U.S. President Joe Biden has renewed calls for the safe return of American Journalist Austin Tice who went missing in Syria over a decade ago.

On Wednesday Biden urged leaders in Damascus to help secure the repatriation of Tice as pressure continues to increase on the White House by families of hostages and detainees, Reuters reported.

Biden said that the U.S. government knows now "with certainty" that the U.S. journalist has been held by the Syrian government and called on the Syrian government to release him after 10 years in captivity, CNN reported.

Biden said, "We know with certainty that he has been held by the Syrian regime." The president said, "We have repeatedly asked the government of Syria to work with us so that we can bring Austin home."

Biden urged movement on the case for Tice's family, saying, "On the tenth anniversary of his abduction, I am calling on Syria to end this and help us bring him home." He said, "Tice family deserves answers, and more importantly, they deserve to be swiftly reunited with Austin."
 
According to CNN, the Syrian government and leader Bashar al-Assad, have not publicly acknowledged that Tice is being detained there.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement on Wednesday, "Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs Roger Carstens will continue to engage with the Syrian government in close coordination with the White House, Hostage Recovery Fusion Cell, and our team here at the State Department."

Carstens secretly traveled to Damascus to meet with government officials there in 2020 while under then president Donald Trump. Then in May, he met with a top Lebanese security official in Washington to "discuss US citizens who are missing or detained in Syria." 

A top priority for the Tice family and U.S. officials is to continue to engage with the Syrian government and keep that engagement sustained.

Veteran CNN investigative journalist Drew Griffin has died after a long battle with cancer, according to his family and CNN.

Griffin was 60-years-old.

CNN CEO Chris Licht said in a message to staff, “Drew’s death is a devastating loss to CNN and our entire profession.”

Licht said, “A highly acclaimed investigative journalist, Drew’s work had incredible impact and embodied the mission of this organization in every way.”

Griffin worked at CNN for nearly 20 years covering hundreds of stories and working on multiple documentaries.

CNN said he kept his illness private and reported up until the day he died.

Michael Bass, CNN’s Executive Vice President of Programming, said, “Fearless and artful at the same time, he knew how to push a story forward to its limits, but also tell it in a way that would make everyone understand.”

Bass said, “How many times has he chased an unwilling interviewee? How many times has he spoken truth to power? How many times has he made a difference on something important … It was an honor to be his colleague and to be witness to his work and the ways it changed the world.”

Patricia DiCarlo, Executive Producer of CNN’s investigative unit said, “You know when a Drew Griffin story starts, it’s going to be great.”

“His way with words set him apart,” she said.

Griffin was a Chicago native and began his career as a reporter for WICD-TV in Illinois.

He worked for stations in Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina and Washington.

He was an investigative reporter at KIRO-TV in Seattle.

In January 1994 he joined CBS 2 in Los Angeles as a reporter and anchor.

He leaves behind his three children and wife Margot.

ASHEVILLE, N.C. — In the basement of retired journalist Sally Kestin’s house, lies a collection of just about every industry accolade you can think of.

It's not a museum of a past career but the hub of a new project, a fortress of solitude if you will, where she and others like her are fighting to protect democracy the best way they know how.

"Somebody called us the Gray Hair Justice League," she laughed.

The town where she's settled is no Gotham, but it happened to be the place of retirement of a handful of other well-decorated journalists.

Being natural observers, they noticed that the local news media outlets have suffered the fate of so many smaller operations across the country – budget cuts and slimmed-down newsrooms.

"They cut expenses and one of the first places they do that is the newsroom. The paper here had gone from a staff of about roughly 70 editorial employees down to about a dozen," said Kestin.

"I think they all do a wonderful job with the resources that they have, but we were all concerned. We know what happens when there is not a strong, robust local press," she continued.

According to research done by the University of North Carolina, 1,800 newspapers have shuttered since 2004, creating what has been dubbed “news deserts," or communities left without any local journalism.

Despite being bombarded with local and international news constantly on social media, the concern with news deserts is that people in these areas are being left in the dark when it comes to local issues that impact their day to day – budgets, school board decisions, politics, etc.

During the pandemic, according to Poynter, at least 100 local newspapers, some of which were more than a century old, folded, accelerating the trend.

"Having retired here, the choice was, what's more important? Playing golf and pickleball or, or actually pitching in to do something to support the local infrastructure?" said Peter Lewis, a fellow retired journalist and managing editor of The Asheville Watchdog.

