Alexi McCammond’s honor as NABJ’s “Emerging Journalist of the Year” was awarded based upon her journalism work in 2018.
At the time, NABJ was unaware of the tweets in question, which were posted when Ms. McCammond was presumably a student and before becoming a professional journalist. McCammond said in a statement: “Today, I was reminded of some past insensitive tweets, and I am deeply sorry to anyone I offended. I have since deleted those tweets as they do not reflect my views or who I am today.”
NABJ does not condone discriminatory actions or comments against any group of people. We have always encouraged all of our members, which includes Ms. McCammond, to be respectful of people of all backgrounds. Celebrating diversity is at the core of our mission.
However, the sharing of tweets from years ago by Ms. McCammond does not negate our concerns that the comments and actions toward her by Mr. Barkley were inexcusable, as are some of the other comments she’s encountered as a result of her speaking out about what she has faced. We are hopeful to see that Ms.McCammond has worked to rectify the situation concerning her past tweets.