Obama Visits His &#039;Unhinged&#039; Hometown

"Facebook Inc., operator of the world's largest social-networking service, is seeking a global head of diversity, as the quickly expanding company’s recruits people from different backgrounds to foster creativity," Brian Womack reported Wednesday for Bloomberg Businessweek.

". . . The extraordinary pace and scale of globalization have led visionary multinationals to evolve dramatically, to broadly redefine diversity and raise it to a higher global level than ever before," Edward Iwata wrote Wednesday for the Seattle Times. ". . . The cross-border diversity practices of multinationals such as AT&T, American Express, IBM, Intel, Cisco Systems, Procter & Gamble — plus Washington-based Microsoft, Starbucks, Weyerhaeuser, Amazon.com and others — are changing the corporate world in modern and emerging countries alike. Intel executive Rosalind Hudnell calls it 'the new calculus of diversity.' . . . "

Writing about rapper Lil Wayne's widely condemned description of sex as "beating it up like Emmett Till," columnist Jarvis DeBerry of NOLA.com and the Times-Picayune in New Orleans ". . . wondered if I'd think differently of it if had been spoken by an artist I like." He cited "So Fresh, So Clean," a 2000 release by Outkast, which included the lines, "You're so Anne Frank. / Let's hit the attic to hide out for 'bout two weeks. . . "

"For over a decade, the Arab television broadcaster Al-Jazeera was widely respected for providing an independent voice from the Middle East. Recently, however, several top journalists have left, saying the station has developed a clear political agenda," Alexander Kühn, Christoph Reuter and Gregor Peter Schmitz wrote for Germany's Spiegel. ". . . Since the Arab Spring, though, many former dissidents have risen to power across the region — and these fledgling leaders often show little respect for democratic principles. Al-Jazeera, however, has shamelessly fawned upon the new rulers. . . ."

"The Maryland Court of Appeals has ruled that redacted state police records of racial profiling complaints can be made public under the state’s Public Information Act (PIA)," Kathleen Kirby wrote Feb. 3 for the Radio Television Digital News Association. "The case is significant because it dismisses the notion that certain categories of records exempt from disclosure cannot be redacted and released. . . ." RTDNA joined other news organizations in filing a friend-of-the-court brief.

Herman Cain, the former Republican presidential candidate, is Fox News' newest contributor, the network announced on Friday, the Huffington Post reported. "Cain will contribute analysis and commentary on Fox News, as well as Fox Business Network. . . ."

"As K-State celebrates its 150th year, many in the community are taking a closer look at its past," Melvin Fatimehin and Jakki Thompson wrote Friday for the Collegian at Kansas State University. "One piece of K-State’s long history is the Uhuru, a newspaper originally created by the Black Student Union for African-American students at K-State, which has made its return to the K-State campus with a modern twist. . . . "

". . . A new study from the University of Missouri School of Journalism shows that American newspapers, and specifically newspapers geared toward an African-American audience, frame stories on obesity in a negative way," Nathan Hurst wrote for the university. Researcher Hyunmin Lee reported, "Our study shows that the majority of obesity news stories are written in a negative tone, mainly attributing individual responsibilities to overcome obesity, which means many African Americans in need of weight loss could be discouraged by what they are reading in newspapers, instead of being inspired by positive success stories about overcoming obesity or other health problems. . . .”

Eva Coleman, media technology teacher at the Career and Technical Education Center in the Frisco, Texas, Independent School District, has been selected as Teacher of the Year by the Student Television Network, the network said this week. Long active in the National Association of Black Journalists, Coleman is vice president of the Dallas-Fort Worth Association of Black Journalists and volunteers with the NABJ High School Journalism Workshop.

In Newport News, Va., "Alveta Ewell, who has anchored newscasts at WAVY-TV for almost a quarter-century, announced her retirement on Wednesday night, the Daily Press reported Thursday. " Ewell, whose 30-year career in Hampton Roads also includes time on the radio and at WVEC-TV, will do her last newscast on Feb. 26. . . . "

". . . On Monday, February 11, 2013, Ebony Magazine published a freelance environmental science piece by Dr. Marshall Shepard: Are African-Americans More Vulnerable to Climate Change? AND the digital editors seem very interested in more science-related pitches," DNLee blogged Thursday for Scientific American. "Until we get more professional science writers to pitch to media outlets like Ebony, scientists who communicate will have to fill the gap. So, please, please, please submit your pitches, everyone and anyone. . . . "

Reporting on the annual "State of Indian Nations" report by Jefferson Keel, president of the National Congress of American Indians, writer Mark Trahant noted Thursday, ". . . Indian Country has something that the rest of the country is missing: Young people . . . . Except. This advantage is coming at the same time as this massive wave called austerity is hitting. . . . I still think this is a moment of real possibility. A serious moment of possibility. But that success will come from tribes finding every dollar [they] can and investing it in young people. This is the future, not the Congress, especially a Congress with factions bent on intergenerational destruction."

At Marquette University, "While preparing for graduation, Marissa Evans, senior in the College of Communication and president of the Marquette chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists, is hoping to fill an underrepresented part of media discussion," Emily Wright reported Thursday for the Marquette Tribune. "Last month, Evans launched InHue, an online magazine that focuses on health issues for women of color.

Facebook users: "Like" "Richard Prince's Journal-isms" on Facebook.

Journal-isms is published on the site of the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education (mije.org). Reprinted on The Root by permission.

Telenovelas Trump State of the Union

February 15, 2013

Dorner Manhunt Echoed Hollywood Crime Tales

The drama involved the classic plot of a rogue cop trying to clear his name.

Telegraph.co.uk

"With elements echoing many of the fixtures of Hollywood's fictional crime tales, Tuesday's showdown with real-life fugitive Christopher Dorner brought the conflicting agendas of law enforcement and the media into sharp relief, spotlighting the challenges -- and pitfalls -- of such immersive live coverage," AJ Marechal reported Tuesday for Variety.

"Uncensored obscenities made it on the air, phone conversations interrupted live coverage and journalists were asked by authorities to restrict their coverage to avoid tipping off the suspect.

"The confrontation featured aspects that viewers have seen often in the reporting of real-life incidents (swarms of helicopters, roadside checkpoints) as well as fictional onscreen tales ranging from 'The Negotiator' and 'The Fugitive' to 'High Sierra,' (rogue cops seeking to clear their name, a multi-jurisdictional manhunt playing out in a remote locale). . . . "

The Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday, "Charred human remains have been found in the burned cabin where police believe fugitive ex-cop Christopher Dorner was holed up after trading gunfire with law enforcement, authorities said.

"If the body is identified to be Dorner’s, the standoff would end a weeklong manhunt for the ex-LAPD officer and Navy Reserve lieutenant who is believed to be responsible for a string of revenge-fueled shootings following his firing by the Los Angeles Police Department several years ago. Four people have died, allegedly at Dorner’s hands. . . ."

The saga was fraught with racial implications. "Fugitive and suspected murderer Christopher Dorner may have been found dead in a burned-out cabin in Big Bear, Calif., on Tuesday evening, ending a weeklong manhunt," Hillary Crosley wrote Wednesday for the Root. "However, for many the story of the former Los Angeles police officer and Navy reservist gone rogue isn't a clear-cut one of death and destruction, but rather of race, police brutality and the blue wall of silence. . . . "

Coverage bumped up against President Obama's State of the Union message. Wayne Bennett, who blogs as the Field Negro, wrote Wednesday, "As one of my tweeter fam said, it's the 'state of the Dorner coverage' on the news tonight. Sorry Mr. President, but this is like a real live Hollywood movie playing itself out in SoCal.

"I know that a lot of my cousins are cheering for Dorner because dude is getting Robin Hood love from certain quarters, but I hope that these folks remember that he started his killing spree by killing a brotha. . . ."

Caitlin Dickson, Daily Beast: Carter Evans, the Reporter Caught in the Christopher Dorner Crossfire

Merrill Knox, TVSpy: LA Stations Pivot From Dorner Coverage to State of the Union

Kevin Roderick, LAObserved: Weird story o' the day: Dorner's mom at bar watching standoff

The two best-known Spanish-language networks, Univision and Telemundo, decided to air novelas instead of President Obama's State of the Union address Tuesday, and Univision was rewarded with a ratings victory.

"On a night littered with reruns leading into the State of the Union address, there was only one original show on the Big Four networks," Toni Fitzgerald wrote Wednesday for Media Life Magazine.

"That paved the way for a rare weeknight victory for Univision, which also won every hour of the evening with its original telenovelas." Fitzgerald cautioned that the figures could change later in the day.

The audience for the State of the Union speech was split among the various networks that carried it.

CNN en Español, a third Spanish-language network, did carry the speech live. It was followed by a Republican response from Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, who had also prepared a Spanish-language version of his remarks. "Actually we [pre-empted] our 9 pm show called Cala. We aired it on CNN en Español and on CNN Latino," spokeswoman Isabel Bucaram told Journal-isms by email.

Representatives of Univision and NBC-owned Telemundo were quick to point out that they carried the annual presidential address on other platforms.

"We aired the State of the Union and the response live on Galavision (this is the second year we do this) and then re-aired both later on Univision, in addition to streaming both the State of the Union and the response," Monica Talan, senior vice president of corporate communications and public relations at Univision, told Journal-isms by email. Cable, which carries Galavision, has a fraction of the audience of broadcast television, which transmits Univision.

Asked the reason for not pre-empting the telenovelas on the main Univision channel, Talan replied, "This the second consecutive year we aired on the #1 Spanish-language cable network and later on the Univision Network."

Camilo Pino, a spokeswoman for Telemundo, which aired the telenova "La Patrona," emailed, "We video-streamed both speeches at Telemundo.com. President Obama's SOTU was dubbed in Spanish. Rubio's was the one he originally delivered in Spanish. We also showed highlights from both speeches last night on a special news program from D.C. hosted by Jose Díaz-Balart ('Estado de la Nación' at 11:35pm/10:35 c). 'Estado de la Nación' featured commentary and analysis by Representatives Luis Gutiérrez (D-IL) and Ileana Ross Lehtinen (R-FL) as well as reactions by young 'dreamers.' By the way, we also had Rubio on our morning show today."

Meanwhile, members of the media said that Obama delivered an “effective” State of the Union address that ended with an emotional turn with an emphasis on gun violence, Mackenzie Weinger reported for Politico.

According to a CNN/ORC International poll, 53 percent of viewers had a "very positive" reaction to the Obama speech, 24 percent said they had a "somewhat positive response" and 22 percent said they experienced a negative response, Politico's Katie Glueck reported.

Lawrence D. Bobo, the Root: Rubio Repeats a Failed Message

Ta-Nehisi Coates blog, the Atlantic: The Art of Infinite War

Michael H. Cottman, Black America Web: Obama Highlights Urban Gun Violence On National Stage

Merlene Davis, Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader: Don't give us special rights, give us equal rights

William Douglas and Franco Ordonez, McClatchy Newspapers: Many African-Americans concerned about Obama's focus on immigrant rights (Feb. 11)

John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable: SOTU: Gun Violence Plan Makes No Mention of Entertainment

Sam Fulwood III, Center for American Progress: Black Immigration Views Too Often Ignore Fact and History

Emil Guillermo blog, Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund: A hopeful State of the Union -- upstaged by the manhunt for Christopher Dorner

Jack Mirkinson, Huffington Post: Touré: Drone Critics 'Getting A Little Soft,' 'Defending Civil Liberties Of Al Qaeda Members' (VIDEO)

Leonard Pitts Jr., Miami Herald: Can GOP end the 'carnival of the crazy'?

Eugene Robinson, Washington Post: A visual statement of progress, followed by the same old story

Janell Ross, HuffPost LatinoVoices: Watching State Of The Union 2013, New York Immigrants Hope Congress Really Heard Obama

Mark Trahant blog: State of the Union: A North Star that guides the country toward a growing economy

Jack White, the Root: Rubio's Big Moment Fizzles

Time Inc., Publisher of Essence, People Magazines, for Sale

"Time Warner is in talks to shed much of Time Inc., the country's largest magazine publisher and the foundation on which the $49 billion media conglomerate was built, according to people involved in the negotiations," Amy Chozick and Michael J. De La Merced reported Wednesday for the New York Times.

