Short Takes

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• “Under the leadership of Suzanne Scott, the post-Roger Ailes Fox News is continuing to build a slate of mentoring, leadership, and career advancement programs for its entry level and up-and-coming staffers,” A.J. Katz reported April 26 for TV Newser. “Another example of this is the new Fox News Leadership Development Program, which effectively replaces the Ailes Apprentice Program. FNC hosted a kickoff event yesterday to honor the inaugural FNLDP class where Scott along with vp of diversity Marsheila Hayes introduced the group. . . .”
• Comedian-turned-media mogul Byron Allen “is a minority investor in Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc.’s $9.6 billion acquisition of the Fox regional sports networks from Walt Disney Co. — a deal that catapults the entertainment entrepreneur into the big leagues. He’ll have an interest in 21 channels covering sports from Los Angeles to Miami,” Christopher Palmeri and Anousha Sakoui reported for Bloomberg Friday. The regional sports networks, or RSNs, own the rights to broadcast professional baseball, hockey and basketball games from Atlanta to Los Angeles.
• “Major television networks are hitting far more lows than highs in tapping into Asian American talent, according to a study released Wednesday by the Asian Pacific American Media Coalition,” the Associated Press reported Thursday. “The advocacy group’s annual report on ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX came on the first day of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. ABC earned the top grades with Asian Americans depicting 11 percent of regular characters on its prime-time programs, while Fox flunked because it did not submit data, the coalition said. . . .”
• “Medium is expanding the scope of its editorial efforts with the hiring of four new editors in chief to launch publications about topics its readers want more of . . .”, Sara Jerde reported Wednesday for adweek.com. “Those hires include Brendan Vaughan, previously an executive editor at Penguin Random House, who will run a publication centered around power, and Vanessa DeLuca, former editor in chief of Essence magazine, who will run a publication for and about black women. . . .”
• “ESPN is ending the print version of ESPN the Magazine in September, more than 21 years after its launch,” John Ourand reported Tuesday for Sports Business Daily. “The news of the print magazine’s demise was announced to staff this morning as part of a reorganization of Senior VP/Original Content Rob King’s department. ESPN says that the move will not involve any layoffs today, though it is likely that a handful of print/publishing/circulation employees — said to be in the single digits — will be without jobs come September.
• “After a highly competitive search, Report for America has announced the selection and placement of its 2019 class: 61 reporters in 50 local news organizations across 28 states and Puerto Rico,” the organization announced April 25. “Report for America is a national service program that places talented emerging journalists into local news organizations to report for one to two years on under-covered issues and communities. An initiative of The GroundTruth Project, Report for America addresses an urgent need in American journalism at a time when local news deserts threaten our democracy like never before. . . .”

• Black News Channel, the 24-hour cable channel scheduled to launch Nov. 15, “has been able to attract well-known talent, including conservative author and media personality Larry Elder and ABC News Chief National Correspondent Byron Pitts, who will join the channel as a contributor while continuing his role at ABC,” Anita Bennett reported April 25 for urbanhollywood411.com. “The operation has also signed veteran Washington anchor-reporter Del Walters. . . .”
• As the Federal Communications Commission considers broadcast ownership rules, the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters declared Monday, “Any change in the local radio ownership rule to allow increased consolidation will have a significant negative impact on African Americans and other minority station owners and entrepreneurs. . . .” NABOB said it filed its comments with the FCC.
• “Stepping into his Brooklyn bodega, Mohammed Almuntaser recalled how his heart sank. Staring up at him from the entryway was a copy of The New York Post, with a picture of the World Trade Center in flames on the cover and a headline attacking a Muslim member of Congress, Ilhan Omar,” Christina Goldbaumn reported Monday for the New York Times. ” ‘It was disgusting. It was racist. I couldn’t believe this racist thing was sitting at my store,’ said Mr. Almuntaser, 29, who owns four bodegas in the city. ‘The very next day, I told everyone who works at my stores not to accept the paper.’ He was not alone, and a boycott of The Post began. . . .”
• In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter’s Lacey Rose, Oprah Winfrey reveals that her “60 Minutes” contributor deal is no more, CNN’s Brian Stelter reported Monday for his “Reliable Sources” newsletter. ” ‘I’ve removed myself from that,’ she said. And she’s blunt about the reason why. ‘It was not the best format for me… How should I say this? Never a good thing when I have to practice saying my name and have to be told that I have too much emotion in my name… I think I did seven takes on just my name because it was “too emotional.” I go, “Is the too much emotion in the Oprah part or the Winfrey part?” I was working on pulling myself down and flattening out my personality — which, for me, is actually not such a good thing’.”

