How Ebert Championed Diversity in Film
A look back at how the late film critic often saw the nuances in films about people of color.
Among the tributes to the likability, insight and journalistic skill of America's most well-known film critic, Roger Ebert, was praise for the way Ebert expressed his appreciation for diversity in his professional and personal lives.
Ebert, the Chicago Sun-Times critic who became more broadly well-known as half of the television team of Siskel and Ebert, died at 70 on Thursday after a long battle with thyroid cancer.
Ebert's appreciation of diversity was wide-ranging. He is survived by his African American wife, Chaz Hammelsmith Ebert. Oprah Winfrey's website posted a piece about their two dates in the 1980s, during which he encouraged the then-host of a modest local TV show, "AM Chicago," to go into syndication. As the cliche goes, the rest is history.
"Roger Ebert is one of my Asian American heroes, because he helped change the face of Asian American film after he famously responded to a (white) heckler during the Q&A after a screening of Justin Lin's Better Luck Tomorrow at Sundance in 2002," Joz Wang, who uses the pen name jozjozjoz, wrote Thursday on the website 8Asians.com.
She quoted from a transcript of Ebert's remarks:
"I was on a panel today with Chris Eyre, the Native American director. And he said, that for a long time, his people, American Indians, had always had to play some kind of a function, like they were the source of spirituality, or the source of great wisdom and they spoke to the trees and the wind and so forth. And he wanted to make a movie that allowed Native Americans to be people. People in some cases who are alcoholics or who are vigilantes, or in prison (music interrupts). And what I find very offensive and condescending about your statement, is nobody would say to a bunch of white filmmakers, 'How could you do this to your people?' This film has the right to be about these people and Asian American characters have the right to be whoever the hell they want to be. They do not have to 'represent' their people. . . ."
Wesley Morris, a black journalist who won the Pulitzer Prize for criticism last year while at the Boston Globe, added to that thought Friday on the Grantland site:
"Ebert did a lot of reading, particularly on social issues," Morris wrote. "No major critic did more for black movies than he did. He championed great filmmakers like Spike Lee and Charles Burnett. He lifted up directors like John Singleton and Matty Rich, finding the upside in some of their mediocre filmmaking without ever seeming to damn with faint praise, lower his standards, or lie. Their filmmaking might not have been spectacular, but he deemed it morally necessary.
"That Ebert married a black attorney named Chaz Hammelsmith in 1992 doesn't seem relevant to his racial sagacity and yet it does: He could see her radiance. Neither on television nor in print was there any kind of white guilt, just empathy and an uncanny sense of the nuances of racial politics.
"Talking to [Gene] Siskel about 1991's House Party II, Ebert observed that the dark-skinned kids were portrayed as troubled, bad, or stupid while the light-skinned kids were smart and virtuous, and worried that that dynamic just reinforced all the old intra-racial inferiority complexes. That was the sort of insight television producers were always bringing on Julianne Malveaux to make. To see a white critic express that and do so with that kind of concern only made you feel closer to Ebert. He and Siskel were not unfairly hard on Whoopi Goldberg, Eddie Murphy, or Richard Pryor, making them responsible for their bad choices and not the vagaries of Hollywood racism. There was no lament in the criticism, just disappointment. . . ."
Eric Deggans, television critic for the Tampa Bay (Fla.) Times, credited Ebert with being "the first arts critic who showed me just how far you could take this gig," who was "so cool he once dated Oprah and has Martin Scorsese working on a film about his life."
On the "She the People" section of the Washington Post website, Mary C. Curtis steered readers to Ebert's July 17, 2012, blog posting, "Roger Loves Chaz," and wrote, "Try to read this love letter from Roger Ebert to his wife, Chaz, and not cry."
"Wednesday, July 18, is the 20th anniversary of our marriage," Ebert wrote. "How can I begin to tell you about Chaz? She fills my horizon, she is the great fact of my life, she has my love, she saved me from the fate of living out my life alone, which is where I seemed to be heading. If my cancer had come, and it would have, and Chaz had not been there with me, I can imagine a descent into lonely decrepitude. I was very sick. I might have vegetated in hopelessness. This woman never lost her love, and when it was necessary she forced me to want to live. She was always there believing I could do it, and her love was like a wind forcing me back from the grave. . . ."
Angry Asian Man blog: Roger Ebert, Champion of Asian American Cinema
Roger Ebert's Journal, Chicago Sun-Times: A photo of a little girl, and memories of two beloved aunts (March 2011)
Editorial, Chicago Tribune: Two thumbs up
Adam Howard, the Grio: Roger Ebert dead at 70: Legendary film critic was a champion of black film
Oprah.com: A Date With Destiny
Caryn Rousseau, Associated Press: Famed Movie Critic Roger Ebert Dies At 70
Plain Dealer Trims Home Delivery, Plans Staff Cuts
"The Plain Dealer in Cleveland, whose reporters organized one of the industry's most active opposition movements against its parent company's plans for cutbacks, will trim home delivery to three days a week and create a new digital company, the owner, Advance Publications, said on Thursday," Christine Haughney reported for the New York Times.
The paper is also expected to cut more than one-third of the 165 Newspaper Guild members on its newsroom staff. However, the contract guarantees employment for those who remain through 2019.
"According to the announcement, the company is creating a new digitally focused media company called the Northeast Ohio Media Group. It will continue to print a daily newspaper that readers can buy on newsstands and elsewhere. These changes will start to take place this summer," Haughney reported.
It is expected that some of those cut from the newsroom staff will be assigned to the Northeast Ohio Media Group.
Debra Adams Simmons, the Plain Dealer's editor, told Journal-isms it was too early to discuss their fate.
"No staffing decisions have been made. The leadership of the new company was just announced yesterday," Adams Simmons said Friday by email. "The next step would be to decide what skills are needed and to identify the best talent to fill those roles. We currently have a diverse staff and I expect that to continue here and at the new company. You may have noticed three of the top positions in our market — the president of the media group, the general manager of the publishing company and the editor — are held by women, including two women of color. You often have said diversity in top positions breeds a more diverse workforce so I think we are well poised."
Robert L. Smith noted Thursday in the Plan Dealer story, "Many newsroom staff, while lamenting the end of a home-delivery era, expressed relief the changes were not more dramatic. Advance, a privately held company run by the heirs of S.I. Newhouse, has been drastically curtailing the print schedules at many of its newspapers across the land."
The Associated Press reported that the Plain Dealer has a weekday circulation of about 286,400 and that other Advance papers, such as the Times-Picayune in New Orleans and the Birmingham News in Alabama, have cut back their publishing schedules to three days a week.
Website Maps Newspaper Use of "Illegal Immigrant"
"When the Associated Press Stylebook decided to no longer sanction using the term 'illegal' or 'undocumented' immigrant, we noted our policy as well," John Rosman wrote Friday for the Fronteras website.
He continued, "As a striking change as this is for journalists, we were curious if this decision impacted our audience. We sent out a query asking people what terms they used, and were surprised by the responses we got along the border and across the U.S."
Using Google Maps, the Fronteras site developed a map of responses and published "some of the voices that highlight the complexities of a term."
Meanwhile, "Editors at the Los Angeles Times are considering changes in policy regarding the use of the term 'illegal immigrant' in Times reports," Cindy Chang and Marisa Gerber reported in that newspaper.
They continued, "At the Los Angeles Times, 'illegal alien' was the preferred usage from 1979 until the newspaper's style guide changed in 1995, said Henry Fuhrmann, assistant managing editor in charge of copy desks.
"Since then, writers have been directed to use 'illegal immigrants' while avoiding 'illegal aliens' and 'illegals.' "
At the 17th annual American Copy Editors Society conference in St. Louis, Darrell Christian of the AP Stylebook team "said discussion about banning ['illegal immigrants'] was long and involved talks with interest groups, but no reasoning could be found for 'ease of use' to trump not offending people," Gerri Berendzen reported in a blog from the conference.
"But while groups asked for a ban on the word 'illegal,' Christian said it will continue to be used to describe 'illegal actions.' . . . "
Elsewhere, "The Americans for Legal Immigration political action committee, which is neither a traditional news publication nor a reliable source of independently verified information, said Wednesday that it will adopt the term 'illegal invader' in its communications to replace 'illegal immigrant,' ” HuffPost Latino Voices reported Friday.
Freddie Allen, National Newspaper Publishers Association: Immigration Isn't Just a Latino Issue
Rob Sachs and Kim Palchikoff with Hugo Balta and Jonathan Rosa, Voice of Russia Radio: AP's evolution on 'illegal immigrant' raises debate on language, race
Rinku Sen with Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez, "Democracy Now!", Pacifica Radio: Drop the I-Word: In Victory for Advocates, Associated Press Stops Using Phrase "Illegal Immigrant"
Ex-FCC Officials Say Redskins Name Inappropriate on Air
"Led by former FCC chairman Reed Hundt, a dozen former FCC officials, activists and others have written Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder asking him to change the name of the football team, suggesting broadcasters are breaking the law by using the name on the airwaves," John Eggerton wrote Friday for Broadcasting & Cable.
"In addition to the letter, Hundt wrote an op ed in the Washington Post on Friday saying that the FCC 'clearly has the authority to investigate whether broadcasters' use of derogatory names to describe sports teams and players comports with the public interest.'
"And he would like them to use it.
"Hundt told B&C that his first choice would be for Snyder to change the name, but if that didn't happen, for broadcasters not to use it on-air, and for the FCC to actively investigate whether its use constitutes indecency. 'The FCC chairman and commissioners ought to speak up right now. They don't have to say they have to regulate, but they ought to say what the right answer is. It's not their job to be silent.' . . ."
Meanwhile, Julius Genachowski, the current FCC chairman, announced last month that he was stepping down. In the Columbia Journalism Review, Tracie Powell wrote Thursday that journalists should care who succeeds him because:
"That person will likely decide whether Rupert Murdoch and other big media owners will be allowed to own both newspapers and TV or radio stations in large markets.
"With more newspapers reducing print schedules and relying solely on digital, the next FCC chair will determine ways to either make broadband more accessible and cheaper or whether to maintain the status quo, with rising prices and a limited number of competitors in the marketplace.
"The FCC is the only agency with a mandate to make the media more diverse, local, and accountable. A new chief could choose to use its enforcement powers to ensure diversity is reflected in the voices, perspectives, and owners in media.
"The new chairperson could also determine whether to make political advertising more transparent in TV ads and online. . . ."
In Denver, the National Conference for Media Reform opened Friday. The "Democracy Now! radio and television show reported, "Some 2,000 people are expected to gather to look at how media, technology and democracy intersect. . . . One of the major topics this year is media consolidation. As newspapers struggle to survive, billionaire brothers David and Charles Koch have expressed interest in buying Tribune Company, which includes the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune. Media mogul Rupert Murdoch is also weighing a bid for the Los Angeles Times in a market where he already owns two television stations. . . . "
Moni Basu, CNN: Native American mascots: Pride or prejudice?
Radio Ink: NABOB Tells FCC To Stop Further Consolidation
National Journal Counts Two Blacks Among Staff of 70
The Washington publication National Journal published a piece Thursday that is called "Has Obama Done Enough for Black Americans?" online and "the Weight" in print.
It assumed added interest for this column because the Journal is one of a circle of Washington magazines not known for their diversity. The Journal also maintained a partnership with PBS' "Washington Week" with Gwen Ifill from 2005 to 2012, supplying panelists to appear on the show.
The piece's conclusions were not surprising, saying of many African Americans, "Thrilled beyond words at seeing a proudly black man in the Oval Office, they almost don't want to admit they want still more. But they know they have to be exceedingly careful in pushing [President] Obama to talk more about — and do more for — black Americans still reeling from a recession that hit them harder than anyone else.
"Wanting more is why so many blacks, from the barbershops and street corners to the think tanks and highest levels of academe, are investing so much in the belief that Obama has been liberated by his reelection to become more of a champion for his community. . . ."
Charles Green, editor of the Journal since 1999 responded to a question from a Journal-isms reader asking whether any African Americans worked on the story.
"Neither George Condon nor Jim O'Sullivan, the authors of the story, is African American," Green responded by email.
"We currently have two African Americans on our editorial staff," he continued in response to another question.
"To answer a question you didn't ask: I don't think the fact that both Condon and O'Sullivan are white detracts from the merits of the article about President Obama. The two authors reported on what black supporters and black critics of President Obama had to say on the issue of whether the president has focused enough on race during his presidency. I think the story airs both sides of the issue and is a very fair treatment of a sensitive subject.
"I hope you agree that it was a worthwhile piece."
Green said that of the two African Americans, one is a reporter and the other a copy editor. The editorial staff includes about 70 people. He said he did not want to name the black journalists without their permission, and they are not readily evident among the magazine's staff bios.
Green also said the publication has no staff openings at the moment.
Gwen Ifill, PBS: Embracing Difference: Telling Other People's Stories Well
Velshi Joining Al Jazeera America as First On-Air Hire
Al Jazeera America made this announcement on Thursday:
"Al Jazeera America, the new US-based news channel set to launch later this year, today announced that Ali Velshi, CNN's former chief business correspondent and anchor of 'Your Money' and CNN International's 'World Business Today,' has joined Al Jazeera America to develop and host a daily primetime business program.
"Based in New York, the as yet-to-be named 30-minute magazine-style program will initially launch in a weekly format but is expected to move to a five-days-a-week schedule by year's end. The program will cover a variety of topics including employment, personal finance, healthcare and education and will feature a mix of field reports, studio guests and interactive discussions designed to highlight how economic developments in the U.S. and around the globe affect the daily lives of Americans. The program will draw upon the extensive global resources of the Al Jazeera Media Network and will employ specialists and other correspondents who will lend their expertise. . . . "
Velshi is Al Jazeera America's first on-air hire, Joe Flint reported Thursday for the Los Angeles Times.
The Qatar-based network announced in January that it had bought the struggling liberal channel Current TV from Al Gore for $500 million, and would use it to expand into American coverage. It received 5,000 applications for open positions within 24 hours of posting openings for the majority of its new positions, BuzzFeed reported at the time.
Thursday's release quoted Velshi: "I'm thrilled to be joining Al Jazeera America, an organization that puts quality, fact-based journalism first. It's a tremendous opportunity and I look forward to taking advantage of the extraordinary U.S. news-gathering capabilities the channel is building and working with such a diverse and talented group of colleagues to tell compelling stories that matter to Americans."
