With Mistrial, Opportunity to Repeat Prior Mistakes A mistrial declared Wednesday in the trial of Baltimore Police Officer William G. Porter provided an opportunity for the news media to recycle images of the unrest that followed the April 12 death of Freddie Gray in police custody.  But how true a representation will those images be? …

Richard Prince’s Book Notes™: Holiday Offerings Our latest list of nonfiction books by journalists of color or those of special interest to them — the first of two — gives us a chance to praise journalists who rocked the world they found, paving the way for journalists who continue the struggle today. Four of these…

HuffPost: Trump Is No Longer Entertainment N.Y. Times Compares Candidate With Past Demagogues “Earlier today, the candidate currently leading in the polls for the Republican presidential nomination called for a ‘total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States,’ ” Arianna Huffington wrote Monday for the Huffington Post. “That was, of course, Donald Trump.…

Networks Stay Live for Latest Mass Shooting Mariel Garza, an editorial writer at the Los Angeles Times, was among the first to comment on the mass shooting Wednesday that left at least 14 people dead and 17 wounded in San Bernardino, Calif., the nation’s deadliest since December 2012. Then, a gunman walked into Sandy Hook…

Officer Unloaded Gun on Black Teen 16 Times in 15 Seconds The shocking and disturbing video showing the fatal police shooting of a black Chicago teenager was released Tuesday only after lawsuits by journalists and news organizations — a yearlong delay that has prompted criticism of the city’s black leadership, others in the media, and…

Columnists Call Football Team’s Threatened Strike Historic “I have lived in Columbia and been at the university for almost 18 years,” Cynthia Frisby, an associate professor in the Missouri School of Journalism, wrote in a Facebook posting reprinted Sunday in Missourian, which serves the University of Missouri-Columbia. “During this time, I have been called the n-word…

Figure Nears $380K; Executive Director’s Job, 2 Others Cut The leadership of the National Association of Black Journalists told members Thursday that “NABJ’s projected 2015 deficit will be higher than the previous board reported at the 2015 convention. The projected deficit is likely going to be nearly $380,000.” On Friday night, a notice on the…

Why Are Cops in Schools, Anyway? Media Question Discipline Practices After S.C. Incident The videotaped altercation in a South Carolina high school that saw a white sheriff’s deputy throwing a black female student to a classroom floor and tossing her across it prompted the news media to expand their reporting beyond the incident itself. They…

FBI Director Ties Scrutiny, Rise in Violent Crime As news organizations revealed new data on driving and even walking while black, FBI Director James B. Comey said the additional scrutiny and criticism of police might have led to an increase in violent crime in some cities as officers have become less aggressive. Comey’s statement Friday…

Racial Subjects Too Limiting for Journalists of Color? While many analysts were declaring which Democratic candidates fared best or worst in Tuesday night’s Democratic presidential debate, others were wondering whether the black and Latino reporters permitted to ask questions were being stereotyped. The headlines on Wednesday said it: “Where were CNN’s black and Latino debate…