Articles Feature

How Much Did Apartheid Shape Elon Musk?

by richard0754

Views, Actions on Race Make for Open Question
Trump-Targeted Voice of America Increased Diversity
Use of DEI Phrase Drops 60% Among Top Companies
NABJ Strategy: Circumvent Anti-DEI Backlash

Atlanta NABJ Members Impeach Their Officers
Black Press Called Mirror, Movement, Refuge
K.C. Startup Claims Role in City Manager’s Suspension
Don Lemon Says He Was Sexually Harassed at CNN
John Johnson, Miss. News Director, Dies at 77
Film on Media Greed to Be Streamed for Free

Short Takes: Kimberly R. Moffitt; Columbia J-School and Mahmoud Khalil; Sean Combs; Walt Elder; “Journalistic History of Asian Pacific America“; interviewing Afro-Ukrainian; Kurt Bardella and Stephen A. Smith; Craig Newmark J-School’s AI Community Engagement Lab; Geri Alumit Zeldes and Jarrad Henderson.

Updated March 18.

Homepage photo: Don Lemon and Elon Musk (Credit: Instagram)

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Views, Actions on Race Make for Open Question

On Friday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared that South Africa’s ambassador to the United States “is no longer welcome in our great country.“

President Trump and Elon Musk, first buddy, or as some describe him, co-president, have alleged that white farmers in that country are being discriminated against. They cite land reform policies that South Africa’s government says are necessary to remedy the legacy of apartheid.

Meanwhile, Musk’s Tesla car company has faced multiple lawsuits for workplace discrimination during the past decade. Sworn statements from more than 200 Black former employees and contractors have characterized the production floor as a “hotbed for racism.”

Then there are the posts on X that Musk made in January, claiming that efforts to diversify workforces have made air travel less safe. Musk offered no evidence for the claim.

More: Last month, Musk reinstated the staff member who resigned from his quasi-government role after The Wall Street Journal found that he had written posts last year declaring, “I was racist before it was cool” and “normalize Indian hate.”

Some see the Musk-headed DOGE, an effort to reduce the federal workforce, as taking away jobs from a population that is disproportionately people of color and women.

In addition, the dismantling of the Agency for International Development, also orchestrated by Musk, will leave people of color around the world in dire straits and, it is predicted, lead to thousands of deaths.

Musk grew up in apartheid South Africa in an era where “Black Lives Matter” wasn’t yet an article of faith.

Is that a factor in Musk’s views and actions on race?

After John Eligon (pictured), a Black journalist, was named Johannesburg bureau chief for The New York Times in 2021, Eligon sought to find out. The result, written with Lynsey Chutel (pictured, below), also a Black Times journalist and a native of South Africa, was headlined, “Elon Musk Left a South Africa That Was Rife With Misinformation and White Privilege.“

“When we first wrote that story we set out to understand how apartheid shaped who he is and his views on race,” Eligon messaged Journal-isms on Sunday. “He had not said much publicly to that point. Since then, he has spoken a lot more about racial issues and his feelings about his native country.

“He has, for instance, promoted conspiracies of white genocide in South Africa. He also has accused the South African government of promoting racist laws, most notably a requirement that foreign companies operating in South Africa give some ownership to historically disadvantaged groups. So maybe that provides some clarity but it’s still hard to know what to make of his time living in South Africa and how much he is driving Trump’s agenda on the country.”

Eligon and Chutel’s 2022 story provides fodder for whichever side the reader wishes to take.

“Interviews with relatives and former classmates reveal an upbringing in elite, segregated white communities that were littered with anti-Black government propaganda, and detached from the atrocities that white political leaders inflicted on the Black majority,” they wrote.

“Mr. Musk, 50, grew up in the economic hub of Johannesburg, the executive capital of Pretoria and the coastal city of Durban. His suburban communities were largely shrouded in misinformation. Newspapers sometimes arrived on doorsteps with whole sections blacked out, and nightly news bulletins ended with the national anthem and an image of the national flag flapping as the names of white young men who were killed fighting for the government scrolled on the screen. . . .”