He told Brian Stelter of the New York Times, "I think the product will trump any preconceived notions that people may have going into it. They're very determined for this brand to make an impact and for this brand to be a meaningful provider of news.”
Flint added, "Al Jazeera America has not set a launch date but has said it plans to be up and running before the end of 2013." He continued, "Al Jazeera America is opening bureaus all around the country and has plans to compete on the domestic news front with CNN, MSNBC and Fox News."
MSNBC Most Diverse in Survey of Sunday Talk Shows
"The four broadcast networks' Sunday morning political talk shows guests skewed right during the first quarter of 2013," Rob Savillo reported Friday for Media Matters for America.
"MSNBC's two Sunday programs featured far greater gender and ethnic diversity in its guests than the broadcast programs and CNN's Sunday morning political talk show."
Savillo continued, "Melissa Harris-Perry was the only show to host a majority of non-white guests — 39 percent of guests were African-American, 4 percent were Latino, 4 percent were Asian-American, and 1 were percent Arab-American. Up [with Chris Hayes] was still significantly more diverse than broadcast and CNN, with 37 percent of guests being non-white. No other program had a guest pool that was less than 82 percent white; Fox News Sunday was the least ethnically diverse, with 91 percent of guests being white." In addition, "MSNBC's programs were the only ones not dominated by white men."
Other conclusions:
"Broadcast Networks Hosted Republican And Conservative Guests Most Often.
Report: Media Ignore Unions, Except as "Troublemakers"
"A report that examines national TV networks' coverage of unions and the labor movement over three years confirms what unions have long known: The media largely ignores labor, except to paint unions as a source of trouble in the American economy," the Newspaper Guild reported Tuesday.
" 'Even in stories about labor or unions, the main sources relied on are external to labor or unions,' writes Professor Federico Subervi in a summary of the report. 'Moreover, the discourse and framing continues to fault the workers and their representatives for any conflict or impasse, not the business, company or government.'
"Professor Subervi's report was commissioned by The Newspaper Guild-CWA. Subervi is the director of the Center for the Study of Latino Media & Markets at the School of Journalism and [Mass Communication] at Texas State University. . . . "
U.N. Panel Says Ethiopian Is in Prison for His Views
"Authorities in Ethiopia describe Eskinder Nega, a prominent columnist and government critic jailed since September 2011 on vague terrorism charges, as a dangerous individual bent on violent revolution," Tom Rhodes reported Friday for the Committee to Protect Journalists.
"However, in an opinion handed down in 2012 — publicized only this week by Washington, D.C.-based legal advocacy group Freedom Now — a United Nations panel of five independent experts ruled that Eskinder's imprisonment came 'as a result of his peaceful exercise of the right to freedom of expression.'
"The opinion from the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention was issued after a judge in Addis Ababa sentenced Eskinder to 18 years in prison in July 2012, accusing him of writing 'articles that incited the public to bring the North African and Arab uprisings to Ethiopia.'
Rhodes continued, "The opinion, however, is not binding, and Ethiopian authorities have a notoriously tough hide when it comes to international criticism of their human rights record — despite being major recipients of Western aid . . ."
Nega's supporters in the United States and around the world have been pleading for his freedom for months.
Charlayne Hunter-Gault wrote last year on the Root, "Crying onstage in front of a crowd is not my thing, but a few days ago, as I stood next to Serkalem Fasil, I couldn't hold back my tears. It was a bittersweet moment because Fasil had just received the prestigious PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award on behalf of her husband, Eskinder Nega.
"He faces life in prison on charges of terrorism and incitement to violent revolt after writing an article discussing the implications of the Arab Spring uprising for democracy in Ethiopia. And Nega is not alone in being on the receiving end of an ongoing government crackdown on independent journalists in Ethiopia, many of whom are also being silenced by arrests and imprisonment. Many have fled the country to keep hope (and themselves) alive. . . ."
Marco Chown Oved, Radio France Internationale: Eritrean Journalist Relaunches Paper in Canada
Yamiche Alcindor, a national reporter at USA Today, has been selected for the National Association of Black Journalists' 2013 Emerging Journalist of the Year Award, NABJ announced on Friday. "Alcindor is presently a breaking news reporter at USA Today and has reported from the scenes of some of the biggest stories in recent memory. In 2012 she traveled to Sanford, Fla. to cover the Trayvon Martin story, to Tallahassee, Fla. to cover the Florida A&M University hazing scandal, and to Newtown, Conn. to cover the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. . . ."
Carlos Sanchez, managing editor of the Baton Rouge, La., bureau at the New Orleans Times-Picayune, has been named to lead the editorial coverage of the Monitor in McAllen, Texas, Jared Taylor reported Thursday for the Monitor. An El Paso native, Sanchez, 52, served for nearly a decade as executive editor of the Waco (Texas) Tribune-Herald. He has also held newsroom positions at the Austin (Texas) American-Statesman; the Star-Telegram in Fort Worth, Texas; the Washington Post and other newspapers.
"Doris Truong, a multiplatform editor on the Universal News Desk at Washington Post, was named the eighth winner of the American Copy Editors Society's Robinson Prize during the national conference banquet Friday, Gerri Berendzen reported in a blog from the St. Louis conference. The award "recognizes substantial contributions to the craft of copy editing and excellence in overall copy-editing skills" and comes with $3,000. "I also set aside a portion of the prize money to issue a matching-funds challenge to the ACES attendees. Donations from that effort brought in about $3,000 for the ACES Education Fund," she told Journal-isms by email. Truong is immediate past national president of the Asian American Journalists Association and current vice president of the Unity: Journalists for Diversity coalition.
"This week marks Tiger Woods' 21st cover on Sports Illustrated. So it isn't exactly a novelty for the old/new world No. 1 golfer," Ed Sherman wrote Thursday for the Sherman Report. "Yet it still is Sports Illustrated. If the magazine is going to do a big cover piece, you figure you might make yourself available to spend a few minutes with the reporter. Right? Well, in the no-surprise department, Woods snubbed SI's Michael Rosenberg. . . ."
CNN President Jeff Zucker has "tossed out the repeats of 'Anderson Cooper 360' that have inexplicably been wasting an hour of primetime real estate the past year and a half, airing at 10 p.m.," Louisa Ada Seltzer wrote Wednesday for Media Life Magazine. "And this week h'es testing a new show in its place called '(Get to) The Point.' The program showcases a panel of diverse personalities, led by Donny Deutsch, who break down the day’s events. Think of it as a backdoor pilot of sorts. It's only scheduled to run for five days. If it draws good ratings and buzz, CNN could decide to develop the show into a primetime program and recruit more talent. . . . "
"For the first time in more than four decades of polling on the issue, a majority of Americans favor legalizing the use of marijuana," the Pew Research Center reported Thursday. "A national survey finds that 52% say that the use of marijuana should be made legal while 45% say it should not." Fifty-six percent of blacks said marijuana should be legalized, as did 52 percent of whites and 51 percent of Hispanics.
Maria Molina, a meteorologist for Fox News Channel, says she wanted to be a meterologist since 1992, when she was 5 years old and Hurricane Andrew hit her home in South Florida, Valerie Tejeda reported Tuesday for Latina magazine. "It was traumatizing to say the least. I learned how dangerous weather can be at a young age and since then knew that I wanted to forecast and warn people of severe weather events," Molina told Tejeda. Molina is the magazine's "Inspiring Latina of the Week."
"Earlier this week, we noted that Chris Hayes inaugural edition [of] 'All In' [on MSNBC] had brought a 45 percent increase in viewers aged 25-54 — a boost we interpreted as evidence that the network's bid to court younger viewers had paid off," Dylan Byers reported for Politico. "The second night's ratings suggest we jumped the gun. Viewership for 'All In' dropped 54 percent in the 25-54 demo, a net decline of 26 percent from the average March viewership for Ed Schultz's show, which previously occupied the hour. . . ."
"In a wave of censorship, Cameroon has indefinitely banned two TV programs for what regulators considered violent content and another three radio programs on vague charges of ethics violations, according to news reports," the Committee to Protect Journalists reported Wednesday. CPJ condemned the move, which includes the suspension of at least seven journalists.
In Mexico, "Reporters Without Borders condemns the harassment of community radio stations in the southern state of Oaxaca by the local authorities and international companies," the press freedom group reported on Friday. "The radio stations are opposing the proposed construction of a huge wind farm in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec by Mareña Renovables and Gas Natural Fenosa and are criticizing the failure to consult the local indigenous communities. . . . "
In South Africa, the University of Cape Town's "weekly student newspaper Varsity has issued a formal apology for printing a survey polling the most attractive race," Kieran Legg reported Friday for IOL News. "The survey documented the dating preferences of 60 people — 10 whites, 10 coloureds, 10 Indians, 10 east Asians, 10 'biracial' people and 10 Africans — and concluded that white people were considered to be the most attractive. African people were considered to be the least desirable." Lorne Hallendorff, president of the university's Student Representative Council, said that to draw conclusions from a poll of 60 people failed to meet any real statistical requirements.
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Journal-isms is published on the site of the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education (mije.org). Reprinted on The Root by permission.
Layoffs Sting More for Blacks, Latinos
Journalists of color have a harder time recovering from job loss.
The contraction of the news industry and the recent recession hit black and Latino journalists harder than whites, the American Society of News Editors has established, and a new study suggests that those journalists might have been less financially equipped to withstand the layoffs than their white counterparts.
The Pew Charitable Trusts' "Hard Choices: Navigating the Economic Shock of Unemployment" did not specifically examine journalists, but it did look at the effects of unemployment on African Americans and Latinos.
"The study finds that while families at every rung of the economic ladder experienced unemployment, their ability to withstand and recover from losses differed dramatically," it said.
"Low-income families and those of color had both the greatest risk of job loss and the least access to resources to buffer negative effects."
It continued, "For example, when comparing those households that experienced unemployment, the median wealth of white households was at least seven times that of black households in each year of the study," which covered 10 years.
"Moreover, families that experienced unemployment not only suffered lost income during their period not working, but also longer-term wealth losses, compromising their economic security and mobility."
ASNE reported last year that overall, total newsroom employment at daily newspapers and online outlets declined by 2.4 percent in 2011, while the loss in minority newsroom positions was 5.7 percent.
"The decline in minority newsroom employment . . . appears to be stabilizing," the organization reported. But it noted "a decline of approximately 800 minority newsroom positions in both 2008 and 2009," followed by a loss of 500 jobs over 2010 and 2011. ASNE counts participating newspaper and online outlets, but not broadcasters.
(Bob Papper of Hofstra University, who tracks local broadcast numbers for the Radio Television Digital News Association, told Journal-isms by email, "At this point, total TV news employment is slightly ahead of the last pre-recession number ... and the percentage of minorities is virtually unchanged. No progress … but no loss either.")
The National Association of Black Journalists said after last year's ASNE report, "Since 2002, African American journalists have lost [993 newsroom] jobs -- more than any other group of minorities, including Hispanic, Asian and Native American."
No one seems to have tracked what happened to all those who were laid off, and African Americans have no doubt proved resilient in many ways. But the Pew report includes among its interviewees a laid-off African American news reporter named Bob Johnson, who eventually found another job yet was still financially challenged.
The Johnson family "did not have family wealth to draw on, felt squeezed and challenged by financial obligations, and had to make difficult choices," the report said. " 'When you have aging parents who you're helping,' Bob said, 'and you've got a daughter who's going through what she's going through [health and disability challenges] and another daughter in college, it just gets spread out so thin.' The Johnsons' loss of income affected not only their immediate family, but also the well-being of their aging parents, and these responsibilities affected the speed with which depleted resources could be rebuilt."
The researchers said, "Data from the interviews reinforced that the economic position of families at the onset of unemployment strongly influences whether and how they are able to maintain their well-being.
"Inherited assets are not evenly distributed among families. Research has shown that black and Hispanic families receive lower overall levels of support from private transfers than white families and are five times less likely to receive inheritances and large gifts."
The report concluded, "The findings in this report provide insight for policymakers seeking to help families build assets that can protect them in times of need and provide a foundation for future upward mobility. Mechanisms that encourage families to build savings and access low-cost loans in times of economic shock, as well as public safety-net programs that prevent downward mobility and also promote recovery and return to the labor market, are all needed."
Krissy Clark, "Marketplace," American Public Media: Recovery from job loss: Easier for whites than blacks
Big Papers Cautious in Following AP on Immigration
Large newspapers were in no rush to follow the Associated Press Wednesday in its declaration that the word "illegal" should describe an action, not a person, when discussing immigrants who are in the country illegally.
"We generally follow AP style, but in this case we're still discussing whether or not to go along," Joe Knowles, associate managing editor/editing and presentation at the Chicago Tribune, told Journal-isms by email, "... partly because it makes headline writing difficult if not impossible. One of our copy chiefs sent a note to Ask the Editor on what they recommend in headlines. 'Perpetrator of illegal immigration' isn't going to fit too well."
While many journalists of color and immigrant advocates applauded the AP, others, ranging from conservative politicians and commentators to the CNN anchor Don Lemon, ridiculed the decision or at least were strongly skeptical. "File this in the overflowing cabinet labeled: No Wonder the Mainstream Media Is Dying," right-wing commentator Michelle Malkin wrote.
"I disagree with the Associated Press," Ruben Navarrette Jr., the contrarian syndicated columnist, wrote on Facebook. "But I'll give this decision the consideration it deserves. Which is, not much." Navarrette referred his followers to a November column in which he listed 10 reasons he thought "illegal immigrant" was accurate.
The AP's new stylebook entry for "illegal immigration" reads, "Entering or residing in a country in violation of civil or criminal law. Except in direct quotes essential to the story, use illegal only to refer to an action, not a person: illegal immigration, but not illegal immigrant. Acceptable variations include living in or entering a country illegally or without legal permission.
"Except in direct quotations, do not use the terms illegal alien, an illegal, illegals or undocumented."
The note from Kathleen Carroll, the AP's senior vice president and executive editor, said, "Specify wherever possible how someone entered the country illegally and from where. Crossed the border? Overstayed a visa? What nationality?"
The AP Stylebook is used by most newspapers in the United States, and an overwhelming number of them publish stories from the wire service.
Still, some large newspapers have their own stylebooks.
After the AP announcement, Margaret Sullivan, public editor of the New York Times, told readers of her blog, "The Times, for the past couple of months, has also been considering changes to its stylebook entry on this term and will probably announce them to staff members this week." But, Sullivan added, "From what I can gather, The Times's changes will not be nearly as sweeping as The A.P.'s."
