NABJ in Talks With Kamala Harris Team Following Trump Panel; Co-Chair Speaks Out
"It's divisive," a card-carrying member of the National Association of Black Journalists tells The Hollywood Reporter about the infighting and backlash from Trump's platform at the annual convention.
August 1, 2024 3:07PM PDT
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump during a Q&A on the opening day of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) annual convention in Chicago on July 31.
Joel Angel Juarez for The Washington Post via Getty Images
Former Ohio University journalism professor Justice B. Hill has proudly been a card-carrying member of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) for nearly five decades. But this week, Hill echoed similar thoughts of many journalists who converged on the first day of the 2024 NABJ Convention and Career Fair in Chicago. As they heard the organization would be interviewing former President Donald Trump, Hill felt a sense of bewilderment and betrayal by his organization.
“It’s a mess,” Hill told The Hollywood Reporter. “The whole thing came together in the past couple of days. And I hate things being not transparent. There’s controversy among members — one of the co-chairs of the Chicago convention [Karen Attiah, a columnist for The Washington Post] resigned. You don’t surprise members this way. He has never spoken at our convention before. He was invited in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020, and he refused to come. So, why is he coming now? He’s coming now because he sees some advantage.”
When Trump took the stage Wednesday at the Chicago convention, the Republican presidential nominee was interviewed by panel moderators ABC News’ Rachel Scott, Fox News’ Harris Faulkner and Semafor politics reporter Kadia Goba. During the chaotic panel — which started over an hour late and was ultimately cut short by his campaign staff — Trump went on the attack in a contentious appearance that saw him repeating lies about his past policy toward Black communities and questioning Vice President Kamala Harris’ identity as a Black woman.
“She was always of Indian heritage, and she was only promoting Indian heritage,” Trump said from the stage at the Chicago Hilton. “I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago, when she happened to turn Black, and now she wants to be known as Black. So I don’t know, is she Indian or is she Black?
“I respect either one, but she obviously doesn’t, because she was Indian all the way, and then all of a sudden, she made a turn and she went — she became a Black person,” Trump continued about Harris, who is of both Jamaican and Indian heritage.
In response, later Wednesday, Harris’ campaign shot back, calling his hostility “simply a taste of the chaos and division” that Americans can expect from a second Trump administration. “All Donald Trump needs to do is stop playing games and actually show up to the debate on Sept. 10,” said Harris campaign communications director Michael Tyler in the press statement.
“It was the same old show,” followed up Harris’ official X (formerly Twitter) account. “Let me just say: The American people deserve better than Donald Trump’s divisiveness and disrespect.”
When speaking to THR, Hill summed up the panel as being divisive for NABJ. And he wasn’t the only one to voice his opinion, as NABJ members and other journalists took to social media to share their outrage. “Trump came into our home, a Black Press advocacy convention, and insulted us in our face. What is worse he was invited to do this by NABJ leadership. Shame!” wroteWhite House correspondent April Ryan, the NABJ 2017 journalist of the year. NAACP President Derrick Johnson said, “To walk into a room full of Black journalists and attack someone’s ‘Blackness’ is another level of disrespect. To anyone who needs a reminder: we can’t change the color of our skin, and we don’t want to.”
Attiah, meanwhile, wrote an op-ed forThe Washington Post explaining her decision to step down and sharing behind-the-scenes insight. “I objected to the format, which I rightly feared would allow a White politician to make our Black press advocacy organization into an instrument of his agenda,” she wrote Thursday. “I would not participate in a circus that I knew would cause pain to members.”
Citing Trump’s social media post aimed at Harris ahead of the event, Hill echoed to THR, “I understand he is a candidate for president, but Republicans have generally refused to attend our conventions or speak at them. And he has done that so, why now? Because he is trying to discredit Vice President Kamala Harris? And I don’t think that is fair to our membership.”
Hill found it egregious that none of the three Trump interviewers were journalists from the Black Press or Black Media outlets. “The Black Press cannot be marginalized, especially when it comes to issues related to this. This is right down their wheelhouse,” he said. “So, we can’t have no place at the table, particularly with the organization that’s about Blackness and the power of the press.”
