Culture

Slaver Is Omitted, His Story “Just Wasn’t as Interesting” Actor Ben Affleck asked Henry Louis Gates Jr. to edit out the fact that one of his ancestors owned slaves from Gates’ PBS series “Finding Your Roots,” according to messages in the massive November hacking of emails at Sony’s movie studio. The information did not appear…

Analysis Finds Even Those Convicted Serve Little Time “Among the thousands of fatal shootings at the hands of police since 2005, only 54 officers have been charged, a Post analysis found,” a headline read above a weekend enterprise story in the Washington Post. “Most were cleared or acquitted in the cases that have been resolved.”…

Two Would-Be NABJ Presidents Join the Discussion Unity: Journalists for Diversity, the coalition given up for dead by its creators after the National Association of Black Journalists and National Association of Hispanic Journalists pulled out, demonstrated Friday that the appetite for an umbrella group to work for newsroom diversity still exists—even if there is no…

Video Responsible for Quick Firing of S.C. Policeman The news competition was fierce on a day when the suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing trial was found guilty, but “NBC Nightly News” anchor Lester Holt had set up shop Wednesday in North Charleston, S.C. He delivered the goods, snaring the first interview with the bystander…

Reporter Persuades Staff to Dish on Life in the Mansion A White House correspondent’s participation in a luncheon with Michelle Obama — at which she noticed the banter between the first lady and a White House butler — has led to a book in which members of the White House domestic staff go “dishing about…

Should Media Use Mug Shots as the “Best Available Photo”? Stories on websites and blogs portray it as a cut-and-dried case of journalistic racism. “These 2 sets of pictures are everything you need to know about race, crime, and media bias,” read the headline Wednesday on vox.com. Two sets of suspects are depicted from the…

Nigerian Vote Was Its Largest to Play Out on Social Media “Finally, Nigeria has a new president,” Maeve Shearlaw reported Tuesday for Britian’s Guardian. “Muhammadu Buhari, a former army general and reformed democrat, beat the sitting president Goodluck Jonathan in the most closely contested election in the country’s history. It was also the first to be played out at such…

Trevor Noah Could Puncture One-Dimensional View of Africa “In his 2012 comedy special That’s Racist, one of Trevor Noah’s funniest stories is about AIDS, and other dumb questions Americans ask Africans,” Arit John wrote Monday for Bloomberg News. ” ‘The best ignorant conversation I had was in California, in a place called Malibu,’ he tells…

President: Emulate “Humanizing” of Drug Criminals President Obama told the creator of the legendary HBO drama “The Wire” on Thursday that efforts to reform the criminal justice system should include local newscasts showing the humanity of those charged with nonviolent drug crimes. “Part of the challenge is going to be making sure, number one, we…

President: Emulate “Humanizing” of Drug Criminals Simon, a onetime Baltimore Sun reporter, told the president, “The guy who was the model for the character Omar in ‘The Wire’ was a real guy named Donny Anders. I never thought I’d be saying his name in the White House. He’s a guy who lived the life on…