NABJ Convention: Keisha Lance Bottoms, Brad Raffensperger and Stephen A. Smith’s Thumbs Down

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Shop Folgers Instant Coffee and more at your nearest retailer. Welcome to the Politically Georgia podcast. I'm Tia Mitchell, Washington Bureau Chief for the Atlanta Journal Constitution. And my guest today is Ernie Sugg, senior editor of UATL, the AJC's hub for all things having to do with black culture. Hey, Ernie. Good morning. How are you today? Good. So last week, Ernie, you and me, along with a host of our AJC colleagues, attended the annual National Association of Black Journalist Convention, which happened to be held in Atlanta this year. Yes. Our editor-in-chief Leroy Chapman was co-chair. And on top of the panel discussions, workshops, career fair, and oh so many receptions, there were pretty newsy things that happened during NABJ convention. We heard from Keisha Lance Bottoms, the former Atlanta mayor, who's now the Democratic nominee for governor, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, stopped by for a really intimate Q&A with the NABJ Political Task Force. And Ernie, we're also going to have to talk about those. thumbs down awards that were doled out Saturday night, most notably of which went to sports commentator Stephen A. Smith, which led to a lot of questions about NABJ's role in protecting black journalists, particularly in this age of attacks on the media, cutbacks in our industry, and the wild card, I guess, that is President Donald Trump. So Ernie. Let's get to all of it. We have a lot of ground to cover. Now, Ernie, I know you're active with the local chapter. Yes, I am. Which is the Atlanta Association of Black Journalists. We should also shout out NABJ President Aaron Haynes and Atlanta native Fairburn. She also is a former AJC intern. And she really set the tone for this convention. And I just feel like, again, there was so much that happened. So we started off Ernie with this powerful kind of newsmaker plenary that featured House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, the parents of Nolan Wells, attorney Ben Crump, activist Al Sharpton. Were you able to tend or tune into that opening plenary, Ernie? Yeah, of course, as you mentioned, that W.E.B. Du Bois plenary, as what we call it, is our kind of big key opening session this year featured Akeem and the family of Nolan Wells. So it was a very powerful while as well as emotional moment to kind of kick off the convention, to kind of show the public, to show the world, and to show us as NABJ that we're trying to be a serious.

newsmaking organization. This is not just for parties and receptions and things like that. But we want to make news and we want to bring newsmakers in. So bringing in Hakeem Jeffries to talk about the upcoming election, to talk about his role as the House Minority Leader, potentially being the House Majority Leader, the first black. Speaker of the House, rather. These are important conversations. And, of course, bringing in Al Sharpton and Ben Crump and the family of Nolan Wells to talk about what's going on, what happened with them in Mississippi was powerful. Didn't have Tiffany Cross interview them. Didn't have Hannah Nicole Hannah Jay Jones and Joy Reed to kind of sit back and assess what we just all witnessed as part of that plenary session was powerful. And I was happy to see it and happy to witness it myself. Yeah, I think a lot of people don't know, and this kind of came to like the year that Donald Trump was invited to the NABJ convention, is it's one part training, one part kind of safe space for black journalists to kind of like bond with each other. homecoming, you're seeing your friends, your fellowshiping, your sharing stories. But it is also one part like opportunity for reporters to interact with newsmakers to generate news. It exposes reporters to people that they might not normally get a chance to hear from. And that's an important part of the annual NABJ convention that I don't know with people outside of the organization. always understand, which makes it different than I think most conventions. And you mentioned Hakeem Jeffries, and it's notable that in November, if Democrats are successful in flipping enough Republican-held seats, he could become the first black speaker of the House. And that's why in particular... His rise is so important. I want to listen to a clip. This is when he was asked about the rise of democratic socialists in his party. Your thoughts on what that energy, how that represents some of the change that you are talking about that's happening in the progressive wing of your party. Yeah. So I think we'll see, you know, what happens in terms of what the... caucus looks like on the other side of the midterm election. Certainly our focus right now is making sure that we win as many seats as we can in November flip as many red seats blue and take the gavels back so we can actually function like a check and balance on and out of control administration as opposed to what Republicans have been doing, which is a reckless rubber stamp for Donald Trump's extreme agenda. entirely inconsistent with the vision of the House of Representatives. I mean, it was interesting. Charles III, when he came to the Congress, joined addressed to the House and to the Senate, stood there as a king and referenced the Magna Carta as the principle and foundation for the notion in America that executive power is subject to checks and balances. And of course, when he said that, everybody on the House side,

