Transcripts For CSPAN3 1967 Detroit Riots And Journalism 20170604

Public service by americas Cable Television companies and i brought to is in 1967, africanamericans rioted in cities across the country, including detroit, to protest the lack of opportunity and the protection of civil rights. President lyndon b. Johnson appointed the Kerner Commission to investigate what led to the riots. Next on American History tv, a panel of journalists convened in discussed the riots, the kerner report, and how those impacted journalism. This is about an hour and 45 minutes. Hello, everyone. Ok, my name is marlo stoudemire. Im the project director of the detroit 67 project, looking back to move forward, im here today on the hacks of our ceo and staff,ve director, our and our board of trustees to invite you to a very wonderful panel today and welcome you to the Detroit Historical museum in midtown detroit, founded in 1928, and our mission is telling detroit stories and why they matter. Lookingoit 67 project back to move forward is a multiyour Community Engagement project, which really highlights and commemorates the summer of 1967 in detroit. Those who engage in detroit 67 will be able to understand the july 1967,ing up to where we are today, and how to connect to efforts moving things forward. Its very important for us to really look back in history and set the tone for what happened before that to multiple summer tumultuous summer in 1967. We created a model called era, engage reflect, and at. Ct. We created an oral history of those who were there and experienced it and have perspectives around that. Theres an exhibition called perspectives that takes you back in time to what happened before, during, and after. You importantly, how do connect to efforts that are truly going to move the conversation, the neighborhoods, race relations, Youth Engagement forward through our Community Partnership effort that has over 100 Community Partners . Todays topic, which really focuses on how the media covered and should cover the events and the modern tensions around media today. As a historic wants, we strive multiplent perspectives without advocating for one particular position or one point of view. Its very similar to the approach of a serious journalist. Our approach has been filled with a lot of truth, but also there is some myth busting that comes behind the many stories that we have collected in terms of what truly happened and occurred during that time. And this time of alternative facts, fake news, and some discrediting of the media as a source of truth, it is more important than ever that media and organizations like a Historical Society strive to lift up the many perspectives around the event so there is a balanced and comprehensive approach to that. I want to welcome you today and hope that you can participate. Go on detroit 1967. Org to get engaged and connected to the many opportunities and things happening from telling aur story, being able to have level of reflection, participating in the many programs we have outside of the museum, and more importantly how you get connected so how you play your part in defining detroits future with the year ahead looking to 19 six to 1967. To i hope you enjoy the panel today. [applause] i want to thank you all for coming out for what we think is going to be a very exciting conversation about an event that hit the country 50 years ago this year. It happened in the summer of 1967 from newark to want to detroit there were uprisings occurring. Was every other place different, but here in detroit, it was the most violent. It became a National Concern of this president , Lyndon Johnson, who appointed a commission to look into the disorder and understand what happened. Whats interesting is that his 11 commission members, who are here for you to see, had to answer the question of what happened . Why did it happen . What effect did the most important question to us what affected mass media have on the riot . Affect did the media have on the right . The Historical Society got involved with the detroit 67 media and hise writers are often the first reporters of history. They are the first ones to tell what is happening. Looking at the commission report, it said, what did the cover . It up online and that report, which is hundreds of pages, has a full chapter devoted to the media and answering the question that Lyndon Johnson post to those members. What happened, why, and what was the role of the media . Now what affected that have . What effect did that have . The commission had findings and they had a chapter in that report that was 10 pages long devoted just to the media and its role, its impact, and its effect. If we could see the next slide . The news media and the disorders they found some really interesting things about the role of the media. We have assembled a spectacular panel that will talk about those findings and give some insight in terms of what happened then. This is the first of a twopart panel series what happened for july 29. We hope to see you then again. In this panel was organized collaboration with another organization, which was the National Association of black journalists. The local chapter here, we have a representative, erica murphy to come forward to say a few thoughts. Its a National Organization that represents minorities in the media. She is going to talk about that. Aftermaththe outcomes of the uprising, erica murphy, she will tell you she is a wonderful radio journalist, producer, reporter. Erica murphy. [applause] good morning, everyone. I want to start by saying thank you for coming out to participate in todays Panel Discussion and forum. My name is erica murphy and im reporter with debbie wj news radio 950 one but im also the Vice President of broadcast for the local chapter of National Association of black journalists and that his wife you today. It was founded nearly 42 years ago in 1975. The Organization Hosts one of the biggest or i would say the biggest Journalist Convention in the country. This year, its going to be held in new orleans, but in 2018, that convention is actually going to be held right here in detroit. Thats a big yet for the city. [applause] so this means that 4000 thats right i said 4000 journalists, students, and pr specialists will be right here in the heart of detroit. Its important to note that nab because oflly formed the civil uprisings we experienced across the country and right here in detroit. As one of the reasons why nabj exist today. I want to thank you for coming out and i want to give a special thanks to our partners in todays event. Detroitthe historical museum, miss karen hudson samuels, for bringing this altogether, and of course our panelists. Up next, we have art bridge forth. He is going to come forward and he has been passed he has been given a very big task. He has put together a timeline for the civil uprising we experienced here and how things unfolded. Hes going to break down what happened on that first day. Come on forward, art. [applause] art thank you, erica. Good morning, everybody. As erica told you, my name is art bridgeport, junior. Im a longtime member of the National Association of black journalists. Im onetime reporter and currently a freelance reporter. As she stated, my role today on the panel is to talk about a timeline that i compiled. I dont have time to go through the whole timeline with you come up with there are couple of highlights that i want to share with you. Youre welcome to get a hard copy out in the lobby available for you if you want to look at the full timeline. I welcome you to go ahead and do that. About twoll, i was years old when the rights took place in 1967. Full disclosure my family did not move here until 1968, so i dont have a personal memory of the riots. My only personal connection i like to say is that my wife was born the second day of the riots on july 24. Anyway, the timeline i compiled was definitely a labor of love because this was the first opportunity i had to really delve into and read media reports of the events that unfolded during that time in 1967. I started this particular timeline, as you see, a month before the actual event took place. That is according to media precincthe 10th actually had the blind hate where everything started under surveillance for a month before everything started. For those of you who do not know what a blind pig is, its for an after hours event that sold alcohol. This cleanup squad from the 10th precinct decided that they were going to execute a raid. They decided that day because saturday was usually the biggest pigs. Or blind that is why they arrived early on july 23 to conduct a raid. , there areo accounts 80 partygoers they rounded up and arrested that day. Under the leader of sergeant how are some at that time, the crowd stood together on 12 street a. According to reports, they were teasing the people arrested and talk to the police there. It took an hour for the police to complete the rate. One of the last couple of squad cars leaving the scene downtown, out of the crowd, one bottle flew and landed perfectly in the rear windshield of the Police Vehicle and smashed the windshield. That is what got everything started. Escalated andings people went up and down 12 street, smashing windows and looted. The first fire was a shoe store on 12 street. Going to fast forward to the next thing that i highlighted on the timeline and that was later in the day on the 23rd, there was a selfimposed media blackout by the local radio and television stations. Accounts, they were really wrestling with the idea of whether they wanted to kind of keep things lowkey by not reporting on what was going on versus reporting things. They were afraid that by reporting things, things would escalate. They wrestled with this decision until early evening where there was a meeting with the 10th precinct with representatives of television stations and other leaders in the community. At that time, they broke the blackout