After a year, only half paid of promised settlement; NPR's Allison Keyes leaves as positions eliminated; services for Ray Boone livestreamed, still online; analysts see Cantor loss as setback on immigration reform; Bobby Ghosh leaves Time magazine for Quartz; anti-Redskins ad during NBA finals called skillful P.R.; Whitlock labeled most prominent but also most hated; readers contribute $35,000 to aid Nigerian schoolgirls; white cast members missing from Essence magazine cover; in news media, are Muslims the only "terrorists?" (6/10/14)After a Year, Only Half of Promised Settlement Paid
NPR's Allison Keyes Leaves as Positions Eliminated
Farewells to Ray Boone Livestreamed, Are Still Online
Analysts See Cantor Loss as Setback for Immigration Reform
Bobby Ghosh Leaves Time Magazine for Quartz
Readers Contribute $35,000 to Aid Nigerian Schoolgirls
"How about some good news for a change?"Leonard Pitts Jr. wrote Tuesday in the Miami Herald.
"Last month, I wrote about the kidnapping of nearly 300 Nigerian schoolgirls by a band of putative men who style themselves Boko Haram — 'Western Education is Forbidden.' Taken in concert with the 2012 shooting of Malala Yousafzai in Pakistan and the 2008 acid attack on Shamsia Husseini in Afghanistan, this latest outrage cements an impression that Islamic extremists are petrified of girls and what they might become with a little education.
"It is a frustrating, anger-making thing. 'Make me wanna holler,' as Marvin Gaye once sang.
"But this time for some reason, I needed to do more than holler. I needed to take action. It seemed to me the best way to fight against people seeking to interdict the education of Nigerian girls was to help ensure that still more Nigerian girls go to school.
"That led me to the Peace Corps Nigeria Alumni Foundation (PCNAF.org), a small group of Peace Corps vets in greater Washington, D.C., that exists for the specific purpose of providing scholarships for Nigerian girls. I spoke to their president, Albert Hannans, verified their link to the Peace Corps, searched Lexis-Nexis for red flags. Finding none, I sent a small donation to PCNAF c/o P.O. Box 65530, Washington, D.C., 20035 and wrote about it in this space. I figured a few of you might do the same.
"I was wrong. It wasn’t a few of you. It was a whole bunch of you. So many that Hannans tells me the little group's treasurer is overwhelmed, and it's become a welcome hardship just running back and forth to the bank. The present tally: $35,000 and climbing, a huge amount given that $500 represents a year's tuition. . . ."
- Dele Agekameh, Premium Times, Nigeria: A Military in Tatters and the Senseless Onslaught Against the Media
- Jarvis DeBerry, NOLA.com | the Times-Picayune: Nigeria's ban on 'Bring Back Our Girls' calls for a listen to Fela(June 3)
- Wole Mosadomi and Victor Ahiuma-Young, Vanguard, Nigeria: Newspapers Return to Newsstands As Military Ends Clampdown
- Reporters Without Borders: Army Seizes Newspaper Issues Day After Day on "Security" Grounds
White Cast Members Missing From Essence Magazine Cover
"The men and women of the upcoming comedy 'Think Like A Man Too' are featured on dueling covers of the July double issue of Essence magazine — but hold up — some very important cast members are missing!"Sarah Huggins wrote on June 5 for zap2it.com.
"The men's cover features African American actors Michael Ealy, Romany Malco, Kevin Hart and Terrence Jenkins accompanied by producer Will Packer, decked out for summer in their best blues.
"However, fans everywhere noticed a giant hole in the cover photo — white main cast members Jerry Ferrara and Gary Owen as well as supporting actor Adam Brody are not only not on the cover, but not even pictured in the article.
"Outraged readers of the . . . publication, [which] promotes equality amongst races, are taking to Instagram to voice their disapproval. . . ."
Coincidentally, Essence co-founder Edward Lewiswas on NPR's "Tell Me More" Wednesday to promote his new memoir, "The Man From Essence: Creating a Magazine for Black Women," with co-author Audrey Edwards.
Asked about the backlash to the 2005 sale of the formerly black-owned magazine to Time Inc., Lewis replied, "I've often said that when you see white women on the cover or white women in the magazine of Essence, then black women should stop buying the magazine."
An Essence spokeswoman declined to comment.
In News Media, Are Muslims the Only "Terrorists?"
"What do you call a couple who espouse an extremist, anti-government ideology and kill two policemen and a bystander while draping one of their victims in a flag associated with a political movement?"Paul Farhi asked Tuesday for the Washington Post.
"After Sunday's shooting spree perpetrated by just such a couple in Las Vegas, many in the media declined to use one potential label: terrorists.
"Jerad and Amanda Miller, the young Nevada couple who fatally shot three people before killing themselves, were enamored of a right-wing, conspiratorial view of federal authority, according to law enforcement officials. They killed two police officers, Alyn Beck and Igor Soldo, as the two men quietly ate lunch, and covered one of the bodies with a Nazi swastika and the Revolutionary War-era 'Don't Tread on Me' flag, a symbol of the Tea Party movement. The pair shouted about 'revolution' as they moved to a nearby Wal-Mart, where Amanda Miller shot a customer, Joseph Wilcox, who tried to stop them.
"That shorthand description would seem to qualify the Millers as terrorists. Although the term's strict definition has been a subject of debate within national security circles for years, there has been some consensus around Georgetown professor Bruce R. Hoffman's five-part test: an act of violence that was politically motivated, perpetrated to influence a broader audience, involved an organized group, targeted civilians and was carried out by a person outside the government.
"Yet few media accounts have described the Millers as terrorists or their actions as terrorism. . . ."