Allen H. Neuharth, who led the newspaper industry in championing diversity and made it possible for Robert C. Maynard to become the first African American publisher of a mainstream newspaper, died Friday at his home in Cocoa Beach, Fla. He was 89.

An obituary by Herbert Buchsbaum of the New York Times described Neuharth as "the brash and blustery media mogul who built the Gannett Company into a communications Leviathan and created USA Today, for years America's best-selling newspaper" and noted, "In an industry long dominated by white men, Mr. Neuharth led the way in the hiring and promotion of women and minorities, tying compensation to hiring goals.

"By 1988 the proportion of minorities in Gannett newsrooms was 47 percent higher than the national average. Women accounted for nearly 40 percent of the company's managers, professionals, technicians and sales agents and an unheard-of quarter of its newspaper publishers."

A February 1992 article in  Black Enterprise magazine listing the "25 Best Places for Blacks to Work" said of Gannett, "total minority employment has progressed from 12 percent to 21 percent since 1980."

Neuharth even believed that black Washington Post reporter Janet Cooke, who forced the Post to return a 1981 Pulitzer Prize when it was disclosed that Cooke had fabricated her winning story in that highly competitive newsroom, deserved a second chance. However, the Gannett paper Neuharth had in mind for Cooke, who left the Post in disgrace, reportedly balked at the idea.

Neuharth's support for diversity "went from supporting individuals within the company to the Oakland Tribune, in particular when it mattered most," Dori J. Maynard, president of the Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education, said by telephone.

Michael Liedtke wrote in the October 1991 edition of American Journalism Review:

"Then-media tycoon Al Neuharth stood beside newspaper publisher Bob Maynard in mid-August to celebrate the salvation of the long-suffering Oakland Tribune, the two men hoped for a better ending than the first time they'd joined forces to rescue the newspaper.

"That was 1979, when the hard-driving Neuharth was chief executive officer of the ever-expanding Gannett Company. The newspaper firm had just purchased the Tribune and hired Maynard to edit it. Four years later, Maynard bought the paper from Gannett in one of the first leveraged buyouts of the 1980s and he and Neuharth parted ways.

"Now, together again, the duo takes a stab at a happier course. The plot remains the same — Neuharth provides the deep pockets, Maynard the journalistic savvy and community connections — and the flailing newspaper gets a handhold.

"But the story may twist with the allegiance of Neuharth, the self-professed 'S.O.B.' who two years ago retired from Gannett to become chairman of the nonprofit Freedom Forum. The Forum, at Neuharth's urging, committed $7.5 million of its $670 million endowment to save Oakland's paper.

"What remains unclear is what impelled Neuharth back into the Oakland game. Is he — as he and Maynard maintain — merely the generous bystander with nothing more on his agenda than the preservation of a 117-year-old paper? Or does he see the Tribune rescue as a chance to tweak noses at the Arlington, Virginia, offices of his former employer, which wound up swallowing most of the Tribune 's $31.5 million debt?

"Neuharth insists the reports of a feud are overblown. 'All the speculation that we are trying to poke each other in the eyes is not true,' he says. 'It didn't matter to me whether the Tribune's major creditor was Gannett or Joe Blow...

" 'It's really quite simple,' he says. 'We believe in the Maynards and we believe in the staff of the Oakland Tribune.' . . . "

The Loma Prieta earthquake, coverage of which won the Tribune a Pulitzer Prize for spot news photography in 1990, combined with a national recession and a troubled city economy to force Bob and Nancy Maynard to sell the Tribune in 1992. The pair had owned the paper for 10 years.

David Honig, president of the Minority Media & Telecommunications Council, told Journal-isms by email, "I'm originally from Rochester, NY. Gannett was based there in the 1970s, when I got to know Al Neuharth.  I found him to be gracious, collaborative and insightful. As his obit in USA Today and his autobiography made clear, sometimes Al was not a very nice person.  Al had little charm and no sartorial taste.  But Al was way, way ahead of his peers when it came to diversity.

"Al, Doug McCorkindale, and I put together Gannett's 1979 'Partners in Progress' program – the first modern voluntary affirmative action program in journalism.  It was highly effective because Al, with his can-do spirit and low tolerance for excuses, commanded his publishers and TV station general managers to observe it and exceed its goals and targets. Their compensation and bonuses depended on it.

"Lots of people who Al treated poorly are probably saying (to themselves) 'finally the bastard is dead.'  But I will miss him."

Neuharth extended his commitment to diversity to his personal life. In 2010, Anne Straub wrote for Space Coast Medicine, Neuharth was father of six children with his third wife, Cocoa Beach chiropractor Rachel Fornes. All were adopted at birth and come from diverse backgrounds. Neuharth also had two grown children.

25 Years Ago, It Was "the Place to Be": USA Today Had Reputation as Diversity Leader (Sept. 12, 2007)

David Colton and Rick Hampson, USA Today: USA TODAY founder Al Neuharth dies at 89

Alex S. Jones, New York Times: Cash and Debt Concessions Save Oakland Tribune (Aug. 15, 1991) 

Native American Journalists Association: NAJA statement on passing of USA Today founder Al Neuharth

Rosamunda Neuharth-Ozgo, Accuracy In Media: My Father Al Neuharth and Media Hypocrisy (April 27, 2009) 

New York Times: Gannett Stressing Minority Groups (1988)

Mike Schneider, Associated Press: USA Today founder Neuharth dies in Florida at 89

CNN's John King Says, "What I Am Not Is Racist"

"CNN's John King has taken to Twitter to further explain his erroneous report of an arrest in the Boston Marathon bombing," Erik Hayden wrote Thursday for the Hollywood Reporter.

