TJ Holmes: I'm a Free Agent
The ex-CNN anchor says he learned from his failed BET show, Don't Sleep.
T.J. Holmes Says He's Officially a Free Agent
Black Entertainment Television finally acknowledged Thursday that it will not bring back T.J. Holmes' "Don't Sleep!" [video] late night news/talk show, eight months after its initial launch. Holmes told Journal-isms on Friday, "I'm a completely free agent."
Holmes left his job as a CNN weekend anchor in December 2011 for BET, which developed a half-hour late-night show for him that targeted African American viewers but was intended to have more in common with Jon Stewart than with traditional journalism.
"But the show, which aired Monday through Thursday, failed to draw a significant audience," R. Thomas Umstead wrote Thursday for Multichannel News. "After generating a series-high 1 million viewers for its Oct. 9 episode, the series averaged less than 400,000 viewers before being revamped into a weekly, one-hour format on Nov. 14. The last new episode of the series aired Dec. 19."
However, BET refused to say it was canceling the show, even as it turned its attention toward the reality show "The Real Husbands of Hollywood."
Holmes told Journal-isms by telephone, "I will never, ever regret thinking that my heart was in the right place," a young black man taking his skills "to do something that was not being done for our community," that is, providing a daily news show geared toward African Americans. "You learn from the mistakes, there are questions I should have asked, things that should have been cleared up," but reaching the black community in that way was "an opportunity I would love to have" again, Holmes said.
Umstead wrote, "In a statement, BET said Don't Sleep 'delivered smart social commentary on significant issues important to African Americans with the nation's most prominent thought leaders. BET remains committed to being a resource for our audience on issues that directly affect the African American community.'"
Boston Suspects Darkened for Magazine Cover
"This is how brofiling actually works in real life," Hari Stephen Kumar wrote Thursday for his "brofiling" blog. "The Week Magazine ran with this image as their cover sketch.
"Just so it is said, clearly and unambiguously: the Tsarnaev brothers are white guys. They are white. The FBI's own wanted poster for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev lists his race as 'white', but you would never know it from the cover image on The Week.
"Hold up the cover to someone else, and ask them how many white people they can see on the cover. Chances are they will identify Gabby Giffords on the top left and the image of the Boston policemen (all white men) on the top right, but how about those two guys in the center? Nope, not a chance that anyone would say these caricatures look white.
"Why? Because in addition to being white they are also 'Muslim', which is the current dehumanizing 'Other' label that whiteness has constructed as a sanctioned target for violence in US popular culture.
"This is how white privilege works in media representations and everyday life: when the criminal suspects are demonstrably white men, seize upon any aspect of difference and magnify it such that they become Othered, non-white, and menacing. If it is too hard to do so, simply dismiss them as aberrations and isolated cases of insanity. This is also how white culture, specifically the process of whiteness in conjunction with white privilege, portrays several non-white identities, including those that are now considered white but at one time were decidedly not so. . . ."
The Week magazine did not respond to a request for comment.
The episode is reminiscent of Time magazine's darkening of O.J. Simpson's face during his 1994 murder trial to make him appear more menacing.
The well-respected weekly calls itself "A comprehensive, balanced distillation of national and international news, opinions and ideas." Its subscriber base is just a fraction of Time's 3.2 million: It had a total paid and verified circulation of 561,459 for the six month s ending Dec. 21, according to the Alliance for Audited Media.
Up to 5 Senior Blacks Leaving USA Today, Gannett
As many as five senior black journalists at USA Today and Gannett
News Service are taking a buyout, depleting the top ranks of
journalists of color at "the nation's newspaper."
Three of the five confirmed their departure: Geri Coleman Tucker, deputy managing editor; Robert Robinson, deputy managing editor/copy editors; and reporter Larry Bivins of Gannett News Service.
"Early retirements were offered to USA TODAY employees who were at least 55 years old and had 15 years of service. They were offered two weeks pay for each year of service — with a cap of one year of pay," USA Today spokeswoman Heidi Zimmerman told Journal-isms by email Friday. She would not disclose the number taking the buyout.
"Yes, it's true," Bivins messaged Journal-isms. "After 36 years in the business, starting at The Cleveland Call & Post, a black weekly, I'm hanging it up. At least for a while. The timing is good for me . . . I'll be 64 in November, giving me just two more years before full Social Security eligibility. I'll get a paycheck for almost a year. I'm not quite sure what I want to do. I imagine I'll be open to freelance possibilities. But for a couple of months, at least, I plan on doing nothing but playing tennis every day. And clear my head!
"May 15 would have been my 20th anniversary with Gannett, all in Washington. I started in 1993 as an urban affairs/race relations reporter for The Detroit News, then moved over to Gannett News Service in 1998. I was a regional reporter, spent time as a regional editor, then went back to reporting when the bureau downsized in 2009 — I had just returned to work after a six-week disability for a hip replacement. . . ."
Tucker said she was "embarking on a great faith journey." She said she had spent 23 years at USA Today, "30 at Gannett all total because I was also a regional managing editor at Gannett News Service." Tucker has been deputy managing editor/Money at USA Today and managing editor/Midwest for Gannett News Service from 1986 to 1993.
She added, "I'm looking for exciting, new opportunities."
Robinson, deputy managing editor/Sports before a reorganization, messaged, "After 39 years at Gannett, the last 30½ with USA TODAY, I decided to take the early retirement package. I have had 39 wonderful years in the business, including being a founding member of the USA TODAY staff, and felt the timing was right to take a step back. . . . As for what's next, I have no immediate plans other than to take a month or so to just enjoy the family, visit my aging mother in Florida and then look for my next employment opportunity — or whatever God has in store for me."
Could Fact-Checkers Have Saved Howard Kurtz?
The saga of media writer Howard Kurtz, who "parted ways" with Newsweek and the Daily Beast after an embarrassing error this week, was part of the buzz Thursday night at the American Magazine Awards in New York. Jim Nelson, editor-in-chief of GQ, accepted one of the honors.
"Howard Kurtz, who wrongly accused NBA player Jason Collins of not mentioning his earlier engagement to a woman when he came out this week, could have been saved from his mistake by magazine factcheckers, GQ Editor-in-Chief suggested when his magazine won in the reporting category," Nat Ives reported for Ad Age.
For the most part, reconstructions of Kurtz's fall have not addressed the role of the website in failing to catch his errors.
Dylan Byers and Katie Glueck wrote Thursday night for Politico, "At the height of his influence, Howard Kurtz was widely regarded as the most influential media reporter and critic in the country. But in recent years, erroneous reporting and careless errors reduced him to fodder for the media reporters and critics who followed in his footsteps.
"No single event has dealt such a crushing blow to Kurtz's reputation as Thursday's decision to 'part ways' — after a serious mistake in a story about gay basketball player Jason Collins — with The Daily Beast, where he has served as columnist and Washington bureau chief since leaving a long, illustrious career with The Washington Post in 2010. . . ."
They added, "sources at the Daily Beast and CNN, who spoke to POLITICO on the condition of anonymity, said there were several reasons for the breakup: For one thing, Kurtz had a string of high-profile mistakes on his record and that had become a source of embarrassment for The Daily Beast. For another, he commanded a hefty paycheck, despite turning out fewer scoops than in the past. . . ."
"But perhaps the main factor that led Kurtz out the door, several sources said, was the same quality that had fueled his rise in the first place decades ago: a hyperactive work ethic that ended up dividing his attentions and ultimately proved unsustainable. . . ."
Andrew Kirk, a spokesman for the Daily Beast, did not respond to a question about whether Kurtz's work went through copy editors. The fateful entry about Collins was described as a "blog post," which at many publications means it is posted without editing.
Meanwhile, CNN has decided not to remove Kurtz as host of his Sunday morning media show. "There has been no status change with Howard Kurtz, he remains the host of 'Reliable Sources'. He will address this issue on the program this weekend," a CNN spokeswoman told inquiring journalists.
Daily Beast Editor-in-Chief Tina Brown tweeted Thursday that Kurtz and the Daily Beast had "parted company ... we wish him well."
"A statement from Brown highlighted moves the website is taking to bolster its coverage of Washington, including with new columnists such as Jon Favreau, Joshua [DuBois] and Stuart Stevens," Ryan Nakashima reported for the Associated Press.
DuBois, an African American, left his position as faith adviser for President Obama in February.
Michael Calderone, Huffington Post: Howard Kurtz Had Larger Daily Download Role Than Other Advisory Board Members
Matt K. Lewis, the Week: Let's all stop taking swings at Howard Kurtz
Media Were Silent on Gay Player Who Came Out in '70s
"A few months back, the Baltimore Ravens' Brendon Ayanbadejo, an outspoken advocate for LGBT rights, told USA Today that he thought the first player in the three major sports to out himself would be a baseball player: 'The religious roots are a lot deeper in basketball and football. With that being said, I think baseball players are more open-minded,' " Allen Barra reported Friday for the Atlantic.
"What Ayanbadejo didn't know was that one baseball player already had. This week's coming out by NBA player Jason Collins is momentous, but the Jackie Robinson of gay rights was Glenn Burke, who played for the Los Angeles Dodgers and Oakland A's from 1976 to 1979. He tried to change sports culture three decades ago — but back then, unlike now, sports culture wasn't ready for a change.
"Burke made no secret of his sexual orientation to the Dodgers front office, his teammates, or friends in either league. He also talked freely with sportswriters, though all of them ended up shaking their heads and telling him they couldn't write that in their papers. Burke was so open about his sexuality that the Dodgers tried to talk him into participating in a sham marriage. (He wrote in his autobiography that the team offered him $75,000 to go along with the ruse.) He refused. In a bit of irony that would seem farcical if it wasn't so tragic, one of the Dodgers who tried to talk Burke into getting 'married,' was his manager, Tommy Lasorda, whose son Tom Jr. died from AIDS complications in 1991. To this day, Lasorda Sr. refuses to acknowledge his son's homosexuality.
