Author

Issac J. Bailey

@ijbailey

Issac Bailey, a 2014 Nieman Fellow, is a journalist, race relations seminar creator and facilitator, and the author of “Why Didn’t We Riot? A Black Man in Trumpland” (Other Press, October 2020). He is also the author of “My Brother Moochie: Regaining Dignity in the Face of Crime, Poverty, and Racism in the American South” (Other Press, 2018). He has contributed to Politico, CNN.com, Time, and The Washington Post. He is a former columnist and senior writer for The Sun News in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and he was a 2011 recipient of a Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism for stories about a child protection case. The state subsequently revamped the way it handles such cases.

Don’t Shy Away from Dealing Forthrightly with Race

Don’t Shy Away from Dealing Forthrightly with Race

Editorial decisions frequently take into account race and identity—even when we pretend they don’t
Evaluating the ‘Trump Effect’ in Economics Coverage

Evaluating the ‘Trump Effect’ in Economics Coverage

Two things keep happening and probably will continue in 2018: News outlets will continue producing in-depth Trumpland stories; critics will keep slamming them for it. Some of that criticism is…
The New York Times and Why White Supremacy Isn’t News

The New York Times and Why White Supremacy Isn’t News

A much-discussed Nazi-next-door piece in The New York Times went wrong for one reason: It treated the reporter’s discovery of the normalcy of white supremacy as news.There is nothing new…
Cam Newton and Journalism’s Credibility

Cam Newton and Journalism’s Credibility

When Cam Newton, one of the biggest names in the NFL, said, “It’s funny to hear a female talk about routes; like, it’s funny” while responding to a question from…
The Trauma of Covering Traumatic Events

The Trauma of Covering Traumatic Events

I had increasingly intense visions of harming my wife.That’s not quite right. I had been having off-and-on images of violent events for years—seeing myself raped in prison or impaled during…
Getting Racial Nuance Right after Charlottesville

Getting Racial Nuance Right after Charlottesville

An “AP Explains” piece illustrates just how difficult it is to get racial nuance right in the Trump era, even when journalists set out to bring much needed context to…
CNN, the Trump Meme, and the Ethics of Anonymous Sources

CNN, the Trump Meme, and the Ethics of Anonymous Sources

CNN has the right to change its mind. It can reasonably believe it is unnecessary—right now—to name a man at the center of a controversy sparked by President Donald Trump’s…
What Terry Frei’s Tweet Says about Bigotry and Bias

What Terry Frei’s Tweet Says about Bigotry and Bias

I was thinking about dedicating this column to what happened in New York, with the decision by the Times to jettison its public editor position. But what happened in Denver…
Yes, We Need A Special Commission…

Yes, We Need A Special Commission…

The media, along with former FBI Director James Comey, helped Donald Trump become president. Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight.com has detailed why. But it doesn’t take a mathematician to understand that…
Another Under-Covered Trump-Voting Demographic

Another Under-Covered Trump-Voting Demographic

The media are making good on their promise to spend more time in Trumpland, to explore more deeply the animating thoughts of the millions of supposedly previously overlooked Americans who…