Some "journalists of color" are livid over the Chicago Tribune's recent layoffs, claiming members of their racial and ethnic group were disproportionately targeted. Altogether, the Tribune laid off 40-plus people last Friday. According to one account, newsroom tensions were so high that a "powerful white columnist" challenged a "journalist of color" to a fistfight. All of this is reported by Richard Prince at his online "Journal-isms" column, published by the Maynard Institute that promotes minority hiring in the news business.Could Tribune news managers really have based those layoff on racist motives? That what Ray Quintanilla, a 14-year Tribune veteran, tells Prince who seems eager to believe him. "It's sad because if you look at the list (of people who were laid off), it's heavily minority. It looks bad," Quintanilla related. However, the ex-staffer offers no figures or statistics to back up his accusations; and nor did Prince's...(Read Full Post)