Culture

UPDATE: “Democratic gubernatorial candidate Matt Entenza picked Robyne Robinson, who left her anchor post at Fox 9 Wednesday, to run on his ticket,” the Star Tribune of Minneapolis reported on Thursday. “The pick, announced in person on the Minnesota Capitol steps a few minutes after Entenza announced it on Twitter, ended a week’s worth of…

A handful of Malcolm X scholars say the 45-year-old mystery of who really pulled the trigger and killed the iconic black leader has been solved, and are wondering why the news media aren’t giving it more attention. Abdur-Rahman Muhammad, a historian who writes for the Woodson Review and other publications of the respected Association for…

Rand Paul Cancels Out on “Meet the Press” Rand Paul, engulfed in controversy over his views on the 1964 Civil Rights Act 24 hours after he won the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate from Kentucky, has canceled his scheduled appearance Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” His campaign spokesman “said he was exhausted and…

Richard Prince’s Book Notes™: Compelling Nonfiction After 44 years behind bars, the nation’s most famous prison journalist tells his story. A black journalist reaches the highest reaches of the New York Times newsroom, only to topple in a tragedy of Shakespearean dimensions. Women examine their multifaceted status in 21st century journalism. Now it can be…

Seattle News Director Quits, Assignment Editor Fired The Seattle news director whose station turned down the video of a police beating resigned, and an assignment manager has been fired, Seattle news organizations reported on Thursday. “I want to let you all know today is my last day here at Q13 FOX. As the leader of…

Debra J. Dickerson, the freelance essayist and author who gained prominence in 2007 by helping to ignite the debate over whether Barack Obama was “black enough,” is telling readers of her blog that she is now “homeless.” “I can’t know why any random street person is destitute but I know why I am: my divorce,”…

The late CBS correspondent Ed Bradley was fond of saying, “When I get to the pearly gates and St. Peter asks what have I done to gain entry, I’ll say, `Have you seen my Lena Horne interview?’ “ In that classic 1981 piece for “60 Minutes” [video], “he got the legendary performer to candidly discuss…

After two years in the top editorial job at the nation’s largest English-language magazine targeting Hispanics, Mimi Valdés is out in a shakeup at Latina. The former editor of Vibe magazine “had tried to take the Hispanic-aimed magazine more upscale, featuring more fashion, beauty and luxury products in the pages,” Lucia Moses wrote in Mediaweek.…

NBC and ABC demonstrated this week that newsmagazines have not lost their ability to be provocative — or offensive, depending on your point of view. Detroit leaders, accompanied by Vickie Thomas, president of the Detroit Chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists, and Bankole Thompson, senior editor of the Michigan Chronicle, a black weekly,…

The Detroit Chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists issued this statement on Saturday: The Detroit Chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists does not necessarily dispute the accuracy of the narrow scope of what was reported in NBC’s “Dateline” piece, but is concerned about the balance of its content. “Any journalist working…