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Half of Windfall Helps Communities of Color
Report for America Deploys 42% of Color
Reporter on Ga. Story Hears Shots as He Files
Writer Jill Nelson Outraged After Arrest
Hispanics Lead in Job Losses Due to Virus
Jenn White Named Host of NPR’s ‘1A’
Copy Editors Rethink ‘Disabled,’ ‘the Homeless’
Critics of ‘1619 Project’ Jeer Its Pulitzer
Short Takes

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As the Facebook Journalism Project announced its nearly $16 million in grants, the Free Speech Center at Middle Tennessee State University encouraged Americans “to reflect on the valuable role a free press plays in our daily lives, and particularly during a national crisis.” (Credit: Middle Tennessee State University)

Half of Windfall Helps Communities of Color

Facebook announced Thursday that more than 200 news organizations would receive nearly $16 million in grants through the Facebook Journalism Project’s relief fund for local news. “Half are published by or for communities of color,” the organization said.

“These grants stem from $25 million in local news relief funding announced in March as part of Facebook’s $100 million global investment in news.”

Facebook, Google and Craigslist have been cited as underminers of traditional media by draining advertising dollars from them. Each company or its founder has since launched journalism initiatives.

The receiving news outlets from Facebook range from large-city operations such as the Atlanta Journal-Constitution ($150,000) and Detroit Public Television $100,000) to alternative newspapers such as MinnPost in Minneapolis ($100,000) and the Chicago Reporter ($100,000).

They include media targeting African Americans, such as the Los Angeles Wave and Independent Newspaper Group ($100,000) and WURD Radio in Philadelphia (40,000); and Latinos, such as Latino News in Trussville, Ala. ($82,650) and  the sponsor of El Centro Hispano in Knightdale, N.C. ($66,000)

Grants will also go to Little Saigon TV Network in Westminster, Calif. ($99,993) and Erie Chinese Journal in Cleveland ($64,998), among those serving Asian Americans.

Indian Country Media in Grand Rapids, Mich. ($96,887); Pride Source Media Group in Livonia, Mich., targeting the LGBTQ community ($100,000); and newspapers in Guam, Puerto Rico and Canada are also on the list. So is the MLK50: Justice Through Journalism project in Memphis, Tenn. ($75,000), and several members of the black press.

The state-by-state list is here.

The Facebook announcement also included, “$10.3 million being awarded to 144 US local newsrooms as part of the COVID-19 Local News Relief Fund Grant Program. The fund is supporting many publishers who are hardest hit by this crisis: nearly 80 percent of recipients are family- or independently owned and more than half are published by or for communities of color.”

Funds “will be used throughout 2020 to support projects focused on longer-term sustainability in local journalism. This includes $2.5 million for Report for America, helping the group place 225 journalists in 160 local news organizations for their 2020 reporting corps.

“Partnering with leading industry organizations like The Local Media Association and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism to move quickly, the Facebook Journalism Project has awarded more than 600 grants across the US and Canada since the pandemic began. Additional grant programs have been launched to support journalism around the world.

“After receiving more than 2,000 applications for the COVID-19 Local News Relief Grant Program from newsrooms across every state in the US, all US territories and Washington, D.C., we are providing grants ranging from $25,000-$100,000 to help publishers continue serving communities during the coronavirus outbreak. . . .”

Among this year’s Report for America corps members is Keren Carrión, who will report for KERA-FM in Dallas as well as The Texas Newsroom, a journalism collaboration among the public radio stations of Texas and NPR. (Credit: Report for America)

Report for America Deploys 42% of Color

“When Report for America announced the selection of 225 journalists for its 2020-21 reporting corps recently, it shared welcomed news for those calling on newsrooms to better reflect the diversity of the communities they serve: 42 percent of this year’s corps are persons of color,” Sam Kille reported Thursday for Report for America.

“This stands in contrast to the reality that people of color represent only 21.9 percent of the salaried workforce among our nation’s print and digital newsrooms according to the 2019 ASNE Newsroom Employment Diversity Survey; and 25.9 percent of television and 14.5 percent of radio newsrooms according to the latest RTDNA/Lawrence Herbert School of Communication at Hofstra University Annual Survey.

“Ninety-five corps members identify as persons of color. In addition to diversity of race, this year’s corps also reflects a growing number of women and for the first time, veterans. Within this year’s corps (as self reported):

” ‘We are extremely proud of our record of diversity, but there is more work that we can all do to create opportunities for emerging journalists that better serve our communities’ need for local news that they can trust,’ said Steven Waldman, co-founder and president of Report for America, an initiative of the GroundTruth Project. 

