Culture

President Underscores His Animus on Twitter “With the ongoing ISIS and Ebola crisis, President Obama surely has a lot on his mind,” Jordan Chariton wrote Thursday for TVNewser. “And yesterday, apparently Fox News was too. “In two separate speeches, the president cited the network during stump speeches. ” ‘There’s a reason, fewer Republicans, you hear…

Honored by N.Y. Black Journalists, Editor Urges Outreach Dean Baquet, the first African American top editor of the New York Times, told black journalists Tuesday that his biggest concern, “besides the diversity of our staff, is the diversity of our audience.” He said, “I’m worried that the American press is on its way to becoming…

Online News Assn. Conference Makes Strides in Diversity When the Online News Association ended its three-day convention in Chicago on Saturday, 35 percent of the presenters had been people of color, and half were women, according to its organizers. That’s the most diversity the ONA — founded in 1999 and the newest kid on the…

Alessandra Stanley Tried “to Make a Profound Point” New York Times Executive Editor Dean Baquet made his first public comments on the “Angry Black Woman” story, telling Public Editor Margaret Sullivan in a blog item Wednesday that writer Alessandra Stanley “was trying to make a profound point” about breaking down stereotypes of black women, but…

Racial “Blind Spots” Acknowledged at N.Y. Times The culture editor of the New York Times said Monday of the criticism over the Times story that called television series creator Shonda Rhimes an “angry black woman”: Public Editor Responds on “Angry Black Woman” Story “This is a signal to me that we have to constantly remind ourselves…

Questionable Framing of Story on “Scandal” Creator It was just three weeks ago that the New York Times was vilified over a story calling the slain 18-year-old Michael Brown “no angel,” a mistake partly attributed to insensitive editing. On Friday, critics paid and unpaid leaped on a Times story in which the error was not just…

“Their Communities Not Paid Much Attention in the News” “The predicted digital divide, in which people of color would be left behind in the use of technology, is not playing out as many of those forecasting the digital future anticipated, at least not when it comes to news, according to a new survey released today,”…

St. Louis Paper Compiles “Most Comprehensive” Account The St. Louis Post-Dispatch told readers Sunday that it had “put together the most comprehensive public account chronicling the police response” in the hours after the fatal police shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., last month. “To determine why the body remained on the street for…

Wendi C. Thomas Leaves Commercial Appeal Wendi C. Thomas, who was reassigned in June from the columnist’s job she held for 10 years, resigned from the Commercial Appeal in Memphis, Tenn., on Thursday, effective immediately. She was the newspaper’s only columnist of color and only female columnist. Thomas’ departure continues a depressing trend. Since 2008,…

In Prime Time, Obama Declares Campaign Against Sunni Militants Outrage at the beheading of two American journalists buttressed public support for the kind of U.S. action against terrorism outlined Wednesday night by President Obama, according to commentators analyzing the president’s speech. “The public has decided that people who cut off the heads of journalists are…