Martin Baron, executive editor of the Washington Post, which also has a stylebook of its own, told a reporter, "We have not addressed this subject since the changes at AP and the New York Times, which occurred within the last few days," according to a Post spokeswoman.
At the Los Angeles Times, "The Times' Standards and Practices Committee has been studying this issue for several months and has not yet reached a decision on whether to recommend a style along the lines of what AP has announced," spokeswoman Nancy Sullivan told Journal-isms.
However, the Los Angeles paper had already nixed "illegal" or "illegal aliens," though it approved of "illegal immigrants."
Its "illegal immigrants" entry reads, "Use this term in referring to citizens of foreign countries who have come to the country with no passport, visa or other document to show that they are entitled to visit, work or live in the United States.
"Do not use illegal aliens or illegals except in direct quotes.
"The nouns alien and illegal should not appear in headlines. The term undocumented immigrant is acceptable as a synonym for illegal immigrant under certain conditions, such as when a form of the word illegal already appears in a sentence. Example: Although their parents are not legally eligible for welfare, the children of undocumented immigrants qualify for benefits. Take care in assigning people the status of illegal immigrants. Those arrested by border police are held or deported by the INS if they are suspected of being illegal immigrants. It is wrong to accuse someone of illegal activity if it is untrue. We cannot know without asking, for example, whether particular dayworkers are illegal immigrants or immigrants at all."
Freddie Allen, National Newspaper Publishers Association: Immigration isn't just a Latino issue (March 30)
Hugo Balta, voxxi.com: NAHJ: NY Times, stop reconsidering 'illegal immigrant' and be sensible
Esther J. Cepeda, Washington Post Writers Group: Stealing a childhood through identity theft
Tammerlin Drummond, Oakland Tribune: Don't blame Korean culture for Oikos massacre
Latina Lista blog: It must be the year of the Latino: AP announces it's dropping the 'i' word
David Leopold, Huffington Post: There Is No Such Thing As An 'Illegal Alien'
Jack Mirkinson, Huffington Post: Fox News Objects To AP Dropping 'Illegal Immigrant'
Ruben Navarrette Jr., Washington Post Writers Group: Reforming immigration the right way
Ruben Navarrette Jr., Washington Post Writers Group: A rightward tilt to immigration reform
Ruben Rosario, Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.: Give students a chance to step out of the shadows
Mary Sanchez, Kansas City Star: Prosecutor puts focus where it should be in undocumented worker case
Tavis Smiley, HuffPost LatinoVoices: LATINO NATION: Beyond the Numbers
Peter Sterne, Columbia Journalism Review: No more 'illegal immigrants' in AP stories
Taylor Miller Thomas, Poynter Institute: Why San Antonio Express-News stopped using 'illegal immigrant' five years ago
Seth Freed Wessler, Colorlines: Immigration Reform May Throw Siblings Under the Bus (March 26)
MSNBC Names New Black Host; "Buffoonery" Ensues
"Hey, Reince Priebus: Here's some more top-notch minority outreach from your partners at the right-wing Media Research Center," Joan Walsh wrote Tuesday for Salon, referring to the chairman of the Republican National Committee.
"MSNBC just announced that Karen Finney, a network political analyst and former communications director of the Democratic National Committee, will host a new weekend show. MRC director of media analysis Tim Graham immediately Tweeted:
" 'MSNBC touting Karen Finney as another African-American host. Would the average viewer be able to guess that? Or is Boehner a shade more tan?'
" ' -- Tim Graham (@TimJGraham) April 2, 2013'
"Finney is African-American, although MSNBC didn't particularly 'tout' that in its press release; it mentioned that she was the first African-American communications director of the DNC and is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists. I'm not sure what would cause Graham to even muse about her racial bona fides, let alone share his idiocy publicly. When mocked on Twitter, he just dug his hole deeper . . ."
Walsh continued, "Graham's buffoonery reminded me of when former Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown mocked and questioned Sen. Elizabeth Warren's American Indian background, and when Tucker Carlson accused Barack Obama of exaggerating his 'black' accent when speaking to black ministers. . . ."
Rebecca Shapiro, Huffington Post: Tim Graham's Controversial Tweet About Karen Finney Provokes Backlash
Velshi Leaving CNN After 12 Years for Unspecified Project
"CNN's chief business correspondent Ali Velshi is leaving the channel, TVNewser has learned," Alex Weprin reported Wednesday for TVNewser.
"CNN Worldwide president Jeff Zucker noted the change in a meeting with CNN staff today. Velshi's last day will be Friday. Zucker said that CNN and Velshi were parting as friends, and that the channel was sorry to see him go.
" 'It's been an amazing almost 12 years at CNN. Love it more today than I ever have, and CNN is going to be great under Jeff,' Velshi says. 'I basically grew up here, so it's sad to leave, but I've got a great opportunity to stretch some new muscles and grow something, and it appeals to my entrepreneurial side.' "
Weprin wrote, "It isn't clear where Velshi is going just yet, but Zucker said that Velshi is leaving to work on a new project that 'he couldn't pass up' according to an insider."
Armed Men Storm 3 Baghdad Newspaper Offices
"Men armed with pistols, knives and steel pipes stormed into three Baghdad newspaper offices, beating employees and smashing computers after publication of an article about a Shi'ite Muslim cleric, police and editors said on Tuesday," Ahmed Rasheed reported for Reuters.
"Monday's attacks illustrated the stubborn influence of hardline Islamist militias in Iraq, where Sunni and Shi'ite insurgents often imposed their own fundamentalist vision on the streets during the height of sectarian war a few years ago."
The story continued, "Iraq's media landscape has loosened dramatically since the days of dictator Saddam Hussein, when state-controlled media churned out endless propaganda. Now Iraqis have a choice of 200 print outlets, 60 radio stations and 30 TV channels in Arabic and also in the Turkman, Syriac and Kurdish languages.
"But while press freedom has improved, many media outlets remain dominated by religious or political party patrons who use them for their own ends. The government has also occasionally threatened to close media outlets it regards as offensive.
"The Iraqi media are still frequently targeted for their work. Five Iraqi journalists were killed in 2012, according to the International Federation of Journalists. . . ."
Meanwhile, Jackie Spinner, a former Washington Post journalist and its Baghdad bureau chief, interviewed correspondents who had covered Iraq since the U.S. invasion in 2003. Spinner, an assistant professor of journalism at Columbia College in Chicago and a U.S. Fulbright Scholar in Oman in 2010-11, wrote for the February/March issue of the American Journalism Review.
"Hannah Allam, who was Baghdad bureau chief for Knight Ridder (now McClatchy) from the end of 2003 through 2005, continued to cover the story after she left, returning from Cairo after becoming bureau chief there," Spinner wrote. "She spent much of 2010 in Iraq while pregnant with her son.
" 'I was lucky in that my editors always fought to keep the Iraq story in our papers, so I've always had a great deal of support,' says Allam, now McClatchy's foreign affairs correspondent based in Washington. 'But, yes, after the U.S. military withdrawal and even during the winding-down period, it became much harder to get people excited about Iraq stories. There were only so many ways to write about suicide bombings, government collapses, the rise of the Sadrists, the marginalization of the Sunnis, the Iranian influence, the huge and cloistered U.S. Embassy, the oil industry picking up, disputed mixed-sect provinces/neighborhoods, etc., etc. All those tropes had been explored in depth, and it became very difficult to find something new and fresh to cover in the country.' . . . "
Allam was the National Association of Black Journalists' "Journalist of the Year" in 2004 when she worked for the now-defunct Knight Ridder chain.
Hannah Allam, McClatchy Newspapers: War forever changed lives of six Iraqis we knew well (2011)
Fake Somali Pirates Scam Time Magazine, Documentarians
"The story begins in the slums of Eastleigh, a sprawling suburb of Nairobi in Kenya and home to a huge Somali community," Jamal Osman reported for Britain's Channel 4 News in a story reprinted Wednesday for the Daily Beast. "There, I met Adan. He and his friends are running an industry that had been fooling some of the best journalists from around the world. Their business? Pretending to be pirates.
" 'We pretend because we have the talent,' Adan told me. 'With ships being regularly seized and crews kidnapped, Somali pirates have been much in demand by the news media. 'They [journalists] go to the boss and say, "We need pirates," ' Adan said. 'The boss comes to us and says, "The white men need pirates." So he says, "Assume to be a pirate." '
"The scam is coordinated by a 'fixer' who offers journalists the opportunity to interview 'real live pirates' -- for a fee. Touting his local knowledge, he promises to reach parts of the community a Western journalist never could. There then follows an elaborate scheme to convince journalists of the plan's legitimacy. The 'fixer' drives the Westerners around -- sometimes for days -- in search of the elusive pirates, telling them it is too dangerous yet to approach the men.
"The scheme culminates in sit-down interviews with the so-called pirates -- interviews that have made it into the venerable pages of international newsmagazines and broadcast in documentaries, one of which was reportedly shown in some 18 countries across the world. . . ."
The duped magazines include Time, which still has a 2010 interview with one of the impostors on its website.
Kent State Gives Russ Mitchell Its McGruder Diversity Award
Russ Mitchell, the former CBS News anchor now at WKYC-TV in Cleveland, received the Robert G. McGruder Award from Kent State University on Tuesday, "given to today's media leaders who exemplify the commitment" of McGruder, the former Detroit Free Press editor and diversity advocate who died in 2002.
"This was the 10th anniversary of the program," Eugene Shelton, associate professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, told Journal-isms Wednesday by email. Shelton coordinates the event.
"It was a milestone event. Annette McGruder," McGruder's wife, "surprised us with a generous donation to the McGruder Scholarship Fund. We surprised her with an award of appreciation for her 10 years of dedicated support. If Bob McGruder's name is on the program, Annette McGruder is there. His legacy lives on because of her. In this 10th year it was time to extend the award to a broadcast journalist.
"Russ Mitchell left CBS network news to accept a position as managing editor and evening anchor at WKYC (NBC) here in Cleveland. Like McGruder, Mitchell accomplished many firsts in his broadcasting career. He represents broadcast journalism at its finest. The color of his skin has nothing to do with his talent. Who better represents McGruder's message than Russ Mitchell, who is now a member of our own community.
"Betty Lin-Fisher is the first Asian American journalist to be recognized with the McGruder Diversity in Media Distinguished Leadership Award. She is a business reporter and columnist for the Akron Beacon Journal. Too often when we think of diversity we think black and white. Again, in this milestone year it was important to expand and recognize that Bob McGruder's message was not limited to African Americans."
"The Republican National Committee has tapped Raffi Williams to serve as its youth and African-American outreach director," Joyce Jones reported Tuesday for BET News. "For now, the 24-year-old's biggest claim to fame is that he's the son of Fox News commentator Juan Williams. But if things go the GOP's way, he could go down in history as a leader who succeeded where others have failed by cultivating support from African-Americans and other demographic groups that have so far eluded the Republican Party.. . ." Juan Williams is a Democrat.
"The Other Redskins is a deeply reported enterprise reporting project on high schools across the country that, like the NFL team, use the name Redskins," according to Sean Mussenden, director of the Capital News Service's online bureau at the University of Maryland's Merrill College of Journalism. "It features a long text story, interactive Google Earth maps/graphics graphics and it was responsively designed to work seamlessly across mobile devices, tablets and desktop browsers." The site continues, "The project took about three weeks to produce and was spearheaded by three students, Kelyn Soong (who did the text story, the bulk of the reporting and data analysis), Sean Henderson (who did reporting, data analysis built the interactive maps and tables, designed other graphics, and coded and designed the responsive website) and Angela Wong (who did reporting, designed the overall look of the site with help from Sean Henderson, and built some of the graphics). . . ."
At the University of Maryland, the Shirley Povich Center for Sports Journalism hosted a panel on diversity in sports media March 27. Moderated by Kevin Blackistone, Merrill College faculty member, panelists were Turner Sports' David Aldridge; Mary Byrne, USA Today managing editor for sports; Kevin Lockland of SBNation; Keith Clinkscales, creator of the Shadow League website; and David L. Andrews, professor of kinesiology. Video.
"During a conversation with POLITICO's Mike Allen Wednesday, White House Senior Advisor Dan Pfeiffer criticized what he sees as the media's 'Pavlovian response' to controversial links posted on conservative news aggregator The Drudge Report," Matt Wilstein reported Wednesday for Mediaite. "Pfeiffer also argued that the site actively 'hurts' the White House's efforts to convey their message 'on a daily basis.' . . ."
"Capitalizing on the possibilities of the digital age, the Obama White House is generating its own content like no president before, and refining its media strategies in the second term in hopes of telling a more compelling story than in the first," Nancy Benac reported Monday for the Associated Press. "At the same time, it is limiting press access in ways that past administrations wouldn't have dared, and the president is answering to the public in more controlled settings than his predecessors. . . ."
Farai Chideya, distinguished writer in residence at New York University's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute, moderated a panel discussion Wednesday at the Newseum in Washington on "Improving Coverage of Race, Class, and Social Mobility." Sponsored by Columbia Journalism Review and the American Civil Liberties Union, panelists were Raquel Cepeda, Dominican-American author and documentary filmmaker; Jeff Yang, columnist for the Wall Street Journal and editor of "Secret Identities: The Asian American Superhero Anthology"; Richard Prince; and Gene Policinski, senior vice president and executive director of the Freedom Forum Diversity Institute and the First Amendment Center. The discussion can be viewed as a C-SPAN video.
"Melissa Lee . . . is cutting back her anchoring duties at CNBC," Chris Ariens reported for TVNewser. "Lee is moving off the 9am ET show 'Squawk on the Street' which he has co-anchored since Erin Burnett's departure almost two years ago. . . ."
David Plazas, engagement editor at the News-Press in Fort Myers, Fla., won the Gannett Co.'s annual Leadership and Diversity award for an individual, the company announced Wednesday. The Greenville (S.C.) News won the award for a Gannett unit.
What a difference a "T" makes: The Native American Journalists Association website on Wednesday was advertising its schedule for "Nat'l Naive Media Conference Day 1."
