“In 2020, for there to be a virtual panel on Black Media and not invite or involve the NNPA or any of our member publishers to be on the panel goes beyond a mere oversight,” said NNPA President/CEO Benjamin Chavis in an interview about the May 20 forum.

Hosted by NAACP President/CEO Derrick Johnson and moderated by journalist Ed Gordon of Ed Gordon Media, formerly of BET, the forum had been widely promoted by the NAACP as a discussion on the need for Black media during the coronavirus pandemic and continued physical attacks on Black people by police and others.

Barnes wrote, “I am sure by now you and President Johnson have heard from some of our Black Press publishers around the country expressing their disappointment with the NAACP’s participation in last evening’s Black Media Speaks event hosted [by] Ed Gordon.

Blankson did not explain how or why members of NNPA or other reporters for Black newspapers were not invited to the “Black Media Speaks” panel in the first place.

Other members of the Black Media Speaks panel were Jeff Johnson, formerly of BET and currently of the Rickey Smiley Morning Show; April Ryan, White House Correspondent, American Urban Radio Network, and CNN political analyst; and Jemele Hill, writer for the Atlantic and host of her own podcast, Jemele Hill Unbothered.