An open, honest discussion on the challenges of reporting in times like these (full video above)
NABJLA Vice President jarrett hill and a panel of Black male journalists from across the country discuss reporting on race in the midst of horrific crimes committed against Black men, as part of NABJ's national Black Male Media Project.
Panelists include Trymaine Lee (Correspondent, MSNBC’s Into America), Eugene Scott (Reporter, The Washington Post's The Fix), Jamil Smith (Senior Writer, Rolling Stone), and Ernie Suggs (Race Reporter, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
PANELISTS
Eugene Scott joined the Washington Post’s The Fix in September 2017 to report on the politics of identity in the Trump era.
Eugene brings deep expertise and a creative approach to this important subject, as well as a range of skills that will accelerate The Fix’s evolution into a rich, engaging multi-media blog. He joined the Post from CNN Politics, where he covered the 2016 presidential election and was the senior reporter on the website’s breaking news team. He’s a regular on-air contributor, providing analysis on MSNBC, CBS and NPR.
Eugene receiving his Masters from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and a bachelor’s in journalism from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Jamil Smith is a Senior Writer at Rolling Stone, where he covers national affairs and culture. Throughout his career as a journalist and Emmy Award-winning television producer, he has explored the intersection of politics and identity, specializing in reported analysis and commentary about United States politics, social justice, and cultural identity.
After covering the 2016 election as a Senior National Correspondent for MTV News, his political and cultural commentary appeared in several outlets, including The New York Times, Esquire, and Washington Post. Most recently, he was both a weekly columnist for Huffington Post and contributing opinion writer for the Los Angeles Times.
In addition, Jamil wrote the cover story for Time magazine’s February 19, 2018 issue about the film BLACK PANTHER and its cultural significance. Last fall, he profiled former NAACP president Ben Jealous for The New Republic—where he once served as a senior editor.
Jamil graduated from The University of Pennsylvania and currently resides in Los Angeles.
Ernie Suggs earned his B.A. degree in English Literature from North Carolina Central University in 1990, where he was the editor in chief and sports editor of The Campus Echo. Upon graduation, he was awarded an internship by the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) to work for Gannett Newspapers. He returned to Durham, North Carolina in 1992, as a writer for The Herald-Sun.
In 1996, Suggs was awarded a fellowship by the Education Writers Association, which culminated in his award-winning, Pulitzer nominated series Fighting to Survive: Historically Black Colleges and Universities Face the 21st Century.
He was hired as a reporter at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in 1997. In 2005, Suggs became the vice-president of the NABJ. He was chosen for the prestigious Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University in 2008, and in 2009, he joined the Nieman Foundation’s board. Suggs was given the Pioneer Black Journalist Award by NABJ in 2013.
Trymaine Lee is a Pulitzer Prize and Emmy Award-winning journalist. He is currently a correspondent for MSNBC. He covers social justice issues and the role of race, violence, politics and law enforcement in America. In 2020, Lee launched The Race Report, a special MSNBC series that explores the intersection between race and politics this election season. He also debuted Into America, a new podcast elevating the voices of voters and demonstrating how policy impacts the day-to-day lives of Americans. Lee was also among the contributors to the New York Times Magazine’s 1619 Project, which earned a 2020 George Polk Award for its exploration of the role of slavery in America and it’s enduring effects in contemporary American society.
Previously, Lee served as a reporter at The Huffington Post, where he is credited with helping elevate the shooting of Trayvon Martin to a national audience. Before that, he was at The New York Times, where his coverage of Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s sex scandal helped earn the newspaper a Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News. He also earned a Pulitzer Prize as part of a team that covered Hurricane Katrina for The New Orleans Times-Picayune
Lee earned two National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) Salute to Excellence Awards for Digital Media in 2015 for his MSNBC coverage of the protests in Ferguson, MO. He received a 2018 Emmy Award for Outstanding News Discussion & Analysis for his reporting on gun violence and trauma in Chicago as part of a series and hour-long special produced by MSNBC’s All In with Chris Hayes.