  

• “Sports Illustrated has, in many ways, made good on its commitment to evolve its outdated perceptions of beauty by increasing representation over the past few years,” Jamie Feldman wrote Monday for HuffPost. “It looks like the 2019 Swimsuit issue is no exception. Halima Aden will become the first model to appear in the magazine wearing a hijab when the highly anticipated yearly issue hits newsstands on May 8. The Somali-American model, who has made a career of firsts, is pictured wearing two custom burkinis. . . .”
• “In every news job I’ve had, I have been confused with another Asian woman reporter — a steady undercurrent in my career,” Michelle Ye Hee Lee wrote Thursday for the Washington Post. “I’m hardly alone in experiencing this, and it’s certainly not just Asians who are confused for each other. There is some science behind people’s failure to grasp cross-racial identification. . . .” Lee is also president of the Asian American Journalists Association.
• “In a letter dated April 23, 2019, Congressional Black Caucus Chairwoman Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.), Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) and Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D-NC) wrote to SIRIUS XM CEO James Meyer highlighting the issue of diversity at the billion-dollar company,” Lauren Victoria Burke wrote Thursday for the National Newspaper Publishers Association.
• “Comedian Dave Chappelle, a resident of Yellow Springs, Ohio, is showing some love for his local public radio station, WYSO,” Jill Goldsmith wrote Tuesday for current.org. “The comedian will perform in nearby Dayton June 12 for the first time in 15 years and donate ticket proceeds to WYSO, which is stockpiling cash for a new era as an independent station. . . .”
• John Szwed, an anthropologist and jazz scholar, is to be honored with a Lifetime Achievement in Jazz Journalism by the Jazz Journalists Association, which announced Wednesday it is bestowing awards in 39 categories of jazz achievement and documentation.
• “A group of bipartisan legislators reintroduced a bill Wednesday to create a national Latino museum in the nation’s capital,” Patricia Guadalupe reported Wednesday for NBC News Latino.
• “Covington Catholic High School student Nicholas Sandmann is suing NBCUniversal for a whopping $275 million over the media coverage he received earlier this year, his lawyer said Wednesday,” Joseph A. Wulfsohn reported Thursday for Fox News. “Sandmann was at the center of a viral controversy back in January, alongside reports suggesting that he and his classmates had initiated a confrontation with Native American elder Nathan Phillips outside the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. Subsequent reporting and video evidence contradicted that version of events. . . .”
• “NBC-owned WRC Washington (DMA 6) is getting a new addition to its morning newscast,” Mark K. Miller reported Wednesday for TVNewsCheck. “In July, Jummy Olabanji will be joining the News4 Today team as a live desk anchor and reporter. It’s a homecoming of sorts — she began her career as a WRC News4 intern. She is currently reporting and anchoring for WNBC New York, but her roots in the Washington area run deep. . . .”
• In Atlanta, “CBS46 [WGCL-TV] has named Jennifer Valdez, a morning staple, as chief meteorologist, replacing Paul Ossmann,” Rodney Ho reported Wednesday for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “She will transition to afternoons in June. . . . Valdez has been a staple during CBS46’s morning show over the past 11 years. . . .”
• “Sharon Reed, departing CBS46 anchor and a bit of a lightning rod,” is leaving the station on May 22, Rodney Ho reported April 26 for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “She didn’t say what her next move will be [or what she] plans to do after she has officially left the station. . . .”
• Geto Boys co-founder Bushwick Bill, known to the National Association of Black Journalists as the entertainer who prompted a walkout at its 1993 convention in Houston when he referred to women as “bitches” and “ho’s,” is battling stage 4 pancreatic cancer, TMZ reported on Wednesday. The hip-hop entertainer is 52.
• “A familiar face is returning to Houston TV news. Former KPRC reporter Ruben Galvan has returned to the Bayou City,” Marcy de Luna reported Tuesday for the Houston Chronicle. “He joins KHOU 11 News beginning Wednesday, and will soon make his on-air debut, Galvan told Chron.com. After departing Channel 2 in 2016, Galvan worked in Southern California at Scientist.com, where he was a reporter in the biotechnology world. . . .”
• Brett A. Pulley is among five graduates chosen for the Hall of Achievement of the Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications, Medill’s Belinda Lichty Clarke reported April 23. Pulley is an executive vice president, director of corporate content and senior media strategist at Weber Shandwick and former dean of the Scripps Howard School of Journalism and Communications at Hampton University. The ceremony takes place May 16 in Evanston, Ill.
• “For the last two years I got to do my dream job, while working/living in my dream city (Atlanta), for one of the most historic and accomplished sports desk on this planet,” Carron J. Phillips, sports columnist at the Daily News in New York, wrote Facebook friends on April 19. Now Phillips has “decided to move on to The Shadow League.com, where I will serve as Senior Columnist.” Phillips said by email Monday, “Really not that serious of a backstory. I was looking for something new, and this opportunity presented itself. I’m excited about the future.” In July, the Daily News cut half of its newsroom staff , including sports editor Eric Barrow. Phillips’ first Shadow League piece is “How Chocolate City Became A Beacon Of Hostile Gentrification.”