"Let's resist the urge to make Roland Martin out to be some wrongly aggrieved talking head," Michael Fauntroy, who teaches at George Mason University, wrote Monday for Black Blue Dog. "He is a marginally knowledgeable loudmouth who was more sizzle than steak." Martin, whose contract as a CNN commentator is not being renewed, responded Wednesday, "How dumb can you be to write something like that and not even read my bio? . . . "
In West Palm Beach, Fla., "Juan Carlos Fanjul has left WPEC, where he was weekend anchor and reporter for CBS12 News in West Palm Beach, Veronica Villafañe reported Tuesday for her Media Moves site. "His last day on the air was this past Sunday. 'Management was very kind to offer a new contract, but after 5 years, it was time for a change. I am currently looking at some new and very exciting opportunities,' he wrote on his Facebook page today. . . ."
Donald L. Duster, a grandson of the legendary activist journalist Ida B. Wells, died on March 11 in Chicago. He was 81. "He and I were both members of the Ida B. Wells Commemorative Art Committee that has commissioned world-renowned artist Richard Hunt to create a monument to honor our ancestor," his daughter, Michelle Duster, told Journal-isms. For more than 20 years, Duster oversaw the operations of several sites and numerous social service programs throughout Chicago. A tribute service is planned for April 13 at 1 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church of Chicago, 6400 S. Kimbark Ave.
"With media professionals across Mexico continuing to face high levels of violent crime, the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA), the World Editors Forum (WEF) and the International Press Institute (IPI) call on the federal government to do more to protect journalists and reverse the prevailing culture of impunity," IPI reported Wednesday.
The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomed Tuesday's "decision by a judge in Mali to grant bail to a journalist who was jailed for 27 days in connection with his paper's publication of a letter critical of a military leader. CPJ calls on the public prosecutor to drop the charges against Boukary Daou, an editor of the daily Le Républicain. . . ."
"For media analysts, coverage of the Syrian war has seriously eroded the reputations of channels like Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya," Neil MacFarquhar reported Monday for the New York Times. "Where their newscasts once brought a measure of objectivity to a region dominated by servile state-run media, they are increasingly viewed as mouthpieces for the foreign policy objectives of Qatar and Saudi Arabia." MacFarquhar said that Absi Smesem, who became the editor in chief of a new weekly Syrian newspaper, began publishing in February "in the spirit of objectivity." "It was one of several publications introduced at roughly the same time."
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Journal-isms is published on the site of the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education (mije.org). Reprinted on The Root by permission.
ABC News Poaches Black Anchor From CBS
Amid high-profile departures by black news personalities, Byron Pitts gets a shot.
ABC News officially named CBS correspondent Byron Pitts as an anchor and its chief national correspondent Monday, moving Pitts to a network where "diversity is as important as it is to me" and leaving one, he told Journal-isms, that has lost half the number of black correspondents it had when he arrived 16 years ago.
"I don't think any news organization is where it should be, but the people at ABC are at least talking the talk and making efforts to walk the walk," Pitts said by telephone.
As chief national correspondent, Pitts said, he will be covering the nation's major stories. It is a title held by no other person of color at the other networks. Two weeks ago, Jeff Zucker, new president of CNN, said he was excited that Jake Tapper, who is white, will be "the face" of CNN. At that network, John King is chief national correspondent. (Jim Avila, also at ABC, is senior national correspondent and told Journal-isms he is the the first full time Hispanic White House correspondent at a major network.)
Pitts, 52, will also be anchoring hourlong prime-time news specials, another breakthrough for him. He is to fill in as a news reader on "Good Morning America" and on the weekend news. However, Pitts will not be a backup on "World News With Diane Sawyer," he said, explaining that "the line to that chair is pretty long."
In his announcement, ABC News President Ben Sherwood said of Pitts, "An accomplished reporter and brilliant storyteller, Byron has a unique talent for stories about people and communities facing the longest odds.
"In his new role, he will file for all platforms, bringing his signature thoughtfulness, seriousness of purpose, and flair."
Pitts told Journal-isms that Sherwood "came after me aggressively," along with Barbara Fedida, senior vice president for talent and business.
"He said, 'We know what you do, and we want you to do that here.' He talked about diversity." The subject "was something that he initiated. He said that was a priority for them. He said they want to own the future."
Pitts mentioned that one of ABC News' first pieces during the election of Pope Francis last month was by a Hispanic reporter who talked about the significance of the choice to Latin America. Cecilia Vega was in Rome for ABC then.
Pitts was also a contributor to "60 Minutes" and chief national correspondent for the "CBS Evening News." His departure from "60 Minutes" leaves it with an all-white correspondents lineup.
He named nine African American reporters at CBS when he arrived: Ed Bradley, Harold Dow, Bill Whitaker, Randall Pinkston, Russ Mitchell, Vicki Mabrey, Troy Roberts, Jacqueline Adams and Mark McEwen. Today, he said he could name five: Michelle Miller, Terrell Brown, Pinkston, Roberts and Gayle King.
"Numbers don't lie," he said. "One of the challenges with diversity with the networks is, (1) Hire us. (2) Put us in positions to be successful." He said ABC is doing both.
At CBS, Les Moonves, president and CEO of CBS Corp., which includes CBS News and other CBS operations, has "spoken passionately about diversity," Pitts said. Sean McManus served concurrently as president of CBS News and CBS Sports for more than five years before being named chairman of CBS Sports in 2011. He had "an open door" on diversity matters, Pitts said.
The meetings that McManus held "stopped after he left," Pitts said. David Rhodes became president of CBS News in February 2011.
[According to CBS News spokesperson Sonya McNair, CBS has 'more than double' Pitts' estimate of seven correspondents of color," Gail Shister reported Tuesday for TVNewser. " 'We wish Byron well,' she adds. ABC News has a total of 29, says division rep David Ford." Pitts apparently amended his estimate to seven.]
Sherwood succeeded David Westin as ABC News president in 2010. Under Westin, ABC lagged behind CNN on cable and NBC in broadcast on diversity concerns.
"He had some opportunities to really move some African Americans into key positions as correspondents," Kathy Times, then president of the National Association of Black Journalists, told Journal-isms when Westin announced his retirement. She said she would have liked to have seen more support from ABC for NABJ during the year and at its convention, and looked forward to that from his successor.
Unity, NAHJ Take Their Outrage Beyond Journalism
Nearly everyone agrees that Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, was offensive when he used the term "wetback" last week in a radio interview.
Young remarked that when he was a boy in California, his father "used to hire 50 to 60 wetbacks to pick tomatoes" on his farm.
Is that a subject for organizations of journalists to become outraged about? Yes, says the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, followed Monday by Unity: Journalists for Diversity.
Both groups issued statements of outrage calling for Young to apologize. The congressman has now done so at least twice. Yet the goals articulated in each organization's bylaws indicate that journalism and newsrooms are the associations' stated focus. They don't say that the associations go beyond those parameters, and if they do say so implicitly, they don't spell out which offensive comments are deserving of rebuke.
Unity also released a letter Friday calling on Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., to hold hearings on the proposed "Non-Disparagement of Native American Persons [or] Peoples in Trademark Registration Act of 2013."
"H.R. 1278 is important legislation because it would strike a public blow against racist stereotypes, which are an anathema to human dignity and diversity," the Unity letter said. "There is no worse racial epithet used to refer to Native American people than the name of the Washington professional football team. It has heinous origins in the bloody history of commoditization of Native skin and other body parts as bounties and trophies, and these despicable practices trace directly to today's 'Native mascots' that glorifies a savage past.
The letter was signed by Unity President Tom Arviso Jr., a member of the Native American Journalists Association, which has long spoken out against terms offensive to Native Americans. It notes that Unity is "an alliance of four journalism organizations representing more than 4,000 journalists."
Journal-isms asked Arviso and Hugo Balta, president of NAHJ, whether the news releases on the "wetback" term represent changes in position by commenting on offensive terms apparently uttered outside a journalistic context. And if so, what the guidelines are.
Balta replied by email, "The National Association of Hispanic Journalists champions the fair and accurate representation and coverage of Latinos. Our members are part of the Latino community and as such stand to speak out against issues that affect all of us (not just journalists). Representative Don Young's insensitive and inaccurate description of migrant workers merits our (NAHJ) response and demand for action. As journalists it is our constitutional right to give voice to the voiceless, hold the powerful accountable and empower the community."
The NAHJ bylaws, however, don't quite go that far. They say:
"The goals of the association are:
"To organize and provide mutual support for Hispanics involved in the gathering or dissemination of news.
"To encourage and support the study and practice of journalism and communications by Hispanics.
"To foster and promote a fair treatment of Hispanics by the media.
"To further the employment and career development of Hispanics in the media.
"To foster a greater understanding of Hispanic media professionals' special cultural identity, interests, and concerns."
Unity's mission statement says:
"UNITY: Journalists for Diversity, Inc. is a strategic alliance advocating fair and accurate news coverage about diversity -- especially race, ethnicity, gender identity and sexual orientation -- and aggressively challenging the industry to staff its organizations at all levels to reflect the nation's diversity. . . . "
And the NAJA statement of purpose says that organization "seeks to develop and to improve communications among Native American people and the Non-Native American public."
Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times produced a story Monday by Marisa Gerber headlined, " For Latinos, a Spanish word loaded with meaning."
"An Alaska's congressman's reference to 'wetbacks' during a radio interview last week stirred an uproar and he was forced to apologize. In Latino communities, the episode highlighted how cultural reactions to the word have changed through generations," Gerber wrote.
"Everyone seems to agree that the English version of the term is highly offensive to Latinos when others use it. But when Latinos use mojado -- which literally means 'wet' but is also used to describe illegal immigrants in the United States -- it's different. . . ."
Hugo Balta blog: Fostering Diverse Newsrooms: Challenges And Best Practices
Coates Says His Blog Is Not Meant to Be Perfect
Ta-Nehisi Coates, the senior editor for the Atlantic who on Monday was named a finalist for a National Magazine Award, says to cut him some slack on his blog posts.
"What I'm doing on my blog is different from what I'm doing for the magazine," Coates told Journal-isms by telephone on Sunday. "The blog for one is an opportunity to see the work as it's in progress. It's somewhere between the world of me talking and the world of me writing." For example, facts are not always correct, he said, and are sometimes changed as he receives feedback.
Coates was responding to a Journal-isms item Friday that wondered whether his blog was edited, pointing out grammatical and spelling mistakes. Coates was in Europe, as his blog readers know, and Natalie Raabe, the Atlantic's communications director, replied that the magazine would correct the errors in the recent postings -- and did -- and explained, "At the speed at which folks work on the web, things sometimes slip through."
Coates said he does indeed have editors, but "I am posting at 3 in the morning" sometimes. "There are times when I post without editors. That was part of the freedom of it. I do not always adhere to the system, that's the honest answer."
Coates has made no secret of his public school education in the 'hood of West Baltimore and that he dropped out of Howard University, "failing both British and American literature. Before that, he failed 11th-grade English," as Jordan Michael Smith wrote in a profile of Coates last month in the New York Observer.
Smith also called Coates "the single best writer on the subject of race in the United States," a description Coates began the Sunday conversation saying was not one he agrees with. "That's not who I am," he said. Coates also said he would not change the grammatical and spelling errors in a 2008 piece on Sarah Palin cited in the Journal-isms item because the piece would then be inauthentic.
The conversation echoes debates in other venues about the diminishing value accorded copy editors and copy editing; the difference between a blog and polished writing; the importance, or lack of it, of grammar and spelling; and schools' role in teaching those disciplines well.
Coincidentally, the New York Times Sunday Review ran a piece that assumed that some readers do place a high value on grammar. Henry Hitchings, author of three books exploring language and history, held forth on "Those Irritating Verbs-as-Nouns."
Coates' National Magazine Award nomination was in the "essays and criticism" category for "Fear of a Black President." It was an Atlantic magazine piece, not a blog entry.
Columnist Keeps Focus on Gap in NCAA Graduation Rates
"This is my 17th year of charting graduation rates for basketball tournament and football bowl teams, and a record 25 men's programs in the 68-team field for the NCAA basketball tournament had black player graduation rates of at least 80 percent," Derrick Z. Jackson wrote Saturday in the Boston Globe.
"These lofty ranks included former whipping posts of mine such as Nevada Las Vegas and Louisville, whose black players had graduation rates of 14 percent and 25 percent in 2006. Other schools that rose to at least 80 percent from 33 percent or below were Kansas, UCLA, Kansas [State], Creighton, and St. Mary's.
"But the very success of those schools has created an even greater chasm between them and the schools that do not even try."
Jackson noted earlier in his column, "For the third straight year in the 68-team field, 21 teams had black graduation rates below 50 percent. They include Indiana, Ohio State, Wisconsin, Syracuse, Arizona, and the ostensible 'public Ivy' California, along with small-school darlings Butler and LaSalle. Florida was at the bottom of the barrel at zero.
"The NCAA is thus far unmoved by the fact that nearly a third of the field is plagued by such poor performance, which is all the more noteworthy because most of those same 21 schools had a 100 percent graduation rate for their white players. . . ."
Jackson concluded, "The NCAA must crack down on the schools that try to get away with chronic disparities. Anything less means that, for all of the progress that has been made, the NCAA still is willing to live with exploitation and tokenism."
Toni Fitzgerald, Media Life Magazine: No cooling down for March Madness: Tourney drawing strongest viewership in 19 years
Romona Robinson, Fox Win in Cleveland Musical Chairs
In Cleveland, "Nobody realized it at the time, but when Robin Swoboda jumped from WJW Channel 8 to WKYC Channel 3 in early 2011, it sparked a year of unprecedented volatility in the Cleveland television market," Mark Dawidziak wrote Monday for the Plain Dealer.
"Since that move, changes have kept coming at a dizzying pace. Indeed, there were more major anchor changes during that one-year span than during the previous 15 years. Perhaps the biggest was when Romona Robinson ended her 15-year association with Channel 3 in late 2011, moving over to Channel 19 as the 5, 6 and 11 p.m. co-anchor."
Dawidziak quoted Dan Salamone, Channel 19's news director: "The biggest change, obviously, was the addition of Romona Robinson, and that gave us an immediate bump. And not only has that growth been sustained over the last year, it has spread to other time periods. We're obviously very pleased with those noon numbers. There's positive momentum across the board."
In January 2012, Russ Mitchell left New York and CBS-TV, where he was anchor of the "CBS Evening News" weekend editions and "The Early Show" on Saturday, and national correspondent for "CBS News Sunday Morning," the "CBS Evening News" and "The Early Show." He joined WKYC-TV, where he is managing editor of the "Evening News" and lead anchor of the 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. newscasts.
