it is trial and error. i think this contributes to the roller coaster kind of experience that we watch as parents. >> sunday night at it :00 p.m. eastern on c-span q&a. next, journalist discussed how the media of tackles race issues including coverage of ferguson, missouri and new york city. then, president obama and vice president biden take part in a pentagon farewell ceremony for outgoing defense secretary chuck hagel.

>> topics included media coverage of ferguson every chokehold verdict. the and the chokehold verdict. >> welcome to the present club for a very timely discussion on coverage of race in america. how will we doing and how can we do better. this program has been planned jointly by the national press club and the local press club. tonight is historic because of how we came together this evening as partners to discuss the very issue that once divided the organizations race. the 107th president of the press club. i want to know if you presence of john hughes, the 108th president -- acknowledged the

presence of john hughes, the 108th president. one of the highlights of my year as president was to be invited to speed in this very room -- speak in this very room for the 70's anniversary of the press club that was formed by african-american journalists in a time they were denied membership in the national press club. african-american journalists and communicators have been active members since 1955 and we are proud that many have been in leadership positions over the years. i also am proud trauma very -- home of-- proud, very proud proud that many have been in leadership positions over the years. i'm proud that one of our newest

members, the president of the capital press club. thank you, hazel, to have the national press club to have the venue of the 70th celebration. thank you for joining the national press club. as many members of the capital press club have. and above all, thank you for working hard, so hard, to ensure the success of this evening's program. as we announced at the 70th anniversary celebration. we were standing right there. we felt it was appropriate, so appropriate and so timely to have what we have described as a cutting-edge forum to discuss media covergae race in america in the light of recent events from ferguson to staten island. hazel and i want this to be a best practices look at the journalism that came out of the events in those cities and identify what was well done and

what could have been done better and other conflicts that our panelists want to raise. everything we say tonight will be said with the hope that journalism can always be improved. to the extent that the questions can aim toward that goal, we are very, very grateful. i will ask my friend, hazel, to give her welcoming remarks and to introduce our very distinguished panel and thank you for being here despite the fear of the weather. we are so grateful to you all being here. hazel, my friend. >> thank you. president emeritus of the national press club, let's give him a hand. and it was an honor for me to join the national press club and then to join the national press club in this very important forum this evening. in 1903, w.e.b. dubois the

-- dubois wrote that the problem of the 20th century was the color line. 127 years later, in the 21st century, here we are continually discussing the color lines, with the backdrop of the police killing of michael brown in ferguson, missouri, with the backdrop of the police killing of eric garner in staten island , new york. here we are, as journalists, speaking from the standpoint of the higher ground. our high standards of journalism that we love to talk about and that we, that we really aspire to have. and yet, when it comes to afflicting the comfortable and

comforting the afflicted, the question tonight is, are we measuring up? the question is, tonight, when it comes to issues of race in america and race coverage in america, how are we doing? and what can we do better? and we have an outstanding panel here tonight, a stellar panel to discuss those issues. i'm going to introduce each one of them, and then one at a time, in their own way, they are going to speak for five minutes on that question, how are we doing, what we can do better in our own way and we will ask questions of them and hand it over to them. over to you for the townhall meeting. -- over to you for the townhall meeting. there are two microphones on either side of the room.

when the time comes, you will line up and prepare to fire away your questions. but first, we have the web editor of the st. louis american.com and reporter for the newspaper. she was the st. louis american's most-active reporter in ferguson during the crisis during the police killing of michael brown junior. her coverage has been republished nationwide by black -- by "ebony" magazine and by black newspapers around the country. let's welcome her. [applause] and then we have mr. paul. he is media coverage reporter for the "washington post." paul's articles cover issues from everything from free speech

to abuses and racist comments and hate speech. his beat expands into media conflicts of interests political oversights of journalists and the hiring processes of media agencies. let's give paul a hand. [applause] next to paul, we have a program. -- april ryan. she is a white house correspondent for the urban network that is has radio stations. she has conducted exclusive interviews with three presidents. president obama, george w. bush and bill clinton. following this forum april will sign her new book "the presidency in black and white my upclose view of american presidents and race in america." let's welcome her, give her a hand. [applause]

mr. jeff johnson has e-mailed, he is on his way and he is trying to catchers like hopefully he is not caught in the storm -- catch a flight. hopefully he is not caught in the monster storm. pardon? he is on his way and will introduce him when he gets here. we'll go to afina a general assignment reporter out of ccnn. she works out of the white house bureau. previously she was a white house producer with nbc where she produced story segments and was a reporter for msnbc. and covered campaigns of hillary clinton and barack obama during the 2008 election cycle. remember that? let's give her a hand. [applause]

i am sorry. sitting next to her is mr. gilbert, he is editor of the " st. louis post dispatch." last month it was announced that you gilbert would be receiving the national press foundation benjamin c. bradley award as editor of the year. [applause] four " guiding his news organization through the police shooting of michael brown in ferguson, missouri. and the tumultuous aftermath." he will receive that award on february 18 right here in d.c. and next to gilbert is mr. roland martin, an author. roland is a columnist and host of "news one now with roland martin." it is a nationally -- a fiery

nationally syndicated columnist. with creators syndicate. he is a former cnn contributor and author of "speak brother, a black man's view of america" and "barack obama road to the white house." as originally reported by roland s martin. let's give him a hand. let's give this entire panel a hand. as we anticipate this powerful conversation this evening. and we are going to start with you. >> hi, everybody. i guess i'll go ahead and get started with 10 -- well, -- 10 -- well -- one of -- the reason why i'm here and that's ferguson. i remember august 9 like it was 10 seconds ago. i was doing my my business of social media and a man held a sign that said, the ferguson police department just murdered my unarmed son.

and i was like, ferguson ferguson? down the street ferguson? is this real? and i wanted to get down there. at that moment. because people were gathering. but i actually had, because i'm an entertainment reporter. to cover a goat caused the concert. -- a bill cosby concert. [laughter] and yeah, i know. of all things. and i couldn't remember like to this day, like i could remember all of the pre-events that kicked off ferguson, i couldn't remember one joke he told and nothing negative to mr. cosby, and what's happening. and i got home and i just -- i remember thinking, what does this mean. i felt something different about this. so ultimately ferguson, it became my feet, it became all of our beats.

the protests, they came from what people would assume was the lowest common denominator who rise up to raise their voices to all of these different issues and what happened is in the wake of the killing of michael brown there were these drilling sidebar conversations -- really sidebar conversations about racial profiling. it was so wonderful to see but it was also things that we have been telling for generations in the african-american news and finally they have come to the forefront but it was like, a wake-up call because we saw that the racial society we assumed we lived in -- well, most of the general population -- did not exist. was michael brown and eric

garner there are new conversations that are uncomfortable. i am hoping, the internal optimist i am, that healing comes out of these tragedies -- eternal optimist that i am, that healing comes out of these tragedies first of all, thank you for inviting -- tragedies. collects first of all, -- >> first of all, thank you for inviting me here. first of all, i was not in ferguson, i experienced it through the media. i saw, i think, three things about that episode, two of which are small and one of which i think is large. first of all, i watched a lot of the television coverage, cnn fox, misnbc and i'll exempt my friends on the panel who are in print and radio. but television didn't tell us

something very important about what was going on in ferguson , i think, and that was how many people were truly involved in this and how large a community was involved. i'm sure that the geography was obvious to your readers but not obvious to people like me watching on television. i couldn't tell whether the northern part of st. louis was on fire or it was a couple of blocks on west flourecent avenue. and i think that was the basic failure of what was going on in terms of the coverage. the next step, also got me which was why was ferguson different than the protests that evolved in new york and oakland and los angeles and chicago? ferguson did turn violent. there was no analysis in the

media as to why ferguson ended up the way it did and why there -- why the other cities where there was an equal amount of grievance but not like the death of michael brown, why there wasn't the same kind of reaction. new york was very peaceful. new york was peaceful and chicago was peaceful. i wish the media could have analyzed the aspect of it. -- that aspect of it. was it the police response or police nonresponse or something that the political structure of those communities did? was it the media that portrayed those protests in a more responsible way. i would like to see some follow-up on that. the other part of this is something that came home to me when i saw the movie "selma" a new days ago and that was something that martin luther king, and certainly the person

portraying a martin luther king said and i think it is historically accurate and that was the optics of violent protests. king wasn't advocating violent protests, he advocated nonviolent protests. but he understood to get the media involved to galvanize the media attention, there had to be action and drama. and that was why so let itself -- selma itself was selected. and martin luther king knew that the sheriff was going to overreact and beat those protest doors and it was going -- protesters and it was going to shock the nation. and the reason it shocked the nation is because the media came running and the media were sympathetic to those protesters

