The Media Narrative

Solo: Looking for Positives

A few quick ramblings with Election 2020 two days away.

Justice and Journalism with Linn Washington (Part Two)

In the second part of a conversation with journalist and educator Linn Washington, an examination of the question of how the 1985 MOVE bombing in Philadelphia relates to racial injustice today. Toward the end of this episode, Washington talks about the importance of ethics in journalism. Linn Washington has worked for news outlets from CNN to the Philadelphia Daily News and reported from all over the world. he teaches journalism at Temple Univeristy in Philadelphia. He has also covered the Mumia Abu-Jamal story for about 40 years.

When Philly Dropped the Bomb

Just over 35 years ago, eleven people were killed and 61 homes destroyed in a West Philadelphia neighborhood after police dropped C-4 explosives on a building occupied by MOVE, a black liberation organization. Journalist Linn Washington was there on May 13, 1985, covering the mayhem for the Philadelphia Daily News. This is the first of a two-part conversation with Washington. He'll talk about his work covering MOVE beginning in the mid-70s, police brutality under Philadelphia mayor Frank Rizzo, and his 21 hours of reporting from the scene of the bombing.

Covering the Killing of Ahmaud Arbery

Although Ahmaud Arbery wasn't killed by police, the manner in which law enforcement officials have handled his case raises a number of questions about the role race may have played in his Feb. 23 death and the aftermath. The 25-year-old African American man was jogging in a coastal community in Georgia when three white men decided to attempt a citizen's arrest without having witnessed Arbery commit a crime. Seventy-four days after his death—and two days after a video of the shooting went viral—two suspects were finally arrested. In this episode, a local police reporter for the Brunswick News, Larry Hobbs, talks about his work to understand what happened that day. Hobbs, who has worked in community news for decades, discusses his effort to "hang on to the story" despite the scant information he uncovered in the days and weeks immediately afterward.

Land Grab Universities

These are challenging times for American universities and colleges. But dozens of them would not exist without the financial benefit of land "seized or stolen or otherwise leveraged from indigenous tribes into US hands through violence-backed treaties," says historian Bobby Lee. Earlier this year, Lee and Tristan Ahtone, an investigative journalist, published a High Country News article resulting from two years of deep research, analysis, and reportage. In this episode they talk about how some schools have responded—or not and provide advice for how journalists and everyone else can use the research for further study. Land Grab U website [https://www.landgrabu.org] High Country News article [https://www.hcn.org/issues/52.4/indigenous-affairs-education-land-grab-universities]