Culture

ABC News officially named CBS correspondent Byron Pitts as an anchor and its chief national correspondent Monday, moving Pitts to a network where “diversity is as important as it is to me” and leaving one, he told Journal-isms, that has lost half the number of black correspondents it had when he arrived 16 years ago.…

In an era in which “quotas” is regarded as a dirty word, Chris Hayes, whose new MSNBC show, “All In with Chris Hayes,” debuts Monday at 8 p.m. Eastern, has no problem with the concept. “Earlier this month, after MSNBC announced it was giving Chris Hayes his own daily primetime news show, Media Matters published…

The National Association of Black Journalists has named Roland Martin its Journalist of the Year for 2013, the organization announced Wednesday, lining up behind the journalist and commentator after CNN refused to renew Martin’s contract. In another development, Soledad O’Brien, another journalist of color whose role at CNN is being diminished, included Martin on her…

Producers Told Not to Book Pundit as Contract Winds Down “The TV world can be so cold. When you’re out, you’re out. And sometimes sooner than you might expect,” Betsy Rothstein wrote Thursday for FishbowlDC. “There are 17 days left on Roland Martin’s CNN contract. But the powers that be appear to be shutting it…

The day before Roland Martin disclosed that his contract as a CNN commentator wasn’t being renewed, CNN President Jeff Zucker excitedly proclaimed his new hire Jake Tapper “the face of the new CNN.” “I can tell you from the position that I was in, the prospect of Jake Tapper being the face of the new…

Roland Martin told his Twitter followers Tuesday that his last day as a CNN commentator will be April 6, ending speculation about his fate under new CNN President Jeff Zucker. “Roland I am really missing not hearing your view point on @CNN,” a Twitter follower wrote. Martin replied, “Sorry. Can’t book myself. My last day…

Freelance journalist Nate Thayer prompted a debate last week when he publicly declined an opportunity to write for the Atlantic magazine for free. But in the arguments over the benefits of getting paid only with exposure, Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote on Wednesday, one element has been missing: race. “Two things helped me break through,” Coates wrote…

Edward Lewis Dismissive of Fired Editor’s Complaints Edward Lewis, one of the principal founders of Essence magazine, told Journal-isms Monday that he “absolutely” would again sell the publication to Time Inc. regardless of the complaints of fired editor-in-chief Constance C.R. White and readers who support her. “It’s very difficult for any size magazine to be…

Exit Followed Clashes Over Time Inc. View of Black Women Constance C.R. White has disclosed that her departure as editor-in-chief of Essence magazine was involuntary and the result of repeated clashes with Martha Nelson, the editor-in-chief of Time Inc. who White says sought to limit the way black women were portrayed. “I went in there…

N. Korea Trip Burnishes “the Worm’s” Reputation as Bizarre “Dennis Rodman’s trip to North Korea wasn’t an accident or an oddity, but the result of a gonzo media company facilitating a summit between a Basketball Hall of Famer and an oppressive dictator who grew up a Bulls fan. But making sense of it doesn’t equip…