Brooke Spectorsky, WKYC's president and general manager, told Dawidziak, "Our anchors are real reporters, and I think we shine on the big stories. And even though Russ and Kris [Pickel, former Sacramento newscaster] have done a great job introducing themselves to viewers, they're still very new to the market. In a market that doesn't like change, we knew it wasn't going to be easy, and we've had a tough time getting out of the gate."
Dawidziak concluded, "So with this year's February sweeps in the rearview mirror, who benefited from this ongoing game of musical anchor chairs? Data provided by the Nielsen Co. suggest traditional Cleveland news champ Channel 8," a Fox affiliate, "remains strong in most of the time periods in which it schedules news, and hard-charging WOIO Channel 19 is winning the noon and 11 p.m. news races with the demographic most prized by advertisers, viewers 25 to 54. . . . "
Ebony, Slate Among Outlets Examining Gun Violence
"For a city that has long cultivated Black icons and Black excellence -- including John H. Johnson and Johnson Publishing Company -- Black death and Black pain are far too familiar in Chicago," Jamilah Lemieux, news and lifestyle editor, digital, wrote Thursday for Ebony magazine.
"The recent murder of 6-month-old Jonylah Watkins is but one tragic example. Despite the national headlines and increased interest due to the city's connection to our current POTUS, Chicagoans know that the recent violence is not a new phenomenon.
"EBONY.com recognizes the need for people across the country to understand the challenges facing Chicago. Our response? ENOUGH: Chicago and the Tragedy of Urban Violence, a year-long series dedicated to examining the causes, effects, and possible solutions to the crisis in our community.
"The series, which launched Wednesday March 13, examines the factors contributing to the situation in Chicago -- educational disparities, unemployment, the ever-shifting gang culture, mental health issues, and more. The 17 published stories to date include conversations with current and former illegal gun owners, an interview with St. Sabina's Father Michael Pfleger and a look at how the 'gang violence' that once gripped the city has changed. . . ."
Meanwhile, Barb Palser, new-media columnist for the American Journalism Review, wrote Friday that, "In the wake of the mass shootings in Colorado and Connecticut last year, and the escalation of America's debate over gun control, reporters and interactive designers across the country are challenging themselves to shed light and perspective on a highly complex subject."
The most innovative, Paiser said, was "Gun Deaths in America Since Newtown," "an interactive presentation on Slate.com that tracks daily reported gun deaths since the school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, on December 14, 2012, that left 28 dead. The information comes from news reports gathered by @GunDeaths and followers around the country. . . . "
Stanley Crouch, Daily News, New York: The politics of spilled blood
Stanley Crouch, Daily News, New York: The blood keeps flowing in Chicago
Jarvis DeBerry, NOLA.com | the Times-Picayune: Is it wrong or is it wise to punish people for what they might do?
Lewis Diuguid, Kansas City Star: Those behind bars need uplifting visitor advice
Bruce A. Dixon, Black Agenda Report: Black Mass Incarceration -- Is It New? Is It Jim Crow? Is the Prison-Industrial Complex Real? And What Difference Does It Make
Leonard Pitts Jr., Miami Herald: Bitter tears, inaction after gun violence
Rochelle Riley, Detroit Free Press: Nation is forgetting Newtown's children
Eugene Robinson, Washington Post: In pursuit of maximum mayhem
Michael Paul Williams, Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch: Waging a war against mass incarceration
Asian Americans' Numbers, Languages Make Polling Difficult
"Periodically our readers ask us why we don't provide individual data for Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders as part of the standard demographic comparisons in our reports," Aaron Smith, senior researcher at the Pew Internet & American Life Project, wrote Friday.
Smith specializes in politics, government, race and ethnicity. He continued, "Several years ago we asked our lead pollster, Evans Witt (principal and CEO of Princeton Survey Research Associates International) to provide a survey methodologist's take on this question. His response hopefully sheds some light on the challenges associated with polling the Asian population in the U.S.:
" 'The short answer is that Asian Americans make up a very small slice of the population, 3.7 percent in the 2000 Census (Editor's note: In the more recent 2010 Census, Asian Americans make up around 5.6 percent of the national population). In addition, for a good portion of that population, there are complex language barriers…and language barriers reduce the number of completes with the non-English speaking minorities (Editor's note: A recent Pew Research survey found that 64% of all Asian Americans -- and 53% of those not originally born in the United States -- speak English 'very well'). The diversity of the Asian American population and the languages they speak makes offering interviews in those native languages very difficult and very, very expensive.' . . . "
Long-Sought News Archives a Treasure Trove on Till Killing
"New details about one of Mississippi's most infamous murders are coming to light -- more than a half-century later," Russell Lewis reported Saturday for NPR's "Weekend Edition Sunday." "The death of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old black boy who allegedly whistled at a white woman, helped spark the civil rights movement."
Lewis continued, "Researchers have long studied the court proceedings. Among them, Davis Houck, a professor at Florida State University and co-author of a book about the media's coverage of the trial.
"It wasn't until a few years ago, however, that Houck learned another black paper -- the St. Louis Argus -- also had journalists there. But the paper's archive from that time had gone missing.
"So he began working with his students to track down the Argus. It was one frustrating dead end after another, as microfilms from that time didn't contain the trial coverage. Then, just a few days ago, they caught a break. Houck and his students figured out the missing issues were in a state historical archive in Missouri.
He went on, "The discovery is already a treasure trove, however, with never-before-seen pictures of the NAACP's Medgar Evers as well as articles written during the trial and long forgotten. Houck says he's savoring the find and taking his time to read through the new discovery. His search, though, is not done yet. . . . "
"CNN Latino, the Spanish-language programming block custom-made for the U.S. Hispanic market, is expanding to New York, Orlando, Tampa and Phoenix, it was announced today by Cynthia Hudson, senior vice president and general manager of CNN en Español and Hispanic Strategy for CNN/U.S.," CNN said Monday. "With the addition of these four new markets to its existing presence in Los Angeles, CNN Latino programming will now be available in markets that represent about a quarter of U.S. Hispanic Households."
"A longtime former employee accuses magazine owner Hermene Hartman of diverting assets from N'Digo magazine and foundation into her personal account," Shia Kapos reported Monday for Crain's Chicago Business. "In a lawsuit filed in Cook County Circuit Court, Deborah Williams says she also is owed $203,000 in back wages for her work as chief financial officer during the last seven years of her 17-year career at the organization. She says the money owed is from 2004 to 2012."
Theodore "Ted" Holtzclaw, who was operations manager at WABC-TV in New York, will receive the National Association of Black Journalists' Legacy Award posthumously, NABJ announced on Monday. Hotlzclaw died at age 53 in August. In a statement, NABJ veteran Terry Owens said Holtzclaw's legacy "will live on in the organization through the generations of journalists he touched in the Short Course at North Carolina A&T State University."
In Houston, "Amanda Perez is coming back home to work as a KPRC 2 reporter," Mike McGuff reported Saturday on his television news website. "She has been working at ABC owned Fresno station KFSN 30 (sister station to KTRK abc13)."
"As we reported last month, Melody Span-Cooper's WVON in Chicago is celebrating 50 years and today is the official birthday of the radio station," RadioInk reported on Monday. "It'll be an on-air retro day today as the station brings back its sound from the 1960s. This Saturday, a huge celebration will be held at the Chicago Theatre to celebrate five decades of WVON."
"Change is more or less continually in the air at the newspapers of the Los Angeles News Group," Kevin Roderick reported Monday for LAObserved. "On Monday, the Daily News and I think some of the chain's other papers will carry a farewell column from longtime Los Angeles author and columnist Al Martinez. His regular Monday column spot has been dropped, he writes. He got the column in 2009, shortly after he was dropped by the Los Angeles Times (where he worked for 38 years.) It was just a year ago that the Huntington Library mounted an exhibition honoring Martinez."
"The Michigan State Court of Appeals announced Friday it has upheld a lower court's decision dismissing a libel suit filed against The Detroit News by a Detroit police officer," Jim Lynch reported Friday for the News. "In May 2011, Officer Paytra Williams filed a lawsuit against the newspaper and then-staff reporter Charlie LeDuff on accusations of publishing false information with malice. The allegations stemmed from the paper's coverage of a rumored party at the Manoogian Mansion in 2002 during Kwame Kilpatrick's time as mayor of Detroit. . . ."
Journalists in Mexico "need for the Special Prosecutor for Attention to Crimes against Freedom of Expression (FEADLE), an office established in 2006 for the express purpose of addressing the violence against Mexican journalists, to work and have its powers and resources broadened," Marisa Treviño reported Friday on her Latina Lista blog. "To send this message to Mexico's new president, Enrique Peña Nieto, Mexican journalists have created a petition on Change.org. . . ."
In New York, the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism honored members of the independent ethnic and community media for excellence Thursday. The judges reviewed 183 entries from a record 56 publications and a handful of freelance journalists. Winners received cash prizes totaling $8,250, according to Garry Pierre-Pierre, executive director of CUNY's new Center for Community and Ethnic Media.
After seeing the new Broadway production "Motown: The Musical," Rochelle Riley, columnist for the Detroit Free Press, was prompted to ask, "Why isn't Detroit taking bigger, better advantage of that history, that romantic past?" She added, "Every time I hear in Detroit about what we cannot do, I wonder so often about why we didn't do, why we don't do and how we miss so many doggone opportunities. . . ."
The College Board, which conducts the SAT, may soon begin more outreach to low-income students who are not applying to top colleges because they mistakenly think they can't afford them, David Leonhardt wrote for Sunday's New York Times. Leonhardt reported on an experiment in which information about these top colleges was mailed to such students. "Among a control group of low-income students with SAT scores good enough to attend top colleges -- but who did not receive the information packets -- only 30 percent gained admission to a college matching their academic qualifications. Among a similar group of students who did receive a packet, 54 percent gained admission, according to the researchers, Caroline M. Hoxby of Stanford and Sarah E. Turner of the University of Virginia. . . . "
"Many a college graduate stuffs that senior project in a drawer and never gives it another thought," Bonnie Lawrence wrote Friday for the News & Record in Greensboro, N.C. "Not so Marissa Jennings. The 2003 graduate of Bennett College took her project and eventually morphed it into a website and app aimed at an audience dear to her heart: African American girls ages 13 to 17." Lawrence continued, "Last year, after doing some research on the teen market, she had a light bulb moment: Since today's girls use cell phones to socialize, why not provide a place for them to socialize in cyberspace? The result: Socialgrlz.com."
"Last week the Internet lit up with rumors of another failed drug test by Washington, D.C. junior welterweight contender Lamont Peterson," Gautham Nagesh reported early Tuesday on his StiffJab website. "The smoke turned into fire when Ring Magazine reported Peterson had tested positive for human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG), a banned substance used to accelerate weight loss, after his recent win over Kendall Holt. Nagesh continued, "Eventually the truth came out: it was Holt that returned an atypical test result, not Peterson. The Ring retracted its original report and issued an apology, blogs changed their headlines, and it became Holt's turn to issue denials via social media. But the damage was already done. . . . "
Referring to the Central African Republic, Reporters Without Borders said Wednesday it is "appalled by the irresponsible and unacceptable behaviour of members of the Seleka rebel coalition who have robbed or ransacked several news media since entering the capital, Bangui, three days ago. . . ."
"Anyone who has been to India or is familiar with the country knows how chaotic it can be: from the congestion on the streets of Delhi to the messy way in which democracy functions," Sumit Galhotra wrote Friday for the Committee to Protect Journalists. "And for journalists, covering the chaos of India can be risky business. This week alone, Indian law enforcement officials assaulted two journalists covering demonstrations in different corners of the country. . . . "
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Journal-isms is published on the site of the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education (mije.org). Reprinted on The Root by permission.
Hayes Goes Prime Time as O'Brien, Martin Exit
Changes are afoot at MSNBC and CNN, where two black news faces are departing.
In an era in which "quotas" is regarded as a dirty word, Chris Hayes, whose new MSNBC show, "All In with Chris Hayes," debuts Monday at 8 p.m. Eastern, has no problem with the concept.
"Earlier this month, after MSNBC announced it was giving Chris Hayes his own daily primetime news show, Media Matters published a chart that showed how his weekend show, Up with Chris Hayes, differed from its cable-news competitors: It wasn't all white dudes," Ann Friedman wrote Thursday for Columbia Journalism Review.
"Specifically, 57 percent of the show's guests were not white men. (Full disclosure: I have, in the past, been one of the non-dudes featured on said program.) To hear lots of journalists tell it, this is an impossible feat. So I called up Hayes to ask how he and his team created a shining oasis of diversity in a cable-news desert of sameness.
" 'We just would look at the board and say, "We already have too many white men. We can't have more." Really, that was it,' Hayes says. 'Always, constantly just counting. Monitoring the diversity of the guests along gender lines, and along race and ethnicity lines.' Out of four panelists on every show, he and his booking producers ensured that at least two were women. 'A general rule is if there are four people sitting at table, only two of them can be white men,' he says. 'Often it would be less than that.' "
Hayes told Gail Shister of TVNewser, "I can't control my gender, race or sexual orientation. I can control who we have on and what voices we introduce to viewers.”
Meanwhile, "Outgoing CNN pundit Roland Martin said on Thursday that executives who were uncomfortable with hiring black people as hosts had held back his rise at the network," Jack Mirkinson reported for the Huffington Post.
He continued, "Speaking on HuffPostLive, Martin — who was recently let go by CNN — said that he had come to the network with every intention of getting his own show. He added that it was never made clear to him why that wasn't happening, but that he suspected race had something to do with it.
" 'You have largely white male executives who are not necessarily enamored with the idea of having strong, confident minorities who say, "I can do this," ' he said. 'We deliver, but we never get the big piece, the larger salary, to be able to get from here to there.'
"Martin said that he hosted highly-rated specials for CNN, so he didn't understand why he wasn't rewarded.
" 'If it's a ratings game, and we won, how is it I never got a show?' he said."
Martin also appeared Friday on CNN's "Starting Point With Soledad O'Brien" as the host performed her last daily show on the network.
"Paired with friendly jibes, Will Cain and Roland Martin spoke of their good relationship with O'Brien, both personally and professionally, while Ryan Lizza gave 'a shout-out to a year's worth of some of the best interviews with politicians,' " Meenal Vamburkar reported for Mediaite.