and decided they were going to go ahead and cover the riots. One interesting thing about that but i found doing the timeline is the black radio stations, w wjlb, preempted their programming. They would usually be airing a lot of church broadcasts on that kind of thing, but instead they opted to air updates and things going on with the riots. A notedcular note was radio personality at the time, martha jean le guin, she aired a special threehour Radio Program where she gave updates of the riots, to calls from folks. Gormley should was not on the air on sunday, so that is what was significant about that. The final thing i wonder highlight from the timeline was that black Community Leaders and the black press were real critical of the early response by the Detroit Police. According to reports i researched, the police had a more passive response. They were ordered not to arrest people or shoot people unless they were doing something really extreme. The leaders were critical because they said if they were more aggressive, they would have been able to stop things from escalating from 12 street to the other westside neighborhoods and eventually to other parts of detroit as it did. Anyway, like a said, i appreciate you give me the opportunity to share a couple of highlights from the timeline. I encourage you to look at the full timeline because it was a labor of love on my part. At this time, i would like to introduce our esteemed moderator , an icon of detroit television, macobson. Make up [applause] good afternoon. How is everybody doing . We have quite a topic today as everybody knows. Civileople say it was a disturbance. Some people say it was a race riot. Whatever you call it, it was a rebellion of discontent that arrested in one of the deadliest nights in our history. All caps of images were heard on television and the newspapers. The question is how was this covered. How was this covered nationally and locally . We will look at this and milestone and determine what was right about it and what was wrong about it. What happened . Why did it happen . . Why cahow can we prevent it . What was the climate and the culture at the time . A lot of factors play into this. I have the pleasure of introducing to you a very esteemed panel. We are going to try to stay focused on media, but there are some much information here. Our first like to introduce rochelle riley. She is an awardwinning columnist for the Detroit Free Press. She was inducted into the often. N journalists hall of fame. She led three chapters in louisville, dallas, and washington, d. C. Rochelle riley. [applause] luther keith is on our panel and he is the founder of arrive detroit. He is a former reporter, editor, and columnist for the detroit news. He was one of the local newspaper editors who worked with wayne state to establish the universities Journalism Institute for media diversity. Luther keith. [applause] bill macgraw is next. He is a native detroit appeared he worked at the Detroit Free Press for 32 years. He is a 1914 inducted in the michigan journalism hall of fame and most recently film writer producer of 12 and claremont, the documentary on the detroit rebellion. [applause] shirley is with us and is a long serving president of new detroit, a Racial Justice organization that was formed in response to the unrest in 1967. New detroit will celebrate its 50th anniversary on may 17, 2017. Hirley. Stan [applause] Sheila Cockrell served in the city council and she is the ceo of founder of crossroads policying, a full public and Public Affairs consultancy firm. She is an adjunct professor at when state university. Sheila cockrell. [applause] keith owens is next with the michigan chronicle, a Senior Editor of that paper and recently wrote on 1967 from the point of view from two Detroit Police officers. Owens is also a freelance writer and has published for fiction and nonfiction books. Keith owens. [applause] tim kiska is the university of michigan dearborn fo professor. To detroit 1967 that will be published a little bit later on this month. His chapter in the book covers detroit media in 1967. [applause] have, last but not least, brenda pete. A managing consultant, she is a published author on healthy in 1967 conducted interviews and administered savers for the Detroit Free Press in the wake of the detroit rebellion. This is our panel here and we will do our best to answer some of these pressing questions. [applause] we had very exciting conversations as we were waiting in the green room. There is so much to cover. We are going to start out. Obviously everybody is over 50 because we know of the riots. Thats about the limit though. [laughter] shirley was telling a very interesting story about the culture. Tell us your story about your perception as the riots started. Shirley we were waiting and i was sort of relaying information about the sunday morning after the rebellion. We were on our way to church. My dad was the deacon. Mom and dad go to church and we drive to church and we are surprised if thats the word for it about all that was going on. My dad was always in the newspaper every day. We had the television on. We had no information about what had happened the night before. We were really surprised. I was telling the story and perspective that the. Newspaper did not have that information when it happened. It had nothing to do with that was because it was not on television. Just the concern that we had as kids striving to church. And mom even concerned about the fact of what is going on here and we didnt know what. It was not until we got to church that some people knew was happening and they gave us information. From the perspective of newspapers, there was really no information early on for many of us who lived in the city. For all the presentation on television, people to really get scared and cause crazy things to happen. What was the culture and the climate at the time in the city of detroit that may have brought this about . The culture to bring about the rebellion or . Amyre yes. By can tell you is i interviewed a guy named ron hewitt who had been on Coleman Young staff, but lived not too far away. ,he newspapers and tv stations the popular wisdom was we know about watson 65. Tim we know that we had a right rebellion, but we do not think it can happen here because jerry kaplan was a very hip guy racially. I remember talking to ron and said wasnt a surprise to you . He says, no. There was talk one week before the right happened and there was talk in the barbershop, do you think it could happen here . Everybody went around the barbershop and said, yeah, could happen here and here is why i think it could happen here. If a guy like ron hewitt wouldve been in the newsroom, it would not have been much of a surprise. The culture at this time was, no, we are ok. Wereusly we not. One of the findings from the Kerner Commission is that one of the criticisms of local media is that they really didnt know the lives of black folks in detroit. They were living in their own little newsrooms, talking to each other and not really aware of some of the social conditions that bread some of the unrest that exploded in july 23, 1967. Luther i think one of the things that there are lessons that we should take away from this. Should connect and diversify the media on levels. We should not be surprised with the day of social media being what it is today. It is harder to keep something with that under wraps. The Kerner Commission rightly pointed out that you do not live in that world. Many of us as we became journalists got involved with the detroit nabj because for us fair and honest society, we have to have a fair and honest media. You cannot do that if you only have one perspective reflected in the newsroom. Amyre the Kerner Commission brought that out and said it was unfair that this is all a white perspective. It cannot be fair and balanced if it is coming from one point of view. Was not in detroit at that time, but in terms of the importance of integrating newsrooms, i interned at the l. A. Times. One thing we were told at that time is that when the watts riots broke out, at the time come they had n, they had no blk reporters at the time come up with a have one black guy in the mailroom. And gave him a notepad told him to bring back notes. They transcribed his notes and he became the first black reporter at the l. A. Times. My friend was a graphic artist and literally did the drawings to go with stories. In louisville, kentucky, when they had their congregation, they gave him a notebook and said i need you to go to the website. Tell us what you see and bring it back to the paper. He juste jusrochelle retired, but he was the first black reporter in louisville. What the demonstrations and what the rebellions brought where the first lack reporters where the first black reporters. A week before the rebellion here, Newsweek Magazine had detroit as a model city for the United States of america. They said it was a model city, but obviously the folks living, perfectly african americans, do not feel that way. Shirley folks were scratching their heads. Newsweek said we were a model city. What does that mean . Amyre i grew up in the inner city in this era. Vastemarcation where the majority of people of color and all poor people live was basically inside the boulevard. If you said i grew up in court town way before it was was breake today, it stadium when i started out. People knew that was not the inner city. By parents were part of a Founding Organization called west Central Organization located at trumbull and grand river. One of the things patently obvious to anyone who had anything to do with grassroots organizing in the city of detroit and the era was that the Detroit Police department was on a mission to marginalize any sense of organization or momentum coming from young black people. Young men who went to Murray Wright high school, that was a king family. There were young guys who are Football Players and they were targeted by the second precinct. They would be stopped, humiliated, pushed around, or beaten up on a regular basis. 