The Democratic side of the House stood up and gave him a rousing ovation. But then I looked over to the other side of the aisle, the Republican side, and they stood up and gave them a standing of ovation. And I was very confused, y'all, because Charles III was talking about them and their failure to actually bring to life this principle. So, Ernie, I thought it was interesting. We know that there's kind of this. family feud, so to speak, within the Democratic Party where socialists are trying to pull the party further to the left. But he used the question to pivot to a criticism of Republicans. And what he says is them being pulled too far to the right. What did you make of that answer? Well, I mean, I think Hakeem is always very deft with his words, deft with his wordplay. You know, he didn't do a lot of rapping and rhyming as he usually does. But I think he's very smart in the way he's handling the conversation surrounding Democratic Socialists, surrounding what's going to happen in the midterms. And he's very careful because, you know, I think that one of the reasons that we were so attracted to the fact that Hakeem was there. It's because Hakeem has also gotten a lot of criticism, as you know. From, I was talking, I was sitting in the back talking to a very well-respected black journalist who is at the cusp of power, just like you are, who talked about, you know, why it was important for Hakeem to be there because, you know. I think that the Democrats have a lot of faith in Hakeem, but the Democrats also think that Hakeem can be a little meaner at times. So I think even this conversation that he was having there talking about Charles III was his attempt to kind of be somewhere. poking the bear, but also trying not to poke the bear because he is, you know, seen as this kind of nice figure. He could be a little meaner. A little more aggressive. Yes, yes. So let's move on, Ernie, because we have a lot of ground to cover. On day two, we had another newsmaking session, this one featuring former Atlanta mayor, Keisha Lance Bottoms, the candidate for governor. I want to start off by a snippet of what she said. I'm running because I care about everyday people. And this is the guy, through his own words, says he's running to be known Trump's favorite governor. Well, I'm running to be the favorite governor that old girl who's visiting her dad in prison. I'm running to be the favorite governor of that single mother who is working against me. I want to be the favorite governor of that father who's going to come in here and back in these floors when we leave. He's trying to figure out how to pay his rent. I want to be the favorite governor, that person who's trying to figure out how they're going to pay for their cancer treatment or a young man, who I met recently, who said he couldn't afford to pay his insulin. So I want to be the favorite governor of people who need to might speak of them.

