Culture

“People’s Lawyer” Accused of Bilking Lenders of $10 Million “A federal jury convicted former national radio host Warren Ballentine on Friday of participating in Chicago-area mortgage fraud schemes that bilked lenders out of nearly $10 million,” Jason Meisner reported for the Chicago Tribune. “The jury deliberated about an hour before finding Warren Ballentine guilty on…

Debate Questioners Overwhelmingly White Men “The journalists questioning candidates in this fall’s biggest campaign debates are overwhelmingly white men, according to an msnbc analysis of the nation’s most contested Senate and gubernatorial races,” Krystal Ball and Anne L. Thompson reported Wednesday for MSNBC.com. “In the closest [Senate] races, 7 out of 10 of debate moderators and panelists were men,…

Fabled Editor, Dead at 93, Acknowledged His Ignorance After Benjamin C. Bradlee entered hospice care in mid-September, this columnist asked a few female reporters and black journalists who worked under Bradlee in the Washington Post of the 1970s to assess him, anticipating the inevitable. Most declined. It is clear, however, that while the Bradlee era…

Universities of Ga., South Fla. Cancel Invitations to Africans “Officials at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg uninvited 14 journalists from African countries to visit for three weeks on Oct. 31 for the annual Edward R. Murrow Visiting Journalists program. The program is organized by the US Department of State for foreign journalists to…

Journalists Say Network Retaliates After Criticism Two days after the National Association of Black Journalists issued a statement saying it “is concerned about the atmosphere for African Americans at CNN,” a representative of the network told NABJ President Bob Butler that the network was withdrawing its support of the association’s 2015 convention, Butler said in…

Velez-Mitchell, Darius Walker Hit in Ongoing Staff Cuts “Even as Time Warner executives touted it as ‘the global gold standard in news organizations’ at its investor meeting Wednesday, CNN continued to restructure and lay off staff to meet its ‘Turner 2020’ budget targets, Alex Weprin reported Wednesday for capitalnewyork.com “Among the changes: ‘Crossfire’ has officially…

Photographers Group Fights “Catch and Release” Tactic In a richly illustrated edition of News Photographer magazine, a publication of the National Press Photographers Association, reporter Sherry Ricchiardi outlines police bullying of journalists in Ferguson, Mo., including a tactic NPPA’s lawyer describes as “catch and release.” “The police don’t care about making charges that stick. They…

Don’t Blame Houston Listeners, Some Tell Radio One Beyoncé fans might be ecstatic over Radio One’s decision to drop its boldly formatted but low-rated all-news Houston radio station, but others are challenging the black-controlled network’s assertion that Houstonians just weren’t ready for so much journalism. For the moment, at least, the station is all Beyoncé all…

CNN’s Racial “Atmosphere” Worries NABJ Fired Black Producer Files $5 Million Lawsuit A longtime CNN employee’s $5 million wrongful-termination and discrimination lawsuit, filed Monday, is the latest reason that the National Association of Black Journalists “is concerned about the atmosphere for African Americans at CNN,” the association said in a statement Wednesday. Erik Pedersen reported…

Magazine Trashed Book on Forced Free Labor, U.S. Economy On Sept. 4, the British magazine the Economist published a rare apology and disowned a book review that criticized a new perspective on slavery that, the reviewer said, gave too much credence to the words of black slaves and not enough to whites. It was only…