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"Fear, terror, helplessness" on journalists' visit; Israel denied journalist status to Hamas cameramen; indignation drives press-freedom honorees; Rihanna apologizes to press for "Plane-a-Geddon"; how MSNBC's style differs from that of Fox News sports columnist Burwell moves to multimedia role; Chicago dailies glad for vote to fill Jackson seat; a Native American's take on Thanksgiving (11/23/12)

Exemplifying some of the undertold stories of the election, MIJE board member Mark Trahant produced a segment on the campaign of Denise Juneau and what it says about the growing importance of the Native American vote in the state of Montana and in the country as a whole.

Examples like this remind us of the importance of diversity in the nation's news media. - MIJE Staff

American Indians are a small group nationally, just over one percent of all voters. But in Montana that number is nearly 8 percent and are a key voting bloc. Six years ago Native voters helped elect Jon Tester to the U.S. Senate and four years ago they elected Denise Juneau to run the state's school system.

Veteran political reporter Mike Frisby reflects on the election. - MIJE Staff

We have just witnessed the evolution of Barack Obama.  Just watched his last campaign speech (ever) and what I saw was an amazing transformation. Hard to imagine it was the same politician who looked so broken and dispirited at the first debate. There is something about the American political process that actually works: it breaks a man or woman down, and we watch whether they succumb or if they have the resolve to recover.

The University of Redlands, conferred its highest honor, the 2012 Distinguished Alumni Achievement Service Award, on Collin Tong, Maynard SPMJ grad '76, at its annual presidential convocation during Homecoming last month.

"Collin believes that people are all interconnected and once we get to know each other our kinship outweighs our differences. He has followed this philosophy to impact the world around him and create positive change."

- From the Award Citiation

Sherman Alexie is a preeminent Native American poet, novelist, performer and filmmaker. He has garnered high praise for his poems and short stories of contemporary Native American reservation life, among them The Business of Fancydancing (1992), The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven (1993), which won a PEN/Hemingway Award, and Smoke Signals (1998), a critically acclaimed movie based on one of Alexie’s short stories and for which he co-wrote the screenplay. An acclaimed performer of his own work, Alexie held the World Heavyweight Poetry title for four years.

By Debora Gordon - During the Fall semester of 2007, I was teaching in the OUSD Independent Study Program, seeing about 30 or so students per week, individually and in small groups by grade level and course.  Lam was in my group of 11th grade students. We were studying American history since Reconstruction and reading American literature from about the same period through the present.

By Michael Holland - In 1934 Henry C. Williams was born in Helen, Alabama on a sharecropper’s plantation. That would explain why he has spent the greater part of his life fighting for a cause that is very near and dear to his heart: reparations for all black people. As a black man going thru financial ups and downs, that sounds very good to me.

Solar power is currently the fastest growing form of energy in the world. The use of solar energy is increasing two-fold. There’s a black-owned, Jackson-based business, Sundial Solar Power Developers, which is introducing its solar panel systems within the state of Mississippi.

On Aug. 12, Bob Butler reported on the Maynard Institute website about WBBM-TV in Chicago airing a story on a shooting. It included video of a 4-year-old boy saying he wanted his own gun. The station edited out the rest of the boy’s statement that he wanted the gun because he wants to be a police officer. Butler also reported that “there is no diversity in WBBM’s management.”

In response, Jeff Kiernan, vice president and news director for WBBM-TV in Chicago, sent this statement to the Institute:

News coverage of black men and boys often paints them in a negative light no matter where they are in the world.

The latest example was coverage of London, which experienced four nights of rioting, looting and arson after a black man was shot to death by police.

BBC television news reports and other global news channels showed crowds rioting and looting. While people of all races and ages engaged in criminal behavior, young black men were singled out as being primarily responsible.