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. . . . "

Short Takes

"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.

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.

Complete list of winners

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

"In its latest analysis of the state of diversity in writing for TV, the Writers Guild of America, West finds that while there have been some recent job gains for minority and women writers, the employment playing field in Hollywood is far from level," the guild said Tuesday.

"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.

Short Takes

"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.