67 was not an accident or surprise to anybody other than the people sitting downtown or sitting an in white enclave neighborhoods, cap separated from poor people who lived in the innercity, particular black people. Maybe somebody in the audience can straightening out on this, but the sense of africanamerican reporters, susan watson and leroux heard, bob bennett, a woman by the name of sylvia wayne at channel to, that was it. When did the black . Tim later at michigan chronicle. He got hired later because what this thing did was embarrass the hell out of everybody, saying how did well most miss this . Everybody kind of went on not a hiring spree as much as a wa wakeup call was we just blew the biggest story in postworld war ii detroit, which was no suppressed. Which was no surprise. Someone asked jean roberts, former managing editor of the new york times, none of the normal newspapers had a clue about the africanamerican migration from south to north. If fundamentally changed the big cities in the north. Everybody missed the story. Amyre before we move on, brenda i want to bring you in here. With the embarrassment and tried to get black people to represent what was going on the city come at six years old as 16 years old, you were brenda a little older than that. I had two children. The urban league called me up and said would you like to do a survey . We are having problems with having people. We need people to go out on the east side. My family was not really happy about that because we were quite involved on the side of the militant side. I dont know if thats a good idea. I dont know the east side because detroit is east and west. I want to learn the east side. You go to when state. I said, no, i want to do it. So i did. Back, him i will call you but when he said it was a five dollars a survey 25 a survey, i said i will do it. I had to opportunity and rode around with my afro and volkswagen. I only have three days to do what i needed to do because they started earlier. It was from the fifth of august to the 12. He says you really have to rush into it. I says i can do a lot of these. I went to the neighborhood and went to peoples houses. It was phenomenal. It was the best thing that ever happened to me because i got to speak to people. The surveys has special addresses. There were no gps is and all that stuff. You better find your way. Had people from different me like ie and meet was a rock star or something because i was listening to them. I became their voice. All theed them questions that were needed to be asked on the survey and then i flipped it over. I started writing on the back Different Things that people were saying, how they felt, their gut. I said just talk. They felt comfortable. A grandmother would come in and that particular house and she would talk to me and tell me, youre kind of skinny. We need to fatten you up. [laughter] i cant remember exactly how many surveys i did throughout the east side, but i did enough to help pay for my tuition for the whole next year. When the free press finally did the story, they actually sided me because i flipped it over and i wrote a lot of stuff people told me was their gut feeling. So they had a better voice of the people, not just the survey. Amyre brenda, that goes into in the currents commission that we send experts out and we talk to people and we have decided based on this that it was discrimination, unequal pay, unemployment. Those were the reasons that all the started. Nobody was listening. Do you all agree with that . One of the saddest things was that even though what happened, the decided they had a commission to do this. 11 members issued this report and he decide to almost ignore it because it talked about white racism. Amyre why terrorism. Rochelle it laid out what was really true, but that does not jive with the myth that the American Media continue to portray in cities across the country. Was being held up as model cities and things were going great. Well america was doing when this was simmering under the surface of cities across the country. He was not happy because he thought democrats would lose the white house because of what this commission was saying. No, we do not react to it the way we should have. Amyre tagging onto something tim said, there were very few black people in the media in front of or behind the cameras. It took a long time, but what do you think of that . Luther there have been significant differences, starting from my days at the detroit news as a reporter in the early 1970s and being like a lot of us were and you look around the newsroom and people were hired and he would say, why arent we hiring black reporters . One of the things that happened at Wayne State University is that we take some pride in creating the Journalism Institute for minorities because we decided we need to do something. Affirmative action has been called a bad word, but thats what it was. It was reaching out to identify , younglented minorities people of color who wanted to be journalists. Opportunity,he giving them scholarships, and putting them on the track. One of the things that i was approached to become the first director of the program at wayne state. One of the things i want to burns, whos that mr. Was the former editor of the detroit news, one of the guiding partners with wayne state, he told me we have to create this program to get young minorities into the newspapers. I told him that i was not interested in running a Remedial Program for colored kids. We decided to do is adopting idea that we are going to get the best and brightest. We won to remove the stigma of the fact that journalists of color are less than white journalists. One of the things that always strived for is that i will know we have arrived when we can take a journalist of color black, brown, hispanic, what have you that journalists can screw up in the most royal way possible and that hailed as the next journalists of color because that is not the standard for our white colleagues. That program has produced some great journalists. Is called the Journalism Institute for media diversity. It has produced great journalists and its all about getting the opportunity to show what you can do and be the best you can be. Their significanc there are significant differences. We can justifiably say that there is progress being made. A lot of us are products of that progress. We are almost through generations removed from 1967. The Third Generation of journalists are coming online now. , but is a legacy of their we still have to guide against complacency that we have done enough. We still dont know everything even this age of social media. Things have dramatically changed since then. 1967 was the impetus for that. We have a ways to go, but we have made progress. You know youve made progress when applied journalists has messed up and is not held up. Keith i remember allows a reporter in Fort Lauderdale at miami, a disruption happens. Theyis the black reporters cant write was going to happen and it sent the white reporters to the courthouse. Amyre they probably thought that you could see it better. Keith they also thought we would be a less danger. If a white one were to arrive, they would be taken out. Now you have more black business reporters. Its not just a race beat or whatever. That issue spans all beats. Its not just the black reporter. Covering, the way that black reporters view those issues is different. We have definitely not arrived yet, but i think theres some recognition that the value of diversity is in the plethora of viewpoints, the expansion of viewpoints. You are looking at the same thing and not seeing the same thing. Youre looking at a situation and the viewpoint that you bring to it is different. Thing in one other terms of when i moved to detroit is the one thing i noticed is that there were many more black reporters at the free press in the paper i just left. Because of the 67 rebellion, that brought the quick consciousness in detroit and other areas. I reported in denver and l. A. The difference of those newspapers versus what i saw detroit was noticeable. There were many more black reporters in different areas here than not that far away. Amyre with a career at the detroit news. Bill i started writing for the press in 1972. There were very few black faces around the paper. I started working fulltime in 19 77 and never stole still not many black faces at the paper 10 years after the rebellion. Things started to change in the late 70s when there was a big Management Change and a longtime executive editor, who was brilliant, left and they brought in a more corporate guy and a younger guy named dave lawrence. He was the executive editor for many years after that. He was really committed to diverse and find the workforce. I watched it happen. The singled out and editor to be they singled out and editor to be the hiring person to go to state, theike wayne institute for journalism mid80s, so by the there were a lot of black faces at the free press. I do not know exactly how it would stack up national, but at some points in the 80s, the free press was doing quite well statistically, even in management. During the 1970s, there were no black faces in management at all , not even at a minor supervisory level of reporters like an assistant city editor or something. It took a long time. The papers might have talked a good game about minority hiring, but it was 1215 years before things got serious at the free press. The free press was the liberal paper in town. Luther we were always somewhat envious of that. Editorials,ite the so i did not share some of the editorial views, but i was a reporter at the time. Johnson was an fantastic journalist. Me and say,ays call what are you going to the right paper . When are you coming down to the right paper . Ive tried to get the detroit news and make them more progressive. Detroitou