Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. is following up on his promise to meet with news media representatives Thursday and Friday in the wake of outrage over the Justice Department's leak investigations, but it's an open question whether journalists of color will be present.

Holder "is expected to meet this week with the Washington bureau chiefs of several major media outlets to discuss the Justice Department's guidelines for dealing with journalists in leak investigations," Michael Calderone reported Wednesday for Huffington Post.

Ken Strickland, Washington bureau chief of NBC News and a black journalist, was expected to be among the bureau chiefs, but with word that the Justice Department wants the session to be off the record, "We're still discussing whether we plan to attend," NBC spokeswoman Liz Fischer told Journal-isms by email.

CNN said Thursday morning that it will join the New York Times, the Associated Press and the Huffington Post in refusing the off-the-record invitation, Jack Mirkinson reported Thursday for the Huffington Post. Politico will attend but McClatchy will not, Mackenzie Weinger reported for Politico. Later Thursday, Calderone added Reuters to the list of those not going.

Jeffrey W. Schneider, spokesman for ABC News, told Journal-isms on Thursday, "Yes we will attend and press for the meeting to be on the record."

Sonya McNair, a spokeswoman for CBS News, told Journal-isms on Thursday, "CBS News does not plan to participate in the off-the-record meeting with Attorney General Eric Holder. We would be willing to consider an on-the-record discussion."

The original Justice Department announcement said a week ago, "The Attorney General will consult a diverse and representative group of media organizations. In the coming days, he looks forward to meaningful engagement with these media representatives as well as other experts inside and outside government. . . ."

However, Univision spokesman Jose Zamora said Thursday his network was told it was not invited because it does not have a permanent presence at the Justice Department. "Univision does cover the DOJ, but we do not have a full time DOJ reporter," Zamora told Journal-isms.

George Curry, who runs the Washington-based National Newspaper Publishers Association News Service, representing the nation's black community newspapers, was asked whether he was invited. "Of course not," Curry replied by email.

Gregory Lee Jr., president of the National Association of Black Journalists; Hugo Balta, president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists; and Walt Swanston, interim executive director of Unity: Journalists for Diversity, said that to their knowledge, their groups had not been asked.

Each group issued statements of alarm about the Justice Department's acknowledgement that it had secretly obtained telephone records of Associated Press reporters and editors. Holder opened NABJ's 2011 convention in Philadelphia, telling the audience that he was once better known as "Ricky from Queens" and that he considered journalists "essential partners in the administration and achievement of justice."

President Obama ordered a review last week of the Justice Department's procedures for legal investigations involving reporters, "acknowledging that he was 'troubled' that multiple inquiries into national security leaks could chill investigative reporting," as Mark Landler reported then for the New York Times.

However, the Justice Department's condition that the meetings be off the record proved a stumbling block almost as soon as plans for the first meetings were reported on Wednesday.

Ron Fournier of the National Journal tweeted, "Re Holder convening bureau chiefs on leak probes: He may ask that meeting be off record. Chiefs should decline, record and report."

Jill Abramson, executive editor of the New York Times, said flatly, “It isn't appropriate for us to attend an off-the-record meeting with the attorney general. Our Washington bureau is aggressively covering the department's handling of leak investigations at this time," the Huffington Post's Calderone and the Washington Post's Erik Wemple each reported.

The Associated Press gave Journal-isms this statement: "We believe the meeting should be on the record and we have said that to the Attorney General's office. If it is on the record, AP Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll will attend. If it is not on the record, AP will not attend and instead will offer our views on how the regulations should be updated in an open letter. We would expect AP attorneys to be included in any planned meetings between the Attorney General's office and media lawyers on the legal specifics."

Wemple added, "And Ryan Grim, the Washington bureau chief of the Huffington Post, said, 'Off-the-record would not fly. … I don't need to go in there with a tape recorder and wiretap the meeting. But I imagine I'm free to talk about what's said in there.' "

However, Martin Baron, executive editor of the Washington Post, said he would attend. He told Wemple, "I prefer that any meeting be on the record. That said, journalists routinely participate in off-the-record sessions, whether they prefer those conditions or not, and then continue to report on events. I am going to this meeting in order to represent our interests as journalists and to raise our concerns. I'll also listen to what the Attorney General has to say. I trust that our journalists will report on this as vigorously as they would any other subject."

Adora Andy, Justice Department press secretary, did not respond to an inquiry from Journal-isms. But Wemple reported that a Justice Department official, "asked why on earth the meeting about media stuff between media people and the government would be off the record," responded on the condition that the official not be named: "This format will best facilitate the candid, free-flowing discussions we hope to have in order to bring about meaningful engagement."

