Media

After activists picketed the New York Times building Tuesday and delivered petitions with more than 70,000 signatures urging the newspaper to drop the term “illegal immigrant,” the Times announced a change in policy. But the National Association of Hispanic Journalists called the change “unacceptable” and cowardly. Unity: Journalists for Diversity, which includes NAHJ, followed NAHJ…

“Since the identification and apprehension (both dead and alive) of Boston Marathon bombing suspects Tamerlan Tsarnaev (reportedly shot and run over with explosives strapped to him, amid unconfirmed reports he was clutching an ‘ACME Co.’ receipt) and [Dzhokhar] Tsarnaev (apprehended as a result of history’s first heroic nicotine fit), there has been a rush to…

Allen H. Neuharth, who led the newspaper industry in championing diversity and made it possible for Robert C. Maynard to become the first African American publisher of a mainstream newspaper, died Friday at his home in Cocoa Beach, Fla. He was 89. An obituary by Herbert Buchsbaum of the New York Times described Neuharth as…

Some Use Experts of Color to Comment on Boston Bombing On a day highlighted by false reports that a suspect had been arrested in the Boston Marathon bombing, CNN’s John King was singled out for reporting that law enforcement officials had identified “a dark-skinned male” as the suspect, and at least three news organizations demonstrated…

Two years ago, a headline writer wrote this over a story by Lynette Holloway for The Root: “Abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell has been charged with eight counts of murder. Both sides of the abortion debate are having a field day with this case. But what happens to poor women of color facing unwanted pregnancies?” Holloway…

Among the tributes to the likability, insight and journalistic skill of America’s most well-known film critic, Roger Ebert, was praise for the way Ebert expressed his appreciation for diversity in his professional and personal lives. Ebert, the Chicago Sun-Times critic who became more broadly well-known as half of the television team of Siskel and Ebert, died…

The contraction of the news industry and the recent recession hit black and Latino journalists harder than whites, the American Society of News Editors has established, and a new study suggests that those journalists might have been less financially equipped to withstand the layoffs than their white counterparts. The Pew Charitable Trusts’ “Hard Choices: Navigating…

ABC News officially named CBS correspondent Byron Pitts as an anchor and its chief national correspondent Monday, moving Pitts to a network where “diversity is as important as it is to me” and leaving one, he told Journal-isms, that has lost half the number of black correspondents it had when he arrived 16 years ago.…

In an era in which “quotas” is regarded as a dirty word, Chris Hayes, whose new MSNBC show, “All In with Chris Hayes,” debuts Monday at 8 p.m. Eastern, has no problem with the concept. “Earlier this month, after MSNBC announced it was giving Chris Hayes his own daily primetime news show, Media Matters published…

The National Association of Black Journalists has named Roland Martin its Journalist of the Year for 2013, the organization announced Wednesday, lining up behind the journalist and commentator after CNN refused to renew Martin’s contract. In another development, Soledad O’Brien, another journalist of color whose role at CNN is being diminished, included Martin on her…