King's defense of his report that law enforcement officials had identified "a dark-skinned male" as the suspect came a day before the Boston area was placed on lockdown as authorities sought — and eventually captured — a suspect who was not dark-skinned, but in fact was a native of the Russian republic of Chechnya.

" 'Source of that description was a senior government official. And I asked, are you sure? But I'm responsible. What I am not is racist,' the anchor wrote Thursday," Hayden reported.

Hayden's story continued, "The anchor's comments received widespread criticism on social media. Among many others, the NAACP, The Daily Show's Jon Stewart and MSNBC's Al Sharpton took issue with King's report.

" 'The fact that this information was false is only part of the problem,' said NAACP president and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous in a statement Thursday. 'Our concern is that CNN used an overly broad, unhelpful and potentially racially inflammatory categorization to describe the potential suspect. History teaches us that too often people of color are unfairly targeted in the aftermath of acts of terrorism.' "

CNN has not commented on King's error, leaving it to King to respond. But King has not addressed the larger implications of identifying a suspect as "dark-skinned."

"People are less tolerant are less tolerant when mistakes aren’t acknowledged or the on-air speculation veers into ethnic or racial stereotypes, as the discussion of 'dark-skinned' or alleged Muslim suspects did this week, says Emily Bell, a journalism professor at Columbia University," Paul Farhi reported for Saturday's Washington Post.

" 'You're inviting a very visceral reaction when you wander into that territory,' she says. 'The unintended consequence is that it cast instant suspicion on a lot of innocent people and adds very little' to the public understanding of the story."

On the suspense-filled day after King's tweet of explanation, "In the waning moments of daylight, police descended Friday on a shrouded boat in a Watertown backyard to capture the suspected terrorist who had eluded their enormous dragnet for a tumultuous day, ending a dark week in Boston that began with the bombing of the world’s most prestigious road race," Mark Arsenault reported for the Boston Globe.

"The arrest of 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev of Cambridge ended an unprecedented daylong siege of Greater Boston, after a frantic night of violence that left one MIT police officer dead, an MBTA Transit Police officer wounded, and an embattled public — rattled again by the touch of terrorism — huddled inside homes.

"Tsarnaev’s elder brother and alleged accomplice — 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the second suspect in Monday’s Boston Marathon attack — was pronounced dead early Friday morning at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, after suffering shrapnel and bullet wounds in a gunfight with police. . . ."

Nearly all of the news networks went live to the scene as the suspect was captured and news conferences were held. Univision and Telemundo continued to show telenovelas, and Black Entertainment Television and TV One likewise continued with their regular programming.

Robin Abcarian, Los Angeles Times: For Muslims, bad memories and new worries

Paul Cheung, Asian American Journalists Association: AAJA Urges Vigilance in Reporting on Boston Bombing Suspects

Eric Deggans, Tampa Bay (Fla.) Times: Why did media make so many mistaken assumptions about Boston Marathon bombers' race?

FBI "Wanted" poster

Rick Horowitz, Huffington Post: Lost in Boston's Carnage... (video)

Jennifer Ludden, NPR: Muslims Fear Backlash After Suspects' Faith Revealed (April 20)

Michael E. Ross, the Root: Describing a Suspect: A Few Tips for Mr. King

Gerry Shih, Reuters: Media, old and new, takes heat for Boston coverage (April 20)

Scott Simon and David Folkenflik, "Weekend Edition Saturday," NPR: Lessons Learned From The Media's Coverage Of Boston Bombing (April 20)

Adrian Walker, Boston Globe: The reckoning begins in Ashmont

Adrian Walker, Boston Globe: Three secular ministers preach healing

Jesse Washington, Associated Press: Across America, a Week of Chaos, Horror — and Hope (April 20)

Tim Wise blog: Terrorism and Privilege: Understanding the Power of Whiteness (April 16)

David Zurawik, Daily Download: Boston Coverage: Diane Sawyer Shines, CNN Struggles, Geraldo Rivera Sinks (April 20)

Firm Says Don't Judge Magazine Health by Print-Ad Declines

Figures showing a decline in advertising dollars for print magazines don't tell the whole story, according to the agency that prepares those figures for the magazine industry.

In fact, "Consumer Magazines are very powerful brands and are finding audiences and advertising through their brand extensions digitally via web, tablet, and mobile," Suzie Ross of Kantar Media messaged Journal-isms on Thursday.

"It's actually an exciting time for magazines as they reinvent themselves and evolve based on consumer interests/needs/behavior."

Ross, vice president for strategic partnerships and industry relations, was commenting on a report this month from the Publishers Information Bureau comparing advertising dollars and advertising pages for the first quarter of 2013 with figures for the previous year.

Journal-isms reported April 10 that Black Enterprise magazine sustained a 35.4 percent decline in advertising dollars and a 34 percent hit in advertising pages, that Jet magazine dropped 31.7 percent in advertising dollars compared with the same period a year before and that People en Español rose by 20.8 percent in ad dollars and 14 percent in ad pages.

