Media

NPR Friday named Kinsey Wilson and Margaret Low Smith as top executives in the NPR News chain of command, apparently without considering any people of color for the positions. In January, Alex P. Kellogg, one of NPR’s two black male on-air journalists, left the network after 14 months on the job, reaffirming that the network’s…

Jim Asendio, likely the highest-ranking African American news director at a top-tier NPR affiliate, resigned at WAMU-FM in the nation’s capital on Tuesday “because I did not agree with an upper management decision to have working journalists attend a donor-only, station-sponsored event,” he said. “I do not believe that reporters should be exposed to the…

“The ESPN editor fired Sunday for using ‘chink in the armor’ in a headline about Knicks phenom Jeremy Lin said the racial slur never crossed his mind – and he was devastated when he realized his mistake,” Irving DeJohn and Helen Kennedy reported Monday for the Daily News in New York. ” ‘This had nothing to do with me being cute or…

MSNBC Thursday dropped conservative commentator Pat Buchanan, the recipient of two “Thumbs Down” awards from the National Association of Black Journalists, after decades of complaints that his pronouncements amounted to expressions of white nationalism, anti-Semitism and homophobia. The trigger this time appeared to be his latest book. Pat Buchanan wrote of his critics, ”Defy them,…

Offending Hollywood Producer Joins Gay Group’s Campaign The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation provided a hint of what it might have in store for Roland Martin Wednesday when it announced that Brett Ratner, the Hollywood producer who resigned as host of this year’s Academy Awards show after he publicly used the word “fag,” would…

Syndicated radio host Tom Joyner Friday called on Roland Martin to “make it right” and offer “a sincere apology” to the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. Joyner urged his morning-show colleague not to be like “another family member who refused to turn around,” an obvious reference to Tavis Smiley, who left Joyner’s show amid…

Pundit Won’t Be Appearing on Air “For the Time Being” CNN Wednesday suspended commentator Roland Martin over the tweets that the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation has denounced as anti-gay. A CNN spokeswoman confirmed that the network issued this statement: “Roland Martin’s tweets were regrettable and offensive. Language that demeans is inconsistent with the…

Robert Naylor Jr., a diversity advocate within the Associated Press who was director of career development/news, was laid off on Friday, a day after the news cooperative announced it would restore a key diversity initiative, its internship programs.   Naylor’s departure follows other layoffs, including those of other long-serving journalists of color: Dolores Barclay, East Coast…

The tipster who notified TMZ.com about the death of “Soul Train” creator Don Cornelius Wednesday morning might never be identified, but no identity was needed for the story to quickly consume social media and expand into the mainstream. TMZ.com, which has gained notoriety for breaking such celebrity news, reported at 6 a.m. Pacific Time: “Don…

Jewish Group Sees Chance to Influence Hispanics Five Latino journalists returned last week from an all-expenses-paid trip to Israel in another bid by an American Jewish group to influence the United States’ growing Latino population. “We welcome to Israel a group of prestigious journalists, publishers and reporters from the U.S. Hispanic Community,” proclaimed the New…