But Eligon and Chutel also wrote, “Mr. Musk’s father, Errol Musk, said in an interview with The New York Times that Elon (pictured, from 1985 Bryanston High School yearbook), his brother and sister were aware from a young age that there was something wrong with the apartheid system. Errol, who was elected to the Pretoria City Council in 1972, said they would ask him about the laws prohibiting Black people from patronizing restaurants, movie theaters and beaches. They had to make calculations when they were going out with nonwhite friends about what they could safely do, he said.

“ ‘As far as being sheltered from it, that’s nonsense. They were confronted by it every day,’ recalled Errol, who said he belonged to the anti-apartheid Progressive Party. He added, ‘They didn’t like it.’

“Still, Errol offered a description of their lives that underscored how removed they were from the country’s violent reality. . . . “

Eligon says he is revisitng the issue. “I am very much interested in learning more about Elon’s time in South Africa,” he messaged. “It’s tough reporting because he left such a long time ago and at a relatively young age, so it’s difficult to find people who knew him well when he was growing up here.”

David Vandy interviews Sierra Leonean gospel sensation Gilleh for the Voice of America’ s “African Beat” show. (Credit: Voice of America)

Trump-Targeted Voice of America Increased Diversity

“For more than 80 years, Voice of America transmitted the news into countries, many of them authoritarian, where reliable sources of information about the outside world were often hard to come by,” David Enrich reported Sunday for The New York Times.

“Now those broadcasts — long viewed as an important part of U.S. efforts to promote democracy and transparency overseas — are flickering out.

“Hours after President Trump signed an executive order on Friday calling for the dismantling of the federal agency that oversees Voice of America, hundreds of journalists, executives and other employees at the organization’s headquarters in Washington were informed that they were being put on paid leave. Employees said they quickly lost access to their work email and other communications programs.

The Voice of America presents news to the world from a diverse array of employees — as befits an agency with a global audience.

Zippia Inc., which provides online recruitment services, reports that 59 percent of its employees are female vs. 40 percent male, and that Blacks or African Americans are 16 percent of the workforce; the figure for whites is 51 percent, for Hispanics or Latinos,13. 8 percent.

Glassdoor, a website that in 2020 launched a rating system to hold companies accountable on diversity and inclusion, says “Voice of America has [an] ‘equality, diversity and inclusion’ rating of 3.9 out of 5 stars, based on 37 anonymous employee ratings.”

“Voice of America is one of 145 organizations in 30 countries that participate in a project collecting data about gender representation in the media,” the agency said in 2022.

The coordinator of the “50-50 Project,” Gary Butterworth, noted VOA’s growing percentage of female employees and said then, “Diversity and inclusion might seem like buzzwords, but really, it’s part and parcel of good journalism. So, it’s encouraging to see this catching on around the world.”

Ani Chkhikvadze wrote Monday for the conservative Washington Examiner, “Critics say that VOA leans politically left. Like many newsrooms around the world, this might be partly true as many journalists share leftist politics. But I can attest for a fact that the VOA newsroom has journalists from very diverse backgrounds.

“It includes people who grew up under communism or autocracy, leading them to greatly value American democracy and its founding principles. I can also state for a fact that some VOA journalists are conservative! This diversity helps VOA maintain balanced and honest reporting. It helps consumers of VOA content to believe that what they’re hearing and seeing is objective news and analysis rather than partisan spin.”

Use of DEI Phrase Drops 60% Among Top Companies

So far this year the number of companies in the Standard and Poor’s 500 that used the language “diversity, equity and inclusion” in their annual financial filings has fallen by nearly 60 percent from 2024, Emma Goldberg, Aaron Krolik and Lily Boyce reported Thursday for The New York Times.

The S&P 500 is a stock market index tracking the stock performance of 500 of the largest companies listed on U.S. stock exchanges.

