i've known britney since a student member of nabj. a student reporter in our convention in 2010 in san diego. i must point out she covered verge son while planning her wedding which took place how many weeks ago? >> like two. 30th. >> two weeks ago. the wedding, by the way i was not invited to? >> you didn't get one? >> i did not get an invitation. anyways this was your panel. we want to talk about the media coverage. we've had a lot of town hall meetings here talking about the police. talking about the city leaders. talking about voting, not voting. what about the media. how did the media cover this? let me ask you each, from your perspective, did the media get it right? mariah, i will start with you. >> i feel like the media did do, they did the best that we could in the situation. or i know i did and a lot of the people up here did. >> you were out there. i mean, probably seen some of the coverage of ferguson when you, did you see any of coverage? you were out there for a long time, weren't you? >> yes, i did see the coverage. the

here to host and moderate today's session is pierre thomas. 2012 nabj journalist of the year. he joined the network in november of 2000 and reports for several programs including "world news," "good morning america," and "nightline." thomas was also the key member of the abc news team coverage that won edward r. murrow awards for the capture of osama bin laden, the assassination attempt against congresswoman gabby giffords, and the newtown elementary school massacre. he was a key member of the abc team covering the terrorist attacks of september 11th, winning a peabody award, a dupont columbia university award and an emmy. he also received an emmy for his coverage of president barack obama's inauguration. please welcome pierre thomas. [ applause ] >> hello, everyone. thank you so much for coming to the 39th annual convention of the national association of black journalists. revolution to evolution, shaping our future. this year nabj is focused on preparing and equipping members for the shift taking place in newsrooms across the country. this year, you can look forward to some

my name is bob butler, and i'm president of nabj. a coupleover housekeeping notes, we do have a twitter, a hashtag, it's @fergusonmedia, submit your questions that way, they'll collect your questions up on the screen. we also have cards if you have a question. at the end, i'm going to have a couple of questions for the panel, and then we'll go to your cards. we wanted to have a mic for people to get up and ask questions, but they don't -- we don't have that, so i want to introduce our panel. to your far left is mariah stewart, she covered the st. louis metro area for and is the ferguson fellow for huffington post. he graduated from linwood university in may and started covering ferguson, like, right after her graduation. she started covering the michael brown shooting. that's mariah stewart. [applause] >> next to mariah is christopher ave, he's the national and political editor for the "st. louis post-dispatch" and stltoday.com. he's been instrumental in directing coverage of the government and political ramifications of the shooting

here to host and moderate today's session is pierre thomas. 2012 nabj journalist of the year. he joined the network in november of 2000 and reports for several programs including "world news," "good morning america," and "nightline." thomas was also the key member of the abc news team coverage that won edward r. murrow awards for the capture of osama bin laden, the assassination attempt against congresswoman gabby giffords, and the newtown elementary school massacre. he was a key member of the abc team covering the terrorist attacks of september 11th, winning a peabody award, a dupont columbia university award and an emmy. he also received an emmy for his coverage of president barack obama's inauguration. please welcome pierre thomas. [ applause ] >> hello, everyone. thank you so much for coming to the 39th annual convention of the national association of black journalists. revolution to evolution, shaping our future. this year nabj is focused on preparing and equipping members for the shift taking place in newsrooms across the country. this year, you can look forward to some

here to host and moderate the plenary session is pierre thomas. 2012 nabj journalist of the year and senior justice correspondent for abz. he joined the network in november of 2000 and reports for several programs including "world news," "good morning america," and "nightline." thomas was also the key member of the abc news team coverage that won edward r. murrow awards for reporting on the capture of osama bin laden. the tucson shooting spree and assassination attempt against congresswoman gabby giffords, and the newtown elementary school massacre. thomas was a key member of abc's team covering the terrorist attacks of september 11th winning a peabody award, a dupont columbia university award and an emmy. he also received an emmy for his coverage of president barack obama's inauguration. please welcome pierre thomas. [ applause ] >> hello, everyone. thank you so much for coming to the 39th annual convention of the national association of black journalists. revolution to evolution, shaping our future. this year nabj is focused on preparing and equipping members for the shift taking p

nabj is very big on diversity in the media. not just on the air, but also behind the scenes, because your media coverage is not determined by the reporter on the field, it is decided by the news managers. i can tell you in st. louis, on the last report on media diversity in the media rooms, there was almost none. can think of most one person who was an executive producer and -- >> she is gone. >> she is gone, so now there is nobody. 's missions,of najb is to improve this for african americans and african american journalist. when i look on tv, the last stations,looked at tv and 12% of the news management soe people of cover your it that is african-american, latino, and native american, that is just 12%. i have no problem if you have no diversity in your newsroom if there is no diversity in town, if you have a white town and you have nobody in color -- nobody of color on your staff, i'm not going to saving. but if you have a large african-american population and you have nobody of color on your staff, that is something in these

itmunity wants to be her, has to be african-americans willing to stand up and be that voice. >> so nabj is very big on media, not just on the air, especially behind the scenes. because your media coverage is determined by the reporters in the field, the news ageneral manager.by the news and i can tell you that in st. yous the last time media diversity and the newsrooms, there was almost none. person whonk of one was executive producer who was at -- gone.'s >> so maybe there's nobody. but the reality is, you shed have to apply for jobs? major one of the missionings is to be a clearing motions forw african-american journalists. at, thetation we looked last report we did almost 300 tv stations and 12% of the newsroom managers were people of color. rather than, latino, his panic native american, 12%. now, as i've said many times, problem if you have no diversity in your newsroom in i place where there's no diversity in town. if you haveproblem 40% diversity in your market and there's nobody of color on your staff, so that's an issue we've been addressing forever. major jobs is to go out and

this year, nabj is focused on preparing and equipping members for the shift taking place in news rooms across the country. this year you can look forward to some great panels, workshops and seminars, including today's session, government and the media. today we will address some of the challenges facing our industry, specifically actions by the government which appear to infringe on a truly free press. journalists subpoenaed to go to the court and reveal their sources. the justice department secretly obtaining months of phone records from the ap. the white house restricting access to many presidential events. how do we operate going forward? fundamental challenges that stretch to the heart of what we do. today we have some of the nation's top journalists here to discuss these challenges. and they have confronted these issues firsthand. we'll have some time for questions from the audience, but i'd like to first introduce our illustrious panel. first we have steve adler, the editor in chief of reuters news, and he's the executive vice president for news for all of thompson reuters. befor

the national association of black journalists, my name is rob butler, and i'm the president of the nabj. notes,e of housekeeping we do have a twitter, you can write your questions to us, we also have cards if you question of the end, and we will go to the panel and then we will go to your cards. panel.to introduce our to your far left is mariah stewart, she is a ferguson with huffington post, she started covering ferguson right after her graduation. [applause]

the national association of black journalists, my name is rob butler, and i'm the president of the nabj. a couple of housekeeping notes, we do have a twitter, you can write your questions to us, we also have cards if you question of the end, and we will go to the panel and then we will go to your cards. i want to introduce our panel. to your far left is mariah stewart, she is a ferguson fellow, with huffington post, she started covering ferguson right after her graduation. [applause] next to mariah is christopher, he has been is to mental in directing coverage from the government regarding the shooting from the government -- the shooting of michael brown. next to chris is bill, and he has had an award-winning career tom -- career, this is bill fry google -- freigle. next to bill is patricia bynes. bradley referred -- rafford, and his photos have been shown on national television, mr. bradley rayford. and some of you may have already known our last panelist, her social media reports really drove the media coverage, not just locally, but nationally. how many followers did you have on twit