who were protesting nonviolently and they saw it was not fair. and in that sense, we know one thing about ferguson that violence did get the media's attention and we will remember ferguson for that more so than the other protests. >> it is an honor to be here this evening amongst this wonderful crowd, particularly in the midst of a storm. but to let you know how much race is an issue in this country that you came out to hear it. i have covered the white house for the past 18 years and i found that at the white house everything comes to the white house, from war to peace and everything in between. and between war and peace, there are matters of race as well. and since i have began covering the white house and three presidents and researching for

the book that i have, "be presidency in black and white," it's interesting how people think that race is not always on the forefront of the white house, and that's not always -- just not true but it does not make it to the front page of "the washington post." it may go below the fold or the b section or the c section. but race does matter. one of the first writings from someone, a black person from the white house was paul jennings. he wrote "a slave in the white house." he was a slave for president madison. you don't hear about that, do you? race played a part way back. it was before kennedy and l.b.j.. frederick douglass met with presidents, he met with abraham lincoln. we didn't hear about that kind of thing. the sad part of is, i'm an

african-american woman that focuses on urban and minority issues in the white house, i'm the only one in the white house that deals on that white house. my colleagues was bashed to my colleagues credit in the white house, -- to my colleagues credit in the white house, when something comes to a crescendo moment, they talk about it. in my book, president clinton talks about it, race factors in. it has to be that moment. it has to be a ferguson, a selma, a bloody sunday. for us to your about it. -- to hear about it. but we have people in st. louis. we have everyone around. we cover these things daily and it is sad when the despair of bashed disparity of -- the disparity of african-americans is so much so and prevalent in education to housing to catching a cab in new york, it's prevalent, in crime, it's prevelent in drugs, and you hear

about it when there is a moment. and the sad part is, this is on the president's table. we have someone here tonight melanie campbell, from the black women's roundtable. she meets with the president quite a bit, talking about issues of race. melanie, please stand up. [applause] i am sorry to shut you out but i did. -- shout you out but i did. we have people like that who come to the white house and you don't hear about that and it is interesting, but race matters. it's not just a black or latino issue but it's an everybody issue. it is an everybody issue. courts i am so happy to be here. -- >> i am so happy to be here. thanks for having me. i'm excited to hear what everybody has to say about this issue and good to talk about how we are covering about race and one of the most exciting things

that i have heard already so far was what kenya mentioned which is the thrilling side bar conversations that came about when we started covering ferguson and later the garner case. i was not in ferguson but i did cover the street protests after the decision not to prosecute the officer. i asked a couple of friends how they thought we were doing in terms of what we were covering race. they laughed and said you are covering it, at least. that's a start. but i think it goes beyond that. in these cases, we got beyond the headlines and it can be harder to go and have real conversations on television. a lot of stations managed to do that certainly, i believe my network did a good job in many cases looking at the issues behind of the headlines and the

protest and violence and many ways we can do better. but i think what all of us would agree with is that as journalists, our mission has to be more than providing a megaphone. to the people on either side of these issues. we have to also hopefully bring some light so it's not just heat. and i think we have a ways to go on that area. but i saw some of that in the coverage like these thrilling side bar covers. -- sidebar conversations. it depends on the media. people in print and radio have different challenges than people in television. but certainly in print you have seen issues behind the problems in ferguson like all of the good reporting we saw on municipal fines and the traffic tickets and the ways towns like ferguson

were interacting with the poorer residents in the black community. that is something you can do more easily in print. television ends up being about pictures, compelling pictures. so there is a focus on the big crowds and the loudest voices and there can be a focus on violence and that is why context matters, to paul's point. i think we have had a good start trying to add that context and we have to continue to do so. and to do so with a wide range of voices and i think that specifically, the reason this is so important is, someone else mentioned on the panel, there are so many people who don't think about race on a daily basis because they do not have to. they don't get the struggles that people who are minorities may be dealing with. and that became clear to me, well many times, but during the coverage of the garner protests.

the reaction that i got was quite remarkable on twitter. a lot of people that are minorities just didn't get it. -- aren't minorities just didn't get it. i will give you an example. one night i took a picture of a young black male, 12, 13, who was walking with his family. younger sibblings and his mother and holding a sign that said i could be next. i talked about that on television, i took the picture and i i tweeted it out. and a bunch of people thought it was moving. it really hit home for them. a lot of other people on twitter, for instance, said, look, as long as he behaves himself he will be fine. to me, that shows they do not get the issue at hand. and so that he the example i wanted to give.

but it is very important for us to be there to cover. we in television may be criticized for focusing on the pictures and the dramatic of the pictures but it's our role to tell that story. we have to make sure we back that up with discussions and panel discussions far away from the center of the action. and i think to some extent we managed to do that. >> is this on? thank you, athena. we are going to bring up our seventh panelist. mr. jeff johnson. let's welcome him. [applause] jeff is an award-winning journalist, motivational speaker. and a thought leader. only a few weeks ago, he conducted an exclusive interview with president barack obama on the recent police shootings of unarmed black men. jeff also served as a national director for the youth and college division of the naacp.

let's move on to gilbert and then we will come back to just after roland. >> i have prepared remarks and would like to go through these quickly. i think the best thing to do was to have a conversation because what we are talking about happened in our hometown. it's a little bit different when you consider that it's in your backyard. i know many of you are from st. louis. i know st. louis. it is different from what you have seen and from how you feel it and it continues today. there were protests today at the county courthouse. it is still happening in st. louis. the ferguson-related issues have defined race relations over the past months. the police involved fatalities have laid bare long-standing racial profiling, concentrated poverty, political disenfranchisement, and mistrust of government. all of those factors arose with ferguson.

but ferguson, an older suburb that became majority african-american in the last few decades is not exceptional. many probably thought such an event would happen elsewhere where crime and poverty is worse but not in ferguson. ferguson has demonstrated how people of different races and backgrounds can live in close proximity, yet live very far apart. these are complex issues. that is panel will explore. -- this panel will explore. i want two things to talk about when we talk about race coverage in america. and that is the tone of the public discourse and the issue of demographics. with the discourse, the political polarization of social media have given rise to harsh constructive conversations are harder to kict after class -- harder to conduct across class, nationality, race, and geography which makes well meaning news coverage subject to intense criticism across the entire spectrum.

this has been true with ferguson coverage and its many issues. too many in the public take an us versus them position. in which opinions and sides are predetermined despite the fact based reporting and investigative work. from various quarters, motives or bias are assigned to the news media. news contrary to one's closely held perspectives is viewed as bias of censorship. people are talking past each other in distinct were blame is assessed to others. that individual is never part of the problem. it's those people creating problems and they must change. solutions are too fast silent simplistic. -- facile and simplistic. furthermore, political extremism have made popular the knee-jerk conversations that undermine solid news reporting and distract from seeking solutions. some politics and public discourses divide by fear and threats associated with the changing complex of america. social media has become a

vehicle for hate, intolerance, and the deliberate spread of hoaxes and misinformation. we saw this in ferguson. social media and websites that espouse a specific agenda are part of the american fabric. social media are ubiquitous and they're here to stay, yet their presence to assert a specific agenda complicates roles of news organizations. journalists are squeezed by bias confirmation which some people cling to preconceived notions. through selective facts or outright misinformation. these factors have further impaired understanding and constructive conversations about race. it affects how we cover race. let me speak to demographics quickly. the demographics of change in america are undeniable. and ongoing. these changes create fear in people who see a threat to their way of life. this has given rise to phrases like the portables and homegrown

terrorists -- deporattables and homegrown terrorists. the change of demographics is inexorable and so is the backlash. the hispanic population is 54 million right now, the largest minority group in the country. it is 17% of the country. it will double by 2050. the largest number of the undocumented immigrants are hispanics, yet the future growth in hispanics will result from the in the united states, -- births in the united states not , immigration. and yet that is not what we hear area. some feel under siege and unable to understand the legality of immigrants or other minorities who retain their ancestral language while they fully embrace american culture. to some, culture is a zero sum game. so it rings hollow to them. that includes many elected officials. it may be present but it may not be recognized. nativism is common to america.

in earlier times, the irish and jews in polish have been targeted. -- and polish have been targeted. now it's some people from latin america who are being targeted. harsh rhetoric harbors ignorance and stereotypes. meanwhile, spanish-language media are thriving as they expand influence nationally, but for some americans spanish language or bilingual news coverage occurs in a vacuum apart from them. they are not hearing it. but i do not underestimate the role of ethnic media in this country. it is tremendously important. the challenge for us in the mainstream media, which i have worked in, is to better incorporate varying perspectives into our coverage. what we need are more voices and more viewpoints across the spectrum and that's the role the mainstream media must play. thank you. >> all right. certainly glad to be here with you as well as the panel.