"Burke, who also died of AIDS-related causes in 1995, came out to the world outside baseball in a 1982 article for Inside Sports and even followed it up shortly after with an appearance on The Today Show with Bryant Gumbel. But his story was greeted by the rest of the news media and the baseball establishment, including Burke's former teammates and baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn, with silence. Even his superb autobiography, Out at Home, which published the year he died, failed to stir open conversation about homosexuality in sports. Practically no one in the sports-writing community would acknowledge that Burke was gay or report stories that followed up on his admission. . . ."
"Out: the Glenn Burke Story," a documentary featuring Burke, debuted in November 2010 in a San Francisco theater, accompanied by a television broadcast the same night on Comcast SportsNet Bay Area.
Perry Bacon Jr., the Grio: Silence of opponents illustrates growing acceptance of LGBT rights
Leonardo Blair, Christian Post: ESPN's Chris Broussard: 'Though I'm Getting a Lot of Hate, God Is Being Glorified'
Donna Brazile, CNN: But can the dude play?
Mary C. Curtis, Washington Post: Is Jason Collins the Jackie Robinson of 2013?
Mike Fleming Jr., Deadline Hollywood: Will Gay Hoopster Revelation Drive Home Jamie Lee Curtis-Produced Pic About First Openly Gay Baseball Player?
Justice B. Hill, BET: Why We Should Respect Chris Broussard's Opinion
Reginald Johnson, Metuchen Edison Area Branch NAACP, letter, MyCentralJersey.com | Courier News | Home News Tribune: Tough being gay in sports? Ask Glenn Burke
Saeed Jones, BuzzFeed: Yes, It Matters That Jason Collins Is Black And Gay
John Koblin, Deadspin: Why ESPN's Chris Broussard Came Out As A Bigot
Ron Kroichick, San Francisco Chronicle: Film examines struggle of gay athlete Glenn Burke (2010)
Chris Murray blog: I''s Time to End Homophobia and Anti-Gay Bigotry in the African-American Community
Jeff Poor, Daily Caller: MoveOn petition urges ESPN to suspend Chris Broussard
Armstrong Williams, the Shadow League: Jason Collins And The Plague Of Identity Politics
Phillip B. Wilson, Indianapolis Star: Colts notes: Players would accept a gay teammate
Denver Post Joins Papers Dropping "Illegal Immigrant"
"During the past decade I have had several conversations with groups and individuals that eventually landed on use of the term illegal immigrant to describe those who have unlawfully come to the United States," Greg Moore, editor of the Denver Post, told readers Thursday.
"I have heard all kinds of arguments. I always tensed up when someone argued illegal immigrant was the same as racial epithets used to describe blacks and Jews. I still believe those comparisons are wrongheaded. But other examples stayed with me. I remember once being told that a young girl cried upon seeing a relative described as an illegal immigrant.
"Yesterday, I decided The Denver Post will no longer use the term 'illegal immigrant' when describing a person in the country unlawfully. If we know the actual circumstances we will describe them. The word 'illegal' will not be applied to a person, only an action. . . ."
The Denver Post entry on "illegal immigration" now reads:
"Entering or residing in a country in violation of civil or criminal law. Except in direct quotes essential to the story, use illegal only to refer to an action, not a person: illegal immigration, but not illegal immigrant. Acceptable variations include living in or entering a country illegally or without legal permission.
"Except in direct quotations, do not use the terms illegal alien, an illegal, illegals, undocumented aliens or undocumented workers. Use the unmodified word immigrant only for people who have entered the U.S. lawfully.
"Do not describe people as violating immigration laws without attribution.
"If possible, specify how someone entered the country illegally and from where. Crossed the border? Overstayed a visa? What nationality?
"People who were brought into the country as children should not be described as having immigrated illegally. For people granted a temporary right to remain in the U.S. under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, use temporary resident status, with details on the program lower in the story."
Hugo Balta, National Association of Hispanic Journalists: NAHJ Applauds the Denver Post for Its Decision to Drop the I Word
Kevin Bogardus and Russell Berman, African Globe: Caribbean and African Immigrants Getting Blocked in New Immigration Bill
Joel Campbell, Columbia Journalism Review: Four Corners coverage: immigration reform (April 29)
Charles D. Ellison, Uptown: How Black Folks Are Shut Out of the Immigration Debate (April 29)
María Hinojosa with former Mexican Ambassador Arturo Sarukhan, "Latino USA," NPR: Where Is Mexico on U.S. Immigration Reform? (podcast)
Maria Hinojosa, "Latino USA," NPR: Lost Women (podcast)
Beyoncé Bans Concert Press Photographers
The pop diva is serving canned concert images to the press instead of allowing live shots.
News Outlets Urged to Counter Ban on Photographers
The general counsel of the National Press Photographers Association is urging the news media to refuse to run the official publicity photos of Beyoncé's latest concert tour that the entertainer is posting in lieu of allowing photographers at the events.
"That's only going to encourage bad behavior," Mickey H. Osterreicher told Journal-isms Friday by telephone.
"Let's say she's exhausted and passed out on stage. Do you think we'd see those photos? I don't think so," Osterreicher said. "They'll realize they can't have it both ways." They become celebrities because of the publicity, then, when they become stars, "they try to control."
Sean Michaels reported Wednesday in Britain's Guardian newspaper, "The move to prohibit press photographers is seen by most observers as a reaction to this year's Super Bowl kerfuffle, when sites such as Gawker and [BuzzFeed] compiled 'unflattering' images of Beyoncé's jubilant exertions. After publishing these shots by Getty Images, [BuzzFeed] received an email from Beyoncé's US publicist Yvette Noel-Schure, 'respectfully asking' the site to 'change' their article. 'I am certain you will be able to find some better photos,' Noel-Schure wrote.
"As the blog Fstoppers points out, barring professionals means that newspapers and magazines will have to rely on amateurs: '[The media] will do anything possible to get images that other publications don't have,' explained Noam Galai. 'If they can't send a photographer to give them original photos, the next best thing they can do is buy photos from fans in the front rows in the arena … Now, not only is the mainstream media showing unflattering photos of her, they are showing bad-quality unflattering photos of her.' "
As Osterreicher pointed out, the move by Beyoncé is the latest attempt by public figures to control coverage of them, but not the most offensive.
Just last week, Osterreicher said, a legislator met with some of the families victimized by the Boston Marathon bombers, but banned the press, instead having a staffer make photos available.
In 2011, Lady Gaga was even more audacious. Andrew Beaujon and Jay Westcott wrote then for the now-defunct TBD.com, based in Washington, "At her Verizon Center concert last week, photographers were given a 'Photo Release Form' to sign." It included this language: "Photographer hereby acknowledges and agrees that all right, title and interest (including copyright) in and to the Photograph(s) shall be owned by Lady Gaga and Photographer hereby transfers and assigns any such rights to Lady Gaga."
In January, the staff of House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi digitally altered an image of female members of Congress to include four legislators who did not show up for the photo session — and some news organizations that used the image realized the fraud too late.
Still, Pelosi defended the image.
"It was an accurate historical record of who the Democratic women of Congress are," Pelosi said at a news conference, according to the Huffington Post. "It also is an accurate record that it was freezing cold and our members had been waiting a long time for everyone to arrive and ... had to get back into the building to greet constituents, family members, to get ready to go to the floor. It wasn't like they had the rest of the day to stand there."
Replied Osterreicher, "They could save time and just Photoshop everyone." He said there were a couple of instances where legislators were moved around because they weren't seen clearly enough. Another's hair was "fixed," he said.
Even journalists have been guilty. In December, the Washington, D.C., chapter of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, pleading lack of space, announced that "there will not be any media availability for our special guests: San Antonio Mayor Julián Castro and Telemundo Anchor José Díaz-Balart." It added, "The Chapter will release pictures, video, and a write-up on our website as we usually do with our events. . . ." A national NAHJ board member apologized privately.
The Beyoncé tour began April 15 in Serbia and continues until Aug. 5 in Brooklyn, N.Y. It could not be determined whether news media in Europe were using the authorized photos or those taken by concertgoers or photographers who simply bought tickets and sat in the audience.
Writing Thursday in Slate, Alyssa Rosenberg agreed with Osterreicher.
"Knowles-Carter is used to getting her way with these things, it seems," Rosenberg wrote. "Her commercial draw is such that HBO even aired an entire documentary about her that she produced herself, rather than an independently directed examination that might have produced actual insights. But while Knowles-Carter may have the right to log her life all she likes, no news outlet should feel required to oblige her directives. If Knowles-Carter is going to stick to this demand on her tour, news outlets should pay for fans' crowd-sourced photos instead — or just not cover the tour at all."
The South Africa National Editors' Forum said in 2011, when Lady Gaga imposed a similar ban on free news media photography in that country, "The only way in which the public can trust media coverage of such events is when journalists and photographers can operate freely and independently and the public is aware of this.
"A ban on photographers or interference with journalists would immediately raise public suspicions about the integrity of reports of such events. Should this occur not only will the newspaper be harmed but so will the attraction of the event."
Meanwhile, the Radio Television Digital News Association joined NPPA and other journalism organizations to oppose California proposals to restrict newsgathering.
"Two bills making their way through the California legislature, AB-1256 and AB-1356 would broadly redefine personal privacy with the intent of keeping paparazzi away from celebrities, but with the added consequences of severely curtailing legitimate newsgathering, while exposing journalists to criminal prosecution and civil liability," RTDNA reported.
NPPA reported Tuesday, however, "In the wake of opposition from NPPA and other groups the CA Assembly Judiciary Committee made both AB-1256 and AB-1356 '2 year bills.' A 2 year bill is one which will not move out of the policy committee this year. It is eligible to be taken up again at the beginning of the 2nd year of the biennial session thus the term '2 year bill.' . . . "
Rakhi Kumar, Urban Intellectuals: An Open Letter to Michelle Obama: Beyonce is Not a Role Model
Vibe Magazine Sold, to Become Digital Only
"Online publisher SpinMedia has acquired Vibe magazine with plans to operate it as a digital property and without the print edition, the company said today," Nat Ives reported Thursday for Ad Age. "Terms were not disclosed.
"The deal, first reported by All Things D, brings Vibe and Spin back together, in website form at least. Spin magazine and Vibe magazine both once belonged to Vibe/Spin Media until a series of ownership changes that delivered Spin to BuzzMedia last year. BuzzMedia, which owns or sells ads for sites including Stereogum and Idolator, shuttered Spin's print edition and later changed the company's name to SpinMedia.
