Maynard Institute archives

Natives Say White House Shut Them Out

by richard0469

First lady Michelle Obama wears a homemade shawl she received from Nedra Darling, director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs Public Information Office, front right, during a visit to the Interior Department Monday. Also flanking Obama is Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. Native journalists were not present to witness the visit. (Credit: Tami Heilemann, Interior Department-National Business Center)

Access Denied to "Big News for Indian Country"

"Many tribal and national American Indian media outlets knew beforehand that first lady Michelle Obama would be making a Feb. 9 visit to the Department of the Interior. But, due to roadblocks set up by the White House, Native media were shut out at an event, during which Obama would reveal big news for Indian country," Rob Capriccioso reported Friday for Indian Country Today.

"Several mainstream outlets carried the headline Obama announced that day, that the president plans to soon appoint a senior policy advisor to his White House staff to work with tribes and the federal government on issues such as sovereignty, health care and education. The Native media had been reporting on President Obama’s pledge since he first made it months ago during his campaign.

"The information was received by the White House pool reporters who are charged with following the happenings of the presidential administration each day. Members of this elite pool, as well as members of the White House press staff, are nearly all white. The lack of diversity on both sides is being criticized by minority journalists and organizations that represent them. There are no known Native reporters, nor Native news outlets, represented in the bunch."

Neither the first lady’s press secretary, Katie McCormick Lelyveld, nor her deputy, Semonti Mustaphi, responded to an inquiry from Journal-isms, but Indian Country Today quoted Mustaphi saying that organizers decided to "use the traditional set of pool reporters."

[The Web site indianz.com said it was invited by the Office of the First Lady to cover the event.] 

"Indian media have long been denied access when attempting to cover federal government events," said Indian Country Today, which accompanied its news story with an editorial.

"The stringent rules governing who can participate in the White House Press Corps effectively eliminate the Native media, which generally are owned or largely supported by tribal government," the editorial said. "Journalists, then, must rely on mainstream sources to gather information about news relevant to Indian country. Often this results in a lack of nuance or understanding about Indian sovereignty or culture, shortchanging Native peoples as well as American society."

The story said several tribal papers could not get press access to Obama’s swearing-in ceremony on Inauguration Day.

"It’s too bad," said Mark Trahant, editorial page editor of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and board chairman of the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education. "This was a great story. It would have been ideal for this administration to let Indian country journalists report directly for the people back home. I hope attention on this issue brings about a long overdue change," said Trahant, a member of the Shoshone-Bannock tribe.

"If an administration event involves Natives and the rules prevent Native press coverage, make an exception to the rules," added Rob Schmidt, an analyst of Native media and an editor at PECHANGA.net. "Better yet, change the rules," he was quoted as saying.

Obama Signs Bill Delaying Digital TV Transition

President Obama signed legislation Wednesday officially moving the digital TV transition date to June 12. Obama pushed for a delay, arguing that too many Americans weren’t ready for the original Feb. 17 deadline, Katy Bachman reported¬†for MediaWeek.

As of Feb. 1, 5.1 percent of American homes were unprepared for the switch, the Nielsen research company has said.

Last week, reported Adrianne Kroepsch of Congressional Quarterly, "California Democrat Maxine Waters said proceeding with the transition this month would cause ‘all hell to break loose’ in her south-central Los Angeles district, which is one of the most unprepared in the country, with 7,502 households waiting for converter box vouchers, according to Commerce Department statistics.

"The digital transition will have the greatest impact on minority, low-income and elderly consumers, as those demographic groups are more likely to depend on over-the-air broadcasting for TV service and own analog sets."

Blogosphere Responds to Flap Over Juan Williams

TReaction was negative to Juan Williams' comments on 'The O'Reilly Factor'he blogosphere leaped on the news, disclosed Thursday, that National Public Radio had asked commentator Juan Williams to request that Fox News Channel not identify Williams by his other place of employment, NPR, when he appears on Fox’s "The O’Reilly Factor."

Conservatives seemed the most irate. "If NPR were not government-funded, this would hardly be alarming ‚Äî just another liberal media organization unable to tolerate any criticism of Barack and Michelle Obama," Michael Goldfarb wrote on his blog for the Weekly Standard. The entry was headlined, "National Public Censorship." "But a government-funded media organization can’t censor its own contributors when they are on another network and expect no complaint from those taxpayers who haven’t yet pledged allegiance to Barack Obama."

On the Bill O’Reilly show on Jan. 26, Williams said of the first lady, "She’s got this Stokely Carmichael-in-a-designer-dress thing going. If she starts talking . . . her instinct is to start with this blame America, you know, I’m the victim. If that stuff starts to coming out, people will go bananas and she’ll go from being the new Jackie O. to being something of an albatross."