let me be clear and concise as i can be. and that is media's coverage of race in america is shameful, deplorable, and it is hypocritical. media cannot cover race when it's unwilling to look at its own shops. how can media do stories on the lack of diversity in the academy when it comes to whether or not "selma" should have been nominated for best director or best actor when it is unwilling to find out which executives decide what goes on the next news cast? pug immediately panels talking about how the republican party needs to broaden its tent when the same media outlets have virtually no minorities in executive positions? how can media talk about income inequality in this country and

talk about job disparity when you look at the folks who are in news rooms, those who are making those making six and seven-figure salaries and who are making five-figure salaries? and so it is a little hard for me -- and look, i dealt with it for six years on cnn, the austin american-statesman, i challenged my boss to say how can we talk about race in america when we are unwilling to look at the racial disparities facing newsrooms right now? when you walk into newsrooms you have virtually all white men deciding what's going to be the story of the day. you can't talk about race in america if a black woman comes up missing. and no one in america ever knows. but if a white blue eyed woman comes up missing, it's wall-to-wall coverage. i have yet to see a single media executive give me an honest answer as to why that is the case? it is because when a white woman comes up missing in america,

they see their mother, their daughter, their niece. but when a black woman comes up missing, that's not what they see. when a woman comes up missing, and you cover one, how do you explain how you don't cover the other? there has to be an explanation area. and there shouldn't have to be community protests for networks or newspapers to cover those stories. because everybody knows when you come up missing, the first 72 hours are most critical. but it's six weeks later when we start doing the protests when someone says let's do a story. and that is a fundamental flaw that we have because the one problem we have is nobody reports on us. media relies on media blogs and media blogs -- and also -- or media websites, but the question is who challenges us? who calls us into question? and so when we're talking about who leads that conversation, it really has to be a question of who is deciding what goes on in

the newscast, what's going to be the lead story, what is going to be on that particular front page and who is informing those decisions and their particular backgrounds? i used to sit there and go -- i would listen to some of these conversations and literally look at folks and go, are you serious? you actually asked that question? or that's a particular angle that you decided to take? give you an example. to understand how you you have to broaden and link things and if you are not a person of color where you actually -- you actually have lived this, you don't understand it. so when all the stories are being reported about the sony e-mails being hacked and a sony executive calling kevin hart a whore for wanting to get paid more money who uses social media accounts, -- to use his social media accounts, the position was he was getting paid $3 million. to understand how folks see that, folks say he's getting $3

million. that's more than enough. but the reality is this. kevin hart gave the texas university band $50,000. when he's able to make four, five, $6 million he has the capacity to give more to support more. when you suppress his income you limit his ability to be able to give. you limit his ability to create wealth to pass down to the next generation so his kids when they turn of age they're now able to walk into a situation where they might have $5 million, $10 million, $15 million, $20 million because daddy made that over his career. when you limit kevin hart today you're limiting the capacity for his children and his children's children to do with that wealth what whites have done in america for years. but if you don't have that context, all you simply see is he wanted more money for social media tweets. and that's one of the fundamental flaws that we have is that you do not have divers

e executive leadership and if we want to cut right to the chase and be honest and show the picture. i remember being on cnn talking about rap music. and they kept showing russell simmons and jermaine dupree and i said stop show me the c.e.o. of the record labels. i said show me the executives of the record labels. because i guarantee you they don't look like the rappers. because the executive committee is the one that says no we're not going to release that song with the n-word, we're not going to release that particular song where women are being abused, you're not going to release that song. but we chose to show the faces of the rappers, but not those in charge. that's the flaw of media because we are unwilling to look at ourselves in the mirror but we want to question the rest of america. >> thank you. [applause] courts jeff johnson.

-- >> jeff johnson. >> i won't attempt to be as passionate as roland. i don't know if it's possible. i'm appreciative of the invitation and appreciate to be here. apologize for being late. driving from baltimore was more than a notion. i, to be brief and not redundant, what i thought about more than anything else is really what is the responsibility of those of us that want to consume content and as i've looked -- content and as i've looked at media and played roles in varying outlets, i realize that most folks that i see these days don't really want to do news, anyway. they want to do entertainment that's dressed as news. and there are a lot of people that are looking to those folks that are dressed as news to

provide news when executives have no interest in providing news. they want to provide entertainment. they are less interested in providing any kind of critical analysis as much as they are who are people who can shout at each other, proclaiming to be representatives of one side or another so that we will tweet about one of those two sides reverberate the conversation that in many cases is incredibly unsophisticated and drive sales for the advertisers that are ensuring that those networks, in many cases, continue to put content on air. but at some point, when are we responsible for helping to promote the kind of content that we that we claim isn't there. and when i think about african-americans, people of color, those concerned about race being discussed, there are two things that i'm concerned with. one is that we don't often support the outlets that

traditionally ensure that race coverage has a level of integrity. and so whether that's the black press, whether those are black websites, whether those are black news agencies -- i'm not saying any black news agency. i'm saying there are those who have a level of integrity to ensuring that the content and the race conversations take place without it being race baiting. the second thing, not to belabor the point, is that i am frustrated with our inability to create infrastructure that provides voices to news outlets as opposed to being comfortable with the same voices saying the same old stuff. every time it's some black stuff, the same five people are the -- are the gods and goddesses of black stuff. and i don't see new voices. i don't see younger voices. i don't see fringe voice. i don't see voices that aren't a part of old school institutional infrastructure, and oftentimes

those voices use relationships that they have within these outlets to block younger voices or fringe voices from the african-american community. so you have -- until people really started raising hell in ferguson, you didn't hear real voices from ferguson, and it wasn't until the protests popped off and as a result of talking to young people on the street, you began to be like, wait a minute, this isn't a leaderless , rudderless kind of movement they may not be a part of the urban league or a member of the church, but they are leading on the ground. and i think that until we as a community begin to challenge this notion that everybody that has been a leader is not the leader, that everybody has been the voice are not all the voices, and we do two things. because i would love to see the organizations that are providing, that are looking for talents, that are looking at folks at universities around the country, that are looking at

local leadership that have datas -- databases of voices that can be on air and the moment that -- if we're going to be honest, it's not just black folks. you got the token white dude that is the dude that talks every time there is something surrounding black people. because michael skonik because he works for russell simons and he's got to know about black people. hello? and i have nothing against mike. i like mike. but at some point we got to get out of this tokenism on both sides when it comes to conversations about race. we've got to push to see that there are more legitimate, sophisticated conversations that aren't just the same old back-and-forth talking points, we need to challenge the traditional institutions that actually position themselves as the authorities on black thought when in many cases, the diversity of black thought

latino thought, asian thought, people of color thought, is way more sophisticated we give credit for and whether they support blogs, whether they are papers, networks, whether they are individuals that are pushing to have these conversations, supporting them so that we can begin to see the kind of conversation i don't think we often have at some of the major outlets. >> thank you. yes. courts interesting when jeff -- >> interesting when jeff brought up that point. i remember when i was filling in for carve belling brown at cnn. and the supreme court made a decision in a louisville -- in a kentucky desegregation -- busing desegregation case. and they automatically said he booked a conservative who likes the decision. and i went, you do know there could be some liberals who like it, too. and then i said, well, why don't we call jonathan kozul to -- i said, because -- so they called him. i said who is that?

i said, trust me, call him. he was just -- he was -- they he was shaking at the decision. but they did not want to work him because -- kim because -- book him because they said we want to find somebody black. i said i know it's a bugs decision but he's a perfect voice because he hates the decision. i said, did you also look at who filed the lawsuit? that was a black parent who was a part of the lawsuit because she didn't want her kid going all the way across town. so the boxes that we chose, find a black person who hates the supreme court decision, find me a white male conservative who likes the supreme court decision and then we'll have a conversation. as opposed to saying, no, no no, why don't i find two of the most passionate voices who disagree on this. forget the labels and the ideology and say this is where they stand. and we literally fall into those boxes and that's what drives the race conversation and that's what ends up being a talking point deal as opposed to a real

substantive dialogue on the issue of race in america. >> let's get further into that substantive dialogue. i see a sign in the audience right there on the front row. it says black lives matter. very plain and very simple. that has been the clarion call of all of the marchings and rallies, the protests that have taken place ever since michael brown was killed this summer. and yet just this morning i watched a major network interview a police chief and he kept saying, see, black people still want us in our neighborhoods. they keep calling us, they want us there. they don't seem to get the point that it's not that they don't -- black people don't want them there. it's just that they don't want them shooting unarmed black men.