"Last but not least, John Berman lamented that 'John Sununu could not be here this morning' — and thanked O'Brien for an 'interesting, fantastic year.'
"O'Brien herself spoke of the chance CNN has given her 'to cover some of the biggest stories' of our time. Specifically, she told an anecdote about Hurricane Katrina coverage, recalling the standing ovation the team received 'because we had covered the story so well.' "
O'Brien told viewers, "Up next for me, I'm going to continue to focus on the 25 girls that we serve — we send girls to college with my foundation. Continue focus too on good journalism, examining the critical issues that our country faces from jobs to poverty and focusing on the people who have stories to tell in this country and often those stories don't get told. . . ."
The departures from CNN of Martin, a black journalist and pundit, and O'Brien, who is black and Latina, are among the reasons the National Association of Black Journalists and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists have questioned new CNN President Jeff Zucker's commitment to diversity.
CNN announced Thursday that Chris Cuomo and Kate Bolduan, both white, will co-host the network's new morning show. However, Michaela Pereira, selected as news anchor, is African Canadian. Her biological mother was a white Canadian and her biological father a black Jamaican.
For all the attention the cable news channels receive from journalists and news junkies, ratings for last week are reminders that they are not most viewers' top choices in the cable universe.
"A slew of entertainment and a relative dearth of news resulted in lower-than normal ratings for the cable news channels last week, while entertainment networks flourished," Alex Weprin reported Wednesday for TVNewser.
"Fox News led the way among the cable news channels, placing 6th in primetime and 3rd in total day among ad-supported cable channels (7th and 4th among all cable channels). MSNBC placed 26th and 32nd among ad-supported channels (27th and 33rd among all channels), while HLN once again rode the Jodi Arias trial to 28th in primetime and 24th in total day. CNN placed 34th in both primetime and total day."
The USA Network was No. 1.
Joe Concha, Mediaite: The Chris Hayes Quota System Ridiculously Rewards Color Over Content
Eric Deggans, Tampa Bay (Fla.) Times: As CNN announces new morning anchor team, I note onscreen diversity often comes down to simply counting heads
Bob Teague, Pioneer TV Newsman, Dies at 84
"Bob Teague, who joined WNBC-TV in New York in 1963 as one of the city's first black television journalists and went on to work as a reporter, anchorman and producer for more than three decades, died on Thursday in New Brunswick, N.J.," Douglas Martin reported for the New York Times. "He was 84.
"The cause was T-cell lymphoma, his wife, Jan, said.
"Mr. Teague established a reputation for finding smart, topical stories and delivering them with sophistication. Though he later criticized TV news as superficial and too focused on the appearance of reporters and anchors, his own good looks and modulated voice were believed to have helped his longevity in the business."
The obituary also said of Teague, "In 1968, he published 'Letters to a Black Boy,' written in the form of letters to his 1-year-old son, Adam, many about race. The letters were meant to be read when Adam was 13.
"At the time he wrote the book, Mr. Teague's views were growing more conservative. 'Government handouts constitute the most damaging assault on black pride and dignity since the founding of the Ku Klux Klan,' he wrote. He generally supported conservative candidates, including Herman Cain for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012. He retired from NBC in 1991."
David Hinckley added in the Daily News in New York, "His narrative in the book, much of it personal, portrayed television journalism slowly and not always successfully being wrenched from the hands of a small group of white men less concerned with the truth than with an environment in which to efficiently sell orange juice.
"Women at times were openly told they needed to sleep their way to promotions, while the obsession with appearance extended to Roseanne Scamardella's teeth. When she was in line for a promotion, Teague reported, NBC wanted to pay to have her teeth capped."
In 1992, Teague became caught up in a wrongful accusation of sexual harassment when his niece, television reporter Barbara Wood, made that charge against former CBS correspondent Randy Daniels and forced Daniels to resign as media and political adviser to New York Mayor David Dinkins before Daniels could begin the job.
Acting as his niece's spokesman, Teague called Daniels a "monster who preys on young women." Daniels sued Wood, and she recanted most of the allegations, prompting discussion about the ability of such charges to ruin reputations. Daniels went on to become New York secretary of state and is now vice chairman of a real estate investing firm.
Brian Williams, NBC Nightly News: Bob Teague, former TV reporter, dies at 84
WNBC-TV New York: Longtime WNBC Reporter Bob Teague Dies
NPR Replacing "Talk of the Nation" With News Program
"NPR announced Friday morning that it will no longer produce the Monday-to-Thursday call-in show Talk of the Nation," David Folkenflik and Mark Memmott reported for NPR.
"It will be replaced by Here and Now, a show produced in partnership with member station WBUR in Boston. Reported stories will be part of the show's format.
"Neal Conan, Talk of the Nation's host, will depart after more than three decades with the network. His past positions include stints as bureau chief in New York and London and as NPR's foreign editor, managing editor and news director.
"NPR executives said public radio has a glut of vibrant call-in shows involving national issues — and that they sought a newsmagazine with a mix of interviews and prepared stories to bridge the hours between Morning Edition and All Things Considered."
They added, "Here and Now is on far fewer stations than Talk of the Nation — 182 versus 407 — but it has been growing. NPR executives hope stations that previously carried Talk of the Nation will pick up its replacement."
Asked about the participation of journalists of color, NPR spokeswoman Cara E. Philbin told Journal-isms by email, "As it is now, Talk of the Nation employs 3 journalists of color, out of a staff of 11. Here and Now currently employs 2 out of a staff of 11, with Meghna Chakrabarti making 3 as the program's primary back-up host.
"With its upcoming expansion, Here and Now has 6 new positions to fill and is eager to look for candidates from every background." Philbin said she could not name the three journalists of color and that the new positions have not yet been defined. However, Folkenflik and Memmott reported that executives said they "intend to offer jobs to every staffer working for Talk of the Nation."
"Talk of the Nation" first aired in November 1991, when right-wing talk radio was flourishing and other broadcasters were seeking talk-show alternatives. "As it happened, science correspondent Ira Flatow wanted to start a science roundup — say, two hours, at the end of the week," according to "This Is NPR: The First Forty Years." "Then news director Bill Buzenberg remembers making a deal with Flatow: 'If you can raise the money for 'Science Friday,' I'll find funding for the other four days.' " He did.
Past regular hosts have included John Hockenberry, Ray Suarez and Juan Williams.
Gillian Frew, Huffington Post: What I Learned From Legendary Journalist Ray Suarez: His Toughest Interviews Ever (Dec. 11)
Joshua Gillin, Poynter Institute: NPR's Kinsey Wilson explains switch from 'Talk of the Nation' to 'Here and Now'
Curt Nickisch, WBUR-FM, Boston: 'Talk Of The Nation' To End; 'Here & Now' To Expand
Brian Stelter, New York Times: After 21 Years, NPR is Ending 'Talk of the Nation'
Jet Covered Lesbian Wedding in 1970
"Here's a gem from the Jet Magazine archives:" Saeed Jones wrote Wednesday for BuzzFeed. " 'Two women, Edna Knowles and Peaches Stevens, were wed in Liz's Mark III [Lounge], a gay bar on Chicago's South Side, before a host of friends and well-wishers.' The article, titled 'Two [Females] 'Married' In Chicago — To Each Other' appeared in a 1970 issue of Jet, a popular black magazine based in Chicago.
"The article went on to say, 'The Illinois attorney general's office explained to Jet that there is no state statute that either bans or sanctions such marriages. Although the duo has a type of 'marriage license' in their possession, the state's official marriage license bureau reported it has no record of their license."
"The fact that Jet covered a lesbian wedding at all is a bit awe-inspiring, but it's important to note the use of quote marks throughout the article around words like 'bride' and 'groom' and 'married.'"
Charles M. Blow, New York Times: History in Real Time
Emil Guillermo blog, Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund: The national coming out party for same-sex marriage?
Janine Jackson, Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting: USA Today Covers 'Lonely Battle' of Equality Opponents
Sandra Lilley, NBCLatino: As Supreme Court hears arguments, Latinos increasingly in favor of gay marriage
Ruben Navarette Jr., Washington Post Writers Group: Testing the will of the people
Eugene Robinson, Washington Post: Gay marriage and the Supreme Court
Danielle Moodie-Mills, HuffPost BlackVoices: Does TIME Need a Timeout?
Mashaun D. Simon, the Grio: As Supreme Court considers DOMA and Prop 8, some black church leaders ponder change
David von Drehle, Time: How Gay Marriage Won
NFL Writer Clifton Brown Among Layoffs at Sporting News
Clifton Brown, "whose most recent column and mugshot are on the front page of the Sporting News right now," is among several staffers laid off at the Sporting News, Jason McIntyre reported Wednesday for the Big Lead.
Brown, who covered the NFL, joined Sporting News in 2007 from the New York Times. He covered golf, the NFL and the NBA for the Times after arriving there in 1988 from the Detroit Free Press, where he had worked since 1983. Before that, he was at the Boca Raton (Fla.) News.
Brown told Journal-isms Friday that he was not sure what he wanted to do next. "I'm open to all possibilities," he said by telephone.
McIntyre also listed these other layoffs: "Brian Straus, the site's soccer writer, who last week scored a big scoop on the US Men's National Team"; "David Whitley, of Colin Kaepernick tattoo fame"; "Steve Greenberg, who has been writing about the NCAA tournament for the Sporting News"; "Lisa Olson, one of the last remaining members of the AOL [FanHouse] 'merger' from 2011; "Stan McNeal, their baseball columnist whose prediction column went up today"; and "Matt Crossman, who wrote one of the stronger Honey Badger columns of 2012."
Let Go at CBSSports.com but Optimistic and Grateful
In September 2011, Adena Andrews, then a contributor to women-focused espnW, was one of the first four journalists of color selected to inaugurate the Associated Press Sports Editors' nine-month program to train mid-career women and journalists of color for sports department leadership positions.
Today she is looking for work, told this week that her job as a blogger for CBSSports.com is ending.
"On the evening of Tuesday, March 26th I was notified via phone by Mark Swanson, Managing Editor of CBSSports.com that I was going to be let go from my position as a CBSSports.com writer due to 'communication issues,' " Andrews, 27, told Journal-isms by email.
"This came as a total shock to me considering I received no warning or notion that there were any issues. In fact, up until I got the call, I was preparing to cover a marquee CBS event, the Final Four, as a credentialed member of the media. I'm disappointed, of course, but must say that working with CBS Sports talent behind the scenes was a life-changing experience for me all the same. Seeing the inner workings of a company like that gave me all types of knowledge and connections I couldn't get anywhere else."
She continued, "I am extremely grateful for the opportunities given to me at CBSSports.com especially being able to cover my first Super Bowl. As an inaugural APSE diversity fellow, a board member of the NABJ Sports [Task Force] and a proud graduate of the University of Southern California I know there are nothing but blue skies ahead for me."
Rosabel Tao, who heads communications for CBSSports.com, has a different interpretation of events. "Adena Andrews was a temp contracted through an agency and worked with CBSSports.com since December 2012. She was informed that her contract will not be continued," Tao said by email. She added that the position was eliminated.
Michael Anastasi, Associated Press Sports Editors: President's column: Diversity Fellows develop leadership opportunities, skills (November 2011)
Who Is Ta-Nehisi Coates' Editor? Atlantic Won't Say
Ta-Nehisi Coates is picking up fans with each blog posting for the Atlantic. "At 37, Mr. Coates is the single best writer on the subject of race in the United States," Jordan Michael Smith wrote this month for the New York Observer.
But Coates doesn't get the editing appropriate to such a distinction.
Back in 2008, a piece about Sarah Palin included "quizz," "most crassest" and "I wish she had have mined it."
Last week, this sentence appeared: "But people were as people usually are — kind. I expected less black folks. . . " rather than "fewer" of them.
And this week: "I watched a group of high school kids and thought of my son, who would have saw them here trading coffee, cigs and laughter . . . " rather than "seen them."
Asked whether Coates' blog is copy edited, Natalie Raabe, the Atlantic's communications director, replied that the magazine would correct the errors in the recent postings — and did — and explained, "At the speed at which folks work on the web, things sometimes slip through."
Any copy editing is "handled by his editor," Raabe added. She did not respond when asked who that is.
Derek Donovan, Kansas City Star: Copy editing is elemental to accuracy (March 17)
Blacks, Latinos More Likely to Back Path to Citizenship
More blacks and Hispanics than whites believe that immigrants in the country illegally should be provided a way to secure legal status, according to a national survey released Thursday by the Pew Research Center.
"Support for granting legal status to illegal immigrants is wide ranging," the center said. "Eight-in-ten non-Hispanic blacks (82%) and Hispanics (80%) say those in the United States illegally should be allowed to stay if they meet certain requirements; about half of blacks (52%) and Hispanics (49%) say illegal immigrants should be able to apply for citizenship.
"Two-thirds of non-Hispanic whites (67%) say illegal immigrants should be allowed to stay in the country legally, while 31% say they should not. Four-in-ten whites say people in the United States illegally should have the chance to apply for citizenship if they meet certain requirements.
"Among whites with no college degree, 61% favor allowing those in the U.S. illegally to stay legally, while 37% disagree. There is more support among white college graduates for permitting illegal immigrants to stay in the country legally (81% say they should, while just 17% say they should not). . . . "
Hugo Balta, Fox News Latino: Rep. Young, "Wetback" Has Always Been Used in the Same Way
Esther J. Cepeda, Washington Post Writers Group: Staying together to get ahead
Ruben Rosario, Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.: He wants grandma's citizenship restored
Seth Freed Wessler, Colorlines: Immigration Reform May Throw Siblings Under the Bus
40 Percent of Blacks in Poll Say No "Leader" Speaks for Them
"Is there a leadership crisis in black America? A new poll suggests African-Americans think so," David A. Love wrote Wednesday for the Grio.
"The poll was commissioned by BET founder Robert L. Johnson, also the chairman of The RLJ Companies, and was released by Zogby Analytics. And the results are shocking.
"According to the online survey of 1,002 African-Americans, when asked the question 'Which of the following speaks for you most often?' 40 percent said that no one speaks for them, while 24 percent said the Reverend Al Sharpton of the National Action Network and MSNBC speaks for black people, and 11 percent said the Reverend Jesse Jackson of Rainbow PUSH.
