NABJ President Errin Haines: Protecting Black Journalism Means Calling Out Bad Work
After sports commentator Stephen A. Smith received the Thumbs Down Award at the National Association of Black Journalists convention last week, debates erupted over why the organization would “target” a Black man or accuse him of disparaging Black women like Michelle Obama and Kamala Harris.
Now, NABJ President Errin Haines is setting the record straight on why Smith will remain in the hot seat until accountability becomes evident.
Haines appeared on Roland Martin’s show to defend the decision, which she said was not “made casually.”
“I think we have to agree that there’s a clear through line,” she told Martin about this year’s honorees. “We’re looking at the forces that make it harder for Black journalists to do their jobs and harder for Black communities to be covered fairly and fully.”
The award itself has a history of confrontation. DeWayne Wickham, an NABJ co-founder and former president, created the Thumbs Down Award and previously used it to call out disgraced journalist Jayson Blair in 2003. The tradition reflected an idea that NABJ could celebrate Black journalists while challenging them when they fall short.
That history fueled Haines’ decision.
“It is really in the spirit of our old and visionary founders and past presidents that I felt that it was important to talk about this now,” Haines said.
We previously told you that NABJ recognized five people and institutions representing what she described as forces making it harder for Black communities to receive fair coverage – including government pressure, media decisions affecting diversity, treatment of Black journalists and influential commentators whose rhetoric can reinforce damaging stereotypes.
In addition to Smith, the Thumbs Down Award was given to CBS News, The Washington Post, Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr, and media executive DuJuan McCoy – all of whom faced criticism from NABJ and advocates over actions or decisions they say undermined Black journalists, diversity and fair coverage.
“Black America is under attack,” Wickham said during an interview with Haines and Martin. “We have to struggle to make sure that we can hold off these forces – these enemies – at our gate.”
He continued, “We need to understand that we cannot defeat the enemies at the gates if we do not take on and defeat the enemies within.”
For the organization’s current president, the award is about accountability and what happens when influential Black voices use their platforms in negative ways. “That means defending Black journalists when they are targeted,” Haines added, “but it also means challenging institutions or individuals when necessary.”
Smith clearly felt challenged. After receiving the award, he said that although he would “always strive to do better,” that did not negate what he called “the bullsh*t that the NABJ did.”
Afterward, Smith’s representatives invited Haines onto his show for a public conversation. She declined and instead offered a private conversation.
“I don’t believe that the first step would be, for me as president of NABJ, to go on to his program,” she told Martin.
Haines also acknowledged Smith’s long relationship with NABJ and said she understood why the award landed differently for him. But that relationship, she argued, is precisely why the organization should be able to confront him.
“We think that he can do better,” she said. “That’s part of what community is supposed to be.”
For Haines, the award was not about canceling Stephen A. Smith. It was about reminding one of Black media’s most powerful personalities that influence comes with responsibility — and that accountability is part of community, too.