question: what can the media do to finally get that and reports that? anybody. >> let me say this. that's something that the white house has had to deal with because here you have a black president who has taken the forefront in talking about, i can't believe, wearing a t-shirt and talking about travon and things of that nature and when the situations have happened with ferguson, with new york and with cleveland, there's a fine line about how do you support the police officers who are the ones who are in the community trying to help and then also calling out the ones who are abusing authority? there's got to be some kind of way that as reporters and as someone from the community and as the white house and the attorney general can support and we report on the fact that there is support for law enforcement. we need law enforcement. but at the same time you need to root out the evil that is in the department that's been going on

for decades. those are two situations. people have to understand, and particularly law enforcement, we will support you, but it's a mutual situation. it's a cyclical issue. would you have to, at the same time, support the community. we have to start taking more about community policing. because many of these neighborhoods didn't have it. i mean, i watched when that poor child was laying in the street i saw how the police were on one side, and this is just -- sometimes you take your reporter hat off and you think as a person. and i said, wait a minute. i'm from baltimore where they have community policing, strong community policing town. i saw that crime line and i saw the black people on one side and the police officers on the other. it was no communication. it was us versus them. and anytime you have that kind of situation in a community, it's going to powder keg and it did. and it's got to be a situation where there are reports on this from the community, because we

have experienced and also from mainstream america. it has to make it beyond and come beyond the ferguson, it has to come out beyond new york. it has to be made a priority issue for this country. >> go ahead. >> so i think it's interesting what april just said. about you can both support law enforcement and also support the idea that law enforcement should not be shooting unarmed black men. and i think that often, our role and our duty is to make sure that the context is always a part of any conversation under a -- any conversation, you made me think of the situation between de blasio, mayor de blasio and the nypd, the conflict, and a lot of that -- had to do a lot of things, but one of the things that was brought up by the police side of the complicate was that mayor de blasio shared the fact that he had a conversation with his son that many people all across the country can relate to, which is telling his black son to be

careful, to act a certain way, act respectfully, don't talk back to the police and that -- there's not enough context in the reporting of that situation. there's not enough people saying, wait a second, this is not just a de blasio conversation, this is a universal conversation. this is the conversation that the president would have with his son if he had a son. and his daughters. it's a conversation that any black -- any parent of a black child -- let's put it that way -- should be having and is having, and i think that that part of that conversation, what didn't appear enough when you saw the reporting about the conflict between mayor de blasio and the police department, and i think that that's when we fall down, we, broadly speaking, in the media, if we don't bring up both sides of this. and not just saying, he said this and they said that. let's talk about why each side is saying what they said. >> i have a couple of very quick examples.

just this week we did a story on -- in the city of st. louis, which is probably 10 miles from ferguson. where there's a middle class african-american neighborhood that is now dealing with a violent crime problem where they're trying to take back what has been a middle-class neighborhood and now has a crime problem. they aren't anti-police. they're anti-crime. we did it through their lens of what it is like. a lot of them were elderly or raised families and to changed -- and this changed around them. we were able to see this is what is going on in our city. these weren't protesters. this was people trying to take back their neighborhood. a couple of months ago, a ferguson cop, i think three african-american tops in ferguson out of 34, from his viewpoint, what it was like amid the protests, amid all the

tension to be african-american the names he was called and why he was doing and how he saw are did protesters were upset. there are ways to dig underneath stories. you have to get different voices, you have to get it from a different angle. some of the local coverage that we've done has done this but it's not always seen on a national scale so therefore people don't see this as it is and it's really close to home. >> we have to stop this notion of race where you're racist, you're not racist. if you look at every debate and something happens. somebody says something and the person goes, oh, no, no, i've known them for so long, they're not racist. but there's a whole lot between racist and not racist. there are perceptions and things you thought growing up different views in your background. we never want to deal with that because all of that informs who we are. and but then you say, oh, no racists, we're conservative. i can tell you right now, i've had to deal with a whole lot of racism from some white liberals. got real quiet. i understand.

[laughter] and so you're dealing with them. i literally had -- we did a show on tv 1 where i had black gay people on the show talking about racism in the lgbt community jose antonio vargas gave a speech on that. in chicago. talking about that, saying how can there be an equality movement movement when there's inquality. so there's this fear of really dealing with that. so we sit here and play games and they go, you know so and so, oh no he's not racist. that conversation as opposed to what exactly drives that. when you see us talking about affirmative action or hiring here's a very small thing that happened that people ignore. we allow the conversation to go forth by saying, yes, we're always looking for qualified minorities. well, why are you using the qualifier "qualified"?

i've never heard somebody talking about looking for somebody that is white and saying i'm looking for some qualified white folks. that is assumed. if you go back and look at anything dr. king don't about, he -- talked about, rarely talked about equality. he talked about freedom, inalienable rights. what he was saying is i want the same thing that somebody white in america has. and that is the moment they're born they are granted all their rights as a citizen. that's a different conversation. coming off his birthday, we have this limited view. we talk about the "i have a dream "speeches and look at part of it. which was a radical economic speech, because we do not want to deal with the money part. when we talked about his "mountaintop" speech but he talks about economic boycotts against companies that do not do business with black folks read. we do not want to deal with that

we have this nice cartoon , character we have as opposed to the radical person that he was. if we want to have honest conversations, go there, but we really don't so we have these really surface-level fake, nice, cute discussions and we always go back to watching our favorite television show. >> thank you, roland. we planned this so that we would have a half-hour of what hazel rightly called a town hall atmosphere. we are just a few minutes from that. i can't say enough on behalf of hazel and me how grateful we are for a very large turnout despite the warnings of a cataclysmic storm. and i'm so grateful that we had 100% turnout of our panel. i just, i have my students, after 40 years as a practitioner for the ap and a foreign congress -- correspondent and teaching, and my mantra is objectivity objectivity. they walk in and they see the initials r.a.f., responsibility, accuracy, fairness. that's what i teach. i maybe am naive, i realize that

what many newspapers and columnists and others are practicing does not fit into those guidelines. and we just have to keep trying and trying. i devote the rest of my life as a teacher to doing that. one of the columnists that i ask my students to read is the works of paul fari. because i view him -- i know he's white and i'm white, but please don't look at us in that way. look at us as really trying to be objective. paul, you have participated, you've listened for an hour. could you give us a summing up from your perspective, as the washington post, not the formal title of media critic, but that is what you're associated with. what is your reaction of what you're hearing tonight, any comments? before we turn over the floor to our audience. >> here's the comment i would make. in the day-to-day of doing what we do, there is not the same

level of heat and passion that you're getting up here. and that's very, very important because when people like say roland or jeff come to us and say, look, you are not doing this, or you have done this wrong, it does get our attention. and in the day today, you go through, you work on automatic pilot on some extent, you work on what you have done before and you are not getting, in many ways, a sense of what is bubbling out there. i was listening to roland and thinking to myself, wouldn't it be nice if we in the media could be ahead of these things, anticipate these things, not react to them, not doughnuts when a -- go nuts when a trayvon happens. could we have covered police

shootings before then? of course we could. i will save his former newspaper, 1988 we covered very -- save this for my newspaper, 1988 we covered police shootings in prince george county. they had a series of problems that never exploded in the headlines like michael brown never exploded like your partner -- aaron garner or pre-von martin. -- pre-von martin. -- treyvon martin. it brought about reform and the story won the pulitzer prize. if we could only have them bottled his passion and bring it in every single day and be ahead of the next wave, i think we could do a lot of social good as well as good journalism. >> thank you, paul. before we get to the audience,

please go ahead. >> i think the interesting thing about that is that if we look at the stories, that get a ton of media attention, it is not really about the victims themselves, it is about the the response -- the community response to the victims. despite the great work you did in prince george's county, if we could look in communities where there is violence taking place and how the community reacted to it determine how much media came into report it. we're looking at cleveland and tamir rice, we understand that it is deplorable, there was no national media around two people shot hundred 30 times by the police. -- 130 times by the police. the mayor of cleveland did an administrative review of a chase that involve $60 and 100 officers from cleveland woodland. -- 100 and 60 officers from

cleveland into east cleveland. the mayor said no, did a review on emotionally suspended supervisors that did not call police officers off, suspended officers that continued after they had been called off. which, and arbitrator came in later and even after police officers had been fired, police officers have been demoted police officers had lost a, the arbitrator came back -- pay. the arbitrator came back, the city pay back pay. and then a nobody said anything. no marches, no protest parade that same city, my hometown, wants to be up in arms about

tamir rice. one of the challenges with media is that often we don't have consistent leadership in communities. when you have consistent leadership in communities, in that same city, the same week that tamir rice was killed, there was a shooting where a man rolls up to a house, breaks down the door, goes inside, shoots two adult people, shoots a nine-year-old girl, comes out of the house, shoots a 41-year-old pregnant woman in the car who was waiting outside, the parent of the nine-year-old runs out to try to save her to kill -- two-year-old little brother, the guy runs off, five people dead no marches. no protest. no tweets. my concern about this notion of the media's responsibility, i think we do have a lot of responsibility. i think how we talk about race is clear.