"Time Warner is in early discussions with the Meredith Corporation to put most of Time Inc.'s magazines -- including People, InStyle and Real Simple -- into a separate, publicly traded company that would also include Meredith titles like Better Homes and Gardens and Ladies' Home Journal."

Time Inc. is also the parent company of Essence magazine, the leading magazine for African American women; and People en Español, which launched in 1998, the result of suggestions from Latino employees of Time Inc. Essence debuted in 1970 under black ownership. In 2005 Time Inc., which had acquired 49 percent of Essence Communications, bought the rest of the company.

While Meredith does not publish any titles targeting African Americans, it has created Meredith Hispanic Ventures, which produces the successful Ser Padres and Siempre Mujer magazines. Last year Ser Padres, a parenting publication, increased its advertising pages by 28.8 percent while most other magazines were losing pages.

Lucia Moses, Adweek: Meredith, Time Inc.: A Comparison (Feb. 14)

Will Church Seek New Pope Outside of Europe?

Roman Catholic worshippers and clergy in Africa and Latin America, where the church is rapidly growing, greeted Monday's news of Pope Benedict XVI's impending retirement with surprise, respect, and a question: Could the next pontiff be from their continent? Jon Gambrell wrote Tuesday for the Associated Press.

Some African Americans and Latinos wondered the same thing, including two journalists-turned-clergy members who shared their thoughts with Journal-isms.

". . . the catholic church's biggest areas of growth and numbers are in south america and africa," the Rev. M. Dion Thompson, a former reporter at the Baltimore Sun, told Journal-isms by email. "however, choosing a pope from those areas is a long shot. it's as if the old guard cannot and will not step aside."

Thompson, rector at the Church of the Holy Covenant in Baltimore, continued, "i'm an episcopalian, part of the anglican communion, and we had a similar situation when our most recent leader, the archbishop of canterbury, retired last year. nigeria has the largest number of anglicans. however, once again, the archbishop came from the british isles.

"sometimes these leadership changes provide insight on a church's thinking as well as power concerns."

Dan Amira wrote Monday for New York magazine, ". . . so far, overseas bookmakers are picking two black cardinals, Ghana's Peter Turkson and Nigeria's Francis Arinze, as the front-runners. . . But don't get too excited just yet. The bookmakers don't really have any idea what they're talking about. . . ."

Of the 118 cardinals eligible to be the next pope, 14 are from Latin America, including three from Brazil, three from Mexico and two from Argentina, Mimi Whitefield and Jim Wyss reported Monday for the Miami Herald.

"Some are on the papal shortlist, but it may be premature to think of a New World pope, said Father Hermann Rodriguez, the dean of theology at Bogotá's Jesuit Javeriana University," the story by Whitefield and Wyss continued.

". . . The pope did not do much in the area of race relations, which is [a] disappointment," the Rev. Susan Smith, another clergy member, told Journal-isms by email.

". . . the words of Jesus (as opposed to Christian doctrine) point to the equality of people, no matter their race, religion or gender. Pope Benedict did not step out of his comfort zone and try to lead priests worldwide to a new consciousness about the need for Christians to embrace racial equality and dignified treatment of all people, since all people were created by the one God of us all."

Smith is senior pastor at Advent United Church of Christ in Columbus, Ohio. She worked for newspapers in Baltimore and Texas, and as a radio and television talk-show host in Baltimore and Columbus.

Not all the concerns are racial. Marlene L. Johnson, a former editor at the Washington Times who is a 2007 graduate of Howard University School of Divinity, earning a masters of arts in religious and social ethics, had these questions she said she'd want to see answered in the coverage:

"Will the conclave's process will be different because of the unexpected resignation of the Pope and how the selection will be handled," she asked by email. "Also there's a looming question of whether the conclave will hesitate to select one of its older members and opt for a younger one. And what systems are in place to accommodate the physical frailties of the Pope in terms of the demands on his time and his travel itineraries. What will be the impact on conclave members and lay Catholics in the interim in view of the looming religious, spiritual and social issues that require leadership from the top?"

Associated Press: The world reacts to pope's decision to retire;

Samuel Burke, CNN: Meet the man who could be the first black pope

Los Angeles Times: The cardinals who might be pope (photo gallery)

Mary Jo McConahay, New America Media: La Sorpresa: The Papal Resignation, in the Latin American Eye

"Lincoln" Movie to Be Shown in Middle, High Schools

When historical films take license with the facts to fit a filmmaker's narrative, critics are usually admonished with, "It's only a movie."

But what if the movies are shown as part of students' education?

"Steven Spielberg's biopic of Abraham Lincoln is to be sent to schools across the US to be used as a teaching aid," Ben Arnold reported Wednesday for the British version of Yahoo News.

"DVD copies of 'Lincoln', starring Daniel Day-Lewis as the American president, will be sent to high and middle schools as part of a campaign called 'Stand Tall: Live Like Lincoln'."

While the "Lincoln" movie was critically praised and considered an odds-on favorites to win Academy Awards for its principals, it has been criticized for downplaying the role of blacks in their own liberation, along with the role of abolitionists.

Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Eric Foner wrote in a letter to the New York Times, ". . . The 13th Amendment originated not with Lincoln but with a petition campaign early in 1864 organized by the Women's National Loyal League, an organization of abolitionist feminists headed by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

"Moreover, from the beginning of the Civil War, by escaping to Union lines, blacks forced the fate of slavery onto the national political agenda. . . . "

On Tuesday, Lincoln's birthday, the Los Angeles Times editorialized about the film's decision to incorrectly portray the Connecticut congressional delegation as voting against the 13th Amendment, which outlawed slavery.

". . . Of course, 'Lincoln' is not a documentary. It's historical fiction,' the editorial said. "Spielberg and [screenwriter Tony] Kushner were within their rights to take what artistic license they felt was needed, and they did: Dialogue has been created; encounters have been imagined. Nevertheless, the challenge of good historical fiction is to tell a compelling story in the context of history. . . ."

"Lower-Income Americans Are Shut Out of Journalism"

"Employees of The McClatchy Company, which operates The Miami Herald and dozens of other newspapers, will not receive 401(k) matching funds for 2012 -- a repeat of what happened to them in 2011," Ned Resnikoff wrote Tuesday for msnbc.com. His essay was headlined, "How lower-income Americans are shut out of journalism."

" 'We often get asked when the 401(k) match will be reinstated,' said a Monday email to the company’s staff obtained by [media blogger Jim Romenesko]. 'Although reinstating a company match is a priority, the company's financial performance must improve before we can start making matching contributions once again. For now, we will continue to closely monitor the company's profitability to determine when we can reinstate the 401(k) match.'

"McClatchy made the decision to withhold 401(k) benefits in response to falling earnings, an epidemic across the traditional newspaper media. But while much has been said and written about the difficulty of turning a profit in today's journalism world, the labor side of things has been largely ignored. The news media's current economic climate doesn’t just shrink newsrooms and kill magazines: it also reifies professional class barriers, making it tougher for aspiring journalists from working-class backgrounds to obtain steady jobs or big soapboxes. . . . "

Respecting and Disrespecting Black History

Two ways to observe Black History Month via the media:

"When a rapper says he's gonna 'pop a pill' then 'beat that p*ssy like Emmett Till,' that’s when we know that he might have gone just a little bit too far," Dr. Boyce Watkins wrote in his syndicated column. "But that’s just what happened this week, and the Till family isn't happy.

"Lil Wayne and Future, two very talented hip-hop artists, have decided to push the envelope of disrespect by releasing a song called 'Karate Chop.'

"In the song, Lil Wayne takes the liberty of turning the mutilated face of Emmett Till into a weary s*x organ, ridiculing the agony experienced by this young man many years ago. The matter is made is even sadder by the fact that Till’s legacy was trampled by Lil Wayne, Future and Universal Records right in the middle of Black History Month. . . . "

On Wednesday, Epic Records apologized "and said it was looking to pull all traces off the Internet of the so-called unauthorized remix . . ." Natalie Finn reported for E! Online. ". . . Out of respect for the legacy of Emmett Till and his family and the support of the Reverend Jesse L. Jackson, Sr., we are going through great efforts to take down the unauthorized version," the company said.

By contrast, Bonnie Boswell Hamilton, niece of Whitney M. Young Jr., the underappreciated executive director of the National Urban League during the crest of the civil rights movement of the 1960s, has produced a film about her uncle that is to be shown on PBS this month.

"We just had a terrific launch party at the Ford Foundation in NYC," Hamilton wrote via email. " '60 Minutes' Leslie Stahl moderated a panel following the screening with Ken Chenault, Vernon Jordan, Richard Parsons and Jeanette Takamura." The men are African American business executives; Takamura is dean of Columbia University's School of Social Work.

The film's website says, ". . . During the turbulent 60s, he was a diplomat between those in power and those striving for change. Young had the difficult tasks of calming the fears of white allies, relieving the doubts of fellow civil rights leaders, and responding to attacks from the militant black power movement. This complex tale explores the public and private trials of the man at the center of the storm. . . "

"The Powerbroker: Whitney Young's Fight For Civil Rights" premieres on "Independent Lens" on Monday at 10 p.m. ET on PBS (check local listings), narrated by Alfre Woodard.

Karen Bass, the Grio: Living Uplifting African-American foster youth

Gene A. Budig, USA Today: No simple answers to racial inequality

Todd Clayton, Huffington Post: Gay Will Never Be the New Black: What James Baldwin Taught Me About My White Privilege

Emily Deruy, ABC News-Univision: Why Some Minorities Lag Behind in Silicon Valley

Lewis Diuguid, Kansas City Star: Honoring black soldiers who helped free Koreans

Fannie Flono, Charlotte (N.C.) Observer: Race, secrets and a past that’s not past

Blair L.M. Kelley, the Grio: What to do if someone asks: 'Why isn’t there a White History Month?'

Julianne Malveaux, syndicated: Embracing Black History

Dawn Turner Trice, Chicago Tribune: Documentary spotlights civil rights pioneer: 'The Powerbroker' features Whitney Young and his work behind scenes

Dawn Turner Trice, Chicago Tribune: Search for natural father leads to racial discovery

Armstrong Williams, Townhall: Strom Thurmond and Essie Mae

One Columnist Who Doesn't Look Good in Blue

"Our Guide to Giving challenged News & Observer readers to give at least $58,000 in donations to the charities on our holiday wish list last year," the Raleigh, N.C., newspaper told readers on Tuesday. "If that happened, we promised that columnist Barry Saunders -- a true-blue UNC fan -- would don the gear of rival Duke. Readers ultimately gave more than $67,500. . . . "

Univision News has signed Dr. Juan José Rivera as its chief medical correspondent, the network announced Tuesday, saying Rivera will appear regularly throughout Univision News programming. ". . . A prominent cardiologist, educator, researcher, and lecturer, Dr. Rivera is the Director of Cardiovascular Prevention for Mount Sinai Hospital in Miami Beach and has his own private practice . . ."

"A Somali journalist was freed after being detained without charges for more than a week for speaking out against the imprisonment of a fellow reporter," the Associated Press reported. "Daud Abdi Daud was released but he said Wednesday that the Somali government wants to charge him in court with 'offending the president's wife.' Government officials declined to comment on Daud's claim that he will be charged. . . . "

Gilbert Alton Maddox, a former communications professor and department chair at Morgan State University who is said to be the first black man in the United States to earn a PhD. in mass communications (1970), died in Washington Jan. 12 of pancreatic cancer, according to Patricia Montemurri, writing last month in the Detroit Free Press, and a death notice in the Washington Post. He was 82. The Riverside Condominium in Detroit said the Detroit native produced six television series on local television in the 1960s and 1970s and also taught at Wayne State University, Howard University, the University of Michigan and the University of the District of Columbia. In a 2007 interview with FishbowlDC, April Ryan, White House correspondent for American Urban Radio Networks, called Maddox the person who had the biggest influence on her journalism career.

