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February 2017

Why Trump loves to hate the media

[Commentary] President Donald Trump seems to have three reasons for attacking the press. One is an effort to discredit media criticism, especially of Trump’s own falsehoods, exaggerations and misleading statements. After Trump’s recent news press conference, The Post’s fact checkers — Glenn Kessler and Michelle Ye Hee Lee — found 15 examples of falsehoods or dubious claims. If people don’t believe the press, findings such as these will matter less, if at all. The second reason is an effort to associate all opposition to him with despised media “elites” so that their unpopularity rubs off on his other critics. But Trump’s final reason for attacking the press may be the most powerful. He seems to enjoy it. He likes denouncing journalists as dishonest scum of the Earth. It’s invigorating. Trump can’t be a unifying figure when he’s having so much fun being divider in chief.

Five ways President Trump can become media literate

[Commentary] With cries of “fake news” coming from all sides, schools are stepping up — teaching media literacy to help students distinguish rumor from fact, hoax from reality. As President Trump’s bizarre suggestion of a recent terrorist attack in Sweden proved recently, he needs a crash course. We’re here to help.
1. Compare and contrast information sources.
2. Don’t share without verifying.
3. If you put out misinformation, correct it quickly.
4. Be skeptical.
5. Use critical thinking

FCC Receives 106 Complaints on Madonna’s Speech at Women’s March

Madonna stirred up controversy in Jan when she took the stage to address a massive crowd at the Women’s March on Washington in a speech featuring three F-bombs and musings of “blowing up the White House.” The networks that aired that speech, namely CNN and MSNBC, received a lot of flak for the pop star’s words: The Federal Communications Commission received 106 complaints from viewers nationwide about Madonna’s speech. The complaints primarily targeted the networks’ failure to implement a delay to censor potential vulgar language when they picked up Madonna’s Jan 21 speech, which came one day after President Donald Trump’s inauguration. Seventy-four of the complaints mentioned CNN, while 21 complaints targeted MSNBC’s failure to bleep Madonna’s swearing. One complaint from Missouri questioned why CBS aired the speech and five mentioned C-SPAN.

Former FCC Commissioner Gloria Tristani Joins National Hispanic Media Coalition as Special Policy Advisor

The National Hispanic Media Coalition announced that former Commissioner Gloria Tristani of the Federal Communications Commission will be joining NHMC as the new Special Policy Advisor. In this role, Tristani will further NHMC’s work to bridge the digital divide and advocate for responsible media that is inclusive of Latino voices.

Tristani comes to NHMC from Spiegel & McDiarmid LLP, where she represented the interests of clients including noncommercial radio stations, public, educational and governmental access channels, local and municipal governments, rural electric cooperatives and non-profit groups. She also served as president of the Benton Foundation, where she educated policy-makers, academics and public interest advocates on communications policy. As an FCC Commissioner from 1997 to 2001, Tristani sought to accelerate broadband deployment to rural and other underserved areas; was an advocate for the “E-Rate” program, which provides discounted Internet access to schools and libraries; and supported the FCC’s Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) rules and policies to enhance minority and women ownership in the communications industry.

4 steps newsrooms are taking to boost diversity

Here are four steps newsrooms are taking to boost diversity:
Design fellowship, internship, and classroom opportunities geared towards people of color.
Open up new pipelines for talent.
Connect with the communities we cover.
Train your internal talent and groom them for leadership roles.

Journalism and Race: ‘Everyone genuinely seems to care. Collectively, not much changes.’

[Commentary] The decade of the 1980s brought more diversity to the New York Times and most American media than at any point in the nation’s history. It was a tough fight against strong foes, we found: It turned out that all efforts and programs to fight and reduce racial discrimination in the workplace faced interminable resistance that rendered questionable results. I cite my career in journalism, particularly my work in affirmative action, as living example of the contortions that the battles to break down racial and racist barriers have gone through the past few decades. I, for one, never dreamed my chosen profession would be confronting the exact same racial issues in the 21st century as it did in mid-20th century and earlier periods.

[Paul Delaney is an award-winning reporter, editor, and journalism educator. He worked for 23 years at The New York Times, and was a founding member of the National Association of Black Journalists.]

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