Independent journalist melds his Black experience into Ukraine war reporting
Terrell Jermaine Starr: ‘Always be with the people’
Terrell Jermaine Starr initially didn’t want to go to Russia and Ukraine because he thought those countries were “white.”
However, upon witnessing Russian aggression in the region, he realized two things — Western media got a lot wrong, and his experience as a Black person in America paralleled the struggle of “white” Ukrainians more than he thought.
Armed with his smartphone, he embarked on a mission to report on the Russian invasion in ways everyday people could simply understand.
“I brought in my own personal experience of understanding borders and understanding segregation and just taking it at that level that everyone can understand then expanding it to a global context,” said Starr, host of the Black Diplomats podcast.
Speaking at the Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia last month, Starr highlighted the lack of diversity in foreign correspondence and journalistic roles around powerful figures.
The independent reporter’s works — which aimed to present Ukraine's plight from a more inclusive standpoint — have appeared on several TV networks including CNN, Sky News, MSNBC and Al Jazeera.
Starr said the focus on Russia in Western media marginalized the Ukrainian people, attributing it to the limited diversity among foreign correspondents.
“They were not viewed as individual people,” he said, noting he knew how that felt. “So I decided I would cover Ukraine the way I would cover my own community.”
While there isn’t an official demographic breakdown of foreign correspondents at international news outlets, Zippa estimated that nearly 67% of them are white while only 6.4% are Black.
Starr said comprehensive coverage should center around people who suffer from state abuses and that diversity, in the Russia-Ukraine case, should also include people from Central Asia and Indigenous communities.
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Regarding objectivity and balance in journalism, Starr rejected the notion that every issue has two equal sides.
He said in many cases, “one side is right, the other side is just wrong” and that there’s no point in balancing a lie.
Starr pointed to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s deceitful practices, echoing PolitiFact’s designation of Putin’s lies as the “Lie of the Year 2022,” which noted that the invasion of Ukraine “was built on a foundation of lies.”
One of the most heartbreaking things during Starr’s time in Ukraine was when he was listening to Putin’s speech, which he described as containing “very genocidal language.”
When the speech was about 10-15 minutes, he said U.S. news outlets only aired 15-30 seconds of that. But he and the Ukrainians heard the whole thing.
“He talks about Ukrainians like they’re trash … I'm not even Ukrainian, and it bothered me,” Starr said. “If you’re trying to wrestle with this, there’s something wrong with you.”
Besides Starr’s Ukraine coverage, he also covered the 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns, the 2018 midterm elections and the Black Lives Matter movement.
He brought his points locally, saying that politicians and police officers in the U.S. lie, and journalists should not feel obligated to balance lies.
“I think that the way that we show our intellectual depth in these conversations is simply telling people the truth,” he said. “I think if you’re not skeptical of authority, you shouldn't be a journalist, period.”
Addressing the ongoing war between Hamas and Israel when there seems to not be a public consensus on who the perpetrator is like in the Ukraine war, Starr advocated for moral consistency in journalism.
Having been in the Palestinian territories, Starr labeled the situation as “apartheid,” something many international human rights organizations have confirmed.
One challenge around the Middle East war, Starr said, was the conflation of criticizing the Israeli government with antisemitism as people have equated Israel with the Jewish identity.
“If you criticize the state of Israel, there's this presumption that you're criticizing all Jews and that you're saying that you don't want them to have a state, which is bullshit,” Starr said.
Experts and data have indicated that the Oct. 7 attack sparked a rise in both antisemitism and anti-Muslim hate incidents — both of which often soar following crisis points in the war.
FBI Director Christopher Wray has said only about 2.4% of the American public is responsible for about 60% of all religious-based hate crimes.
More than 1,400 journalists have signed an open letter protesting the coverage of the war by American newsrooms, calling them out for inaccurate reports, double standards and “dehumanizing rhetoric that has served to justify ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.”
According to the petition organizers, more than 30 journalists have since asked to have their signatures removed. Several journalists have been fired or suspended for supporting the Palestinian cause at outlets such as The Associated Press, PhillyVoice, Global News and eLife.
But for Starr, being an independent journalist has its perks.
“I don’t have to wrestle with anything,” he said. “No one can fire me.”
Despite facing accusations of antisemitism, Starr said he remained steadfast in his commitment to what he believed was right.
A question he said he reflects on a lot is whether he’s defending the oppressed — meaning he can be just as outspoken about antisemitism as he is about the oppression of Palestinians — or whether he’s trying to be comfortable with the state and power.
“My training taught me to always be with the people,” Starr said. “Being an independent journalist is really rough … but my voice has never been stronger.”
Correction: The earlier version misdated Terrell Jermaine Starr’s featured image. It was taken Thursday, Nov. 16, 2023.
What I’m reading:
Sports Illustrated published articles by fake, AI-generated writers — Futurism
On the front lines of the local news crisis, a lot of pain but some reason for hope — Poytner
How newspapers around the world reacted to Kissinger’s death — The Telegraph
‘Almost like election night’: behind the scenes of Spotify Wrapped — The Guardian