Was the Squeeze Worth the Juice NABJ?

An absolute shitshow. That is what we expected. That is what we got. It was late. It was embarrassing. It was a complete waste of time. You could figure that out in the first two minutes or if you tortured yourself and somehow made it through the entire 40 minutes. It was supposed to be an hour, but apparently was cut short by the Trump team.

Former President Donald Trump was allowed to insult and disrespect yet another Black female journalist. This time at the NABJ Convention in Chicago on July 31.

The NABJ leadership should be ashamed of themselves. The members of NABJ need to hold their leadership accountable. I called for the resignation of Ken Lemon and all others who were responsible for this mess two days ago. I continue to stand by that. In addition, there needs to be an internal audit done on the NABJ’s practices as it seems there were too many people who had no clue this was coming before it was hastily announced Monday night.

“I was upset and embarrassed when I found out he was coming,” said NABJ member L.Z. Granderson on ABC News Live. “I’m completely flabergasted that the leadership, from the president on down, thought this was going to be beneficiary to journalists. You can’t factcheck Trump because the lies are nonstop. It’s like water flowing through a hose.”

Others were more sarcastic, yet still serious about what this event did to damage Black female journalists and our industry in general.

“Shoutout to Rachel Scott, who has now become the latest Black woman to be disrespected by Trump,” said journalist Lauren Burke. “Thanks to Ken Lemon, we are now watching a Black woman be disrespected at a Black event.”

The Chicago chapter of NABJ is made up predominately by women. They are young sistahs trying to make a living in this business. I am heartbroken that they were subjected to the misogynistic rants of a madman while the NABJ leadership, from the chapter level on up, stood by and did nothing.

If NABJ wants to continue, and somehow regain some shred of crediblility with its members, the public and most importantly the BLACK COMMUNITY… there must be changes.

There is an NABJ board meeting coming up on Sunday in Chicago at the convention site. Changes should start right there.