Culture

Members of the black press who took an expenses-paid trip to Morocco last week were pawns in a politically motivated move by the Moroccan government in its dispute with the Morocco-occupied Western Sahara, a representative of the occupied region asserted to Journal-isms on Wednesday. The occupied residents, known as Saharawis, have called themselves “the last…

A 14-person delegation from the National Newspaper Publishers Association, representing the nation’s black press, returned Sunday from a week-long government-sponsored trip to Morocco as the North African country reaches out to African Americans. “This is part of series of no-strings attached government-sponsored trips by African American organizations to Morocco to give them a first-hand look…

Tamron Hall Shares Pain of Sister’s Slaying Critic Gets Comeuppance at Television Writers Conference NBC News correspondent Tamron Hall revealed for television critics details of the unsolved 2004 murder of her sister and credited the agony of the experience for “the drive she has to host ‘Deadline: Crime with Tamron Hall’ on the network, which…

Passion, Angst and Pride That a Black Woman Is the Star “Scandal,” the ABC-TV drama that became a must-discuss item among African Americans in social media, was the most popular prime-time television show among black viewers in 2013, according to Nielsen data compiled for Journal-isms. Surprisingly, the Nielsen data showed that all of the 25…

MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry tearfully apologized Saturday for poking fun at a Mitt Romney family photo that included his adopted African-American grandson, but the apology failed to end a discussion that initially seemed mired in political posturing.  Politics, Race, Mormonism and Babies a Volatile Mix “Several days later the controversy seems only to have grown larger…

Some Still Say Fighters Fare Better in Ring Than in Streets “In the span of two weeks last fall, two prizefighters went to the hospital after their bouts. Francisco Leal, 26, died of a brain injury after a knockout loss to Raul Hirales on October 19,” Alan Neuhauser wrote Thursday for Columbia Journalism Review. “Magomed…

“When ‘Good Morning America’ co-anchor Robin Roberts took to her Facebook page to count her blessings, express gratitude for her recovery from a rare blood and bone marrow disease and thank her longtime girlfriend, Roberts didn’t just come out,” Patrick Kevin Day wrote Tuesday for the Los Angeles Times. “As one of the most prominent personalities on TV, media watchers…

1. Growing Intolerance of Intolerance, Insensitivity How many race-related gaffes can you remember from 2013? The year ended with a flap over remarks by the patriarch of the A&E series “Duck Dynasty” and a retracted tweet from comedian Steve Martin, but the journalism world experienced bursts of controversial speech all year. ESPN was the locus…

St. Louis Brothers to Give Up Stations in Three Cities “We just experienced a shameful milestone in the history of U.S. media — and barely anyone noticed,” according to Joseph Torres and S. Derek Turner of the media advocacy group Free Press. “There are now zero black-owned and operated full-power TV stations in our country”…

“Nobody Matters Less to Our Society Than Young Black Women” “It has been nearly 15 years since music journalist Jim DeRogatis caught the story that has since defined his career, one that he wishes didn’t exist: R. Kelly’s sexual predation on teenage girls,” Jessica Hopper reported Monday for the Village Voice, referring to the R&B…