UNITY Journalists for Diversity, Inc. said Wednesday it supports the Newspaper Association of America's lawsuit against the Postal Regulatory Commission regarding a deal to offer a reduced mailing rate solely to Valassis Direct Mail. "Cuts to the newspaper industry disproportionately hurt diversity in news coverage and the numbers of journalists of color and other underrepresented groups in newsrooms. . . .," the organization said.

As reported on Friday, longtime news anchor Bruce Johnson of Washington's WUSA-TV has produced "Before You Eat The Church Food," a documentary that addresses high mortality rates among African Americans from cardiovascular disease, linking them to eating habits and lack of exercise. Andre H. Williams, CEO of the Association of Black Cardiologists, Inc. told Journal-isms Wednesday that the organization is launching www.beforeyoueatthechurchfood.com on Monday, from which copies of the video may be downloaded free of charge. Johnson, a heart attack survivor, produced the 40-minute documentary for the association. (Video).

Producer Tracey E. Edmonds has teamed with BET Founder Robert L. Johnson to establish Alright TV, which launches on Easter Sunday, transmitting via YouTube. The network "will appeal to the aspirational and inspirational goals of consumers of all ages with buzz-worthy comedies, talk, reality, music, and online streaming of Sunday church services from around the country," according to a news release.

"Three Nigerian journalists have been arrested and accused of inciting violence by saying on a radio show that polio immunizations were an anti-Islamic Western conspiracy, just days before health workers administering the vaccines were killed, the police said Monday," Reuters reported. "Gunmen shot the nine health workers in Kano on Friday. . . ."

A memorial service for Faye Bellamy Powell, an activist with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in Selma, Ala., who edited the SNCC newsletter, is scheduled for Feb. 22 at the Auburn Avenue Research Library in Atlanta, according to Atlanta's WRFG-FM. The station produced a podcast discussing her life. Bellamy Powell died on Jan. 5 at age 74. "Fay played a central role at WRFG from the very beginning. She served on the WRFG Board of Directors in the 1970's and, in 1977, became the first Black and first woman to serve as board chair. She was also on the station's Program Committee in the 1970's and set the tone for the station's progressive stance on issues of and advocacy for justice overall," the station said.

In Chicago, the Community Renewal Society is seeking an editor and publisher for its investigative news organization, the Chicago Reporter. "The Reporter is a non-profit, independent news organization that examines issues in metropolitan Chicago with a focus on race and poverty. It deploys investigative and computer-assisted reporting, data analysis and a distinctive focus on the poor and communities of color to produce groundbreaking, high-impact journalism," an announcement says.

Longtime anchor Jim Vance of WRC-TV in Washington reiterated his opposition to the Washington Redskins team name in an essay, Dan Steinberg reported Monday in the Washington Post. "Back in the day, if you really wanted to insult a black man, attack a Jew, an Irishman, and probably start a fight, you threw out certain words," Vance said on Friday. "You know what they are. They were, and they are, pejoratives of the first order, the worst order, specifically intended to injure. In my view, 'Redskin' was and is in that same category. . . .”

"John Rogers is joining WFLA, the NBC affiliate in Tampa-St. Petersburg. He will be a reporter covering Manatee and Sarasota counties," Merrill Knox reported Wednesday for TVSpy. ". . . Since 2009, Rogers has been a reporter at WALA, the Fox affiliate in Mobile, Ala."

Drab coverage of Ecuador's presidential election ". . . is one result of reforms to the electoral law that took effect in February 2012, which prohibit biased reporting on electoral campaigns and [allow] candidates to sue reporters and news outlets who allegedly violate the law," John Otis reported Tuesday for the Committee to Protect Journalists. "To avoid lawsuits, El Universo's editors have set aside an inside page of the newspaper devoting equal space to everyone from the frontrunner -- President Rafael Correa, who is seeking a third term -- to fringe candidates. . . ."

"The Criminal Court in Bangkok has sentenced the former editor of the now defunct magazine Voice of Thaksin for defaming Thailand's monarchy," Adnan Mujagi? reported Tuesday for the International Press Institute. "The Criminal Court sentenced Somyot Prueksakasemsuk to 11 years in jail for publishing two articles deemed insulting of the royal family. . . ."

Facebook users: "Like" "Richard Prince's Journal-isms" on Facebook.

Journal-isms is published on the site of the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education (mije.org). Reprinted on The Root by permission.

HuffPost's Derek Murphy Named G.M. at USA Today

February 13, 2013

Are Magazine Staffs Whiter Than the GOP?

New Republic's article "The Party of White People" prompts critics to turn the tables.

Chris Hughes, right, with Creative Director Dirk Barnett (Chester Higgins J)

"The New Republic is catching heat for its latest cover story about the Republican party, titled 'The Party of White People: An Historical Investigation,' " Dylan Byers wrote Monday for Politico.

It might be the most attention that the issue of the diversity of media staffs has received from a non-journalism publication in years.

The focus of the attention is an experiment being closely watched in some media circles. Chris Hughes, the 29-year-old co-founder of Facebook, former online campaign adviser to President Obama and the New Republic's newest owner, is hoping to turn around the magazine he bought in March, as Christine Haughney wrote last month in the New York Times.

The magazine he purchased is part of an industry that might be the whitest, most segregated part of the news media.

Byers' report continued, "The complaint, voiced by Reason.com on Friday and by the influential conservative blogger Ace of Spades today, is that the ultra-white TNR is one to talk.

" '[A] quick Wikipedia investigation of the magazine's 15 editors throughout its century of publishing reveals that each and every one... was not just white, but white and male,' Reason's Matt Welch writes. 'Though word on the street is that TNR is now 'add[ing] women's voices to a magazine that has long been short on them,' so hooray for progress, etc.

"Ace's tirade against TNR comes in a series of tweets, including: '[B]ased on the TNR writers I know, the palette ranges all the way from pasty to eggshell'; 'Some of us dream of an All-White Nation... but in the meantime we content ourselves with TNR's offices'; 'GOP: The Party of White People' 'TNR: The Magazine of White People' 'MSM: The Industry of White People'; and on, and on, and on."

Byers' opinion? "The TNR staff is and always has been predominantly white — even moreso than your average American magazine — but the notion that this should preclude them from publishing an article on the Republican party's problems with non-white voters is absurd. Everyone with even an introductory understanding of politics — including prominent conservative pundits — knows that the GOP needs to reach non-white male voters. It's why Fox News president Roger Ailes appears in the pages of this week's issue talking about Hispanic outreach. (It's also worth noting that Ace of Spades and Reason didn't seem to have a problem with the majority white Fox News discussing the party's whiteness on election night.)"

Byers concluded, ". . . Should TNR diversify its offices? That's up to them. But for the GOP, it isn't a case of should or shouldn't. It's a case of must."

Byers came back with a second post that quoted a New Republic intern who wrote. "I would venture to say that the Republican Party cares more about diversity than the New Republic does.

"The Republican Party has at least recognized that it has a problem with outreach to nonwhite voters. I haven't seen any such soul searching from a magazine that professes to be the New Yorker of Washington D.C. . . . "

Byers also quoted Washington Post publisher Donald E. Graham, who quipped in 1995 that the New Republic's motto was "Looking for a qualified black since 1914."

At the end of the workday, Byers came back with a third posting, quoting Douglas Blackmon, a former Wall Street Journal Atlanta bureau chief who "added that when he left the Journal in 2011 there were no African American reporters or editors 'of any particular stature' at the paper, and that none had been hired in the last four years of his time there. . . . "

Blackmon, who joined the Washington Post as a contributing editor a year ago, is the Pulitzer-Prize winning author of "Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II." He splits his time between the Post and the University of Virginia.

Spokeswomen for the New Republic and the Wall Street Journal could not be reached for comment.

Jamelle Bouie, the Magazine: And Read All Over: An implicit network, not overt racism, keeps tech writing dominated by white men. (Jan. 3)

Lizzy Ratner, New York Oberver: Vanilla Ceiling: Magazines Still Shades Of White (2006)

Derek J. Murphy, who supervised multicultural initiatives for the Huffington Post before he became one of four general managers let go in a reorganization last October, on Monday was named executive vice president and general manager of USA Today.

". . . Murphy, who will report to USA TODAY President and Publisher Larry Kramer, will oversee the newspaper's daily operations and help develop new business opportunities," an announcement said.

Jim Hopkins wrote for his independent Gannett Blog, ". . . Murphy is African-American, and his appointment immediately makes him one of Gannett's highest-level minority executives when the company's management ranks have been growing less diverse at the most senior levels. Historically, GCI [Gannett Co. Inc.] has led the newspaper industry in workforce diversity efforts."

Hopkins also wrote that several of USA Today's traditional key functions had already been spun off to other Gannett executives or divisions. ". . . That leaves a relatively diminished portfolio anchored by editorial for Murphy and Kramer to manage in the struggling paper's current turnaround. . . ."

Murphy said in the news release, "As we're transitioning to the digital-first model, I'll be working closely with Larry, the leadership team and other Gannett divisions to realize the potential of the USA TODAY brand."

"Leveraging the recent relaunch of the USA TODAY site, Murphy will also focus on expanding 'new digital offerings and creating demand for all USA TODAY brands,' he says," according to the announcement.

" 'There's so much upside to working with an iconic brand — to get in at a time when it's clear that the brand is in transition and with so many opportunities to shape its future direction,' he says."

When USA Today unveiled a redesign of its pages in September, Kramer said, "We are making a real investment in USA Today, and putting a major focus on reinvigorating the value of print media while introducing new digital products. . . ."

Some critics were skeptical. "As it approaches its 30th birthday, USA Today is in danger of 'marking 30,' a journalistic term for coming to an end, or dying," John K. Hartman wrote in Editor & Publisher.

When Huffington Post named Murphy general manager for multicultural in 2011, a news release said, ". . . Derek Murphy will drive the overall strategy and operational performance for AOL Latino, BlackVoices and AOL's other multicultural offerings.

"Murphy had been COO of Global Media Ventures, which he formed with [Sheila C.] Johnson," co-founder of Black Entertainment Television. "He was previously Senior Vice President, Business Development of The Huffington Post. Prior to that, he was at CNN, where he oversaw integrated media partnerships with a broad range of companies, including Google and Amazon." Murphy has an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Fourth Editor Departing Essence Magazine

A fourth editor — Photo Editor Deborah Boardley — is leaving Essence magazine, spokeswoman Dana Baxter confirmed on Monday.

Boardley joins Editor-in-Chief Constance C.R. White; Corynne L. Corbett, the beauty editor; and Greg Monfries, the creative director, in departing.

The departures come as the parent Time Inc. is cutting some 500 jobs. Neither Baxter nor a spokeswoman for Time Inc. would say whether any of those leaving were part of the corporate layoffs.

Boardley was previously photo editor at Vibe Vixen magazine. Before that, she was an intern at Vibe and senior photo editor at In Touch Weekly.

Vanessa K. Bush, who had been executive editor at Essence, is to be interim managing editor, Baxter said on Friday.

Crazy Horse Workshop Not Being Offered This Year

The Crazy Horse Journalism Workshop, which has trained nearly 1,700 high school and college students in South Dakota's Black Hills, will not be offered this year because of funding problems at its main sponsor, the Freedom Forum, according to Randell Beck, publisher of the Argus Leader in Sioux Falls, S.D.

"We simply did not have the funding," Beck told Journal-isms by telephone on Monday. "We're hoping to bring it back next year."

Beck chairs the minority affairs committee of the South Dakota News Association, which helps to fund the workshop, along with the Argus Leader. However, the Freedom Forum is the largest funder, Beck said.

The committee plans to meet this summer "and look at creative ways to do this," Beck said. "We'll try to evaluate what our options are."

