Culture

Debra J. Dickerson, the freelance essayist and author who gained prominence in 2007 by helping to ignite the debate over whether Barack Obama was “black enough,” is telling readers of her blog that she is now “homeless.” “I can’t know why any random street person is destitute but I know why I am: my divorce,”…

The late CBS correspondent Ed Bradley was fond of saying, “When I get to the pearly gates and St. Peter asks what have I done to gain entry, I’ll say, `Have you seen my Lena Horne interview?’ “ In that classic 1981 piece for “60 Minutes” [video], “he got the legendary performer to candidly discuss…

After two years in the top editorial job at the nation’s largest English-language magazine targeting Hispanics, Mimi Valdés is out in a shakeup at Latina. The former editor of Vibe magazine “had tried to take the Hispanic-aimed magazine more upscale, featuring more fashion, beauty and luxury products in the pages,” Lucia Moses wrote in Mediaweek.…

NBC and ABC demonstrated this week that newsmagazines have not lost their ability to be provocative — or offensive, depending on your point of view. Detroit leaders, accompanied by Vickie Thomas, president of the Detroit Chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists, and Bankole Thompson, senior editor of the Michigan Chronicle, a black weekly,…

The Detroit Chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists issued this statement on Saturday: The Detroit Chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists does not necessarily dispute the accuracy of the narrow scope of what was reported in NBC’s “Dateline” piece, but is concerned about the balance of its content. “Any journalist working…

Some Wednesday newspapers had a photo of Dorothy Height on the front page, or more likely, relegated her death to an inside page. But in the Washington Post, the image of civil rights leader dominated the paper. A photo of the longtime president of the National Council of Negro Women, who died in Washington on…

The National Association of Hispanic Journalists has become the first journalist-of-color organization to oppose the proposed merger between NBC Universal and Comcast, saying that “this massive media consolidation will lead to fewer journalism jobs, less coverage of the Latino community, less diversity of voices, and excessive control for one company over the country’s media.” “A…

The Rev. Benjamin L. Hooks, who in addition to serving for 15 years as director of the NAACP was the first African American member of the Federal Communications Commission, died Thursday in his Memphis hometown, the Commercial Appeal reported. He was 85 and “had long suffered from various illnesses,” the paper said. “Black people were…

Coleman Champions Editors’ “New Attitude” April 14, 2010 Washington Post Veteran Assumes ASNE Leadership With nods to Abraham Lincoln, Robert C. Maynard and others, Milton R. Coleman, senior editor at the Washington Post, pledged that “we’ve got a new attitude, and a new game” Wednesday as he became president of the American Society of News…