beloved Baseball Writer, Dies at 58
The Atlantic Devotes Issue to ‘Omitted’ Blacks
Pre-Game, James Brown Blasts NFL on Hiring
Egyptian Freed After 4 Years Without Trial

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Feb. 10, 2021

T.J. Ducklo and Alexi McCammond (Courtesy Alexi McCammond via People)

Bosses Oblige Axios Reporter Alexi McCammond

“It is — forgive the cliché — a tale as old as tales themselves: Girl meets boy, boy and girl decide to have personal-not-professional drinks the following year. They date (pandemic-safe, of course). Parents get introduced. A romance blossoms,” Adam Carlson wrote Monday for People magazine.

In this case, the “girl” is Alexi McCammond, 27, a political reporter for Axios, a former National Association of Black Journalists Emerging Journalist of the Year and a rising star, and the “boy” is TJ Ducklo, 32, a White House deputy press secretary who was diagnosed in December 2019 with stage-four lung cancer.

“An Axios spokeswoman says McCammond, who joined the site in 2017, told her editors about the relationship in November ‘and asked to be taken off of the Biden beat.’ She was reassigned to covering progressive lawmakers in Congress and progressives across the U.S. as well as Vice President Kamala Harris, the spokeswoman says,” Carlson wrote.

” ‘Switching beats was an easy decision thanks to my Axios [family], who had my back in November and know just how lovely it is to find someone who cares deeply about you,’ McCammond says.

“Ducklo likewise ‘disclosed the relationship to his bosses at the very beginning of the relationship,’ says a White House source who called him ‘an incredibly talented and valued member of the team.’ “

In fact, Deputy Communications Director Kate Berner tweeted Monday night, “Personally grateful that @TDucklo and ⁦@alexi⁩ are dating because 1) she calls him on his sh*t and 2) TJ no longer facetimes me at literally all hours.”

Carlson continued in People, “They know news of their relationship will stir disapproval over the optics and the timing, at least. The way the press covers politicians in Washington, D.C., is endlessly scrutinized — too lax or too harsh, too familiar, too fond.

“McCammond, a rising star on her beat, has talked about the added dynamic of being a Black woman in an industry not historically welcoming to either. And, as a group, female reporters have long faced the misogynistic accusation they become inappropriately involved with male sources.

” ‘These past few years have shown how easy it is for some to make quick and misguided [judgments] of those in the public eye. As a young, Black woman in this industry, I’ve felt this firsthand several times,’ McCammond says. ‘TJ and I knew full well the unfair criticism our relationship might face, but knew that we weren’t going to let bullies get in the way of our own happiness.’

“She and Ducklo say their professional and personal lives don’t mix; and their relationship wasn’t exactly hidden. “It was the worst-kept secret in Washington,” says another White House aide, who like others here was quick to positively comment on the coupling.

“Ducklo and McCammond also don’t live together . . .”

As Jack Shafer noted in Politico in 2018, “Merging business and romance has a long journalistic history — see these overviews on the topic in the [now defunct] American Journalism Review and the Los Angeles Times.”

It was an affair between Laura Foreman, a New York Times reporter, and Henry J. “Buddy” Cianfrani, a Pennsylvania state senator, that prompted A.M. Rosenthal, executive editor of the Times, to utter his famous line: “It’s OK to fuck the elephants — just don’t cover the circus.”

McCammond, who is also an NBC/MSNBC contributor, came to the attention of many on Feb 3, 2019, when she and Jonathan Swan broke the story that “A White House source has leaked nearly every day of President Trump’s private schedule for the past three months. . . .The schedules, which cover nearly every working day since the midterms, show that Trump has spent around 60% of his scheduled time over the past 3 months in unstructured ‘Executive Time.'”

Later in the year, McCammond tweeted an elaboration about being “a young, Black woman in this industry”: “In the past 24 hours I’ve been called a n**ger too many times to count; I’ve been told to go kill myself; told that I should die because everyone hates me; and threatened by countless men who say they’d love to hit me. If you think this is warranted, you’re part of the problem.”