“Seventy-eight percent of companies — 297 out of the 381 that have filed their reports so far this year — continue to discuss various diversity and related initiatives, according to the Times analysis, which examined a decade of financial filings known as 10-Ks that public companies submit each year to the Securities and Exchange Commission,” the reporters wrote.

“But many of them have softened or shifted previous language, by removing the word ‘equity,’ for example, or emphasizing ‘belonging’ rather than D.E.I.

“Major corporations began to shy away from taking strong stances on D.E.I. before President Trump re-entered office, but the trend accelerated rapidly after.

“These filings aren’t the only reflection of what companies are doing, or declining to do, to promote diversity, equity and inclusion — but they offer one view of changing stances in the words of the companies themselves. Plenty of language in these filings changes from year to year, though the Times analysis focused specifically on language about D.E.I.

“In some ways, the shift reflects a pattern of companies chasing what seems most socially and politically expedient. After the killing of George Floyd in May 2020 and the Black Lives Matter protests that followed, many companies denounced racial injustice.

“By 2022, over 90 percent of the S&P 500 had language about D.E.I. in their annual filings. . . .”

A teaser for “Beyond the Headlines . . . NABJ Journey,” which has been submitted to 24 film festivals, NABJ co-founder Allison Davis told the board of directors Saturday. (Credit: YouTube)

NABJ Strategy: Circumvent Anti-DEI Backlash

“This anti-DEI stuff is real,” Executive Director Drew Berry told a board meeting of the National Association of Black Journalists Saturday, as leaders outlined a strategy that involved finding ways around the backlash against diversity, equity and inclusion, rather than protesting it.

The board met in Cleveland, site of its 50th anniversary convention this summer, announcing that the three convention hotels are already sold out and raising the possibility that the Aug. 6-10 event might be the association’s most successful. The board was told by David Gilbert, director of tourism-boosting Discover Cleveland, that “You’re going to know you’re feeling welcome” and “our goal is nothing less than having you think this is the best convention you ever had.”

On tap for conventiongoers are an Aug. 6 visit to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and one of the city’s “custom experience tours” Saturday that focuses on the history of Black Cleveland.

NABJ President Ken Lemon said he had spoken to executives at ABC, NBC, Paramount, Politico and the Wall Street Journal about creating pathways to middle management. Berry said national membership stood at 4,568, a quarter of them students, boding well for the future. Lemon and Berry said the organization has yet to see how the anti-DEI movement will affect sales of career fair booths, but almost half are sold. However, some potential sponsors pleaded, “please don’t share information about what we’re doing,” Berry said.

The anti-DEI backlash means the organization must think about “how we have to market ourselves differently and how we write contracts and things like that,” as well as seeking non-media sponsors and multiple revenue streams and burnishing relationships, he added.

Nevertheless, NABJ has $1.7 million in the bank, Berry said.

As part of its “advocacy day,” board members visited local media outlets. They learned that cleveland.com/the Plain Dealer has no Black editors, attributed to low turnover; and urged some outlets to balance negative news with other stories. “Every time you see a news truck,” one community member had said, “it means it’s bad news.” That perception must be reversed, board members said.

Cleveland.com Editor Chris Quinn messaged Journal-isms on Monday, “I did say we don’t get many openings these days but quite recently, when we do, we are finding it easier to field groups of diverse candidates. We have not had diversity in our editor ranks since a staff buyout six years ago, and we hope to find a diverse panel of candidates when our entertainment editor retires in a few months.” 

Meanwhile, Bob Butler, a former NABJ president, found enthusiasm from board members for an exchange program with journalists from Sierra Leone. Lemon had asked Butler to look into the idea.

As for the sold-out hotel rooms, members were urged to continue to check in with the hotels, which receive cancellations.

A portion of a multipart message to members of the Atlanta Association of Black Journalists posted on Facebook March 7 by Steve Crocker, a television anchor who is regional director of the National Association of Black Journalists. (Credit: Facebook.)