and to care about that. If he wants to focus on BS, the need to the people of this state are real, and that's why I'm going to go. So I thought that when this is a clip that she actually posted on her own social media, of course, talking about her opponent, Rick Jackson. But she's really, Rick Jackson has been attacking her saying her policies are too liberal and too progressive. But I feel like in a way she's leaning into that saying, you know, I'm here. about the regular person, you know, the fact of the imagery of a child visiting their parent in prison is something that maybe Democrats would not have wanted to paint that picture at one point. I want to know, what do you think about her, how she's approaching this race? I think it's a wonderful dichotomy. I think she's approaching the race much differently than Stacey Abrams did several years ago. She's running on her. You know, she's not running necessarily as a black woman. She's running on what you, like you said, these issues that people are talking about, these kitchen table issues. And I think one of the interesting things about it is that Rick Jackson, who says, you know, he's running to be President Trump's favorite governor is also kind of leaning into kind of what, you know, the fact that he grew up in public housing, the fact that he, you know, he was lived in foster home, which are all very, very. I don't want to say admirable things to have in your background, but they're interesting things to have in your background. But he's kind of leaning into that as a way to say, this is how I appeal to black people. Whereas Keisha Lance Bottoms is saying, hey, I'm appealing to black people because I put the work in because I've done the work. I appeal to poor people because I've put the work in because I've done the work. Sure, I have a place in Martha's Vineyard, which is something that she also addressed during her... presentation at NABJ, you know, there's always controversy about, you know, the wealth that she has, although a dwarfed in comparison to Rick Jackson's. But I do think that her leaning into these liberal issues, leaning into these kitchen table issues, and coming to NABJ to speak, I'm not sure if Rick Jackson was invited. You know, I'm pretty sure he was, or I'm pretty sure that he's camp knew about it. You may know more than I do. Yeah, I don't know. But if he can go to Toast on Linux, he can come to the NAVJ convention. And we would love to have had him there. He could have also reached out, for sure. You mentioned the Martha's Vineyard thing. I think we should get into it a little bit because it has become an issue on the campaign trail. It has been used to kind of paint Keisha Lance Bottoms as someone who's wealthy and elite, who doesn't understand everyday voters, which is interesting because her opponent is a billionaire. So what did she say about owning property in Martha's Vineyard? Well, I mean, I think what she's always says, because this has always been this thing with her about her owning property in Martha's Vineyard. And, you know, yes, you know, you and I are on social media and we know over the last month or so, Martha's Vineyard is always a big giant topic for African Americans, especially in August.

So the use of her, the fact that she owns a home in Marcus Vineyard has always been used as something against her as being rich, as being elite, as being out of touch with normal everyday people. But I mean, you know, look, her husband has worked for Home Depot forever. She's a lawyer. She can afford to live there. And heck, if I can afford a place in Martha's Vineyard, I would have a place as Martha Vineyard. I would have a place in Jackal Island, whatever, if I can afford it. So, I mean, you know, I just think that it's a, you know, and I think she's kind of leaning into it. She's embraced it. She loves it. She was there, as we know, a few weeks ago for fundraiser. You know, when I've been at Marcus Vineyard for events, I've seen her there. I've seen her husband there. I've seen her sorority sisters there. So, I mean, I think that, you know. I think the interesting part of this with this, with Rick Jackson saying that, you know, he has a problem with her having a place in Martha's Vineyard is the fact that he's a billionaire. And God knows what places he have. And I'm not defending her or attacking Rick Jackson, but I'm just saying that this doesn't seem like the hill that you would want to die on her having a place in Martha's Vineyard. Agreed. Well, let's talk about one more newsmaker from Georgia at NABJ before we take our break. And that is Georgia's Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. Now, he's no longer a candidate for governor after finishing kind of down in the pack. He did not make the runoff. And he now says he's focused on ensuring the election in November is smooth that votes are counted accurately. and so on. But he made a little news at NABJ because it was a smart question from Faith Jesse of 11 Alive, who was the moderator of the Q&A. And she asked him, would he be endorsing Mike Collins for Senate? Here's what he said. I never have even Governor Brian Kemp, who I much appreciate to admire. But you didn't endorse for Johnson? But I felt with Rick Jackson-Marpenter and I hadn't run against him. I felt that there was a program for me to do that because at the end of the day, I think people need to understand that there's no personal animosity. But I'm moving forward. I am now back as Secretary of State and we are making sure we have a free, fair, fast election. So no... The results will be what the results will be. No endorsement for Mike Collins today. As Secretary of State, I don't endorse people, and I didn't endorse candidates we had in 2020. And that was not taken too kindly by folks up there at 1,600 Pennsylvania Avenue. We made that proposition. But I wanted to make sure that, because I had run from that seat, that we could just settle our differences and move on. I thought that was the most productive thing for me to do. So Ernie, he's essentially saying, you know, I endorse Rick Jackson so that people would know we're letting bygones be bygones. But I'm not endorsing Mike Collins because I'm Secretary of State and I need to be neutral during elections. Do you think there's more to it or does his answer seem reasonable to you?