"Vibe was founded in 1992 by Time Warner and Quincy Jones. Time Inc. sold Vibe in 1996; the buyers sold Vibe again 10 years later. It went out of print in 2009, but returned within months under yet another set of owners, investors led by InterMedia Partners. Last summer the magazine said it would embrace electronic dance music along with its usual hip-hop and pop culture coverage.
"Vibe's website will do better as part of a larger portfolio of websites, according to Ari Horowitz, CEO of Vibe Media. 'It's about scale, it's about really good brands and it's about being able to leverage infrastructure,' he said. 'That's the way you win in the digital media business.' . . . "
Boston Carjacking "Unfolds Like Tarantino Movie"
"The 26-year-old Chinese entrepreneur had just pulled his new Mercedes to the curb on Brighton Avenue to answer a text when an old sedan swerved behind him, slamming on the brakes. A man in dark clothes got out and approached the passenger window," Eric Moskowitz reported Friday for the Boston Globe. "It was nearly 11 p.m. last Thursday.
"The man rapped on the glass, speaking quickly. Danny, unable to hear him, lowered the window — and the man reached an arm through, unlocked the door, and climbed in, brandishing a silver handgun.
" 'Don't be stupid,' he told Danny. He asked if he had followed the news about Monday's Boston Marathon bombings. Danny had, down to the release of the grainy suspect photos less than six hours earlier.
" 'I did that,' said the man, who would later be identified as Tamerlan Tsarnaev. 'And I just killed a policeman in Cambridge.'
"He ordered Danny to drive — right on Fordham Road, right again on Commonwealth Avenue — the beginning of an achingly slow odyssey last Thursday night and Friday morning in which Danny felt the possibility of death pressing on him like a vise.
"In an exclusive interview with the Globe on Thursday, Danny — the victim of the Tsarnaev brothers' much-discussed but previously little-understood carjacking — filled in some of the last missing pieces in the timeline between the murder of MIT police officer Sean Collier, just before 10:30 p.m. on April 18, and the Watertown shootout that ended just before 1 a.m. Danny asked that he be identified only by his American nickname.
"The story of that night unfolds like a Tarantino movie, bursts of harrowing action laced with dark humor and dialogue absurd for its ordinariness, reminders of just how young the men in the car were. . . . "
John Cassidy, New Yorker: What If the Tsarnaevs Had Been the "Boston Shooters"?
Jon Friedman, Media Matrix: Did U.S. Media Shortchange the Texas Tragedy?
Emil Guillermo blog, Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund: A few things I learned about us after Boston
Dan Kennedy with María Hinojosa, "Latino USA," NPR: The Boston Marathon Bombing, "News or Noise?" (audio)
Julianne Malveaux, syndicated: Blame a Dark-Skinned Man
Eric Moskowitz with Robert Siegel on "All Things Considered," NPR: Carjacking Victim Of Boston Suspects Recalls Harrowing Night
Askia Muhammad, Washington Informer: Our Curious National 'Celebrations'
Qasim Rashid, Huffington Post: Do You Even Hear Muslims When We Condemn Violence?
Akiba Solomon, Colorlines: Decoding the Invisible Whiteness In Boston Bombing Coverage
Emily Swanson, Huffington Post: Boston Bombing Media Poll Finds Good Ratings Overall, Lower Believability For CNN
Meenal Vamburkar, Mediaite: Howard Kurtz: Media Had 'Maybe Too Much Sensitivity' On 'Question Of Islamic Jihad' After Bombing
Actuary Beats Newspaper Reporter? Get Me Rewrite
The CareerCast survey this week that ranked "newspaper reporter" as this year's worst job rubbed some reporters the wrong way, especially since "actuary" was ranked the best.
The CareerCast survey considered the newspaper reporter job literally; journalists who work in other media were not included. Still, it rankled.
"When was last time you went to see a movie with an actuary as the lead protagonist or one in a leading role?" Ruben Rosario wrote Thursday in the Pioneer Press of St. Paul, Minn.
"Among newspaper reporters, we have, among many others: 'All the President's Men,' 'The Front Page,' 'His Girl Friday,' 'The Killing Fields,' 'State of Play,' 'The Soloist' and 'The Paper,' loosely based on my former employer, a New York City-based tabloid.
"Superman, arguably the most popular comic-book superhero of all time, did not choose actuary as his civilian job cover. He chose 'mild-mannered reporter for a great metropolitan newspaper.'
"Actuaries? Let's see. No superhero I know of. There was a 1948 movie titled "[Are You With It?]," a musical comedy starring the late Donald O'Connor as an actuary forced to join a carnival after he misplaced a decimal point on a statistical table. Riveting stuff. Must have been a box-office blockbuster.
"I asked folks to connect me with an actuary with a sense of humor for this piece. I was told that would be a nearly impossible task. I heard there's a whole nest of them over at Securian, two blocks from the newsroom. Then I heard back they needed permission from corporate as well as from their mothers and then they had to devise a spreadsheet to assess whether there would be a probability of favorable outcome in publicly talking to me on the record.
"A photographer volunteered a neighbor who is an actuary but added, "he's not necessarily a funny guy, kind of quiet. . . ."
Others have likewise commented on writing, editing and the state of newspapers in the Internet age.
Jeff Bercovici, Forbes: Forget That Survey. Here's Why Journalism Is The Best Job Ever.
Nicholas Diakopoulos, Poynter Institute: What data & algorithms teach us about the language news orgs use (April 12)
John Diaz, San Francisco Chronicle: Worst job in America? No way
Tony Norman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Future of journalism needs a rewrite
Rem Rieder, USA Today: Extra, extra: Newspapers aren't dead yet (April 10)
Rochelle Riley, Detroit Free Press: Grammar and cursive may be out, but the writing is on the wall (April 7)
Barry Saunders, News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C.: Mandatory cursive? You've got to be kidding
Lauren Simonds, Time: Good Writing Can Help You Succeed
S. Africa Increases Curbs on Press Freedom
"Despite pleas from press freedom groups and stalwarts of the struggle against apartheid, South Africa's Parliament on Thursday passed a much-criticized secrecy bill that will increase the government's power to restrict access to information and impose hefty fines and jail terms on reporters who publish information the government classifies as secret," Lydia Polgreen reported Thursday for the New York Times.
"The bill was first passed in 2011, but the government modified it because of complaints that it would unduly restrict freedom of the press. But journalism advocates said that the revised bill remained too restrictive, and vowed to challenge it in the constitutional court if President Jacob Zuma signs it into law, as is expected. . . ."
Emsie Ferreira, South African Press Association: South Africa: Assembly Adopts Info Bill
CNN, NBC, ABC Have Used "Undocumented," Not "Illegal"
CNN and NBC News told Journal-isms this week that their networks were using the term "undocumented immigrant" before the Associated Press announced this month that its stylebook "no longer sanctions the term 'illegal immigrant' or the use of 'illegal' to describe a person. Instead, it tells users that 'illegal' should describe only an action, such as living in or immigrating to a country illegally."
Meghan Pianta, an NBC News spokeswoman said by email, "For some time, the NBC News policy has been to use the term 'undocumented immigrants or workers.' "
Bridget Leininger of CNN said, "Our style is 'undocumented immigrant' or 'undocumented worker.' " ABC News spokesman Jeffrey W. Schneider said earlier in the week that ABC has used the terms "undocumented worker" and "undocumented immigrant."
CBS News and Fox News Channel did not respond to an inquiry.
"On Tuesday, The New York Times updated its policies on how it uses the phrase 'illegal immigrant' in its coverage," Christine Haughney reported that day for the Times. "The newspaper did not go as far as The Associated Press, and it will continue to allow the phrase to be used for 'someone who enters, lives in or works in the United States without proper legal authorization.' But it encourages reporters and editors to 'consider alternatives when appropriate to explain the specific circumstances of the person in question, or to focus on actions.' "
Philip B. Corbett, the Times' associate managing editor for standards, responded Thursday to the Asian American Journalists Association, one of many organizations critical of the Times position:
"You write: 'We agree with AP that "illegal" should not be used to describe people but be used to describe the actions people take,' " Corbett wrote.
"It's hardly the most important element of the discussion, and I understand the overall sensitivity of the language, but it's simply wrong to suggest that "illegal immigrant" is a unique case of using "illegal" to modify a noun referring to a person.
"A very cursory search of nytimes.com turns up hundreds of uses of other such phrases – illegal tenants, illegal renters, illegal loggers, illegal miners, illegal parkers, illegal drivers, and no doubt others I haven’t thought of.
"I realize that none of those carry the same political freight as 'illegal immigrant.' I just wanted to point out that this construction is a perfectly ordinary one, in which a reader understands that it is the specific action that is being characterized as 'illegal.' An 'illegal tenant' is not an illegal person who rents an apartment, but rather a person who is renting illegally. Similarly, 'illegal immigrant' does not describe an 'illegal person,' but rather a person who has immigrated illegally."
Lauren Victoria Burke, Politic365: Immigration: Black Caucus to Fight for Diversity Visas and African, Caribbean Immigrants
Dave Montez, Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation: New York Times missed the mark by not dropping the term "illegal"
ADL Loses Bid to Stop Honor for Arab-American Publisher
Osama Siblani, publisher of the Arab American News, joined four others who were inducted into the Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame Sunday, despite the objections of the Anti-Defamation League.
"The ADL called on Michigan State University to reconsider the induction of Osama Siblani, publisher and editor-in-chief of The Arab American News, to the university-run Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame due to 'his newspaper's repeated publication of anti-Semitic diatribes and rhetoric,' " Sam Sokol reported April 17 for the Jerusalem Post.
"Siblani is also the chairman of the Congress of Arab American Organizations, a major voice in the Arab-American community.
"According to its website: 'The Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame recognizes reporters, editors, publishers, owners, photographers, broadcasters, educators, and others who have made outstanding contributions to the profession.'
