Culture

500 Urged to Shine a Light, Like Michel du Cille His photojournalist wife wanted friends and colleagues to know that “If he were here today, he’d be reminding us of the real story: 8,429 lives lost to Ebola and counting. “He’d be saying, ‘Remember the real story. Remember the thousands of people in Liberia, Sierra…

VH1 Says “No Mas” on “Sorority Sisters” Members of black Greek organizations who were offended by “Sorority Sisters,” a VH1 reality show that they said degraded them, are nearing a victory. “VH1 has finally said no mas to its detractors: the remaining three episodes of Atlanta-based ‘Sorority Sisters’ are being burned off three in a…

Paris Overshadows Boko Haram’s Biggest Massacre “France spent the weekend coming to terms with last week’s terror attacks in Paris that left 17 dead. The country mourned, and global leaders joined an estimated 3.7 million people on its streets to march in a show of unity,” Maeve Shearlaw reported Monday for Britain’s Guardian newspaper. “In…

“Many Leaped to Conclusions Often Abetted by Social Media” Gilbert Bailon, editor of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, was chosen for the Benjamin C. Bradlee Editor of the Year Award last month by the National Press Foundation for leading the newspaper through the tumultuous events in Ferguson, Mo., last year and their aftermath. In this previously…

Death of 12 Seen as Attack on Press Freedom News organizations worldwide faced a dilemma about how to portray cartoons of Muhammad by the satirical French newspaper Charlie Hebdo after a deadly attack on its offices Wednesday. Some chose to respond by censoring or cropping out photos of the cartoons themselves, Rosie Gray and Ellie…

“Obviously Black” ESPN Trailblazer Dies of Cancer at 49 “Stuart Scott’s impact can be measured in Sunday’s outpouring of affection for him after news of his death, at 49 from cancer, broke,” Sean Gregory wrote Sunday for Time magazine. “It cut across all sports, all silos of American culture, from LeBron James to Tiger Woods…

Clifford Alexander Says Film Gets One Thing Wrong Clifford L. Alexander Jr. says nobody from the news media has asked him, but that anyone who says that President Lyndon B. Johnson was at odds with Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders over the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights…

A year in the quest for news media that look like America: 1. Ferguson 2. Cosby Found Guilty in Court of Public Opinion 3. Online Media, New Frontier, Take Heat on Diversity 4. The Numbers and the Layoffs 5. A Breakthrough in Minority Broadcast Ownership 6. MSNBC Chief Promises Change for Latinos 7. Dean Baquet…

Beverly Johnson Charges Surface Talk of Lies, Death Threats CNN replied Monday to a scathing letter from Bill Cosby’s lawyer accusing the network of unethical reporting tactics with a scathing letter of its own. The network’s lawyer ripped into the character of a former boyfriend of supermodel Beverly Johnson, who, following accusations by other women,…