Co-founded by Kestin, the Asheville Watchdog is a non-profit news website dedicated to in-depth, investigative journalism.

"I think people recognize that the kind of watchdog journalism that we do is critical to have a functioning democracy," said Lewis.

The team takes no paycheck from the work at the Watchdog, relying on donations from the community.

While they realize that not every community will have a group with the resources to start their own news organizations, they hope to inspire not only others to think about how to revive journalism in their own backyards, but to reinforce how important keeping tabs on local government and holding the powerful accountable is.

They say it's important for informing the public as well as reducing division.

"By providing that kind of coverage, we can do our little part to try and lessen this polarization that is sort of tearing communities apart, all across the country," said Lewis.

It’s not easy and they’re hoping to garner more donations to make the operation bigger, possibly hire some full-time reporters, but to them, this kind of challenge is all in a day’s work.

"We're able to do what we do best and do it in our beloved community and, and make a difference," said Kestin.

According to a survey from the Newhouse School at Syracuse University, as of 2020, African Americans accounted for 13% of the overall local TV news workforce.

One woman and accomplished journalist is paving the way for more young Black women to enter the industry she loves. Reporter Linnie Supall shares her story. 

"Over 43 years, I think I've done it all," Daphne Taylor says, walking down memory lane.

"Interviewing Oprah, covering Kamala Harris, I've covered President Obama four times."

She's celebrating more than four decades as an accomplished journalist, and her relentless fight to find success. 

"It hasn't been easy because I never made a lot of money, but I have always loved what I did," Taylor explains. 

From television to print and radio, Daphne Taylor's passion for journalism is multi-faceted — so much so, that she paved the way for others. 

"I came back to Riviera Beach and I started teaching broadcast journalism to at-risk teen girls," says Taylor.  

In 1998 Taylor launched a mentorship program introducing teenage girls to the world of broadcasting. 

"We called ourselves WGRL, where girls come first."

For nearly 10 years, WGRL cut attention across south Florida, traveling to Miami and Fort Lauderdale, to meet the latest stars and prominent leaders in town. 

"From Martin Luther King III, to Rosie O'Donnell, Alicia Keys (...) One of my former students recently told me that she would not be where she is today, had it not been for myself," Taylor recalls. 

"When you see you've made a difference, it makes a difference," she adds. 

Taylor is still writing front page headlines, acutely aware of the racial barriers that still remain. 

"Getting rid of racial injustice is going to still take more time, but we can get through it and we will get through it," Taylor says.

"All of us have a responsibility to do our best to make this world a better place. Never give up on your dream. It's never too late. Never too late."

This story was first reported by Linnie Supall and Natalie Allen at Newsy.

The events of Sept. 11, 2001, changed the lives of Americans forever.

In a recent poll by USA TODAY/Suffolk University, 60% of 1,000 people surveyed agreed.

Eighty-five percent polled said the terror attacks had a big impact on their generation, while nearly two-thirds said it had a big impact on their own lives.

From technological advances to changes in national security, exactly what has changed in the 20 years since America came under attack?

National Security

Just 11 days after terrorists crashed planes into the World Trade Center towers in New York City, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, the Department of Homeland Security was created.

Former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge was appointed as the first director of the department, which was tasked with overseeing and coordinating a national approach to protect the U.S. against terrorism and future attacks.

The Department of Homeland Security now consists of more than 240,000 employees who are responsible for aviation and border security, cybersecurity and other preparedness measures.

Technology

Technology has seen its fair share of changes in the last 20 years.

"Government agencies and private companies have beefed up their disaster preparedness and telecommunications providers have strengthened their digital infrastructure," wrote Darrell West, senior fellow at Brookings' Center for Technology Innovation and its director, Dr. Nicol Turner Lee, in an online article entitled "How technology and the world have changed since 9/11."

Since 9/11, "the United States realized the importance of mobile communications during terrorist attacks and natural disasters," the article says.

"Steps have been taken to safeguard vital networks, which is a huge advancement since 9/11 when thousands of people in New York, and in the area of the Pentagon bombing had to run and walk for miles to what appeared to be a safe space for shelter," the experts continued. "Back then, we didn’t even have voice-activated internet-enabled navigational tools that could advise pedestrians and drivers of road closures, or other potential road or walking hazards."

In October 2001, the U.S. Patriot Act was enacted, which gave the government more authority to investigate potential threats through surveillance of phone calls, emails and text messages.

