Culture

Body-Camera Footage Fuels Viewers’ Outrage Networks Show Video of Fatal Cincinnati Encounter Despite competing news from a heat wave and the discovery of  possible debris from the Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 that disappeared last year, the indictment of a University of Cincinnati police officer for fatally shooting an unarmed black man commanded prime real estate on…

From ASNE: “Our Industry Isn’t Making Progress” The percentage of journalists of color in newspaper and online newsrooms declined from 13.34 percent to 12.76 percent, the American Society of News Editors reported Tuesday, with the percentages down among Asian Americans, blacks, Hispanics and Native Americans, but a slight increase among those identifying as multiracial [PDF]. “The…

Hulk Hogan Fired After Reporters Expose Racist Rant Reporting by the National Enquirer — a supermarket tabloid long scorned by the mainstream media for its sensationalistic stories and questionable journalistic practices — was credited Friday with prompting World Wrestling Entertainment to terminate the contract of its star Terry Bollea, better known as Hulk Hogan. “Hulk…

Interaction in Police Stop, Past Suicide Attempt at Issue The ABC, CBS and NBC evening news programs led with new reports Wednesday about the death in jail of Sandra Bland after police released a video of her interaction with a Texas state trooper that prompted criticism that the officer had acted improperly. David Montgomery and Michael…

“It Was a Ragged, Besmirched Flag, but It Was His” An astonishing number of Southern newspapers are calling for retiring the Confederate battle flag from public places and for re-examining the monuments, memorials and street names that exalt Confederate figures. In Anniston, Ala., on Sunday, however, H. Brandt Ayers, publisher of the Anniston Star, mourned the…

Social Media Elevate Tragic Case of Sandra Bland A social media campaign demanding attention to the case of a black woman found dead in a Texas jail has borne fruit in the mainstream media, with pieces on Friday’s “CBS Evening News” (video) and “ABC World News,” but, according to Scott Eric Kaufman, writing Friday for Salon,…

No Timidity in President’s Condemnation of Rape April D. Ryan of American Urban Radio Networks broke through the flood of questions about the potentially historic Iran nuclear deal at President Obama’s news conference Wednesday and told Journal-isms that she was “shocked” by the president’s answer. Her question was about Bill Cosby. “Earlier this year, on…

Ta-Nehisi Coates, the national correspondent for the Atlantic, is becoming the go-to guy on race relations for television bookers. He has been getting near-unanimous praise for his new book “Between the World and Me,” and Benjamin Wallace-Wells of New York magazine recalled on Sunday that he also won the endorsement that meant more than any other. “Late this…

Networks Go Live for South Carolina’s Historic Move “At 10:10 a.m. Friday, the sun hit the east side of a Civil War monument at the Statehouse. The Confederate battle flag rustled in the wind above 10,000 people gathered to watch it come down,” Christina Elmore and Deanna Pan reported Friday for the Post and Courier…

Who’s Prosecuting? Almost Always, He’s White and Male Women of Color Said to Be Especially Vulnerable “While the nation’s prisoners are predominantly people of color, the officials who put them there are overwhelmingly white,” Emily Peck wrote Tuesday for the Huffington Post, “to an extent that surprises even those who study racial bias in the criminal justice…