Atlanta NABJ Members Impeach Their Officers

In a rare move, members of the Atlanta Association of Black Journalists voted Saturday to remove their entire board of directors, save one, a member confirmed, and replace it with a slate that includes Condace Pressley (pictured) a former national president, as well as Errin Haines and Ernie Suggs, former national vice presidents, and veteran members Elise Durham and Stan Washington.

Tyrik Wynn (pictured), a broadcaster most recently with iHeartRADIO/Black Information Network and AABJ’s vice president/digital, returned to the new board.

The vote was 53 to replace the board, with one abstention, the confirming member said.

Steve Crocker, the National Association of Black Journalists regional director responsible for Georgia and other Southern states, posted a Facebook message on March 7 calling for the resignation of chapter president Craig Allen Brown (pictured), journalism department coordinator at Morehouse College.

“At this point, I don’t believe President Brown is in a position to provide the necessary clarity on chapter finances to build confidence in the board, while also producing a successful ‘Welcome to Atlanta’ event and preparing the chapter to successfully host next year’s convention,” scheduled for Aug. 12-16, 2026, the Birmingham, Ala., anchor/reporter wrote.

“Thus I recommend he resign, cease doing chapter business and surrender chapter financial records from at least January 2024 to the present.

“I am also asking existing board members to think about what an effective board of directors looks like and either dedicate themselves to becoming that board or finding another way to serve the chapter. Finally, I’m asking you, the members, to step up.”

The new board members, reportedly asked not to discuss the action publicly, did not respond to requests for comment.

Denise Rolark Barnes, publisher of the Washington Informer, told the Metropolitan AME Church congregation, “We serve a God who commands us to speak for those who cannot speak for themselves.” (Credit: Richard Prince)

Black Press Called Mirror, Movement, Refuge

Black journalists in both the Black press and the mainstream media joined Washington churchgoers to celebrate “Black Press Sunday,” with speakers reminding all within earshot of the historic mission of the Black press to speak for those who cannot speak for themselves.

“We are called to be truth tellers, justice seekers, and hope bearers in a world that often seeks to silence us,” said Denise Rolark Barnes, publisher of the Washington Informer, which is celebrating its 60th year.

“Let us recommit ourselves to the calling of the Black press to be bold, to be fearless, and to be unwavering in our mission, whether in print, online or on the airwaves,” she said from the pulpit of the historic Metropolitan AME Church. “Let us continue to shine a light on our mission and uplift the voices that need to be heard. Let us leave here today, reminded that journalism is not a profession. It is a purpose. Just as the Black church has been our refuge and foundation, the Black press will continue to be our mirror, our metaphor and our movement.”

The Rev. William H. Lamar IV urged the congregation to appreciate that today’s Black press represents the “same love that the Black press used from 1870 to 1930, when mothers and fathers and children had not seen each other, when enslavement pulled us apart — you can find the ads in these papers, mothers looking for sons, son looking for father. Their work is rooted in love for us and love for people and we must support them.”

The event — which included a shout-out by Barnes to the watchdog role played by Journal-isms — was co-sponsored by the Washington Association of Black Journalists, the Informer, and the Baltimore Afro-American. Benjamin Chavis, president of the National Newspaper Publishers Association, trade association for the Black press, sat near the pulpit. Members of the day’s congregation ranged from representatives of The Final Call, the Nation of Islam newspaper, to Julia Wilson, dean of Hampton University’s Scripps Howard School of Journalism and Communications.

It followed a Howard University commemoration of Black Press Week, at which “Chavis called for a renewed partnership between the Black Press, Black churches, HBCUs, and Black-owned businesses to proactively plan for the future rather than merely react to oppression. He urged publishers and clergy in every city to organize mass meetings — historic gatherings that have long served as mobilization platforms for Black communities — to discuss progress and collective action,” Stacy M. Brown reported for NNPA.