I mean, I think both. I think the answer seems reasonable that he is Secretary of State and he wants to ensure a clear and clean election. But I also think that there is personal animosity. You know, I think that Brad Raffensperger, from, you know, looking at it from an outsider, you know, he has taken a lot from the Republican Party, from Washington, from, you know, he mentioned 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. He has taken a lot. And I think that being Secretary of State has taken a lot out of him. Although he has tried to be fair. He has tried to be upstanding. He's tried to hold fair elections. But, you know, his reputation, the way, you know, considering the fact that... You know, in another world, he would have probably fared better in this race. But, you know, we're in a world in which we are now where he kind of stood up for what was right, what was constitutionally right, what was right for the state of Georgia. And he's suffering the consequences for that. So I think that, you know, that question has a double-barreled answer to it, you know, the fact that he endorsed Rick Jackson, who's running for governor versus, you know, Susan Collins, who obviously is an election denier. So I think we're going to, this is a good point, Ernie, to take a break. Because when we come back, NABJ gives a thumbs down to Stephen A. Smith. This is Politically Georgia from the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

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Shop Folgers in your cup. Shop Fulgers Instant Coffee and more at your nearest retailer. Welcome back to Politically Georgia. I'm Tia Mitchell. Before we get back to the show, a quick note. Politically Georgia is powered by subscribers to the Atlanta Journal Constitution. If you already subscribe, thank you. And if you don't, You can join us at AJC.com slash start. You'll get full access to our reporting, analysis, subscriber newsletters, and special events throughout this election year. That's AJC.com slash start. Okay, Ernie, let's get to what closed out the conference but has become the biggest headline out of the NABJ convention. Now, just about every year. NABJ gives thumbs down awards to individuals or organizations it believes are at odds with NABJ's mission of protecting and advocating for black people and black journalists. Past winners, if we are going to call them that, include NFL media in 2024. And in 2020, for example, the Cleveland Plain Dealer in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette got the nod. This year, there were a record five thumbs down recipients. Brendan Carr, chair of the Federal Communications Commission, CBS, The Washington Post, Duane McCoy, a TV station owner who has faced questions about his leadership. And yes, infamous ESPN sports analyst and political commentator Stephen A. Smith. Ernie, you were in the room. I was there. Then these awards were announced. What was the reaction, particularly to Stephen A? Initially, you know, I was in a pack house at the Salute to Excellence Award, which I did not win this year. It's all right. You're a winner in our eyes. But it was an audible gasp in the room when they announced Stephen A. Smith's name. Then... There was acknowledgement that this was the right decision to make. You know, Stephen A. Smith has been, I don't want to say on the wrong side of NABJ, but he has had some controversial takes over the last year or so. Stephen A. Smith has always been controversial. We know and we've seen them at NABJ conventions. We're friends with him or at least associates with him. But over the last year or so, the International Association of Black Journalists, which is led by a black woman who ran on the fact that she is going to be. talking about advocacy and women's rights and protecting women and protecting institutions, decided that what Stephen A has been saying about black women, what he has been saying on his show in the political realm was not in the best interest of NABJ, was not in the best interest of black women journalists. So we decided as an organization to give him the thumbs down. Now, you know, Stephen A responded yesterday, and I didn't realize this, but he joins the list of like Jason Blair. Most of the thumbs down awards have gone to organizations. You know, Pat Buchanan has gotten a few. White men have gotten a few. But, you know, the fact that black men getting them, the fact that members of NABJ. Now, again, Stephen A. Smith.