As reported on Friday, the financially troubled Freedom Forum Diversity Institute has removed from its website references to three journalism programs that train Native Americans and students at historically black colleges and universities.

Freedomforumdiversity.org no longer mentions the Crazy Horse Journalism Workshop, the Multimedia Scholars Program or the American Indian Journalism Institute. However, the Chips Quinn Scholars Program remains.

The independent Gannett Blog reported Jan. 9, "The financially troubled non-profit foundation paid CEO James Duff $1.6 million during his first four months on the job in 2011, a year when the Newseum's operator ran a $47 million deficit, newly released public documents show."

Al Neuharth, USA Today: Crazy Horse spurs young Indian media (April 19, 2012)

Mary Kay Blake Retiring From Freedom Forum

Mary Kay Blake, senior vice president of the Newseum and a longtime diversity fixture at the Newseum, Freedom Forum or Gannett Co., confirmed Monday that she is retiring. Blake said she would continue to work in the Newseum's development area, as she has for the past six years, but as a volunteer.

"I remain an advocate for diversity — in newsrooms and in life," Blake told Journal-isms by email.

According to her bio, "Previously she served as senior vice president of development for the Newseum and led its fundraising efforts as a public charity. She joined the Freedom Forum in 1999 to oversee its diversity efforts.

"Before that, she worked 25 years with Gannett Co., starting as news editor for the Pacific Daily News on the island of Guam and moving through corporate recruiting and staff-development roles to become vice president/recruiting and placement for Gannett's Newspaper Division. The first non-minority board member of the National Association of Multicultural Media Executives, she also was the first woman to receive its Distinguished Diversity Award for Lifetime Achievement."

Tim Giago Ending Column of More Than 30 Years

Veteran journalist Tim Giago, an Oglala Lakota, announced Monday that he is ending his column of more than 30 years.

Giago is a founder of the Native American Journalists Association and editor and publisher of the Lakota times and Indian Country Today newspapers. He was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard, class of 1991. In addition to writing from a Native American point of view, long ago raising the issue of Indians as mascots and challenging Oprah Winfrey's producers and the History Channel when necessary, Giago explained to non-Indians why he believed "Indians" to be preferable to "Native American."

". . . Most older American Indians do not use the term 'American Indian' but instead use the single word 'Indian,' " Giago wrote in 2008. "They refer to themselves as 'Indian' and seldom use the PC words Native American. The word 'Indian' is a derivation of the Spanish 'Indios' which was shortened from the Spanish 'Ninos en Dios' which means 'Children of God.' In much of South America and Central America the Natives are called 'Indios.' "

In his farewell column, published on indianz.com and the Huffington Post, Giago wrote, ". . . I know there is one person who will miss my weekly columns. His name is Bill Dulaney and he is a retired professor of journalism from Penn State. In my last conversation with Bill he told me that his battle with cancer is about over. The cancer has now gone to his brain and that brilliant instrument that guided him through a career in journalism is about to grow dim. In 1983 Bill and I put our heads together and came up with the idea of a Native American Journalists Association to emulate the other great minority journalist associations. We succeeded in this endeavor with the support and guidance of Allen Neuharth, then the head of the Gannett Foundation. Twenty nine years later the association is still strong and viable.

"It was never a challenge to find material every week because there was always something either good or bad happening in Indian country. In fact there were times when I had to sort through the material offered in order to choose the subject I thought to be the most tantalizing.

"But I believe that one of the most important things my weekly column accomplished was to take on the closed media in South Dakota in the 1980s and cause them to open their news pages to more positive news concerning Native Americans in their state. I wrote at the time that South Dakota was like the proverbial mule: you had to hit it between the eyes with a two-by-four in order to get its attention. . . . "

Obama Could Be Least Newspaper-Friendly President in a Generation

" 'Entertainment Tonight' scored one last year. The New York Times did not," Paul Farhi reported Monday in the Washington Post.

" 'The View' has gotten several. The Washington Post hasn't had one in years.

"Albuquerque radio station KOB-FM’s 'Morning Mayhem' crew interviewed him in August. The last time the Wall Street Journal did so was in 2009.

"America's newspapers have trouble enough these days, what with shrinking ad revenue and straying readers. But the daily print-and-pixel press also hasn't gotten much love lately from the biggest newsmaker in the business: President Obama.

"When Obama does media interviews these days, it's not with a newspaper. TV gets the bulk of the president's personal attention, from his frequent appearances on '60 Minutes' to MTV to chitchats with local stations around the country. Magazines — including the New Republic, which recently landed an interview conducted by its owner, Facebook co-founder and former Obama campaign operative Chris Hughes — are a distant second, followed by radio.

"Newspapers? Well, Obama may be the least newspaper-friendly president in a generation.

". . . What's more, despite a string of interviews with ethnic broadcasters, including Telemundo and Univision recently, Obama has never consented to an interview with any member of the National Newspaper Publishers Association, an organization consisting of 210 African-American-owned newspapers, said Robert W. Bogle, the organization’s former president. Obama and George W. Bush were the first presidents who haven't done so since Franklin Roosevelt, notes Bogle, the chief executive of the Philadelphia Tribune. . . . "

However, Obama has given interviews to magazines, both mainstream and black-oriented.

Susan Goldberg, executive editor of Bloomberg News in Washington and president of the American Society of News (formerly Newspaper) Editors, declined to comment.

Perry Bacon Jr., the Grio: 4 years into Obama era, a complicated state of our union

David Carr, New York Times: Debating Drones, in the Open

Ta-Nehisi Coates blog, the Atlantic: The Excellent Age of No-Fuss Drones and Remarkable War

Mark R. Jacobson, Washington Post: Five myths about Obama's drone war

Eugene Kane, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Obama missed with skeet photo

Jennifer LaFleur, ProPublica: Has Obama Kept His Open-Government Pledge?

Julianne Malveaux, syndicated: Obama Slights his Loyal Following (Jan. 30)

Askia Muhammad, Washington Informer: Let Slip the Dogs of War (Jan. 30)

Ruben Navarrette Jr., Washington Post News Media Services: Pretender to a legacy

Tony Norman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Obama's drone use attracts wrong allies

Clarence Page, Chicago Tribune: Obama's license to kill by drone

Pew Research Center for the People & the Press: Continued Support for U.S. Drone Strikes

Gary Younge, the Guardian, Britain: Barack Obama is Pushing Gun Control at Home, but He's a Killer Abroad

ABC, Univision Name New Joint Cable Network "Fusion"

"Television networks ABC and Univision announced on Monday the name of their new cable network targeting U.S. Hispanics and that it will launch in the second half of 2013," Susanna Kim reported Monday for ABC News.

"Five cable operators, including Cablevision, Charter, Cox, AT&T U-verse and Google Fiber, have already agreed to carry the new channel, Fusion.

"The companies say the new network will serve 50 million Hispanics, focusing on the issues 'most relevant' for the youngest and fastest-growing demographic in the U.S. The network's coverage will include 'the economy, entertainment, music, food, immigration, pop culture, education, politics, health and wellness and more,' according to a statement released jointly by ABC and Univision.

"With spending power of over $1 trillion, Hispanics represent 16 percent of the total population in the U.S., a number that is projected to double to 30 percent by 2050. . . . "

Venezuela Gives Cubans Alternative to State-Run TV

"There have been some strange sights on Cuban TV sets recently," Andrea Rodriguez reported Sunday for the Associated Press.

"News-starved viewers watched an Ecuadorean opposition candidate liken the government of President Rafael Correa, one of Havana's staunchest allies, to a moonwalking Michael Jackson: He walks like he's moving ahead, but he's actually going backward.

"On another day Cubans learned a quarter-billion of their fellow Latin Americans have access to the Internet — something less than 10 percent of islanders can say themselves.

"Cubans even watched a live broadcast of U.S. President Barack Obama's inaugural address.

"Such images would be unremarkable in most countries, but they're a break from the stodgy, tightly scripted state-run television that has long been the only fare in Cuba, with its mind-numbing tributes to efficiency, constant diatribes against the U.S. economic embargo and remembrances of minor anniversaries from the early years of the 1959 revolution.

"The change has come not from U.S.-funded TV Marti, which few Cubans can see, but via the left-leaning Latin American news channel Telesur, which is bankrolled primarily by Venezuela. Since Jan. 20, it has broadcast live about 12 hours a day in Cuba. . . ."

"Sonny Albarado, president of the Society of Professional Journalists, last week wrote Ann [Kimbrough] of Florida A&M University's journalism school out of concern for its student journalists' First Amendment rights. SPJ President-elect David Cuillier co-authored the letter," SPJ reported on Monday. "The production of the student newspaper The Famuan was suspended in January because of a libel suit filed against the paper and the university. . . . "

The Ron Brown Scholar Program plans to honor Earl G. Graves, Sr., founder of Black Enterprise magazine, and William Raspberry, the late Washington Post columnist, at its fourth annual American Journey awards in Washington on March 22.

The Michigan Chronicle launched a business section, publisher Hiram E. Jackson told readers on Friday. ". . . It's important that we recognize the role played by entrepreneurs in advancing positive social changes. I don't mean businesspeople solving social ills, but people spreading new approaches — through nonprofits and businesses, or within government — to address problems more successfully than in the past . . . ," Jackson wrote.

"Johnson Publishing Company introduces 'EBONY Moments,' featuring downloadable classic interviews, and music via EBONY.com, during Black History Month," the publishing company announced on Monday. "The first release of EBONY Moments interviews feature Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, Eddie Murphy, Spike Lee and others starting at $1.29 each. . . ."

"WTVJ, the NBC-owned station in South Florida, is shuffling weekend and weekday anchors," Merrill Knox reported Monday for TVSpy. "Beginning today, Jawan Strader . . . replaces Keith Jones . . . as co-anchor of the weekday morning newscast. Strader joined WTVJ in August after a decade at rival WFOR, where he was also the morning anchor. At WTVJ, Strader will join Pam Giganti at the anchor desk. . . ."

The Asian American Journalists Association asked Current TV Monday for an apology after remark by host Jackie Schechner. "In trying to counter an argument by Michele Malkin on the health care debate on the show 'Talking Liberally with Stephanie Miller,' your host Jacki Schechner played a comment from Ms. Malkin. Ms. Miller followed up with a dismissive quip, saying 'we tried to unpack that little rice ball of nonsense,' " Paul Cheung, AAJA national president, wrote.

"The Southern Digest at Southern University and A&M College
took top honors at the National HBCU Student News Media Conference, winning Best Student Newspaper, plus four first-place awards and three second-place honors," the Black College Communication Association announced Saturday from Nashville, Tenn., site of the conference.

"Reporters Without Borders condemns the detention of several foreign journalists for several hours on 8 February in Bamako," Mali, the press freedom organization said on Monday. " . . . Usually kept at a distance and sometimes roughed up, journalists have been the victims of obstruction by the authorities since the start of the intervention. Cities remain inaccessible for several days after they have been retaken and the fighting is over, and reporters are kept far from the front lines. . . ."

"The United States said on Wednesday it had sanctioned Iran's main agency in charge of broadcasting for helping the government censor Western reports, part of a broader effort by Washington to pressure Tehran's nuclear program," Timothy Gardner reported for Reuters.

Evaluating the post-Arab Spring Egyptian government of the ruling Muslim Brotherhood, Hani Shukrallah wrote Friday for Foreign Policy, " . . . Freedom of expression and freedom to peacefully protest have also been under concerted attack by the new regime. The Brotherhood, rather than acting to guarantee the independence of the state-owned media, has sought to bring these outlets under its sway — maintaining and even increasing their obsequiousness to the ruler of the moment and their nearly unmitigated lack of professionalism. The Brotherhood did so even as it acted to intimidate and strangle privately owned media: Its Salafi allies laid siege to Greater Cairo's Media City, home to most private TV stations, and called for the 'purging' of the media, while the government launched a record number of cases against the president's critics in the media, most prominently liberal satirist Bassem Youssef — Egypt's Jon Stewart. . . . "

Facebook users: "Like" "Richard Prince's Journal-isms" on Facebook.