"Meanwhile, 9 percent of black respondents named Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), 8 percent said NAACP President and CEO Ben Jealous speaks for them, and 5 percent mentioned Assistant Democratic Leader, Congressman James E. Clyburn (D-SC). Marc H. Morial, President and CEO of the National Urban League, and former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele each received 2 percent. . . ."
Earl Ofari Hutchinson, syndicated: Black America doesn't lack leaders: Poll shows 24 percent say Sharpton speaks for them
Emmitt Vascocu, a viewer whose posted comment about TV meteorologist Rhonda Lee's short hair precipitated events that led to her firing from KTBS in Shreveport, La., in December, says he's sorry. He messaged Journal-isms this week, "Dear sir I sour like to say that I did not mean anything about her ethnic hair at all.an. I will never comment on anything of this matter ever again.I'm sorry for her losing her job.I did co tact the station an they told me it was for othier matters that see was fired. Wishing you well emmitt." Jack Hambrick, a former television reporter, wrote in December that Vascocu has mental issues.
"A military tribunal in Somalia has convicted an alleged Al-Shabab militant of killing journalist Hassan Yusuf Absuge, according to the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ), the International Federation of Journalists reported on Friday. "Absuge, who worked for Radio Maanta as head of programmes, was gunned down in Mogadishu on 21 September last year. Adan Sheikh Andi Sheikh Hussein was today found guilty of the murder and sentenced to death, NUSOJ says. . . . "
Referring to the Palestinian Authority, Reporters Without Borders said Friday it "is relieved that President Mahmoud Abbas pardoned the journalist Mamdouh Hamamreh shortly after an appeal court in the West Bank city of Bethlehem yesterday sentenced him to a year in prison on a charge of insulting Abbas and publishing 'hate-filled' content online. . . .
A cultural observation Monday from Dawn Turner Trice in the Chicago Tribune: "When Timothy Simmons decided to let his hair grow into locks in 2005, he did so out of pride for his African-American culture. . . . in recent years, as rappers such as Lil Wayne, Chicago's Chief Keef and Lil Jon have popularized locks, gangbangers have also adopted the style. I would guess, considering the violent lifestyles and lyrics of some these newbies, their locks are rooted more in fad than philosophy. They give a new and unfortunate twist to the 'dread' in dreadlocks. . . ." Trice said Simmons chopped off his dreadlocks in November.
"Filling the gap left by the Michael Baisden show, Cumulus Media Networks announces the 'Skip Murphy in the Afternoon Show' debuts on the network beginning Monday, April 1," radioinfo.com reported Wednesday. "The partnership with Reach Media brings Murphy and co-host Jasmine Sanders to the 3:00 pm to 7:00 pm time slot and is promoted as 'featuring celebrity guests participating on a continuous basis.'. . . "
"HLN has been dedicating its coverage for weeks to the Jodi Arias trial," Alex Weprin reported Thursday for TVNewser. "Thursday afternoon however, the channel became part of the trial itself. HLN and In Session correspondent Jean Casarez was called to the stand in the murder case, where she was questioned about her reporting. . . ."
"The always-inquisitive Jada Pinkett-Smith recently posed a question that has many people scratching their heads and some folks outright upset," Shanelle Matthews wrote Tuesday for theFrisky.com. "In short, she's wondering if black women ask to be represented in mainstream media, on the covers of magazines like Vanity Fair, shouldn't white women be represented on the covers of traditionally black magazines like Essence, Ebony and JET? The answer? Yes and no. . . ."
Patrice Peck of Ebony profiled "8 Dynamic Black Women Editors in New Media": Jamilah King, news editor at Colorlines; Deborah Creighton Skinner, director of news at BET.com; Joy-Ann Reid, managing editor of theGrio.com; Denene Millner, editor-in-chief of MyBrownBaby.com; Dodai Stewart, deputy editor of Jezebel.com; Danielle Cadet, editor of [BlackVoices] at the Huffington Post; Sheryl Huggins Salomon, managing editor of the Root; and Andrea Plain, associate editor of Racialicious.
Speaking on a panel with four African American men, "CBS analyst Doug Gottlieb got coverage of the NCAA tournament's Sweet 16 off to an awkward start, saying he was there to bring the 'white man's perspective' to the network's pregame show," the Associated Press reported Thursday. Gottlieb was joking, but said later, "It was not a smart thing to say and I apologize."
Gordon Jackson, editor-in-chief of the Dallas Weekly, where he has worked for 20 years, is returning to Mississippi to be with family, according to Cheryl Smith, contributing editor and president of the Dallas-Fort Worth Association of Black Journalists. A "celebration of service" reception is planned for 2 p.m. Sunday at the Pan African Connections Bookstore & Resource Center, 828 Fourth Ave., Dallas.
"An appellate court judge in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, on Monday upheld the criminal conviction of an editor who is serving a one-year prison sentence in connection with an opinion column, according to local journalists," the Committee to Protect Journalists reported on Tuesday. Stanley Gatera, editor of Kinyarwanda-language independent weekly Umusingi, had suggested that men might regret marrying an ethnic Tutsi woman solely for her beauty, according to local journalists.
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Journal-isms is published on the site of the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education (mije.org). Reprinted on The Root by permission.
Roland Martin: Black Journo of the Year
The honor from the National Association of Black Journalists comes after CNN failed to renew his contract.
The National Association of Black Journalists has named Roland Martin its Journalist of the Year for 2013, the organization announced Wednesday, lining up behind the journalist and commentator after CNN refused to renew Martin's contract.
In another development, Soledad O'Brien, another journalist of color whose role at CNN is being diminished, included Martin on her "Starting Point" show Wednesday morning despite a reported order to some CNN producers not to book him.
"Starting Point" ends soon, to be replaced by a show with a different host, presumably white. Under an arrangement with CNN, O'Brien, who is black and Latina, is forming a production company and plans to continue to supply documentaries to CNN on a nonexclusive basis. Those documentaries include her "Black in America" and "Latino in America" franchises, which she now owns.
The NABJ board voted Martin "Journalist of the Year" in a March 20 conference call, NABJ President Gregory H. Lee Jr. told Journal-isms, the day after Martin disclosed his contract was not being renewed. The disclosure fanned further concern about CNN's commitment to journalists of color under new President Jeff Zucker.
"Roland Martin has had an enviable career as a multimedia journalist, becoming a respected and trusted voice in print, on air and online," Lee said in the NABJ statement. "He is unapologetic about his quest to provide well-rounded coverage of the African-American community, and to provide unique insights to diverse audiences across the many platforms on which he is asked to contribute on a regular basis."
The release continued, "Those who nominated Martin noted his important coverage of voter suppression, perhaps the biggest story of the 2012 presidential election.
" 'No other African-American journalist and member of NABJ brought more news and analysis to black communities about the most important story of 2012 than Roland Martin,' said Vanessa Williams, former NABJ President and an editor at The Washington Post. 'As managing editor and host of Washington Watch on TV One, Roland consistently offered journalism that reflected the hopes and fears of many African American voters as they anxiously watched to see whether Barack Obama would win a second term as president of the United States.' "
Martin took a poke at CNN in his own statement, included in the release.
"I am enormously thankful and humbled that NABJ has bestowed this amazing honor on me for my work as a fearless voice in advocating the critical issues facing voters in the 2012 election, but especially as they relate to African Americans," he said. "I hope this honor serves as a lesson to any young or veteran journalist that Black media platforms are just as essential and important to us today as they have always been.
"Before CNN, TV One offered me a TV platform for my commentaries, as well my own show. After CNN, TV One and Tom Joyner are still there. It pleases me greatly to be at a place where our voices and images are the norm, and not the exception. I'm enormously thankful for the opportunity."
Martin, an NABJ stalwart and former board member, is honorary chairman of the upcoming NABJ convention.
In comments in cyberspace, many African Americans have reacted negatively to CNN's failure to renew Martin's contract, but not all have. Some have said "good riddance," citing what they considered his outsized personality. They joined others who have called Martin a homophobe over tweets last year that the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation denounced as anti-gay. CNN suspended Martin for a month, though Martin denied homophobic intent.
Indications were that those divisions would remain.
Robert Naylor Jr., a longtime diversity advocate within the Associated Press who was laid off in February last year as AP's director of career development/news, wrote the NABJ board, Martin's "insistence that the tweet was not intentionally anti-gay simply does not stand up. I cannot imagine the NABJ board not protesting another journalism organization bestowing such a high honor on someone who made a similarly racist comment. Your decision to overlook this gives the impression that NABJ does not genuinely care about the broader issue of diversity or, more specifically, [its] own LGBT members."
Others questioned Martin's accomplishments as a journalist, rather than as a pundit.
O'Brien announced on Twitter Wednesday morning that Martin would join her on her show, prompting a follower to ask whether the report about the order to producers not to book Martin was wrong. Martin replied, "not necessarily. @Soledad_OBrien wanted me here."
On the show, Martin was introduced as host of "Washington Watch With Roland Martin," his TV One Sunday show, and he discussed a variety of subjects, including North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple's signing Tuesday of a measure that would make abortion illegal in the state after six weeks. "Dalrymple is asking the legislature to set aside money for legal battles he is expecting," O'Brien noted.
Charles D. Ellison, Uptown: Like Hip Hop, Black Talking Heads Are Not Dead
CNN Names Cuomo, Bolduan, Pereira to New Morning Show
CNN announced Thursday that Chris Cuomo and Kate Bolduan will co-host the network’s new morning show, which will premiere this spring, replacing Soledad O'Brien's "Starting Point."
O'Brien told Journal-isms that her last day is Friday. A CNN spokeswoman said the show would continue as "Starting Point" with fill-in anchors until the new show launches.
"Michaela Pereira will join CNN from KTLA Morning News in Los Angeles, as the program's news anchor. News executive Jim Murphy will oversee the program as senior executive producer, and Matt Frucci will serve as executive producer. The show will be broadcast from CNN's New York City studios," an announcement said.
It has long been reported that Jeff Zucker, president of CNN Worldwide, was eager to secure Cuomo, the former news anchor at ABC's "Good Morning America," for a morning show slot. He joined CNN in January.
The Canadian-born Pereira is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists, the Black Journalists Association of Southern California, and Alliance for Women in Media, according to her KTLA bio. She is also active with the NAACP. Cuomo and Bolduan are white; O'Brien is black and Latino.
The release continued, " 'I've been looking forward to this announcement since I first joined CNN,' said President of CNN Worldwide Jeff Zucker. 'Chris, Kate and Michaela are a dynamic team that will give our viewers in America a new way to start their day. We were floored with excitement when we saw Chris and Kate together on screen, and by adding Michaela to the mix we feel we have something very special. We believe there is an opening to do news in the morning with a fresh, new voice.' . . . "
Wendy M. Reynolds, beautycomeforth.com: Michaela Pereira: A Story of Her Own!
Story on Tax Abuse by the Undocumented Earns Peabody
A six-month investigation by WTHR-TV in Indianapolis that documented IRS mismanagement resulting in billions of dollars in fraudulent tax refunds, many going to immigrants in the country illegally, was among the recipients Wednesday of a Peabody award, the oldest in broadcasting.
"The national response to WTHR's 'Tax Loophole' investigation has been huge," the station said. "Millions of people have watched the videos that show how undocumented workers are tapping into an IRS loophole -- a loophole that allows illegal immigrants to claim billions of dollars in tax credits."
The station also said, "The investigation was viewed online more than 14 million times and triggered IRS reforms designed to save U.S. taxpayers billions of dollars.
"In announcing 39 Peabody recipients Wednesday morning at the University of Georgia's Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, the Peabody judges wrote 'WTHR's stunning investigation exposed not only how illegal immigrants were bilking billions in tax refunds from the Internal Revenue Service but also how the IRS had known of the scamming and failed to stop it,' " the station reported.
Other winners included CBS-TV's "60 Minutes" for "Joy in the Congo," which celebrated the emergence of a homegrown symphony orchestra in that war-ravaged African republic; "D.L. Hughley: The Endangered List," "a mock documentary on Comedy Central in which the comedian campaigned to get black men the 'same EPA protections' as the Kaman cave cricket and the Texas kangaroo rat; the Smithsonian Channel's "MLK: The Assassination Tapes," "in which rare archival footage was fused into a gripping reconstruction of the events surrounding the Civil Rights leader's 1968 murder."
Also, "The Loving Story," "a poignant film shown on HBO about a couple infamously arrested in 1958 for daring to marry across racial lines"; "Summer Pasture," "an 'Independent Lens' film that chronicled a nomadic Tibetan family's natural and political hardships"; and "Why Poverty?," "a collection of eight distinctively different films from Steps International" on PBS "that explored aspects of that human condition historically and here and now"; "What Happened at Dos Erres," a "This American Life" spellbinder "about a Guatemalan immigrant who learns that the man he believed to be his father actually led the massacre of his village"; "Rapido y Furioso (Fast & Furious)," "Univision’s Mexican perspective on the infamous ATF gun-tracking debacle"; and "Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel," on HBO, "a sterling magazine series that springboards from athletics," among others.
Apple, Google, Facebook Still Stonewalling on Diversity
"A CNN Money report finds that Google (GOOG), Apple (AAPL) and other tech titans continue to stonewall questions on the diversity of their workforce, five years after the Mercury News kicked off a quest to find out the racial makeup of the workforce at the country's most important technology companies," Jeremy C. Owens reported last week for the San Jose Mercury News.
"CNN Money, which began its own investigation in 2011, reported Monday that its attempts to obtain the data -- which companies with more than 100 employees must provide to the federal government annually -- from 20 prominent tech firms in the U.S. have hit the same roadblocks. Of the 20, only Intel (INTC), Dell and Ingram Micro voluntarily released the data.
"Ten companies were able to block the release of the data from the U.S. Department of Labor because they are not federal contractors: Facebook, LinkedIn, Netflix (NFLX), Twitter, Yelp, Zynga, Amazon, Groupon, Hulu and LivingSocial.
"Apple, Google, Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), IBM and Microsoft successfully appealed to the Labor Department to keep their information private, claiming that public release of the data would cause 'competitive harm.' Cisco (CSCO) and eBay (EBAY) data was released through the Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, filing, providing the news organization with information from five of the 20 companies it originally contacted.
"The Mercury News attempted to obtain the same data from the 15 largest tech companies in Silicon Valley in 2008, and nine companies -- including Cisco, Intel and eBay -- turned it over. After six companies refused the request, an 18-month legal battle ensued that forced the release of the data from HP, but not the other five companies: Apple, Google, Yahoo (YHOO), Oracle (ORCL) and Applied Materials. . . .
