Media

Some Editors Failed to See No-Brainer Story The controversy over Quentin Tarantino’s “Django Unchained,” in which slavery is the backdrop for a spaghetti Western, ratcheted up a notch over the weekend when freelance entertainment journalist Karu F. Daniels, writing in the Daily Beast, reported that the movie characters — slaves and slavemaster — are being…

Pulitzer Winner to Devote More Time to Grantland Website Wesley Morris, the African-American film critic for the Boston Globe who won a Pulitzer Prize last year, is leaving for Grantland, the ESPN-affiliated sports/pop culture website that specializes in longform journalism, his Globe editor told staffers Thursday night. “I just didn’t have a reason to say…

“Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Django Unchained’ has become embroiled in the second major controversy of awards season,” Steve Pond wrote Wednesday for the Wrap. “The director’s liberal use of the N-word, and his temerity in tackling the issue of slavery, has drawn fire from some prominent African-Americans and impassioned defenses from others. “Like the turmoil stirred up…

Diversity’s Greatest Hits, 2012 1. Neither GOP Nor News Media Looked Like America 2. Social Media Can Mean Trouble: Ask Martin, Whitlock, Lee or Williams 3. Trayvon Martin Case 4. Unity Coalition Changes Course 5. New NAHJ Leadership After Brutal Campaign 6. The Numbers 7. Fellowship Breakthrough at Stanford 8. NBC News to Pay Its…

The National Rifle Association was inspired by the Black Panthers? Yes, according to Adam Winkler, a professor of 
constitutional law at UCLA School of Law and author of “Gunfight: The 
Battle Over  the Right to Bear Arms in America.” Winkler said over the weekend on NPR’s “On the Media”: “One of the surprising things I…

Others Disciplined, “Oversight” of “First Take” Pledged ESPN announced Thursday that it is suspending commentator Rob Parker for 30 days over his on-air remarks about Washington Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III, tightening editorial oversight of the “First Take” show and taking “appropriate disciplinary measures” against employees who played a role in allowing Parker’s remarks on…

“There’s been a lot of talk about media in the wake of the horrific shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., as the world struggles to understand something that may be beyond rational thought,” media critic Eric Deggans wrote Monday in the Tampa Bay (Fla.) Times. “Big picture-wise, I think America is experiencing…

ESPN Pundit Questioned Quarterback’s Blackness ESPN commentator Rob Parker was suspended Friday after igniting a firestorm when he questioned whether Washington Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III was a “real” black man. Parker said Thursday on ESPN’s “First Take,” “Is he a brother, or is he a cornball brother?” Both men are African American. “He’s not…

Responding to an uproar over the firing of Rhonda Lee, a meteorologist who responded to criticism of her short Afro on the station’s Facebook site, the news director at KTBS in Shreveport, La., said the firing was over violations of station policy, not her hair. Randy Bain, KTBS news director, pointed to a memo emailed…

A black female meteorologist has been fired from the ABC affiliate in Shreveport, La., she told Journal-isms, because she responded to a racial remark posted by a viewer on the station’s Facebook page. KTBS-TV’s action against Rhonda Lee followed a previous response by Lee to a viewer who questioned whether she should wear her short…