“This work includes partnering with minority-owned or focused newsrooms, according to Alison Bethel McKenzie, director of corps excellence at Report for America. Previously, she was executive director of the Society of Professional Journalists, where she was only the second woman and the first person of color to serve in that capacity in SPJ’s 111 years. . . .”

CNN reporter Martin Savidge tells viewers that “clearly, that was a message directed directly at us, telling us that we weren’t wanted in that community.” (Credit: CNN)

Reporter on Ga. Story Hears Shots as He Files

“When CNN correspondent Martin Savidge was filming a report in the Georgia neighborhood where a 25-year-old man was fatally shot” — for which a father and son were taken into custody Thursday — “loud gunfire started to go off,” Rudy Takala reported Wednesday for Mediaite.

“The correspondent claimed the shots were a message aimed ‘directly’ at the news crew.

“Savidge said his crew heard the shots as they were filming on the same Brunswick street where Ahmaud Arbery was . . . shot and killed by two men in February.

” ‘That is semi-automatic gunfire,’ Savidge said after airing the footage on CNN. ‘Nobody was hit. Nobody was hurt. But there was a lot of it. Quite frankly, I can’t tell you if that was somebody firing blanks or whether it was just somebody [who] had a very good sound system. But clearly, that was a message directed directly at us, telling us that we weren’t wanted in that community. Remember, we’re walking down that same street that the young victim had been running down, and we’re going in the same direction. And it was gunfire once again.’ ”

As Michael Brice-Saddler, Colby Itkowitz and Cleve R. Wootson Jr. reported for the Washington Post, former police investigator Gregory McMichael, 64, and his son, Travis McMichael, 34, “were charged with murder and aggravated assault Thursday evening, more than two months after 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery was killed. . . .”

Jill Nelson (credit: West Side Rag)

Writer Jill Nelson Outraged After Arrest

New York writer Jill Nelson, perhaps best known for “Volunteer Slavery: My Authentic Negro Experience,” her 1993 account of her time at the Washington Post Magazine, is alerting city and state officials to “police overreach and the stifling of dissent” after her arrest last month for writing graffiti.

“On Thursday, April 16, 2020, I was arrested in Manhattan and detained by members of the New York City Police Department on Broadway and 163rd St in Washington Heights,” begins a letter to New York Attorney General Letitia James.

“I was blocked in by two police cars and four officers, frisked, searched, cuffed, shoved into a police vehicle, taken to the NYPD 33rd Precinct and put in a filthy cell for five hours. The charge? Writing graffiti. Specifically TRUMP = PLAGUE.

“At no time was I read my rights, offered a phone call, lawyer, or a glass of water. I had to insist on using the bathroom. I was given a mask only after demanding one. Abruptly, around three o’clock, I was told I will be ‘going downtown’ to 100 Centre Street because I didn’t have a photo I.D. with me. This after I offered to accompany officers to my home to get my New York State driver’s license.

“Finally allowed a phone call, I call home, tell my husband I’ve been arrested, ask him to bring my license to the station. The call is cut off by one of the arresting officers after 60 seconds, before I can tell my husband in which precinct I am being held. Thankfully, he figured it out.

“As I left the station at 6:37 PM with a Desk Appearance Ticket, an Officer threatened that if I failed to show up at 100 Centre Street on August 14, 2020, ‘We’ll come to your house and arrest you.’

“The NYPD’s extreme, disrespectful, and plainly threatening behavior, appalling at any time, is even more so in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. [This] was the day before mandatory wearing of masks and increased fines for failure to socially distance went into effect in New York City. The 33rd Precinct is in Washington Heights, one of New York City’s hardest hit communities. Surely the police, sworn to ‘protect and serve,’ have something crucial to do in these terrible times other than arrest and detain a senior citizen peacefully voicing her opinion.

“As my elected representative, I hope you are outraged by these events, yet another example of police overreach and the stifling of the dissent that is crucial to a democracy. Especially in a time of crisis. I hope you will take action to make sure no other citizens are treated in this way. . . .”

A police spokesman confirmed the incident took place but said the police report could not be shared with the media.

(Credit: salud-america.org)

Hispanics Lead in Job Losses Due to Virus

“Hispanics are nearly twice as likely as whites to have lost their jobs amid the coronavirus shutdowns, according to a Washington Post-Ipsos poll, underlining that the pandemic is wreaking a disproportionate toll on some racial and ethnic groups,” Tracy Jan and Scott Clement reported Wednesday for The Washington Post.