Meanwhile, Jonathan Easley reported Tuesday for the Hill that the House Judiciary Committee is investigating whether Holder "lied under oath during his May 15 testimony on the Justice Department's (DOJ) surveillance of reporters. . . ."

In addition, Calderone reported that "Associated Press president and chief executive Gary Pruitt told staff at a Wednesday town hall meeting that the phone records obtained by the government included 'thousands and thousands' of calls in and out of the news organization, according to a staffer who attended. . . ." [Updated May 30]

Editorial, Chicago Tribune: Now Obama wants to protect the press?

Martha T. Moore and Aamer Madhani, USA Today: Is Obama at war with journalists?

Clarence Page, Chicago Tribune: A drone war against the press?

Walter Pincus, Washington Post: Circling the media wagons

RecordsFerret.com Blog: Journalists: 9 Things You Must Do to Protect Your Sources -- Even if served by a search warrant

Joyner Says Smiley Should Blame Low Ratings, Not Obama

Tom Joyner, host of radio's  syndicated "Tom Joyner Morning Show," isn't buying a statement from Tavis Smiley, his former show partner, that members of the Obama administration, whom Smiley didn't identify, have pressured sponsors to drop their support of his projects.

Instead, Michael H. Cottman reported for Joyner's Black America Web, Joyner contends that Smiley's ratings are low and advertisers are jumping ship.

" 'Tavis here's the problem: Your sponsors are pulling out because you don't have numbers,' Joyner told his listeners on Tuesday's show. 'That's your problem. You don't have a platform. You're losing affiliates; you're losing sponsors, not because someone is plotting against you.' "

Asked for specifics, Smiley spokeswoman Leshelle V. Sargent told Journal-isms by email on Friday, "After 10 years and 2,000 shows on PBS, Mr. Smiley appreciates all of his underwriters. We are uninterested in subjecting former, present or future supporters to further scrutiny."

NBCUniversal Pays Its College Interns

NBCUniversal has begun paying its college interns, Kathy Kelly-Brown, a spokeswoman for NBCUniversal, told Journal-isms on Wednesday.

The move, which began with the spring interns, addresses a long-held contention that requiring interns to work only for the experience or for college credit amounts to favoring students with well-to-do parents. Others disagree, saying the college credit or the experience justifies the lack of salary.

"Not just NBC News – across NBCU," Kelly-Brown said by email. However, she could not say how many interns are affected or what the salaries are.

The NBC action comes with renewed focus on such internships. "In the past few years, unpaid interns have filed three class-action lawsuits against companies alleging the companies owe interns back pay, because the interns performed the same duties as employees," Blair Hickman and Jeremy B. Merrill reported for ProPublica this month.

They wrote, "In April 2010, the Department of Labor [called attention to] a six-point test to help determine whether an internship in the for-profit sector qualifies to be unpaid under federal law. One of the key criteria is that the position must be of more benefit to the intern than of benefit to the company. Companies can't just use interns to replace regular employees. . . ."

Rebecca Greenfield wrote May 9 for the Atlantic, "A judge may have thrown out class-action status for the lawsuit against Hearst for using unpaid interns at its magazines, but the disgruntled former coffee-fetchers will continue the fight. 'The case of the named plaintiffs and the people who opted into the case will go forward,' said Junot Turner, the Outten and Golden lawyer handling the case. That includes the 'Norma Rae' of unpaid interns Diana Wang, who interned for Harper's Bazaar, Erin Spencer, a former Cosmopolitan intern, and six others. . . ."

While paid internships are more common at newspapers, they are not necessarily the norm at magazines and in broadcasting.

Until now, NBC News in general has not paid its interns, but ABC News and CNN have. CBS News and Fox News have arrangements for the college to offer course credit.

On Tuesday, England's Guardian newspaper ran a piece by David Dennis, a recent graduate of at Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications, that gained traction on social media. Dennis asked, "does your, that gained traction on social media. Dennis asked, "does your publication use unpaid interns as the prevalent mode of determining full-time jobs? If so, then I'm sorry to inform you that your publication is perpetuating a privilege-based upward mobility, and it's ruining journalism. . . ."

