Thread by @wendi_c_thomas

This staff is about 80% white in a city that’s 63% black.

It’s bucking the national nonprofit news trend with a hard paywall.

It’s defying industry best practices by refusing to be transparent about their funders.

None of that is in this @Poynter story. @RickEdmonds

https://twitter.com/rickedmonds/status/1025097140794810369

The writer for @Poynter does note that the city is majority black, but then it’s as if the diversity of the staff is unknowable. Or that the race of Eric Barnes and Andy Cates is unknowable.

But the race of the editor of the CA? Knowable. 🤦🏽‍♀️

Eric Barnes is white. Andy Cates is white.

When the Daily News wrote about the @dailymemphian, they listed 27 staffers.

You’ll have to get to the 10th name here before you find someone of color: Otis Sanford, former @memphisnews ME.

I’m not going to do the writer’s work for him, in part because I and others have written about this on social media.

But let me say that I’ve worked with a LOT of the people @ericbarnes2 hired and they’re quality people. Fine journalists and he’s lucky to have them.

But just minutes ago I was listening to an excellent @NABJ #NABJ18 panel in which everyone agreed that diversity means accuracy.

Journalism in Memphis is often inaccurate and incomplete because the folks writing the first draft of history don’t look like the community.