“The poll finds that 20 percent of Hispanic adults and 16 percent of blacks report being laid off or furloughed since the outbreak began in the United States, compared with 11 percent of whites and 12 percent of workers of other races.

“Blacks and Hispanics are also dying of covid-19 at higher rates than whites, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. . . .”

Meanwhile, blacks and Hispanics are more likely than whites to say the media have “gotten the risks about right of the coronavirus outbreak,” according to the Pew Research Center.

Asked the question April 20 to 26, the percentage of total adults who agree was 39 percent, with 36 percent of non-Hispanic whites, 50 percent of non-Hispanic blacks and 42 percent of Hispanics in agreement.

Jenn White Named Host of NPR’s ‘1A’

Jenn White (pictured), a midday host at public radio’s WBEZ-FM in Chicago, will succeed Joshua Johnson as host of the nationally syndicated NPR show “1A,” WAMU-FM in Washington, where “1A” originates, announced Thursday.

White, 45, hosts “Reset with Jenn White” and hosted the podcasts “Making Oprah” and “Making Obama.” Her first day on “1A” is July 6.

“With a name that nods to the First Amendment, 1A is a daily, live show that encourages listeners to ‘speak freely’ and stay connected. . . . Since launching in 2017, 1A has become a trusted source for public dialogue by more than 4 million listeners across over 375 NPR member stations nationally,” WAMU said.

In an on-air interview with WAMU’s Celeste Headlee Thursday, White said, “I’m specifically interested in the way news is delivered on public radio. Our work is important and fills a need. We are able to surround a story and add depth that informs our listeners. Our stories are filled with voices of real people from around the country, often from those marginalized. This enables public radio to dig under the rocks to uncover how policy impacts real people.

White also said, “. . . when I’m not working, I’m either listening to jazz, podcasts or devouring science fiction and fantasy novels. I love how science fiction challenges us to imagine a future and a world that includes people who don’t look or live like us.”

Elahe Izadi added Thursday in the Washington Post, “WAMU General Manager JJ Yore said that during the station’s search process, which yielded a list of 50 potential hosts, he was struck by White’s authority and ability to connect with interviewees. ‘She brought a kind of probing curiosity mixed with warmth and empathy.’

“The station also emphasized diversity during the hiring process. . . .”

Johnson, now at MSNBC, tweeted his congratulations and said he would be on MSNBC this Saturday at 3 p.m., 8 p.m. and 9 p.m., and Sunday at 3 p.m. and 9 p.m., all Eastern time.​​

Copy Editors Rethink ‘Disabled,’ ‘the Homeless’

“As the stylebook frequently mentions, using specifics for the individual is less likely to fall into stereotypes or offend. (We also believe that labels can be hurtful and misunderstood),” Merrill Perlman wrote Wednesday for Columbia Journalism Review.

She was describing changes in the print edition of the Associated Press Stylebook, the style bible in many newsrooms, unveiled at the national conference of ACES: The Society for Editing. Paula Froke, the lead stylebook editor, was present.

Perlman continued, “One twist to that: the entry previously labeled ‘disabled, handicapped’ has been changed to be simply ‘disabilities.’ That entry, which advises being specific about the type of disability, has now added this section:

    “When possible, ask people how they prefer to be described (when the description is relevant).

    “Some people, for example, refer to themselves as a disabled person or simply disabled, using identity-first language.

  “Others prefer person with a disability, using person-first language. In describing groups of people, use person-first language.

“One change that led to a spirited discussion in the ACES session was adding an entry on ‘homeless.’ ‘Homeless is generally acceptable as an adjective to describe people without a fixed residence,’ the new style guide says.

” ‘Avoid the dehumanizing collective noun the homeless, instead using constructions like homeless people, people without housing or people without homes.‘ Those changes came, Froke said, because of requests by a city official and stylebook users. ‘When we tried to provide a specific definition for what homelessness entailed,’ she said, ‘we found that government agencies don’t always agree.’

“In the chat discussion accompanying the session, ACES members debated whether there was a better way to describe ‘the homeless.’ Among the suggestions were ‘unhomed,’ ‘people experiencing homelessness,’ ‘street involved,’ and ‘houseless.’ Froke noted that most of those terms were jargony.

“Writers and editors should be aware of having good intentions but bad outcomes, she said, ‘coming up with a different problem that people don’t understand.’ She added, ‘I think in many cases it’s possible to write around it.’ . . .”​

From Nikole Hannah-Jones’ Twitter feed.

