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Richard Prince
November 16, 2010

Johnson Publishing Sells Historic Headquarters

The historic building will become on Chicago's Michigan Avenue will become a Columbia College library.

The Johnson Building (Johnson Publishing Co.)

College to Own First Black-Owned Building in Chicago's Loop

Johnson Publishing Co. has sold its historic building on Chicago's Michigan Avenue to Columbia College Chicago, the company announced on Tuesday.

It has not yet selected a new home and is to remain in the building for 18 months.

"The sale of 820 S. Michigan is part of the continuing evolution of the company that my father and mother started in the early 1942s," Linda Johnson Rice, Johnson Publishing Co. chairman, said in a statement.

"Just as when JPC moved to this location in 1972, my father would be the first to say it makes good business sense to relocate to space that serves the current needs of the company."

The purchase price was not disclosed, but spokesman Rodrigo A. Sierra, senior vice president and chief marketing officer, said, "It does strengthen our balance sheet. We want to be focused on our businesses and not on upkeep of a building."

JPC said that it uses only about 40 percent of the building.

The announcement said, "The 11-story, 110,000 square-foot historic building, which has been home to EBONY and JET magazines as well as Fashion Fair Cosmetics for almost 40 years, was completed in 1972 as the first major downtown Chicago building designed by an African-American since Jean Baptiste Point DuSable’s trading post, built two centuries earlier."

The building is historic not only because it was designed by an African American, John W. Moutoussamy, but also because it was owned by one — the first skyscraper owned by an African American in the Loop.

In his memoir, "Succeeding Against the Odds," written with Lerone Bennett Jr., company founder John H. Johnson described how he enlisted a white lawyer to buy the land for him when the owner would not sell to a black person.

Writing in the Washington Post in 1980, Carla Hall described the building as it looked then:

"On the wall of the advertising department are framed posters of slick, crisp ads that ran 10 years ago promoting the Ebony readership as a bountiful consumer market to be tapped by companies. The caption on one showing black professionals reads: 'If these men and women have rhythm, they've put it to work on marketing cycles or computer electronics or fabric patterns... Ebony is where 49 million people do their shopping.'

"The $8 million building contains a $300,000 art collection, the work of many black artists all over the country. It is practically a monument — sometimes an ostentatious one — to black success."

After Johnson — father of Linda Johnson Rice — died in 2005 at age 87, a new honorary street sign reading John H. Johnson Avenue was posted on the corner near the Michigan Avenue entrance.

After 18 months, Columbia College Chicago plans to use the site for a library.

Allen Turner, chairman of the school's Board of Trustees, said in a statement, "The purchase of the Johnson Building offered us a rare opportunity for much needed expansion, especially given that the space is central to our South Loop campus. Just as important, we will have a part in preserving the legacy of the Johnson Building and its legendary significance to all Chicagoans."

Lynn Norment, an editor who worked at Ebony from 1977 to 2009 and is now with Carol H. Williams Advertising, also located downtown, said of the building, "It represents wonderful memories, the legacy of Mr. Johnson. It represents a black institution in our community. I spent half my life there, and I was there for more than half of Ebony's life, and I realize now I was there for the heyday. It's kind of sad."

Media Drawn to Cholera Outbreak, Lack of Progress

In January, 70 percent of Americans polled told the Pew Research Center that the massive earthquake that had just shaken Haiti was the story they were talking about with their friends. Nearly half said they gave or planned to give a donation to those affected.

The heart-wrenching catastrophe spawned such pledges as this one by Karl Rodney, publisher of the New York Carib News and chairman of the black press' NNPA Foundation Haitian Project:

"The story of Haiti is the story that the Black Press must own and the Black Press must tell because Haiti is the first Democratic country in the Western Hemisphere, the first Black republic for over 200 years."

As could be expected, public attention eventually shifted elsewhere, but a deadly outbreak of cholera, an upcoming presidential election and continuing frustration with a lack of progress are helping to bring it back.

Wyclef Jean, the hip-hop star, sparked a flurry of interest over the summer when he announced he would seek Haiti's presidency. But elections officials ruled in August that Jean was not eligible because he did not live there; he left Haiti as a child for the United States.

More recently came the cholera epidemic. Monday brought this news: "Protesters who hold U.N. soldiers from Nepal responsible for a deadly outbreak of cholera that has killed nearly 1,000 people barricaded Haiti's second-largest city on Monday, burning cars and stoning a peacekeeping base," as Jonathan M. Katz reported for the Associated Press.

Haiti was again grabbing media attention. In Washington, public radio's "The Kojo Nnamdi Show" on WAMU-FM broadcast live from Haiti for four days last week, discussing topics ranging from the use of cell-phone technology on the island to the more than $1 billion Haiti receives every year in remittances from Haitian immigrant communities overseas.

In the Columbia Journalism Review, Lauren Kirchner wrote last week about a first-person simulation program in which the participant plays the role of an aid worker, journalist or survivor. " 'Inside the Haiti Earthquake' is designed to challenge assumptions about relief work in disaster situations," she wrote of the creation by Canada's PTV Productions. "You will be given the opportunity to commit to various strategies, and experience their consequences."

On Sunday, Byron Pitts, correspondent for CBS-TV's "60 Minutes," with a team that included Haitian-American producer Magalie Laguerre-Wilkinson, reported from the scene:

"This year had already been a disastrous one for Haiti when a cholera epidemic erupted a few weeks ago that has killed over 700 people in the countryside and is spreading to the capital, Port-au-Prince. It's where millions of people live in wretched conditions — a perfect breeding ground for the waterborne disease to flourish.

"This latest disaster couldn't have come at a worse time: Haiti was already struggling to recover from last January's earthquake that killed 300,000 people.

"To help it get back on its feet, nearly half the households in America donated money and countries from around the world pledged billions.

" '60 Minutes' traveled to Haiti to see what has happened since then and we were surprised to find how little progress has been made."

There seems to be no end to the angles that can be explored. "The difference between life and death in Haiti is now an ordinary bar of soap," William Booth wrote Monday in the Washington Post.

"Soap could slow the terrifying cholera outbreak that is quickly spreading and has just in the past week entered the ravaged capital, according to health care specialists and international aid groups.

" . . . A cake of yellow Haitian soap costs about 50 cents. But many Haitians do not have soap, because they cannot it afford it. More than half of the population lives on less than $1.25 a day."

José de Córdoba wrote Friday in the Wall Street Journal that non-governmental organizations on the ground to help could also be part of the problem.

"As the past few months have made clear, there is little coordination among the NGOs or between the NGOs and Haitian officials. Some NGO plans don't fit or clash outright with the plans of the government. Some are geared toward short-term relief — a classic case of giving a man a fish instead of teaching him to fish," he wrote.

The American news industry had responded with plans to help Haiti's journalists, devastated by the quake like other Haitian citizens, to tell their own stories.

An e-mail Monday to Joe Oglesby, the retired editorial page editor at the Miami Herald who was picked to head this Haiti News Project, found him on the island.

"I'm in Haiti this week, delivering computers, printers and cameras to journalists and newspapers. I will spend the week interviewing media folk here," he wrote. "The cholera outbreak has caused serious concern among the people I've seen so far. Other than the obvious precautions of frequent hand washing and extreme care, there is not much that people can do. So most are resigned to simply be as careful as possible and hope for the best.

"Small delivery this time," he continued. "We're winding down this part of the project and focusing on training. I'm delivering 7 computers, two cameras, two printers and 52 computer bags that were donated by NABJ participants. I have local brokers helping me negotiate the arcane and corrupt Customs process.

"We're working with several small groups of radio and print journalists on a range of projects depending on their skill levels. This we're doing in collaboration with Knight Foundation international fellow Kathie Klarreich. We're also working with Jane Regan who will begin a course in investigative reporting at State University for senior journalism students and active journalists."