That followed a social media storm in which McCammond said, “Just FYI Charles Barkley told me tonight “I don’t hit women but if I did I would hit you,” and then when I objected to that he told me I ‘couldn’t take a joke.’

Barkley apologized, but before McCammond could receive much sympathy, some of her old tweets insensitive to Asian Americans surfaced. She deleted them, but NABJ was asked to take back her 2019 Emerging Journalist of the Year, honor. NABJ replied that the tweets took place outside of the time period McCammond was being cited for.

Essence’s latest issue, led by Cori Murray.

Cori Murray Named Lead Editor at Essence

Cori Murray (pictured), a former entertainment editor at Essence and co-host of Essence’s “Yes, Girl” podcast, has been named lead editor of the magazine, despite carrying the title of deputy editor, Essence announced Tuesday.

“In this role, she will lead the brand’s editorial content team across print and digital, as well as magazine operations. Murray led the team behind the Jan/Feb 2021 Rihanna + Lorna Simpson cover, and most recently served as Entertainment and Talent Director, curating and editing the celebrity and culture content for ESSENCE’s editorial and digital platforms.”

Murray was also in this column in 2012, after Beyoncé won a writing award from the New York Association of Black Journalists for “Eat, Play, Love,” a first-person story about how she was reenergized after taking a nine-month hiatus from show business. Murray told the Daily News in New York then, “She’s a real writer. We had to edit her, but everyone gets edited except Toni Morrison.”

Murray’s appointment was part of what the company called updates to its executive leadership team.

Other appointments include Caroline Wanga, chief executive officer, who was formerly interim CEO; Latraviette D. Smith-Wilson, chief strategy and engagement officer, a newly created role; Avani Patel, chief operating officer, previously chief of staff and vice president in the office of the CEO; Stephanie Hodges-Dunivan (aka NöNe), vice president, experiential, branded content and video, formerly producer.

The reorganization follows a dustup last September after an anonymous essay accused company leaders of bullying and harassment. Two law firms interviewed current and former employees and found no evidence of an abusive work culture.

Wanga said then, “With the conclusion of the reviews, we are now fully focused on renewed efforts to
successfully drive the organization forward as we also navigate and address the unforeseeable and mounting losses brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact of this time.

“We are facing devastating headwinds that have negatively impacted current and projected client commitments and our business, and we must now begin that rebuilding process as well. With our forward strategy, ESSENCE will accelerate the culture and infrastructure work we began two years ago on our journey to transform this 50-year old business into a more efficient and impactful one.”

On Sept. 30, Essence said it had been forced to furlough staff due to revenue losses as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, which led the publication to cancel major events such as the ESSENCE Festival of Culture, as Maxwell Tani reported then for the Daily Beast.

Tributes to Pedro Gomez, son of Cuban refugees, poured in from across journalism and professional sports,

Pedro Gomez, Beloved Baseball Writer, Dies at 58

Pedro Gomez, a mainstay of ESPN’s coverage of Major League Baseball for much of the past two decades who went from the newspaper sports section to millions of television screens, died at his home in Phoenix on Sunday, ESPN and his family said,” Neil Vigdor reported Monday for the New York Times. He was 58.

“No cause of death was given by the network, which announced Mr. Gomez’s death late on Sunday night.”

Rebecca Aguilar, president-elect of the Society of Professional Journalists, told Journal-isms, “”He was great journalist who got my attention when often he would interview Latino MLB baseball players in Spanish and translate what they said in English for TV viewers. He made sure their stories were told even though their English was limited.”

Vigdor continued, “Tributes to Mr. Gomez, a son of Cuban refugees, poured in from across journalism and professional sports, including from several baseball franchises. Mr. Gomez’s son Rio Gomez plays for the Salem Red Sox, a minor league affiliate of the Boston Red Sox. . . .”

