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It was the subject line of this newsletter that inspired Anh Do to write to me. A few weeks ago, I wrote about navigating the weight, and self-preserving numbness, of covering the loss of jobs and newsrooms. The subject line was inspired by a conversation I had with a Tampa Bay Times editor who’d been laid off
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It read: We carry each other along
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Do, a metro reporter at the Los Angeles Times, felt moved to respond. After some back and forth emails, she volunteered to brainstorm newsletter topics with me. I’ve gone from a few years of carefully planning these to a few months of realizing it’s Wednesday afternoon and scrambling, so her timing was perfect.
Do’s offer was a ripple of the sentiment in that earlier newsletter, she told me in a call this week. We have to keep finding ways to help each other.
And so this week, and for the unforeseeable future, I’m going to use this space to tell you about local journalists and the work they’re doing. It will probably be related to the coronavirus. It won’t always. And I’m starting with something from Do. That was not her intention, of course, but once I started looking at her work, she seemed like a perfect first subject.
I got a lot of great ideas last week when I asked you to share work you’re proud of
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. Please keep it coming. Also, yesterday, Poynter announced the new home for our coverage of the business and people of news: Locally
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. You’ll find updates on layoffs, resources, training, funding and original work, as the subhead says “chronicling the power and perils of local journalism during the pandemic.” Please check it out and let me know what you think.
Now, let’s talk to Do.
Screenshot, Los Angeles Times
Right as the lockdown in southern California began, reporter Anh Do learned that legendary Vietnamese pop diva Thái Thanh had died. Her death wasn’t because of the coronavirus. But it was a huge moment, a loss previously that would have been met with mourners in the thousands in Southern California and thousands more watching from around the world.
“And I thought: What timing. How on earth will they honor her in the age of coronavirus?” said Do.
She learned through a source that family members were trying to get permission for a memorial service in a time of social distancing. Press wasn’t allowed. So Do got creative and used Facebook Live to watch about two dozen people gather, many in Thái Thanh’s favorite color, pink.
“This for a woman whose fame is likened to Elizabeth Taylor's,” Do said.
She watched the service, noting the names of people who watched with her and commented, trying to track them down later on social media. Then, Do drove to Little Saigon in Orange County. At a community rice distribution line, she found longtime fans.
Thái Thanh was the matriarch of three generations of performers. Do’s more familiar with the music of Thái Thanh’s daughter. But while writing this story, Do listened to the elder diva.
The result is a piece
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that captures grief, grieving, community and the enduring power of music in the strangest of times.
The men playing mah-jongg and sipping iced coffee had retreated. Many Westminster shop owners had shuttered their stores, once filled with soybean milk and war memoirs and shiny Buddha statues.
Little Saigon was in lockdown; the sense of loss was palpable. And in the yellowing pages of a local Vietnamese-language newspaper, stories paid tribute to a beloved voice that also had fallen silent in the midst of the global pandemic.
Thai Thanh, the diva who reigned
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over Vietnamese American popular music for nearly six decades, died in virus-battered March, leaving her legions of fans unable to venture out to pay their respects. The 85-year-old icon started her singing career at age 14 in her native Hanoi, merging northern Vietnamese folk songs, French music and Western opera into a hybrid genre called “Tan Nhac,” the so-called New Music of Vietnam.
The story sparked a big reaction among grandmothers, mothers and daughters on Facebook, Do said, a popular platform for Southeast Asian immigrants.
“The diva at the center of our story is really a citizen of two countries, her career a merging of cultural ideals and of unity and separation," Do said. "People who grew up in the villages she toured got in touch with me, along with those who grew up with her children and grandchildren.”
Do, who’s staying busy now covering the coronavirus, said she looks for ways to strike a balance between practical news, breaking news and something deeper, like service journalism.
She is proud of the work her colleagues at the LA Times have produced through the pandemic.
“I think this is just one small story in a gigantic and growing constellation of stories that we can offer,” she said.
And right now, the next story she’s excited about is on one of her favorite subjects: dogs.
You can watch a video of Thái Thanh's music here
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Sponsored content: Earn an M.S. in Media Solutions and Innovation
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online at West Virginia University. Local media outlets are more important than ever, and current owners are looking for successors who will be an integral part of their communities. This is a perfect time to learn and grow as a media entrepreneur through a program that connects you with these owners.
While you’re here:
I wrote about the staff of the Times-Picayune one year after they were all laid off.
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Another grim list: 25+ local newsrooms have closed
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since the coronavirus pandemic began.
I got an email from a retired journalist who shared this free training for COVID-19 contact tracing
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, something many people think journalists would be particularly good at.
Thanks to a $4.7-million-dollar gift to NPR
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, a regional newsroom will launch in the Midwest and one in California will get a boost.
The publisher of The Seattle Times proposed solutions to helping local news
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The co-founder of Report for America did, too
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Congrats to NC Local News Lab for launching NC Local News Workshop
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Last week I took part in a CJR webinar series as part of the Journalism in Crisis Project.
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Here’s a partnership that could be easily replicated and makes a ton of sense: the Detroit Free Press has partnered
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with the state archives to collect coronavirus stories.
And finally, if you need a good cry, this story
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about a Seattle Times newspaper carrier who made masks for customers should do it.
That’s it for me. Stay well.
Kristen
Pictured above: Thái Thanh was a famous Vietnamese pop diva who died in California. Anh Do, a reporter at the Los Angeles Times, reported on the memorial service by watching it on Facebook Live and traveling to Little Saigon in Orange County. (Screenshot, Facebook Live)
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