Chuck Collins, American Prospect: The Wealthy Kids Are All Right

Diversity Efforts Ebb Not Just in News Business

"As a partner and chief diversity officer at Thompson & Knight, Pauline Higgins was not afraid to press the issue of hiring minorities at the 126-year-old Texas law firm," Nelson D. Schwartz and Michael Cooper wrote Monday for the New York Times. "But when she left in 2008, she was replaced by an associate with less influence.

"Now, current and former partners say, the diversity committee meets less often, and the firm has fewer black lawyers than before. It is a trajectory familiar in many elite realms of American professional life. Even as racial barriers continue to fall, progress for African-Americans [overall] has remained slow -- and in some cases appears to be stalling.

" 'You don't want to be a diversity officer who only buys tables at events and seats people,' Ms. Higgins said recently. 'It's about recruiting and inclusion and training and development, with substantive work assignments.'

"Nearly a half-century after a Texan, President Lyndon B. Johnson, helped usher in the era of affirmative action, the Supreme Court is poised to rule as early as this week on whether the University of Texas can continue to consider race as one of many factors in its admissions policy. It is a case that could have a profound impact on race-based affirmative action programs across the nation, and it has reignited a discussion of how much progress minorities, blacks in particular, have made in integrating into some of the most sought-after professions, especially since the recession.

"Only a little more than 1 percent of the nation's Fortune 500 companies have black chief executives, although there are some prominent exceptions, like Kenneth I. Chenault of American Express and Ursula M. Burns of Xerox. At the nation's biggest companies, about 3.2 percent of senior executive positions are held by African-Americans, according to an estimate by the Executive Leadership Council, an organization of current and former black senior executives.

"While about 12 percent of the nation's working-age population is black, about 5 percent of physicians and dentists in the United States are black -- a share that has not grown since 1990, according to an analysis of census data that was prepared for The New York Times by sociologists at Queens College of the City University of New York. The analysis found that 3 percent of American architects are black, another field where the share has not increased in more than two decades. . . . "

In the news business, African Americans in the newsroom workforce fell from 4.68 percent in 2011 to 4.65 percent, according to the 2012 report from the American Society of News Editors, the National Association of Black Journalists reported then.

Kat Chow, NPR: The Questions People Get Asked About Their Race

Jesse Washington, Associated Press: 'I'm not racist': Common claim after racial slurs

President Obama ordered a review on Thursday of the Justice Department's procedures for legal investigations involving reporters, acknowledging that he was 'troubled' that multiple inquiries into national security leaks could chill investigative reporting," as Mark Landler reported for the New York Times.

Later Thursday, the Justice Department announced that "As part of that review, the Attorney General will consult a diverse and representative group of media organizations. In the coming days, he looks forward to meaningful engagement with these media representatives as well as other experts inside and outside government. . . .," Michael Calderone reported for the Huffington Post.

It was unclear whether the "diverse and representative group of media organizations" would include the National Association of Black Journalists, National Association of Hispanic Journalists or Unity: Journalists for Diversity, all of which have issued statements of alarm about the Justice Department's acknowledgement that it had secretly obtained telephone records of Associated Press reporters and editors.

Adora Andy, press secretary for the Justice Department, did not respond to a request for comment.

In his wide-ranging speech on counterterrorism Thursday, Obama said, "I'm troubled by the possibility that leak investigations may chill the investigative journalism that holds government accountable.

"Journalists should not be at legal risk for doing their jobs. Our focus must be on those who break the law. And that's why I’ve called on Congress to pass a media shield law to guard against government overreach. And I've raised these issues with the Attorney General, who shares my concerns. . . ," referring to Eric H. Holder Jr.

Landler's story continued, "Mr. Obama instructed Mr. Holder to report back to him by July 12.

"Among the issues likely to be discussed is how broadly the government should be allowed to subpoena telephone, e-mail or other records belonging to journalists who have reported on classified information.

"Asking Mr. Holder to lead the review, however, puts the attorney general in the awkward position of scrutinizing investigations that his department has pursued.

"Mr. Obama's remarks came amid deepening concern among many news organizations that the government is breaking new ground in how it investigates leaks of national security secrets. In a case involving The Associated Press, the government seized records of 20 office and home phone lines for A.P. reporters and editors.

"In a case involving a Fox News correspondent, James Rosen, prosecutors obtained a search warrant for Mr. Rosen's phone and e-mail records, after describing him as a possible 'co-conspirator' for publishing information about a potential North Korean missile test.

"On Wednesday, NBC News reported that Mr. Holder had signed off on the search warrant. . . ."