K.C. Startup Claims Role in City Manager’s Suspension

The Kansas City Defender, a Black online startup, is claiming a role in the suspension this month of the city manager. It had reported shortly before the suspension that, “As Kansas City’s most powerful unelected official, Brian Platt (pictured at left, with Mayor Quinton Lucas. Credit Twitter) has built his career on lies, retaliation, corruption, targeting Black employees, women, and whistleblowers who dared to challenge him. This exposé uncovers the shocking truth behind Platt’s reign.”

As the Kansas City Star reported March 6, Lucas announced that day that Platt was suspended with pay, an action that “comes one day after the former director of communications for the Kansas City government won a whistleblower lawsuit against the city, alleging that Platt demoted him in 2022 because he resisted Platt’s encouragement to lie to the news media. In a letter to Platt shared with members of the media Thursday night, Lucas wrote that the Kansas City Council will make a decision on Platt’s employment status during the council’s March 20 meeting.”

Ryan A. Sorrell (pictured), The Defender’s founder and editor in chief, reported earlier March 6, “Taxpayers are footing a nearly $1 million bill to pay for the lies, corruption, and retaliation of KC City Manager Brian Platt. Not a dime of this money will fix potholes, fund schools, or improve public safety. Instead, it will settle the cost of his abuse of power.

“In reporting this piece, numerous City Hall employees, nonprofit leaders, and even council members spoke candidly off the record, describing a pervasive climate of racism, fear, and intimidation under Platt’s leadership. Yet, many refused to go on record — not because they lacked evidence, but because they feared retribution.”

How did Sorrell know that his report led to the mayor’s action? “I have several sources inside city hall (as well as on the city council) who told me it was a significant contributor to his suspension,” Sorrell messaged Journal-isms. “It is of course impossible to prove the piece single-handedly caused the suspension, but one city council member told me she sent my reporting to the entire council and the mayor and that many people in city hall were sharing it and she believes it was one of the key reasons (in addition to the lawsuit settlement) that Platt was suspended.”

The Pivot Fund, created to support journalism in marginalized communities, championed the Defender’s work. “The Kansas City Defender is proving why independent, community-driven journalism matters. With the support of The Pivot Fund, they continue to break stories, expose corruption, and ensure the public has access to information that empowers them to demand change,” it said Wednesday.

The Defender also won praise in 2022, when it reported that a 22-year-old Black woman had been abducted and tortured for weeks and locked in a basement in a suburb of Kansas City, Mo., while police and mainstream media dismissed Black concerns that a serial killer was targeting Black women and girls.

Don Lemon Says He Was Sexually Harassed at CNN

“ Don Lemon (pictured) accused unnamed CNN colleagues for the first time Sunday of sexually harassing him during his 17-year tenure at the news network, recalling one specific instance that saw a female staffer tweak his nipples in the company’s Atlanta cafeteria. Another involved an off-site encounter with a female staffer when he was still ‘so new’ at the company,” Benjamin Lindsay reported Monday for The Wrap.

“Joining Bill Maher for his ‘Club Random’ podcast in a nearly two-hour conversation, the journalist said that he never went to HR or management over such instances because he feared ‘they may find a way to get rid of me.’ (Lemon was fired from the network in 2023 amid accusations of misogyny and workplace misconduct.)

“ ‘I have been harassed by women and men in the work[place]. And some things are not even — it’s ridiculous,’ Lemon said. ‘Now look, there are some things that are really egregious, but not everything is Harvey Weinstein-level.’

“That’s when Lemon shared details of encounters with two women he worked with in Atlanta. One involved a ‘young lady’ who comically ‘tweaked my nipples’ in the cafeteria and exclaimed ‘Oh, it’s cold in here!’

“ ‘I said, “OK, you realize if I did that they’d be walking me out the door right now?’ But I didn’t care to go to HR,’ Lemon recalled. ‘I didn’t say anything because I was just like, it’s a double standard, it’s fine.’ . . . .”