  

• “May 1 marks the 75th anniversary of the day a group of American soldiers boarded transports at Hampton Roads, Va., headed for battlefields in Italy,” Andrew Lam wrote April 27 for the Dallas Morning News. Lam also wrote, “Each prayed he wouldn’t let his buddies down when the bullets started flying. Each felt anxiety about meeting the enemy face-to-face. But this particular group of men shared other feelings too, feelings of guilt and shame, and most of all, an intense desire to prove themselves just as loyal as any other Americans. They were the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, made up of Japanese Americans from Hawaii and from internment camps on the mainland who would etch their names in history as, per capita, the most decorated unit in U.S. military history. . . .”
• “Dining While Black: Race and the Philly Food Scene” by Ernest Owens of Philadelphia magazine is among the winners of 2018 Sigma Delta Chi Awards announced April 25. The story won in the “Magazine Writing (Regional/Local Circulation)” category.
• In Mobile, Ala., “Longtime News 5 anchor Mel Showers will be retiring from regularly scheduled newscasts next month, after almost 50 years at WKRG-TV,” the station reported April 25, updated Tuesday. “A Mobile native, Showers began working at WKRG part time in 1969. He became a full-time employee in March 1970, working as a booth announcer, providing live station identification and reading live commercials. In 1974, Showers became a reporter for Newscenter 5. Among the major stories he covered were Hurricane Frederic in 1979 and the KKK lynching of Michael Donald in Mobile in 1981. . . .”
• Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh resigned Thursday, apologizing for the harm she has caused to the city’s image amid a growing scandal over her sales of a self-published children’s book series,” Ian Duncan, Jean Marbella and Luke Broadwater reported Thursday for the Baltimore Sun. They also wrote, “Pugh, once seen as a more ethical option in a city with a history of wrongdoing by politicians, was overtaken ultimately by the public outcry over hundreds of thousands of dollars in deals for her ‘Healthy Holly’ books. They were revealed in a series of articles in The Baltimore Sun that began March 13. . . .”
• “When the radio reached Latin American homes in the first half of the 20th century, families and neighbors gathered around the device that brought stories from around the world in sound waves,” Carolina de Assis reported April 24 for the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas. “Almost 100 years later, a podcast is updating the practice of collective listening to bring Latin America closer to its stories and foster ties among its listeners. They are the Clubes de Escucha (Listening Clubs) of Radio Ambulante, a podcast of stories about Latin Americans and Latinos in the U.S. that was launched by Colombian Carolina Guerrero and Peruvian Daniel Alarcón in 2012, and that since 2016 has been part of the U.S. public radio network NPR. . . .”
• In the Twin Cities, “FOX 9 announced Thursday that Bisi Onile-Ere has been promoted to early evening anchor,” Kathy Berdan reported Thursday for the Pioneer Press in St. Paul, Minn. “According to a news release, starting Monday, she will co-anchor the half-hour ‘FOX 9 News at 6:30 p.m.’ and the hour-long ‘FOX 9+ News at 7 p.m.’ with Tim Blotz. . . .”
• Bankole Thompson, twice-a-week opinion columnist at the Detroit News, is leaving his “Redline” daily mid-day talk show (Facebook video) on WFDF-AM “after three years to do something different and more robust,” Thompson messaged Journal-isms. “I’m also editor-in-chief of The PuLSE Institute, Detroit’s anti-poverty think tank. The move doesn’t affect these two roles I have.”
• Nielsen has inaugurated a “same-sex spouse or partner household rating, a new statistic that, for the first time, provides a snapshot into the viewing habits of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people,” John Koblin reported Wednesday for the New York Times. The move “could provide an additional data point to help keep a show on the air. It could also open up a wellspring of information for advertisers that can use it to tailor pitches to viewers most likely to be watching a particular show. . . .”
• “It seems such a minor change, just two words added to a sign: Fort Snelling at Bdote,” the Star Tribune in Minneapolis editorialized Tuesday. “But those two words are heavy with meaning, a long-overdue recognition that the Fort Snelling military installation sits at a place the Dakota called Bdote, the confluence of two rivers but also a spiritual origin place for the Dakota. That simple move now may cost the Minnesota Historical Society nearly 20% of its budget, a devastating cut meant to penalize the society for having the temerity to acknowledge that the full history of Minnesota predates the arrival of white immigrants. . . .”
• “Univision News Anchor Jorge Ramos offered an unexpected testimonial Monday as he took the stage [to] discuss the Spanish-language network’s deepening collaboration with Twitter,” Dawn Chmielewski wrote Monday for Forbes. ” ‘Twitter literally saved me,’ Ramos said. “The Emmy Award-winning journalist had traveled to Caracas to interview Nicolás Maduro. Ramos said the Venezuelan president abruptly terminated the interview, ordered the cameras and other equipment confiscated and had Ramos detained. ‘Before they took us, we contacted our boss in Miami,’ Ramos said. ‘Our boss started a Twitter storm. Everybody in the world knew that we had been detained. Let me tell you something. It worked.’ As he was being jailed, Ramos asked the government agents to check social media. A few moments later, he was released. . . .”
• The William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Kansas is seeking applicants for the Knight Chair in Audience and Community Engagement for News, an endowed chair carrying the title of full Professor of the Practice.
• “Veteran tv producer Lemuel Plummer will look to reach faith-based African American viewers with a new streaming service set to launch in third quarter 2019,” R. Thomas Umstead reported Wednesday for Multichannel News. “The service, Black Box Faith, will feature hundreds of thousands of hours of sermons and other religious-themed content currently archived by churches and pastors, according to service officials. . . .”
• “Blayne Alexander is joining NBC News in a full-time capacity as a correspondent based in Atlanta, reporting across all NBC News and MSNBC platforms,” A.J. Katz reported April 24 for TVNewser. “Alexander heads to the national network level from NBC News Channel, NBC News’ video and feed service, where she had been working as a Washington D.C. correspondent since February 2017. . . .”