Overall, "Consumer magazines' advertising woes continued in the first quarter of 2013, with ad pages slipping 4.8 percent versus the year-ago period on declines in nine out of the 12 top categories, according to numbers released today by MPA—The Association of Magazine Media," Emma Bazilian reported April 8 for Adweek.

Ross was asked to clarify the figures after Johnson Publishing Co., publisher of Jet, maintained that the decline in advertising dollars for the pocket-sized magazine should actually be much lower — 13.52 percent instead of 31.7 percent.

"There is nothing inaccurate in your column," Ross wrote. "The reported decline was correct, as was the comment about Jet having [fewer] issues in 2013 versus 2012.

"However, I should note that the PIB Press report you referenced does not reflect the concept of 'same store sales' and we provide our clients with information (such as number of issues published by publishers from one year to the next in a given period) that allows them to look deeper into the data and analyze it as they wish. This is not to say that PIB reporting is inaccurate — but you were wise to report the mistakes that many make when they use this data by quoting Mr. Barr," referring to Stephen Gregory Barr, Johnson Publishing senior vice president and group publisher. "The PIB reports that you referenced report . . . organic activity in a given time period — and provide year-over-year comparison so that the general idea of gains and losses is available.

"The Jet issue of 4/8 was not included in the Jan-Mar data because its an April issue and will appear in April's data (PIB data does not report by On Sale Date, but by Issue Date).

"What I would like to add is that declines in print really don't . . . tell the whole story and you are doing a disservice to the industry by highlighting print declines. Consumer Magazines are very powerful brands and are finding audiences and advertising through their brand extensions digitally via web, tablet, and mobile. It's actually an exciting time for magazines as they reinvent themselves and evolve based on consumer interests/needs/behavior. Kantar Media, the company that collects and reports PIB data, is actually working with the MPA [Association of Magazine Media] and PIB to capture the full magazine media footprint from an advertising perspective which currently includes both web and tablet. So stay tuned."

"People Behaving Badly" -- Toward the Photographer

In the Bay Area, "KRON 4 reporter Stanley Roberts was attacked while he was attempting to film his 'People Behaving Badly' segment in Berkeley Thursday afternoon when his subjects took exception, resulting in a sprained back," Katie Nelson reported Thursday for the Oakland Tribune.

"Two suspects in the attack were detained and later arrested on suspicion of battery and felony vandalism. They were booked into the Berkeley City Jail, said Officer Jennifer Coats, spokesperson for the Berkeley Police Department.

"Roberts said he was filming outside of Amoeba Music located at 2455 Telegraph Ave. doing his 'normal schtick' for a segment about how squatters begging for money had become more rampant in the area.

"He said he had filmed three men from a distance at first and then walked up to them to get a closer shot.

"The men, who have not yet been identified by police, told Roberts they did not want to be filmed, but because they were in a public place, Roberts said, he told them he was allowed to do so."

Eventually, there was a scuffle, Nelson reported, during which "Roberts had his press credentials stolen and his $5,000 camera and $1,000 microphone broken before police arrived. . . ."

Preston Davis Dies, First Black President of an ABC Division

"Preston Davis, a pioneering television executive who served as president of broadcast operations and engineering for ABC, died April 15 after an illness, the Walt Disney Co. said Wednesday. He was 63," Mike Barnes reported Wednesday for the Hollywood Reporter.

"In 1993, Robert Iger, then president of the ABC Network Television Group, promoted Davis to lead broadcast operations and engineering, making him the first African-American president of any Capital Cities/ABC division in the history of the media company.

" 'Preston and I started at ABC around the same time,' Iger, now Disney chairman and CEO, said in a statement. 'He was a talented and tenacious leader who earned wide respect for his abilities and was revered for his impeccable integrity. When I had to choose someone to lead BO&E into the future, there was no question Preston was the right person, and he led that team to great achievements for the better part of two decades. Preston was a class act and a great guy who had a tremendous impact on everyone who knew him.' "

The story added, "Davis, who retired from the company in 2011, joined ABC in 1976 as an engineer in Washington, D.C. He moved into various positions of increasing responsibility involving field and studio operations in D.C., Atlanta and New York and was promoted in 1988 to vp television operations for the East Coast, where he directed studio and field operations, electronic newsgathering, telecommunications and the RF operations and engineering group. . . ."

Lynne Duke, 56, Former Washington Post Reporter, Editor

"Lynne Duke, a journalist who brought an emotional clarity to the most trenchant stories, from the crack epidemic that terrorized a Miami housing project once known as 'the Graveyard' to the legacy of apartheid South Africa, died April 19 at her home in Silver Spring," Adam Bernstein reported Friday for the Washington Post. "She was 56.

"The cause was lung cancer, said her husband, Phillip Dixon, a former Washington Post city editor. Ms. Duke worked at The Post from 1987 to 2008, retiring as an editor in the Style section after earlier assignments reporting from Johannesburg and New York.

"Ms. Duke had once aspired to a career in dance and theater, and she brought the expressive qualities of those art forms to her journalism.

"Covering South Africa was a defining experience for Ms. Duke. She first visited for The Post in 1990, when Nelson Mandela was released from prison after 27 years. She returned to Johannesburg in 1994 for the nation's first multi-racial election and stayed on to cover Mandela's presidency. She also jumped around the region for breaking news, including the aftermath of Mobutu Sese Seko's dictatorial rule in what was then Zaire.