"The Anti-Defamation League accused Siblani's newspaper, published in both English and Arabic, of being a 'forum for hate' in an April 12 letter to Lucinda Davenport, the head of MSU's journalism hall of fame. . . ." Siblani's newspaper quoted a statement from MSU spokesman Kent Cassella in its Thursday edition: "After reviewing the concerns raised by the Anti-Defamation League, members of the selection committee support their earlier decision.
"The Hall of Fame selection committee believes in the freedom of the press and the right to freely express one's views, although it may not always agree with all the views expressed by its inductees, or those printed in publications with which the inductees are affiliated."
The Arab-American News also named the members on the committee: "Tim Boudreau, from Central Michigan University, Sue Carter from Michigan State University, Lucinda Davenport from Michigan State University, Janet Geissler from Mid-Michigan Chapter, Jayne Hodak from Michigan Association of Broadcasters, Tina Lonski from Michigan Press Women, Maureen McDonald from Association of Women in Communications of Detroit, Walter Middlebrook from the Detroit Chapter of Society of Professional Journalists, Gloria Olman from Michigan Interscholastic Press Association, Rochelle Riley from the Detroit Chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists, Jam Sardar from the Michigan Chapter of the Asian American Journalists Association, Kendall Wingrove from Michigan State University, and at-large Members Bob Giles and Janet Mendler."
Nominate a J-Educator Who Has Helped Diversity
The Association of Opinion Journalists, formerly the National Conference of Editorial Writers, annually grants a Barry Bingham Sr. Fellowship — actually an award — "in recognition of an educator's outstanding efforts to encourage minority students in the field of journalism." The educator should be at the college level.
Nominations, now being accepted for the 2013 award, should consist of a statement about why you believe your nominee is deserving.
The final selection will be made by the AOJ Foundation board and announced in time for the Oct. 13-15 convention in Newport, R.I., where the presentation will be made.
Since 2000, the recipient has been awarded an honorarium of $1,000 to be used to "further work in progress or begin a new project."
Past winners include James Hawkins, Florida A&M University (1990); Larry Kaggwa, Howard University (1992); Ben Holman, University of Maryland (1996); Linda Jones, Roosevelt University, Chicago (1998); Ramon Chavez, University of Colorado, Boulder (1999); Erna Smith, San Francisco State (2000); Joseph Selden, Penn State (2001); Cheryl Smith, Paul Quinn College (2002); Rose Richard, Marquette University (2003); Leara D. Rhodes, University of Georgia (2004); Denny McAuliffe, University of Montana (2005); Pearl Stewart, Black College Wire (2006); Valerie White, Florida A&M University (2007); Phillip Dixon, Howard University (2008); Bruce DePyssler, North Carolina Central University (2009); Sree Sreenivasan, Columbia University (2010); Yvonne Latty, New York University (2011); and Michelle Johnson, Boston University (2012).
Nominations may be emailed to Richard Prince, AOJ Diversity Committee chair, richardprince (at) hotmail.com. The deadline is May 24.
"This photo was posted yesterday to Rupert Murdoch's excellent new Tumblr, Murdoch Here," John Cook wrote Thursday for Gawker. "It's captioned, 'Hanging with the Dow Jones team today.' Cool hang. I think I might be able to see a couple people who aren't white?"
"Last Sunday, I wrote a column saying too much money flows out of the black community and that black-owned stores need the support of the community to survive," James Causey wrote Thursday for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "As a result, some people called me a racist on JSOnline." He then listed some of the comments. In his syndicated Miami Herald column, Leonard Pitts Jr. also wrote about civility. "We can't even agree on who we are anymore, so swamped are we by the rage red holds for blue," Pitts wrote.
"Conversations with Ed Gordon," a quarterly, one-hour special with the journalist best known for his work at BET, begins syndication Sunday, Gordon's company announced this week. Gordon is host and executive producer. The specials are being aired nationally, including on the 10 NBC owned-and-operated affiliates. The first show features comedians Kevin Hart and Whoopi Goldberg and the singer Kem. Airdates, times and markets are at http://www.edgordon.net/conversations.htm.
The Ford Foundation is seeking a program officer to lead its Media and Justice initiative, part of the Foundation's Freedom of Expression unit. Calvin Sims, who succeeded Jon Funabiki in the job, is ending his six-year, term-limited tenure at the end of the year. "The Program Officer will manage a diverse portfolio of grants, including public broadcasters, traditional news organizations, innovative new models of reporting and newsgathering, and other groups who advance media in the public interest. . . " according to a portion of the job description.
John Stemberger, "a scoutmaster and anti-gay activist, went head-to-head with openly-gay CNN anchor Don Lemon and pro-gay activist and viral video hero Zach Wahls," Alana Horowitz wrote Friday for the Huffington Post. Stemberger warned that the repeal of the Scouts' ban on gay members "would 'destroy scouting as we know it.' 'What do you mean it's going to destroy scouting? I'm openly gay and I was a Boy Scout,' shot back Lemon. . . ."
"In El Paso, the former school superintendent is now in prison, the Justice Department is investigating, and more school officials are being fired — all the fallout of a widespread cheating scandal in which top educators tried to game standardized test scores so they could collect undeserved bonuses," Richard Parker wrote Friday for Columbia Journalism Review. "That scandal came to light thanks to years of dogged reporting by Zahira Torres and the support of her former editor at the El Paso Times. The work of Torres and the Times has triggered investigations, sparked legislative measures that might help children whose education was harmed, and garnered a passel of journalistic honors — including this laurel from CJR, for proving that even in times of shrinking newsrooms, hard-hitting investigations remain not just possible, but vital. . . ."
A memorial service celebrating the life of Lynne Duke, a former Washington Post editor and reporter who died at 56 on April 19, has been scheduled for Wednesday, May 15, at 6:30 p.m. at the Washington Post.
The Washington Post is "creating what we’ll call the Hub Rotation, an opportunity for staffers across the newsroom to spend some time — a couple of days, a week, maybe longer — participating in the decisions made in the hub and bringing their sensibilities to the work we're producing, Managing Editor Kevin Merida and Deputy Managing Editor Scott Vance told staffers Friday in a memo. "Participants could help identify and evaluate contenders for A1, for example, and work with editors and reporters to help elevate stories when needed. They could take part in the daily debate over the mix of stories and photo selection for the next day's print front page. They could help organize breaking news coverage online, and join real-time discussions about homepage play and programming. . . . "
"Was it simply a 'cold business decision' or a callous act of censorship?" veteran journalist Linn Washington Jr. asked Tuesday on his website This Can't Be Happening! Washington said legendary pro-basketball player Shaquille O'Neal "put a power move on Stephen Vittoria blocking this respected filmmaker's showing of his latest documentary at the movie complex O’Neal co-owns in downtown Newark, NJ, the city where both of these men were born." The movie, in which Washington appears, is "Mumia: Long Distance Revolutionary," about Mumia Abu-Jamal, convicted of the 1981 killing of a Philadelphia policeman. It was to have opened in the city on Friday. Dave Zirin weighed in for the Nation.
"María Elena Fernández, who in January of this year took a buyout from The Daily Beast, has been hired as a Los Angeles-based entertainment correspondent for NBCNews.com and Today.com. She starts the new job on May 6," Veronica Villafañe reported Friday for her Media Moves site.
"Long-time broadcast anchor Amanda Davis Thursday night announced her retirement from WAGA-TV after more than 26 years at the station," Rodney Ho reported for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He added, "Davis was arrested by Atlanta police Nov. 11 after she crashed her car going northbound in a southbound lane on Piedmont Ave. off 14th Street in Midtown, hitting and injuring another driver. She was charged with reckless driving, failure to maintain lane and DUI. She was taken off the air and has been awaiting trial at Fulton County state court. . . ."
Janet Kwak has joined KGTV-TV in San Diego, Calif., as a general assignment reporter. "She joins 10News from Los Angeles, where she worked as a general assignment reporter for KNBC. Prior to that, she served as a reporter and fill-in anchor at WOAI in San Antonio . . .," her bio says.
"Shannon Sims is joining Milwaukee NBC affiliate WTMJ as a weekend anchor," Merrill Knox reported Wednesday for TVSpy. "Sims comes from Cincinnati, where she has been freelancing as a morning reporter and fill-in anchor at WXIX. She was released from her contract at WKEF-WRGT in Dayton after a year as the station's main anchor in January."
Mychal Denzel Smith, a blogger at TheNation.com and a Knobler Fellow at the Nation Institute, has been hired full-time at the Nation, Chris O'Shea reported Friday for FishbowlNY. He will focus on focus on "racial and criminal justice, and the politics of respectability."
The International Press Institute Thursday "condemned the attempted assassination of journalist Mansour Nour in Yemen and urged authorities to take adequate steps in combating the persisting violence reporters face in the country," Konstantin Balev reported for the institute.
"Over the past few days, following the rape of a five-year-old girl, the Indian government has been rocked once again by the alliance of the news media and Delhi's street protesters," Manu Joseph wrote Wednesday for the International Herald Tribune. "In my latest Letter From India I argue that Delhi's new breed of demonstrators are getting better at street protests and sustaining the interest of journalists, while the government has yet to learn how to create a smart and dignified self-defense. . . ."
"A British journalist trying to cover the Delhi gang rape trial was asked to leave the courtroom on Tuesday after the prosecution objected to the presence of the international press," Sumit Galhotra reported Thursday for the Committee to Protect Journalists. "Andrew Buncombe, a correspondent for The Independent of London, was ejected from a court in the Indian capital even though a wide-ranging order restricting press coverage had been lifted last month. . . . "
"The hacked-up bodies of a photojournalist and another young man have been found in the northern Mexico city of Saltillo, authorities said Thursday," E. Eduardo Castillo reported for the Associated Press. "Photographer Daniel Martinez Bazaldua, 22, had recently been hired to cover social events for Vanguardia, the paper said in a story in its online edition. Officials identified the other man as Julian Zamora, 23. . . ."
"The national leadership the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) has decried what appears as an emerging repressive media environment in Nigeria, citing the recent arrest of four journalists of the LEADERSHIP Newspaper, saying that 'the union viewed their arrest as a siege on the media,' " Matthias Nwogu reported Friday for the newspaper.