look at the news today, you have got a couple of black editors names on the masthead. Bill, you make a very good point. For the floss we have, we have been in the vanguard on a lot of this stuff that we have had endeavor city with media. I think we take it for granted because we live in detroit. Detroit deserves to be recognized for that. In many respects it was a slow burn, but we have moved to if yo. If you look at senior positions and reporters from both papers that have won Pulitzer Prizes, clearly the demonstrate the importance and their values and are making important contributions to our committee. Community. Amyre i do have to say that on that one ofe nabj the recommendations of the Current Commission is that newspapers try to make sure that their staff numerically reflects the same level of diversity as the population. Rochelle the whole point was when america was 12 black than the m i should be 12 black. The American Media should be 12 black. That has never happened. The American Society of newspaper editors issued a report every year. The Kerner Commission said we have not met that yet. We finally stopped counting because that will never happen. Its not about the numbers but a change in attitude. That means you had to make people stop taming the myth that things were great when they may not necessarily be so great as that is happening now. Areome point, i know we going to move a little forward and talk about where we are going. The idea that the troy is in this amazing renaissance and things are wonderful and that everybody is happy is still in the. A myth. Is one of the things that people will Pay Attention to through the media to make sure we dont have the same thing that happened in 1967, saying we are a model city in life is great. Amyre 10, i know youre tried to jump in. Tim just a quick thing but to show you how far the detroit news came from i think this would be the midnight tonight is. 1990s. In the story, you have to report the race of every person you wased any idea behind that that we did not want to keep on quoting the same old white guys over and over again. We needed to expand our reach. That was a fullblown program. Yet the silvius forms out. If you did not come you get spoken to harshly. If you do not, you would get spoken to harshly. Amyre if you dont get the right person for the job, as luther was referring to earlier, kind of gets theget blame for that. Luther to be fair, lets understand that a letter reporters, a lot of and i think a story was about this, they were hired because they were white. It happened all the time and it was a burden you had to bear. Where you arens looked at a little differently. Even if you are accomplished and graduated from Journalism School , something would happen where you knew you were viewed differently or less than simply because of who you are. Point and to tens this idea of mainstreaming, which is the idea that we want to include diversity, it may have been over formalizing year media, but you have a story about people getting jobs in detroit, but you have quoted white folks and no black folks or women. That is not reflecting reality. It may have been a bit misguided at times, but the idea was to make you stop and think. Is not this way today, but know i used to look at the talk shows every sunday morning. Its not as bad now, but you cannot find a person of color. Amyre no matter what they were talking about. Luther no matter what they were talking about. Weck folks we buy houses, buy stocks, we look at schools for our kids. All the things that you do, we do. When you do those stories, we arent there. Thats the real issue. Amyre what that says as we dont care. I dont want to be negative nelly, but i used to be so offended by the program. Instead of people going out and learning the community and finding the people they should be talking to, they find somebody black to say they talk to some of the black. Somebody black. When you have someone of color who deserves to be at the top of the news, if they are black and nobody knows it, well we didnt realize it was somebody important. Because you havent learned the community. You just filled in a number. Amyre the kerner report starts out by saying that having done the research one of the things that we find is that our country is heading toward two societies one black, one white, separate and unequal. Shirley i read it and said, headed for . We are there now. Just the way that report starts out is wrong. One of things by looking through the report at the time is that i worked in new detroit. One of the things we focused on is that no community is monolithic. We are different. We have different experiences. My family is from louisiana. We could better than everybody else. [laughter] whatever black person is in their mind and stereotyping, you can show a variety of black folks and other people based on our experiences. When they say to go grab whoever that person is, they grab that one person. One of the things that i dont think the media does now even is to show the variety of experiences that we have had. Amyre do you think more negative stories are done on black people than normal than others . Luther i dont think anybody sits around and says what negative stories are you going to write about black people today . I dont think it works like that. If you look at society, rochelle raises a good point. Theres a saying comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. We have to do both, but i think also we engage in zerosum conclusions about everything is either wonderful or everything is horrible. We are going to read about all the things wrong detroit and theres a lot of things wrong detroit, but everything is not wrong. Amyre and we are not the only city. Luther exactly. You have to pick through that and examine and analyze what are we writing about. Theres nothing wrong with that, but give us a full picture of portrait. Amyre do you think we get that full portrait . Luther i dont think we get enough of a mix of that. I was a journalist for 30 years. Tragedy is much easier. It smacks you right in the face. Home people got shot, invasion, someone died on crack. I dont believe in auster journalism, but there are some of the stories of people of hope and that are happening in the worst neighborhoods. Doggone it, if you are going to be a good journalist, my main criticism is lazy journalism. Dont be a lazy journalist. Dont make a Statement Like if its in detroit, its all the innercity. We have beautiful neighborhoods in this town that i dont want to use the phrase died for. Lets pick through what are we talking about. When i was an editor and somebody would say that someone was innercity detroit, what are we talking about . Thats not the innercity. Im sorry, its not. Thats why we have editors. We are supposed to be smart. We are supposed to figure this stuff out. You always have to be thinking about this. That is why you get people in the newsroom. Editors decide whats going on the front page. People make those decisions. They dont happen by accident. Lets take the first five crime stories or whatever. By the same token, what if a detroit kid did something or maybe some entrepreneur did something . Lets make a mix of the page. Those types of questions have to be asked all the time. When you look at why things dont get covered, they look at readership. Look at who is bring attention to the papers. Most black readers were not looking at the news because the didnt trust it. When you look to the editors, they are not thinking about the black community in terms of what is true for them or not. Not only do they not th know the community, they dont write for the community. Oftentimes the editor should be smart, but isnt always so smart. You may present a story to the editor and say im tried to tell you this is whats going down. The editor will say i dont think so. Amyre at the michigan chronicle at the time . Keith i was not on the chronicle at the time. There was a much more trusted voice. One thing ive said and ive been fortunate enough to work on mainstream and nonmainstream papers. The difference is that when you talk about the staff of the michigan chronicle, you talk about people who lived in the community. In journalism today, ive lived in a lot of different places. A lot of journalists have in moving for just a career. If someone wants to go to the Washington Post, reporters bounce around. Black reporters dont say i want to try to get to detroit or new york. They are from where they are reporting. Good or bad, they knew what a member of the nuclear family. They are integrated into that community. So its a different point of view because they were literally on the grounds and this time. They are more familiar with the community and what has happened. Once you have Something Like this rebellion happened where they were not paying attention, all of a sudden, they say where we can get black journalists . Where did they go . That changed the dynamic dramatically. I want to make a point about todays coverage between the print website papers and Electronic Media in detroit. Is easy for part reporters to make fun of tv news or criticize tv news and im going to do that. [laughter] if you read the detroit news and the Detroit Free Press every day for a year, youre going to get a relatively good picture of detroit and its suburbs of whats going on, good and bad, horrible and tremendous. There and lots of communities. Even in a smaller state the network than they were 10 years ago, both papers because their staffs are bigger than tb steps do a lot more to give a whats going on in metro detroit. Gh every night leading the paper some mayhem that has happened to detroit in the last three or four hours. I find myself at 10 00 looking to see whats on channel two, not to single out channel to, but its almost meaningless except to the victims and their families. It is something that does not affect most peoples lives. Badting in detroit, however or