similar to how we look at even the president of the united states, there are times when leadership and citizens have to push infrastructure to do things the right way. when you lack leadership, or when a community is schizophrenic about what they want to be in arms about, it ensures that there is a different media. they are not bear oftentimes to cover the shootings. they are there to cover the response of the shootings. they are in lies -- therein lies one of the issues as we talk about race. until we get pissed off about something, the media doesn't often show up. very seldom does the media reports sophisticated conversation. >> thank you. i think we have gone a little over an hour. angela and i just conferred. let's go to the q and a.

we will do it in our traditional way, lineup behind the microphones on either this side or that site. we will call on each one as we always do at our news conferences and luncheons. we always tell people, as i teach my students, asked a good question, but without a speech. bob, you get the opportunity to ask the first concise, good question. >> myron and hazel, thanks so much for a spectacular for him. what do you do, in the call for objectivity, the facts don't take you to objectivity? in this case, i want to bring it right to ferguson and staten island. in ferguson, the prosecutor gave the jury the wrong information inaccurately telling them the law says that police can shoot a fling subject even though that law was overturned 35 years earlier by the supreme court. the prosecutor in staten island blew off the person who shot the video showing the chokehold that

committed the killing. dismissing him in 10 minutes without detailed questions of what he saw. in the michigan chronicle, we wrote an article to prosecute the prosecutors. they defrauded the court and gave wrong information, untimely information, to the jury. the aclu has filed a suit and a grand juror has filed the suit on exactly that point. why is there not more attention in the media to that very critical and timely lawsuit? isn't the prosecutor's concept of interest with the police a reason that justice has never been provided in these prosecutions?

>> is there one or two panelists that would like to respond? >> all of those things you talked about, we covered. we wrote about it in st. louis. i don't know if america thought. -- i don't know if america saw it. we have been covering those things. i think our community is well informed. unfortunately, it may not be see out to the rest of the country. that is a problem because we often get distracted by another story and move on. we have been covering many of those issues you have put forth. >> we have done the same thing as well. >> before we go to the other side of the room for our next question gilbert congratulations again on your award. let me ask you this. i saw a story that was actually published in the st. louis american about how your newspaper was being bigoted --

picketed by the protesters. i don't know why they were picketing, that i do know that the st. louis post dispatch try to get the juvenile records of michael brown. could you just quickly say, that is the kind of thing that causes the racial divide. we don't quite get, at least some black people, don't quite get why a newspaper would go after the juvenile record of a child who is now dead. what was the thinking that goes into that so we can understand how this racial divide comes about? >> we heard a lot about that. it is trying to gather the facts and information. it becomes constipated. it was not about race. there are a lot of people in the community that were saying he was a thug. he had a criminal record. so we said let's find out. >> you found that you are wrong.

>> exactly. it refuted what had been charged against him without fact. let's find the facts. we got heat from that. we got heat from benjamin crump. it showed that michael brown was not a felon. you look at social media and elsewhere, that was what the accusations were. we did not know what we would find. we were going to gather the facts. the same when we release information regarding the autopsies. we got a lot of heat. it is public information and we need to do that. we were not taking sides. we were accused that we had an ill motive by many sides. that is why we did that. there were probably 10 people out front who were protesting us that didn't gather much steam. we got flack from every side. we got flack from the

protesters, from the police people, from media critics about all kinds of angles. i think that what was assigned sometimes stories that were fact-based were seen as having a motive. that is not what we were trying to do. we were joined together information that was authoritative and accurate. >> thank you. >> we act radio in washington dc. i think something that needs to be said, a community control of this -- of the police is what this is about. the system is clearly not working. my definition of community control of the police. you can go to popular resistance top five. i want stock about the media's role of being complicit in all of this. i myself, as a community media

person i went to the shopping event before the young people took the mic away from him, we were chanting. we won't stop to the till they jail killer cops. when the officers were killed in new york, foxnews news got their hands on it. they chopped it up. now that same chant says "we won't stop, kill a cop." >> it wasn't fox news. it was a local affiliate which is different from the fox news cable network. >> granted. thank you roland. i want to talk about the media's role in being complicit with all

this. this is just one example. we could point to many. that is one question. my second question is, now that we have seen them announce that, despite the irregularities that the young man's first question pointed out in ferguson, now they are just announcing that they won't be pressing charges and we have seen all of the non-indictments, what can we do to force the system to acknowledge the wrongdoing? wresting power out of their hands or at least sharing it. what do we have to do at this point? what do we do now that we have seenn a process take place? >> it is very simple. first of all, the question is not what can we do, that is up

to you. to hold someone accountable is a public policy decision. that means changing state law. i have had ferguson activists on tv 1, with all we heard the last six months, there has not been a single state senator or representative who has stepped up to file legislation to create special prosecutors in the case of police who kill somebody. the pressure is on them. this is also different than what we saw in the black freedom movement. the whole "black lives matter" infrastructure if you will, you were going to have to change state law and local law. they're trying to pass a bill that if you get federal funds and you don't make a move, that is a different deal. that is where it is now incumbent upon those who are protesting to take on the ground to shift into public policy.

that's not our job. that is your job. our job is to cover the ground to do that. >> roland, you make a good point. what the questioner is asking, what can the newspapers do? i hope you will agree, we report it. we have columnists, editorials, but at the end of the day, the community has a very important role and we, the press, will report on it. >> in maryland, you are trying to get them to do a state law we will cover it. >> i want to get as many questions as possible. another assistant question please. they can be hard questions, just keep them to think. >> i'm a senior at howard. my question is the role of

individuals were not necessarily communicating through official media channels like news print newspapers, etc.. i have a blog where i write about social issues in pop culture from a racially critical perspective. i wanted to know about, what is it that you think is the role of persons like myself who are not necessarily communicating in those channels in advancing this dialogue and conversation about race? >> does anybody was to respond to? >> here is the obvious thing. we live in a wonderful age where everyone is a publisher, everyone is a tv station everyone has the power to broadcast whatever they think. keep on keeping on. we can't guarantee you an audience, but you have now our that, when i was your age, i couldn't even dream of.

when i went to school at ohio state, our dream was to own a paper. you needed $2 million to buy a printing press. now you can publish with a social device. your message can go out. i'm pleased that you could join us tonight. are you satisfied with that response? >> as one of the wonderful students at howard in telecom? >> i'm a sociology major. >> nonetheless, this is my personal opinion, if you have a blog podcast what have you, you have a responsibility. so many people go out there spitting fire when there is not. you have a responsibly to tell the truth. as someone who has gone through howard you have a responsibility to tell the truth and get it out there accurately. there are so made people not telling the story correctly. in particular, they are telling the story out -- about our

community that is not about our community. i challenge anyone out there who gets a blog, any kind of twitter page whatever, go out there and be responsible and tell the truth. find out the facts. everybody can be a journalist now. that is a big problem. there is a lot of response ability in being a journalist. >> thank you, april. >> hello. i am 19 years old. we are a group of teenagers who want to affect the world through giving back. >> i am brandon, i helped raise money to build a school and easy obeah. >> i am 18 years old and at 16 years old, i was able to purchase property. >> i am the publisher of a young person's guide to wealth

management. >> our question is, why not promote more images in media on youth leading the communities? does that make sense? >> i know that you guys want to give your answer. i want to make a statement. my problem with my views of the media is we are not all shooting basketballs, we are not all wrapping, we are not all getting shots. our biggest problem is, when i'm around people that are looking for new role models that they want to strive to be, i'm sorry that it is not something for the united states. it is not the people that are in front of me today.

