Newsroom editors can cripple or embrace reporters
Stories you want: Holding local and national news accountable
Please do not give me Florida. Please do not give me Miami or Orlando or Tampa. I’m begging you. I don’t give a damn what Florida Man has to say.
That was what I was thinking when I was hired for my third newsroom job. The company walked the line between a content mill and an aggregation news site, but the one thing it had going for it was allowing new and veteran writers to write a couple of pieces a week that we cared about.
Recommended Read: “10 hard lessons I learned as a black journalist ~ My love-hate relationship with the news industry”
However, we also had select cities (in trios) that we were assigned to cover. I was hired at the same time as one other writer. The only available, local beats at the time were Miami/Orlando/Tampa and another one for three East Coast cities, including Baltimore. I cannot remember what the other two East Coast cities were, but I wanted this beat badly because Baltimore was in it.
I’d been quietly watching the progress of Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi, and respected what they’d done after founding the Black Lives Matter movement. And my hire date was April 2015, the same timeframe that Freddie Gray was beaten to death by police officers. Having the opportunity to cover Black Lives Matter and Freddie Gray was indescribably important to me.
Instead I was given Florida — and lots of idiotic “funny” stories to write about. Meanwhile the 20-something white guy who had minimal interest in Black Lives Matter got the East Coast cities. There was no grumpier person on the planet than me being told to write about Disney World while fully aware that a black man had been beaten so bad that his “spine was 80% severed at his neck.”
Even worse, I was contracted to not write for competitors, so I couldn’t cover a topic I was far more passionate about than Mickey Mouse and Buccaneers hockey games. But I knew I was given this beat on purpose. During the initial online training days, before we were given a beat, I ran off some accomplishments of Black Lives Matter.
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As an Amazon affiliate, I earn a percentage from purchases with my referral links. I know some consumers are choosing to boycott Amazon for its DEI removal. However, after thinking about this thoroughly, I want to continue promoting cool products from small businesses, women-owned businesses and (specifically) Black-owned businesses who still feature their items on Amazon. As of the first date of Black History Month 2025, each new post will ALWAYS include a MINIMUM of one product sold by a Black-owned business. (I have visited the seller’s official site to verify that Amazon Black-owned logo.) I am (slowly) doing this with older, popular posts too. If you still choose to boycott, I 100% respect that decision.
The editor (a 20-something, white, blonde female) responded, “Yeah, we’re not going to write about that. We don’t even know if that small group will stick around.”
I was dumbfounded. Five years later, Black Lives Matter is stronger, better and quicker — and worldwide. I hope the editor who dismissed “that small group” eats crow every day for the rest of her life.