Black Lives Matter

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association board said in an email Tuesday that Phil Berk is no longer a member of the organization. The decision comes hours after NBC — which telecasts the Globes — condemned a Berk email that called Black Lives Matter a “hate movement” and called for his “immediate expulsion.”

The veteran television journalist will interview Byron Allen, owner of The Weather Channel, Entertainment Studios and Allen Media Group, about his progress at convincing major marketers to devote 2% of their annual advertising spend on Black-owned media. Allen’s efforts have convinced General Motors to commit to a long-term advertising investment and Verizon announced it is planning to partner with Allen in a summit in May. To join the webinar, register here.

Systemic racism in the advertising industry has left Black-owned media with a fraction of the advertising dollars that should be flowing their way, argues Byron Allen, owner of The Weather Channel and founder of Entertainment Studios and Allen Media Group. Allen, who maintains big marketers can ameliorate the problem by devoting 2% of their advertising spend on Black-owned media, will press his case during a TVNewsCheck webinar, Black Owned Media Matters, set to take place Thursday, April 15, at 1 p.m. ET. Register here.

A number of returning network series have made decisions to incorporate a near-real time response to the summer’s resurgence of Black Lives Matter protests, cries for police reform and general social activism into their formats. But doing so has not come without challenges and narrative changes for these already-established series, especially as production was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

A novel partnership — with Ron Davis, the former executive director of President Barack Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing who runs the reform-minded criminal justice organization 21CP Solutions with former D.C. police chief Charles Ramsey — sends police reform advocates into the writers room. Can it work?