"Howard W. French, a former New York Times reporter in Africa and author of 'A Continent for the Taking: The Tragedy and Hope of Africa' (2004), described Ms. Duke as a dogged competitor for whom the experience of working in Africa also provoked deep emotional discovery. . . ."

Jackie Jones, a former Post colleague, told Journal-isms, "Lynne was not warm and fuzzy. There were not a lot of hugs and kisses and stuff that lots of women friends do with each other, but if you wanted a frank opinion, a clear appraisal or someone who would listen and reserve judgment — until you stopped talking — Lynne was the one to call. . . "

Soul of the South Network Sets May 27 Launch

"The Soul of the South Network, targeting African-American viewers, said Thursday it will launch in 30 markets May 27 after closing an initial round of funding for $10 million raised from the state of Arkansas and private investors," Alex Ben Block reported Thursday for the Hollywood Reporter.

"The new network will be distributed initially by over-the-air stations and on digital channels on the broadcast spectrum but also plans to air on cable and expects its stations to qualify under FCC must-carry rules (which mandate nearby cable systems must carry it) because it is local and offers unique news programming.

" 'Our distribution footprint covers at least 70 percent of all African-American households in the south and in Chicago and Philadelphia, which we call sister regions,' says Doug McHenry, the Hollywood-based producer of films including New Jack City and House Party and TV shows including Malcolm & Eddie, who is the new network's president of entertainment.

"By the end of this summer, Soul of the South expects to be in 50-60 markets with a high concentration of African-Americans, reaching 30-40 million households.

"At launch over Memorial Day weekend, the network will not have any original programming outside of an active news presence in its local markets.

The story added, "The lead investors in the Soul of the South Network include Richard Mays, a former Arkansas Supreme Court justice and civil rights attorney, who is chairman of the board; Edwin V. Avent, who is CEO; attorney Christopher Rankin Clark, who is executive vp business and legal affairs; and Matthew J. Gruber from Mississippi, who is vice chairman of the board."

Tom Jacobs is news director.

Black Network Plans 5 Hours of News (June 8, 2012)

News release: SOUL OF THE SOUTH NETWORK Set to Launch Memorial Day Weekend After Securing Nearly $10 Million Investor Infusion

Mike Reynolds, Multichannel News: Multiethnic TV Awards: BET's Lee to Competitors — Bring It On

Chicago Tribune to Follow AP Style on Immigrants

The Chicago Tribune has decided to follow the Associated Press in its declaration that the word "illegal" should describe an action, not a person, when discussing immigrants who are in the country illegally, Joe Knowles, associate managing editor/editing and presentation at the  Tribune, told Journal-isms on Friday. .

"We decided to follow AP style on 'illegal immigrant' and 'illegal immigration,' " Knowles said by email. "Where possible, we will be more specific ('in the country illegally' or 'in the country on an expired visa')."

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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.

Two years ago, a headline writer wrote this over a story by Lynette Holloway for The Root: "Abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell has been charged with eight counts of murder. Both sides of the abortion debate are having a field day with this case. But what happens to poor women of color facing unwanted pregnancies?"

Holloway wrote, "The grisly murders and gruesome discoveries inside Kermit B. Gosnell's West Philadelphia abortion clinic leave one wondering what would make mostly poor, minority women so desperate that they would utilize his filthy clinic, where body parts of dead fetuses allegedly were stored in jars that lined the shelves of the macabre scene."

She included this figure: "Overall, African-American women account for 36.4 percent of all pregnancy terminations in the United States, although blacks make up only 13 percent of the population, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention."

Now Gosnell, himself African American, is on trial, and in the last two days the Internet has seen a dramatic rise in commentary asking why the Philadelphia case hasn't received national media attention.

"Obviously, conservatives believe the media is ignoring this story because it's about abortion, and the lefties who run our media empires hate stories that put abortion in a bad light," Kevin Drum wrote Friday for Mother Jones. "Alternatively, it could be because it's a Philadelphia story, and the national media doesn't usually give a lot of time to local cases like this. Frankly, I don't know — though I'll note that even the conservative media didn't give it a huge amount of coverage until fairly recently, when Gosnell's trial started. . . ."

Others say the Gosnell story — and it is a horrifying, grisly one — is also a story about race and the media.

When the case broke in 2011, Jill Filipovic, who blogs as "Jill" on the Feministe site, wrote:

"Gosnell's clinic hadn't been reviewed by the Department of Health in 15 years. Members of his staff were unlicensed and not properly trained. And Gosnell knew that he could get away with offering sub-par care to women who he thought were less likely to complain — young women, immigrants, poor women and women of color."

Filipovic quoted Lori Adelman, who wrote in January 2011 on the Grio, "buried deep in articles describing 'bloodstained furniture' and 'jars packed with severed baby feet,' is a less gory but equally as horrifying insight that, at Dr. Gosnell's clinic, 'white women from the suburbs were ushered into a separate, slightly cleaner area' than Gosnell's regular clientele, which was comprised primarily of poor minority women, including many immigrants. Gosnell reportedly treated these white suburban clients to a more pleasant and sanitary experience because he believed they were 'more likely to file complaints' about substandard care."

