Indian Country Today Silences Native American Journalist

21.4.16

Indian Country Today Silences Native American Journalist: [dailykos.com - 20
11/ 11] Comments Share Tweet
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I would like to thank AIM Central Texas for releasing the letter below last week calling for a boycott of Indian Country Today Media Network, the largest Native American news site in the country.

The letter cites the termination of my relationship with ICTM and censorship as reasons for the boycott and says:

"We have since learned that ICTM is owned by Ray Halbritter who had previously gained control of the Oneida Tribe using unethical tactics. Jacqueline was fired by Chris Napolitano, the former editor of Playboy Magazine. The majority of the salaried positions at ICTM are held by non-natives in New York City and the Native reporters are columnists paid per story or not at all."

12961646_10154060044708446_1008263687341531886_n.jpg American Indian Movement Boycotting Indian Country Today--Calls for Free Press

When I first found out that the editor-in-chief of the nation's largest Native American news site was non-Native (Chris Napolitano whose title is "Creative Director"), I suspended judgment. I don't believe that only Native people can do a good job at anything--that would be a ridiculous proposition and swept aside those concerns willing to see what I can learn from this editor. I Googled him and found that his primary experience as an editor was at Playboy from the mid-1990s to the early 2000s and read that he had received accolades for bringing in talented short-story writers.

I now must admit I wonder how much editing mostly white, male, short-story writers in Playboy prepares one for editing the largest Native American newspaper in the United States serving some 566 federally recognized tribes (and many more who are not federally recognized) each with unique cultures and circumstances. It seems like an entirely different thing to me.