Journal-isms is published on the site of the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education (mije.org). Reprinted on The Root by permission.

Ex-N.Y. Times Writer Showcased Black Women's Diversity

February 10, 2013

Staff Departures at Essence

Editorial staff head out at the black women's magazine, followed by others.

Constance White (Frederic J. Brown/AFP/Getty Images)

Constance C.R. White, who returned Essence magazine to a showcase for black women of diverse skin tones and hairstyles, is leaving the magazine, as are Corynne L. Corbett, the beauty editor, and Greg Monfries, the creative director, spokeswoman Dana Baxter confirmed for Journal-isms Friday night and Saturday.

Vanessa Bush, the executive editor, "will step into Constance's role in the interim as managing editor," Baxter said by email. She declined to elaborate.

The Jamaica-born White, a veteran journalist, was style director, brand consultant and spokeswoman for eBay, the online company, when she was named to lead Essence, the nation's leading magazine for black women, in 2011. The Time Inc. property ranks second in circulation to Ebony among magazines targeting African Americans.

"White was previously the founding Fashion Editor for Talk magazine, a celebrated Style Reporter for The New York Times and the Executive Fashion Editor for Elle magazine. She also served as Associate Editor at Women's Wear Daily and W magazine and began her career at Ms. magazine, as assistant to co-Founder Gloria Steinem," an announcement said when she was named.

This column noted at the time that the March 2011 issue of Essence magazine, delivered during Black History Month,"might as well have been renamed 'Wigs and Weaves.' "

"It seemed like that kind of advertorial. Subsequent issues weren't much different," the summary of the year in media diversity continued.

"However, issues for the rest of the year represented a return to acknowledging the diversity among black women. Under Constance C.R. White, named editor-in-chief in March, Essence is showing women of varying skin tones and hair styles and tackling more subjects that bolster the self-esteem of its impressionable audience. The December issue included a piece by Denene Miller on colorism, defined as 'the practice of extending or withholding favor based on a person's skin tone.' 'ColorStruck' was accompanied by a quiz by Ylonda Gault Caviness to determine whether you are."

At the National Association of Black Journalists convention last year in New Orleans, White remarked that the magazine was looking for models among everyday women because editors were not satisfied with the look of the professional models available. "Street Style" became a regular feature, spotlighting "What We're Wearing In . . . "

Bush describes herself in a LinkedIn profile as a 19-year veteran of the magazine industry.

"Prior to this position, she was the Digital Editorial Manager of Food/Lifestyle Content at General Mills," it says. "She has also held various editorial posts at Life and Glamour magazines. Vanessa co-authored a best-selling beauty and empowerment book with model, entrepreneur and media icon Tyra Banks, Tyra’s Beauty Inside & Out, and is a past winner of a Merrill Journalism Fellowship in Child and Family Policy. She has also served as a contributor at Kaboose.com, a parenting and lifestyle web site. A foodie, Vanessa holds a culinary degree from the Natural Gourmet Institute for Health and Culinary Arts in New York City, and is a graduate of Harvard University and the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism."

Monfries, the creative director, had worked at Essence since August 2009, according to his LinkedIn profile, and was deputy design director at People magazine for 14 years and nine months.

"Corynne L. Corbett has spent more than twenty years encouraging and empowering women to look good and live well," her LinkedIn profile reads. "She is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Chic Jones Media LLC, a company that promotes communication and community among women. The company launched That Black Girl Site (www.thatblackgirlsite.com), a blog collective covering topics of interest to African American women in 2008. Corbett is also a contributing Life & Soul blogger on realsimple.com.

She was executive editor of Real Simple, editor-in-chief of Heart & Soul and editor-in-chief of Mode, "a publication that radically changed the landscape of fashion magazines with its focus on real-sized women."

Time Inc. is cutting some 500 jobs. Fourth-quarter numbers explain why, according to Peter Kafka of All Things D. "Revenue was down 7 percent, to $967 million, and ad revenue was down 4 percent. But the publisher is still the world’s biggest, and it still makes piles of money: Operating income was down 3 percent, to $200 million. . . ."

Freedom Forum Diversity Unit Pulls 3 Programs From Website

The financially troubled Freedom Forum Diversity Institute has removed from its website references to three journalism programs that train Native Americans and students at historically black colleges and universities, leading some to conclude that those programs will not be offered this year.

Scott Williams, the Freedom Forum's vice president of marketing, told Journal-isms by telephone this week that the foundation, headquartered in Washington, was "still working out operational details" and thus did not want to put the missing programs on the website. "Everything is a work in progress," he said.

The independent Gannett Blog reported Jan. 9, "The financially troubled non-profit foundation paid CEO James Duff $1.6 million during his first four months on the job in 2011, a year when the Newseum's operator ran a $47 million deficit, newly released public documents show.

"The disclosure comes with fresh warnings of financial trouble. Today, Freedom Forum laid off 20% of approximately 150 employees at the Washington museum and other programs financed by the foundation. These are just the latest cuts since the museum opened in new quarters in 2008 that cost nearly double the original $250 million construction estimate. . . ."

Jack Marsh told Journal-isms by email this week that he was "wrapping up my duties as president and COO of the Freedom Forum Diversity Institute, retiring in early 2014 and am transitioning to a different role with the Freedom Forum for my last year with the organization."

Nearly 1,700 high school and college students have completed the Crazy Horse Journalism Workshop, which is designed to inspire Native American students to dream about the future and consider journalism as a career. During the weeklong program at the Crazy Horse Memorial in South Dakota's Black Hills, journalists and educators from around the country teach a condensed course about the fundamentals of journalism.

The Freedom Forum Diversity Institute Multimedia Scholars Program, which takes place in May and June at the John Seigenthaler Center at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., is a free 10-day boot camp [video] in which scholars learn to shoot and edit audio, video and photos, and enhance their writing and editing skills. It targets students at historically black colleges and universities, is run in partnership with Schurz Communications and places successful graduates in eight-week paid multimedia internships at newspapers owned by Schurz.

The American Indian Journalism Institute, which began in 2001, is described as a concentrated academic program teaching the basics of journalism in a university-approved, four-credit course. It is held in June on the University of South Dakota campus in Vermillion.

The Chips Quinn Scholars program, with more than 1,000 alumni, says it "offers journalism students of color hands-on training in journalism and mentoring by caring news veterans. The aim: Provide special support and encouragement that will open doors to news careers and bring greater diversity to the nation's daily newspaper newsrooms. . . . Internships are offered in Spring and Summer. . . ."

3 Who Slimmed Down Say Christie Should Listen Up

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie yelled this week at a former White House doctor who publicly suggested that the overweight Christie shed some pounds, but three media figures who underwent gastric bypass surgery say the doctor is right.

Asked about Dr. Connie Mariano’s comments at a news conference on Wednesday, Christie lashed out, calling her "just another hack who wants five minutes on TV . . ." Holly Bailey reported for Yahoo News.

". . . Governor, you might not want to dismiss her so quickly," Bryan Monroe, editor of CNNPolitics.com and a former president of the National Association of Black Journalists, wrote Friday on cnn.com. "Yes, she has never examined you and maybe it's not her job to be pointing out the obvious: that morbidly obese men have a significantly higher chance of dying early than the population at large. But, still, she was probably doing you a favor. How do I know? Seven years ago, governor, I was you.

" . . . at 6 feet 4 inches tall and 441 pounds, I was morbidly obese. . . ."

Sidmel Estes, another former NABJ president, told Journal-isms by email, "I absolutely agree with Bryan. I, too, was morbidly obese most of my life and felt fine. I didn't have the 'wake up' call that Bryan had, but my doctor warned me that since I weighed more than any Atlanta Falcons offensive lineman, I was 'cruisin' for a bruisin'.

"Most people don't understand that a gastric bypass is a medical treatment for a medical problem. That's what Governor Christie should embrace. I can understand the Governor lashing out, just like when I was mocked as a young child as a 'fat girl.' If you have a broken arm, you get medical treatment, not just think it is going to heal by itself. There are so many misconceptions about how to deal with the obesity epidemic in this country. That's why I'm writing my book on going from 'Fat to Phat.' "

Estes is a longtime television executive producer and the founder and CEO of Breakthrough Inc., an Atlanta-based media consulting company. "I reached my peak at 360 pounds.... I had the surgery in 1999," she said by email. "I have kept the weight off and now weigh 190ish."

Joe Madison, talk-show host on SiriusXM radio, discussed his experience Thursday on Al Sharpton's "PoliticsNation" on MSNBC. He told Journal-isms by telephone Friday that he weighed 276 pounds when a doctor looked at him in a waiting room and said, "You're not leaving the office until I examine you." The doctor concluded that Madison's weight put him at risk for diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels. "If you don't lose weight, you are going to drop dead, and nobody's going to know why," Madison quoted the doctor as saying.

Soon afterward, Maynard Jackson, Atlanta's first black mayor who was also overweight, died after suffering a heart attack while on a 2003 business trip in Washington. Jackson, 65, "had all the morbidity that I had because of weight," Madison said. He also discussed the weight problem with then-Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., D-Ill., and his sister, Santita Jackson, both of whom had gastric bypass surgery.

"It's not a political issue, it's a matter of health," Madison said. "Stress and being president of the United State do not mix. Stress and being overweight do not mix."

Madison says he now weighs 176 pounds. "I keep a tuxedo I had when I was 276," he said. "I put it on, and both my wife and I can fit in it."

Whitlock Knocks Associated Press Sports Editors as Biased

Jason Whitlock, columnist for FoxSports.com, lashed out at the Associated Press Sports Editors Thursday, saying ". . . It's very difficult — perhaps impossible — for a person of color who writes from a minority perspective to be recognized as the best at anything in sportswriting."

"That's not a charge of racism. It's a charge of bias, an affliction we all have," Whitlock continued.

"As best I can tell, no non-white has won the APSE's column-writing contest. . . ."

Whitlock also expressed his disappointment that he was ruled ineligible for the Pulitzer Prize competition because broadcast media and broadcast media websites are not eligible, he said he learned Tuesday.

". . . Pursuing the Pulitzer in an honest, transparent fashion has been one of the things that has kept me from selling out and simply pursuing money and fame," Whitlock wrote for the Daily, a publication of his alma mater, Ball State University. "I pride myself on being a journalist. I feuded with and never made peace with ESPN because I see the Worldwide Leader as the enemy of sports journalism.

"ESPN is the very justification for the Pulitzer's stipulation forbidding broadcast media outlets from entering its competition. . . ."

Gerry Ahern of USA Today, president of the APSE, told Journal-isms by email, "The Associated Press Sports Editors contest has long been recognized as one of the premier honors for sports journalists. Our contest goes to great lengths to ensure the integrity of the judging. Bylines and newspaper affiliations are redacted from the entries. Any judge that sees an entry from their news organization or from their market recuses themselves from judging that entry or discussion of it."

Asked whether he didn't think that writers with a certain voice, particularly columnists, can be spotted even without a byline, and their ethnicity identified if they're writing about racial issues, Ahern replied:

"The entries are judged on their merit, with a column submission consisting of five entries in an attempt to best show the writer's range. That allows for diverse topics and approaches to column writing to be evidenced."

Ed Sherman, Sherman Report: Why Jason Whitlock wouldn't do Q/A with me; said I didn’t ask ‘sophisticated questions'

Where Were Media on Drones in Obama's First Term?

"It's been all drones all the time this week," Michael Calderone wrote Friday for the Huffington Post. "NBC News kicked things off Monday with a major scoop on the administration's legal rationale for targeting U.S. citizens linked to al Qaeda, and extensive coverage followed in print, online and on cable news.

"In the three days leading up to White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan's confirmation hearing Thursday to become the next CIA director, the words 'drone' and 'drones' were used hundreds of times on MSNBC, Fox News and CNN, according to a TVEyes search. The drone media debate over drone warfare, which gained steam in the weeks leading up to President Barack Obama's second inaugural, has only gotten more intense since.