Critics of ‘1619 Project’ Jeer Its Pulitzer

Critics of the New York Times Magazine’s “The 1619 Project,” which places the arrival of black people in 1619 front and center in the nation’s history, returned to their pens and computers after Nikole Hannah-Jones, the creator of the project, won the Pulitzer Prize Monday for commentary.

The headlines give the points of view: “The ‘1619 Project’ is filled with slovenliness and ideological ax-grinding,” read the title of a syndicated column from George F. Will.

Allen C. Guelzo in the Wall Street Journal: ‘The 1619 Project’ Tells a False Story About Capitalism, Too (paywall)

Dan McLaughlin in the National Review: The 1619 Project Wins a Pulitzer Prize for Agitprop

Disputing the centrality of slavery to the nation’s founding, Will says, “The Constitution was written in 1787 for a nation conscious of its youth. It would grow under a federal government whose constituting document did not acknowledge ‘property in man,’ and instead acknowledged slaves as persons.

“This gave slavery no national validation. It left slavery solely a creature of state laws and therefore susceptible to the process that, in fact, occurred — the process of being regionally confined and put on a path to ultimate extinction. Secession was the South’s desperate response when it recognized this impending outcome that the Constitution had facilitated. . . . “

Jake Silverstein, editor in chief of the New York Times Magazine, responded to the criticisms in some detail on Dec 29, updated Jan. 4.

In the National Review, McLaughlin quotes Slate’s reporting on the response from Dean Baquet, the Times’ first African American top editor, to a question at a Times staff meeting:

“to what extent you think that the fact of racism and white supremacy being sort of the foundation of this country should play into our reporting. Just because it feels to me like it should be a starting point, you know? . . . I just feel like racism is in everything. It should be considered in our science reporting, in our culture reporting, in our national reporting.’

“Baquet pointed, in his response, to the 1619 Project: ‘I do think that race and understanding of race should be a part of how we cover the American story . . . one reason we all signed off on the 1619 Project and made it so ambitious and expansive was to teach our readers to think a little bit more like that.’ ”

Gerald Horne, a historian who wrote “The Counter Revolution of 1776,” a subject of this column in 2014, pushed back against Will on Pacifica Radio’s “On the Ground” (audio) on Friday.

Hannah-Jones “slaughtered more than one sacred cow by calling into question the immaculate conception theory of the founding of the United States of America in 1776. Instead, she echoes the emerging thesis that this country was founded as a revolt against British abolitionism which was rising in the 1770s,” Horne said. “The more things change, the more they remain the same because, recall that the late Lerone Bennett, Ebony magazine editor and author of a book that revised the vision of the heroic Abraham Lincoln, was blackwashed and disparaged because of that book.

“What this points up is the fact that No. 1, there are sacred cows in this so-called marketplace of ideas, and No. 2, particularly if you’re a black person, you’re not supposed to challenge these mainstream theses that obviously have gaping holes in them.”

Short Takes

” ‘Asian Americans’ deserves attention for bringing underappreciated history to life through the stories of Americans whose ancestral roots reach across the Pacific Ocean to the 48 countries of Asia,” Peter Larsen reported Friday for the Southern California News Group. The five-part series airs on PBS stations this coming Monday and Tuesday.

“Kenneth Edmonds, the publisher of The Carolina Times, died Saturday, possibly signaling the end of a historic newspaper that has been informing and advocating for African Americans in Durham and North Carolina for nearly a century,” Virginia Bridges reported Sunday, updated Monday, for the Durham (N.C.) Herald-Sun. “Edmonds was 66. . . .” He is shown next to a marker honoring his grandfather, Austin, founder of the newspaper. (Credit: Bernard Thomas/Herald-Sun)
“After reading [on] another site about how a small paper sold slots to raise money we decided to follow suit. That idea planted a seed that gave birth to a cover story and special edition that appeared [in] this edition of The Times,” Barnett Wright, executive editor of the Birmingham Times Media Group in Alabama, messaged Journal-isms. “For our story we reached out to many in our community and . . . [m]ore than 200 doctors, lawyers, judges, bipartisan group of elected officials . . participated. Those whose names appear in the ad range in ages from 14 to 95. We asked $25 each and raised enough that we will plan to donate some of the money to a charity.” The newspaper raised “nearly $10K with the full and half page ads that were sold as part of the edition, Wright said.

 

Follow Richard Prince on Twitter @princeeditor

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@yahoogroups.com

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