Tanzina Vega is an American journalist whose positions have ranged from weekday host of The Takeaway , a public radio show, to CNNMoney national reporter for race and inequality in America, to staff reporter at The New York Times, where she created and covered a beat on race and ethnicity for the national desk, as well as reporting for the metro section and business desk. [1]
Vega was born in New York City. She identifies as a Latina of Puerto Rican ancestry. [2] Vega grew up with her parents and brother on Manhattan's Lower East Side. Though they lived in public housing and were poor, both of her parents earned master's degrees. [3]
Vega attended Stony Brook University on Long Island, funding her education in part with scholarship assistance from the I Have a Dream Foundation, and by working multiple jobs. Vega's major was sociology with a minor in women's studies and Latin/American/Caribbean studies. She graduated in 1996. [3]
In 2010, Vega was part of a team of New York Times journalists that won an Emmy Award for the documentary film "One in 8 Million," about the individual stories of New Yorkers. [4] In 2013, Vega persuaded Jill Abramson, then the executive editor of The New York Times, to assign her as a national reporter on the newly-created race and ethnicity beat. [1]
In this position, Vega covered the unrest in Ferguson, Missouri following the shooting death of Michael Brown, produced a series of video interviews of minority comedians, and covered microaggressions on college campuses. [5] In 2015, her job title was eliminated, and she was reassigned to the metro desk to cover courthouses in the Bronx. [6] She soon left the newspaper for CNN, again covering issues related to social inequality, racial justice [6] and the criminal justice system. [7]
In 2017, Vega was a visiting lecturer at Princeton University, teaching a course called "The Media and Social Issues: Reporting on Race in America Today". She was also an Eisner Fellow at The Nation Institute. [8]
In March, 2018, Vega was hired by WNYC and Public Radio International as the weekday host of The Takeaway, a morning news show. The show's previous host, John Hockenberry, had retired in 2017 amid accusations of harassing female colleagues. [9] At its height, around 280 radio stations carried The Takeaway. [6] [10] As The Takeaway's host, Vega emphasized coverage of race and inequality. [11] [12]
In 2019, Vega won the 15th annual Robert G. McGruder Distinguished Guest Lecture Award for media diversity at Kent State University. [13]
After three years as host, Vega resigned from The Takeaway on July 23, 2021, amid an internal investigation into allegations that she berated staff and was the subject of internal complaints. Melissa Harris Perry succeeded her as host. [14] [15]
In 2022, Vega was the host of Across Colors, a limited series podcast about parents and educators across the country who are trying to improve social and racial equity in schools. [16] Vega currently writes for The Boston Globe and is an advisory board member for City Limits. [17]
Brian Lehrer is an American radio talk show host on New York City's public radio station WNYC. His daily two-hour 2007 Peabody Award-winning program, The Brian Lehrer Show, features interviews with newsmakers and experts about current events and social issues. Lehrer was formerly an anchor and reporter for NBC Radio Networks and has been in broadcast journalism for over 30 years.
WNYC is the trademark and a set of call letters shared by WNYC (AM) and WNYC-FM, a pair of nonprofit, noncommercial, public radio stations located in New York City. WNYC is owned by New York Public Radio (NYPR), a nonprofit organization that did business as "WNYC RADIO" until March 2013.
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The Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York is a public graduate journalism school located in New York City, New York, United States. One of the 25 institutions comprising the City University of New York, or CUNY, the school opened in 2006. It is the only public graduate school of journalism in the northeastern United States.
Melissa Victoria Harris-Perry, formerly known as Melissa Victoria Harris-Lacewell, is an American writer, professor, television host, and political commentator with a focus on African-American politics. Harris-Perry hosted the Melissa Harris-Perry weekend news on MSNBC from 2012 to February 27, 2016.
The Takeaway was a weekday radio news program co-created and co-produced by Public Radio International and WNYC. Its editorial partner was GBH; at launch the BBC World Service and The New York Times were also editorial partners. In addition to co-producing the program, PRX also distributed the program nationwide to its affiliated stations. The program debuted on WNYC in New York, WGBH in Boston, and WEAA in Baltimore. At time of its last broadcast, the program had approximately 241 carrying stations across the country, including markets in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Miami, Portland, Boston, and more.
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Laura Ruth Walker is an American executive and current President of Bennington College. From 1995 to 2019, Walker was President and CEO of New York Public Radio (NYPR), a nonprofit media organization that operates WNYC, WNYC Studios, classical WQXR-FM, the website Gothamist, New Jersey Public Radio, and The Jerome L. Greene Performance Space. The organization produces programs for local and national audiences, including The Brian Lehrer Show, Radiolab, More Perfect, On The Media, Nancy, The New Yorker Radio Hour, Trump, Inc., Death, Sex & Money, Snap Judgment, Here’s the Thing with Alec Baldwin, All Of It, The Takeaway, Caught, The United States of Anxiety, Aria Code, Carnegie Hall Live, and 2 Dope Queens, reaching an average audience of 23.4 million people each month. New York Public Radio received ten George Foster Peabody Awards and five Alfred I. duPont awards during her tenure.
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Ailsa Chang is an American journalist for National Public Radio (NPR) and a host on All Things Considered. Previously, she covered the United States Congress for NPR. Prior to joining NPR in 2012, Chang was an investigative journalist at NPR member station WNYC in New York City. Since starting as a radio reporter in 2009, she has received numerous national awards for investigative reporting.
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