"But where was the media during Obama's first term, given that the president authorized his first drone strike just days after taking office and has greatly expanded the secret program from the Bush years? . . . "

Ta-Nehisi Coates blog, the Atlantic: The Legality of the White Paper and Summary Execution

Eric Deggans blog, Tampa Bay (Fla.) Times: Why is fake newsman Jon Stewart more willing to correct mistakes than Bill O'Reilly?

Glen Ford, Black Agenda Report: Fleets of Drones Descend on Africa

Conor Friedersdorf, the Atlantic: Why Does the Media Go Easy on Barack Obama?

Roy Greenslade blog, the Guardian, Britain: Washington Post was forced into finally revealing drone base secret

Jeremy Scahill with Amy Goodman, "Democracy Now!" Pacifica Radio: Assassinations of U.S. Citizens Largely Ignored at Brennan CIA Hearing

David A. Wilson, the Grio: Black pride in Obama shouldn’t silence dissent on drone policy

More Oppose Redskins Name After D.C. Symposium

"Hurtful names and racial stereotypes of all types were discussed and dissected Thursday in a daylong symposium at the Smithsonian, and the Washington Redskins were at the top of the list for nearly all those who spoke," the Associated Press reported.

" 'I can only imagine what it would be like to be at a football game at FedEx Field in a crowd of close to 90,000, all screaming at the top of their lungs, when what they are screaming is a racial slur,' said Judith Bartnoff, a deputy presiding judge in District of Columbia Superior Court. . . ."

Among those at the forum was Suzan Shown Harjo, president of the Washington-based Morning Star Institute, an advocacy group, who said there are about 900 troublesome nicknames and mascots across the country, down from a peak of more than 3,000 in the early 1970s. Harjo, who has been active in the Native American Journalists Association, filed suit in 1992, challenging the Redskins' trademark.

Washington Post columnists Robert McCartney and Courtland Milloy wrote columns opposing the team name, and Bruce Johnson, veteran reporter at WUSA-TV, the Gannett-owned Washington CBS affiliate, wrote on Facebook:

"I'm . . . no longer using the 'Redskins' name when referring to my hometown NFL team. I am a big fan and from time to time I report on the team.

"I have no speech, no need to explain. The name is insulting to Native Americans. They've been telling us this for years. No one who isn't Native American can give the word new meaning. It's wrong and no amount of money or team of lawyers can change that; I came to shorten the name to just 'Skins,' I suppose to try and make myself feel like I wasn't part of the 'head in the sand' crowd. That was a cop out! I'm done. Thanks to Courtland Milloy, Mike Wise and others for keeping the issue real! . . ."

Washington Post: Redskins name change debated (video)

Plenty of Reasons to Mention L.A. Suspect's Race

The stylebooks say race should be mentioned in describing suspects only when relevant, but Christopher Jordan Dorner, described as "a linebacker-sized ex-cop with a multitude of firearms, military training and a seemingly bottomless grudge born when the LAPD fired him in 2009," has given news outlets plenty of reasons to make it part of the story.

"Before dawn Thursday, authorities said, Dorner had already struck twice — grazing an LAPD officer's head with a bullet in Corona, and firing on two Riverside officers, killing one and wounding another," the Los Angeles Times reported.

Before the shootings, Dorner wrote a manifesto detailing who he planned to kill and why. The Times reported, "Dorner felt isolated growing up as one of the few African American children in the neighborhoods where he lived and was the victim of racism, according to the manifesto. ‘My first recollection of racism was in the first grade,’ Dorner allegedly wrote, recalling a fellow student at Norwalk Christian School who called him a racial slur. Dorner said he responded ‘fast and hard,’ punching and kicking the student."

Fox News Latino noted, "Latinos are 'high value targets' for a former Los Angeles Police Department officer who is alleged to have started a killing spree and is now a fugitive on the run in the Southwest or even Mexico. . . ."

Associated Press: Murder Suspect Sent CNN's Cooper a Package

Associated Press: Dorner Manifesto: Suspected Gunman Talks Politics, Pop Culture In His 'Last Resort'

Wayne Bennett, Field Negro: Los Angeles, we have a problem.

Matthew Fleischer, FishbowlLA: Newspaper Delivery Women Shot During Manhunt for Killer Cop

Los Angeles Times: Manhunt manifesto

Los Angeles Times: Dorner manhunt: Sheriff says ex-cop not a threat to ski resorts

End of Saturday Mail Could Push Magazines to Online Only

". . . The U.S. Postal Service said Wednesday that it will end first-class mail delivery on Saturdays as of August, pending congressional approval, in a move that will impact thousands of newspapers, magazines and direct-mail advertisers," Bill Cromwell reported Thursday for Media Life Magazine. "It will result in a savings of $2 billion per year for the mail service.

"One immediate consequence of the change could be pushing magazine publishers even further along toward digital delivery, an avenue that has seen significant growth over the past few years.

“ 'The bigger issue here, I think, is the continuing trend moving media consumption away from content in hard-copy form (whether it is mail, magazines, etc.) and into digital form,' says Carol Pais Hammond, director of print buying at Fallon. . . ."

Christine Haughney, New York Times: Magazines React to Post Office Cutbacks: 'The Friday Evening Post'?

Christine Haughney, New York Times: Led by Celebrity Titles, Magazine Newsstand Sales Slide

Mary Wisniewski, Reuters: U.S. Post Office cuts threaten source of black jobs (Jan. 21)

"Robin Roberts will return to the 'Good Morning America' anchor desk on Wednesday, Feb. 20, five months to the day since she underwent a bone marrow transplant to treat myelodysplastic syndrome or MDS, a rare blood disorder," ABC News reported Wednesday.

". . . The dirty secret about the web media business is that there's a massive oversupply problem," Ryan McCarthy wrote Wednesday for Reuters. "[Every day], content creators are producing more journalism, more think-pieces, more interactive graphics, more photo galleries, more tweets, more slideshows, more videos, more GIFs, and more deviously socially-optimized Corgi listicles. All of that is being distributed via more channels on more devices. This creates more supply for display ads, web media’s favorite and still growing revenue generator. All that supply, however, drags down ad prices. . . ."

"Ezequiel 'Zeke' Montes Jr., president of the National Association of Hispanic Publications (NAHP), and Tele Guia publisher and CEO, passed away on Tuesday, Jan. 29, from complications due to pneumonia," Rebecca Villaneda reported Tuesday for HispanicBusiness.com.

"ABC News President Ben Sherwood today announced that Senior National Correspondent Jim Avila is expanding his duties," Veronica Villafañe reported Wednesday for her Media Moves site. "Starting later this year, he will be the first White House correspondent for the ABC/Univision joint venture. He'll continue to contribute to 20/20. Jim has been assigned to lead the charge for ABC News on covering Hispanic America, immigration reform, education, politics and other issues vitally important to the Latino community. . . ."

Johnny Green Jr. is joining WCAU-TV in Philadelphia, where Vice President of News Anzio Williams has been making numerous personnel changes. Green will be executive producer for late news, Merrill Knox reported Thursday for TVSpy. "He comes from WPXI in Pittsburgh, where he was the nightside and special projects executive producer."

On Thursday, Paul Cheung, new national president of the Asian American Journalists Association, joined in the condemnation of an opinion column by former New York Times reporter Joel Brinkley that alleged that Vietnamese people eat birds, squirrels, rats and dogs. Tribune Media Services retreated from the column on Feb. 1.

". . . Lifetime TV’s upcoming film 'Betty and Coretta' about the friendship between Betty Shabazz and Coretta Scott King, "has achieved a historic double-header," Barbara Reynolds wrote in the Washington Post. ". . . For most viewers, the film will be well-received. It is provocative, dramatic entertainment. But for others, who believe portraits of famous people should adhere to a truthful story line, there are problems, especially for relatives closest to the two widowed legends. . . ."

The entry deadlines for the 2013 Edward R. Murrow Awards contest and the RTDNA/Unity Awards contest have been extended to Wednesday, Feb. 20. The RTDNA/Unity Awards "encourage and showcase journalistic excellence in covering issues of race and ethnicity."

Sonia Sotomayor's latest event to promote her new memoir, "My Beloved World," surely raised a few eyebrows when she expressed hesitation about allowing cameras into the Supreme Court, Jordan Teicher reported Wednesday for New York magazine. The justice's remarks "are particularly surprising because she previously seemed inclined to allow the televising of oral arguments. . . . "

"In the run-up to the November presidential elections, skirmishes over voter ID requirements, among other voting rules, bubbled up in several swing states — including Colorado, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Virginia — as well as in the federal courts," Corey Hutchins reported Thursday for Columbia Journalism Review. "This week, news out of Virginia confirmed those fights aren't likely to fade. And neither will the need for clarifying coverage, for reporting that steers clear of the he-said, she-said pitfall, for reporters who avoid attributing something that can be stated as fact. . . ."

"Second-generation Americans — the 20 million adult U.S.-born children of immigrants — are substantially better off than immigrants themselves on key measures of socioeconomic attainment, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data," the center said Thursday. "They have higher incomes; more are college graduates and homeowners; and fewer live in poverty. . . ."

"African-American viewers got real with their primetime viewing in January, with episodes from Bravo's reality series Real Housewives Of Atlanta and BET's scripted show Real Husbands Of Hollywood representing six of the top 10 most watched shows during the month," R. Thomas Umstead reported Friday for Multichannel News.

In Washington, "Longtime Channel 9/WUSA news anchor Bruce Johnson . . . has produced a documentary entitled 'Before You Eat The Church Food,' " dcrtv.com reported Thursday. "Addressing . . . 'the incredibly high mortality rates among African Americans . . .from cardiovascular disease and what can and is being done to reverse this epidemic.' " Johnson produced the video for the Association of Black Cardiologists and is a heart attack survivor. The 40-minute documentary is to he shown on Feb. 18 at 9 p.m. via Maryland Public Television. (Video).

"Beginning this spring, Morgan State University's campus newspaper, The Spokesman, will become a strictly online publication," Odessa Mohabeer reported Thursday for the Afro-American Newspapers. ". . . Morgan State has made three previous attempts to transition to an all-online newspaper, dating back to the early 2000s. . . . "

The Committee to Protect Journalists said Friday it "condemns the revival of criminal charges against Ethiopian journalist Temesghen Desalegn today in what appears to be a politicized court hearing designed to censor one of the few critical voices left in the country . . . "

In India, "Individuals alleged to be part of a right-wing Hindu group attacked an employee of the Mangalore-based Karavali Ale daily on Wednesday, confiscated and torched copies of the paper's editions on Thursday, and threatened news vendors, according to news reports and the head of the media group that owns the paper. The paper had published a front page story linking the Hindu group to drug trafficking, news reports said," the Committee to Protect Journalists reported.

"The station manager of a Liberian radio station was reportedly severely beaten yesterday and later required medical treatment," Jan Beyer reported Friday for the International Press Institute. "Hector Mulbah, station manager at Radio Gbezohn, said that he was beaten after a dispute in which a politician refused to 'underwrite the cost of Radio Talks Shows whenever he is hosted,' the New Dawn reported. Country Representative Buchanan Smith allegedly ordered his guards to beat Mulbah. . . ."

Facebook users: "Like" "Richard Prince's Journal-isms" on Facebook.

Journal-isms is published on the site of the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education (mije.org). Reprinted on The Root by permission.

Keith Clinkscales Praises "Strong Voice at ESPN"

February 8, 2013

Rob Parker Gets Online Columnist Gig

He lands at Keith Clinkscale's Shadow League after the Robert Griffin III dustup.

Rob Parker (ESPN)

Less than a month after ESPN decided not to renew his contract over controversial remarks he made during the "First Take" talk show, commentator Rob Parker has landed a columnist's spot on Keith Clinkscales's new digital sports platform.

A Wednesday news release began, "Today, TheShadowLeague.com announced award-winning sports columnist Rob Parker has been added to its roster. Parker’s first column for the newly unveiled website will be published Thursday, Feb. 7, 2013.