reflective of bigger societal problems, is not necessarily the major news of whats going on. Amyre it makes people stop watching. Bill i dont think it makes people stop watching because obviously its telling the stations that is bring in viewers. Amyre i cant take it anymore. Im not watching anymore. Bill i dont know. Tim might have a better insight as to what drives ratings. I understand what tv can do a better job of reflecting the bigger reality in detroit. Tim i think theres an easy factor here. Part of it is first of all the staffs of the tv stations are going down. , when you are at channel 50, the bottom line is that you only have x many camera crews. If youre listening over the radio and finding out that there was a shooting, you know theres going to be a story out of there. Youre not gambling on anything. Its easier to get to that story then you are going to get dramatic video. Usually theres an interesting story attached to whoever got shot. I can see why they do it because thats the game. Amyre to tel you learn to tell lifetime stories and 30 minutes. Tim sheila, you are on there for i dont know how years, but how many hours would you have to listen to . Sheila i want to a Council Meeting and i spent a week there one monday. [laughter] tim theyre not interested in gambling that time. Luther its tough to go against the grain. Amyre but thats what news is. Luther im sure newspapers and to some extent radio is the same way, but if i pick up my front page i want point, i was the knights of the editor for the detroit news. 9 30 p. M. At night, after call the managing editor and he says, what does the free press have on the fo front page . If they have something on the front page that we have to chase that story. That is what happened in the good Old Newspaper wars. It is tough to say they have a shooting with five people on the front page. We didnt get that. We have a story about significant public policy. We are going to stick with that and lead with that. Its tougher. Its harder for tv producers when you look at three or four good crime stories and what do we get . We have a story of people getting together to give scholarships to people to go to college. We cant lead with that. Rochelle why not . Because what sells newspapers and has people watching television is reinforcing whatever set of values and beliefs people bring to it. Go back to the 1920s in detroit where the detroit al was the black newspaper. There was a book of perspectives that literally shows the report of incident with Police Brutality told by the detroit al and other papers. , theifference in the story messages are always reflective of what the majority audience, whoever is perceived as majority, wants to hear. Apparently theres a whole bunch of people who want to watch channel to with this latest who got shot story without spending any real time on why did this happen. There was that series in 2011 on what murder in detroit means to families. She shouldve gotten a Pulitzer Prize for that, but it was not a real Popular Series because it was challenging the people to have to think why does this happen . Why is this kind of fundamental social isolation in the city by detroit . Who benefits from it and who doesnt . It leads back to having to need in the city and the region a conversation about what White Privilege does and doesnt mean and how that is impacted, not only what happened historically and what will happen the future. Its not all rosie despite the meredith from Media Outlets its not all rosy despite the narrative from Media Outlets. Abouty we are talking decreasing staff in newspapers and decreasing staff at television stations because somebody has cut off the television and somebody has stopped reading the newspaper. We do a lot of work with young people. He said let me Say Something to you. Reading in the newsroom and he has his phone of the sara in his hand. He says all the news i need is an this. Something is happening that is models up. Ofit its making them look at we have to decrease the staff. Amyre it is so different now. One thing that scares me more than anything else is fake news. Never heard of that before. Luther i want to support surely on that because ive been Teaching College journalism the last few years, advance reporting the less. I asked my class how many of you read a physical newspaper everyday . Not a single hand goes up. This is collegelevel journalism. They all get their news from online sites. Also in this era fake news, and we know why that phrase has changing theat is whole landscape about how journalists do what they do and the impact of what they do. But you are right. The profit model has changed and has squeezed blood in the form of jobs out of television, radio, newspapers. You cannot do that without having attacks. Keith mind challenging the term fake news, there are truth and lies. Expression. Se that stop calling it news. There is news and there is not news. Saying fake news, you are lying. The other thing is what gave rise to the fake news and stories like it is the whole. Hing about infotainment you and not going to have a dull story about policy. Whatever will drive the numbers, what will drive the hits. It crossed the border between what is entertainment and what is the news, that whole thing happened because the new station began from the today show and other shows began to change. Tv and print because people wanted more bang for their buck, they wanted more photos and pictures, more colors. Anything that made things jump when so we begin to see that trend started, when we got away from what is important and the real story to more entertainment, that open the door for that. You can put all that together. You can say the house caught on fire or someone threw a bomb in there and it looks like a war. I think there is another thing coming off keiths point. Where we are headed is the way the web is set up, you can now live in your own little bubble. Withof us probably grew up if you are a good american, you had to watch walter cronkite. Now, anybody in the audience on facebook and you see someone who annoys you because you unlike donald trump, you unfriend them . Thats what i mean. Im sure the flipside has been happening like crazy. Where are in a situation you can live in this bubble, you dont have to hear a single word that contradiction worldview and that is where we are headed and this scares the hell out of me. It should because it is the greatest threat to any progress. There is no way the commission 49 years ago would know we would get to the point where everyone would look at their own personal site for information which is not a news site and the fake stories could be all they read which means there is no american narrative, no particular policy coverage everyone is paying attention to. What you have got is a whole bunch of people yelling at each other and a whole bunch of things which half arent true. The free press, a good example is civil disturbance. It an earthquake, which is what it was. One of the things they did, they took a look at the 43 people who got killed, one particular guy was minutes away from being buried. The free press hired a private person to do an autopsy. They got a tang from Chrysler Corporation so they could drive around the neighborhood and hadk the managing editor henry for the second on the phone said the survey, henry ford paid for that. The bottom line is the free press was this great institution. They were able to do all these things. Who could getger anybody on the line with the ceo ford saying youve got three people with expertise looking at the 43 who died. A big story because everyone figured out the 43 who died all writers. All of them are people the wrong place at the wrong time. Who where will we get the expertise and pay the money to this kind of reporting . Why cant reporters do it anyway . If you are doing a major survey they are too busy chasing auto accidents and shootings. Timeite frankly, this is a for the people in the media to step up. Media. Untry needs the there is a reason why it is called the first amendment. There is a reason why when you have revolutions where the first thing you do is close down the media, control the message and information. We are seeing some examples of that. We cant afford to have cowards in our newsrooms today. We cant. [applause] i want to comment on something. I think sheila mentioned it also about getting behind the story and that was part in the report. Reporterse calls from , none of the people here, these who say i have this story and somebody told me to call you and im on deadline because they are always on deadline and i just had to ask you a question. The question to some been like this, isnt that true . As opposed to getting my opinion. They will also say isnt that , ill answer in the way i want to answer and the young oh, whatsid to me that all about . I said you are calling me, we are in the age of google. Google new detroit and find out, but to ask me that question. That is the kind of the laziness behind the scenes of a story that already ridden. They need to find a place to put a name in, im not a newspaper person but this is my vision and then they do it to put a name in. The news media stepping up is one thing, but how you step up, who is stepping up and the process you use is important. And i dont say know in all the years ive known luther that ive ever disagreed and i wont now, the stepping up has to come with those folks who are doing those assignments and who are training these reporters were sending them out to do stories. If your job depends on doing what the editor wants and they say get out and bring that back, it is not courageous for that reported to come back with a different story, it is courageous for someone else to tell that editor you dont know what the story is until you get there. Dont send someone to get those quotes to match the narrative. Go find out what the story is. That is the courage we need to have. Luther i dont disagree