Staff Picks

So here's the question, America

alowell — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 09:46:31 -0700

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?

The Indian Health Service Paradox

alowell — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 09:34:13 -0700

The federal government’s delivery of health care for American Indians and Alaskan Natives began more than two centuries ago, first in the War Department and then at the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Congress transferred those functions to the Indian Health Service in 1955. Today, the agency is a comprehensive health delivery system for nearly two million American Indians and Alaskan Natives, mostly living on Indian reservations and in rural communities in 36 states.

Ethical guidelines for covering "the other"

alowell — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 15:08:09 -0700

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.

Woo-Hoo Wednesdays

alowell — Wed, 06 May 2009 13:37:52 -0700

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.

Chauncey Bailey Project wins the 2009 Paul Tobenkin Memorial Award

alowell — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 09:11:05 -0700

Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism Announces 2009 Paul Tobenkin Memorial Award Winner for Best Reporting of Racial Bias and Intolerance

ASNE Report

alowell — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 14:11:53 -0700

A sickly ecosystem that lacks diversity cannot survive

Broussard tells jury about Bailey slaying

alowell — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 08:35:38 -0700

By Thomas Peele and Bob Butler, The Chauncey Bailey Project

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.

Suspect says Chauncey Bailey marked for death

alowell — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 13:38:26 -0700

OAKLAND — 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.

BREAKING NEWS: Charges looming against bakery leader in Chauncey Bailey killing

alowell — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 10:15:59 -0700

The Chauncey Bailey Project/ Oakland Tribune

OAKLAND — Murder charges against former Your Black Muslim Bakery leader Yusuf Bey IV and another man in the August 2007 killing of journalist Chauncey Bailey are imminent, law enforcement and other sources said Wednesday night.

Devaughndre Broussard, the only person charged with killing Bailey, has agreed to testify that Bey IV ordered the killing and that another of his followers, Antoine Mackey, helped carry out the hit. Bey IV and Mackey would face murder charges if indicted by a grand Jury.

Newspapers Are Dying

alowell — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 12:26:57 -0700

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.

I entered journalism all earnest and idealistic. A child of two social workers, I was determined to save the world. I would balance out negative stereotypes of people of color and find the humanity in a sometimes inhuman world. I would be a griot. A storyteller. A historian.

Take Note: News Corp Quietly Owns NYC Neighborhood Newspapers

woody — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 21:27:51 -0700

I am embarrassed as the founder of a digital media source of news and information that I am only now learning of something that happened in 2007.

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 - and Nervous

woody — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 21:04:52 -0700

LGBT-and Nervous

Dear Coach,

Les Payne's Too Quiet Departure

woody — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 14:53:31 -0800

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. Undoubtedly, the column's disappearance is mixed in with a collapse of the news business in general and the budget cuts faced by Newsday and most of its peers.

No diversity on Sunday mornings

woody — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 15:16:53 -0800

Another white male journalist is about to join the TV networks' Sunday morning lineup-and it's not as though there were no women, or men of color, to choose from. NBC demonstrates, at the very least, a surprising lack of imagination in this year of diversity.

Obama's True Colors, A look at the president's race

woody — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 09:49:22 -0800

In June 2008 producers and editors at a certain multinational cable news organization exchanged a thread of internal emails discussing how to racially refer to - define - then Senator Barack Obama. (In June he was the presumptive nominee for the Democratic ticket).

The content of the internal newsroom chatter was shared by a member of that organization with our managing editor, Sharon Toomer. We in turn surveyed our members and asked them to share their thoughts on:

John Bodette, Charles Pittman win diversity leadership awards

hrashid — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 09:57:25 -0700

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.

John Bodette (left) and Charles Pittman.

Don’t Question My Credibility Because I’m Black

hrashid — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 09:51:57 -0700

When I was an aspiring journalist back in the 1970's, a college professor taught a lesson that has shaped the kind of journalist I try to be today. He instructed our class to use three questions when approaching a story. Before writing or broadcasting the story we should ask ourselves: Is it true? Is it fair? Is it necessary?

NABJ Responds to Pat Buchanan Column, "Whitey Need Not Apply"

hrashid — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 18:12:55 -0700

Were our racial politics played out within the pages of DC Comics, Patrick J. Buchanan would likely be cast as the twisted Joker of Gotham City. This erstwhile politician, for reasons not entirely clear in a multicultural society, is allowed to haunt the panel of almost every TV talk show discussing the politics of the day.

The Chauncey Bailey Project

hrashid — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 15:53:56 -0700

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.

Diversity's queen Sharon Rosenhause

hrashid — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 12:15:58 -0700

I am proud to call Sharon Rosenhause, who retires Thursday after more than 40 years in newspapers, my friend.

I have worked for her and with her for nearly two decades in San Francisco and for the last seven years here at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

She has helped shape the latter part of my career and I am thankful she's been a part of my life and my family. My children call her Aunt Sharon.