" 'There is no doubt that Rob's love of sports permeates everything he does,' says TheShadowLeague.com Editor-in-Chief Vince Thomas. 'We are truly excited that he has joinedTheShadowLeague.com. Rob's hard-hitting and honest opinions make him a standout sports columnist who can reach fans in print and online spaces, as well as radio and television.' "

During a Dec. 13 episode of "First Take" on ESPN2, Parker was discussing Washington Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III. Parker said in the fateful broadcast:

"Some people I've known for a long time. My question, which is just a straight, honest question, is ... is he a 'brother,' or is he a cornball 'brother'? He's not really ... he's black, but he's not really down with the cause. He's not one of us. He's kind of black, but he's not really like the guy you'd want to hang out with. I just want to find out about him. I don't know, because I keep hearing these things. He has a white fiancée, people talking about that he's a Republican ... there's no information at all. I'm just trying to dig deeper into why he has an issue. Tiger Woods was like, 'I have black skin, but don't call me black.' People wondered about Tiger Woods early on -- about him."

At first, ESPN said it was "conducting a full review" of a situation in which the network aired remarks that many considered offensive. Then, on Dec. 20, the network said it had decided to suspend Parker for 30 days, tighten editorial oversight of the "First Take" show and was taking "appropriate disciplinary measures" against employees who played a role in allowing Parker's remarks on the air.

Clinkscales, an entrepreneur, former magazine publisher and former ESPN executive, told Journal-isms Wednesday by telephone, "I've known Rob for several years. He had a strong voice at ESPN. As management decided they were going to go in a different direction with the show, it gave us an opportunity to have some discussions about working together on this venture."

Parker told Journal-isms Wednesday he writes a column for ClickOnDetroit.com and has continued his work at Detroit's WDIV-TV. He is a contributor to that station's "Sports Final Edition," which airs Sunday nights, News Director Kim Voet has told Journal-isms. Parker said he also owns a Detroit barbershop, Sporty Cutz, and hot dog carryout, All-Star Dawgs.

Parker, then a sports columnist with the Detroit News, resigned from the News in 2009. He had been demoted to general assignment sports reporter in the fallout from a news conference question to the coach of the Detroit Lions NFL team that drew criticism from management, readers and other sports journalists.

Before that, Parker apologized for implicating Michigan State University backup quarterback Kirk Cousins in an off-campus assault. Parker made the statement on WDIV-TV's "Clubhouse Confidential."

Back in 1991, Parker was brought up on charges by the Newspaper Guild for crossing picket lines during a bitter strike at the New York Daily News. The charges were later dropped and Parker moved on to the Cincinnati Enquirer.

The Shadow League news release said, ". . . Parker has enjoyed an illustrious career in sports journalism for more than twenty years. The famed writer has broken many boundaries, garnering acclaim as the first black sports columnist in the newsrooms of the Detroit Free Press and Newsday. He is also a distinguished Baseball Hall of Fame voter.

"Additionally, Parker has written for the New Haven Register, the Detroit News and the New York Daily News. Most recently, Parker spent eight years with ESPN, debating hot topics on ESPN’s '[FirstTake],' riding the airwaves of ESPN Radio and writing for the ESPN.com affiliate [ESPN New York]."

Poll: Blacks Trust Fox Far Less Than Other Groups

African Americans trust Fox News Channel far less than whites and Hispanics, according to a new survey, and trust CNN, MSNBC, ABC, NBC and CBS more than whites do.

Among whites and Hispanics, Fox News Channel was both the most trusted and least trusted television news outlet surveyed by Public Policy Polling, an outfit that predicted, state by state, the outcome of the 2012 presidential election.

Overall, "PPP's annual poll on TV news finds that there's only one source more Americans trust than distrust: PBS [PDF]," a news release said Wednesday. "52% of voters say they trust PBS to only 29% who don't trust it. The other seven outlets we polled on are all distrusted by a plurality of voters." The Spanish-language networks were not surveyed.

"Just like its actual ratings, Fox News has hit a record low in the four years that we've been doing this poll," the authors continued. "41% of voters trust it to 46% who do not. To put those numbers into some perspective the first time we did this poll, in 2010, 49% of voters trusted it to 37% who did not." PPP surveyed 800 voters nationally from January 31st to February 3rd. The margin of error for the survey was +/-3.5%.

Viewers' choices matched their politics. ". . . We find once again this year that Democrats trust everything except Fox, and Republicans don't trust anything other than Fox. . .," the authors said.

The results for "trust ABC?" were:

Trust it -- Overall, 32 percent; Hispanics, 47 percent; whites, 27 percent; African Americans, 44 percent; other, 42 percent.

For "trust CBS?":

Trust it -- Overall, 34 percent; Hispanics, 51 percent; whites, 29 percent; African Americans, 45 percent; other, 40 percent.

For "trust CNN?":

Trust it -- Overall, 38 percent; Hispanics, 53 percent; whites, 33 percent; African Americans, 54 percent; other, 44 percent.

For "trust Fox?":

Trust it -- Overall, 41 percent; Hispanics, 43 percent; whites, 43 percent; African Americans, 29 percent; other, 37 percent.

For "trust MSNBC?":

Trust it -- Overall, 35 percent; Hispanics, 41 percent; whites, 30 percent; African Americans, 57 percent; other, 45 percent.

For "trust NBC?":

Trust it -- Overall, 39 percent; Hispanics, 57 percent; whites, 32 percent; African Americans, 60 percent; others, 46 percent.

For "trust PBS?":

Trust it -- Overall, 52 percent; Hispanics, 65 percent; whites, 47 percent; African Americans, 63 percent; others, 65 percent.

Tommy Christopher reported in January for Mediaite that MSNBC ". . . enjoyed significant (around 20%) ratings increases across the board" in 2012, "but made astonishing gains with their already-large African American audience, growing that audience by 60.5% for the Mon-Sun 8pm-11pm period. . . .

"In that same time period, CNN grew its black audience by 23.7% (from 131,000 in 2011 to 162,000 in 2012, 23.9% of their total audience), while Fox News' declined by 23.7% (38,000 in 2011 to 29,000 in 2012, 1.4% of their total audience), but MSNBC had more black viewers than both of those nets combined (from 177,000 in 2011 to 284,000 in 2012, 31.4% of their total audience). . . . "

Shirley Carswell Leaving Washington Post After 25 Years

A day after Kevin Merida was named the first African American managing editor at the Washington Post, Shirley Carswell, a black journalist who for years administered the multimillion-dollar budget for the Post newsroom and became deputy managing editor in 2009, confirmed that she taking a buyout after more than 25 years.

"Yes, I am going to be leaving at the end of March," Carswell told Journal-isms by email, adding later by telephone, "I am leaving because it feels like the right time. I've been at the Post about half of my life. I've really been doing some version of the job for 20 years."

She said she doubted she would return to a newsroom -- otherwise, why leave the Post? -- but said she was not ruling anything out. Carswell said she plans to get some rest, then "take some time and travel."

Carswell succeeded her mentor, Milton Coleman, in the deputy managing editor's position. When Coleman left the newsroom in January, it was Carswell who notified the newsroom that his retirement was imminent.

Last May, in the wake of a buyout offer that disproportionately claimed journalists of color, Carswell was named to head the newspaper's recruiting, hiring, diversity and training efforts.

Her duties as the newsroom's budget manager were shifted to Newsroom Budget Director Raquel Edora. She retained authority over newsroom real estate, deciding who should sit where, and was in charge of newsroom IT and operations.

"Anyone who has worked with Shirley knows that she is a center of calm in a bureaucratic [whirl]," Marcus Brauchli, then executive editor, said in the 2009 appointment. "She is a master of her arts, managing the integration of our print and online operations, bringing together our two staffs into a common team, rebuilding offices and running budgets.

"Shirley grew up in Pittsburgh, earned her undergraduate journalism degree at Howard University, and worked in Richmond and Detroit before joining the Post in 1988 as a copy editor. She's been Assistant Managing Editor since 1994, after a succession of jobs that included metro copy chief."

Carswell has also been active in the Washington Association of Black Journalists. In 2005, she won election as treasurer after running because "righteous indignation got the better of me. I was really pissed off when I heard somebody stole the money." WABJ had discovered that $4,200 in chapter funds was missing.

Also at the Post, Senior Editor Peter Perl, whose recent responsibilities included hiring, training, evaluating and other personnel matters, announced Tuesday that he was retiring after 32 years.

U.S. Black Journalists Join Global News Operation

Several black journalists whose names have appeared in this column over the years -- Lyne Pitts, Gary Anthony Ramsay, James Blue, Jeff Koinange and Debbye Turner Bell -- are part of Arise News, a 24-hour international TV news operation that launched Wednesday, the Vanguard newspaper reported from Lagos, Nigeria.

The network is "set to rival existing giants in the global market" and will be "broadcasting from its main News Centres in London, New York, Johannesburg and Lagos," the newspaper said.

"ARISE NEWS, will have a strong African footprint and serve underserved communities in the USA and other parts of the world, supported by a further eight bureaux around the globe stretching from Beijing to Rio de Janeiro.

"A sister channel, ARISE 360, which will be entertainments-based with fashion, music, sport and pay per view films, will start broadcasting toward the end of this year.

"The 'arrival' of the network was announced by company executives in London and New York.

"Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of ARISE NEWS and ARISE 360 is Nduka Obaigbena, owner and publisher of the fashion and culture magazine, ARISE, and the publisher of several other titles including one of Nigeria's daily newspapers, THISDAY.

"Mr. Obaigbena said: 'We will attract a global audience interested in emerging markets, developing countries and evolving politics. With headquarters and bureaux throughout Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas, we are ready to speak to our audience and give them a voice as well.'. . . "

Pitts "is heading up the US operation from a vast studio complex in New York." She was named one of five vice presidents of NBC News in 2007 and spent 23 years at CBS News, where she was a producer. She left NBC News in 2009 and is married to CBS News national correspondent Byron Pitts.

Ramsay, director of U.S. news and operations, is a former president of the New York Association of Black Journalists and former NY1 reporter. He left the station in 2007 after calling an NY1 talk show and falsely identifying himself as "Dalton from the upper East Side" to give his opinion about a story on former Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik, according to the Daily News in New York. The story says Ramsay "has covered conflicts from Kosovo to Iraq."

Blue, director of current affairs and special projects based in Washington, was an Emmy and Peabody award-winning producer with ABC News' "Nightline" and NBC's "Today." In 2011, he produced the documentary "Michelle Obama on a Mission: Impact Africa," for BET.

Koinange, formerly CNN's star Africa reporter, is to be based in Johannesburg as an anchorman and correspondent. He left CNN in 2007 after a blog in Kenya accused him of being "the Kenyan date rape journalist." The Kenyan-born journalist's CNN bio said at the time, "He has reported on major events from all across the African continent."

Turner Bell, Miss America of 1990, has been a correspondent for CBS News' now-defunct "The Early Show." She is to be a regular anchor for Arise America. Turner Bell left CBS last year.

Others named in the story are Nigerian-born John Chiahemen, a former Reuters bureau chief, as managing editor and head of Africa; David Glencorse, a former Sky News anchorman, international reporter and Royal Television Society award winner, as global editorial director of the company; Nick Jennings, a former head of international news at Sky News, as director of news and news gathering; and Gavin Hill, until recently an award-winning ITV producer of documentaries, as director of features.

Rep. Cardiss Collins, Media Diversity Advocate, Dies at 81

Cardiss Collins, for many years the only black congresswoman, the first African American woman to represent Illinois in Congress, and one who took an interest in media issues involving people of color, died Sunday at age 81, according to news reports.

"Family friend Mel Blackwell said Mrs. Collins died of complications from pneumonia Sunday evening at a hospital in Alexandria, Va.," Lauren Fitzpatrick reported Tuesday for the Chicago Sun-Times.

