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NY Times Top Editor Agrees That Diversity ‘Is a Real Issue’
“On Sunday, the New York Times public editor Liz Spayd wrote a column that cut deep to the bone about the lack of racial and ethnic diversity and the ‘newsroom’s blinding whiteness,‘ ” Tanzina Vega wrote Monday for CNN Money. Nicholas Casey, a New York Times correspondent in Venezuela, appears in a Times house ad.…
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Richard Prince’s Book Notes, Part 1: Holiday Offerings
Our latest list of nonfiction books by journalists of color or those of special interest to them—part one of two—includes: a forthcoming memoir by the late Coretta Scott King that is 17 years in the making; the frustrating history of African Americans in the newspaper comics; the story of an escapee from war-torn Biafra; an…
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Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Milestone: 4.5 Hours With the President
Ta-Nehisi Coates, the Atlantic magazine writer, has managed a feat apparently accomplished by no other black journalist. He was granted 4½ hours on the record with President Obama, access he turned into a 17,000-word cover story for the January/February issue of the Atlantic. “Talked three times in person. Total of about 4.5 hours. No idea…
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Telling Our Truth in the Age of Trump
Brian Stelter, television critic for CNN Money, isn’t the only journalist sounding an alarm. “A question I asked on Sunday’s ‘Reliable Sources:’ he wrote in his email newsletter Sunday. “Is this a national emergency? And are journalists afraid to say so because they’re afraid they’ll sound partisan?” “Consider: A U.S. intelligence community conclusion that Russia…
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In Fla., ‘Prejudice Wears a Black Robe’
“Justice has never been blind when it comes to race in Florida,” Josh Salman, Emily Le Coz and Elizabeth Johnson reported this week for the Sarasota (Fla.) Herald-Tribune in a series, “Bias on the Bench.” “Blacks were first at the mercy of slave masters. Then came Jim Crow segregation and the Ku Klux Klan. “Now,…
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2 Dozen Claim Racial Discrimination at CNN, TBS
“A new court filing alleges that Turner employees faced racial discrimination that held them back in their careers and led to at least one former assistant being fired,” Ronn Blitzer reported Wednesday for lawnewz.com. “Roughly two dozen current and former employees of CNN and TBS (both owned by Turner) claim that there is a systematic…
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There Were ‘Cases of Guards Ripping Out Dreadlocks’
“The racism can be felt from the moment black inmates enter New York’s upstate prisons,” Michael Schwirtz, Michael Winerip and Robert Gebeloff reported Saturday for the New York Times. “They describe being called porch monkeys, spear chuckers and worse. There are cases of guards ripping out dreadlocks. One inmate, John Richard, reported that he was…
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An Editor Schools Us on Life as Bus Driver
It isn’t unusual for journalists to try other jobs, sometimes out of necessity, but the days of a George Plimpton — who a couple of decades ago told us about his adventures in professional sports, as a stand-up comedian, a movie bad guy and a circus performer — seem to be gone. Plimpton, who died…
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An Editor Schools Us on Life as Bus Driver
It isn’t unusual for journalists to try other jobs, sometimes out of necessity, but the days of a George Plimpton — who a couple of decades ago told us about his adventures in professional sports, as a stand-up comedian, a movie bad guy and a circus performer — seem to be gone. Plimpton, who died…
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News Anchor Wins Gamble on ‘Miracle Drug’ After Stroke
“Minutes after collapsing on live TV, Dawne Gee woke up in an ambulance paralyzed from the neck down. She was having a stroke,” Jere Downs reported Tuesday for the Courier-Journal in Louisville, Ky. “It was 7:43 p.m. Friday night. ‘I could look up and see the ceiling. There were lights everywhere, and they were working…