Media

When a flick of the switch Saturday activates OWN, the Oprah Winfrey Network, making it available in 85 million homes, another marker will be laid in the quest for media ownership by people of color. The new lifestyle channel — called the most-watched experiment in the television industry — will be available in both standard and high-definition…

1. Jobs Open Up on Internet Tim Armstrong, the CEO of AOL, made the startling statement in May that his company employed 4,000 journalists, 3,500 of whom were part-time or freelance. “That’s pretty decent growth in a matter of six months,” Leena Rao wrote then on TechCrunch.com. “Of course, AOL has launched a number of…

Obama, Hillary Clinton Are Americans’ Most Admired “President Barack Obama is Americans’ Most Admired Man of 2010, substantially ahead of the former presidents, iconic religious leaders, and others who fill out the top 10 list. Obama first became Americans’ Most Admired Man in 2008, shortly after his election as the nation’s 44th president, and has…

Updated on December 27, 5:18 pm ET. R&B singer Teena Marie died at age 54, it was reported Sunday night, and the news spread by e-mail and by social-media tools such as Twitter before the mainstream media had a chance to catch up. But it was old-school reporting that enabled Roland Martin, the analyst for…

BET Postpones Anniversary Special Minutes Before Airtime “Do not adjust your television sets: The BET special celebrating the network’s 30th anniversary scheduled for Sunday evening was nowhere to be found. The show, ‘BET 30: Moments and Movements,’ was supposed to air from 8 to 10 p.m.,” Nancy McKeon reported Monday for the Washington Post. “An…

Juan Williams Signs Contract for Two-Book Deal “Since his contract as a senior news analyst at NPR was terminated in October, Juan Williams has found no shortage of platforms from which he can express himself,” Dave Itzkoff wrote Tuesday in the New York Times. “In addition to the new contract he signed with the Fox…

In D.C., Robin Givhan Exits Post for Newsweek/Daily Beast Mira Lowe announced her resignation Tuesday as editor-in-chief of Jet magazine, and Robin Givhan, the Pulitzer Prize-winning fashion writer for the Washington Post, said she was leaving the Post for the new merged Newsweek and Daily Beast. Lowe, a former Newsday associate editor, was brought to…

Survey Finds 60% Approve of Obama Tax-Cut Deal “The agreement between President Obama and congressional Republicans to extend tax cuts and unemployment benefits is getting strong bipartisan support. Overall, 60% approve of the agreement while just 22% disapprove,” the Pew Research Center reported on Monday. “There are virtually no partisan differences in opinions about the…

“A federal jury tonight convicted three current or former New Orleans police officers in connection with the death of Henry Glover, a 31-year old man who was shot by a police officer and died in custody shortly after Hurricane Katrina tore through Louisiana in 2005,” A.C. Thompson wrote Thursday for ProPublica. “The circumstances of Glover’s…

Obama Was Right: Public Didn’t Want to Keep All Tax Cuts In explaining Tuesday why he made a deal with Republicans on tax cuts that includes cuts for the wealthiest Americans, which he opposes, President Obama said at his news conference, “This is not a situation in which I have failed to persuade the American…