ESPN wrote, “A member of the Baseball Writers Association of America and a voting member for the Baseball Hall of Fame, Gomez came to ESPN from the Arizona Republic where he had served as a sports columnist and national baseball writer since 1997. Prior to that, he was the Oakland Athletics’ beat writer for the San Jose Mercury News and then the Sacramento Bee. . . .”

“These stories, and other stories being published on our website, are part of an ambitious, never-ending effort to fulfill The Atlantic’s mission: to illuminate the American idea, and to help build, through our writing, a more perfect union,” said Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg.”

The Atlantic Devotes Issue to ‘Omitted’ Blacks

“The Atlantic on Tuesday will launch a new series aimed at exploring the legacy and experiences of Black Americans who have been omitted from history books,” Oliver Darcy reported Monday for CNN’s “Reliable Sources” newsletter.

“The initiative, called ‘Inheritance,’ will focus on ‘obscured events’ to ‘tell a full, complex story of Black America, which is foundational to the story of America itself,’ a spox for the mag told me. The first chapter will publish this week and begin with a dedicated March issue that includes writing from Vann R. Newkirk II, Anna Deavere Smith, Clint Smith, Jemele Hill, Anna Holmes, and Danielle Allen…”

Jeffrey Goldberg, editor in chief of The Atlantic, writes, “We open this issue with a legend (and an Atlantic contributing writer), Anna Deavere Smith, who recounts her own coming to consciousness on a sheltered, mostly white college campus in the 1960s.

“Danielle Allen, the James Bryant Conant University Professor at Harvard and a regular Atlantic contributor, revives the memory of one of the nation’s earliest and most dogged abolitionists (Allen’s article will be published on February 10).

“Clint Smith, one of our newest staff writers, and the author of a forth­coming book, How the Word Is Passed, offers a close study of the ways in which America reckons with slavery, and guides us through the archives of a New Deal–era initiative focused on preserving the memories of the formerly enslaved.

“And our senior editor Vann R. Newkirk II writes movingly about the history of the Voting Rights Act through the prism of his mother’s own experience of American democracy (Newkirk’s essay will be published on February 11). These stories, and other stories being published on our website, are part of an ambitious, never-ending effort to fulfill The Atlantic’s mission: to illuminate the American idea, and to help build, through our writing, a more perfect union. . . .”

Pre-Game, James Brown Blasts NFL on Hiring

“James Brown didn’t hold back when speaking about NFL owners’ hiring practices before Super Bowl 55,” Billy Heyen wrote Sunday for The Sporting News.

“When it comes to the hiring of Black head coaches, team and league executives and Black ownership, frankly, the track record is pitiful,” said Brown, the host of the CBS pregame show.

“Brown brought the statistics to back up his point. According to Brown:

  • “Two of the last 20 NFL head coaches hired have been Black
  • “There’s one Black team president, and he’s the first
  • “There are no Black owners

“All of that, Brown points out, despite nearly half of the inducted players in the Hall of Fame being Black. Two of the 26 coaches in the Hall of Fame are Black, and none of the six enshrined general managers are Black. . . .”

(Credit: Al Jazeera)

Egyptian Freed After 4 Years Without Trial

“Egyptian authorities have released Al Jazeera journalist Mahmoud Hussein, who spent over four years in prison without trial on charges of ‘publishing false information and belonging to a banned group,’ “Democracy Now!” reported Monday.

“After his arrest, Egypt banned Al Jazeera’s website and other news outlets critical of authoritarian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. Reporters Without Borders describes Egypt as one of the world’s biggest jailers of journalists, with widespread arbitrary detentions, mass trials and even life imprisonment for some reporters.

Hussein received the 2020 Percy Qoboza award, given to a foreign journalist from the National Association of Black Journalists.

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Richard Prince’s Journal-isms originates from Washington. It began in print before most of us knew what the internet was, and it would like to be referred to as a “column.” Any views expressed in the column are those of the person or organization quoted and not those of any other entity. Send tips, comments and concerns to Richard Prince at journal-isms+owner@groups.io

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