By Ismail Sy and Khenedi Wright
After former President Donald Trump attended the 2024 NABJ Convention and Career Fair Wednesday for a Q&A session, NABJ Executive Director Drew Berry said he wouldn’t change anything about the panel or the invitation.
Despite the criticism the organization received from members, non-members and the general public for how the Q&A panel went, Berry said journalists need to take bias and emotions out of it.
“We need to continue to further educate our members. We’re not going to disinvite someone just because some may not like him, it makes zero sense. As for anything we’d do differently, nothing,” Berry said.
Earlier in the week, the organization was bashed for extending an invite to the former president. Berry said it is important for members to continue to educate themselves and to put their job first before anything.
“We have to continue to remind our members that this is what we’re supposed to be doing. If your editor asks you to sit down with Donald Trump and you say, ‘No’ because you don’t agree with him, you’re not going to have a job,” Berry said.
Berry also said that some of the NABJ founders are beside themselves because they have been inviting presidential candidates from both parties to speak at conventions dating all the way back to 1970s.
“I am okay with people expressing themselves. But it’s not unusual for an organization with strong and professional people to have different viewpoints with how we approach things. We weigh the positives and negatives and we may not make everyone happy, but we are always going to do what’s best for the organization,” he said.
Berry said that with Trump’s attendance, NABJ will also get Vice President and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris to make an appearance for the organization, but that will likely come after the convention.
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