The NABJ reference was to the National Association of Black Journalists, whose member donated bags at the summer convention in San Diego.  President Kathy Times made an announcement about the project at a dinner. "The response was overwhelming," John Yearwood, world editor at the Miami Herald and NABJ liaison to the project, told Journal-isms.

A delegation from the National Newspaper Publishers Association, including Richard Muhammad, editor-in-chief of the Final Call, New York freelancer Herb Boyd and talk-show host Joe Madison, went to the island in February. As part of the follow-up, Hazel Trice Edney, editor-in-chief of the NNPA News Service, said then that the publishers planned to open a bureau in the country, staffed by a Haitian journalist who would be trained in Washington. However, Trice Edney left NNPA in September.

Still, Julianne Malveaux, an NNPA columnist, was in Haiti last month, and reported last week in USA Today, "Our indifference, political wrangling and sense of business as usual are nothing short of immoral."

Joel Dreyfuss, a Haitian-American who is managing editor of theRoot.com, has been following the Haitian coverage closely.

"One of the best pieces on Haiti recently is the one that ran in the Wall Street Journal by Jose de Cordoba talking about a backlash against foreign aid," he told Journal-isms via e-mail. "It touches on why so many of the 'well-meaning' efforts are a failure. There's a general oversimplification when it comes to Haiti. It's like, this tiny country can't possibly be that complicated.

"Yesterday's '60 Minutes' piece talked about blocking relief materials at the port, but what about the local economy? one new worry is that free and donated goods will destroy the merchant economy. Should an aid group bring millions of dollars of building material, or buy from local merchants? There is corruption of course, but there is also genuine worry about the long term effect. That's a big issue that's not dealt with very often.

"There is already the story of how all the free medical aid has bankrupted several hospitals and put some very good doctors out of business. The NGOs are out of control.

"So I think the interest has returned because of cholera, but much less attention is being paid to the upcoming election on Nov. 28, which has much more of a long term impact."

There's still time to gear up for that, even for those who want to broadcast from Haiti in person, as Nnamdi did. He offers this advice:

"Once we hooked up with Radio Metropole in Haiti, we were able to get the live broadcasts done. We had to take a lot of equipment that only our engineer understands, but it all fit into a large metal suitcase.

"Apart from that, we discovered that your fixer is everything. Not only driver and translator, but also as producer, since you've got to find people in a hurry, and having someone who knows a lot of people who can find other people in a chaotic city is crucial if you're operating with limited time."

Washington Post Admits Flaw in Labeling Obama Piece

President Obama might have been tending to international affairs last week, domestic politics remained in full tilt back home.

A piece in the Washington Post Outlook section generated the lion's share of Sunday buzz by suggesting that Obama declare that he would be a one-term president.

"Obama has the opportunity to seize the high ground and the imagination of the nation once again, and to galvanize the public for the hard decisions that must be made. The only way he can do so, though, is by putting national interests ahead of personal or political ones," wrote Douglas E. Schoen and Patrick H. Caddell in a piece called "One & done."

Caddell was identified as a political commentator who was pollster and senior adviser to former president Jimmy Carter. Schoen was labeled a pollster who worked for former president Bill Clinton and is the author of "Mad as Hell: How the Tea Party Movement Is Fundamentally Remaking Our Two-Party System."

But Matt Gertz noted for Media Matters that the Post failed to disclose "that Schoen has been a pollster for New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. As Bloomberg is considered a possible third-party candidate for president in 2012, the Post basically gave Schoen space to try to push his potential client's opponent out of the race.

"A Washington Post spokesperson now tells Media Matters that the paper 'should have also noted' Schoen's work for Bloomberg:

"Because the piece sought to give advice to President Obama, the Outlook editors thought it was important to highlight the authors' experience working for former presidents. In hindsight, given the speculation about Michael Bloomberg possibly seeking the presidency, we should have also noted that Schoen was a former pollster for Bloomberg."

Meanwhile, ProPublica and PolitiFact, the political fact-checking unit of the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times, examined this statement by Obama Nov. 7 on CBS-TV's "60 Minutes":

"One of the interesting things about the Recovery Act was most of the projects came in under budget, faster than expected, because there's just not a lot of work there."

Rob Farley of Politifact, and Michael Grabell of ProPublica concluded last Wednesday:

". . . Obama would have been on firm ground had he said 'many' projects have come in faster than expected. Many have. But many have not. And if the claim is based on meeting a deadline to outlay funds, the overall target of 70 percent was reached — barely — by the end of September. That's only faster than expected if you expected the government to fail.

"Obama makes a valid point about this being a good time to get deals on infrastructure projects. The recession has created desperate workers willing to work cheaper, and the cost of materials is still relatively low. Obama's point that this was borne out by the stimulus projects is on target. But he stretched the facts — at least what is actually known — when he claimed most projects have come in under budget and faster than expected. And so we rate his claim Half True."

Separately, a new website has surfaced, whatthefuckhasobamadonesofar.com.

"Nightly Business Report's" Ward Moves to Parent Company

Rodney Ward, executive editor of "Nightly Business Report" on public television, was promoted Monday to executive vice president/special president of NBR Worldwide, the company that acquired the show in August.

"In his new position, he will report directly to NBR Worldwide CEO Mykalai Kontilai on the many new platforms that are planned for NBR content. Ward will no longer be involved with the production or editorial management of the daily program," Stuart Zuckerman, vice president, sales and marketing, told Journal-isms.

"Wendie Feinberg, current Managing Editor, assumes those responsibilities as VP/Managing Editor."

Elizabeth Jensen reported Friday for the New York Times that " 'Nightly Business Report,' the business newscast on PBS, laid off eight people on Friday, or about 20 percent of the staff, in the first major change since it was acquired in August."

According to Ward's bio, "He has been with Nightly Business Report since its debut in 1979, when it was a 15-minute program broadcast only in Southeast Florida.

"Before being promoted into the position he currently holds, Rodney spent 11 years as managing editor of 'Nightly Business Report.' In that capacity, he guided a dedicated news team headquartered in Miami and also operating out of bureaus in New York, Washington, D.C., and Chicago. Rodney was also directly responsible for leading NBR's regional coverage of Asia. During his tenure as Managing Editor, NBR was recognized with a National Emmy Award as well as numerous other awards for its coverage of business and the economy."

Producer-writer Denise Royal, who is also a black journalist, remains with the program.

Andrew Philemon Jones, Boston Provocateur, Dies at 58

Kubeshni Govender Jones)"In all the years I knew Andrew, he was a gentle soul — angry at injustice towards humanity but possessing a great love towards humans. News of the manner of his death in South Africa came as a shock," Brian Wright O’Connor wrote Thursday in Boston's Bay State Banner, describing Andrew Philemon Jones.

"In late October, after an argument with his estranged wife — the mother of their three young sons — Andrew left their office, returned with a handgun, and fired one bullet. The shot went through her shoulder. He pulled the trigger a second time. The gun jammed. Andrew killed himself after she fled from the room. He was 58 years old.

"Andrew had battled demons but demons could hardly explain or condone such a violent end.

"Friends and family who attended his funeral in Johannesburg, the city where Andrew had started a new life after leaving Boston in 1995, were similarly shocked. His wife, Kubeshni Govender Jones, was sufficiently recovered to attend the services, as were their boys — Cochise, Sicelo, and Ayanda.

". . . he studied at the New England Conservatory of Music, but concert halls and recording studios couldn’t contain his searching mind and restless spirit. He got a master’s degree in journalism from Boston University in 1982 and set out to use the media to change the world. Or, as a more seasoned Andrew put it later, 'I switched from one form of entertainment to another.'