Meanwhile, on Friday, the advocacy group Free Press and more than 60 civil liberties, digital rights, press freedom and public interest groups sent a letter to Holder demanding a full, transparent account of the Justice Department’s targeting of journalists and whistleblowers.

The groups included the Society of Professional Journalists, the Newspaper Guild-CWA, the National Hispanic Media Coalition, NABJ, the Committee to Protect Journalists, ColorOfChange.org and the American Civil Liberties Union.

The letter was prepared and signed before Obama's Thursday speech. Asked whether its contents still stand, Free Press spokeswoman Jenn Ettinger replied by email, "Yes — everything in the letter still stands. We welcome what Obama said about how journalists must be able to do their jobs. But we'll need to results and changes at DOJ to demonstrate this is a real commitment and not just an attempt to shift the conversation.

"Our call is for a full and transparent accounting — that is all the more relevant now that Obama has asked the agency to review its own rules. In addition, Obama has asked Holder to meet with media groups and media executives to discuss the agency's guidelines, but our letter makes clear that concerns about this issue extend beyond just the press. Ideally, the DOJ would hold a transparent process with ample opportunities for feedback from the public and other stakeholders."

Steve Benen, the Maddow Blog, MSNBC: Watching a scandal slowly 'metastasize'

Columbia Journalism Review: Must-reads of the week: Obama's war on journalism

George E. Curry, National Newspaper Publishers Association: Obama's Troubles Not Comparable to 'Watergate'

Leonard Downie Jr., Washington Post: Obama's war on leaks undermines investigative journalism

Editorial, Chicago Tribune: Obama won't ground aerial strikes that kill terrorists. Good.

Editorial, New York Times: The End of the Perpetual War

Joe Flint, Los Angeles Times: Fox News CEO Roger Ailes blasts administration, praises his team

Michael Isikoff, NBC News: DOJ confirms Holder OK'd search warrant for Fox News reporter's private emails, official says

Alex Pareene, Salon: Eric Holder versus journalism

Remarks by the President at the National Defense University 

Noah Rothman, Mediaite: Geraldo Goes Off: Obama 'Terrorizing Journalists' An 'Un-American' Effort To 'Criminalize' Reporting

Smiley: Displeased Obama Aides Pressured My Sponsors

Tavis Smiley, marking his 10th year on PBS, "contends that members of the Obama administration, whom he didn't identify, have pressured sponsors to drop their support of his projects, including his anti-poverty initiatives," Lynn Elber reported Friday for the Associated Press.

Elber also reported, "Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the PBS show's underwriter since the start, has 'consistently stood by our side,' said a Smiley spokeswoman. But others have dropped out or donated money to his projects on the condition of privacy because they've heard from a displeased White House, according to Smiley."

Leshelle V. Sargent, a spokeswoman for Smiley, offered no evidence of such pressure nor named any underwriters who had heard from the White House. She told Journal-isms by email, "After 10 years and 2,000 shows on PBS, Mr. Smiley appreciates all of his underwriters. We are uninterested in subjecting former, present or future supporters to further scrutiny."

Smiley, 48, "has drawn the ire of conservatives and, because of his insistent criticism of President Barack Obama's policies, that of some liberals and African-Americans," Elber wrote. She quoted Smiley saying, "This administration does not like to be criticized. And the irony of it is, there's nothing I have tried to hold the president accountable on that my white progressive colleagues have not. They're labeled courageous critics, but if I say it, I'm an 'Obama critic.' There's race at play in the very question."

Elber began her piece, "Tavis Smiley has stood out in 20 years in broadcasting, and he has no intention of changing his style or substance.

"He's the rare black host with national TV and radio platforms, one who sees his job as challenging Americans to examine their assumptions on such thorny issues as poverty, education, and racial and gender equality.

"In other words, he doesn’t squander his opportunities on PBS' daily talk show 'Tavis Smiley,' which marks its 10th year this month, or on public radio's 'The Tavis Smiley Show' and 'Smiley & West,' the latter a forum for commentary he shares with scholar and activist Cornel West.

"His quarterly 'Tavis Smiley Reports' specials for PBS, in-depth looks at topics such as the relationship between the juvenile justice system and the teenage dropout rate, fit the same bold pattern.

"Smiley, marking two decades in broadcasting this year, considers himself engaged in a calling as much as a career: 'This is the kind of work I think needs to be done. I’m trying to entertain and empower people.' . . ."

Marketing Chief Janet Rollé Is Latest to Leave CNN

Janet Rollé, CNN Worldwide's executive vice president and chief marketing officer for the last two years, is the latest African American to leave the network under its new leadership, Chris Ariens reported Friday for TVNewser.

