Black journalists association defends decision to invite Trump to speak at conference

The National Association of Black Journalists is defending its decision to invite former President Donald Trump to speak at their annual conference this Wednesday in Chicago in spite of criticism from several prominent Black journalists.

NABJ President Ken Lemon called the event an opportunity to hear “former President Trump on the critical issues our members and their audiences care about most.”

“While NABJ does not endorse political candidates as a journalism organization,” Lemon said in a statement, “we understand the serious work of our members, and welcome the opportunity for them to ask the tough questions that will provide the truthful answers Black Americans want and need to know.”

Moderated by ABC News’ Rachel Scott, Fox News’ Harris Faulkner and Semafor’s Kadia Goba, the event will kick off 12 p.m. CST on the opening day of the conference, which runs July 31 to Aug. 4.

The announcement has caused controversy down to the selection of the moderators.

“Not a single Black media organization is on the panel,” university lecturer and culture journalist Arionne Nettles wrote on X, later adding “please don’t claim to give ‘opportunities’ to anyone but those who would already have them.”

Wednesday’s event won’t be open to the public, though registered attendees can go and also have the opportunity to ask Trump questions.

Several Black journalists took to X, the app formerly known as Twitter, after NABJ made the announcement on Monday evening.

“Y’all just made the only safe haven that Black journalists have potentially unsafe all because y’all want to look ‘smarter than everybody else’ when this is idiotic at best,” award-winning sports journalist Carron J. Phillips wrote, calling Trump’s appearance “the single dumbest and worst decision in NABJ history.”

“The reports of attacks on Black women White House correspondents by the then president of the United States are not myth or conjecture, but fact,” 2017 NABJ journalist of the year April Ryan wrote. “To have a presumed orchestrated session with the former president is an affront to what this organization stands for and a slap in the face to the Black women journalists (NABJ journalists of the year) who had to protect themselves from the wrath of this Republican presidential nominee.”

While many journalists have voiced criticism, others, like the Atlanta Journal Constitution’s Tia Mitchell and Jemele Hill, pointed to the precedence. As NABJ noted in its press release, Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Bill Clinton have all attended previous conferences.

“As journalists, we can never be afraid to tackle someone like Trump,” Hill wrote on X. ”The reality is that he is running for president and needs to be treated as such. Being questioned by journalists is part of the job, and especially important in the company of Black journalists. Mainstream media keeps trying to convince us that he actually is gaining support among Black people. Let’s see if it’s true.”

Added Mitchell: “I helped make this call. And it’s in line with invitations NABJ has sent to every presidential candidate for decades. But continue to go off on your feed. I’ll continue to work to create opportunities for journalists to interview the potential next President.”

In the Trump campaign’s announcement about the NABJ event, it noted how he “accomplished more for Black Americans than any other president in recent history by implementing America First policies on the economy, immigration, energy, law and order, and foreign policy.” It’s a claim that Trump has touted since his 2020 campaign, though a Washington Post fact check called these assertions unfounded.

“The claim that Trump has exceeded every other president since Lincoln earned only derision from prominent historians,” Washington Post reporter Glenn Kessler wrote in 2020. “Instead, they said Lyndon B. Johnson, who signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, is clearly the president who had the most lasting impact on the lives of African Americans.”

It’s unclear whether Vice President and presumptive Democratic nominee Kamala Harris will also attend the conference, however, the chatter on X seems to indicate that an invite has been extended.