"The inevitable clash occurred when ABC sent an executive to the network’s Prudential Tower suite to advise bureau employees, who had long complained about strange fibers in the office air, not to talk to the press about asbestos dust falling from the ceiling. Andrew laughed at the man in the suit and denounced the network in public.

"The end of Andrew’s network producing career gave rise to a successful run as an agent provocateur seeding intellectual sedition through documentary films. In segments for public television stations around the country, including many first aired on Boston’s WGBH-TV, Andrew told the story of the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa, captured the growing pains of Russia in the first gasps of post-Soviet life, and conducted pioneering interviews with the reclusive leaders of North Korea.

"He broadcast reports from Indonesia, Vietnam, Japan, Jordan, Malawi, Angola, Mozambique, Brazil, Mexico and Zimbabwe. He picked up a New England Regional Emmy and scores of film awards along the way. His segments aired on NBC, Black Entertainment Television, the British Broadcasting Corporation, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the PBS Network and Russia’s TASS News Agency."

Eduardo Suárez to Head Programming at CNN en Español

Eduardo Suárez has been named to the newly created position of vice president of programming for CNN en Español, the network announced on Monday.

"Suárez will be based in Miami, and travel frequently to the network’s bureaus and Atlanta hub, as well as on location to key news hotspots.

"As vice president of programming, Suárez will be responsible for the strategic planning and execution for all network programs, specials and on-location events across CNN en Español’s three feeds: pan-regional, Mexico and U.S. He will supervise production teams in Atlanta and Miami, and the creation of all new media content."

". . . He most recently served as the Vice President of Productions and Programming for Mega TV, and has worked in various leadership roles at Univisión, Telemundo, Discovery Latin America and MGM Latin America, in addition to running his own company."

Politico Assigning 40 Journalists to "Politico Pro"

Politico plans a February 2011 launch of Politico Pro, which "will provide paid subscribers high-impact, high-velocity reporting on the politics of energy, technology and health care reform," the three-year-old Internet and print publication announced on Monday. "And it will do so with a team of more than 40 dedicated journalists — roughly the same number that POLITICO itself had when it started publishing.

"As POLITICO itself did nearly four years ago, POLITICO Pro is moving aggressively to hire the best reporters and editors in the business. Leading the effort will be POLITICO Pro Editor-in-Chief Tim Grieve, currently a deputy managing editor at POLITICO," the announcement said.

LaRonda Peterson, a black journalist, "will serve as POLITICO Pro's production editor, leading a team that will include copy editor Abby McIntyre and web producers Kate Nocera, Jess Kamen and Alex Guillén," it continued.

However, Politico would not identify any journalists of color. "Company policy as well as respect for our employees' privacy and their individual talents preclude us from giving you a head count on hiring. Suffice it to say that we're proud of our track record on Pro," said Beth Frerking, assistant managing editor, partnerships.

Although John F. Harris, Politico's top editor, is a board member of the American Society of News Editors, Politico has not disclosed its diversity information when ASNE surveyed online operations. "Our corporate policies don't allow me to release numerical data," Harris has said.

Nevertheless, Frerking did add, "our second POLITICO Fellow — Juana Summers — arrived today. She'll be on our 2012 political reporting team. She joins Jennifer Martinez, a tech reporter, in a program that we're very proud to have launched this fall.

Summers, who is African American, was a member of the 2009 summer class of Chips Quinn Scholars, the Freedom Forum training program designed to boost diversity in the news business.

Richard Prince
November 13, 2010

NPR Confronts Fallout From Williams Affair

The network has taken steps to address concerns raised by journalists of color by hiring a second African American on-air reporter, Alex P. Kellogg.

NPR's board of directors has approved hiring a law firm to review the network's handling of the termination of Juan Williams' contract, and the network has taken steps to address concerns raised by journalists of color.

NPR has hired a second African American on-air reporter, Alex P. Kellogg of the Wall Street Journal, plans to make up for its omission of "All Things Considered" co-anchor Michele Norris from its 40th-year anniversary book and is in the final stages of hiring a senior editor whose job will be to find diverse sources and voices for NPR stories.

The firing of Williams hovered over the first meeting of the NPR board of directors since last month's events. And while the erstwhile "news analyst" was nowhere in sight, it was obvious that he had emerged the clear winner in the episode.

Williams' Oct. 20 firing over his remarks about Muslims on Fox News' "The O'Reilly Factor" prompted a backlash that forced NPR to admit that it handled the situation badly. Moreover, Fox News gave Williams a three-year contract worth nearly $2 million. And Natasha Lennard reported Wednesday for Politico:

". . . According to an e-mail sent by the American Program Bureau to clients and obtained by POLITICO, since his NPR dismissal 'the demand for Juan Williams as a speaker has been unprecedented; APB's phones have been ringing off the hook with calls from associations, corporations and universities looking to secure Mr. Williams as a keynote speaker at their next event."

 

In his last remarks as NPR board chair, Howard Stevenson said: "Nobody is thankful for where we are, but the past is prologue, and now we have to look to the future. I tend to wish my term had ended two weeks ago," the blog Current Public Media, which covers public broadcasting, reported on Thursday.

Selected to conduct the review was the law firm of Weil, Gotshal & Manges, a 20-office multinational law practice, "highly regarded with considerable expertise in governance issues," incoming board chair Dave Edwards of Milwaukee Public Radio told the board.

CEO Vivian Schiller added in a note to the NPR staff, "We recommended and the board agreed that it would be prudent to commission an independent, objective third party to review both the process by which the decision was made, and the way it was implemented and communicated." Williams, a contract employee who was no longer on staff, was fired in a late-night telephone call. Working as a news analyst on NPR but a commentator on Fox News Channel, Williams had said on "The O'Reilly Factor" that Muslims dressed in Muslim garb on planes made him nervous, though it was wrong to discriminate against them.

Schiller repeated during the two-day meeting that believes she was justified in terminating Williams' contract but that "the matter was handled badly. I take full responsibility."

Board members, who met mostly in executive session but twice opened the meeting to public view, betrayed no indication of displeasure with Schiller. Nor did any NPR listeners or critics; no one came to the microphone in the time designated for public comments.

Williams' status as the only African American staff voice on the air throughout most of his NPR career gave the episode racial implications. Some black staffers asked whether a white employee would have been treated as Williams was and wondered aloud whether African Americans were disappearing one by one.

In August, however, NPR hired Corey Dade, a Wall Street Journal reporter and a black journalist, as a Washington-based digital news correspondent. Now Kellogg, who has covered urban Detroit, the auto-company bankruptcies and other Michigan topics for the Wall Street Journal's Detroit bureau, has been hired to report on diversity and other issues, spokeswoman Dana Davis Rehm told Journal-isms.

Kellogg was actually hired before the Williams firing, though it is only now being disclosed. He first appeared in this space in 2007 when he was working for the Detroit Free Press and Barack Obama'sracial bona fides were being questioned. Kellogg, whose mother is a white American and father a black Eritrean, wrote about being an "African American" like Obama. He worked as a journalist in East Africa for three years, and the Sierra Club published an 5,000-word essay from him on the irony of being black in America yet considered closer to white in Africa.

Rehm also said NPR was in the "final selection process" for a senior editor to increase the diversity of sources used by NPR journalists. Referring to Keith Woods, picked by Schiller last year to be vice president of diversity in news and operations, Rehm said the senior-editor idea came from "a pilot project that Keith and News management initiated. A rotation of news staff were taken off their regular jobs to focus on finding new sources and voices; it worked so well that the decision was made to find a way to create a full time senior position devoted to this."

The senior editor's jurisdiction would be "newsroom wide and also across all the shows."

Meanwhile, the network moved to make redress after its embarrassment over the exclusion of Michele Norris, co-host of its popular afternoon news show "All Things Considered," from "This is NPR," the network's holiday-timed book about NPR's 40 years.