• “The beginnings of Felipe López’s basketball career defied all expectations,” Latino Rebels reported April 26. “Once hailed as the ‘Dominican Michael Jordan,‘ even appearing on the cover of Sports Illustrated in 1994, López became the top high school basketball player in the nation. And now, ESPN’s 30 For 30 series is poised to tell his story in the documentary The Dominican Dream. . . . The Dominican Dream is described as a portrait of Dominican immigrants of New York in the 1980s and 1990s — seen through [the] eyes of López. . . . The documentary, set to premiere on April 27 at the Tribeca Film Festival before airing on ESPN, will show how López would ‘rise unimaginably high, then crash and burn, only to rise again.’ . . .”
• “There are dozens of travel shows that give viewers the honeymoon depictions of their favorite destinations,” Travel Noire reported Saturday. “While the shows may highlight the areas that appeal to the general tourist, they don’t necessarily show the authenticity of a destination. Many Caribbean destinations have an appeal to them that certain shows aren’t willing to explore. Tom Jacobs, a long time producer, is looking to change that. He, along with a team of professionals scattered across several countries, have come together to produce one of the few Black-produced Caribbean travel shows, ‘Secrets of the Caribbean.’ . . .”
• “Higher Ground Productions, Barack Obama and Michelle Obama’s production company in partnership with Netflix, has unveiled an initial slate of projects that include adaptations of Michael Lewis’ ‘The Fifth Risk,’ a Frederick Douglass biopic and a period drama set in the fashion world penned by Callie Khouri,” Rachel Yang reported Tuesday for Variety. “The content comprises a range of scripted and unscripted projects for a range of audiences, as well as full-length features and documentaries. Priya Swaminathan and Tonia Davis, the co-heads of the organization, revealed the slate on Tuesday. . . .”

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