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New NPR Chief Has Blueprint for Diversity
Jarl Mohn Says Latino Listenership Nearly Doubled in L.A. Jarl Mohn, a veteran media executive and investor chosen by NPR to become its next president and CEO, said Friday that he will model diversity efforts at the network on those at Southern California Public Radio, where he is board chairman. Mohn said its station, KPCC,…
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Hispanics Scoff at Suggestion They’ll Identify as White in the Future
Slate Raises Hackles Speculating on Hispanics, Whiteness When George Zimmerman was tried last year in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, descriptions of Zimmerman as a “white Hispanic” rankled some whites as well as a number of Hispanics. “Whites think the media were intent on telling a tragic tale in terms of a white villain and a black…
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Detroit Journalist Wins Pulitzer Prize for Commentary on City’s Financial Crisis
Free Press Columnist Wrote Passionately About Fiscal Crisis Stephen Henderson, editorial page editor of the Detroit Free Press, won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary Monday “for his columns on the financial crisis facing his hometown, written with passion and a stirring sense of place, sparing no one in their critique.” Henderson appeared to be the…
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Media Covers Syrian Crisis but Ignores the Central African Republic and South Sudan
Inattention Worsening Humanitarian Crises, Officials Say In 1985, there was Live Aid, a live concert with a global audience of 1.9 billion across 150 nations, organized by the Irish singer-songwriter Bob Geldof to benefit Ethiopian famine relief. Millions of dollars was raised. A decade earlier, as a former Beatle, George Harrison gathered musician friends for…
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Legendary Journalist Chuck Stone Dies at 89
“A Firebrand With Unassailable Journalistic Credentials” Charles Sumner (Chuck) Stone, newspaper editor, professor, columnist, former Tuskegee Airman and founding president of the National Association of Black Journalists — a legend to many — died Sunday at 89, according to news reports. “Stone died in his sleep early this morning at an assisted-living home in Farmington,…
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2014 Peabody Winners Reflect the Lives and Work of People of Color
People of Color Were Subjects, Creators of Excellence From the ABC drama “Scandal” to miniseries on the histories of Latinos and of African Americans to close-up looks at urban high schools and NPR’s “The Race Project,” the George Foster Peabody Awards announced Wednesday were enriched by the lives and work of people of color. “The…
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FAMU Partners for 24-Hour Black News Channel
Trustees Approve 11-Year Collaboration With J.C. Watts The board of trustees of Florida A&M University has approved an 11-year partnership with former Rep. J.C. Watts to produce a 24-hour, multiplatform Black Television News Channel that Watts initially announced six years ago. A signing ceremony is scheduled Friday on FAMU’s campus. The new network plans 50…
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How the Civil Rights Movement Expanded Freedom of the Press
How Civil Rights Movement Expanded Freedom of the Press A libel case arising from the civil rights movement is responsible for a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case that expanded guarantees of freedom of the press, a New York Times editorial reminded readers on Sunday. “How is society to preserve open criticism of the government, while…
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An Obama Justice Department Nominee Reignites Debate Over Mumia Abu-Jamal
The 1995 convention of the National Association of Black Journalists in Philadelphia was the scene of “a struggle for the soul of NABJ, a struggle between the nationalistic-activist and professional establishment wings of the association,” Wayne Dawkins wrote in “Rugged Waters: Black Journalists Swim the Mainstream,” his history of the group. At issue was what…
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NFL Considers Penalizing Players for Using N-Word
Defending N-Word in NFL Puts Writers in Awkward Position Newsrooms Don’t Allow Words for Which Athletes Get a Pass The NFL is considering penalizing players 15 yards if they use the N-word on the field, leaving sportswriters and columnists who question such a penalty in an ironic position: They would be sanctioning language that they…