"Norris was asked to contribute a chapter, along with other staffers or people who appear regularly on NPR for the book, which weaves the stories into a chronological history. Other contributors includeCokie Roberts, Nina Totenberg, P.J. O'Rourke and Paula Poundstone. But because she was on sabbatical writing her own book, 'The Grace of Silence: A Memoir,' Norris couldn't contribute an essay and was not included anywhere else, said NPR spokeswoman Dana Davis Rehm, media writer Eric Deggans reported last week for his St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times blog.

Rehm told Journal-isms that Norris would be in the next available edition. The first, of 18,000 copies, is already in stores, and a spokeswoman for Chronicle Books, the publisher, said the second printing is due out at the end of the month.

Journal-isms reached Norris by e-mail in California, where she is on book tour. For "This Is NPR," she said she was told that "Morning Edition" co-host Steve Inskeep "is writing a lovely essay about our work together on York."

Norris’ own "The Grace of Silence: A Memoir" grew out of an NPR reporting project on race during the 2008 presidential campaign. She and Inskeep recorded conversations with a cross-section of York, Pa., area residents.

She noted that on Monday, "The Grace of Silence" made Publishers Weekly's list of the best books of 2010

Michele Norris blog: A Veteran's Day Remembrance

First Lady to Host White House Screening of 'Colored Girls'First lady Michelle Obama, just back from a relatively noncontroversial trip to Asia with her husband, is wading into a cultural thicket on her return. She is hosting a private White House screening of Tyler Perry's film "For Colored Girls," Journal-isms has learned.

The Perry film, based on Ntozake Shange's 1975 "choreopoem" "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf," has been criticized for its portrayals of black men but praised for giving voice to black women's struggles with emotional obstacles.

Obama plans to show the film primarily for staff at a Tuesday gathering in the White House theater. No word on whether the president will attend. It is White House policy not to comment on activities in the residence, a spokeswoman said.

The first lady accompanied President Obama abroad last week, dancing and playing hopscotch with disadvantaged children in Mumbai, India; joining schoolgirls in New Delhi on a field trip through a museum of Indian craft work; paying a first-time visit to Indonesia, where her husband spent part of his childhood; and surprising U.S. servicemen and women in Germany on Veterans Day, serving them steaks at a special meal.

Darian Aaron, theDailyVoice.com: Tyler Perry fuels down low hysteria and homophobia in For Colored Girls 

Helena Andrews, theRoot.com: Single-Minded: Me, My Mother and 'For Colored Girls' 

Mark Corece, theDailyVoice.com: For Colored Girls, No Seriously it is

Mary C. Curtis, Politics Daily: Why Must 'For Colored Girls' Be More Than Just a Movie?

Robin Givhan, Washington Post: Michelle Obama acknowledges Indian fashion industry during trip

Hill Harper, theRoot.com: Not Dealing With Depression 

Gregory Kane, BlackAmericaWeb.com, Hate the Male-Bashing, Love the 'Colored' Cast 

Rashod Ollison, Virginian-Pilot, Norfolk, Va.: It’s time for better black movies than Perry’s tales of woe 

Courtland Milloy and Vanessa Williams, Washington Post: On 'For Colored Girls' (video discussion)

Salamishah Tillet, theRoot.com: Black Feminism, Tyler Perry Style 

Miki Turner, myjet247.com: On 'For Colored Girls' 

 

Richard Prince
November 11, 2010

Will Black Boys Have Skills to Be Journalists?

It's a "national catastrophe": A new report shows black men are performing lower than their peers on almost every level. Richard Prince wonders what that means for the future of black journalists.

Ballou High graduates Wayne Nesbit and Jachin Leatherman (Washington Post)

Report Calls Underachievement a "National Catastrophe"

"Black males continue to perform lower than their peers throughout the country on almost every indicator," according to a new report from the Council of the Great City Schools, which calls itself "the only national organization exclusively representing the needs of urban public schools."

Its report, released Tuesday, is bad news for efforts to diversify the pipeline that fills journalism jobs — and others that require a solid education.

"The study points out that there has been no concerted national effort to improve the education, social and employment outcomes of African American males, who are not receiving appropriate attention from federal, state and local governments or community organizations," the council said.

" 'This is a national catastrophe, and it deserves coordinated national attention,' stresses the report."

Walk onto any campus, and it is obvious that young women now outnumber young men. This is also true in journalism programs, and it's truest of all for African Americans.

"African Americans still have the largest gender gap in enrollment; 63 percent of all African American undergraduates are women," the American Council on Education reported this year.

"We have such a large drop out rate in that critical early time period that of course fewer young black men are going to college," said Dorothy Gilliam, the veteran journalist who founded Prime Movers, a Washington-based program that provides mentors for high-school journalists. "Most of these young black boys are from low income families and those who make it to college often are first generation college students," she told Journal-isms by e-mail. "Many don’t have the support system that really helps them to navigate through college, so many drop out and there is a lower graduation rate. It stands to reason that you have fewer showing up in the journalism field (or any other profession)," said Gilliam, a co-founder of the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education.

"It really starts early, as this report indicates," she continued. "If young children are not being read to and communicated with at a level that encourages them to be inquisitive and to learn, they are behind from the beginning. So many urban kids are going to under resourced school systems with teachers who have not received all the training they need. It’s all so interrelated. There is a quiet crisis going on in our communities across the nation. If we don’t get this one right, it doesn’t bode well for us as a people."

The report is being released as the Fall National High School Journalism Convention, sponsored by the Journalism Education Association and the National Scholastic Press Association, meets this week in Kansas City.

"We are concerned about a lack of vibrant school journalism programs in our nation's urban areas. Certainly there are exceptions," Logan Aimone, executive director of the scholastic press association, told Journal-isms, "but in general, city schools tend to not have the same support level for journalism programs as their suburban or small-town counterparts. That's true in many areas, of course, not just journalism."

The Council of Great City Schools called for a White House conference "to help lay out a comprehensive plan of action that leaders at all levels can pursue." Its findings showed:

    "In readiness to learn, black children were twice as likely to live in a household where no parent had fulltime or year-round employment in 2008. And in 2007, one out of every three black children lived in poverty compared with one out of every 10 white children.

    "In black male achievement at the national level, first-time analysis of the National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP) reveals that on the 2009 fourth grade reading assessment only 12 percent of black male students nationally and 11 percent of those living in large central cities performed at or above proficient levels, compared with 38 percent of white males nationwide.

    "In eighth grade, only 9 percent of black males across the country and 8 percent living in large cities performed at or above the proficient level in reading, compared with 33 percent of white males nationwide. Math results were similar in both grades.

    "Moreover, the average African American fourth and eighth grade male who is not poor does no better in reading and math on NAEP than white males who are poor, and black males without disabilities do no better than white males with disabilities.

    "In black male achievement in selected big city school districts, 50 percent of fourth- and eighth-grade black males in most urban districts and nationwide scored below Basic levels.

    "In college and career preparedness, black males were nearly twice as likely to drop out of high school as white males. In 2008, 9 percent of black males dropped out of high school compared with 5 percent of white males.

    "In addition, black male students nationally scored an average 104 points lower than white males on the SAT college entrance examination in reading. And black students generally were about one-third as likely to meet ACT college readiness benchmarks as white students.

    "In school experience, black students were less likely to participate in academic clubs, more likely to be suspended from school, and more likely to be retained in grade than their white peers.

    "In postsecondary experience, the unemployment rate among black males ages 20 and over (17.3 percent) was twice as high as the unemployment rate among white males of the same age (8.6 percent) earlier this year. In 2008, black males ages 18 and over accounted for 5 percent of the college population, while black males accounted for 36 percent of the nation’s prison population."

Efforts to address the issue have been sporadic.