with you on that. [laughter] my great fear is that people blame reporters. Because that is who they see. They are dealing with the person they are dealing with. The first new call to up and doing that may be doing that because theyve been assigned six stories and these were what they were told to get. And if they dont, they get in trouble. It is tough to stand up to editors. I worked for one i wont name and we probably work for the same editors, so you sit out on a story or your editing his story and your editors talking saying this, did he say that. If he didnt say it, that means we can say this. Yes, thats the headline. He didnt say this, that means he could have said that. He didnt say that. A tension between reporters and editors where an editors job is to push the story forward to make it stronger. That is what we are taught as editors. The reporters job is to let the editor push, but not too much to her the story isnt the real story. Some point, your reporters have to be able to say thats not the story. Sometimes its difficult, if not impossible, to get your point across because of the attitude of who you answer to and thats not a pleasant situation. Editor on the 43 who died , he was the guy behind all that. He had three great reporters out there. They come rolling back in with their notes. He comes in on a saturday morning, two big cups of coffee and a pack of lucky strikes and wrote it in three hours. He had support from on top saying we want this story. That is the way its supposed to work. In terms of bringing it back , whatsurrent condition important to know in terms of who your report to or how that goes, if you dont know the community reporting, then the reporter doesnt know how to push back because the reporter doesnt know the community and neither does the editor. So the editor has a preconceived notion of what is going on. In reporter comes back with something that doesnt fill that narrative, they begin to fashion the story based on the Little Information or Incorrect Information because they dont know whats going on. You read or a reporter who may not know but then goes out and finds out the story was this, so he comes back and tells the editor, but the editor says that doesnt sound right. So he reconfigures that and it comes out as something else. Thats where it goes back to full circle in terms of the thertance of really knowing community and whats going on. Thats one of the recommendations of the report. , its really important that this is not about reporters, this is about the community. I worked at the detroit news where the black community, some members were boycotting in the early 90s the news and the free and they were boycotting because they didnt feel like the coverage was fair or if and reflected just negatively. Because of this, we actually started a newspaper to respond to this that was focused on giving them a more diverse look at positive elements of the people in detroit. It happened specifically because the Community Rose up and made a statement. It can take writing letters, emails. The readers, leader viewers, you all have voices. , donte tremendous power just sit there and take it. Let folks know because sooner or later, that is how movement change. Notors and newsrooms are sacrosanct. If they are off their game, you up to get them on their game and dont be afraid to do that. What about the coverage . Does anybody see any of the actual coverage . What do we think of the coverage . I have to research a lot of the coverage in the free press and the news and what really struck me first of all about the news, the news was a radio station, a tv station and the detroit news and it was locally owned. Number onee been the newspaper for a most 100 years at that point. It was a huge operation and they had a huge news fall and its stunning how much news they covered every day during the week of july 23. There were stories about the activity on the streets in every section. The volume of coverage in the news was amazing. The free press was a much stop smaller operation owned by an outoftown chain who was then headquartered in miami. The free press was better organized and the stories were better written and the news was very aggressive about the coverage also, but it stopped at a point. The big story coming out of the week was the out years killings were three young black men were without a doubt just executed for being black and partying. Ith white women Detroit Police, National National garden state police came across them. The news broke one of the first stories of that by an africanamerican reporter. The only black reporter at the news at that time. The news dropped the ball and allow the free press to really run with it and they did a Good Authority taking the s view point story of what happened in the motel that night. Was really the inous. Us volum what i think was important was after june of 67. The news is reporting on the riot was very well done. Afterwards they got into this thing up was it a communist conspiracy and they started takingar out and really their eyes, i think, off what the story was in the community. What the free press did, what was sophisticated polling. Authorityccepted the s story about how 43 people died. He free press didnt and that is what distinguished them. Lastly, what happened to the news in the months after the rebellion was like a party starts, they bricked up their windows. They sent a message to the community that i dont think in the long run was helpful to them to assemble readers. The free press continued, hardly perfectly, but in a traditional american liberal way by trying to see the big picture. One last point before we moved to the q a and that is as someone who was a child who grew up on the coverage of the and washingtonon and all of these things as things we studied and looked at from outside detroit, i can say that for people who lived in detroit and i dont know if anybody who was living here would know just how much this is true, this did not happen to detroit. This happened to america. We were sitting in North Carolina watching these things and being a part of this and realizing how horrible this was and not surprised. The saddest thing from a really is that even though there were changes and even though there was this coverage, there was still not a paradigm shift on how people look at how to cover communities, which is why you can still have people with these narratives of life is going great and these are wonderful things happening and it still not get to the heart of some of these problems. We will take a few questions does anybody have a question . This is a great discussion. I would hate to stop the energy. We have a mic stand in the back. If you have a question, lineup. We are on cspan so we want to make sure your question is heard. Take a moment now to lineup by the mic stand and we will get your question. I know some people in the audience a reluctant to stand up. This has been a dynamic discussion, we want to make sure your questions are heard you all are great. I have two questions. What of all, i dont know the term social isolation is. I know what slavery is, i know what white institutional racism is,i know what segregation but i do not know i have never heard of that term social isolation. You hang out and talk to people only who are like and talk like you do. That is it. It has always been a factor, but i think my isnt and the point of others that you can isolate yourself now on the web to the point where you dont have to hear a single thing you dont agree with. Also on tv. New detroit, i just want to say the origin is important for you to talk about the origin. Slavery, for me is a black female, i my descendents that is the reality. Until you have hardcore racial discussions according to dr. , you may take another 100 years and the words celebration move forward, all of that is show is so sugarcoated. Even the stories printed, the Detroit Historical museum has our sugarcoated. It was war and it isnt over. Thank you. It is amazing to me how you can come to the Detroit Historical sugarcoated,ar a white version basically and go over to Charles Wright and listen to Catherine Cleaver to hear what they have to say. It is amazing to me when you hear Grace Lee Boggs say on film, we planned part of this. It is shocking to me after 50 years, i do find out who was the sniper on my roof, the federal government. The federal government was the enemy. Asked, what i is a child who was the enemy . I was outside nassau tanks. The federal government is the enemy and i dont know where my reparations are for terrorizing me. Thank you. Thank you for your question. Next. Poverty, especially in news, would poverty not be a better definition for social isolation . Folkscolorless, but some were a lot worse. I think the question was about the role of poverty and whether it played a big his role as racism. I dont want to do not have some answers so let me say that one of the reasons dr. Martin luther king became dangerous was because rather than just talk about racism, he talked about poverty. The march on washington was a poor peoples march and you cant get poor people and black people together and folks wont get scared. Imagine someone was marginalized by both poverty and racism. Next. Good afternoon. , at the at the time time i was living in the area of grand river forest, but i went to high school on the far east side. I lived on the west side. Teenager, just living in detroit, some people didnt realize how racist the area was. They had no clue until the rebellion happened. Sad that history could we dont haveif some real serious conversation. I thank you for being here today. I group in an area where my mother went to college and did not graduate. My sister and i are both college graduates. Our children, my nephew is a graduate. Been in an area, i stayed in the city where we have been contributors. We dont hear the good stories like dcp get northwestern in atlanta, the chess team. We dont