Culture

“Obviously Black” ESPN Trailblazer Dies of Cancer at 49 “Stuart Scott’s impact can be measured in Sunday’s outpouring of affection for him after news of his death, at 49 from cancer, broke,” Sean Gregory wrote Sunday for Time magazine. “It cut across all sports, all silos of American culture, from LeBron James to Tiger Woods…

Clifford Alexander Says Film Gets One Thing Wrong Clifford L. Alexander Jr. says nobody from the news media has asked him, but that anyone who says that President Lyndon B. Johnson was at odds with Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders over the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights…

A year in the quest for news media that look like America: 1. Ferguson 2. Cosby Found Guilty in Court of Public Opinion 3. Online Media, New Frontier, Take Heat on Diversity 4. The Numbers and the Layoffs 5. A Breakthrough in Minority Broadcast Ownership 6. MSNBC Chief Promises Change for Latinos 7. Dean Baquet…

Beverly Johnson Charges Surface Talk of Lies, Death Threats CNN replied Monday to a scathing letter from Bill Cosby’s lawyer accusing the network of unethical reporting tactics with a scathing letter of its own. The network’s lawyer ripped into the character of a former boyfriend of supermodel Beverly Johnson, who, following accusations by other women,…

Pullback of Movie Demonstrates “All Films Are Political” “Black leaders, angered by racially insensitive emails sent by Amy Pascal, the movie chief at Sony Pictures Entertainment, emerged from a meeting with her on Thursday saying they had reached an understanding about how to move forward,” Brooks Barnes reported for the New York Times. “Ms. Pascal,…

N.Y. Times Departures Further Whiten Culture Section The New York Times is laying off two black female reporters and leaving its Culture section devoid of journeymen black journalists as it continues to implement plans to reduce its newsroom staff by 100 via buyouts and layoffs, staffers told Journal-isms on Wednesday. Departing are Metro reporter Kia Gregory,…

Cosby Says Black-Press Freelancer Duped Him Bill Cosby’s attorney John P. Schmitt issued a statement Monday criticizing journalist Stacy M. Brown, who interviewed the comedian for a story published online Saturday in the New York Post and the Washington Informer. “Schmitt alleges his client was unaware the conversation was being recorded and would wind up in the Post,” Travis Reilly reported…

Three-Time Pulitzer Winner, of Washington Post, Was 58 “Michel du Cille, a Washington Post photojournalist who was a three-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize for his dramatic images of human struggle and triumph, and who recently chronicled the plight of Ebola patients and the people who cared for them, died Thursday while on assignment for…

Senate Democrats’ Study Reveals Leaks to Journalists ” The Central Intelligence Agency leaked classified material to reporters to shape the perception that its detention and interrogation program was an effective tool in thwarting terrorism, according to a Senate Intelligence Committee report released Tuesday,” Noam Cohen and Ravi Somaiya reported for the New York Times. “The…

Younger African Americans Hear Message of Racial Progress “President Obama is delivering a pointed message to younger African Americans that the nation has made progress on race relations, urging patience and resolve in the wake of new protests in New York and elsewhere,” David Nakamura and Vanessa Williams wrote Monday in a front-page story for…