Two decades ago, the late syndicated columnist Carl T. Rowan, a black journalist, was dismayed by peer pressure that can work against black students excelling in school, so he created a scholarship program, Project Excellence. Backed by the Freedom Forum, it was specifically geared toward two skills that make good journalists — writing and speaking.

He wrote in May 1987, "Suppose that in this town black journalists chipped into a fund to give annual scholarships of, say, $4,000 each, to three black high school seniors cited by a committee named by the school superintendent as the best achievers in writing and speaking? This might help a lot of youngsters to say, 'I'm not playing dumb to please dumb friends; I want that money.' "

The concept moved far beyond black journalists. At his death in 2000, more than 3,000 African American high school students from the Washington area had received offers of scholarships worth $92.6 million. But Rowan's sons lacked the contacts needed to continue the program, and it ended two years later.

Some colleges address the problem among students who make it that far.

At Hampton University, Tony Brown, then dean of its Scripps Howard School of Journalism and Communications, told parents in 2006 that "many freshmen, including those with high GPAs, have serious challenges in GPS (grammar, punctuation and spelling) and English composition." So he started the 6 O'Clock Club, where the dean met with "serious freshmen" at 6 a.m. every Thursday during the first semester. "Get ready by spending your summer reviewing 8-12 grade GPS," Brown wrote. The 6 O'Clock Club is no more, a Hampton professor said, but for the third year, beginning media-writing students must complete a grammar software program. "The program works! Student grammar and sentence structure is clean and coherent," the professor said.

Roy S. Johnson, editor of Men's Fitness magazine, saw a New York Times story on the council's report Tuesday and alerted readers of his Facebook page. "It pains me to post this — but reaffirms my resolve to continue programs like Higher Aims, created and supported by the Foundation of Westchester Clubmen (www.westchesterclubmen.org)," Johnson wrote.

In his Westchester County, N.Y., suburb, the "clubmen" meet for mutual support and camaraderie, and to motivate black boys for whom "college is not something that has crossed their radar."

Johnson said it is up to journalists not only to report the dismal statistics about failing youth but also "to report on the people who are giving their own time to change the statistics" and to "report on the young men who are doing well."

He added that as human beings, "we all have the opportunity to get involved."

Johnson's comment brought to mind a piece in the 2006 Washington Post series "Being a Black Man," reporting on Jachin Leatherman and Wayne Nesbit, two well-liked football players at what some considered the worst high school in the city. They "made it okay, cool even, to be smart," V. Dion Haynes wrote.

Haynes did what Johnson suggested. He revisited the two, now college graduates, for an Oct. 24 piece for the Washington Post Magazine.

There was no single reason for their success.

Nesbit gave credit to his father: "It starts with parents and the people raising you. He said his dad "just stayed on me. He just enforced education." Despite the troubles in Southeast Washington, his father told him, "You've just got to have a one-set mind, make a go and don't let nothing turn you away from it."

In the 2006 piece, Haynes reported what some of the football players had said to the coaches when, three years before, Nesbit and Leatherman were first introduced as examples:

"They smart. We dumb. We can't get better."

Leatherman replied: "That's crazy. Anybody can get good grades. Just go to class and do your work."

In an appearance on NPR's "Tell Me More," host Jacki Lyden asked Haynes, "What would you say the secret to their success was, perseverance?"

"I think it was just confidence in who they are and the fact that they really love their community. They love their family. They love their friends," he replied.

4 Million Latinos Would Leave if They Could, Gallup Says

"A newly released Gallup study of U.S. Hispanics reveals that more than one in seven — or an estimated 4 million adults — would leave the U.S. permanently if they had the opportunity," the Gallup Organization reported on Tuesday.

". . . U.S. Hispanics who would like to migrate are caught between two worlds. Gallup's data show they are less integrated than those who don't want to migrate — they're more likely to feel good only among other Hispanics, feel more discriminated against, and are less likely to speak English well. They not only experience more cultural tension, but also seem to be doing worse off economically, particularly with regard to their ability to afford healthcare for themselves and their families. Further, U.S. Hispanics who would like to migrate are more likely to say they have sent remittances back home in the past 12 months and are less optimistic about the future possibility of increasing or maintaining the amount of these remittances.

"And, although they live in the land of the free, U.S. Hispanics who would like to migrate are less likely to feel that they are enjoying this benefit. While 91% of those who do not wish to migrate are satisfied with the freedom they have to choose what they do with their lives, 77% of would-be migrants say the same."

Marisa Treviño wrote in her Latina Lista blog, "The desire of these individuals to leave the United States is less a reflection on current immigration enforcement policies, the political climate or economic times but a reality that was always known to exist — most migrants only wanted to come to the U.S. to work, not to reside permanently. . . . Congress should look at a Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill that finally accepts this reality and creates a solution that benefits migrants, their home countries and the United States' need for cheap labor."

Crowd Attacks News Crew Covering Memorial Service

"Deputies plan to charge at least two people after an angry mob attacked an Orlando TV news crew Monday night during a memorial service for a teenage hit-and-run victim," WKMG-TV in Orlando reported Tuesday.

"Local 6 cameras caught another local news crew being attacked outside St. Andrews Catholic Church in Orange County, where a service was being held to remember 15-year-old Anthony Rodriguez, who was hit along with his brother while walking to a bus stop last week.

"The fight apparently started because a Spanish-language television crew interviewed Rodriguez's brother without his parents' permission. Local 6 stood back as family members raced across the parking lot intending to confront the television crew that performed the interview. Instead, they swarmed around the first crew in sight. The attacked photographer works for WFTV-TV.

"The family members knocked down the TV station's photographer, then shoved and kicked him, the video shows.

"The victim's father, George Torres, could be clearly heard yelling profanity-laced rants. He said to the news crew, 'Get out of here! Get the (expletive) out of here! I will (expletive) kill you!'

"On the video, the photographer can be seen getting up and walking across the street, but then two of the attackers followed him around his news van, shouting 'turn it off,' referring to his camera. The video then shows one of the men shoving the photographer to the ground once again and the photographer being punched in the face while he is on the ground.

"The men involved are believed to be relatives of Rodriguez.

" . . . The photographer was not seriously injured."

Black Press' Hazel Trice Edney Starts Own News Service

Hazel Trice Edney, who resigned in September as editor-in-chief of the National Newspaper Publishers Association News Service, which provides news and commentary for the nation's black newspapers, is starting her own news service with some of the same columnists she worked with at NNPA.

Trice Edney announced a kickoff party for the Trice Edney News Wire to be held Friday at the National Press Club. It is to be hosted by Denise Rolark Barnes, publisher of the Washington Informer, with remarks by Joe Madison, the radio talk show host.

Contributing columnists are listed as the Rev. Jesse Jackson; Julianne Malveaux; Marc Morial, president of the National Urban League; A. Peter Bailey; the Rev. Dr. Barbara Reynolds and Dr. Wilmer Leon.

"We are marketing to NNPA membership and beyond," Trice Edney told Journal-isms via e-mail. "Dr. Barbara Reynolds, Dr. Malveaux, and Marc Morial will write for NNPA as well as Trice Edney Wire. Dr. Wilmer Leon is not an NNPA columnist. Rev. Jackson is not a regular NNPA columnist. A. Peter Bailey will be exclusively Trice Edney Wire. We will have other exclusive columnists as well, including National Medical Association President Dr. Leonard Weather and others."

Trice Edney tendered her letter of resignation from NNPA on Sept. 8 after working for the black press for 25 years. In her resignation letter, she challenged a rebuke she received from board members, who charged that the news service was not acting in concert with NNPA, which had undertaken a "strong direction to assert the power of the NNPA."

Dorothy R. Leavell, chair of the NNPA Foundation, said then that she planned to reorganize the operation to upgrade it with newer technology. So far, the website posting NNPA stories still features advance pieces on the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Legislative Conference, held Sept. 15-18.