Irin Carmon wrote Friday for Salon, "I can't speak for big news organizations like CNN and the networks, but let's think about this question another way: How often do such places devote their energies to covering the massive health disparities and poor outcomes that are wrought by our current system? How often are the travails of the women whose vulnerabilities Gosnell exploited — the poor, immigrants and otherwise marginalized people — given wall-to-wall, trial-level coverage? . . . "

Laura Bassett and Ryan Grim, Huffington Post: Kermit Gosnell Trial Is A 'Peek Into The World Before Roe v. Wade': NARAL President Ilyse Hogue 

William Bender, Philadelphia Daily News: Kermit Gosnell's son can't stand dad's name

CNN: Tonight on AC360: Doctor’s 'House of Horrors'

Jill Filipovic, Feministe: What Kermit Gosnell tells us about late-term abortion (Jan. 20, 2011)

Joshua Gillin, Poynter Institute: Media coverage swells over the lack of media coverage for abortion provider Kermit Gosnell

Patrick Howley, Daily Caller: Black leadership group condemns defense tactics, media coverage in abortion-doctor murder case

David Knowles, Daily News, New York: Former worker testifies that Dr. Kermit Gosnell snipped the spines of moving babies following abortions at Philadelphia clinic

Kirsten Powers, USA Today: Philadelphia abortion clinic horror: Column

Joseph A. Slobodzian, Philadelphia Inquirer: Gosnell intern testifies on teen years at clinic

David Weigel, Slate: Kermit Gosnell: The Alleged Mass-Murderer and the Bored Media

Erik Wemple, Washington Post: Washington Post pledges Gosnell coverage

Journalist-Turned-Car Dealer and Other Personal Stories

Cliff Brunt worked for the Associated Press for seven years when Associated Press Sports Editor Terry Taylor told him he would have to transfer to Indianapolis or take a buyout. He couldn't move, so he took a buyout. Now Blunt is a used car dealer, and this week he offered readers of the Indy Sports Legends website "the top 10 most important things I've learned since April 11, 2012," the fateful day Taylor called him with the news.

Brunt wasn't the only journalist of color offering a personal story in the last few days. To help inaugurate "Code Switch," a new NPR site, Eric Deggans, television critic for the Tampa Bay (Fla.) Times, recalled Wednesday how he had to "code switch" between his black boyhood neighborhood in Gary, Ind., and the white-dominated private school he attended outside of it.

" 'You guys doing anything today?' " Deggans began.

"That might sound like an ordinary, even dull question. But in my old neighborhood — mostly poor, entirely black '70s-era Gary, Ind. — that kind of question was grounds for serious ridicule. Or worse.

"The problem: I had dared use a word none of my partners ever let pass through their lips, unless they were making fun of a white person: 'guys.' . . ."

In collaboration with the Huffington Post, Terrell J. Starr, associate editor at NewsOne, wrote Thursday for Facebook, "I Found the Father I Never Knew I Needed On Facebook."

"Growing up on Detroit's west side, my neighborhood was rife with gang violence, drug abuse and semi-hopelessness," Starr wrote. "Manhood was measured by ghetto Darwinism: only the toughest young guns who dared not to fear the pistol-toting bullies, stray bullets or the temptation of the drug game survived." He had no idea who his father was then, he wrote, "but I knew I wanted him in my life."

Starr said he "ducked and weaved those travails by doing well in school, participating in after-school sports activities and being a pretty good kid."

In fact, according to the tagline, "Starr has a bachelor's degree in English from Philander Smith College and two master's degrees (M.S. in Editorial Journalism) and (M.A. in Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies) from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is a Fulbright Journalism Scholar (Ukraine 2009-2010) and a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (Georgia 2003-2005). He is an expert in African diasporas in the former Soviet Union and lived in the region for four years. He is pursuing opportunities to write a book on his life."

Brunt listed these as his 10 most important lessons: 1. "Job titles don't mean much. . . ." 2. "The journalism business as we knew it is dead. . . ." 3. "There are some good people in journalism. . . ." 4. "I can create a website (with a lot of help).. . ." 5. "I'm not good at selling cars. . . ." 6. "I'm not the only one. . . ." 7. "We're not missing meals, so I have no right to whine. . . ." 8. "Terry Taylor is a good person. . . ." 9. "My readers and the athletes like my writing, even if it’s not for the AP. . . ." 10. "My wife is my biggest fan. . . ."

R.L.G., Johnson blog, the Economist: How black to be?

J-Professor Tracks Gang Legacy of Central America's Wars

"Donna De Cesare had just walked into the AIDS ward at a public hospital in El Salvador one day in 1989 when a young voice greeted her," David Gonzalez reported Wednesday for the New York Times' Lens blog.

" 'What's up?' she recalled hearing. 'Finally, someone from my country!'

"She was taken aback. The voice was in English, with the rhythmic cadence of Chicano Los Angeles, where the young man had once lived. His name was Franklin Torres. Though he was born in El Salvador, he had fled during its violent civil war to what his mother thought was the safety of Los Angeles. Instead, he found refuge in gangs and drugs. Gangs led to his deportation, and back in El Salvador, drugs would claim his life.

"The unexpected encounter stayed with Ms. De Cesare, who had traveled to Central America to photograph the civil wars wracking the region. She would, in time, document the overlooked legacies of those bloody proxy wars, zeroing in on how witnessing unspeakable violence scarred young minds both in Central America and in the barrios of Los Angeles.