"Egypt Independent, the country’s premier independent English language news source, ceased publication on Thursday after four years during which its staff chronicled the waning days of the Mubarak regime, the outbreak of revolution in their own country and across the Arab world, military rule and most recently the administration of the first democratically elected Islamist leader of Egypt, Mohamed Morsi," Liam Stack reported Thursday for the New York Times.
"An Istanbul court convicted a Turkish editor of 'publicly insulting the president' and sentenced him to a conditional term of 14 months in prison, according to news reports, the Committee to Protect Journalists reported on Thursday. "Ali Örnek would be jailed if he repeats the perceived offense sometime in the next five years under amendments to Turkey's criminal code introduced in 2012."
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Time to Ditch the Term 'Illegal Immigrants'?
The New York Times is under fire for its loose policy on usage of the description.
After activists picketed the New York Times building Tuesday and delivered petitions with more than 70,000 signatures urging the newspaper to drop the term "illegal immigrant," the Times announced a change in policy. But the National Association of Hispanic Journalists called the change "unacceptable" and cowardly.
Unity: Journalists for Diversity, which includes NAHJ, followed NAHJ on Thursday.
The immigration debate and the accompanying debate over terminology are likely to remain in the headlines. Reform bills are before Congress, and two brothers who immigrated from Chechnya are suspected of carrying out last week's Boston marathon bombing.
"On Tuesday, The New York Times updated its policies on how it uses the phrase 'illegal immigrant' in its coverage," Christine Haughney reported for the New York Times. "The newspaper did not go as far as The Associated Press, and it will continue to allow the phrase to be used for 'someone who enters, lives in or works in the United States without proper legal authorization.' But it encourages reporters and editors to 'consider alternatives when appropriate to explain the specific circumstances of the person in question, or to focus on actions.' "
Haughney had noted, "This month, The Associated Press announced it would eliminate the use of 'illegal immigrant' entirely. The news agency wrote, 'Except in direct quotes essential to the story, use "illegal" only to refer to an action, not a person: illegal immigration, but not illegal immigrant.' "
While the AP style guidelines are widely followed, some news organizations have their own. Among the broadcast media, for instance, ABC News has used the terms "undocumented worker" and "undocumented immigrant," network spokesman Jeffrey W. Schneider told Journal-isms.
Haughney continued, "Philip B. Corbett, the associate managing editor for standards, who oversees The Times's style manual, made the announcement on Tuesday shortly after a group staged a protest in front of The New York Times headquarters and delivered more than 70,000 signatures to Jill Abramson, the executive editor of The Times, asking her to end the use of the phrase.
"Mr. Corbett said in a statement that editors had spent months deliberating the updated style change. He said he shared these changes 'with key reporters and editors over the last couple of weeks.' He said he recognized how sensitive this issue is for readers. . . . "
NAHJ said in its statement, "The National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) is disappointed by the NY Times' carelessness and cowardice on the dehumanizing term 'illegal immigrant.' The Times shift in policy is unacceptable in accurately and sensibly describing a group of hard working people. The Times attempt to have it both ways by 'allowing the phrase to be used' and only 'encouraging reporters to consider alternatives' is unacceptable. Instead of taking an opportunity to show it understands how destructive the term is to Latinos; the publication only demonstrated how disconnected it is to this group."
The protesters included immigration activist Fernando Chavez, eldest son of the late farmworkers' rights leader Cesar Chavez; Jose Antonio Vargas, the former journalist who publicly disclosed his unauthorized status in 2011; and members of the groups MoveOn.org and Presente.org. The Applied Research Center's "Drop the I-Word" campaign also participated.
In a separate development, Luis Miranda, who just stepped down as director of Hispanic media for the Obama administration and is credited with improving access to the White House for Latino media, disclosed Tuesday that he was once an unauthorized immigrant.
"When I was a kid, I dreamed of becoming a fighter pilot. One of my best friends with the same goal joined the Civil Air Patrol and encouraged me to join, too. I jumped at the chance. But then it happened. I needed a Social Security number and didn't have one. I began to understand what it meant to be undocumented," Miranda wrote in an op-ed piece in USA Today.
A 1986 law "allowed immigrants like myself a path to citizenship," Miranda wrote. [Updated April 25.]
Esther J. Cepeda, Washington Post Writers Group: The wise words of Uncle Ruslan
Elise Foley, Huffington Post: Deportations Continue As Congress Seeks Immigration Reform
Juan Gonzalez, Daily News, New York: Boston Marathon bombings used in effort to derail congressional immigration reform efforts
Ruben Navarrette Jr., Washington Post Writers Group: Boston bombing not an immigration story
Fox News a Haven for Talk About Muslim Threats
"In the days following the Boston Marathon bombings, Fox News has become a haven for talk about the extreme threats posed to the United States by Muslims," Jack Murchinson wrote Wednesday for the Huffington Post. "Day after day, the network's hosts and pundits have warned about an Islamic menace which is poised to take down the country.
"At the most extreme has been 'Fox News liberal' Bob Beckel, whose call on 'The Five' to bar or severely restrict Muslim students from coming into America seemed to startle even Dana Perino, George Bush's former spokeswoman. Beckel stuck by his comments on Tuesday, saying that some of the 75,000 Muslim students in American schools are likely to harbor terrorist ambitions.
" 'It's a risky situation,' he said. . . . "
Justin Berrier, Media Matters for America: Fox's Bolling: Rep. Ellison Is "The Muslim Apologist In Congress" And "Very Dangerous"
Glen Ford, Black Agenda Report: White Chechens Open New Vistas of Repression in America
Arthur Hayes, USA Today: Boston F-bomb exemption: Column
Margaret Kimberley, Black Agenda Report: Every Day Terror
Andrew Lam, New America Media: Boston Bombers -- The Denial of American Grandeur
Asra Q. Nomani, Daily Beast: How American Muslims Can Respond to Boston
Tony Norman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Terror motives likely will never make sense
TJ Raphael, Folio:: Reactions to Time Magazine's Boston Bombing Cover
Eugene Robinson, Washington Post: Guns and terrorism, a double-barreled standard
Barry Saunders, News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C.: The 24/7 news cycle should slow when justice is at stake
Robin Washington, Duluth (Minn.) News Tribune: After suspect's capture, city on a hill shines again
Erik Wemple, Washington Post: CNN: We've instituted 'checks and balances'
DeWayne Wickham, USA Today: 'Mirandizing' Boston suspect was wise
Edward Wyckoff Williams, the Root: Yes, They're White and Muslim
Fired, Then Hired, Clemente Becomes Instant Celebrity
"He was hired. And then he was fired. And now he's been hired -- for a night -- as a celebrity correspondent," Ann Oldenburg reported Wednesday for USA Today.
"A.J. Clemente, the North Dakota anchor who shot to fame for dropping an f-bomb on the air on his first day on the job only to be immediately fired, stopped by Live With Kelly and Michael today.
"And the two co-hosts offered him a job.
" 'A.J., you know, I've got to tell you, that this clip of you has captivated all of us,' Kelly Ripa told him. 'It's taken us on a wild ride. What exactly was going on in your head when that happened? Were you aware that you were on the air?'
"Replied Clemente, 'I had no clue.' And there was a bleep, even though he didn't curse. The show's control room bleeped him to be funny. . . ."
Eric Deggans, Tampa Bay (Fla.) Times: "F-bomb" anchor A.J. Clemente visits NBC's Today and Letterman, revealing serious problems with small town TV news
Edward Esposito, Radio Television Digital News Foundation: Memo to AJ: Learn, don't burn
Scott Stump, "Today," NBC: F-bomb anchor: Watching viral clip 'was gut-wrenching'
Meenal Vamburkar, Mediaite: Local Anchor Fired For Swearing On Air Speaks Out About His 'Gut-Wrenching' Mistake On Today
Politico Piece on N.Y. Times Draws Sexism Charges
"Has Jill Abramson, executive editor of The New York Times, 'lost the newsroom'?" Tom McGeveran asked Wednesday for Capital New York.
"A story posted last night by Politico's Dylan Byers characterizes Abramson as a woman on the verge of a newsroom breakdown. The culprit is her personality, but also, to be fair, the way that personality has manifested itself in a few decisions, none of which were particularly key decisions.
"Today, the story has readers charging sexist bias, thin sourcing, and a certain naivete about how the great big newsrooms work. I don't think any of these is really applicable to Byers' reporting, but this article does speak volumes about all three issues. . . ."
The Byers article opens with an anecdote about Managing Editor Dean Baquet, the highest ranking black journalist at the newspaper, who was said to have competed with Abramson for the top job after Bill Keller stepped down in 2011.
Emily Bell, the Guardian, Britain: Jill Abramson and the wholly sexist narrative of the woman in power
Nicholas Carlson, Business Insider: Politico's Takedown Of The New York Times Editor 'Doesn't Ring True To Me,' Says Brian Stelter
Jack Mirkinson, Huffington Post: Jill Abramson: 'Very Unpopular' Or Just Doing Her Job?
Hanna Rosin, Slate: You Don't Know Jill
Unity Urges Appointment of Pro-Diversity FCC Chair
Unity: Journalists for Diversity urged President Obama Wednesday "to consider the diversity of America's news coverage and news companies as you evaluate candidates to chair the Federal Communications Commission."
Unity also joined "Fifty organizations, most representing minority constituencies, [who] have asked the White House to nominate two new FCC commissioners, including a replacement chairman -- who will make minority and female participation in media a priority," John Eggerton reported for Broadcasting & Cable.
Unity did not urge Obama to appoint a woman of color to the chairmanship, as the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters did this month, but the letter from President Tom Arviso Jr. said, "The next chairman or chairwoman of the FCC will shape the future of news for diverse communities in America" and named "the principles we believe should serve as core values for any future appointment."
The Unity coalition asserted its opposition to additional consolidation of the nation's media; urged the FCC "to conduct research on tracking the number of minority, women and LGBT owned broadcast stations"; said that "diversity should be measured and factored into approval or rejection of all licensing and re-licensing applications" and that "universal access to the Internet is a basic right."
Eggerton reported, "The White House is said by various sources to be vetting the current nominee for chairman -- former cable and telecom association exec Tom Wheeler is said to be the leading candidate -- and could announce a nominee, as well as a Republican to be paired with him or her, within the next couple of weeks.