Leavell did not respond to a request for comment.

Dobbs Joins Fox Business Network; NAHJ Urges Vigilance

Lou Dobbs, whose departure from CNN a year ago was hailed by the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and other groups, has signed a multi-year deal with Fox Business Network, his new employers announced on Wednesday.

"Dobbs will develop and host a new daily program premiering in the first quarter of 2011. He will also make appearances across a variety of FBN programs to provide analysis and commentary on business news of the day," an announcement said.

"Dobbs served as an anchor, managing editor and executive vice president for CNN, hosting various programs including 'Moneyline,' which premiered in 1980 and was later renamed 'Lou Dobbs Tonight.' Dobbs is also a radio talk show host and will continue to host his nationally syndicated radio programs and financial reports," the statement continued.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate crimes, had called on CNN to remove Dobbs. Its president, J. Richard Cohen, said Dobbs was "trading in falsehoods and racist conspiracy theories."

Dobbs indulged the "birther" movement, people who questioned whether President Obama was born on American soil and, therefore, whether Obama was constitutionally entitled to be president.

Dobbs' statements on illegal immigrants were called irresponsible and false.

"The National Association of Hispanic Journalists has long been on record as advocating fair, accurate and balanced coverage of Latinos and immigration in particular," NAHJ President Michele Salcedo told Journal-isms via e-mail Wednesday. "Fairness, accuracy and balance, on the whole, had been largely absent from Lou Dobbs’ coverage of immigration when he was at CNN.

"Our issue with Dobbs has never been about 'advocacy journalism.' Opinion journalism plays a treasured role as watchdog and valuable source of information in a democratic society. But this opinion should ideally be supported by facts. Dobbs has failed in this regard.

"We challenge journalists, listeners and viewers everywhere to continue weighing Dobbs’ 'advocacy journalism' — on immigration in particular — against reality. In such a contest, we have no doubt that a more reasoned understanding of immigration and Latinos will prevail."

Kanye West Tweets That NBC's "Today" Set Him Up

"Yesterday rapper Kanye West taped an interview with 'Today' show anchor Matt Lauer, and was apparently so incensed with what happened he decided to preemptively comment about it on Twitter," Alex Weprin reported Wednesday for TVNewser.

Weprin quoted from West's tweets, putting them in paragraph form: ". . . let me tell you how they did me at the Today show. I went there to express how I was empathetic to Bush because I labeled him a racist and years later I got labeled as a racist. While I was trying to give the interview they started playing the 'MTV' under me with audio!!!!!! I don’t mess with Matt Lauer or the Today show, and that’s a very nice way for me to put it!

"HE TRIED TO FORCE MY ANSWERS. IT WAS VERY BRUTAL AND I ONLY CAME THERE WITH POSITIVE INTENT… Yo I really wonder if Matt Lauer thought that shit was cool to play the 'MTV' clip while I was speaking about Bush? He played clips of Bush and asked me to look at his face while I was trying to talk to him. I wish Michael Jackson had Twitter!!!!!!! Maybe Mike could have explained how the media tried to set him up!!! It’s all a fucking set up!!"

" 'Today' released a statement responding to West’s Twitter tirade:

" 'We look forward to airing Matt Lauer’s interview with Kanye West tomorrow on "Today." ' "

"Don't Believe the Hype. Black Folks Voted"

"When the votes were counted last Tuesday night in St. Louis, County Executive Charlie A. Dooley had won another four years in office, a victory he credits in part to a heavy voter turnout in the North County districts, home to a large number of black voters," Denise Stewart reported Wednesday for BlackAmericaWeb.com.

"Dooley, a Democrat, beat his Republican challenger by more than 15,000.

"While the voting patterns still are being analyzed from the mid-term elections, it’s clear that blacks across the country went to the polls and voted, said Melanie Campbell, president and CEO of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation.

“ 'Don't believe the hype. Black folks voted,' Campbell said.

"Two other groups have analyzed exit poll data and released a report that shows heavy voting among young people between the ages of 18 and 30.

"Young voters in the 2010 midterm elections were racially and ethnically diverse, voted for Democrats and approve of President Obama, according to new analysis of exit poll data released by the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) and Generational Alliance (GA).

"An estimated 20.9 percent of all eligible young people ages 18-29 voted in the 2010 mid-terms. Younger voters chose Democratic House candidates over Republican House candidates by a margin of 57 percent to 40 percent."

Richard Prince
November 9, 2010

Hatin' on 'Colored Girls'

One journalist looks to the For Colored Girls movie's solid box office numbers to negate all of the film's less-than-positive reviews.

'Boston Globe' critics Ty Burr and Wesley Morris

After Perry Film Debut, Writers Compete for One-Liners

The hatin' on Tyler Perry's film "For Colored Girls" was so intense that Ronda Racha Penrice, writing on theGrio.com, had to find solace in the opening weekend's box office take:

"Negative reviews from respected film critics like The Hollywood Reporter's Kirk Honeycutt, who proclaimed Tyler Perry's For Colored Girls . . . 'this train wreck of a movie' didn't keep black female filmgoers away. Although Friday night's box office numbers suggested that 'For Colored Girls' was on pace to gross $28 million, its actual weekend box office receipts of $20.1 million are more than respectable," Penrice wrote on Monday.

"In an age when most black films must fight to get just a thousand screens, 'For Colored Girls,' according to BoxOfficeMojo, played on nearly 2,900 screens in 2,127 theaters, averaging a healthy $9,450" per screen. "Those numbers may mean little to you but, in Hollywood, they are huge. With a reported total production budget of $21 million, a $20.1 million opening means that 'For Colored Girls' will be profitable. Hopefully, that also means that more black directors besides Tyler Perry will get to make films starring black people."

Then she got to the hatin'.

"Mainstream reviews of the film have been laced with a viciousness rarely seen when evaluating the work of other filmmakers. ' "For Colored Girls" is so shamelessly terrible it would make a great midnight hoot-fest, if you had the stomach to laugh at Shange or some of the best (and most underused) actresses of their generation: Kimberly Elise, Kerry Washington, Anika Noni Rose, Phylicia Rashad, and, as a cartoon sexpot, Thandie Newton, who gets by on her killer timing,' writes New York Magazine's David Edelstein. The Boston Globe's Wesley Morris, who is African-American, began his review with 'Tyler Perry is no stranger to kitchen-sink melodrama. But "For Colored Girls" is the kitchen sink, the washing machine, the curling iron, the sofa, and the ironing board.' "

"For Colored Girls," based on Ntozake Shange's 1975 "choreopoem" that became a classic, was the cultural event of the weekend for much of black America.

And there were in fact a few kind words.

Jenice Armstrong wrote in the Philadelphia Daily News, " 'For Colored Girls,' inspired by Ntozake Shange's 1975 poetic play, isn't the movie to see if you're feeling fragile. But if you're in a healthy place, definitely go. Just take Kleenex and a girlfriend because you're going to want to talk it out afterward. Phylicia Rashad, Loretta Devine, Elise and Thandie Newton tear the screen up. Elise, in particular, puts on an Oscar-worthy performance in her role as a battered mother who goes to hell and back after witnessing the unthinkable. My favorite line comes near the end, when Elise's character declares, 'I found God in myself and I loved her fiercely.' What a lesson there is in that."

But the headline on Courtland Milloy's column Monday in the Washington Post was, "For black men who have considered homicide after watching another Tyler Perry movie."

And Teresa Wiltz wrote on theRoot.com, "It's an exceedingly hard slog, 2 hours and 14 minutes of overwrought melodrama, bleaker than bleak, and unleavened by humor or wit."