"This month, Ms. De Cesare released 'Unsettled/Desasosiego' (University of Texas Press), an urgent and moving work that chronicles those who grew up amid political wars, gang wars or both. It is a look back on lives that were lost, and some who triumphed, during her many years in the region. It is also, for her, a motivation to continue to examine these issues and to push for action through her bilingual Web site, Destiny's Children.

" 'We need to consider what we are doing as a society when we abandon so many children,' said Ms. De Cesare, who is an associate professor of journalism at the University of Texas at Austin. 'We need to see these young people as they truly are — children who have been burdened with so much that is painful from an early age and whose fragile hopes and dreams are being thwarted.' . . . "

Lizzie Chen, KERA-FM, Dallas: UT's Donna De Cesare Trains Her Lens On Central America, Children And Civil War (April 5)

Irish Nanny's Illegal Status Doesn't Rate Top Billing

The prominence given immigration status in contrasting stories from the Boston Globe illustrate a bias against one group of unauthorized immigrants, but not another, according to the advocacy group Latino Rebels.

"Irish nanny Aisling Brady McCarthy has been charged with first-degree murder in the death of a one-year-old girl she had been caring for in a Cambridge apartment, Middlesex District Attorney Gerard T. Leone Jr.'s office said today," began a story Friday by John R. Ellement.

In the 12th paragraph, readers learn that "Brady, a native of Ireland who has been in the country illegally, faces deportation to Ireland if she is freed from state custody, according to the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency."

By contrast, a Globe story by Maria Sacchetti from Sept. 28, 2011, begins, "Scituate police arrested an illegal immigrant from Brazil for motor-vehicle violations three months before he allegedly stabbed his former girlfriend to death in a brutal attack this week, reigniting debate over whether Massachusetts should participate in the federal Secure Communities program."

Globe editor Brian McGrory did not respond to a request for comment.

Meanwhile, Latino Rebels also pointed to a 2012 Hill+Knowlton Strategies online survey for the Latino Donor Collaborative that "showed that one-third think that more than half of the country's Latinos are undocumented and nearly 80% of non-Latino Americans think Latinos are involved in crime and gang activity."

Hill+Knowlton and the Latino Donor Collaborative tried to interest CNN in exclusively broadcasting the data in May 2012, Latino Rebels said, but CNN said online surveys did not offer the same credibility as those using other methods.

David Iannelli, president, global, of Research+Data Insights, disagrees. In fact, he told Journal-isms Friday by email, "Aside from the approach we take of (using demographically balanced panels, etc.) the methodological benefit of using an online approach for a survey on such a sensitive topic is that it neutralizes the problem of the socially-desirable response bias that tends to occur in telephone interviews where the respondent may offer what they believe is the politically correct response to be seen in a positive light by the interviewer. . . ."

Jacquellena Carrero, NBCLatino: The Immigration Line: Who's on it and for how long?

Juan González, Democracy Now!, Pacifica Radio: Immigration Debate "A Battle Over What America Will Look Like in 21st Century" 

María Hinojosa with Juan Cartagena on "Latino USA," NPR: The Enforcement Taboo (audio)

María Hinojosa with Reps. Luis V. Gutierrez, D-Ill., and  Xavier Becerra, D-Calif., on "Latino USA," NPR: The Congressional Potluck (audio)

John T. Moore, Ventura County (Calif.) Star: Ridding our news pages of labels

NBC News: NBCUniversal News Group Plans Editorial Initiative Dedicated to Immigration in America

NBC News: NBC News/WSJ Poll: Strong Majority Backs Citizenship for Undocumented Immigrants

Rand Paul's Speech at Howard University Called a Dud

"The Republican Party is struggling with its future," Charles M. Blow wrote Wednesday for the New York Times.

"Will it be a regional, Congressional party fighting a last-gasp battle for a shrinking base in a David and Goliath war against ominously expanding federal government? Or will it become a national, presidential party capable of adapting to a new American reality of diversity and expression in which the government serves an essential function in regulating public safety, providing a safety net and serving as a safeguard against discrimination?

"Senator Rand Paul is trying to find a balance between the two. The same week that a dozen defiant senators threatened to filibuster any new gun control legislation, Paul ventured across Washington to historically black Howard University and gave a speech aimed at outreach and bridge building.

"The man is mulling a presidential run after all.

"The speech was a dud. . . ."

Ta-Nehisi Coates blog, the Atlantic: The Conservative Black Hope (April 4)

Ta-Nehisi Coates, New York Times: He Wears the Mask (April 3)

Merlene Davis, Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader: McConnell should apologize to Judd, others battling mental illness

Charles D. Ellison, Philadelphia Tribune: Black Republicans Lost in GOP Rebranding

John McWhorter, Daily News, New York: Dr. Ben Carson's bad medicine (April 4)

Askia Muhammad, Washington Informer: Black Doctor Stepped in over His Head (April 3)

Adam Serwer, Mother Jones: Rand Paul Does Not Deserve a Gold Star for Speaking at Howard University

"42" Film Captures the Hero, but Maybe Not the Human

"Whenever it is that an icon passes from being human to being a saint is the point at which it's probably too late for a good movie," Wesley Morris, who won a Pulitzer Prize for criticism last year while at the Boston Globe, wrote Thursday for Grantland.