"If commissioner Mignon Clyburn is named interim chair" -- she is the senior Democrat after outgoing chair Julius Genachowski -- "she could be in that post for several months and have an opportunity to put her imprint on the issue as the first African-American woman chair. . . . "
Unity includes the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, the Asian American Journalists Association, the Native American Journalists Association and the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association.
Gracie Lawson-Borders Named Dean at Howard U.
Gracie Lawson-Borders, associate dean at the University of Wyoming College of Arts and Sciences and professor in communication and journalism there, has been named dean of the Howard University School of Communications, Howard announced on Tuesday.
Lawson-Borders is a former journalist who worked as a reporter and editor at the Akron Beacon Journal in Ohio, the Oakland Press in Michigan and the Chicago Tribune, the university said.
She succeeds Jannette Dates, who had been dean or acting dean for 17½ years and associate dean for five, and Interim Dean Dr. Chuka Onwumechili, who served in the post for the last year.
Lawson-Borders is also a former director of the African American & Diaspora Studies program at Wyoming and is working on her second book, about digital business models and strategies for media organizations, the university said.
In September, the university Board of Trustees approved two new undergraduate programs and a new doctoral program in the School of Communications as a part of the university’s "academic renewal" efforts.
The new undergraduate programs are strategic, legal and management communications, and media, journalism and film. The doctoral program is in communication, culture and media studies.
The School of Communications has 1,050 students.
Howard Chua-Eoan, News Director at Time, Retiring
Howard Chua-Eoan, news director at Time magazine and time.com, is retiring, Chua-Eoan told Journal-isms by email on Wednesday. He has been with Time Inc. for 30 years.
"I am retiring. But still going to do the occasional project for TIME. In fact, I am about to start on one next week," Chua-Eoan wrote.
Time magazine received the 2012 Thumbs Down Award from the National Association of Black Journalists "for its lack of diversity within its reporting corps," NABJ announced at its convention last year in New Orleans.
"That's why I'm here," Chua-Eoan told Journal-isms at the convention. Chua-Eoan said he was available to meet with potential hires, though he did not have a recruiting booth because Time decided to skip the NABJ career fair in favor of the Unity convention in Las Vegas.
When Steven Gray left last year as Time's last remaining African American correspondent, he praised Chua-Eoan, saying he "brought me to the magazine and is one of the most elegant editors I've ever worked for."
According to a 2002 bio, "Chua-Eoan was an Assistant Managing Editor for TIME and was responsible for both breaking news and religion stories until January 2002 when he became News Director. He was also editor of 'Heroes & Inspirations,' the fifth in the series of six TIME 100: People of the Century issues which profiled the 100 most influential individuals of the past 100 years.
"The weekend editor for the magazine, Chua-Eoan was on duty on Aug. 30, 1997 when news broke of the accident that took Princess Diana's life. He edited and co-wrote stories and organized the 16-hour effort that completely revamped 20 pages of the issue and resulted in the dramatic overnight cover change. Chua-Eoan was also deeply involved in the commemorative issue produced by the magazine the following week that included not only a 40-page tribute to Diana but a six-page appreciation of Mother Teresa that Chua-Eoan wrote. The two Diana covers hold the record for the most copies of TIME sold on the newsstand. . . ."
The bio notes that Chua-Eoan was born in Manila, the Philippines, and came to the United States in October 1979 at age 20.
Washington Post columnist Courtland Milloy Jr. devoted his column Wednesday to the marriage of former colleagues Lynne Duke, who died of cancer Friday at 56, and Phillip Dixon, a former Washington Post city editor and journalism department chair at Howard University. "He looked remarkably content, not distraught as I had expected, but like a man who knew that there was more to this world than meets the eye, that he'd felt the presence of a loving spirit when he needed it most," Milloy wrote of Dixon. Services have not yet been scheduled.
Soledad O'Brien was named a distinguished visiting fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, spending the 2013-2014 year delving into topics related to public education in America, the Huffington Post reported Wednesday. O'Brien left CNN's now-defunct morning show "Starting Point" in March and said she would continue to work with the network by producing documentaries independently with her own production company.
Leon Tucker, a former managing editor at the Courier-Post in Cherry Hill, N.J., a black journalist and one of three senior content editors, left the paper on Tuesday, according to the publisher's office. Tucker succeeded Everett "E.J." Mitchell II in the top newsroom job in 2010. Content Editor Christina Mitchell was named executive editor on Tuesday. Interim Publisher Ellen Leifeld, who had retired as publisher of the Tennessean, has been in charge of the Courier-Post newsroom as part of her duties. Both the Courier-Post and the Tennessean are Gannett newspapers.
CareerCast.com publisher Tony Lee put "newspaper reporter" dead-last in his best/worst job list for 2013, media blogger Jim Romenesko wrote Wednesday, because "There are very few jobs on our list that project negative growth or falling income" and the newspaper reporter position has both. Lee added, "When we say newspaper reporter we mean newspaper reporter; we do not mean a reporter who works for, say, espn.com" or any other digital job.
Rapper Snoop Lion, formerly Snoop Dogg, is "serving as Speakeasy's first-ever special guest editor," according to an editor's note Monday in that section of the Wall Street Journal. "In that role, he wrote the following essay about his reggae transformation, assigned a story on how sports can help at-risk youth, and will answer reader questions that are sent on Twitter with the hashtag #AskSnoop. . . ."
In the Bay Area, Stanley Roberts, the photographer for KRON-TV who was attacked last week filming his "People Behaving Badly" segment in Berkeley, Calif., tweeted the next day, "What disturbs me most about yesterdays attack, with all the people on the street, they 'all' just stood there and did absolutely nothing!" Also, "I am just amazed at the amount of people who think I deserved to be attacked! Just amazed!"
"Homegoings," a film that "explores the African-American funeral home, a 150 year-old institution that is now vanishing," will begin the 26th season of PBS' "POV" series, Evette Dionne wrote Wednesday for Clutch magazine. Filmmaker Christine Turner has been working on the film since 2011.
Simone Weichselbaum, a reporter for the Daily News of New York who was born into a Brooklyn, N.Y., family with German-Jewish and Jamaican roots, has won a Be'chol Lashon Media Award, "established to recognize outstanding journalism depicting the rich diversity of Judaism and the important place diverse Jews have among the Jewish people." She was selected for "her piercing, respectful, accurate and often entertaining reporting of the multicultural borough, in particular its Orthodox Jews and Jews of color."
"For any journalist or journalism student considering working independently, please join us for a webinar featuring print and broadcast journalist Mark Trahant," the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education asks. "Mark has successfully created a profitable niche out of his disparate interests -- everything from health care, Native American issues and writing poetry based on the news. He will discuss his business plan, his growth strategies and his pricing plans in a webinar at 2 p.m. Eastern, April 26. To enroll, please go to: http://mije-trahant-042613.eventbrite.com/ NOTE: This webinar will be recorded and can be accessed later by contacting Elisabeth Pinio at epinio@mije.org." Trahant is board chair of the Maynard Institute.
"A press freedom group is demanding that Mexico investigate the disappearance of a crime reporter in the Gulf coast state of Veracruz, where 12 journalists have been slain or gone missing since 2010," Olga R. Rodriguez reported for the Associated Press on Monday. "The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists on Monday urged Mexican authorities to find Sergio Landa Rosado and bring the kidnappers to justice. A colleague tells The Associated Press that Landa went missing Jan. 23. . . ."
Aundrea Murray, 21, a junior majoring in journalism at Central Connecticut State University, wrote in the Hartford Courant Tuesday that she was among a spring break trip to China joined by 23 students and two professors from the university. " 'Celebrity' was what my white classmates used to describe what I and other African American students must have looked like to the Chinese," she wrote. "But I felt far less than a celebrity and much more than just a foreigner. I was a victimized minority in a country besides my own. . . ."
Five public television stations have been awarded a total of $440,000 under the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's Ready to Learn program, in which stations are to provide children ages 2 to 8 with digital learning, Andrew Lapin reported last week for current.org. The grantees are Nashville Public Television; New Mexico PBS; KLRU in Austin, Texas; Louisiana Public Broadcasting; and PBS SoCal in Los Angeles.
Rochelle Riley of the Detroit Free Press won a National Headliner Award for local interest column on a variety of subjects [PDF], the Press Club of Atlantic City in New Jersey announced this week.
Raja Abdulrahim of the Los Angeles Times, David Barboza of the New York Times, Najibullah Quraishi and Jamie Doran of WGBH "Frontline" and Clover Films, and Alberto Arce of the Associated Press are among Overseas Press Club of America award winners.
Thanh Tan of the Texas Tribune; Vikki Vargas of KNBC in Southern California; Israel Alfaro and Jenny Martinez of KRGV-TV in Texas' Rio Grande Valley; Serene Fang, Gabriela Quiros and Craig Miller of KQED-FM in San Francisco and the Center for Investigative Reporting; Ryan Vasquez of Alabama Public Radio; Lu Olkowski, Laura Spero, Taki Telonidis and Al Letson of NPR's "State of the Re:Union"; and Alberto Arce of the Associated Press are among recipients of the 2012 Sigma Delta Chi Awards for excellence in journalism.
"Imprisoned Ethiopian journalist Reeyot Alemu is the winner of the 2013 UNESCO-Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize," the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization announced Wednesday. "Ms Alemu was recommended by an independent international jury of media professionals in recognition of her 'exceptional courage, resistance and commitment to freedom of expression.' "
In the Philippines, police said radio announcer Mario Vendiola Baylosis, 33, was shot dead by two motorcycle gunmen in a daring broad daylight Monday in the southern Filipino province of Zamboanga Sibugay, the Mindanao Examiner reported on Monday.
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Tsarnaev Coverage Proves Labels Matter
When it comes to the Boston Marathon bombing suspects' identity, religion trumps race in the media.
