From Glenn Beck to Rush Limbaugh to Joe Wilson, the "Obama's a Nazi" comments, the monkey cartoon, and the watermelon patch-at-the-White House jokes ... is it so hard to believe that a former president who has as steep an education in racial politics as anybody alive is on the money here? So here's the question, America: What is it about the topic of race that makes us go running for the closet and away from any useful conversation? Why can't we face this like we do terrorism or the swine flu or the crashing of the stock market?
Call it the Indian Health Service paradox. The IHS is the largest
direct provider of health care in the U.S. Public Health System. Yet
it’s an agency either unfairly maligned as a “disaster” or absent from
the discourse about health care reform. That’s too bad because the
agency is a sustainable model for universal care.
Judge Sonia Sotomayor is now poised to become the first-ever Hispanic
on the U.S. Supreme Court. Looking back at the coverage of the
confirmation hearings, though, I wonder if journalism fell short of its
own responsibilities to do justice to the democratic process.
I surprised myself when I told a friend that I don’t call myself a journalist. I mean, it’s in our blood, isn’t it? With 25 years in newspapers, it is in mine. It’s been a year since I was laid off from the San Jose Mercury News, where I had, by turns, been an editor, reporter and metro columnist for 11 years. Yet I sign my e-mail correspondence “Writer, Researcher, Consultant.” That’s what I do nowadays.
Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism has named the Chauncey Bailey Project the 2009 Paul Tobenkin Memorial Award winner. The project was started to probe the 2007 assassination of Oakland Post editor Chauncey Bailey, who was investigating a community empowerment enterprise called Your Black Muslim Bakery in Oakland, California. The Tobenkin Memorial Award is given annually by the Graduate School of Journalism to recognize courageous work on racial discrimination and intolerance. 
The American Society of Newspaper Editors released its annual census of newsroom diversity last week. The survey recorded the steepest one-year decline in newspapers since it began 30 years ago. According to ASNE 5,900 newsroom jobs were lost last year, as the number of journalists declined by 11.3 percent. The percentage of minorities in newsrooms slipped by .11 percent. The Maynard Institute asked some industry leaders to comment on the results. We'll run their remarks over the next several days, please add your thoughts in the comment section at the end.
OAKLAND — As Devaughndre Broussard spent hours on Tuesday telling a
grand jury details about the killing of journalist Chauncey Bailey and
two other men, his mother waited outside a closed door and said she
still doubts her son pulled the trigger.
Yusuf Bey IV kept a hit list of people "he wanted to get rid
of" who had "done stuff to" Your Black Muslim Bakery, according to a
statement Devaughndre Broussard gave authorities in preparation for
grand jury testimony next week. Bey IV kept the list attached to a clipboard. Prominent among the
targets was Oakland Post Editor Chauncey Bailey, Broussard said in a
recorded interview. He said he didn't know who else was named on the
document, but that Bey IV identified enemies for "reprisal, revenge."
Newspapers are dying. It's like watching a terminally ill loved one wither away before your eyes. You are simultaneously filled with dread even as you wish they would just go, already, and end the suffering.
It seems that while those of us who follow the business of news
media were fixated on News Corp's take over of Dow Jones-The Wall
Street Journal in 2007, the multinational media conglomerate was
quietly acquiring a number of neighborhood newspapers in New York City.
LGBT status is not a "background" issue. It is part of the rich, diverse essence of who you are and of what you bring to a newsroom.
With scant warning and no praise, the management of Newsday last week cast off the column written by Les Payne on its opinion pages after a 28-year-run.
In selecting David Gregory as the next moderator of "Meet the Press,"
as has been reported, NBC missed an opportunity to keep up with a
changing America and respond to calls for greater diversity.
Barack Obama’s racial identity continues to be covered as a news
story by mainstream press organizations.
John Bodette, executive editor of the St. Cloud (Minn.) Times, and
Charles Pittman, senior vice president for publishing at Schurz
Communications, have been named winners of the seventh annual Robert G.
McGruder Awards for Diversity Leadership. (08/20/08)
We ask ourselves...Is it true? Is it fair? Is it necessary? 
In an echo of the Arizona Project that investigated the murder of slain journalist Don Bolles in 1976, Bay Area news outlets, journalism schools and media groups have joined forces to complete the unfinished work of murdered Oakland journalist Chauncey Bailey. (07/31/08)
I am proud to call Sharon Rosenhause, who retires Thursday after more than 40 years in newspapers, my friend.
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JOIN OUR BLOG DISCUSSION
Come join Sally Lehrman, a professor and journalist who writes regularly on race, gender and identity issues and Maynard Institute President Dori J. Maynard as we talk about the best and worst of media coverage and diversity. Add comments and give us your thoughts.
Come join Sally Lehrman, a professor and journalist who writes regularly on race, gender and identity issues and Maynard Institute President Dori J. Maynard as we talk about the best and worst of media coverage and diversity. Add comments and give us your thoughts.
BLACK HISTORY MONTH
The Maynard Institute gears up for its coming celebration of Black History Month
Much of today's media coverage breaks the country into black and white, North and South, male and female. Doing so fails to capture the complexity of American life that journalists need to portray.
Based on the late Robert C. Maynard's belief that the five fault lines of race, class, gender, generation and geography are the most enduring forces shaping lives, experiences and social tensions in this country, the Maynard Institute's Fault Lines framework helps journalists build a more diverse source list, have more voices in stories and determine which fault lines are at work in complex issues.
[more...]
Based on the late Robert C. Maynard's belief that the five fault lines of race, class, gender, generation and geography are the most enduring forces shaping lives, experiences and social tensions in this country, the Maynard Institute's Fault Lines framework helps journalists build a more diverse source list, have more voices in stories and determine which fault lines are at work in complex issues.
[more...]
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| Black History Project Stories of the African American journalists who broke into media during the '60s and '70s. |
Caldwell Journals An account of the pioneers who broke the color barrier in America's newspapers |
Ed Bradley View video from his interview as part of the Black Journalists Movement Project |
Black History Month and Beyond documents and preserves the stories of those courageous African American journalists who broke into general circulation media during the turbulent 1960s and 1970s. [more...]
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| Martin Reynolds View an interview with Martin Reynolds, Managing Editor at the Oakland Tribune. |
Media Academy View video from the Maynard Media Academy at Harvard University |
Chauncey Bailey View video and more from the Chauncey Bailey Project |
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| History Project Stories of the African American journalists who broke into media during the '60s and '70s. |
Caldwell Journals An account of the pioneers who broke the color barrier in America's newspapers |
Ed Bradley View video from his interview as part of the Black Journalists Movement Project |