Dwight Ellis, right, with Rep. Cardiss Collins, D-Ill., and Grant Tinker, chairm

Dwight Ellis, who for two years was Collins' chief of staff, told Journal-isms by telephone that Collins was the first African American to serve on the House Communications Subcommittee. Ellis, a vice president of the National Association of Broadcasters from 1980 to 2004, said he wrote Collins' speeches and advised her on communications issues.

"In 1972, George Collins was killed along with Dorothy Hunt, wife of Watergate conspirator E. Howard Hunt, and CBS News correspondent Michele Clark after their Midway-bound plane crashed on Chicago’s Southwest Side," the Sun-Times story recalled.

"Mayor Richard J. Daley chose to slate the widow as the Democratic endorsed candidate over nine others, saying, 'We’re all convinced she’ll make a great congresslady.' " [Clark became the namesake for the summer training program for minority journalists at Columbia University that evolved into the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education.]

The website Black Americans in Congress noted, "Collins also worked to prevent federal tax write-offs for advertising firms that discriminated against minority-owned media companies. Hoping to 'provide black and other minority station owners with a mechanism for redress,' Collins argued that financial penalties for offending agencies would help combat discrimination and level the playing field for all media organizations. She also crusaded against gender and racial inequality in broadcast licensing. On several occasions, Collins introduced legislation to preserve Federal Communications Commission policies designed to increase the number of women and minorities owning media companies."

Collins also became chair of the Communications Brain Trust of the Congressional Black Caucus. Ellis, who also advised Collins in this role, said she brought together the disparate elements of the media -- broadcast, cable and entertainment. While Ellis said he could not point to successful communications legislation that she initiated, he said Collins wielded her influence in other ways.

Ellis explained how this worked in a message he sent to colleagues in 2007 after the death of Jack Valenti, president of the Motion Picture Association of America:

". . . Subsequently, during the 1980s 'financial interest and syndication rule' issue where the TV networks were pitted against the Hollywood studios for greater share in the revenue and ownership of the programs aired on television, Jack approached me for assistance in identifying Black independent producers who could benefit by the studios' retaining their program ownership position," Ellis wrote.

"I agreed to help Jack, who planned to use such producers to bolster the studios' position, only if I was able to recommend certain Black producers for use by the networks -- since I was an executive with the NAB. Jack agreed. Consequently, I helped to position Black producers as spokespersons for the Hollywood studios and the networks. Jack scheduled meetings for me and Congresswoman Cardiss Collins (my former employer and member of the House Communications Subcommittee reviewing the 'rule'), and I arranged for Cardiss and [myself] (with help from [producer] Topper [Carew] and my network contacts) to meet with network presidents in Los Angeles. Because of these efforts, several Black independent producers gained greater leverage for acceptance of their projects in the film and network television industries."

Mary Mitchell, Chicago Sun-Times: Cardiss Collins was respected, committed

Patrick Svitek, Chicago Tribune: Cardiss Collins, 1931-2013

Two-Thirds Don't Pursue "Pathway to Citizenship"

"Nearly two-thirds of the 5.4 million legal immigrants from Mexico who are eligible to become citizens of the United States have not yet taken that step. Their rate of naturalization -- 6% -- is only half that of legal immigrants from all other countries combined, according to an analysis of Census Bureau data by the Pew Hispanic Center, a project of the Pew Research Center," Ana Gonzalez-Barrera, Mark Hugo Lopez, Jeffrey Passel and Paul Taylor reported Monday for the Pew Hispanic Center.

"Creating a pathway to citizenship for immigrants who are in the country illegally is expected to be one of the most contentious elements of the immigration legislation that will be considered by Congress this year. Mexican immigrants are by far the largest group of immigrants who are in the country illegally -- accounting for 6.1 million (55%) of the estimated 11.1 million in the U.S. as of 2011.

"Mexicans are also the largest group of legal permanent residents -- accounting for 3.9 million out of 12 million. The Center's analysis of current naturalization rates among Mexican legal immigrants suggests that creating a pathway to citizenship for immigrants in the country illegally does not mean all would pursue that option. Many could choose an intermediate status -- legal permanent resident -- that would remove the threat of deportation, enable them to work legally and require them to pay taxes, but not afford them the full rights of U.S. citizenship, including the right to vote. . . . "

Maggie Caldwell, Mother Jones: Invisible Women: The Real History of Domestic Workers in America (Feb. 7)

Leslie Berestein Rojas, Southern California Public Radio: 'Out of status?' Rep. John Conyers on what to call undocumented immigrants in U.S. (Video)

Mary Sanchez, Kansas City Star: Real data to measure legal, illegal immigration

Blacks Have Used Firearms for Defense, Survival

"The recent debate concerning gun control is complex, particularly as it relates to African descendants in the United States," Akinyele Umoja, associate professor and chair of the Department of African-American Studies at Georgia State University, wrote Tuesday for Black Agenda Report.

"As almost every other issue in the US, the race dimensions of gun control cannot be dismissed. Slave-holding society fought to prevent enslaved Africans access to weapons to resist and increase potential for insurrection.

"After emancipation, Blacks sought arms not only to hunt, but to protect themselves from white supremacist terror. Gun ownership was associated with citizenship and liberty and as a means to protect those principles. The segregationists continued slave-holding society's practice of attempting to disarm Blacks. Ultimately, Blacks utilized armed self-defense to protect activist leadership and their communities from white terrorist violence. It was a rite of passage for rural Black families [to teach] children to use arms as a means of survival; for food and for protection. Black female youth were trained to shoot for defense from white rapists.

"I have the utmost respect for Congressman John Lewis due to the sacrifice he made during the Civil Rights movement in the Deep South. In responding to those opposing President Obama's gun control proposal’s Congressman Lewis offers that he and his colleagues in the Civil Rights movement, ' ... believed the only way to achieve peaceful ends was through peaceful means. We took a stand against an unjust system, and we decided to use this faith as our shield and the power of compassion as our defense.' . . . "

Mary C. Curtis, the Grio: Will Obama's proposals stop black gun violence?

Tammerlin Drummond, Oakland Tribune: Shooting bad PR for Oakland Art Murmur

Sam Fulwood III, Center for American Progress: Lift Every Voice

Tony Norman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: NRA's dizzying pro-gun spin grows tiring

Clarence Page, Chicago Tribune: Family breakdown goes biracial

Leonard Pitts Jr., Miami Herald: Gun debate should be about facts, not fantasy

Rem Rieder, American Journalism Review: Too Zany for The Onion

Eugene Robinson, Washington Post: The NRA's tone-deaf rhetoric

Bob Ray Sanders, Star-Telegram, Fort Worth, Texas: I didn't need to see Obama firing a gun

Barry Saunders, News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C.: Obama's gun photo ill-advised

How Diverse Is Your Coverage of Business, Finance?

" . . . While spotlighting businesses and business leaders merely on the basis of race or ethnicity can be sort of shallow, or even offensive, I do think that this month of recognizing the accomplishments of African-American citizens is a good time to assess whether your coverage of business and finance does reflect the nation's diversity," Melissa Preddy wrote Tuesday for the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism at Arizona State University.

"If not, start now with some of the ideas below. And on a practical level, like any seasonal or annual event it's a convenient peg for providing market-specific features for consumers and entrepreneurs. . . . "

Preddy listed such angles as corporate observances, African American-owned businesses, news for small-business owners and entrepreneurs and marketing to African American consumers.

". . . Print media is starving for profit, and publishers in Canada and the United States are compensating by thinning their newsrooms by thousands of workers," Natascia Lypny wrote for the January issue of the King's Journalism Review at the University of King's College in Halifax, Nova Scotia. "Copy editors have been sacrificed more than any other newsroom category. Nearly a third of the copy editors who were working for American daily newspapers in 2007 are no longer employed in those positions today, according to an American Society of News Editors' survey of 985 publications. . . . "

Coverage of the Super Bowl champion Baltimore Ravens' hometown welcome left much to be desired, David Zurawik wrote in the Baltimore Sun. ". . . it made my blood boil to see reporters using fans as props. Telling fans to give a cheer or start singing and whooping when the cameras are pointed at them is both stupid and insensitive . . . " Zurawik wrote. ". . . The other thing that annoyed me, and it has been building for weeks, involves veteran reporters acting like they are buddies with the players, referring to Terrell Suggs, for example, as T-Sizzle and calling out to him on the parade route. . . . "

"Today, an appellate court ruled against the New York Times in a suit about gun permits, and public access to an electronic database containing the addresses of permit-holders, arguing that a lower-court judge had 'erred' when, in 2011, she ruled in the newspaper's favor," Dana Rubinstein reported Tuesday for Capital New York.

"Former model, actress, and sportscaster Lisa Guerrero says she's covered at least five Super Bowls in her life, but she says nothing she did as a sportscaster can compare to what she's doing today as an award-winning chief investigative correspondent for Inside Edition," Kristina Puga wrote Monday for NBCLatino.

"U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney (D-Conn.) was trying to correct the record Tuesday, after Steven Spielberg's 'Lincoln' movie suggested that Connecticut was not entirely in favor of the 13th Amendment that abolished slavery," CBSNewYork and the Associated Press reported. ". . . 'When they got to Connecticut, two out of the three members of Congress voted no . . . 'We checked with the Congressional Research Service, who pulled up the roll call, and sure enough, all four members . . . from the State of Connecticut voted unanimously in favor of passage of the 13th Amendment,' he said."

Karin Berry, an assistant news editor at the Philadelphia Daily News, told Facebook friends that her last day at work was Jan. 31 and that her co-workers put together the Page 1 at left. Berry took a buyout after 18 years at the paper. She added on Facebook, "[BTW], the 'It's a Rap' headline ran the day after Tupac Shakur's murder. That is Tupac's hat on my head. No, I did NOT write this headline although I was assistant news editor for that edition. . . . "

In Somalia, "A Mogadishu court has sentenced an alleged rape victim and a Somali journalist who interviewed her to one year in prison each, court officials say, in a decision that has enraged press freedom groups," Al Jazeera reported Tuesday. "Abdiaziz Abdinur Ibrahim, the freelance journalist, and the 27-year old unidentified woman who claimed to have been raped by security forces, faced charges including insulting a government body, making false accusations and seeking to profit from the allegations. . . . "

In Libya, "An attack by security guards on a TV crew outside the National Congress building in Tripoli on 1 February has reinforced Reporters Without Borders' concern about the growing number of cases of threats and violence against journalists in the course of their work," the press freedom organization said on Tuesday.

"Police in Uganda is still the worst torturer of journalists, the 2012 Press Freedom Index launched in Kampala on Feb. 6 said," Tracy Gwambe reported Tuesday for the Independent in the capital, Kampala. "The index prepared by Human Rights Network for Journalists Uganda (HRJN-Uganda) shows that in 2012 alone, the police made 42 attacks against journalists . . . one journalist was murdered. . . ."

"Authorities in Beirut should drop criminal charges against Rami Aysha, a Lebanese-Palestinian freelance journalist who was arrested by Hezbollah forces last August as he was investigating arms trafficking," the Committee to Protect Journalists said Tuesday.

"In late January, Iranian authorities waged the largest crackdown on the press since 2009, detaining a wave of journalists and issuing arrest warrants for numerous others," the Committee to Protect Journalists said Tuesday. "The Ministry of Intelligence accused the journalists of conspiring with foreign media to repeat the alleged 'sedition' of 2009, referring to electoral fraud exposed by the media and the protests that followed. In response to the arrests, IranWire, a project led by our colleague Maziar Bahari, produced this video calling for the journalists' release. . . . "

"Reporters Without Borders deplores the Eritrean government’s censorship of the Qatari TV news network Al Jazeera since 1 February," the press freedom group said Tuesday. "According to the Qatar-based newspaper Al-Sharq, the Eritrean authorities were annoyed with Al Jazeera for carrying reports about demonstrations by Eritrean exiles outside Eritrean diplomatic missions in Cairo, London, Frankfurt, Rome, Stockholm and other capitals in opposition to the government and in support of the soldiers who stormed the information ministry in Asmara during a brief mutiny on 21 January. . . ."