How Media Skew Our Views of Race, Crime Distortions Bolster Harsher Penalties, Study Finds “Skewed racial perceptions of crime — particularly, white Americans’ strong associations of crime with racial minorities — have bolstered harsh and biased criminal justice policies [PDF],” the nonprofit Sentencing Project reported Wednesday, outlining the role played by the news media in skewing…

How Did “No Angel” Line About Ferguson Victim Get Through? Writer Says Having More Black Editors Might Help In many ways, the reaction last week to a New York Times writer’s profile of Michael Brown, the 18-year-old whose death at the hands of a Ferguson, Mo., policeman prompted national outrage, was a black journalist’s nightmare.…

Charles Ericksen Says Media Firms Don’t Deserve Honors The celebratory tone of the closing gala of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists convention was punctured briefly Saturday night when 84-year-old co-founder Charles Ericksen called it “kind of a farce” for the association to honor Fox News and other media companies when the number of employed…

Did Colonists Fear England’s Moves Against Black Bondage? A professor of history and African American studies has written a book that challenges the conventional narrative about American independence and should broaden the discussion of the July 4 holiday. But based on the limited attention it has received, likely won’t. Gerald Horne, who holds the John…

After a Year, Only Half of Promised Settlement Paid More than a year after the National Writers Union and representatives of Heart & Soul magazine agreed that a dozen freelance writers and editors would collect more than $125,000 in unpaid fees, the health and wellness magazine has paid only about half of what it promised,…

Historic Week for Company With Jet’s Last Print Edition The end of the print edition of Jet magazine this week is only one piece of history taking place at the parent Johnson Publishing Co. In assembling a new team for Ebony magazine, of which she is now editor, former Jet editor Mitzi Miller is proceeding…

Richmond, Va., Journalist Insisted on High Standards Raymond H. Boone Sr., the colorful, principled and feisty founder, editor and publisher of the weekly Richmond (Va.) Free Press, died Tuesday at his Richmond home after battling pancreatic cancer, his wife, Jean Boone, told Journal-isms. He was 76. Boone was on the job until nearly the end,…

In 1960, Renaissance Woman Landed Editor’s Job in Egypt Maya Angelou, the Renaissance woman who assumed roles ranging from poet to calypso singer, for a brief time was also a journalist. Angelou, who died at 86 Wednesday at her home in Winston-Salem, N.C., had her baptism of fire in journalism in 1960. As Angelou explained…

NPR Favors Integration Into Other Programming “Tell Me More,” NPR’s third try at a daily newsmagazine that targeted people of color, “was not financially sustainable in its current form,” an NPR executive told Journal-isms on Wednesday, leaving the implication that no such show could be. NPR announced on Tuesday that, effective Aug. 1, it is…

NPR Cancels Multicultural “Tell Me More” Host Michel Martin Given Network-Wide Role NPR said Tuesday it is ending production of “Tell Me More,” the multicultural daily magazine hosted by Michel Martin that began in 2007, promising a wider role for Martin and regretting the budget crunch that executives said made the cancellation and other cuts…