For as long as NAB, well, not for as long, but as long as he's been a professional journalist, has been a member of NABJ. And his response yesterday to this, which I felt he was very hurt by this, he mentioned the last two years that he has brought his show to NABJ. So in Cleveland and Chicago, Stephen A. Smith was there with his powerful ESPN show. Yet... The comments that he has been making over the last year against Jasmine Crockett and against other black women in the media and against Michelle Obama, Kamala Harris, have been detrimental in the eyes of NABJ. So we awarded him, so to speak, this thumbs down award. It was a very bold move. It was a very powerful move. It was a controversial move. And obviously, you know, you talked about, you know, the fact that we had. you know, Al Sharpton and Nolan Wells' family and Hakeem Jeffries, all these people were at the convention, but everybody is talking about the fact that Stephen A. Smith got the thumbs down award. Yeah, so the Saluta Eklunds Awards were live streamed. You can go on NABJ's YouTube page and see, listen to the Thumbs Down Award recipients. And there was about a 30 second clip for each explaining why they were picked for the award. But I do want to play a clip of President Haynes. Her speech at the end of the gala because she addressed what she knew was. was going to be something that was kind of maybe criticized or talked about after the gala. Here's her explaining why she decided to do it. Now look, I know the thumbs down award can make people uncomfortable. Good. Because accountability is not supposed to be comfortable. The theme of this week has been our revolution, truth, power, and black journalism. We cannot spend an entire week talking about truth and power and then become timid when it is time to tell the truth to power.

We cannot talk honestly about what is happening to journalism right now without talking honestly about who is making the decisions that are shaping journalism. These things don't just happen. Newsrooms don't become less diverse by accident. Journalists do not simply find themselves without institutional support by accident. Press freedom does not erode by accident. Editorial standards do not bend themselves. People make decisions. Executives make decisions. Government officials make decisions. Companies make decisions. And if NABJ is going to be serious about defending black journalists and defending journalism itself, then sometimes we have to say their names. And so tonight we did. So, Ernie, that I think was a powerful, you know, very powerful. She made it plain. And basically she equated, you know, when people, the people on this list per NABJ, she feels have done things, made decisions that not just affected. the people under them directly, but had a negative effect on how news is reported, had a direct effect on the wider kind of business of news and politics and newsmaking. And I thought that was so interesting that she made the connection that, you know, these decisions have consequences. And that again brings us back to, you know, the moment we're in. You know, a lot of people have these economic uncertainties. They're just, you know, a lot of people just are thinking they're not better off today. And so NABJ is saying that's why accountability is needed among people who. have, you know, either decision-making power or huge platforms like Stephen A. Smith. Yeah. And I think even when you look at the five recipients, if you look at it as a total and what she said is true because what you didn't mean, I don't think you mentioned a Washington Post was also one of the recipients, CBS News. Brendan Carr, these people are making decisions that are impacting all of us, that are impacting the country, the world. And even more so than Stephen A. Smith. Stephen A. Smith is the big individual name. He's the loudest voice. He's a member of our organization. But what she did by noting the Post and CBS and Brendan Carr. was as probably more significant and probably more powerful and more impactful to where we are as a country right now and where we're going as a media ecosphere. Well, Ernie Sugg, senior editor of UATL, thank you so much for joining us for this recap of the NABJ convention.

Thank you very much. My, I still have bags under my eyes from the convention. Yeah, we're still recovering. All right, that's going to do it for today's edition of Politically Georgia. If you found us on YouTube, welcome to our channel. And please click the subscribe button so you never miss an episode. You can also follow the Politically Georgia podcast on Apple, Spotify, or any podcast platform. And if you have questions about Georgia politics. Call our Politically Georgia hotline anytime. Record your question and we'll play it back and answer it in our Monday mailbag episode. That number is 770 810 5297. We love hearing from you. We'll talk to you next time on Politically Georgia from the Atlanta Journal Constitution. Thanks for listening to the Politically Georgia podcast. Our executive producer is Shane Backler. AJC's head of audio is Sam Stamler. Production support from our partners at Goat Rodeo, including Kara Shillan, Hazel Hoffman, and Max Mike Johnston. For more of our political coverage, visit AJC.com slash Politically Georgia. And we invite you to support local journalism by subscribing to the AJC. Join us again next time on the Politically Georgia podcast from the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

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