A newspaper union is petitioning supporters Sunday to fight a ban the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette implemented to prevent two Black journalists from covering protests about the death of George Floyd, a Black man who was unarmed when a white cop kneeled on his neck for close to nine minutes.
By the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh’s description, an existing clash between management and journalists at the newspaper seemed to have reached a boiling point when Alexis Johnson, a Black member of the guild and a reporter for the paper, posted a tweet May 31. It included photos of tailgating trash left behind from country singer Kenny Chesney’s concert and read: “Horrifying scenes and aftermath from selfish LOOTERS who don’t care about this city!!!!!.... oh wait sorry. No, these are pictures from a Kenny Chesney concert tailgate. Whoops.”
Soon after, management at the paper barred Johnson from protest-related coverage. She told MSNBC’s Joy Reid that although the paper made no claim that she was taken off of the story because of her race, a white reporter who was similarly warned about a social media post he sent wasn’t then taken off of protest-related coverage. “In fact, he covered the protest the following day,” Johnson said.
The newspaper guild called Johnson’s social media post “a benign tweet” and ridiculed management’s logic as “absurd and specious.” The guild’s president, Michael Fuoco, and chairman Jonathan Silver, who are both longtime reporters at the paper, met with newly appointed Managing Editor Karen Kane and two other managers Wednesday to demand they reinstate Johnson to protest-related coverage, but they refused. "We filed a grievance alleging they violated our contract by disciplining Alexis without just cause,” the newspaper guild said. “That grievance, one of many filed over the past three years, is pending.”
Dozens of members of the guild retweeted Johnson's tweet with #IStandWithAlexis, but soon after, protest-related stories by city hall reporter Ashley Murray and general assignment reporter Lauren Lee "suddenly disappeared without explanation from the PG’s website," according to the newspaper guild.
“The PG simply does not remove stories, ever, for any reason,” the guild explained. “It is a longstanding policy in journalism and at the PG that you do not remove published material; it is simply unethical to do so. The proper course of action is to correct any factual errors and include an editor’s note in the story explaining the reason for any changes.
“But in this case, we believe that Ashley’s and Lauren’s stories were purposely removed. In fact, one of our staffers heard Kane on Friday evening order the city editor to kill a story. Similarly, one of our photographers of color who tweeted support for Alexis has been barred from covering protests.”
Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Michael Santiago, who also interviewed Reid, said he was not given a reason when he was pulled off of protest coverage but he vowed that he would stand by Johnson. "There was no way that I was going to let this happen to her,” Santiago said. “I was going to protect her at any cost, and I told her I was going to ride or die for her, and that's exactly what I did."
The National Association of Black Journalists released a statement Sunday that the organization is "greatly disturbed" by the newspaper's decision. “NABJ is strongly against silencing the voices of those who bring unique and objective perspectives to coverage,” NABJ President Dorothy Tucker said in the statement. “We believe that hiring and supporting a diverse group of employees are critical steps that all media organizations should be taking in practicing excellence in journalism.”
NABJ also called on the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette to release its policies and improve “the management of employee relations.”
“All employees, including Black employees, deserve to be heard without retribution for opinions that may differ from management’s viewpoint,” the association said in the statement. “NABJ and PBMF (the Pittsburgh Black Media Federation) look forward to discussions regarding these issues.”
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