hear those stories and those of the stories when you have an opportunity need to put on the front page. Because these are children and young people who come from homes without running water, without electricity, yet they are in school every day. We need to hear more of those stories. I thank you for this panel for sharing with us today. Thank you for your question. You are right because so many people live in our own little spheres of existence and we dont realize or no or care there other people. Before the next question i want to reiterate something that lucas said luther said. I read a column for the free press and when i write about a kid who gets on a uber rides we can catch up with his tour or write about a woman who is taking her girls to sing at carnegie hall, when i do those, i like to get them on the front page. I get those calls saying why do you write about black people. I say this every time, i checked my list, ive written about things you might thing or just about black people about 33 of the time. So does go things are true, i need to write more and i thank you for your call. Be sure to call the editors, only if you like it and say we want more because that makes my job easier to convince them to do more. I will continue to do that, but please if thats what you want as shirley and sheila, luther antenna told you, that is what you have to demand. I hope you tell those callers i may have written about black people, but this is important for white people to read and to know and continue to understand. [no audio] [applause] [applause] i have a question of want to bring this up to date. With all the layoffs and buyouts in the detroit media, tv and newsprint, eyes see all of the gains going out the window if they havent already. Thatnt see the big gains some of you from other cities saw. We were shaking our heads saying it wasnt enough and we were the free press. My question is at a time when everyone is emphasizing breaking news and newsstands are taking people from dedicated beats where they brought enterprise stories to the newsroom and now they are throwing five or six people on whatever toprated news is of the day and that is. Hat constitutes the next day how will we change this . How do we bring stories about diversity when breaking news is the continued mantra of newspaper said a today . How do we change that . One thing, im not saying its easy, but every media outlet counts. Ive also wondered why we cant have a model that brings that type of diversity and balance, not exclusively one way or the other. You have to advocate for it. Does thosele stories, she let the editor no. It is not going to happen by accident. When you think of any gains, they didnt happen by accident. Requirewhat is going to to come up with the next model. In the wave of internet, no one has really figured out how to make money with the internet and the media. We are still in search of that holy grail formula. Hopefully there is some brilliant people out there who can figure out what that is and make people understand that there is a recipe or appetite for those kinds of stories. Here is the battle you are fighting. You walk into channel sevens newsroom right by the assignment desk is a chart. An Interactive Chart as to whats getting the most hits on the web. When you walk into the free press, its the same thing. Good luck competing with that because they know minute by flying and not flying. I think one of the reason the free press in the newspapers were able to do as well as they could is you didnt get the circulation numbers overnight. Im not sure this is a healthy thing to have ratings overnight or instantaneous because it sort of causes you to go for the easy fix. One thing i would want to add. Dont forget the community papers. Ask. t have to basically we were talking about the story then, we would get all the stories all the right time and make mistakes, but when it came to deciding what to cover, i do give a shout out to those who give me support in that. If i decide where this should go, it is not a matter, ive been on the other side. I dont have to do that anymore. There is also the venue of Community Newspapers where you have more leeway. We can still get stories out there and put that out there. We want to continue to make people aware of that. I think you could make the case that one reason these numbers are falling is because people are disenchanted and there are other sources for news desk we dont have to depend on the mainstream media. They know that. They are in competition with these other sources and that is a challenge for them. You as the reader or viewer, you have options that were not available in 1967. Tons of them. Television stations run basically the same way. There is a production meeting every afternoon. Can this be covered, there are where other people may not be important, but if you push hard enough, if you go to the table, you can change it. Good afternoon the question i have is around context. As an attorney and professor, i have learned this context is often critical. Take for instance the Kerner Commission and the report. February of 1968. Less than a month later, Lyndon Johnson announced he would not be running for president. Less than a week later, Martin Luther king was killed, which led to a different round of conflagration. One of the things i would like toknow is what would you do put News Coverage in terms of context so that people can actually see this relates to this and that. So that it is much more than simply a lot of disconnected dots. Correct me if im wrong, one of the things that happened eight years later, we got the license of the first black owned and operated tv station in the country. A very successful and responsible within that context. Getting to the question. I think rachelle would be the first to respond that because i think there is a place for news and analysis that comes with opinion in terms of putting this in context. Thank you, luther. [laughter] was going to Say Something because this is important. I will do the commentary part second. One of the things the news media, i hate using the word media now because it is so hard to distinguish journalism. One of the things that journalism gave up was its right to be the only members of the Fourth Estate and they let all these people in so the people got confused. What we dont do is promote ourselves as that. We dont make it clear that this is the source for information that will bring you context and policy, that will do the things newspapers and television stations did. We not only lost walter cronkite, but we lost the opportunity to say at the top of the news, this is your news report based on the train journalists. We will do our best to analyze this. If every television station did that at the top the didnt have a shooting is the first story, you would get some sense that this is an authoritative source instead of some guy sitting in his basement in his shorts telling you something that he is making up. It has never been more important than ever for commentary. Ae problem is everyone with computer can be a commentator. Everyone with a computer can call themselves a columnist. What we have to do is train people to know the difference. Im a proud graduate of the university of North Carolina at chapel hill. I was in a newsroom with janet at thede of a story Washington Post and my colleagues, who were black, literally had their sources questioned and stories questioned and the only reason they didnt question mine was because it went to a white university. I think if we decide thats a part of our role and thats what we will do, that will help. That means the front page of the free press needs to say this is what the free press does. We have that little phrase at the top, but that is not enough. We have to distinguish ourselves from everything else. Once we start to do that and take on that mantra and responsibility, people might remember that this is the free press that went into did the story about the 43 people who died, the free press that told you we are about to celebrate the 50th anniversary of new detroit and what that means. The 10 year journey of these folks were out of the neighborhoods. You will not get that at these other places. If we sit around and assume it will get done, the newspaper will die, tv stations will become saturday night live 24 hours a day and we will be in a worse mess. Again, the history of the black press is added busy journalism. Its what weve been doing for over a hundred years and i think we dont always get it right, but i can speak for myself. Everything i write is commentary. Analysis is mostly what i do. I came up as a journalist. In trying to keep that in the role of the chronicle and write stories, it is not just this is what happened, let someone else do that. I say this is why it happened, this is what this is about and try my best to do that. That is what they are trying to and at otheronicle community papers. That is how we were able to distinguish ourselves again is when you have the larger mainstream papers. The way we are able to distinguish ourselves is that distinct voice. They are there for a specific purpose, you dont have to put things in exactly the context are talking about. 