Huffington, Holder Headline Opening Plenary Session

By Ashley Calloway
NABJ Monitor

On the same day that media mogul Arianna Huffington announced the launch of HuffPost BlackVoices, she also urged attendees at NABJ’s opening ceremony to examine the “split-screen world” the nation lives in when it comes to black communities.

“Depending on which of the screens you look at, you have a very different view of what is happening, and what the future is going to be like,” said Huffington, president and editor-in-chief of The AOL Huffington Post Media Group.  “Nowhere is this more true than it is when it comes to the African-American community.”

Huffington was one of the highlighted speakers at Thursday’s ceremony, which featured  U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder Jr., who danced onstage to “Shining Star” by Earth, Wind and Fire, and a spirited performance by a youth drum team from Camden, N.J.

President Barack Obama, in a prerecorded message, exhorted the attendees to “speak truth to power,” and tell the stories that needed to be heard.

During her speech, Huffington said that on one side of the split screen are issues such as unemployment, foreclosures and the outstanding number of African-American men in jail.

“African-Americans saw their wealth drop by over 50 percent,” Huffington said. “If white America had seen its wealth drop by over 50 percent, the establishment would be acting as though their hair were on fire.”

It is up to the media to create urgency around these issues, and to throw a spotlight on the “other side of the split-screen,” said Huffington, who noted more attention should be paid to the stories of success and triumph in black community.

Huffington did not shy away from controversial topics during the quick question and answer session, moderated by NBC News anchorman Lester Holt, and fueled inquiries from Twitter users.

Regarding the Huffington Post practice of using unpaid content, Huffington said while the company employs more than 1,300 journalists, it is also a platform.

“People can choose to participate in the platform, if they have something they want to write that requires wider distribution, or not to participate in the platform,” Huffington said. “We are not dependent on them.”

Outside the ceremony, representatives from the National Writers Union handed out flyers criticizing the Huffington Post business model. “Pay the Writers!,” one flyer read.

Attorney General Holder spoke about economic and educational disparities in the black community, and also took questions from the audience through Twitter.

Holder, who is set to meet with 9/11 families regarding the News Corp. hacking scandal, said that his office is taking the investigations seriously and will “try to come to the bottom of allegations that have been raised.”

Paula Madison, former NBCUniversal chief diversity officer, was honored for her work toward increasing diversity in media outlets for more than two decades and took the opportunity to weigh in on the NABJ-UNITY debate.
Madison pledged $100,000 from herself and her family businesses, Africa Channel and the Los Angeles Sparks, the WNBA team, to support next year’s NABJ Convention.

“To every NABJ member who is wavering whether to make a choice between UNITY and NABJ, let me just say to you: If you are three blocks down the street, and folks can’t see your gender, they can see your skin color,” Madison said.
She told the audience that if they could only go to one convention, they needed to be at NABJ.

“No matter how you define yourself, you are defined by the rest of the world as black,” Madison said.