"With the advent of smartphones and the prevalence of electronic communications, public authorities also developed new tools for monitoring particular individuals and tracking their physical whereabouts via geolocation data," West and Lee's article says. "Twenty years after the attack, the country continues to debate where to draw the line between promoting personal privacy and protecting national security."

It's easy to wonder if the world's technological advancements had happened sooner, whether 9/11 could have been prevented.

Travel

Remember the days when you could arrive at the airport 30 minutes before your flight and head straight to your gate?

In 2001, that's what travel looked like. Families could come through security to send off loved ones and, even if you didn't have photo ID in your carry-on bag, blades and liquids were allowed.

But on Sept. 11, 2001, 19 hijackers were able to board four different domestic flights and carry out the attacks that killed thousands. That's when air travel changed forever.

The attacks changed the nation "automatically, immediately, into one obsessed, in big ways and small, with protecting its security," historian James Mann wrote in 2018. "The way that 325 million Americans go through airports today started on Sept. 12 and has never gone back to what it was on Sept. 10."

Tougher security measures were introduced when air travel resumed on Sept. 14, 2001, but the comprehensive Aviation and Transportation Security Act was passed into law by Nov. 19, 2001.

Here are some of the changes to air travel in the U.S. since 2001:

• All passengers over 18 need valid government-issued identification to fly, even on domestic flights. Those identifications are checked against passengers' boarding passes.

• The No Fly List was born — a branch of the Terrorist Screening Database noting people banned from boarding commercial aircraft into, out of and inside the U.S.

• The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) was introduced in November 2001 and took over all airport security functions.

• Potential weapons like blades, scissors and knitting needles are no longer allowed on board, and airport employees are now better trained to detect weapons or explosives. In 2006, a foiled plot to detonate liquid explosives on multiple transatlantic flights led to the restrictions of liquids, gels and aerosols in carry-on luggage that still exist today.

• Also in 2006, the TSA started requiring passengers to remove their shoes to screen for explosives.

• In March 2010, full-body scanners began to be installed in U.S. airports in addition to metal detectors.

• In July 2017, TSA began requiring all personal electronics larger than a cellphone to be placed in bins for X-ray screening.

In addition, bulletproof and locked cockpits became standard on commercial passenger aircraft within two years of the 9/11 attacks. The Arming Pilots Against Terrorism Act became law in 2002 and, in 2003, weapon-carrying pilots started boarding U.S. commercial flights.

Journalism

Michelle Wright, a reporter for sister station WTAE in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, remembers dropping off her son for his first day of preschool on Sept. 11, 2001, and holding her 1-year-old baby at home as she watched the first plane hit one of the towers of the World Trade Center.

"I was stunned," she said.

By the time she got to work, two other planes had crashed — another at the second tower of the World Trade Center and a third at the Pentagon — and there were reports of a plane down in Shanksville, less than two hours away. She and reporter Mike Clark rushed there, but had limited information about whether all of the crashes were related.

Wright and Clark were some of the first media on the scene.

"We just started going live," she said. "That shift turned into a nonstop week of being there. We immediately knew the significance."

Wright said the WTAE crew stayed in hotels and had to go to local stores for clothes and toiletries. They worked from about 3 a.m. until 8 p.m. each day in a world that didn't have social media and in an area of very poor cell reception.

"The public was glued to the television," she said. "People were just really eager to figure out what was going on."

Wright said in her career as a journalist, she can't remember a time when the information she was reporting was more important. Many broadcast stations dropped commercials during that time to make sure that reporters could relay the latest details.

"People were just waiting to find out what was happening to our country," she said.

Wright acknowledged that many relied on cable networks, morning newspapers and radio for breaking news in 2001. Today, however, many people would turn to their phones for instant information.

And, while social media often houses opinion, speculation and misinformation, it allows the public more access to reporters in today's world.

If an attack of that size took place today, the public may not have found out when a plane hit the north tower of the World Trade Center, but from a tweet from a passenger saying their plane had been hijacked.

Instead of circulating stories about passengers rushing the cockpit of United Airlines Flight 93 to confront hijackers before the plane, video or photos of the actual encounter may have been posted online in today's world.

Camera footage would also show a clearer picture of the horror of the attacks, the victims and the aftermath.

In 2001, television news crews made editorial decisions not to show footage of people leaping or falling to their deaths, while networks eventually stopped showing reruns of planes striking the towers to prevent children from thinking the attacks were happening again.

Social media doesn't have that type of editorial censorship.