it is not their fault that they don't want to be that person. in their mind, it is very esoteric. they are told through the media that they can only be about small player, in the nfl, or a rapper. we wanted to say that we need a platform to be able to promote young on your ship, -- young entrepreneurship, our generation getting a new look on a brighter future. >> there are couple outlets party out there. some get more followers than others. the root is doing a fantastic job of doing that. it is young people in tech. they do a great job. black enterprise is doing the same thing. i also think that there is something that the et is doing

called -- pet is doing called -- bet is doing called "his bet." what you all are doing is the content they are looking for. there are a ton of outlets out there looking for that kind of content. when you were looking at some of the mainstream media outlets oftentimes they are not getting as many viewers as some of the digital outlets are getting. what we used to look at, i want to get a feature on cnn so that they show me during "heroes." people out there creating partnerships with some of these digital folks is a real way to get your story in front of people who are not going to get

it at all if they are watching television. the people you are talking about impacting are not watching the networks you are talking about. >> what has been your outreach? have you been reaching out to those different people? did you specifically start with black media? >> yes. >> you have seven nationally syndicated shows. i have the only black morning news show targeting black folks. you have black magazines and newspapers. there is a major in for structure there. heart of the deal is not do a story on us, it is also making us aware of exactly who you are.

when you bring that to the table, that helps that story out as well. it is not always us covering you, it is also reaching out to nontraditional outlets to get your story told as well. >> i think they need a publicist. >> i don't need a publicist, i have my own show. all you have to do is give me your e-mail. i'm just saying. i don't have to ask anybody because it is my damn show. >> i want to concur with the roland said. a lot of times, you look at the media, which is one of the reasons why we exist because we want to create that counter narrative. in our business section this past week, we showed a woman who recently passed the national bar association. she was not america's next top

model, she wasn't the next tell a big athlete. a lot of the times we are overwhelmed as media outlets ourselves, the best thing you can do is put your information out there. chances are, if we have a story about young black men entrepreneurs, we are going to do something with it. we want to create that counter-narrative. there is more to being a young black, successful man than having a ball or a microphone. >> i can't speak for the washington post but i think they would agree as well. next question. >> good evening. my name is walter lundy. i go to howard as well. why is it that the mainstream media is letting police chiefs around the country off the hook? i am appalled that they take the

high road of the thought that there could be racist police officers were there could be a bias. they need a history lesson. do we need them to watch "selma"? the entire back drop of racism is local law enforcement and the black community. all of a sudden, when you bring the thought up, they are like, how could you dare think such a thing that my officers would treat a black person differently? that has been our history for a hundred years. not politicians, but local law enforcement. why is it that when you do interviews with them, no one says, wait a minute, remember the dogs? we let them get a platform to say, my guys will take the high road because we care about the community. we don't remind them of history and how that lingers in our mind as a community. >> i don't want to defend police

chiefs, but i do want to prevent stereotyping of everything the police chief in america. there are thousands of them. they are not all racist, they are not all killers. we have to figure out which ones are which. >> we have to understand the source of where we are coming from. >> how about the fact that i don't hear a lot of people in the media, i am not defending the media, but i don't fear -- i don't hear a lot of people that are not in the media connecting the election of mayors that will select or supervised police chiefs. if we are going to be serious about how do we begin to make these protests real, not just about a gangster reporter, pointing his finger at a police chief and saying, don't you believe in racism? it is about, how do we ensure

that the people that are elected are held accountable to choosing the kind of police chiefs that are about community policing that have a history of that, that understand it. that are moving in the direction of shifting some of the dna of certain departments from control to service. a lot of the conversations are about the antiquated methodology of policing and united days and how do we begin to shift that. we don't shifted through interviews with police chiefs. we shift it through electing officials who will choose police chiefs and what is the community saying they want those police chiefs to look like when they make that a primary factor in who they elect. you've got less than 11 months we've got cities like chicago and columbus, ohio that are going to be electing mayors who are responsible for that very thing. that is not to say that we shouldn't be accountable to asking our questions. it is to say, if you want to see

shifts, is not just going to be from asking a police chief a question about racism. it will be about electing mayors and selecting police chief and safety directors who understand what 21st century policing needs to look like. >> the point about how we are oftentimes trying to mediate the conversation. certainly sometimes you have to ask this tough questions. other times, there is a panel where you have to let in the disagreeing voices on this. i think a lot of times, you are not going to have someone doing the interview very keen on calling someone a racist because that and the conversation. once you start throwing around accusations, people shut down. i think part of our role besides mediating and adding context is also to ask these questions about what is next. it goes beyond the interview with that police chief. it is all about, what are we

going to do next. what are we going to do about the way the grand jury is functioning? what is the next step besides the protests and marches and headline-grabbing moments. that is where sometimes media falls down. we have moved on to the next thing. >> on 60 minutes last night about the tamir rice case and the police chief of cleveland, i recommend it highly. >> i would like to ask the panelists to comment on the fact that, with the case in new york with the two cops being shot, you have representatives of the police department trying to make the association of one man's actions, when the entire issue was about bad cops and cops that have done the things

that we know with the case in new york and the case in ferguson. from the coverage i have seen, it is essentially silencing the debate and shifting it to something else. i was wondering if the panelists can comment on that. >> his job is to defend his offices at all cost. police union leaders, even when they know it was absolutely heinous and wrong, they are going to defend. that is what he is paid to do. he is not paid to offer an objective viewpoint. the problem is when those of us in media are unwilling to challenge him when he comes on the air with this comment. are unwilling to say, wait a minute, in this particular case

here you haven't said much about the cops that shot die in the dark hallway. it is hard to defend that one. but he might try. we also have a job, it is our responsibility to be aware of the various issues to know what questions to ask. i'm telling you right now that is part of your problem. it is like you have the most well-right folks asking questions. you are sitting at home. nobody home handed them a card with a question on it. do understand what the game is especially within television. it goes back to, i don't want to press them too hard, what if we don't get to book them again if

i press them too hard, someone may not want to come on the show. then they called back and pull their punches. you get these fake conversations. you are sitting at home because -- you are sitting at home mad because it is not a real interview. that is a fundamental problem that we have in media. it's also why you have to have other voices there that are willing to challenge. there were just too would say, i will come on and i will take questions, but not from the panel. they would say, i don't want to do the panel, i will just take your questions. they did not some becoming out-of-the-box who is not worried whether or not i get other interviews. behind the scenes, you need to realize that is what is happening. the media does not want to tell you that they crave continued

access. we are unwilling to challenge power because that might put off our access. we crave the access. >> thank you, roland. hazel and i decided we would go to 8:00. we are going to go to 8:15 because the questions are so good. are we agreed? >> yes. >> please keep the questions as brief as possible. >> hello. i am a producer at the department of defense supporting video operations. my first question is about newsroom diversity. first, thank you, april, for asking president obama what he felt the state of black america is. when i worked in news, i was one of the only blacks in the newsroom. we were the only people asking to report on the stories. what do you feel is the most

pressing beria to diverse city in the newsroom and how can it be overcome? my question is about race coverage in national security. people have noticed the lack of coverage of the boko haram as well as the and a double cp -- naacp bombing. do you feel that criticism is valid and what are your thoughts? >> i want to speak to the issue of diversity when it comes to newsrooms. particularly at the white house. thank you for that complement. i love to see athena and people of color there. unfortunately, that is a room that has been a historically male white almond aided room. i don't know why.

class white dominated -- white dominated room. during the clinton years, and was the first "black president." there were more african-american reporters there constantly. george w. bush came, everybody left. obama came, all of the black journalists came to the white house, they were so excited. they wanted to report on the first black president. i was happy to see black reporters there, even if it wasn't mainstream, it was still a presence a black reporters there. there is an internal problem and the next journal problem at the white house. the extra problem is that a lot of these networks want to hire white women.

white women with blonde hair. that is the new trend. roland. [laughter] i am definitely not network material. i am twooo old and another shade of beige. the structure internally does not support people to come in who are not having workspace and a seat in that room. i was sitting in the back of the room. i moved up. that room does not support you in your effort to cover the president of the united states. it is not easy in that room. it is not easy for someone who raises their hand.

i call the front row the million-dollar row. it is not easy. at the works for cnn. i'm sure -- athena works for cnn. i asked questions about everything. primarily, and issues. when they come to me, they know, what is she going to ask? room is not necessarily friendly to any reporter. when you're coming in behind the curve, it is rough. it is me now. we took a picture in ebony when obama first was elected. >> and that he is a black magazine for those of you who don't know. -- ebony is a black magazine. [laughter] you were -- >> you were in that picture. a lot of them were reporters

coming to cover. >> let me say one thing. african-americans are not underrepresented in the news media. they are underrepresented in the decision-making parts of the news media. there are lots of black reporters, lots of hispanic reporters. the diversity, the number is representative of the population. what is underrepresented are the people calling the shots. that is where the diversity is off. >> i agree with that. i do still think there is a lot of underrepresentation of minorities in general in the news media. i think a lot of people would agree with that. i think it is important to note that progress has been made. progress is being made. when i worked at cnn in new york, i don't think there were many other black women on my floor when i was segment producer. now there are a few more. i think the issue is we have to

keep having people coming up wanting to be journalists. you have to have mentors who will tell them to keep at it. mentors don't have to be black. it is helpful if they are. you have to look behind you. the bottom line is that the forces of the status quo are very powerful. you have to constantly pay attention to it and fighting for it. some of us are not in a hiring position. that does not mean that we cannot be in an encouraging position. the forces of the status quo are hard to beat back. that is why you have to keep going. it is not just minorities, is women as well. >> this is critically important. who remembers the new york times story from about three or four years ago on all of the generals who are contributors on the cable networks? that was not a single minority

general on that list. again, i talked about kevin hart , access to resources, hiring, the exact same thing. under president george w. bush they created africom. that was a black general who was a first commander of africom. that was one network that interviewed general ward about military options. me. you would think that somebody in a newsroom somewhere in america would say, i wonder who might be an expert on affairs on the continent of africa from a military perspective and maybe we can talk to them about what is happening. how we tackle boko haram? not one call.

