The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette building (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)
NewsGuild-CWA endorsed the vote to strike by journalists at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The vote follows calls for editor Keith Burris to resign “after he sidelined and disciplined Black journalists who reported on protests following the killing of George Floyd,” the Guild says. Monday was also the first day for the newsroom’s new executive editor, Stan Wischnowski, who resigned from The Philadelphia Inquirer in June following “an insensitive headline over Inga Saffron’s column … that may have set the stage for Wischnowski’s departure. He joined the two other top editors in signing an apology to readers and staff, characterizing the headline, ‘Buildings Matter, Too,’ as ‘deeply offensive’ and apologizing for it,” according to the Inquirer. Burris, formerly the executive editor, will now serve as vice president and editorial director of Block Communications.
The city council in Hartford, Connecticut, voted last night to oppose hedge fund Alden Global Capital’s potential ownership of The Hartford Courant. The oft-maligned Alden owns a significant stake in the Courant’s parent company, Tribune Publishing, and has been expected to grow that stake, though some of its recent moves have been opaque. The Hartford Courant Guild is also pushing for new ownership. The Courant joins a growing list of organizations seeking to leave newspaper chain ownership. Founded before the U.S. declared independence, The Courant is “America’s oldest continuously published newspaper.”
Several journalism groups and organizations have issued statements decrying the arrest of a local reporter in California on Saturday. On Saturday, KPCC and LAist reporter Josie Huang was covering the shooting of two deputies in Compton when she was arrested. Huang later tweeted the details of her arrest, with video of her own and from fellow journalists to support her account of what happened. “That’s what surprises me the most is that once she was identified as a reporter that they transported her, that they cited her,” L.A. County Inspector General Max Huntsman told the Los Angeles Times on Sunday.
“The rights of journalists are protected by the First Amendment, and essential to an informed public and our Democracy,” said Nancy Barnes, NPR’s senior vice president of news, in a piece for NPR. The Asian American Journalists Association issued a statement in support of Huang. “Her arrest serves as a reminder of the risks that journalists face every day while reporting on the front lines during these uncertain times.” In an official statement, KPCC said, "These are challenging and stressful times for everyone, but Josie Huang was arrested while doing her job. The charges should be dropped.”
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