"As panic-inducing as it was and as tragic an experience it was historically in this country, had the current technology been around in 2001, I think you would have had something far more heart-wrenching," said David Friend, author of "Watching the World Changes: The Stories Behind the Images of 9/11."

Wright said her experience covering the story of United Flight 93 taught her that passing along information to viewers allows them to make decisions, but also make a difference.

"Knowledge is power," she said. "And it's empowering."

She'll also never forget the moment the loved ones of the passengers and crew of Flight 93 were bussed to the crash site for the first time. Without cell phones capturing footage or even cameras rolling, members of the community lined roughly 30 miles of roadway from where the families were housed to the strip mine where the crash occurred to offer their condolences and support.

"Everyone at the site just froze," she said. "It was a powerful moment. All of our lives were changed."

The Associated Press and CNN contributed to this report.

This month, Hearst Television is celebrating Black history by having courageous conversations. The fight for civil rights and justice goes back generations and has looked different each decade. We’re speaking with community leaders, elders – those who have lived through victories and troubled times, to talk about their experiences, and compare them with what we still struggle with today.

Joyce Jackson is a journalism and civil rights pioneer.

Jackson was a part of the Katz Drugstore sit-in in Oklahoma in 1958 — the beginning of a movement that changed the country forever.

Jackson also became the first Black woman on television in Oklahoma, at Oklahoma City's KOCO-TV.

Jason Hackett, a reporter for sister station KOCO, spoke with Jackson about her past, the country's present and what lies ahead in the future.

“Where I first started in television, I was a gopher, Jackson said, noting that John Harrison, the then-vice president of KOCO, hired her as a part-time receptionist, tour guide and as his assistant."

We asked Jackson how she ended up being on-air and in front of the camera.

“Well, I had been here about six months, and John called me in the office and he said, ‘Have you ever thought of being on television?’ And I said no. They brought me to the studio, put me in front of the cameras, and as much as I run my mouth, I couldn’t talk. They kept asking me questions and then the tears started rolling down,” Jackson said. “Yes, I cried. Because I was just afraid, you know, afraid of the unknown. “

Jackson was a Black voice in a sea of white voices at that time. We asked her if she felt the weight of those expectations of people looking up to her.

“Yes, absolutely. But of course, I had a lot of detractors. We had a lot of calls to get that person off the air. Why do you have that person on the air?” Jackson said. “But the community was very supportive. And so I became a voice to the community.”

Jackson talked with Hackett about the responsibility of journalists when it comes to reporting on race – what we are doing right and what we could be doing better.

“I think wherever you come from, you should make a point to know the community, to find out who the people are in the community so that you are, one, accepted, and two, that they will trust you with their story,” Jackson said. “I think there should be a better effort to reach the community and to make sure that the community is being included in the story of what’s going on in the nation because right now there’s a lot going on. And, of course, growing up, there was a lot going on.”

Jackson was involved in sit-ins in Oklahoma with civil rights leader Clara Luper. And now we’re seeing a civil rights movement again as people march in the streets and fight for justice and fight for inclusion.

“Aug. 19, 1958, is when they started the march downtown Oklahoma City to do a sit-in. And it was always non-violent and Miss Luper had us trained to deal with whatever would come at us,” Jackson said. “I never would imagine that in this day and time we would still be dealing with our civil rights.”

Jackson said we are still fighting.

“It just saddens you that someone running down the street for exercise can be killed. Some kid playing in the park can be killed. A woman driving by herself on the highway and not complying or talking back can be killed,” Jackson said. “All the things that Miss Luper told us about the color of your skin and that you were equal and that you are as… Sometimes it makes me sad and it makes me cry sometimes that here we are, still trying to get justice and trying to be treated equally and it’s all because of the color of our skin.”

We asked Jackson what she thinks the future hold for those fighting for justice in America.

“I think we need to go back to the things that we’re taught as little kids, to be kind to each other. To respect each other. To care about each other. Dr. Martin Luther King always said love triumphs all. And that’s what we need to do,” Jackson said. “We think that we’re so different that we’re trying to overpower each other. We can’t go back. We will not go back to a time where we were subservient and placed in situations where we did not have a voice. Today, everyone has a voice. And we need to use it.”

“You paved the way for what I’m able to do right now, stand there at that desk and deliver the news every morning,” Hackett said, thanking Jackson for giving us the opportunity to speak with her. “I want to say I appreciate that and appreciate you and the path you paved for kids like me, that grew up wanting to be journalists to be able to have this opportunity now, so thank you very much.”