Culture

Should Media Use Mug Shots as the “Best Available Photo”? Stories on websites and blogs portray it as a cut-and-dried case of journalistic racism. “These 2 sets of pictures are everything you need to know about race, crime, and media bias,” read the headline Wednesday on vox.com. Two sets of suspects are depicted from the…

Nigerian Vote Was Its Largest to Play Out on Social Media “Finally, Nigeria has a new president,” Maeve Shearlaw reported Tuesday for Britian’s Guardian. “Muhammadu Buhari, a former army general and reformed democrat, beat the sitting president Goodluck Jonathan in the most closely contested election in the country’s history. It was also the first to be played out at such…

Trevor Noah Could Puncture One-Dimensional View of Africa “In his 2012 comedy special That’s Racist, one of Trevor Noah’s funniest stories is about AIDS, and other dumb questions Americans ask Africans,” Arit John wrote Monday for Bloomberg News. ” ‘The best ignorant conversation I had was in California, in a place called Malibu,’ he tells…

President: Emulate “Humanizing” of Drug Criminals President Obama told the creator of the legendary HBO drama “The Wire” on Thursday that efforts to reform the criminal justice system should include local newscasts showing the humanity of those charged with nonviolent drug crimes. “Part of the challenge is going to be making sure, number one, we…

President: Emulate “Humanizing” of Drug Criminals Simon, a onetime Baltimore Sun reporter, told the president, “The guy who was the model for the character Omar in ‘The Wire’ was a real guy named Donny Anders. I never thought I’d be saying his name in the White House. He’s a guy who lived the life on…

150 Protest “60 Minutes” Pieces With No Blacks in View Howard W. French, former New York Times correspondent covering West and Central Africa, author of two books on Africa and  an associate professor at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, had already complained. “There’s a large literature of what’s meant by Africa w/out Africans,” French tweeted last…

Texas Dailies Say Keep Confederate Flag Off Plates The Sons of Confederate Veterans continued to fight the Civil War all the way to the Supreme Court on Monday, but Texas’ major dailies oppose the group’s demand for a Texas specialty license plate that features the Confederate battle flag. “The Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) insist…

Newspaper Joins Coffee Shops in “Race Together” Project “In this country, the only thing more mockable than a white liberal trying to do the right thing when it comes to race is when a corporation, burdened by alternating priorities of profit and conscience, tries to get a piece of the righteous action,” Tony Norman wrote…

Voting Rights Act Isn’t Only Great Society Law in Peril Along with the 50th anniversary of the Selma-to-Montgomery March and the Voting Rights Act, this year marks another milestone: 1965 saw passage of the education law designed to help disadvantaged and special-needs children, particularly those of color. The law is up for renewal this year,…

Barons of D.C. Journalism Take Steps Toward Diversity The Gridiron Club, celebrating its 130th anniversary dinner Saturday night, is evolving. This year’s gathering of Washington journalists and the people they cover took place with an African American president of the club and a black president of the United States, both on the dais. A veil…