Is Dharun Ravi a Hate Crime Victim?

I remember an NLGJA conference session about the coverage of crime.  A number of journalists and PR people were talking about how we cover crime-especially crimes against LGBT people–and the comment was made about how important it was for the families of crime victims to have good media representation to get their story out.  I [...]

Poynter Questions the GLAAD Commentator Project

It’s difficult for some journalists, especially LGBT journalists, to figure out how they feel about the GLAAD Commentator Accountability Project. While it has been praised by some, it has raised concerns from others.  Kelly McBride of the Poynter Institute–who focuses on ethics and has appeared at NLGJA conferences–takes a look at the project and raises [...]

Death by Newspaper: The Murder of David Kato

The facts are horrowing. LGBT advocate David Kato Kisulle was murdered in Kampala, Uganda Jan. 26 after he successfully obtained a permanent injunction against the tabloid “Rolling Stone” for featuring his picture under the caption “Hang Them.” He was one of 100 gay men pictured in the paper. The story is beginning to get significant [...]

Is there a Double Standard: Reporting on the BB Shooters’ Religion

Did LGBT bloggers–and the mainstream press–purposely refuse to report on the religious and ethnic backgrounds of the cousins accused of shooting gay men in San Francisco with a BB gun because the cousins had Muslim-sounding last names? That’s the accusation made last week by Bruce Carroll at Andrew Breitbart’s conservative media watchdog blog Big Journalism. [...]

In Defense of Crime Reporters

There may be no more difficult–or harrowing–job in the newsroom than being a crime reporter, covering the murders in a large metropolitan area. You are at the mercy of the police reports, families don’t want to talk, and the 24-hour news cycle, even at a newspaper, demands you get information out quickly. So what do [...]