"All you get is the lessons learned and very little of the naturalism or idiosyncrasy or personality that made the person iconic in the first place. Or you get all that courtesy of a great performance, but then there's no filmmaking or storytelling to support it. You rarely get both acting and an angle, the way you did, say, with Walk the Line and Lincoln. It's usually that the subjects mean so much to the filmmakers that they can't bring themselves to take the subjects out of their historical packaging and play with them, lest they lose their value.

"That's the Jackie Robinson situation. . . ."

Not all shared Morris' view in reviewing "42," the Robinson film biography that opened Friday, but many did.

Journalists might have a special interest in the portrayal of Wendell Smith, the legendary African American sportswriter who also helped to desegregate baseball. Smith was inducted posthumously into the Hall of Fame of the National Association of Black Journalists in January. Andre Holland, the actor who plays Smith in the film, was present for the occasion, and La Velle E. Neal III of the Star Tribune in Minneapolis, now president of the Baseball Writers Association, accepted the award for Smith.

David Germain wrote for the Associated Press, "The story of black baseball writer Wendell Smith (Andre Holland) parallels Robinson's, but the film burns up a lot of time trying to establish camaraderie between the two that never quite gels."

Zeba Blay, Shadow and Act: Review — '42' Is A Well-Intentioned But Watered-Down Telling Of Jackie Robinson's Story 

Cal Fussman, ESPN: "I Was Allowed To Dream After That" — Henry Aaron

Dana Jennings, New York Times: The Superhero Who Leapt Color Lines

Jonathan Kim, HuffPost BlackVoices: Review: 42 — Which Side of History Are You On?

A. Stacy Long, Montgomery (Ala.) Advertiser: Skeeter Barnes on Jackie Robinson movie: 'It's not just a baseball thing'

Roland S. Martin, Creators Syndicate: Dr. Phil! Help Me Fall Back in Love With Baseball

Eric Metaxas, Religion News Service: Jackie Robinson's faith missing from '42' movie

Wesley Morris, Grantland: Bill Simmons talks to Grantland's film critic Wesley Morris about the upcoming Jackie Robinson biopic '42' and discusses why some movie biographies work and why others don't. (podcast)

Mark Newman, MLB.com: '42' movie receiving rave reviews

Chris Oberholtz, Emily Rittman and Dave Jordan, KCTV-TV, Kansas City: KC rolls out red carpet for stars of Jackie Robinson movie '42'

Rob Parker, the Shadow League: Black People Shouldn't Waste Jackie Robinson's Legacy

Duane Rankin, Montgomery (Ala.) Advertiser: '42' better get it right ... and inspire another generation 

Alyssa Rosenberg and Travis Waldron, ThinkProgress: What '42' Misses About Jackie Robinson's Integration Of Baseball, And
About The Civil Rights Movement

Andrew Schall, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Wendell Smith: The Pittsburgh journalist who made Jackie Robinson mainstream (June 5, 2011)

A. O. Scott, New York Times: That Rookie at First Is in a New Position

Larry Stone, Seattle Times: As Jackie Robinson is celebrated, African-American participation in MLB dwindles

Jason Whitlock, Fox Sports: Looking for next Jackie? Won't happen

Jason Woullard, the Shadow League: In The Life Of Jackie Robinson: Branch Rickey

Public Broadcasting Called Underfunded for Covering Gun Violence

"The mass shootings last year in Colorado, Wisconsin and Connecticut reawakened Americans to recurring tragedies of gun violence and rekindled a national debate about gun control — one that public radio and television have chronicled and analyzed through ongoing programs and the package of special broadcasts that aired on PBS last month," Debra Blum wrote this week for Current.org, which covers public broadcasting.

"But along with news coverage and the occasional specials, pubcasters and documentary producers could be doing much more on the gun-violence issue, observers say, if more funding were available in the field.

" 'Philanthropy is really sparse on this topic,' says Vince Stehle, executive director of Media Impact Funders. 'There's some attention paid to it, and maybe a little more now, but it's not well-resourced.'

"Audiences have already demonstrated their interest in programs dealing with gun violence:

"A two-part radio series examining the crisis of gun violence in one Chicago school, 'Harper High School,' proved so popular when it aired on This American Life in February that the show’s distributor Public Radio International is arranging for rebroadcasts on other nonprofit and commercial radio stations. More than 1 million listeners have downloaded the programs from the TAL website, and so many listeners expressed an interest in helping the school that administrators set up an online donation page. . . . "

Natalie Neysa Alund, Oakland Tribune: Memorial service set for former Oakland Tribune freelance photographer gunned down Friday

Jarvis DeBerry, NOLA.com | the Times-Picayune: Murder of AmeriCorps volunteer challenges our indifference to killings

Mary Mitchell, Chicago Sun-Times: Michelle Obama and community come together for youth

Barry Saunders, News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C.: Seeing the victims of crime can send a powerful message

Short Takes

"The Supreme Court hearing cases this year on same-sex marriage [has] thrust gay rights issues to the forefront again. One dominant voice continues to reflect the perspective of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community in news: the white male," Sherri Williams wrote Wednesday for Quill. She added, "The absence of the voices of people of color, women and transgender people from news stories about LGBT issues implies that they don’t exist, said Daryl C. Hannah, director of media and community partnerships for the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. . . . "

The Washington Post has hired Alice Rhee, who spent more than 15 years at NBC and MSNBC, as senior producer of shows as it staffs up in preparation for the summer launch of an online politics channel, Michael Calderone reported Friday for the Huffington Post. He cited a Post memo.