He continued, “And Chicago certainly has one of the most dynamic Black Press. Why weren’t they invited? Why wouldn’t they be asked about this before we did anything? You can’t throw this out at the last minute and say it’s a great idea. It is not a great idea.”
Following the backlash, NABJ posted an updated statement on social mediafrom president Ken Lemon, saying the journalists’ organization was in talks with the Harris campaign team for a Q&A, virtually or in person, in September, and that NABJ had been in talks with both Harris and Trump’s campaigns since January. “Invitations sent to candidates are not endorsements, align with NABJ’s usual practices since 1976,” the statement concluded. Another post said NABJ had teamed with PolitiFact to real-time fact-check Trump’s conversation.
In her essay, Attiah said the fact-checking was on NABJ’s website and on X, but not live on TV or in the convention room. “Most importantly, not to Trump’s face,” she wrote. “No serious journalist believes that Trump should never be interviewed. But it is hardly progress for Black journalists to question him in the same problematic format that our White peers have tried unsuccessfully for nearly 10 years.”
She also said NABJ leadership turned down the opportunity to hear from Harris through a remote appearance, and echoed Hill’s comments about the chosen moderators not representing Black community journalists.
“What hurt the most, perhaps,” she wrote, “was the way Black journalists sidelined ourselves in the process. In that packed ballroom were hundreds of seasoned Black journalists eager to ask tough questions that focused on the Black community. But we saw no alternative but to sit in silence that could easily be taken for respect, not protest, not boo, not challenge. I heard too many people say that if they shouted the truth, they might, at worst, lose their jobs or at best attract attention from security. What was supposed to be the beginning of a conference of empowerment left many of us feeling utterly powerless and embarrassed.”
I understand the rationale for not allowing Trump to speak there…but I also understand those who thought it best to let him answer questions from black journalists.
It also sounds like there was some nasty in-fighting around which journalists would be picked to answer questions which is unfortunate.
"It's divisive," a card-carrying member of the National Association of Black Journalists tells The Hollywood Reporter about the infighting and backlash from Trump's platform at the annual convention.
August 1, 2024 3:07PM PDT
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump during a Q&A on the opening day of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) annual convention in Chicago on July 31.
Joel Angel Juarez for The Washington Post via Getty Images
Former Ohio University journalism professor Justice B. Hill has proudly been a card-carrying member of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) for nearly five decades. But this week, Hill echoed similar thoughts of many journalists who converged on the first day of the 2024 NABJ Convention and Career Fair in Chicago. As they heard the organization would be interviewing former President Donald Trump, Hill felt a sense of bewilderment and betrayal by his organization.
“It’s a mess,” Hill told The Hollywood Reporter. “The whole thing came together in the past couple of days. And I hate things being not transparent. There’s controversy among members — one of the co-chairs of the Chicago convention [Karen Attiah, a columnist for The Washington Post] resigned. You don’t surprise members this way. He has never spoken at our convention before. He was invited in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020, and he refused to come. So, why is he coming now? He’s coming now because he sees some advantage.”
When Trump took the stage Wednesday at the Chicago convention, the Republican presidential nominee was interviewed by panel moderators ABC News’ Rachel Scott, Fox News’ Harris Faulkner and Semafor politics reporter Kadia Goba. During the chaotic panel — which started over an hour late and was ultimately cut short by his campaign staff — Trump went on the attack in a contentious appearance that saw him repeating lies about his past policy toward Black communities and questioning Vice President Kamala Harris’ identity as a Black woman.
“She was always of Indian heritage, and she was only promoting Indian heritage,” Trump said from the stage at the Chicago Hilton. “I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago, when she happened to turn Black, and now she wants to be known as Black. So I don’t know, is she Indian or is she Black?
“I respect either one, but she obviously doesn’t, because she was Indian all the way, and then all of a sudden, she made a turn and she went — she became a Black person,” Trump continued about Harris, who is of both Jamaican and Indian heritage.