"Since the identification and apprehension (both dead and alive) of Boston Marathon bombing suspects Tamerlan Tsarnaev (reportedly shot and run over with explosives strapped to him, amid unconfirmed reports he was clutching an 'ACME Co.' receipt) and [Dzhokhar] Tsarnaev (apprehended as a result of history's first heroic nicotine fit), there has been a rush to triumphantly point and laugh at liberal commentator David Sirota's preference that the bombers turn out to be like the cheese on his ham sandwich: white and American," Tommy Christopher wrote Sunday for Mediaite.
"Lucky for white Americans, Sirota was at least half-right: when perpetrators of horrific acts turn out to be white, there is some phenomenon that causes their whiteness to become completely irrelevant, even if they are actually from the place where whiteness gets its name. Until Friday, I always thought 'caucasian' was just a name that some fancy racist thought up to make white people sound better than 'negroids' and 'mongoloids,' but it turns out there's a real place called Caucasia, and the Boston bombing suspects are from it.
"Despite that fact, and despite the fact that their region of origin has been heavily reported as 'the Caucasas,' you would never know that these guys were Caucasian, let alone white, from the way cable news has been reporting on them. With the exception of Sunday morning's Melissa Harris-Perry show, the only cable news description of the suspects as 'Caucasian' came from Massachusetts State Police Col. Tim Alben, during a press conference.
"That's because David Sirota didn't count on the one possibility that could nullify a white American bomber: a white American Muslim bomber. . . ."
The issue of racial and religious profiling was one of the themes that followed the capture Friday of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and the death of his older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, Muslims with Chechen origins.
Andrew Rosenthal, editorial page editor of the New York Times, wrote Monday, "The Boston Marathon bombings are closer to the colloquial and legal definitions of terrorism than the Aurora shooting, but not the Oklahoma bombing, or the Arizona attack.
Jelani Cobb, associate professor of history and director of the Institute of African American Studies at the University of Connecticut, ruminated on the subject of collective guilt in writing Saturday for the New Yorker website:
"And though we think of ourselves as a nation of immigrants, many Americans are removed enough from identity-based communities to recoil at the idea that they'd be held accountable for someone else's crimes," Cobb wrote. "But recent immigrants know that, even in a country founded upon the premise of individual rights, there is no guarantee that a person will be treated as an individual. This isn't solely a dynamic about immigration. For those with long enough memories, the ambiguous description of a 'dark-skinned male' suspect brought to mind the 1989 Charles Stuart case -- itself a case study in collective suspicion and guilt in the city of Boston. . . ."
Sarah Kendzior, an anthropologist who recently received her Ph.D. from Washington University in St. Louis, wrote for Al Jazeera Sunday that Muslims are owed an apology:
"American Muslims have long had to deal with ignorance and prejudice in the aftermath of a terrorist attack. 'Please don't be Muslims or Arabs,' goes the refrain, as unnecessary demands for a public apology from Muslims emerge. This week made it clear that it is Muslims who are owed the apology. After wild speculation from CNN about a 'dark-skinned suspect', on Thursday the New York Post published a cover photo falsely suggesting a Moroccan-American high school track star, Salah Barhoun, was one of the bombers. 'Jogging while Arab' has become the new 'driving while black.'"
Kendzior added, "It is easy to criticise the media, and after this disastrous week, there is much to criticise. But the consequences of the casual racism launched at Chechens -- and by association, all other Muslims from the former Soviet Union, who are rarely distinguished from one another by the public -- are serious. By emphasising the Tsarnaevs' ethnicity over their individual choices, and portraying that ethnicity as barbaric and violent, the media creates a false image of a people destined by their names and their 'culture of terror' to kill. There are no people in Chechnya, only symbols. There are no Chechen-Americans, only threats. . . ."
Boston Post-Mortems Apportion Praise, Criticism
In a flood of post-mortems on the Boston Marathon killings and subsequent manhunt, the Associated Press said, "We made mistakes because we didn't follow our own very good guidelines"; CNN President Jeff Zucker, whose network was faulted for wrong judgment calls, praised his team; and Callie Crossley, a local critic, said of the Boston media, "in an ever evolving fast-moving situation, I thought they were brilliant.
"I was with a group of friends not in business last night," Crossley, host of "Under The Radar" on Boston's WGBH-FM, told Howard Kurtz Sunday on CNN's "Reliable Sources." "I asked what they thought about the coverage.
"These are people who keep up with news and information. They said . . . what they most appreciated was a lack of hyping what was already a heightened situation. They said inform me, don't scare me. That was the highest compliment they could give local reporters here in town and I have to agree. . . ."
In a memo to Associated Press staffers, Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll said, "There was much great work from AP staffers and we celebrate that. But we had some missteps, too. And that's what we want to talk about here today.
"Tom Kent, our Deputy Managing Editor for Standards, finished a thoughtful breakdown of where our standards served us well and where we fell short. Two issues stand out.
"We made mistakes because we didn't follow our own very good guidelines.
"And in one important case, we did not move quickly enough to clearly to fix that mistake. . . ." In particular, Kent said, "The AP routinely seeks and requires more than one source. . . ."
While CNN was widely mocked for its mistakes, including premature reports that a suspect had been captured (a mistake others made as well), and John King's statement that a "dark-skinned male" had been identified as the suspect, CNN president Jeff Zucker heaped praise on his team Friday:
"You have worked tirelessly, around the clock, to share these stories. And our audiences have responded, making it clear that they rely on us in ever increasing ways," Zucker wrote, according to the Hollywood Reporter. "In front of the cameras and behind the scenes, you have shown the world what makes us CNN. . . ."
Ken Bensinger and Andrea Chang, Los Angeles Times: Boston bombings: Social media spirals out of control; Web sleuths cast suspicion on innocent people and spread bad tips and paranoia.
Charles M. Blow, New York Times: The Mind of a Terror Suspect
David Carr, New York Times: The Pressure to Be the TV News Leader Tarnishes a Big Brand
Stanley Crouch, Daily News, New York: From Boston, sorrow and hope
Mary C. Curtis, Washington Post: Understanding the bomber next door
Jarvis DeBerry, NOLA.com | the Times-Picayune: After Boston marathon bombings, choose sadness, not fear
Jarvis DeBerry, NOLA.com | the Times-Picayune: Backpack control as a way of making marathons safer?
Editors, the Aerogram: The 12 Best Tweets About CNN's 'Brown-Skinned Individual' Fail
Fannie Flono, Charlotte (N.C.) Observer: Senseless sacrilege of Senate gun control vote
Arturo R. García, Racialicious: Quoted: Sunil Tripathi's Sister, Sangeeta, On Redditors' False Accusations
Keli Goff, the Root: Will President Obama Rise to the Occasion?: How he handles the fallout from the Boston Marathon attacks will help shape his legacy.
Bill Grueskin, Columbia Journalism Review: In defense of scoops
Huffington Post: David Westin, Former ABC News President: New York Post Photo 'Inexcusable'
Lucette Jefferson, Huffington Post: Boston Bombing Suspect Race: Were You Relieved? (TELL US)
Jackie Jones, BlackAmericaWeb.com: Media's Rush to Get It First Opens Door to Racial Profiling
Charles King, Foreign Affairs: Not Your Average Chechen Jihadis
John McWhorter, Daily News, New York: The terrorism truthers and the larger truth
Media Life Magazine: 46 million watch bombing suspect's capture
Courtland Milloy, Washington Post: False hope and folly in gun-control bill (April 16)
Phillip Morris, Plain Dealer, Cleveland: Boston's tragic week will only serve to make it stronger
Tony Norman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Someday, today's gun laws will be absurd
Brendan Nyhan, Columbia Journalism Review: Fast and wrong beats slow and right
Clarence Page, Chicago Tribune: Gun vote reveals new GOP divide
Andrea Plaid, Racialicious: Open Thread: The Boston Marathon Bombings, The Boston Manhunt, And The Race To Racism
Pro Publica: A Reading Guide to What's Going on in Boston (April 19)
Radio Ink: How To Cover a Story Like Boston
Mary Sanchez, Kansas City Star: Wasn't Sandy Hook Enough to open our eyes?
Ana Veciana-Suarez, Miami Herald: After the Boston marathon bombing, focus on the heroes
Ali Velshi, Quartz: Ex-CNN anchor: Twitter is merciless when media lag, ruthless when they're wrong
Rookie TV Anchor's Profane Debut Goes Viral
"There are likely some professors at the University of West Virginia red-faced today after a recent graduate made his TV debut by dropping a string of obscenities," John Landsberg wrote Monday for Bottom Line Communications.
"A.J. Clemente went on the air for the first time at NBC North Dakota affiliate KFYR-TV and almost immediately blurted out a string of obscenities that left him looking like he was learning disabled.
" 'Say hello to the most disastrous start to a television career in the history of moving pictures inside little boxes and/or flat screens,' noted the Awful Announcing site.
"Clemente, who must have missed the 'assume the microphone is always on' lesson in school, has already been suspended (UPDATE: He has been fired.)
"His co-anchor was so flustered by his actions she sounded worse than a high school broadcaster. Clemente's performance has gone viral around the country. . . ."
CBS Seattle: Station Facing Backlash After Firing Anchor For Cursing On Air On First Day (April 23)
Prime Movers High School Program Ending After Nine Years
The Prime Movers Media program, "the first intensive journalism mentoring and news literacy program targeting students within urban high schools," is sunsetting after nine successful school years, Dorothy Gilliam, the program's founder and director, announced on Monday.
The program, based at George Washington University's School of Media and Public Affairs, was established for its first three years with a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and supported in more recent years by a contract with the District of Columbia Public Schools.
"Financial support from George Washington University and the School of Media and Public Affairs, along with news organizations, individuals and smaller foundations has provided supplemental funding for the program," the announcement continued. "The completion of this year's contract with the D.C. Public School system (D.C.P.S.) left too large a gap without new sources of funding to sustain the program. Without new funding, it has become difficult to sustain and administer the Prime Movers program so the program will close at the end of this academic year.
"Prime Movers Media has brought 80 interns from the George Washington University together with 60 professional journalists to train more than 4,000 students in 28 schools in the Washington area. Along with the White House Correspondents' Association and AOL, Prime Movers Media has facilitated college scholarships for students to study journalism and mass communications."