not one. he was the commander. he was over all of africom. you didn't have anyone in the newsroom who knew he existed. if you don't have someone who knows he exists in the newsroom, you don't have anybody saying anything about him. before he retired -- understand, i have started every job with the understanding that you don't get by easy. [laughter] you can look at the newsroom numbers. you can play it safe and get laid off and be mad. or you can do you, get laid off and do what you were there. in the six years i was there i communicated to jim walton. i talked to john kline. i specifically said that when kip was retiring, we need to

hire him as a contributor. it is nuts to say the only black general you can think of today is: powell. -- colin powell. if you don't have anyone contribute in, they don't have access to the pentagon to get inside information. my point is, hiring creates other opportunities for the next folks coming in. that is what i mean when we get shut out of those power positions, it has a trickle-down effect that is vertical and horizontal. it further creates more division and keeps us further away from these prime opportunities because the reality is, when you have an african-american who becomes editor, hopefully you have somebody who knows who they are. they are going to understand

let me bring more people into this mix to broaden this. they are not sitting there worrying about, you don't have this particular degree. that is why it matters when we are in leadership positions. when we are not, or secondary positions, if all we are our staffers, we are the help. >> let's take one more question from each side and then i would like my friend hazel to make a comment about a special group of students we have here. if it is ok with you, could u.s. a question? if we could keep it short and these responses short. >> hi, i am a sophomore at howard. my friend and i are starting a campaign about going out into local d.c. high schools and

making lack students or minority students more aware of being conscious of the situations happening. i feel like everyone here is conscious and aware. people in our generation, i feel like there is a break. we talked to students back home i grew up in st. louis. i talked to my friends whose date there and didn't go to college. we talked about other things other than the ferguson situation. other systematic racism like health and -- health care. they are not aware of that. do you have any tips to help us tell them that you can be the executives if you like to play video games, you can create them. making them aware that they have these opportunities. we are the generation that has these social media outlets and technology. we want to help them use it. >> i think there is a challenge sometimes. i think what you are doing is fantastic. i think one of the misnomers is

that we go talk at kids. we have to create relationships with young people. i started my media career doing social political commentary on a rap video show. there wasn't anybody doing that before then. the ability to connect with the audience wasn't about how can i create this list of things to talk them about. it was how is there a back and forth relationship to that there is trust and consistency. the first thing you have to do is create relationships. as you build relationships, you build trust, as you build trust you build credibility. as you build credibility, you can talk about anything. i knew that what i was doing was working. i was at "dream" when dream was dream. some of you understand that and some of you don't. a dude wrote up on me and said

that he wanted to appreciate me for talking about the nuclear option. i'm looking around, looking for the camera that is about to punk me for it i can't believe this young dude is rolling up on me talking about the nuclear option in supreme court. he said nobody ever talks to us about the kind of stuff. you came to us honest. me and my wife started looking it up. at first i was irritated. i was at the club. then i am buying him a drink because i was like, i need you to help me understand how this happened. it happened because we had created a relationship. create relationships with young people that you want to engage. as you listen to them, and they listen to you, you begin to have conversation because they are a whole lot morecreated a aware than you think they are. it is about listening to the things that they care about, what they are concerned about.

this gives you a bridge to start talking about issues with them that they may not know about. >> i am scared for 2016. the reason i am scared won't be -- is because there won't be anybody black running. if you look back to 2008, you saw folks you had ever seen in your life. you saw hispanic contributors, you saw african-americans, you saw more women, because you had senator obama and senator clinton both running. after the 2009 election, it went back to business as usual. those folks disappeared. it is something amazing when a 14-year-old or a 15-year-old says, i have never even thought about politics until i heard you

talking about it. here is my fear. who is going to be talking about it in 2016. ? who is going to be talking about it in a way they understand? not talking like you are from d.c. not talking like you're from new york. but talking like you actually talk to folks around the country. that is a serious fear that also goes to the notion of race in america. bill bennett in 2008 actually said this. he said that when obama won in south carolina, he said when reverend jackson one, it was black history. when obama won, it's american history. i said, did he just say that on the air? nobody else said a word. no one else was willing to check him. i said wait a minute, bill.

you know all the black folks who read -- who ran for county commissioner? i begin to walk through the lines. he tried to come back in and restate it. we don't know a little short white guy unless reverend jackson runs because he was the state director for him when he ran in 1998. i ran down this whole line of people who came from politics because reverend jackson was running. therefore, how dare you diminish his two runs as black history and not american history. the point is that nobody was at the table willing to challenge him on it. imagine if that comment had gone unchecked. we talk about race in america.

i am looking at who is going to be on those networks and what they are saying because the theory is, we are going to go back to business as usual and have the same voices speaking about the electorate and not doing what gilbert says, looking at the numbers. we are more black. we are more hispanic. why is our television looking like it's 1960? >> we talked about the black reporters'increase and the hispanic reporters' increase. we do our job? one of the first questions i asked a civil rights leader after president obama was elected was what do we do now that we have a black president? he said, we must increase the power no matter what the power is. have black and latino and other reporters held this president to the same level of accountability of race as we have two others?

as a reporter, just individually. what do you think? >> when i think about the white house press briefing room, i think people are asking the hard questions. april is asking the hard questions. hispanic journalists are asking the hard questions. it is difficult to know generally speaking, if everyone is holding the proper people's feet to the fire. i think not enough people are doing that. certainly there are some people who are doing it. april talked about how she is lonely in there. i do think, as she mentioned she works for an urban radio network but she asked about other issues as well. >> it is not as if this white house has given the same amount of access.

this white house hasn't given the same of access -- same amount of access that previous white houses have. what i'm saying is that -- i got an interview with the president. i'm not saying it hasn't happened. i'm saying that if you think about the fact that over the course of three years, there have been three tv interviews where the president was interviewed by black press. >> no. >> there have been three. first of all, -- >> robin roberts has gotten an interview. >> i am talking about black press on tv. to answer your question, i think there have been fewer opportunities to have direct one on ones with the president to give enough journalists the chance to ask certain questions.

i think folks like april are doing an amazing job in the positions they are. there aren't a lot of people where she is. >> that is what i'm saying. i'm encouraging hazel, jeff roland, all of the people. it is easy to get into the white house press briefing. just call them. when it comes down to ferguson, when it comes down to all of these issues that affect black america, it needs to be more reporters asking to generate. sometimes i will ask questions and sometimes mainstream media can follow up. it takes follow-up to make a difference. sometimes it is just me, it is not going to be a follow-up. we need the continual pressure to ask the questions if the story is going to be above the fold. make a block of the evening news . if you are talking about media making a difference, it has to be continued pressure from the community en masse.

that kind of thing get the pressure and attention from the media as well as those who affect change. >> we have three people standing. will you each ask a brief question and then the panelists in response to all three in a way -- is it for? ok. please make embrace. >> i'm from the church of scientology national affairs office and national magazine. i was hoping somebody could speak to where we go from here. could there be somebody in the media that could take the lead as to where do we take this conversation? who could that be? how could that go through? >> let's get the other three questions. >> i work at a middle school. i teach computer applications.