In response, later Wednesday, Harris’ campaign shot back, calling his hostility “simply a taste of the chaos and division” that Americans can expect from a second Trump administration. “All Donald Trump needs to do is stop playing games and actually show up to the debate on Sept. 10,” said Harris campaign communications director Michael Tyler in the press statement.
“It was the same old show,” followed up Harris’ official X (formerly Twitter) account. “Let me just say: The American people deserve better than Donald Trump’s divisiveness and disrespect.”
When speaking to THR, Hill summed up the panel as being divisive for NABJ. And he wasn’t the only one to voice his opinion, as NABJ members and other journalists took to social media to share their outrage. “Trump came into our home, a Black Press advocacy convention, and insulted us in our face. What is worse he was invited to do this by NABJ leadership. Shame!” wroteWhite House correspondent April Ryan, the NABJ 2017 journalist of the year. NAACP President Derrick Johnson said, “To walk into a room full of Black journalists and attack someone’s ‘Blackness’ is another level of disrespect. To anyone who needs a reminder: we can’t change the color of our skin, and we don’t want to.”
Attiah, meanwhile, wrote an op-ed forThe Washington Post explaining her decision to step down and sharing behind-the-scenes insight. “I objected to the format, which I rightly feared would allow a White politician to make our Black press advocacy organization into an instrument of his agenda,” she wrote Thursday. “I would not participate in a circus that I knew would cause pain to members.”
Citing Trump’s social media post aimed at Harris ahead of the event, Hill echoed to THR, “I understand he is a candidate for president, but Republicans have generally refused to attend our conventions or speak at them. And he has done that so, why now? Because he is trying to discredit Vice President Kamala Harris? And I don’t think that is fair to our membership.”
Hill found it egregious that none of the three Trump interviewers were journalists from the Black Press or Black Media outlets. “The Black Press cannot be marginalized, especially when it comes to issues related to this. This is right down their wheelhouse,” he said. “So, we can’t have no place at the table, particularly with the organization that’s about Blackness and the power of the press.”
He continued, “And Chicago certainly has one of the most dynamic Black Press. Why weren’t they invited? Why wouldn’t they be asked about this before we did anything? You can’t throw this out at the last minute and say it’s a great idea. It is not a great idea.”
Following the backlash, NABJ posted an updated statement on social mediafrom president Ken Lemon, saying the journalists’ organization was in talks with the Harris campaign team for a Q&A, virtually or in person, in September, and that NABJ had been in talks with both Harris and Trump’s campaigns since January. “Invitations sent to candidates are not endorsements, align with NABJ’s usual practices since 1976,” the statement concluded. Another post said NABJ had teamed with PolitiFact to real-time fact-check Trump’s conversation.
In her essay, Attiah said the fact-checking was on NABJ’s website and on X, but not live on TV or in the convention room. “Most importantly, not to Trump’s face,” she wrote. “No serious journalist believes that Trump should never be interviewed. But it is hardly progress for Black journalists to question him in the same problematic format that our White peers have tried unsuccessfully for nearly 10 years.”
She also said NABJ leadership turned down the opportunity to hear from Harris through a remote appearance, and echoed Hill’s comments about the chosen moderators not representing Black community journalists.
“What hurt the most, perhaps,” she wrote, “was the way Black journalists sidelined ourselves in the process. In that packed ballroom were hundreds of seasoned Black journalists eager to ask tough questions that focused on the Black community. But we saw no alternative but to sit in silence that could easily be taken for respect, not protest, not boo, not challenge. I heard too many people say that if they shouted the truth, they might, at worst, lose their jobs or at best attract attention from security. What was supposed to be the beginning of a conference of empowerment left many of us feeling utterly powerless and embarrassed.”
NABJ in Talks With Kamala Harris Team Following Trump Panel; Co-Chair Speaks Out
"It's divisive," a card-carrying member of the National Association of Black Journalists tells The Hollywood Reporter about the infighting and backlash from Trump's platform at the annual convention.
www.hollywoodreporter.com
I understand the rationale for not allowing Trump to speak there…but I also understand those who thought it best to let him answer questions from black journalists.
It also sounds like there was some nasty in-fighting around which journalists would be picked to answer questions which is unfortunate.
