NIEMAN REPORTS NOT A ‘CRIME OF PASSION’ Covering domestic violence as an urgent social crisis, not a private family matter Contributors The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University www.niemanreports.org Susan Stellin Paula Molina Christine Mungai (page 18) is a reporter (page 26), a 2013 (page 27), a 2018 and an adjunct professor Nieman Fellow, is a Nieman Fellow, is an in the Journalism + host and editor at editor of The Elephant, publisher Ann Marie Lipinski Design department Cooperativa, one of an online publication at The New School, Chile’s major news based in Nairobi, editor teaching a course on radio broadcasters. In Kenya that examines James Geary ethics and the history addition to broadcasting the African condition. senior editor of media. She recently the news since 1999, She also freelances for Jan Gardner completed a master’s she is a contributor for various publications. editorial specialist degree in public health BBC News Mundo, the Previously, she worked Eryn Carlson at Columbia University. Spanish section of BBC. at africapedia.com. staff assistant Shantel Blakely design Pentagram editorial offices One Francis Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138-2098, 617-496-6308, [email protected] Jiqui Luo (page 29), a Tara Pixley (page 30), Jon Marcus (page 8) 2014 Nieman Fellow, is PhD, a 2016 Knight is higher-education Copyright 2019 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. the head writer of the Nieman Visiting Fellow, editor at The Hechinger Periodicals postage paid at Noonstory section of is a Los Angeles-based Report, a foundation- Boston, Massachusetts and the news organization visual journalist, writer, supported nonprofi t additional entries Jiemian.com, which and professor. Pixley’s news organization based is a narrative writing photographic work and at Columbia University. subscriptions/business platform. She writing on photography He has written for 617-496-6299, [email protected] previously worked as has appeared in The The Washington Post, Subscription $25 a year, senior legal reporter New York Times, The New York Times, $40 for two years; for China’s Caixin Newsweek, ProPublica, The Boston Globe, add $10 per year for foreign airmail. Media Group. and elsewhere. and The Atlantic. Single copies $7.50. Back copies are available from the Nieman offi ce. Please address all subscription correspondence to: One Francis Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138-2098 and change of address information to: P.O. Box 4951, Manchester, NH 03108 Dana Coester Lewis Raven Eryn Carlson ISSN Number 0028-9817 (page 16) is executive Wallace (page 32) is (page 38) is the editorial Postmaster: Send address changes to editor for 100 Days in a contributing editor specialist at Nieman Nieman Reports P.O. Box 4951, Appalachia and is an at Scalawag magazine, Reports. She also does Manchester, NH 03108 associate professor and the writer and occasional freelance at West Virginia creator of “The View writing, primarily for Nieman Reports (USPS #430-650) University College from Somewhere,” a The Boston Globe, and is published in March, June, of Media where forthcoming book is currently working on September, and December by she also serves as the Nieman Foundation and podcast about her master’s degree in at Harvard University, creative director for the history of library and information One Francis Avenue, the College’s Media objectivity and justice science at Simmons Cambridge, MA 02138-2098 Innovation Center. in journalism. University in Boston. ANDREWS COESTER HEADSHOT: NANCY HEADSHOT: TITI SANTOS MOLINA BOTTOM:OPPOSITE TOP: CLAUDIA VIVIEN KILLILEA/GETTY FOR BUMBLE JANKE IMAGES In the United Kingdom, two women a week on average are murdered by a husband, partner, ex-boyfriend, or family member. London- based photographer Claudia Janke’s project “Two Every Week” puts the focus on women who were killed in 2016 and 2017. The victims are memorialized on candles with a picture provided by their loved ones, the date of death, the woman’s age, what each died of, and who is suspected, charged, or jailed as the perpetrator. She writes, “‘Two Every Week’ draws attention to the women and brutality behind the chilling statistics of domestic violence deaths in the UK attempting to shift the narrative to the damage and misery caused by male violence and the impact it has on the freedom of women and society as a whole.” Contents Summer 2019 / Vol. 73 / No. 3 Features Departments “When You See Me on the 8 coveR From the Curator 2 News, You’ll Know Who I Am” Ann Marie Lipinski Journalists oft en withhold details of Covering Domestic Violence 18 mass shooters and suicides to discourage Covering murder and assault by intimate Live@Lippmann 4 copycats. Should that “strategic silence” partners as an urgent social crisis Mother Jones CEO Monika Bauerlein be exteded to extremist speech, By Susan Stellin and editor-in-chief Clara Jeff ery on misinformation, and propaganda, too? their magazine’s growth and success By Jon Marcus