"In a note to staff, obtained by TVNewser, CNN Worldwide president Jeff Zucker writes, 'In a busy time of new show launches and ongoing campaigns underscoring the strength of CNN and all its platforms, Janet led her team to successfully spread the word in creative, engaging ways. I want to thank her for that, and all that she has done in her tenure here.' Rick Lewchuk who is SVP of creative services will lead the department in the interim. Structural changes to CNN’s marketing department may be in store."

In January, Mark Whitaker, the former Newsweek editor who as executive vice president and managing editor of CNN Worldwide became the highest-ranking African American at CNN, resigned to give Zucker "his own team and management structure and the freedom to communicate one clear vision to the staff."

CNN contributor Roland Martin's contract was not renewed, and Soledad O'Brien's morning "Starting Point" show was eliminated. O'Brien formed a production company and is to continue to supply documentaries to CNN — and others — on a nonexclusive basis.

A CNN spokeswoman noted that of Zucker's nine hires, five are of color, though they are of less prominence. They are Stephanie Elam, who rejoins the network as a correspondent based in Los Angeles, and correspondents Alina Machado, Zain Asher and George Howell, as well as news anchor Michaela Pereira of the new morning program "New Day."

Rollé previously worked at BET, MTV Networks and HBO. Last year, the National Association of Black Journalists gave her its Pat Tobin Media Professional Award [video], recognizing a public relations, advertising or marketing professional "who has had a distinctive impact in the media realm, resulting in positive media coverage of the black community."

"She represents the very essence of this award; the behind the scenes force helping to create on-air successes," NABJ President Gregory H. Lee Jr. said at the time. "Rolle is one of our industry's brightest stars. . . . "

A Year Later, Reading Habits Change in New Orleans

"A year ago today, news leaked that The Times-Picayune would cease daily publication, cut staff and focus on its website, NOLA.com, Eve Troeh reported for the Lens in New Orleans. "The paper and ink edition now hits doorsteps and newsstands just three days a week: Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.

"History and tradition play an outsized role in New Orleans. So perhaps it is no surprise that The Times-Picayune’s move has led to a modern-day version of a relic of media history: the newspaper war.

"The Advocate, which launched its daily New Orleans edition when the Picayune stopped its own, is now beefing up under a new local owner, John Georges. The Times-Picayune now plans a tabloid paper, TPStreet, for three days that it had abandoned.

"Last year, photographer Bevil Knapp captured images of the daily newspaper ritual around New Orleans. This week I joined her to see how, nine months into this new era of news, people and communities are adapting. . . ."

Jarvis DeBerry, NOLA.com | the Times-Picayune : New Orleans' murder problem is its crime problem

Taylor Miller Thomas, Poynter Institute: Online campaign raises $15,000 for reporter who was shot in New Orleans

Tornado-Stricken Town Taking Media Invasion in Stride

"Angie Tennyson and her teenage daughter Taylor were sitting in folding chairs in front of the ruins of Tennyson's sister-in-law's home on the corner of Seventh Street West and Telephone Road. Little remained of the home after Monday's tornado tore through the Oklahoma City suburb, but the Tennysons were occupying prime media real estate," Jay Newton-Small reported for Time magazine from Moore, Okla.

"The [Tennysons'] block — a few dozen homes, most of them devastated, halfway between city hall and the press center set up in front of Dick's Sporting Goods — lent itself to media attention. And a destroyed hospital and bowling alley across the street from the family offered a dramatic backdrop for the television cameras — all the more so after police restricted access to the Plaza Towers Elementary School across town, where seven children died after the building was torn down by the cyclone.

"So for hours the family sat patiently as reporter after reporter approached them, asked for their story, then moved on.

" 'I’m sorry,' said one Good Morning America producer to the family, 'do you mind our cameras pointed right at you?'

" 'Not at all,' replied Angie Tennyson.

"At least 200 journalists swarmed the two-square-block area, accompanied by two dozen satellite trucks. Japanese radio competed with British tabloids, German television and American networks. The families attempting to recover anything from their ruined homes found themselves hosting television satellite trucks in their driveways and replying to reporters' questions as they dug through the remnants of their damaged homes. And yet, like the Tennysons, most were remarkably gracious about fielding questions while salvaging their lives. . . ."

John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable: Ad Council Launches Tornado Relief PSA Campaign

Ruben Rosario, Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.: When nature unleashes disaster, we respond with hope, resiliency