Media

Funeral services for William Raspberry, the retired Washington Post columnist who died of prostate cancer Tuesday at age 76, have been scheduled for Thursday, July 26, at 10 a.m. at the Washington National Cathedral, according to journalist Walt Swanston, a family friend. A reception is to follow from 12:30 to 3 p.m. at the Washington…

U.S. to Review the Record After ProPublica Stories “The Obama administration has asked for a fresh review of an Alabama federal inmate’s commutation request and directed the Justice Department to conduct its first ever in-depth analysis of recommendations for presidential pardons, according to several officials and individuals involved,” Dafna Linzer reported Wednesday for ProPublica. “The…

Cancer Claims Pioneer Among Mainstream Pundits William Raspberry, retired Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist at the Washington Post and its first African American in that role, died early Tuesday at his home in Washington, his wife, Sondra, told Journal-isms. He was 76 and died of metastatic prostate cancer. “We had a full 45 years together,” she said.…

Lynn Hoppes, senior director/entertainment at ESPN, former newspaper sports editor and former president of Associated Press Sports Editors, has been scolded for “journalistic laziness” after the Deadspin website found that he had been “shall we say, over-reliant on Wikipedia as a research tool,” as Deadspin put it. ESPN spokesman Josh Krulewitz told Journal-isms Friday by…

Number Far Exceeds Cases of Alleged Fraud “When Edward and Mary Weidenbener went to vote in Indiana’s primary in May, they didn’t realize that state law required them to bring government photo IDs such as a driver’s license or passport,” Mike Baker reported Monday for the Associated Press. “The husband and wife, both approaching 90…

S. African Cartoon Depicts President as Male Body Part In May, tensions were inflamed in South Africa after the ruling African National Congress objected to a satirical art exhibition that included a painting showing President Jacob Zuma as Lenin with his genitals exposed. The ANC forced a newspaper to remove the image from its website, and the painting was…

Was the absence of black people in Andy Griffith’s Mayberry, set in North Carolina and broadcast as the civil rights movement intensified during the 1960s, a problem? Not really, according to African American columnists with ties to the state who weighed in on Tuesday’s death of the beloved Griffith at age 86. Television historians have…

Media Fail to Detail U.S. Voter Disenfranchisement “As the nation’s first African-American president seeks re-election, new barriers are being proposed or implemented that could disenfranchise voters of color. Are mainstream media doing enough reporting on these efforts and identifying ones designed to reduce the impact on voters of color?” Nadra Kareem Nittle wrote Thursday for…

Right Wing Seized on Tweets, Comments on Romney Joseph Williams, the Politico reporter whose comments and tweets about Mitt Romney led last week to a suspension, is leaving the publication. His exit provides a cautionary tale about how “a tiny group of organizations with Internet access, a money pipeline and next to no credibility can…

Initial Reports Say Individual Mandate Struck Down “The U.S. Supreme Court upheld a key provision of the health care law championed by President Barack Obama, the so-called individual mandate that requires people to have health insurance,” CNN reported on Thursday, correcting its initial report that the individual mandate had been struck down. ” . .…