45, the current president , whatever he did, we need to bring that in terms of what it means for you and what it means for our community. I think thats what we are trying to do on a continual basis. Tim here is the pressure. Talking about context, you are right. Here is the reality. If you are a reporter covering a story and i do nothing stretching this too far, your job is to get this thing up on the web before anybody else because if you dont, you lose. Whoever gets it first, this is how sir did get. Died, we beates the news by about three minutes. Its not the end of the world. [laughter] tell you i bet to dispersing by three minutes and she hasnt spoken to me in about two years. , you wantaying here to have context, on the other hand you have got to be pedaling as fast as you can and get this out. Youve got to get those clicks and if you dont. Remember what bill lacross said a few moments ago. The detroit news got the story first, the Detroit Free Press spent the next few weeks getting it right. Just because you get the tweet out there, youve got to get the first click, but if you give up, youre given up your right to say we are the journalists. Talking to your supervisor and explaining that. The young reporter to the tweets and i will tell you the story. We are running out of time here. We will take these two questions. This has been touched on a couple of times. How did reports like motor city muckraker influence the free press. Luther i dont work there anymore. Which was the second paper you mentioned . You mentioned another one. American news. Muckraker is read by led by one person, a former free press reporter. He is a real tiger when it comes to news. As a oneperson band he has broken a lot of stories. Of was the mistreatment Grosse Pointe park, a black man who had some mental weaknesses, police were making fun of him and passing around a video and that wouldve been a good story for any media outlet, but he broke that story. He also asks questions about Grosse Pointe park bordered by detroit, i believe they had no africanamerican Police Officers or maybe one. Talk about context, he went further getting into that story. That is a long way of saying he does a good job in a lot of ways, i dont know that he affects the daily coverage of the free press. They certainly followed that story. ,hey went out and followed it they have done it for other stories. The arabamerican news, im a friend of the publisher and i am familiar with the paper so i know about it. It does a very good job covering its community. I cant say there is anybody at the free press to read that every week. I guess the answer there would be, and that is a different kind. F paper then the muckraker it is covering its community, it breaks news from time to time and it is when it breaks news that the Media Outlets of detroit think is there a metro wide story for this that they will do it. As far as day to day, i dont at eithereditors paper are glued to those kind of Media Outlets. Needling did break that one story. He has been a number of things. Truth in advertising, he is one of my closest friends. There are so many can bear to 50 years or 10 years ago. There are so many new Media Outlets online. One doesnt do the news we are talking about, but curb detroit breaks a lot of stories about real estate and ivory feeling papers Pay Attention to that because the stories, as far as the paper that covers a lot of Different Things, whats going on with real estate in detroit is an important thing. I think to the gentlemans point, there are other Media Outlets that are probably paid attention to more than maybe the arabamerican news. We will take this last question. My question is basic. And listen to my colleagues, for five years i taught journalism at Temple University and my course was writing for journalism. It amazed me the number of students who came in who did not want to engage in the process of what journalism was about, what it meant, and how for most of us, it was in our soul. When i worked at the free press at age 16 in 1986, it became a part of me. I stepped on a campus and interned, it was the type of job i was told this is the kind of job you will dieter desk. Desk. At your i was cultivated by the journalists who were white and black. ,hen i went as an intern and 88 it was Clifton Brown and tommy whoge and terry foster spent time with me and told me what to do and how to do it. It was owens who came in and jean myers who said get your stuff together for me. Get your grammar mechanics together. I think whats happening is we talked about these journalists thats quick and easy. Is it on us . I dont know the answer as a turn 50 next week, is it on us, are we doing our job in terms of training and developing journalists who go get the right story and know how to get the right story and do the right thing at the end of the day . Is yes, but answer it does not happen often enough. Im so proud to work for a newspaper that has an Apprentice Program where we bring in minority students from high school and train them in journalism. I am thrilled by that. I have meant toward over 200 journalists and have a minty who sit by me in the newsroom. Everyone does not do it, so there needs to be more. It needs to be something that you help those who dont get it get it or you go teach. Its like find another honorable profession. It does happen. Teaching journalism at college now, a number of students toby their peers and family dont see journalists because they dont see a future in it. This is still very important. How the message is delivered may change, but we need the message and we need people with conviction and integrity to deliver that message. Also the importance of internships. The importance of what rishel is doing. Lle the best repair journalists are the ones who had the internships. I never went to journalists school, but i had an internship. Youll to learn on the ground. They can tell you something, you cant fabricated deadline. You cant just say lets act like the deadline. That doesnt happen. Once you know what a deadline is and you go out there, i think that is something in terms of the mentor other journalists, they know what the real deal is. When you take someone under wayne, that way they will know what theyre up against and what they need to know. It wont be in the Journalism School. Tim i feel your pain. Ive been teaching journalism for 15 years and ive seen this particularly in the last few years where everyone is on the phone. Number one, the fundamentals are exactly the way they always were. You have got to get the name spelled right. Fair,ouve got to be unless you are working for an efficacy website. I keep telling the kids, you will not make a lot of money and i spent a whole semester telling crazy stories about stuff that ive covered over the years. They get into it after a while. This is a job or you will never see the same thing, nothing is ever the same one day to the next and that is a beauty to me. I have to give another shout out, we were truly blessed in detroit because we are the First Television station [applause] as you talk about all kinds of positions, so many people made great careers and great successes, names that you know or names youve never heard of. We were very fortunate to have that and karen hudson is a former news director there. I think she still works there. It was amazing. I the honor of being the anger on the First Program on big city news. It was like a super internship for everyone that launched many careers. Thank you panel very much. You guys are phenomenal. Thank you for sharing the time. [applause] karen i believe youre coming up for closing remarks. Karen for the cspan viewers if youre ever in detroit, she does a wonderful show as well. I cannot say enough what a spectacular afternoon of conversation. Im really looking for to this being broadcast because we have touched on so many wonderful perspectives as a relates to what is happening in the News Business as journalists, people who are in the Community Involved and passionate about getting it right. You have done a wonderful job. Thank you so much for agreeing to this special event. We will have another series on july 29. If you are in the area this ,fternoon and are at redford and documentary from bill mcgraw will be shown. There are not many tickets left. Huge and something , it doesnt seem like we have enough time to devote to it. What i learned today here was amazing. Thank you so much. [applause] you are watching American History tv. All weekend every weekend on cspan3. To join the conversation, like us on facebook. This weekend on American History tv, historian greg brezinski examines the competition between the u. S. And china to influence newly independent african and Asian Countries during the cold war. Here is a preview. Greg most importantly the afro asian conference in 1955, this is speaking before the conference in 1955 where he made a very important performance raise chinasd standing among a lot of afro Asian Countries that did not have relations before the conference. At these conferences, beijing often represented itself as a peaceful afro asian nation that had also suffered from imperialism in the past and it tried to create a leadership among afro Asian Countries as a successful example of postcolonial nationbuilding. Were also a, these very important part of chinese diplomacy. Sending diplomats abroad. China constantly tries to raise its International Profile by sending its representatives most africa, twoasia and different states. Famous 1964d the visit to africa, which was regarded as a bold and important , also a successful trip at the time. What did the United States do in response to this . The u. S. Did Everything Possible to undermine chinese diplomacy. It pressure neutral countries not to establish relations with the peoples republic of china and when china participated in conferences such as geneva, the u. S. Generally tried to do everything it could to minimize the importance of these conferences and to limit chinas role. There is a famous story about the 1954 geneva conference where approaches dulles and dulles apparently disses him and sort of walks past him. There is some debate over historians over whether this event actually occurred. Even if it didnt occur, it is easier easy to see why it took on such powerful emotional and symbolic resonance. Atwatch the entire program 6 30 p. M. Sunday on American History tv all weekend every weekend on cspan3. Cspan, where history unfolds daily. In 1979, cspan was created as a Public Service by americas apostate television companies. It is brought to you today by your cable or satellite provider. All weekend long, American History tv is joining our comcast cable