Chile, Kenya, China: How the 26 Media Covers Domestic Violence Niemans@Work 6 Covering White Supremacy 16 Paula Molina, Christine Mungai, Jieqi Luo Documenting the climate crisis across and White Nationalism generations, overturning a murder Establish a community of practice, “To Witness and Show 30 conviction with help from students, telling focus on people exeriencing hate, Audiences Uncomfortable Truths” stories of friendship and connection share and corroborate data By Tara Pixley between Israelis and Palestinians By Dana Coester Nieman Notes 48 Writer Meredith Reporting While Trans 32 Talusan is How trans journalists are changing— Sounding 52 among the and challenging—journalism Laura N. Pérez Sánchez small but By Lewis Raven Wallace growing group of transgender Photos by Claudia Janke journalists in Journalism and Libraries: 38 cover: the U.S. “A Community Need from her “Two Every Week” project and a Strategic Fit” How—and why—libraries are stepping in cover design: Arthur Hochstein to help news organizations promote media literacy, spur civic engagement, and even assist with reporting projects By Eryn Carlson from The president’s forgiving embrace of One of the unfortunate consequences the Saudi authorities in the wake of columnist of this hostile environment is that it com- curator Jamal Khashoggi’s murder and dismember- promises the possibility of genuine reflec- ing last fall marked a new low. “The level tion about journalism’s failings. In the U.S., of violence used to persecute journal- the “fake news” complaints clotting public ists who aggravate authorities no longer discourse are now so suspect, and the skep- seems to know any limits,” said Reporters ticism from journalists so heightened, it is “If You Want to Save Without Borders. hard to imagine how the conversation is Gone is the historic role that U.S. presi- bridged. Honest response to legitimate crit- Democracy, You First dents played in defending the essential role of icism is difficult when the criticism comes in Must Save Yourself” journalism in a democracy, replaced by White a torrent of false accusations. It’s like trying House succor for autocrats and authoritari- to separate raindrops. With the U.S. president ans seeking to silence independent reporting. I recently watched a video of a 1962 Oval no longer defending We are now—in the words of Stalin, Mao, Office interview that three network news re- Nazi propagandists, and Trump—“enemies porters held with President John F. Kennedy. the essential role of the people,” language weaponized during The civility is nearly unrecognizable and a of journalism in a some of history’s darkest hours. reminder of how distorted our discourse “Trump inhabits the global showcase,” has become. Kennedy, like every president democracy, news outlets said Salvadoran author and journalist Oscar before and since, took umbrage at some Martinez. “In attacking the U.S. press, he at- White House coverage. He refers to the press worldwide step up tacks all of the press and puts it at risk.” as “abrasive” and implies that news can be their fight for survival The kinship Trump exhibits for fellow distorted for political purposes. But his fun- by ann marie lipinski enemies of independent reporting was damental respect for its role in a democra- evident during this March exchange in cy is sufficiently strong that he says Nikita Washington with newly-elected Brazilian Khrushchev, then premier of the Soviet President Jair Bolsonaro. Union, is disadvantaged without it. Bolsonaro: “Brazil and the United States “Even though we never like it, and even stand side by side in their efforts to ensure though we wish they didn’t write it, and even liberties and respect to traditional family though we disapprove, there isn’t any doubt lifestyles, respect to God our creator, against that we couldn’t do the job at all in a free n their press freedom ranking of 180 the gender ideology or the politically correct society without a very, very active press,” countries, Reporters Without Borders attitudes and against fake news.” Kennedy said. this year named Norway its valedicto- Trump: “I’m very proud to hear the presi- How do we get back to that discussion? I rian. So free is the country from cen- dent use the term ‘fake news.’” Are we as journalists doing enough in our sorship, political pressure, or violence Bolsonaro wasn’t bluffing and in his brief work and in our communities to advance that against journalists, that the headline atop tenure has used social media to attack re- conversation and earn that respect? the annual report’s section on Norway read, porters whose coverage he doesn’t like, sup- Although there are countries that never “Faultless or almost.” pressed government advertising to weaken tolerated an independent press, the retreat So I was surprised, during a recent visit the press, and, most recently, threatened in places that once did have such a press from several Norwegian journalists, by a con- American journalist Glenn Greenwald with shows how precipitous the change can be.