Keli Goff, writing on theLoop21.com, said that considering all that she has read about the film, she's reached her own conclusion. "I simply remain as on the fence about seeing 'For Colored Girls' as I’ve been on the fence about other recent films with similarly negative reviews," she said.

"And I’ve ultimately decided to wait to see those on Netflix. (For the record, I read the somewhat positive review in the New York Times, one of the film’s few, but the critic, Manohla Dargis, lost credibility points with me the moment she declared that part of Mr. Perry’s baggage is that 'Black people love him and white people don’t get him.' Um, this black person would like you to try again Ms. Dargis.)"

NAHJ, in Funding Crisis, to Claim All Incoming Dues

The National Association of Hispanic Journalists, wrestling with an ongoing financial crisis, has decided "to nullify chapters that have been inactive for more than a year and reclaim their share of membership dues," and, as an emergency measure for 2011, to claim all incoming dues, funds that had been split 50-50 with local chapters, President Michele Salcedo announced Friday on the NAHJ website.

"The convention numbers are in. Without allocating the cost of staff time to the convention, we made money," she began.

"I wish I could tell you that’s good news, but here’s why it’s not: When staff time and other overhead are factored in, our profit is more than wiped out. The convention is NAHJ’s main moneymaker, and we were counting on making a substantial chunk of our revenue for 2010 from the convention. Falling short means we have to find other sources of income. With an economic climate as tough as the one we’re in, that’s no easy task."

Brandon A. Benavides, president of the Washington, D.C., chapter, one of NAHJ's most active, told Journal-isms, "This was a complete surprise to us. We were not told this was in effect. Nor were we told this was being considered.

"We were planing to use the funding as seed money for a chapter conference in the spring. We lost up to $3,000 for local programming. Right now we get $35 from each member. We have more than 100 local members.

"The chapter board is discussing its options. We have a membership meeting on Wednesday at NPR headquarters at 7 PM."  He sent a similar message to members.

Presidents of other active chapters did not respond to inquiries.

AP Explores Why Unwed Mothers Bear 72% of Black Babies

"One recent day at Dr. Natalie Carroll's OB-GYN practice, located inside a low-income apartment complex tucked between a gas station and a freeway, 12 pregnant black women come for consultations. Some bring their children or their mothers. Only one brings a husband," Jesse Washington, the Associated Press' race relations reporter, wrote from Houston on Saturday.

"Things move slowly here. Women sit shoulder-to-shoulder in the narrow waiting room, sometimes for more than an hour. Carroll does not rush her mothers in and out. She wants her babies born as healthy as possible, so Carroll spends time talking to the mothers about how they should care for themselves, what she expects them to do — and why they need to get married.

"Seventy-two percent of black babies are born to unmarried mothers today, according to government statistics. This number is inseparable from the work of Carroll, an obstetrician who has dedicated her 40-year career to helping black women.

" 'The girls don't think they have to get married. I tell them children deserve a mama and a daddy. They really do,' Carroll says from behind the desk of her office, which has cushioned pink-and-green armchairs, bars on the windows, and a wooden 'LOVE' carving between two African figurines. Diamonds circle Carroll's ring finger.

"As the issue of black unwed parenthood inches into public discourse, Carroll is among the few speaking boldly about it. And as a black woman who has brought thousands of babies into the world, who has sacrificed income to serve Houston's poor, Carroll is among the few whom black women will actually listen to.

" 'A mama can't give it all. And neither can a daddy, not by themselves ,' Carroll says. 'Part of the reason is because you can only give that which you have. A mother cannot give all that a man can give. A truly involved father figure offers more fullness to a child's life.'

"Statistics show just what that fullness means. Children of unmarried mothers of any race are more likely to perform poorly in school, go to prison, use drugs, be poor as adults, and have their own children out of wedlock.

"The black community's 72 percent rate eclipses that of most other groups: 17 percent of Asians, 29 percent of whites, 53 percent of Hispanics and 66 percent of Native Americans were born to unwed mothers in 2008, the most recent year for which government figures are available. The rate for the overall U.S. population was 41 percent."

Sunday Talk-Show Hosts Resist GOP's "Obamacare" Term

In politicians' latest effort to spin the language, Republicans lined up on the Sunday talk shows to define as "Obamacare" the health-care legislation they say they would repeal. To their credit, the journalists resisted the spin, except in quoting Republicans.

Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., used the term six times on NBC's "Meet the Press"; Sen.-elect Rand Paul, R-Ky., once on ABC's "This Week"; and Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota once again on CNN's "State of the Union." On that program, however, moderator Candy Crowley found herself using it in quoting Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va., in a letter to House Republicans. "If all of Obamacare cannot be immediately repealed, then it is my intention to begin repealing it piece by piece, blocking funding for its implementation and blocking the issuance of the regulations necessary to implement it. In short, it is my intention to use every tool at our disposal to achieve full repeal of Obamacare," Cantor wrote, according to Crowley.

On "Fox News Sunday," regular panelist Bill Kristol, editor of the conservative Weekly Standard, worked in the phrase no fewer than nine times, three in the same passage.

Last month, Edward Schumacher-Matos, ombudsman of the Miami Herald, took his paper to task for including the word in a headline in what he called an honest mistake.

"What the issue does point out is the power of headlines, the dangers we all face over being politically manipulated by word usage and the inexact science of deciding when a term has entered the popular lexicon and is acceptable," Schumacher-Matos wrote.

Meanwhile, in an interview that aired Sunday on CBS-TV'S "60 Minutes," President Obama defended his many recent media appearances. CBS correspondent Steve Kroft pointed out that the president has been on everything from "The View" to "The Daily Show," Molly Stark reported for TV Newser.

Obama replied, "I guess my attitude is if I’m reaching people, if I’m talking to them. If I’m engaged with them, whatever the venue, then hopefully that makes people a little clear about what it is that I’m trying to do, and understand the challenges that we face. And so I’m willing to take the risks of overexposure on that front."

In another development, Robert L. Johnson, co-founder of Black Entertainment Television, sent a letter urging the Congressional Black Caucus to support Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., in his bid for House Minority Whip. Current House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland said he might seek the same post. Clyburn is currently House majority whip.

"The Democrats’ loss of the U.S. House majority in Tuesday’s election will cost them the powerful speaker’s position, which current House Minority Leader John Boehner will assume in January when the new congressional session starts with Republicans in control of the chamber," James Rosen and David Lightman explained Monday for McClatchy Newspapers.

"That means there will be one fewer House leadership [spot] for Democrats. Clyburn and Hoyer indicated neither of them is willing yet to be odd man out."

Soledad O'Brien: Jesse Jackson Didn't Think She Was Black

In a new memoir excerpted on the CNN website, the multicultural Soledad O'Brien recalls the day "Jesse Jackson managed to make me ashamed of my skin color which even white people had never been able to do.

"Even though I am not sure what he is saying, I can tell he is angry," she writes in "The Next Big Story." "Today he is angry because CNN doesn't have enough black anchors. It is political season. There are billboards up sporting Paula Zahn and Anderson Cooper. He asks after the black reporters. Why are they not up there? I share his concern and make a mental note to take it back to my bosses. But then he begins to rage that there are no black anchors on the network at all. Does he mean covering the campaign, I wonder to myself? The man has been a guest on my show. He knows me, even if he doesn't recall how we met. I brought him on at MSNBC, then again at 'Weekend Today'. I interrupt to remind him I'm the anchor of 'American Morning'. He knows that. He looks me in the eye and reaches his fingers over to tap a spot of skin on my right hand. He shakes his head. 'You don't count,' he says. I wasn't sure what that meant. I don't count — what? I'm not black? I'm not black enough? Or my show doesn't count?

"I was both angry and embarrassed, which rarely happens at the same time for me. Jesse Jackson managed to make me ashamed of my skin color which even white people had never been able to do.