“John had the ability to make WTOK feel like home away from home for so many young broadcasters as they got their start in this business,” said current WTOK News Director Lauren Carson. (Credit: WTOK/YouTube)

John Johnson, Miss. News Director, Dies at 77

John Johnson, a retired news director at WTOK-TV in Meridian, Miss., died Monday at a local nursing home “after a lengthy battle with an extended illness,” the station reported. He was 77.

“He was a Meridian legend who worked at WTOK for over 32 years. His last day was December 30, 2016.

“ ‘He had a way to make people feel comfortable and that they mattered,’ said Tim Walker, a former WTOK General Manager. ‘He was just an all-around good person that shaped WTOK’s image in the community and he had an ability to make people feel that they were the most important person in that moment.’

“ ‘I don’t know that there’s anybody who’s had a bigger impact on my adult life than John Johnson,’ were the words of former WTOK News Anchor Wade Phillips. ‘I think back not on stories we did or big events we covered. I think back on the hours and hours that I spent in his office talking about life. He cared about people. He wanted to know about your family and your kids. He cared about that far more than he cared about what the next news story was. I think that’s his legacy. He just cared about people.’ ”

Although Johnson was African American, most accounts of his death did not mention his race and the station was not immune from protests from the local Black community. Meridian is 62.5 percent Black and surrounding Lauderdale County is 45.1 percent Black. The ABC affiliate is owned by Gray Television.

“Protesters spent about two hours Wednesday voicing their disapproval of what they call unfair treatment of African Americans by the media in general and WTOK in particular,” the station reported in June 2016, shortly before his December retirement. “The protest comes in response to Wednesday’s story about a video showing a black teenager who appears to have been beaten, and continuing to be beaten while having racial slurs thrown at him. They say they are upset about the timing of the release of the story. . . .”

Johnson was a 1968 graduate of Rust College in Holly Springs, and a graduate of the University of Iowa with an advanced degree in 1972.

“Johnson has served on several national, state and local boards during his career,” the Meridian Star reported in 2011. “He currently serves on the Board of Trustees at Meridian Community College. He was president of the board in 2010-11. He is also a member of the Community Foundation of East Mississippi and West Alabama. In 2006, he was inducted into the Mississippi Associated Press Broadcasters Hall of Fame, a result of his work leading WTOK-TV’s top rated news department for 26 years, and for his work with Mississippi Public Broadcasting.”

Film on Media Greed to Be Streamed for Free

In 2012, Greg Moore was leading the Denver Post to what would be Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of a mass shooting inside a Century 16 movie theater in Aurora, Colo., when the hedge fund that owned the Post, Alden Global Capital, told him that profits weren’t sufficient and asked Moore to submit a plan to cut costs.

“I can’t believe that in the middle of covering the biggest story, one of the biggest stories in Colorado history, I’ve got a guy sending me a note asking me to come up with a plan to cut some of the very people who are working on this story,” Moore says in the documentary film, “Stripped for Parts: American Journalism on the Brink.” “I’m just not going to do it.”

Moore (pictured) left the Denver Post in 2016, and he is part of a documentary that asks, “Who will control the future of America’s news ecosystem: Wall Street billionaires concerned only with profit, or those who see journalism as an essential public service, the lifeblood of our democracy?”

Others of color in the film include Jiquanda Johnson of FlintBeat.com in Michigan, Fernando Diaz, editor and publisher of the Chicago Reporter, and Elizabeth Hernandez, reporter for the Denver Post.

As the film points out, hedge funds interested first and foremost in building wealth don’t see communities of color as profit centers that will attract advertisers, hence this much-needed continuing discussion about which media business models can best serve the public interest.

Producer-director Rick Goldsmith, a two-time Academy Award nominee, tells Journal-isms, “We’ll also be having our first national virtual screening on March 29th at 8pm ET/5pm PT in partnership with the Media And Democracy Project — a non-partisan, all-volunteer, grassroots civic membership organization fighting for a more informative and pro-democracy media operating in the public interest.”