we have a tv and radio program runs solely by middle school kids. [applause] as we begin to wrap up,. >> hazel has a nice thank you to her group of students. >> i really appreciate the invitation. i need to make this statement to the panel. i need your help. we are on a kids' campaign to interview the president. i have letters. i have one on the way from senator al franken. we conducted a broadcast at the

march on washington at the kennedy center. we have done our homework. we have interviewed semi-prominent people. we were featured -- we havee interviewed so many prominent people. >> we will pass it along. >> you are you have a response and i'm sure they will follow through. >> we have got you. >> the last two questions. >> if there is a crisis on sunday or over the weekend in the media, i am guaranteed that on monday, i have to go to work and explained that charles barkley, kanye west, they are not my leaders. i did not vote for them and they do not speak for me. as far as pushback and getting decision-makers in the newsrooms and media, how can we make that

rake through -- breakthrough to feature prominent and experience, well educated experts to address the issues? >> and the last question. >> i am here representing black women for positive change. i am a teacher, i am a community leader. i also want to piggyback on roland. we do have to seek our leaders. i am the cochair of mental health leader. i want to know, back in the summer, i was running from bullets. within my community, my mother was running from bullets, my great-nephew, two years old hiding. that sign, "black like maves

matter," they do matter. but why is it that we still have to run from bullets in our community and nothing is done about it? when you talk about black lives matter tell me how you are going to tell our youth. how do we get to these youth to let them know? why do you want your mother to run from bullets? my mother's house has been shot in. bullets flying in that community all the time. nothing has been done about it. we have got to do better. we have got to. it is not just about the police. it is about the diversity, the jobs, everything. we have got to do better. >> could i ask each of the panelists if they want to give a concluding remark in response to these last few questions? how would that be? we give everybody a chance for a final response.

i want to thank you, on behalf of hazel and me, for your participation tonight. and for the audience for their excellent participation. [applause] roland, you start. >> i think where do we go from here is these media executives calling them to the table, to literally say, you are a leader. what exactly is your plan. that can be done with the national association of black journalists, native american journalists, and asian american. from a network standpoint, no one is perfect. if i look at what abc is doing i look at the on air hires they have made, i don't necessarily see a behind the scenes, i want to see, in terms of producer and executive roles, it requires challenging them. what you should do as a community, the media loves to

talk about transparency. we love to tell city officials and public companies to reveal their numbers. these media institutions have a public trust. from a community standpoint, you should tell them, reveal your numbers. review your hiring numbers. don't stop there. reveal your supply diversity numbers. who do you do business with? are you doing business with minority firms? broaden it beyond just writing stories. you should want to know who is writing stories, who are the executives, and also, what are they doing on the business side. you can hire us to be reporters but if you're not spending money with black and minority businesses, all you're doing is continuing the same cycle of income inequality. as a community, that is what you should be doing with every

television station every newspaper. if they tell you they are private numbers then you say, i guess you don't really believe in transparency if you don't want to reveal your own stuff. >> thank you again, roland, for coming from st. louis. >> for us it is a local story. weekday. we investigate. we ask questions. we probe. usthat's where we go from here. what i've heard tonight, have to ramp it up even more we have to hear from some of the people we haven't heard from before. we are talking to the young people in the community. we need to find out what they are doing. they are not the leaders we have been dealing with before. that is a challenge for us. step up and talk and tell us what to think and write and blog

. send letters. do opinion pieces for us. that is the only way we are going to service that poor communities outside of your own to hear what you are trying to say. blog-- service that for communities outside of your own >> we cover campaigns that may be getting started. we wouldn't advocate a certain point of view but to make sure that point of view gets hurt. the action has to be happening for us to cover it. it is a conversation back and forth. it goes to my earlier point which is that we have to keep asking the question about what his next and let's find out if there is something a foot. something does have to be happening, it is not going to be us saying, go do this and then we cover it.

and>> we can help by continuing to look for other voices and push those other boys is but it is not something we are going to set a lazy change overnight. i am glad we had a conversation like this. >> thank you for the invitation. i think when we talk about what is next, we need to look at the business side of it. we need to begin bolstering with financial dollars some of the outlets whether they are bloggers and who have proven themselves credible. there are some that do some amazing work. if we can bolster them financially they can serve as a best practice and look to young people that have the same kind

of ability but don't see quality bloggers. the other piece around seeing more voices is begin to tap some communications firms who already have the capacity to do some of this work have people that they represent to do a better job of creating stables of voices and voices in key areas. sometimes if they are firms doing work around national security and armed services our services then you can have them building stables of voices in those areas, same thing around education, education, electoral politics. bookers will book whoever's calling them the most and whoever is the most entertaining. we have to understand it because your smart that doesn't mean you're good for tv. we have to understand the difference between people that are good for radio, print, and people that are good for television. often times we get smart people that are horrible to watch and it makes it difficult to get the

next person because you have a track record of getting somebody that's bad for tv. we have to understand the science of it. last but not least we really do need to begin developing these young people, identify storytellers that are getting support from us, getting airwaves. roland does it is a job of that. i try to do a decent job. most of the people on this panel do that. we can find a way to be talent scouts and identify young people by giving them internships internships, opportunities, the ability to write pieces, do some research, finding ways to support the things they are already doing, demanding they raise the bar, we can create a feeder pool of not just a local paper and news outlets but a whole new community of new media that is not looking for some of the older outlets to validate them by giving them opportunity

for doing good work. >> thank you. april, please. >> over the last 18 years, white house correspondent and the washington bureau chief endres does matter. it matters it matters at the white house level, the presidential level, the highest level in this land and globally. but the problem is, does it make the fold? does it make the news? not always. how do we make that change happen? you have to make the change, demanded, get up and push for it. when. when i say that in my research for my book but i am telling you, i learned it from you. [laughter] anyway but seriously, what i found in this book, the most

old movements that came to race or those that were downward pressure, consistency, and massive numbers of people. why don't innings change? and this is just me observing. -- why don't things change? when people come to the white house they come because they have a large group behind them pushing the issue. when you complain about the bullets, know that you have the nra on the other side saying no we're not going to change , things. how do you effectively change? that is what we report on. where does the movement come? if you want more blacks in media, more stories in media, it comes to you. you have to make the change. thank you. >> my wife is an educator, and one of the people she has educated during her career have been teachers. one of the things she does is equity training.

she tries to make teachers who are not from the minority community aware of their white privilege so that they can teach children who are not like them. i think it would probably be a good idea if reporters had equity training. [applause] two become aware of people were -- to become aware of people were not like them. we can be what we are not, all born a certain way with certain experiences, but we can become aware of the things we are not. that is what we might be able to bring about through some kind of concerted effort. >> okay.

finally, thank you for having me. no problem. but we have done over the past nearly 90 years, not only did we report we report the story and encourage through our reporting people to engage in community acts and inspire people's, one of the things that drew me into the paper and the rich legacy of it is i saw people who look like me doing something that i wanted to do. that is just extremely important. that we show our people that look like us -- it makes it attainable, real, and authentic dream for us to have. had there not been a st. louis american, any of the others, i am 100% certain that i would not be sitting here. because not only were i not have i not have the platform for the opportunity, but i would not have thought it to be real. that's one of the things. and to keep telling the whole story.

most of the people who saw the ferguson unrest outside of ferguson all they saw was the violence, the violence, the looting. there was so much. only six days of violence, and the people were protesting. i thought i'm missing a protest. , they are still at it. the vast majority have been peaceful. the fact that we were out there telling the story, i dare to say that it encourage the people who may have thought to be violent to go ahead and be peaceful because they knew they had a place for the story to be told as well. [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, at the beginning of the evening i said this was going to be an historic event. thanks to all of you in the audience and our panelists, it truly has been. i gave the opening remarks. i would liketo call on hazel to give the concluding remarks and acknowledgments. >> thank you so much. hasn't it been wonderful? let's give our panelists, my

fears a -- my peers a great thank you. i would just like to, as the kids say, turn it up. get it turned up in your newsrooms. get it turned up in your newsrooms, in your communities. everything that we talked about tonight, turn it up so that we can make an impact in this country. i know it sounds trite, but afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted. that is what we're here for. now, if you were justin does me another moment we would be remiss if we do not a acknowledge a few people in our

audience. mr. clarence page from the chicago tribune. ms. joyce jones from bt. so many of them in here. ray baker is somewhere in the audience. i would be remiss if i did not acknowledge my press club. tristan francis, kenny. and so on behalf of the capitol press club we want to thank you. finally, we want to live to the young people in the back from the middle school wrestling against -- monday to interview the president. we will help them to get that question. thank you. had so if please, please be sure. he will sign it. it's a sign up to a member of the capital press club or the national press club's. we are out there, too. thank you so much for coming. leave your card if you want to be invited to future events.

>> next, president obama and vice president biden take art in a pentagon farewell ceremony for outgoing defense secretary chuck hagel. then another chance to see journalists discuss how media covers raise issues and america, including their recent coverage of ferguson and new york city. on the next washington journal washington examiner commentary editor philip klein discusses the congressional republican approach to the affordable care act and possible legislative alternatives. cio president richard trumka talks about the recent rage summit, the minimum wage debate, and the state of labor unions. james smith will examine. we will take your calls and you can join the conversation on facebook and twitter.