As part of the UNITY convention, the National Association of Black Journalists have released their annual Thumbs Down awards -- handed to individuals or media organizations taking actions at odds with the efforts of NABJ to spread fair and comprehesive coverage of minorities.

As head of the NABJ's Media Montoring Committee, I led the committee's work to draft nominees for the awards, which were voted on by NABJ's board of directors. The group is releasing the details of its pick at 11:30 a.m. today in the UNITY convention in Chicago.

Check out the press release here:

Fox News, Pat Buchanan Receive Annual ‘Thumbs Down’ Award from Black Journalists Group.
Racist and Insensitive Commentary join the News Organization’s Disregard for Diverse Political Reporters at the Association’s Annual Presentation.

CHICAGO, July 25, 2008 - The National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) named FOX News, columnist Pat Buchanan, and news organizations with little to no diversity in its political coverage the 2008 recipients of the Thumbs Down Award.

The award is given annually to an individual or organization for especially insensitive, racist or stereotypical reporting, commentary, photography or a cartoon at odds with the goals of NABJ. The announcement was made at a mid–day news conference taking place at the UNITY: Journalists of Color Convention. Past recipients include columnist Armstrong Williams, former New York Times reporter Jayson Blair, and most recently, Black Entertainment Television.

Said NABJ President Barbara Ciara at the news conference, “If I had to list the atrocities committed by FOX News this election year, we’d be in this room all day. No other network has a worse record of inaccurate portrayals of African-Americans than FOX News.”

In a written statement, Ciara cited FOX News’s characterizing Michelle Obama as ‘Obama's Baby Mama,’ and FOX's E.D. Hill addressing her well-known fist bump (or pound) as a ‘terrorist fist jab’ on the airwaves.

NABJ also cited Buchanan’s column “A Brief for Whitey” where he asserted that white Americans are tired of complaints of racism from black people, including that “America has been the best country on earth for black folks.”

A frequent broadcast analyst, on May 2, he wrote a column titled “The Way Our World Ends,” concluding that "the Caucasian race is going the way of the Mohicans" because of a "baby boom among these black and brown peoples" that will bring an end to Western Man in the 21st Century.

“Exactly what rock is Pat Buchanan living under," said Ciara at the conference of Asian, black, Latino, and Native American journalists. “The Western World was born off the backs of black and brown people.”

NABJ also named news organizations across media platforms that have failed to provide a diverse pool of people covering elections as recipients of the annual award. “This is apparent in print, radio, television and online,” said Ciara. “This lack of diversity, especially for African Americans, has allowed far too many miscues and insensitive comments this election season.”

An advocacy group established in 1975 in Washington, D.C., NABJ is the largest organization of journalists of color in the nation, with more than 4,100 members, and provides educational, career development, and support to black journalists worldwide.

Embargoed until Friday, July 25, 2008 11AM

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