Alice Bonner, a Merrill faculty member and the former director of journalism education at The Freedom Forum, contributed an article for The Washington Post Co.’s new online venture, TheRoot.com. Her article explains why she’s supporting John Edwards for president.

Aiming to be a “Slate for black readers,” as founding editor Henry Louis Gates termed it, the site is a spinoff of the Post’s WashingtonPost.Newsweek Interactive. The Root aims to be an “unprecedented departure from traditional American journalism, raising the profile of black voices in mainstream media and engaging anyone interested in black culture around the world.”
Read “The Minority Candidate” here.

Jay Kernis (BS ‘74), the senior vice president for programming at National Public Radio and Merrill College Board of Visitors member has been named managing editor of CNN, the cable news network announced today.

Read the NYTimes article.

Eric Schaffer won 11th Place in the Broadcast Feature category of the Hearst Awards, the William Randolf Hearst Foundation announced Jan. 10. The 2007-2008 broadcast news competitions are held in 108 member colleges and universities of the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication with accredited undergraduate journalism programs.

Read the full release here.