Gilliam added that the program's legacy would continue as D.C. students study a mass media/journalism education curriculum that Prime Movers wrote for D.C. Public Schools. A branch of the program in Philadelphia co-founded with Acel Moore, former Philadelphia Inquirer associate editor and columnist, will continue.
According to the program's website, its genesis dates to 1997, when Gilliam learned "that none of Washington D.C''s public high schools had produced student newspapers.
Gilliam started Prime Movers in 2004.
AP's Honduras Writer Honored, Covers "Failing State"
Alberto Arce, a correspondent in Honduras for the Associated Press, has won a National Headliner Award for news beat coverage or continuing story by an individual or team [PDF], the Press Club of Atlantic City announced.
In December, Arce wrote a first-person dispatch about his life as a correspondent. "Every Saturday morning, one of my taxi drivers pays about $12 for the right to park his cab near a hospital, about two blocks from a police station," it began.
"But it's not the government that's charging.
"An unidentified man pulls up in a large SUV, usually brandishing an AK-47, and accepts an envelope of cash without saying a word. Jose and nine other drivers who pay the extortionists estimate that it amounts to more than $500 a year to park on public property. During Christmas, the cabbies dish out another $500 each in holiday 'bonuses.'
"Meanwhile, Jose pays the city $30 a year for his taxi license.
" 'Who do you think is really in charge here?' Jose asked me.
"It is an interesting question, one I have been trying to answer since I arrived here a year ago as a correspondent for The Associated Press. Is the government in charge? The drug traffickers? The gangs? This curious capital of 1.3 million people is a lawless place, but it does seem to have its own set of unwritten rules for living with the daily dangers."
Arce added, "I am the only foreign correspondent here, with no press pack to consult on questions of security, or to rely on for safety in numbers. I fall back on instincts honed in war zones, but they are not always sufficient when you are covering a failing state. . . ."
NAACP's Crisis Magazine Responds to Justice Scalia in Kind
"Anyone keen on the Supreme Court's on-going arguments over the legality of certain parts of the Voter Rights Act surely has not forgotten Justice Antonio Scalia‘s 'racial entitlement' remarks from earlier this year -- especially 'The Crisis,' the NAACP's flagship publication," Terrell Jermaine Starr reported Monday for News One.
" 'I think it is attributable, very likely attributable, to a phenomenon that is called perpetuation of racial entitlement. It's been written about, Scalia said of the Act during a hearing back in February. 'Whenever a society adopts racial entitlements, it is very difficult to get out of them through the normal political processes.
"The award-winning magazine pulled no punches with its response, using its cover to feature an illustration of Justice Scalia with a Confederate flag bandana wrapped around his mouth. The conservative's eyes peer ominously through his thinly-framed eye glasses, evoking worst memories from the era in which the original [Voting Rights] Act was born.
"The cover is very hard-hitting, but The Crisis' Editor-in-Chief, Jabari Asim, told NewsOne, 'we thought his comments were hard-hitting and deserved that kind of response. I think that voting rights is one of those principles that the Crisis, African-Americans, and the NAACP all hold sacred. The memory of people who died for our right to vote remains fresh in many of our consciences and I think in that instance when you dare to be that irreverent and that disrespectful of the lessons of history that's the kind of response you earn.' . . ."
James E. Causey, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Report: Over half of black men in their 30s in Milwaukee County have been incarcerated
James E. Causey, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Buying black: Too much money flows out of the black community
George E. Curry, National Newspaper Publishers Association: Supreme Court Determined to Kill Affirmative Action (April 3)
Eric Deggans, Tampa Bay (Fla.) Times: Race-Baiter update: What I've learned after a summer of talking race and media everywhere from CSPAN to CSUN
Lewis W. Diuguid, Kansas City Star: Economic disparity still hampers black success
Lewis W. Diuguid, Kansas City Star: The complacency seen by King hasn't gone away
Ann Curry "Professionally Tortured" Before Leaving "Today"
"Ann Curry was basically professionally tortured her last months as co-anchor of 'Today,' according to Brian Stelter's new book 'Top of the Morning: Inside the Cutthroat World of Morning TV,' " Tony Hicks wrote Thursday for the Contra Costa (Calif.) Times.
"MSN reported Thursday that an excerpt from Stelter's upcoming tell-all describes a boys club atmosphere at 'Today,' co-anchor Matt Lauer's 'growing indifference' to Curry and a 'general meanness on set' during Curry's time as co-anchor, according to MSN. The book says executive producer Jim Bell made a blooper reel of Curry's biggest on-air [gaffes], while people in the control room made ongoing jokes about Curry and her wardrobe.
"Insulting a woman's wardrobe -- who does such a thing? It's just not safe ...
"Curry's abuse also included giving her an undesirable office location and insults at the security desk.
" 'Many executives at the network never grasped how profoundly hurt and humiliated Curry remained -- not just by her televised dismissal but by all the backstage machinations that led to that fateful morning,' Stelter wrote. 'Curry felt that the boys club atmosphere behind the scenes at "Today" undermined her from the start, and she told friends that her final months were a form of professional torture.'
"The story also details the tricks the show used to pay off guests, how NBC tweaked Nielsen ratings, and the cutthroat battle against rival 'Good Morning America.' . . . "
Stelter is scheduled to appear on "Good Morning America" and "CBS This Morning," among other programs.
Ed Bark, New York Times: Ratings War Zone Is a Rough Place to Start the Day
Rachel Nolan, New York Times Magazine: Behind the Cover Story: Brian Stelter on the Drama at the 'Today' Show
Brian Stelter, New York Times Magazine: Waking Up on the Wrong Side of a Ratings War
Two candidates have been certified as presidential candidates for the National Association of Black Journalists: Bob Butler, reporter for KCBS radio in San Francisco and current vice president/broadcast; and Sarah Glover, social media editor at WCAU-TV in Philadelphia, former board secretary and past president of the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists. View all candidates.
When Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. completes three deals announced in the past two months, it will own more television stations across the country than any other company -- 134 stations in 69 markets, Lorraine Mirabella reported Saturday for the Baltimore Sun. Craig Aaron, president of Free Press, a group that advocates for diverse media ownership and criticizes consolidation, said he views several aspects of Sinclair's growth strategy as problematic. "One is this merged newsrooms in all but name," he told the Sun, adding, "I think it's violating the spirit of what local TV is supposed to be. . . ."
Gregory H. Lee Jr., executive sports editor of the South Florida Sun Sentinel and president of the National Association of Black Journalists, has been nominated to receive the 2013 Missouri Honor Medal for Distinguished Service in Journalism, NABJ announced Monday. Suzette Heiman, a spokeswoman for the University of Missouri School of Journalism, said the school was not ready to announce this year's nominees.
Loop21.com, an African American-oriented news website, has eliminated the two positions in its New York office, CEO Darrell L. Williams told Journal-isms on Monday. "As part of its restructuring and expansion, Loop21.com has consolidated its staff operations into its California office," Williams said by email. "Additional staff have been added to the California office over the last few months and last week Loop21.com ended all remaining staff operations outside of California. This consolidation will significantly improve staff collaboration and coordination. Loop21.com will continue to work with freelance contributors and editors throughout the country." The site employs six full-time equivalent positions and is adding four to the California staff, he said. The editors remain in place.
Revolt, a Sean Combs-backed lifestyle cable network, is getting ready to launch in July, Brittney M. Walker reported Saturday for EURWeb.com. She added, "Like perfect Sean Combs fashion, it looks like it'll be quite exciting. The network will feature art, music, fashion, culture and film. . . " Comcast solicited proposals for independent channels as a commitment to the Federal Communications Commission to help launch minority-owned networks.
Gene Norman, who resigned as chief meteorologist at KHOU-TV in Houston in November, has joined the WIAT-TV weather team in Birmingham, Ala., as chief meteorologist anchoring the 5 p.m., 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. newscasts.
Chris Redford, a crime reporter at KTBS-TV in Shreveport, La., was fired last year for defending himself online, but unlike his former colleague Rhonda Lee, the also-fired meteorologist with the short Afro who became the center of a media whirlwind in December, Redford did not want to talk about the situation. Now he does. In a Facebook posting Sunday, Redford disputed KTBS assertions that he had posted the offending comment on the KTBS Facebook page. "Since when does KTBS own Facebook?" Redford wrote. "I never posted anything but news stories on the KTBS Facebook page. The thing I put on my personal page was a comment in which I called some dude a moron because he asked if 'Bob Griffith still plays with hamsters?' I cannot tolerate anti-gay and hate-filled remarks. . . ."
Nia-Malika Henderson, national political reporter at the Washington Post, is joining the Post's video department to host one of the marquee shows on its upcoming political channel, a memo to Post staffers said on Monday. "Nia will continue to write for The Post and serve as a frequent political commentator on network and cable television," it said.
"Does steadily declining newspaper advertising mean the print medium is near death? Innovators at the Daily Press (Newport News, Va.) say 'no,' " Wayne Dawkins, Mavis Carr and Joy McDonald of Hampton University wrote last week in Editor & Publisher. "Leaders at the Daily Press -- a medium-sized local daily where advertising revenue used to cover as much as 75 percent of production cost -- cite evidence that Sunday readership has trended up thanks in part to the paper's distribution of content across multiple platforms: print, online, and mobile. Surprisingly, many consumers still hold close to old conventions such as sectioned, broadsheet newspapers. . . ."
In Kenya, "Two investigative journalists have reported receiving death threats in Kenya shortly after airing a story suggesting foul play in a government official's death, according to news reports and local journalists," the Committee to Protect Journalists said Friday. "Mohammed Ali and John-Allan Namu, investigative journalists from the private KTN television network received threats from anonymous callers and via social networking sites on Wednesday, according to Namu and Willis Angira, associate producer for KTN. . . ."
"Two Nigerian journalists and their employer have been charged with forgery in connection with their publication of a memo reported to be from President Goodluck Jonathan, according to news reports," the Committee to Protect Journalists reported. "If convicted, the journalists could face life terms. . . ."
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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.
Al Neuharth, Diversity Champion, Dies at 89
A champion of diversity in the media industry passes away.
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:
"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?
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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Journal-isms is published on the site of the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education (mije.org). Reprinted on The Root by permission.
