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Updated: Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Published: Tuesday, October 18, 2005 |
Telling our story, when our journalism matters
Remarks (with video) for the 2005 NABJ Gala by President Bryan Monroe
Thank you.
Tonight is about a celebration and a reaffirmation.
A celebration of the great work and the great journalism of our peers.
And an affirmation that, yes, journalism OUR JOURNALISM still matters in America.
Click image to view video. (6 MB QuickTime movie, will take approximately 1 minute to download.) High-bandwidth version (15 MB) |
In the last few months, we have seen again the importance of our voices in America. Whether it was the recognition of NABJ's 30th Anniversary, celebrating the wisdom and courage of our 44 founders, or the acknowledgment of the great publications like Ebony, Essence and Black Enterprise, all celebrating major anniversaries this year, or the remembrance of media pioneer John H. Johnson
In 2005, our journalism mattered to our culture and to our nation.
And, once again, we saw the importance of the media and of our journalism a few weeks ago.
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When the winds and waters of Hurricane Katrina ripped through South Mississippi and Louisiana, journalism mattered.
When, in the immediate days and weeks following the tragedy, the federal, state and local response was fatally slow and inadequate, journalism mattered.
When thousands of blacks were ignored, left to struggle in the New Orleans Superdome and Convention Center, journalism mattered.
Our reporters were there first on the scene in Mississippi -- from Mike McQueen of the Macon Telegraph and Audra Burch of the Miami Herald, to Robin Roberts of ABC's Good Morning America and Michelle Edwards of CNN Newswire.
We were there in the middle of the floodwaters -- from NPR's Michelle Norris in New Orleans to ABC's Michel Martin at the Astrodome. And we were there for the evacuations -- with Ernie Suggs of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Tatsha Robertson of the Boston Globe in Houston.
We were also telling the story back home. The insightful columns of Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post, or the provocative reporting or Eric Deggans of the St. Petersburg Times, or the stinging commentary of Farai Chideya on Nation Public Radio added depth and context to the scenes we saw played out every day on our television sets.
Our journalism mattered. Once again we showed America how critical it was to have black journalists on the scene, asking the tough questions, getting the access, connecting with the communities, telling our story.
And yes, I, too, was there. Helping my colleagues at the Biloxi Sun Herald publish that first week was both a privilege and an awesome task. But seeing the looks on the faces of local readers there -- black readers and white readers -- as we handed out newspapers each day, papers that instantly assured them that the world had not forgotten them, was the best reward any of us could ever ask for.
Did our journalism matter? Yes, it did.
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