A notice says, “The screening will be followed by a discussion with Director Rick Goldsmith and others about the loss of local journalism jobs, its impact on our democracy and actions you can take to FIGHT FOR local journalism. If the film hasn’t made it to your area yet, this is a great opportunity to catch it. Register here.“

Short Takes

  • Kimberly R. Moffitt (pictured), PhD, dean of the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences and professor of Language, Literacy, and Culture at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, has been named dean of Howard University’s Cathy Hughes School of Communications, effective Aug. 1, the university announced Tuesday. A Howard alumna, Moffitt is also president of the National Association for Media Literacy Education. She is co-editor of Critical Studies in Media Communication and has authored or co-edited five books, including “Blackberries and Redbones: Critical Articulations of Black Hair and Body Politics in Africana Communities” and “Michelle Obama and the FLOTUS Effect: Platform, Presence and Agency.” Moffitt succeeds interim dean Chukwuka “Chuka” Onwumechili, Ph.D., and Gracie Lawson-Borders, Ph.D., who left the post last year.
  • The faculty at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism declared in a statement Friday that “many of our international students have felt afraid to come to classes and to events on campus” after Homeland Security seized and detained Mahmoud Khalil (pictured), a recent graduate of Columbia’s School of Public and International Affairs, without charging him with any crime.” The faculty members said they “are witnessing and experiencing an alarming chill. We write to affirm our commitment to supporting and exercising First Amendment rights for students, faculty, and staff on our campus — and, indeed, for all.”
  • Family and friends gathered March 7 at services for Walt Elder (pictured), one of the first Black television reporters in Atlanta. Elder died Feb. 22 at 81. “Before joining WSB-TV Action News, Elder worked as a reporter, talk show host and anchor on WQXI radio in Atlanta. He became the second black male anchor/reporter at WSB-TV following Lo Jelks,” wrote Atlanta journalist Stan E. Washington. “Jelks anchored a five minute newscast at the end of the broadcast day and since he was black his face was not shown.” The National Association of Black Journalists added, “He made history again as WSB’s first Black manager of public affairs. This role allowed him to influence programming and news coverage to better serve the local community and beyond.”
  • The Asian American Journalists Association Monday announced publication of “Intersections: A Journalistic History of Asian Pacific America,” in partnership with UCLA’s Asian American Studies Center. “The book chronicles Asian American and Pacific Islander history through pivotal events where AAPI journalists and AAJA members played crucial roles, often being the first to speak out. Chapters range from the Los Angeles Uprisings to the murder of Vincent Chin to the Maui wildfires of 2023. The book also features profiles of key figures including Connie Chung, Helen Zia and Ann Curry, highlighting their contributions in shaping AAPI history. ” Featured authors include Featured authors include Jon Funabiki, professor emeritus of San Francisco State University, and Julie Ha, director of Free Chol Soo Lee.

  • “Hear me on this: Stephen A. Smith (pictured) is no joke,” Democratic party strategist Kurt Bardella wrote March 10 for the Los Angeles Times. “Democrats, do not underestimate him. Do not mock him. Do not take him lightly. Do not ignore him.Do I think the face of ESPN (who, according to multiple sources, just inked a five-year, $100-million contract extension) and the most influential man in sports media is going to run for president on your ticket? No, I do not. But he’s not wrong when he boasts that he could wipe the floor in a debate with just about any other prospective Democratic candidate (Pete Buttigieg and New York’s Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez being the exceptions). . . . . So instead of dismissing or mocking or ignoring Smith, Democrats would be well-served to study him. You heard me. . . .”
  • The AI Community Engagement Lab at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY, developed in partnership with the Center for Community Media and with support from the Walton Family Foundation, on March 6 introduced a “phenomenal group of 18 journalists, editors, publishers, and media leaders. This group will explore how AI can help community newsrooms strengthen audience engagement, build trust, and expand their reach. . . .”

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