Dr. Shelley Stewart is the recipient of the National Association of Black Journalists' 2013 Community Service Award, NABJ announced on Friday. Dr. Stewart is a broadcast journalist, president and CEO of O2Ideas, and founder of The Mattie C. Stewart Foundation. His "InsideOut" is a 26-minute documentary that presents the stories of [prison] lifers, in their own words, and exposes the lasting and devastating effects that can occur when one drops out of school. It has been viewed in 47 states and Canada.

The American Society of News Editors is teaming with the American Press Institute to hold its Minority Leadership Institute June 23-24 in Washington, coinciding with the annual ASNE convention. The institute provides leadership and management training to 15 mid-level editors and business executives. The program was conceived by ASNE's Diversity Committee and first conducted in August 2012 at Unity.

"With Oprah Winfrey's OWN cable network gaining traction with African-American viewers, Bounce TV picking up advertisers on broadcast and Magic Johnson and P. Diddy backing new channels, long-time leader BET isn't ignoring its rivals," Jon Lafayette reported Thursday for Broadcasting & Cable. Louis Carr, BET's president of ad sales, "pointed to research on engagement with African-Americans that showed BET was the No. 1 among 400 media brands they were unwilling to give up. BET beat ESPN by 22%, TV One by 41% and OWN by 89%. BET's Centric network beat OWN by 7%. . . ."

"*Co-host of MSNBC's daytime show 'The Cycle' Touré joined HuffPost Live host Marc Lamont Hill Thursday and defended his network's all-white primetime lineup," EURWeb reported. The item added, "But Touré said that within MSNBC's modern era, there have only been five hosts to fit into three valuable slots — and the current lineup of Chris Hayes, Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O'Donnell is 'brilliant' and 'extraordinary.' "

"While their English-language counterparts have struggled in the ratings so far this year, Univision and Telemundo are headed in the other direction," Rick Kissell reported Thursday for Variety. "The Spanish-language broadcasters recorded some historic highs in the first quarter, with Univision closing in on NBC in 18-49 and pulling ahead of it in the younger half of the [demographic.] And for the 2012-13 season to date, Telemundo, Univision and its sister network UniMas are the only broadcasters showing any growth in the 18-49 demo, according to Nielsen. . . ."

"More African Americans wear the union label than non-blacks, but the number of union members declined in 2012 compared with the year before," the NorthStar News & Analysis reported Friday. "The University of California Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education reported in 2012 that 13.1 percent of black workers in the United States were union members compared with 11.0 percent of non-black workers. . . ."

"The new president and c.e.o. of dual licensee Lakeshore Public Media in Merrillville, Ind., is James Muhammad, currently director of radio services for West Virginia Public Broadcasting. He begins work in his new post May 20," Dru Sefton reported for current.org on Thursday.

"Margaret Sullivan, the public editor of The New York Times, writes about technology writer Jenna Wortham's recent admission that she shares passwords for Netflix," Chris Roush wrote Thursday for Talking Biz News. Sullivan quoted Jeff Sommer, an assistant business editor who worked with Wortham to conceive the column idea. "The column is supposed to be experimental, and Jenna is deliberately on the frontier – that's the whole point. It's wonderful to have someone who's ahead of the curve. . . ."

In Winnipeg, Manitoba, the Winnipeg Free Press was honored Thursday "for bridge-building journalism that has helped Manitobans better understand the province's Muslim community," the paper reported. "Free Press diversity reporter Carol Sanders and faith writer Brenda Suderman received the Ansar and Ihsan Awards from the Islamic Social Services Association Inc." It continued, "Sanders used her speech to thank the Islamic community for their patience and understanding in the 104 stories she has written since 2004 that involved questions about their religion. . . ."

In Venezuela, "The late President Hugo Chavez appeared constantly on TV, and attacked media that criticized him," Juan Forero reported Friday for NPR. "Now, only one opposition TV station remains. The left-leaning president called Globovision part of a right-wing conspiracy. Though Chavez is gone, the station's end may also be near."

The Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday it "welcomes Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi's announcement that he will withdraw legal complaints against journalists who 'spread wrong information.' The announcement was posted on the presidency's Twitter account and confirmed by Presidential spokesman Ehab Fahmy. . . ."

"In a return to old tactics, the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) in Sudan have resumed strict pre-publication censorship," the Committee to Protect Journalists reported Friday.

In Tunisia, Free Arabs, a new secular-minded website, "includes skits poking fun at Islamic legal opinions by dramatizing them far beyond their logical conclusions," John Thorne reported Wednesday for the Christian Science Monitor. He added, "Launched last month by Moroccan journalist Ahmed Benchemsi, it aims to sustain the spirit of intelligent irreverence that helped drive the Arab Spring. . . ."

The Nigeria National Committee of the International Press Institute declared Friday, "Detaining journalists while investigating their alleged professional infractions is a throw back to the best forgotten dark days of dictatorial regimes. The courts, not detention centres, are the proper place to take alleged offenders. . . ."

Reporting on Ecuador, Reporters Without Borders said Friday it "hopes for quick results from the investigation into journalist Fausto Valdivieso's murder yesterday in Guayaquil. The motive is not yet known but press reports quoted local sources as saying he had been the target of a murder attempt 24 hours earlier and had received threats. . . ."

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