Culture

Roanoke TV Reporter Was Threatened After WDBJ Killings A black television reporter in Roanoke, Va., who was threatened in the wake of the on-air killings of two WDBJ-TV reporters was granted a protective order Wednesday against the man who made the threats, Cameron Austin reported for the Roanoke Times. The order is to remain in…

Roanoke Television Station Secured Restraining Order Black journalists in Roanoke, Va., were threatened after the Aug. 26 shooting in which black former journalist Vester Lee Flanagan shot and killed a reporter and a photographer doing a live shot, and then killed himself, the news director at Roanoke’s WDBJ-TV said Saturday. One African American reporter from…

“Angry Black Woman” Line Laid Bare Lack of Diversity Wesley Morris, a black journalist who won the Pulitzer Prize for criticism in 2012 while at the Boston Globe, is joining the New York Times as a critic at large, the Times announced on Thursday. The Culture section of the Times came under fire last year…

The Worst-Reported Stories About Detroit The Toronto Star made this video in December to accompany a story about longtime Detroiters helping to revitalize their city. News reports neglect such residents in favor of stories about white newcomers, panelists said Saturday at a Detroit conference organized by Unity: Journalists for Diversity. Renewal Underway and Whites Get…

Women, LGBT People Benefit Most From Diversity Hiring The nation’s alternative news media — many of them spawned by the counterculture and devoted to progressive ideas — rate having a diverse staff important, yet “continue to be predominantly white, and if anything, are getting whiter,” according to a survey of 37 such media outlets by…

New Yorker Cover Imagines the Unimaginable for 2020 ‘Kanye West’s announcement of his intention to seek the Presidency reminds us that it’s not too early to start thinking about the 2020 campaign. (2016’s already old hat by now, anyway),’ Barry Blitt says about ‘2020 Vision,’ his cover for next week’s issue,” Mina Kaneko and Françoise…

Weatherman Challenged Downplaying of Anniversary Weatherman Al Roker’s “Wake Up With Al” show on the Weather Channel is being canceled. Perhaps coincidentally, perhaps not, the cancellation followed a dispute between Roker and David Clark, president of The Weather Company’s TV division, over a decision to downplay the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina’s landfall. The station…

Some on Right Link Reporting to Texas Deputy’s Slaying “Texas deputy Darren Goforth was shot ‘execution-style’ fifteen times while he was pumping gas on Friday night,” Aviva Shen wrote Monday for the progressive website ThinkProgress. “A suspect, who is black, is in custody and has been charged with capital murder. No motive has yet been…

News Director: “New Level of Expectation for Myself . . .” Just after midnight on the Gulf Coast 10 years ago on Friday, Hurricane Katrina reached Category 4 intensity with 145 mph winds. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin declared a mandatory evacuation order for the parish of Orleans. More than 1,800 people died after the…

The tragic killing of two Virginia television reporters Monday prompted commentaries reaffirming the need for gun control, bemoaning the frightening “dark side” of social media and noting the vulnerability of television news crews. But it was attention to the mental health of black journalists that prompted Jeffrey Ballou, a news editor at Al Jazeera English,…