When Cincinnati Reds broadcaster Thom Brennaman got caught on a hot mic in August using an anti-gay slur, Megan Mitchell, an openly lesbian reporter and anchor at WLWT in Cincinnati, hoped her colleagues in the media would realize why it was an important story to cover. It wasn’t just about the slur, she told GJR.…
On July 3, 1981, The New York Times reported on a “rare gay cancer” that had been seen in 41 men. Although no one realized it at the time, the article by reporter and medical doctor Lawrence K. Altman was the first major news story on what would become the HIV/AIDS pandemic. It took another…
Within an hour on the morning of Sept. 5, Chicago photographer Tonika Johnson had received a tag on Instagram, a tweet, a Facebook message and text from friends notifying her about the “The Great Divide” a photographic story by the New York Times that highlights the overt disparities in quality of life for residents in…
FOIA advocates in Illinois successfully fought off attempts by local governments to slow access to public information in the early stages of the pandemic. But many journalists are still warily watching how the local leaders conduct business in the “new normal” of virtual meetings and limited or reduced access to government offices. “You have to…
Four years after creating safety modules for journalism graduate students, Thomas Durkin, education program director at the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation, realized many undergraduates were out reporting in situations that required awareness and decided to take action. “We would talk to students. I remember being at the University of Michigan and a student told…