Gay Journalists Urge "Same-Sex" Term, Not "Gay Marriage"
Just before two days of Supreme Court arguments on same-sex marriage issues began on Tuesday, the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association issued suggestions on covering the topic.
The arguments concluded Wednesday with the court appearing ready to strike down a central part of a federal law that defines marriage as the union of a man and a woman, as Adam Liptak and Peter Baker reported for the New York Times. A majority of the justices expressed reservations about the Defense of Marriage Act, the Times wrote.
NLGJA said, "Journalists should consider diversity of opinion when bringing these stories to readers, viewers and listeners. Look beyond preconceived 'pro' and 'con' sides. Not all LGBT community members are in favor of marriage for same-sex couples; not all members of communities of faith are opposed.
"Reporters should note the differences between marriage law and the legal designation of civil unions. Civil unions are presumed to extend many marriage benefits and protections; however, they do not include the federal protections and benefits available to married couples.
"As NLGJA has previously noted, the oft-used term 'gay marriage' is both inaccurate and misleading. 'Gay marriage' implies the creation of a new set of legal standards and guidelines as opposed to what is being sought by most advocates -- the extension of currently existing benefits and responsibilities to include same-sex couples. More appropriate terminology in discussing such legislation would be 'marriage rights for same-sex couples.' Or, in those instances where a briefer description is necessary, 'same-sex marriage' as 'same-sex' is a more accurate and inclusive description than 'gay.' "
Perry Bacon Jr., the Grio: How Obama changed the gay marriage debate
Jeff Bercovici, Forbes: Huffington Post Goes All In On Marriage Equality
Nisha Chittal, Poynter Institute: Journalists share arguments for, against using same-sex marriage symbols on social media profiles
Mary C. Curtis, Washington Post: A 'military spouse of the year' closely watches the Supreme Court
Eric Deggans, Tampa Bay (Fla.) Times: As Supreme Court considers ending gay marriage ban, I name TV's top portrayals of gay people which helped get us here
Keli Goff, the Root: Gay-Marriage Coverage: A Media Shutout?: Coverage of the issue may be overshadowing another important civil rights cause.
Susan Green, NPR: Fighting For The Right To Marry, A Family Tradition
Noah Rothman, Mediaite: CNN Anchor Gets In Explosive Personal Battle With Conservative Over 'Legality' Of Gay Marriage
Al Tompkins, Poynter Institute: Why the Supreme Court should allow TV cameras in the courtroom
Alex Weprin, TVNewser: After Proposition 8 Oral Arguments, Cautious Analysis From Correspondents
In Hollywood, TV Writers See Disconnect on Diversity
"The 2013 TV Staffing Brief analyzes employment patterns for 1,722 writers working on 190 broadcast and cable TV shows during the 2011-2012 season, highlighting three specific groups who have traditionally been underemployed in the TV industry: women, minority, and older writers.
" 'It all begins with the writing,' said Dr. Darnell Hunt, author of the report and director of the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies at UCLA and professor of sociology. 'From concept to characters, from plot to narrative, writers play a fundamental role in the fashioning of stories a society circulates about itself. But in the Hollywood entertainment industry, unfortunately, there has all too often existed a disconnect between the writers hired to tell the stories and an America that's increasingly diverse with each passing day.'
The guild added:
"Minority writers nearly doubled their share of staffing positions since the millennium, but remain severely underrepresented. Between [the] 1999-00 and 2011-12 seasons, minority writers' share of TV employment increased from 7.5% to 15.6%. Despite this increase, minorities as a combined group remain underrepresented by a factor of more than 2 to 1 in television staff employment in the 2011-12 season.
"Women and minorities continue to be underrepresented among the ranks of Executive Producers in television. In the 2011-12 season, women were underrepresented by a factor of more than 2 to 1 among the writers who run television shows; minorities were underrepresented by a factor of nearly 5 to 1.
"10% of shows of TV shows in the 2011-12 season had no female writers on staff; nearly a third had no minority writers on staff.
"In the 2010-2011 television season, only 9% of pilots had at least one minority writer attached, while just 24% of pilots had at least one woman writer attached. . . . "
Expect to See More of Al Roker on NBC
"Another bit from the New York cover story on how NBC intends to bring 'Today' back to its former morning glory," Chris Ariens wrote Monday for TVNewser. "Joe Hagan writes:
"Last fall, Today producers used a research firm called Sterling to help analyze how viewers felt about the show. The producers flew to Florida to hang out in viewers’ living rooms, identifying themselves as researchers. A woman named Adrianna, for instance, thought the interviews went on too long, but she liked the weatherman. 'People told us, "I love that Al Roker," ' says ['Today' executive Alex] Wallace. 'So they're getting more Al Roker. It's not an anti-Matt [Lauer] thing at all.'
"Roker is already a fixture on the first three hours, he does another morning show, 'Wake up with Al,' on Weather Channel and he has his own production company that churns out shows for multiple networks. Still, you should expect to see more Al Roker. . . . "
David Bauder, Associated Press: NBC's Wallace: 'We're Not Replacing Lauer'
Kevin Eck, TVSpy: Al Roker: My First Big Break (Feb. 27)
Marisa Guthrie, Hollywood Reporter: NBC: Anderson Cooper Not Approached for Matt Lauer Job
Brian Stelter, New York Times: Call to a CNN Host Hints at a Shifting 'Today'
Environmental Websites Looking for Freelancers
The Washington Post's Darryl Fears wrote Sunday of the nation's large environmental organizations, "the level of diversity, both in leadership and staff, of groups such as the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the Sierra Club and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation is more like that of the Republican Party they so often criticize for its positions on the environment than that of the multiethnic Democratic Party they have thrown their support behind. . . ."
Peter Dykstra, publisher of Environmental Health News and its sister site, the Daily Climate, says the same is true of the environmental press.
"Science and environmental journalism is not a very diverse place," Dykstra told Journal-isms by telephone Wednesday. The former CNN executive producer for science, environment, weather and technology coverage encourages 'capable freelancers' to contact his staff after studying the sites to see what they publish. Staff members work from home.
Also open are entry-level jobs aggregating the 200 stories the sites collect daily, he said. Dykstra notes proudly that Environmental Health News won honorable mention in the Oakes Awards competition, conducted by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism for "Pollution, Poverty, People of Color," a 10-part series.
Interested writers should contact Douglas Fischer, editor of the Daily Climate, Marla Cone, editor-in-chief of Environmental Health News, or Pauli Hayes, managing editor, for the entry-level jobs. Contact information is on this page.
"After seven tumultuous years for Gannett, Arthur Harper is leaving the 10-member board of directors, effective with the annual shareholders' meeting in May," Jim Hopkins reported Wednesday for his independent Gannett Blog. "Corporate quietly disclosed his planned retirement last month, without giving a reason or saying whether he will be replaced. Harper, who is African-American, may well be Gannett's lone minority director at a time when corporate boards everywhere are pressed to diversify even more. . . ."
"Former ESPN anchor and current Good Morning America host Robin Roberts will be honored with the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the 2013 ESPYS in Los Angeles on July 17," Marcus Vanderberg reported Tuesday for FishbowlLA. "The award is presented annually to 'individuals whose contributions transcend sports,' and Roberts definitely fits the bill. In the past six years, Roberts has battled and defeated not only breast cancer but myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), a rare blood disorder. . . . "
"Carlos Sanchez, the managing editor of NOLA Media Group's new Baton Rouge bureau, has resigned after less than six months on the job, multiple sources within the company have told Gambit," Kevin Allman reported Tuesday for the New Orleans alternative newspaper. "A memo co-signed by editor Jim Amoss and the director of state news and sports, James O'Byrne, went out to NOLA Media Group staffers in the last two hours, saying Sanchez was resigning for family reasons and returning to Texas, where he wrote about politics for the Austin American-Statesman and served as editor of the Waco Tribune-Herald for several years before being let go in a Trib-Herald companywide layoff in 2011. . . ."
The South Asian Journalists Association exceeded its $10,000 fundraising goal for its Broadcast Challenge, SAJA President Sovy Azhath and Vice President Sharaf Mowjood wrote Monday on the SAJA Web page. "Because we reached our goal of raising $10K, this will be matched dollar-to-dollar by some of the top South Asian broadcast journalists from around the country. All the funds we receive go directly back to SAJA, as it will help us fund more for scholarships, internships, reporting fellowship grants, workshops for mid-career reporters and a variety of other events for our members across the U.S. and Canada," the two said.
"The UK journalism industry workforce is lacking in ethnic diversity and continues to be heavily influenced by social classes, according to a report published by the National Council for the Training of Journalists," Angela Haggerty reported Tuesday for Britain's the Drum. "The Journalists at Work report, last conducted in 2002, showed there had been little change in these factors, with 94 per cent of journalists in the country of a white ethnic background, a drop of only two per cent in 10 years, despite more than half of all journalists working in London and the south-east, one of the most diverse areas of the country. . . ."
Board members of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, who reversed a ban on tweeting from their meetings last summer on a 6-5 vote, will be tweeting themselves this weekend. "We welcome NAHJ members to our board meeting at the Anaheim Marriott on Saturday, March 30th," President Hugo Balta wrote Monday, previewing the California board session. "The meeting starts at 8:30 a.m. Follow us on Twitter. We will be tweeting from our board meeting to keep our members informed on what we are discussing. . . ."
"Kathryn C. Lee, a matriarch and businesswoman who opened doors to opportunities for African Americans as a co-founder of the Sacramento Observer newspaper, died Monday of pneumonia, her family said. She was 77," Robert D. Dávila reported Wednesday for the Sacramento Bee. "Mrs. Lee helped start a newspaper to cover stories in the African American community that were ignored by the mainstream press, including The Bee and the Sacramento Union. . . . "
The New York Times' Sunday "T" style magazine, under fire for a lack of diversity in its editorial and advertising images, increased the number of people of color in the "America & Beyond" travel issue published Sunday. But the Times is not forthcoming about the diversity of the magazine's staff. Referring to the American Society of News Editors, spokeswoman Eileen Murphy told Journal-isms on Wednesday, "We report our diversity stats through ASNE at the macro level -- our news gathering staff. We just don't break it down to this level of detail." The Times most recently reported an editorial staff 0.1 percent American Indian, 6.8 percent Asian American, 7.6 percent black and 3.9 percent Hispanic, for a total of 18.4 percent people of color.
Jonathan Capehart, a cable-ready editorial writer at the Washington Post who is African American and gay, told FishbowlDC he gets anti-gay messages "usually a few times a week." He forwarded a fresh one to Journal-isms: "Is the 10th amendment a legal technicality? Typical bullshit from an affirmative action, faggot leftist posing as an intelligent, informed person."
Mónica Talán has been appointed executive vice president of corporate communications and public relations for Univision Communications Inc., effective immediately, Univision announced Wednesday. Talán was senior vice president of corporate communications and public relations.
Herman Howard, professor at Benedict College in Columbia, S.C.; Darcelle Hall, producer at WIAT-TV in Birmingham, Ala., and David Huertas, director of photography at KOSA-TV in Odessa, Texas, are among 13 producers, reporters and multimedia journalists selected to be fellows in Germany in June as part of the Radio Television Digital News Foundation's relationship with the RIAS Berlin Kommission, the foundation announced Monday. The spring 2013 German/American Journalist Exchange Program runs from June 10 to June 24.
In New York, "Cops arrested four teens for the attack in Yonkers that sent a News12 reporter to the hospital Wednesday," Karl de Vries reported March 20 for Long Island's Newsday. "CeFaan Kim, 31, was attacked on Odell Avenue near the Greystone train station shortly before 9 a.m., authorities said. The teens hit him about 30 times before fleeing." De Vries added, "A general assignment reporter for News12 since October, Kim worked for NY1 News for 10 years, covering Queens, according to his LinkedIn page."
In Orlando, "Traffic reporter Jessica Sanchez is documenting her cancer battle through a blog called 'Let's Be Honest' on the WKMG-Channel 6 website," Hal Boedeker wrote Tuesday for the Orlando Sentinel. " 'She's laying it all out there with class and humor,' WKMG General Manager Skip Valet said Tuesday. 'I think she'll be very public in this fight. It's her decision. She says it's therapeutic to write about it.' . . . "
Black America Web, the Tom Joyner-sponsored web site, is now running admittedly unconfirmed rumors in its news space, elsewhere considered a journalistic no-no. "But again, these are just RUMORS currently circulating on the web," read an item Wednesday on the site about ABC's Robin Roberts. The story was credited to EURWeb.com.
"At a time when the ranks of news ombudsmen are thinning in the US (I was dismayed to read about the most recent casualty at The Washington Post), it's exciting to be part of a trend in the opposite direction in many countries in the developing world," Karen Rothmyer, the Kenya Star's public editor, wrote Wednesday for the Committee to Protect Journalists. "At the annual gathering last year of the Organization of News Ombudsmen, in Copenhagen, I talked with ombudsmen from India and Bangladesh who, like me, were working for relatively new newspapers. There were also people from several countries in Latin America, which according to Jeffrey Dvorkin, head of the organization, is the fastest-growing region for ombudsmen. He attributes this largely to a belief in countries once under dictatorial rule that ombudsmen play an important role in strengthening democratic institutions. . . . "
"The government of Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi continues to escalate its offensive against journalists," Sherif Mansour wrote Wednesday for the Committee to Protect Journalists. "Details of the most recent case, in which an arrest warrant was issued for blogger Alaa Abdel Fattah for inciting 'aggression' against members of the Muslim Brotherhood, show how low the government is willing to go in order to silence its critics. . . ."
"By reaffirming the autonomy and independence of the regional human rights system and rejecting attempts to neutralize the work of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and its special rapporteur for freedom of expression, the Organization of American States (OAS) chose last week to discard proposals that would have made citizens throughout the hemisphere more vulnerable to abuses," Carlos Lauría reported Tuesday for the Committee to Protect Journalists.
"At least two news outlets were raided in the Central African Republic on Sunday when rebel groups ousted the president from power, according to news reports and local press freedom groups," the Committee to Protect Journalists reported on Tuesday. "Rebel groups known as Seleka ousted President François Bozizé from power in the capital, Bangui, according to local and international news reports. Seleka leader Michel Djotodia proclaimed himself the new head of state. . . ."
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Journal-isms is published on the site of the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education (mije.org). Reprinted on The Root by permission.
