Culture

Lack of Medical Insurance Complicated Treatment Options Sidmel Estes, who became the first female president of the National Association of Black Journalists in 1991 while working as executive producer and co-creator of WAGA-TV’s “Good Day Atlanta,” died Monday night in an Atlanta hospital where she was being treated for a mystery illness, a friend, Ce Cole…

Chicago Sun-Times to “Hunt Down the Best Solutions” Whenever the nation experiences a horrific mass killing such as the gunning down of nine people Thursday at an Oregon community college, opponents of tighter gun laws point to cities such as Chicago, where gun violence continues despite relatively restrictive regulations. They fail to take into account…

Action Aided by Pressure From Arizona Republic Probe “It was an indictment that many never imagined would be brought down: a U.S. Border Patrol agent charged with second-degree murder for firing across the border into Mexico and killing a teenager,” Rob O’Dell reported Monday for the Arizona Republic. Investigations by the Republic, the story said,…

Foundation Gives 24 Recipients $625,000 Over Five Years Ta-Nehisi Coates, the national correspondent of The Atlantic whose explorations of race have also made him a bestselling author, is among 24 Americans named Tuesday as winners of a MacArthur Fellowship, known as “the genius grant.” “Every year, the MacArthur Foundation selects a crop of extraordinary Americans…

Union at Philly’s WCAU Pegs Walkout to Pontiff’s Arrival In line with the crowds that have greeted Pope Francis on his first visit to the United States, the pontiff Friday endorsed what reporters called “a theology of diversity” as he spent the day among throngs in New York, a majority-minority city with diversity as a…

Roanoke TV Reporter Was Threatened After WDBJ Killings A black television reporter in Roanoke, Va., who was threatened in the wake of the on-air killings of two WDBJ-TV reporters was granted a protective order Wednesday against the man who made the threats, Cameron Austin reported for the Roanoke Times. The order is to remain in…

Roanoke Television Station Secured Restraining Order Black journalists in Roanoke, Va., were threatened after the Aug. 26 shooting in which black former journalist Vester Lee Flanagan shot and killed a reporter and a photographer doing a live shot, and then killed himself, the news director at Roanoke’s WDBJ-TV said Saturday. One African American reporter from…

“Angry Black Woman” Line Laid Bare Lack of Diversity Wesley Morris, a black journalist who won the Pulitzer Prize for criticism in 2012 while at the Boston Globe, is joining the New York Times as a critic at large, the Times announced on Thursday. The Culture section of the Times came under fire last year…

The Worst-Reported Stories About Detroit The Toronto Star made this video in December to accompany a story about longtime Detroiters helping to revitalize their city. News reports neglect such residents in favor of stories about white newcomers, panelists said Saturday at a Detroit conference organized by Unity: Journalists for Diversity. Renewal Underway and Whites Get…

Women, LGBT People Benefit Most From Diversity Hiring The nation’s alternative news media — many of them spawned by the counterculture and devoted to progressive ideas — rate having a diverse staff important, yet “continue to be predominantly white, and if anything, are getting whiter,” according to a survey of 37 such media outlets by…