Media Respond to Paris Cartoonist Killings

Joy Reid of MSNBC emcees the ceremonial swearing-in ceremony of the Congressional Black Caucus on Tuesday. The caucus has a record 46 newly elected members. (Credit: C-SPAN) (video)

Can the New Republican Congress Deal With Indian Issues?

"In our lifetimes, Indian Country has had a somewhat rocky romance with the Republican Party,"Philip Baker-Shenk and Paul Moorehead wrote last week for the Indian Country Today Media Network.

"Now, in the wake of the 2014 mid-term elections, Indian Country will once again be living with a Republican-controlled Senate and House. It's been 15 years since a Democratic president faced that reality. Last month's Republican wave put the GOP back in charge of the U.S. Senate with a solid 54-seat majority over 44 Democrats and two independents. That wave also gave the GOP a 247 to 188-seat majority in the U.S. House, its largest margin since 1928. . . ."

Baker-Shenk and Moorehead also wrote, "Yet Native American voters still tilt heavily Democratic at the ballot box. Many Tribal leaders appear to be much more comfortable with Democratic politicians than with Republican politicians. Democratic operatives more easily dismiss the anti-tribal views of some Democrats as harmless aberrations than do Republicans with their Indian-fighter outliers.

"As two guys who have worked for Republican friends and allies of Indian Country, we've asked ourselves — why is it that some Republican politicians still seem to get awkward when they step into Indian Country? . . ."

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U.S.-Based African Journalists in Nigeria to Watch Vote

"A delegation of journalists from the US-based National Association of African Journalists (NAAJ), who are concerned about a successful democratic transition and the entrenchment of democratic principles, has arrived in Nigeria for the national elections scheduled for February 14 and 28," the group said Wednesday in an announcement.

"Members of the 10-year-old organization will be in Nigeria throughout the elections, and also plan to conduct training sessions for Nigerian Journalists covering the elections.

"'The Nigerian elections are significant in many areas, especially with many people within and outside Nigeria concerned about transparency of the exercise in Africa's largest democracy and the security of the country in the face of relentless terrorist attacks by Boko Haram,'Eyobong Ita, NAAJ founding president and former two-term vice president/print of the Kansas City Association of Black Journalists said Wednesday after arriving in Lagos. 'We will focus on the transparency of the process and the freedom and fairness of the Nigerian press covering these elections.'

"Ita, a Nigerian-born former Assistant City Editor at Cox-owned Springfield News-Sun in Ohio, is joined by Ben Edokpayi, former editor of The Dixon (Calif.) Tribune and Oladimeji Abitogun, editor-in-chief of sharpedgenews.com. The final batch will join the NAAJ team about a week before the elections. . . ."