". . . It wasn't until recently that I called him and reminded him of what he'd said to me that day. I had done 4 documentaries on race in between the two conversations. He was totally surprised and barely remembered the details. He had not known I was black! He said he honestly did not know, that when he said I didn't count he was alluding to the fact that he thought I was a dark-skinned someone else. That is how precise the game of race is played in our country, that we are so easily reduced to our skin tone. That even someone as prominent in African American society as Rev. Jackson has a box to check for black and one for white. No one gets to be in between. I thanked him for his candor."

O'Brien, who was named 2010 Journalist of the Year by the National Association of Black Journalists, concludes, "Black is not a credential; it's not even a skin color. African American culture is so much more than that. I feel like it's important to say 'I'm black.' I'm proud of my roots. I am a bit Irish too, by way of Australia. Should I not say that? I am certainly Latina. Latino is an ethnicity, not a race. Latinos can be of any color from any place. I can be Latino and also black. So why can't I have a father from Australia but be black when my mother is black. People looked at me all my life and saw black. And, I am thoroughly proud of the black I am.' "

Dr. Rawle Farley, a native of Guyana, had been a professor of economics at the State University of New York, College at Brockport since 1966. He was the founder and first chairman of the Department of Economics at SUNY Brockport, and was named professor emeritus in 1995. He was the author of seminal works that helped shape the study of the economics of the developing world, including "The Economics of Latin America: Development Problems in Perspective."

He died in Rochester, N.Y., at age 88 on Saturday, and his journalist son, Christopher John Farley of the Wall Street Journal, wrote that day that "On shows like 'House,' ailments are exotic and are diagnosed and solved in 60 minutes, with a couple commercial interruptions. On TV talk shows, talking heads scrap over health care policy and try to score political points. What’s typically missing is the human element — how health care decisions actually affect flesh-and-blood people. . . .

"My dad and mom raised four sons. All of us went to public school, and all of us went to Harvard or Harvard Law School or both. All of my brothers, thanks in large part to their guidance, have gone on to interesting jobs of one kind or another.

"But this last night was a final lesson. Part of reaching maturity is accepting, without fear, that life ends. Staring into that mysterious abyss makes other challenges seem small. I felt privileged that I had gotten to go to the edge with him. Dad helped teach me how to live, and how to die too."

An Honor for Reporting "Disappearing Minority Viewpoints"

The author of this column has been named the 2010 recipient of the Oakland PEN's censorship award, because of his "tireless chronicling of disappearing minority viewpoints from the nation's newsrooms, an act of de facto censorship as we see it," writer and novelist Ishmael Reed, the board chairman, said.

Lifetime achievement awards are to go to Paul Krassner, the satirist best known for his 1960s magazine the Realist, and Vance Bourjaily, the novelist who died in September. The ceremony is to take place Dec. 11 at the Oakland Public Library.

PEN Oakland is "a Bay Area Chapter of the International Organization of Poets, Essayists, and Novelists" and "was founded in 1989 to address multicultural issues, and educate the public as to the nature of multicultural work."

Among past winners of the censorship award are Kitty Kelly, author of  2004's "The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty," which met with the Bush family's displeasure, and Jefferson Morley, a 15-year journalist at the Washington Post whose 2008 book, "Our Man in Mexico: Winston Scott and the Hidden History of the CIA," discusses the man who was CIA chief in Mexico from 1956 to 1969.

Richard Prince has written the Journal-isms column online for the Maynard Institute since 2002, and in print from 1991 to 1998 for the NABJ Journal, publication of the National Association of Black Journalists.

In 2009, the American Society of News Editors reported that in the previous year alone American daily newspapers shed 5,900 newsroom jobs last year, reducing their employment of journalists by 11.3 percent to the levels of the early 1980s. The loss has blunted diversity efforts.

Richard Prince
November 5, 2010

Angela Burt-Murray to Step Down as Essence Editor-in-Chief

Former Time Inc. executive editor Sheryl Tucker is returning to run the magazine on an acting basis.

Angela Burt-Murray

Sheryl Tucker Returns to Run Magazine on Acting Basis

Angela Burt-Murray, editor at Essence magazine for the last five years, "has announced her plan to leave her post and relocate with her family to Atlanta," John Huey, editor-in-chief of Time Inc. told staff members on Friday.

"We are beginning our search for a new editor, but in the interim, Sheryl Tucker, former executive editor of Time Inc., has agreed to serve as acting editor-in-chief. Sheryl, along with Marcia Gillespie, former editor-in-chief of Essence, will assist in the search and selection of a new top editor," he said in a memo.

"When Angela became editor of Essence, she was charged with the task of taking the brand into a new era. She set about building an editorial team that was committed to the traditional mission of Essence and capable of evolving the brand in a quickly changing media world.

"Under her leadership, Essence’s Barack Obama cover became the best-seller in the magazine’s history and Essence hired its first Washington Correspondent and Africa Bureau Chief. Angela created Essence’s first-ever news and relationships sections, the Essence Book Club, published three books and launched the first Essence Hot Hair special issue. Her reinvention of the Essence Music Festival Seminar Series now draws over 200,000 attendees each year.

"Angela and her team can take pride in the work they have done together on the magazine — the recent redesign, new features, and important stories such as the recent pieces profiling Black women serving in the military in Afghanistan, a three-part education series and an investigation into child sex trafficking."

More recently Burt-Murray drew criticism for hiring a white fashion director, Ellianna Placas, but Burt-Murray stuck by her decision. The flap provided a hint that not all was going smoothly internally.

Essence has weathered the recession better than other African American-oriented magazines.

For 2010, according to the Publishers Information Bureau, "Black Enterprise, Ebony, Essence and Jet were down a collective 18 percent in ad pages through the first quarter — about double the industry average," as Jason Fell reported June 17 for Folio. "Time Inc.'s Essence, meanwhile, reported the smallest decline: -0.3 percent."

For the first six months of this year, Essence showed only a 2.4 percent decline in circulation, to 1,066,482, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulation.

Before she took a recent buyout, Sheryl Hilliard Tucker was executive editor of Time Inc., working closely with Time Inc.'s editor-in-chief, helping to oversee the editorial content of some 125 magazines, according to her bio.

A veteran of the magazine business, Tucker was deputy editor of Health magazine, executive editor of Money, and editor-in-chief and vice president at Black Enterprise, among other positions. She has also edited several books.

Burt-Murray had been at Essence from 1998 to 2001 and was executive editor of Teen People when she was named Essence executive editor in 2005.

She arrived shortly before Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast, and the magazine extended outreach to the victims and strove to return the Essence Music Festival back to New Orleans. It did so in 2007 after staging the event in 2006 in Houston. Then-Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu, now mayor of New Orleans, said the festival draws about 200,000 visitors over four days and has a $130 million to $150 million impact.

Burt-Murray wrote to readers in the November 2005 issue, referring to longtime editor Susan Taylor:

"The first time I walked into Susan Taylor's office seven years ago, it was for a staff meeting. It was my first week on the job as a fashion-and-beauty writer, and I had no idea what to expect. When Susan arrived she immediately got down to business, guiding us through a list of housekeeping details related to the current issue. Then she began to talk about what she called 'the sacred mission of the magazine' — to serve Black women and Black people, and to give voice to our community. Her words made me feel that I was part of something bigger than myself, and I felt proud to be working for an organization that put our people first. . . .

"As I settle into my new position during this eventful time, I appreciate more than ever what Susan Taylor expressed so passionately in that staff meeting years ago: We are, each of us, here to serve, to give Black women and our community a way to move forward. We're here to tell the stories of ordinary sisters who have overcome extraordinary odds and, of course, to speak the truth to those who most need to hear it. As we embark on the next stage of this journey together, please let me know what's on your mind and how we can better serve you in the days ahead."