Former President Donald Trump will address the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) in Chicago on Wednesday, prompting swift backlash within the journalism sphere.
NABJ co-chair and Washington Post columnist Karen Attiah announced that she had stepped down from her position at the convention following the announcement, writing on X: “To the journalists interviewing Trump, I wish them the best of luck. For everyone else, I’m looking forward to meeting and reconnecting with all of you in the Windy City.”
She wrote that her decision was influenced by a “variety of factors,” and that she was not consulted with “in any way with the decision to platform Trump in such a format.”
Trump’s history both with the news media and Black people at large has come under scrutiny amid racist comments and positions.
In addition to broad attacks against the media — including decrying coverage he views as unfavorable as “fake news” and encouraging rallygoers to chant anti-media rhetoric — he has also specifically gone after Black women reporters.
As NABJ gives a platform to Trump, I would hope they ask him about the many times he attacked Black journalists like Yamiche Alcindor, April Ryan, and Don Lemon. But Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner is on the panel, and she has shown herself to be in the tank for Trump. pic.twitter.com/J5D7meLfWU
— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) July 30, 2024
On NABJ’s X post announcing the panel — which will be moderated by ABC News’ Rachel Scott, Harris Faulkner of Fox News and Semafor’s Kadia Goba — commenters expressed their frustration that Trump had been invited to address the prominent journalism convention.
“Y’all just made the only safe haven that Black journalists have, potentially unsafe, all because y’all want to look 'smarter than everybody else,' when this is….idiotic at best,” Carron Phillips, a two-time NABJ award-winning journalist, wrote on X.
Jim Trotter, the 2023 NABJ journalist of the year, wrote: “This is such a poor decision by @NABJ that it’s difficult to put into words.”
April Ryan — White House correspondent for The Grio who Trump had repeatedly attacked while in office — also expressed her frustration with the decision.
“The reports of attacks on Black women White House correspondents by the then president of the United States are not myth or conjecture, but fact," Ryan wrote. "To have a presumed orchestrated session with the former president is an affront to what this organization stands for and a slap in the face to the Black women journalists (NABJ journalists of the year) who had to protect themselves from the wrath of this Republican presidential nominee.”
She continued: “I object to this NABJ session with Donald Trump in Chicago.”
Ryan was named NABJ’s journalist of the year in 2017.
Others called into question the selection of Fox News’ Faulkner to co-moderate the debate, noting her cozy relationship with the former president.
I’m in West Palm Beach, Florida.Spent the day at Mar a Lago with President Trump. Was with him minutes before he left for Pennsylvania. He was so excited to go see voters in Butler, PA. He joked and told me our extended interview “will be a ratings grabber— please play it for the… pic.twitter.com/pAtw5kXAQt
— HARRISFAULKNER (@HARRISFAULKNER) July 13, 2024
But Tia Mitchell, Washington correspondent for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, defended the decision to invite the Republican presidential nominee.
“I helped make this call. And it’s in line with invitations NABJ has sent to every presidential candidate for decades," Mitchell said. "But continue to go off on your feed. I’ll continue to work to create opportunities for journalists to interview the potential next President.”
Amid the backlash she received from the decision, Mitchell made her X account private.
NABJ extends an invitation to presidential candidates to address the convention every four years, and Trump had previously declined to attend.
But facing a difficult and historic race against Vice President Harris, who would be the first Black woman elected, Trump has doubled down on his attempts to court Black voters.
In a statement announcing Trump’s attendance at the journalists convention, the campaign wrote that Trump had “accomplished more for Black Americans than any other president in recent history.”
Harris had also been invited to attend, but will not be able to due to scheduling reasons, a source familiar with the deliberations tells NPR’s Asma Khalid.
“The NABJ team unfortunately denied a request for the VP to take part in a fireside chat virtually, or to host an in-person fireside chat with the VP at a later date,” the source said, noting that Harris values the work of the organization and of Black reporters, and would keep the door open to alternative options to speak to the group, the source said.
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