Williams later told NPR’s ombudsman, Alicia Shepard, "I regret that in the fast-paced, argumentative format my tone and tenor seems to have led people to see me as attacking instead of explaining my informed point of view," she disclosed¬†on Thursday.

"When Williams was speaking of Mrs. Obama as a potential liability, he told me, he was referencing pieces in The Atlantic¬†and Politico. A Politico article listed Mrs. Obama as one ‘Dem’ her husband should watch out for. ‘She’s glamorous, she’s on message, she’s the nation’s favorite mom ‚Äî and now she has nowhere to go but down,’ said the article," Shepard wrote.

Ta-Nehisi Coates, author of the Atlantic piece, wrote Thursday on his own blog, "I’ve spent some time with that Atlantic profile (That Tanesha Coates girl, she sho can write!) and I’m not sure how anyone would read it and conclude that Michelle Obama is either Stokely Carmichael in a dress, or someone who’s likely to blame America first. But that’s just me. I’ve been wrong before."

Other readers posted comments under Shepard’s piece, on Think Progress, the National Review, politico.com, theRoot.com and elsewhere.

Meanwhile, Williams appeared in his analyst role on "The Diane Rehm Show" on Washington’s WAMU-FM, which is transmitted via National Public Radio, and a Fox spokesman told Journal-isms that its agreement not to identify Williams with NPR applied only to NPR’s request concerning "The O’Reilly Show." Williams also appears on other Fox shows, such as "Fox News Sunday."

Ebony’s Inauguration Issue Sets Sales Record

January issue sales topped 400,000Ebony magazine’s January issue, featuring President Obama, reached the highest sales in the magazine’s history, Johnson Publishing Co. announced this week.¬†

"With sales topping 400,000, Ebony magazine has proven that timing is everything," the company said.

The issue featured Obama’s first print interview and photo shoot after his Nov. 4 victory and served as the centerpiece of the "collector’s edition," geared toward the inauguration.

"Corky" Trinidad Dies, Pioneer Asian Cartoonist

"The Honolulu Star-Bulletin‚Äôs ‘Corky’ Trinidad, whose editorial cartoons for 40 years recorded life and lampooned politics in Hawaii and the world, died at 2 a.m. today of complications from pancreatic cancer. He was 69," the Star-Bulletin reported on Friday.¬†

Francisco Flores Trinidad Jr. was the first Asian American to be an editorial cartoonist at a U.S. daily newspaper, the Honolulu Advertiser said on Saturday. He was also the first Asian editorial cartoonist to be syndicated in the United States, appearing in publications as diverse as the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Time, Newsweek, Punch of London, the International Herald Tribune in Paris, Politiken in Sweden, Buenos Aires Herald, Philippines Daily Journal and Manila Chronicle, the Star-Bulletin said.

"Any Hawaii cartoonist works in Corky’s shadow; he’s the ultimate local cartoonist,” said cartoonist Daryl Cagle, who syndicates Trinidad’s work, the Star-Bulletin reported. "Most of us marvel at how Corky is so prolific, drawing a color cartoon for the front page and a black-and-white one for the editorial page — every day! It’s the feat of a super-cartoonist. Even with that crazy output, Corky keeps his quality up and is one of the best cartoonists anywhere.”

Trinidad was one of the last two cartoonists whose work appeared on the news pages of a daily newspaper, as opposed to only the editorial page, Cagle said. The other, Brian Duffy of the Des Moines Register, was recently laid off, he said.

A native of the Philippines, Trinidad "really had to leave . . . because of harassment by Ferdinand Marcos," said Carl Zimmerman, former Star-Bulletin editorial writer. The Philippines president, who would declare martial law in 1972, did not like the criticism. “If he had stayed, he’d have wound up in prison because of his cartoons,” Zimmerman said in the Star-Bulletin.

Antonio Contreras, a Fulbright scholar at the University of Hawaii and a political science professor at Manila’s De La Salle University, said Trinidad wielded his greatest influence when Marcos lived in exile in Hawaii from 1986 until his death in 1989.

"He reminded people of what kind of person (Marcos) was, that the struggle was not yet finished and that he needed to be held accountable for the things he had done," Contrereas told the Honolulu Advertiser.

Trinidad was "one of a rare breed of artists who was able to combine beautifully executed illustrations with political bite," Ellen Endo, national executive director of the Asian American Journalists Association, said. [Added Feb. 14]

Amid Cutbacks, Co-Worker Couples at Higher Risk

As Gannett News Service reorganized and Bloomberg implemented more layoffs, the Associated Press reported¬†that "couples who are co-workers are increasingly vulnerable to losing their families’ twin sources of income at once. The lack of variety in job skills can also make it difficult to bounce back, especially in a struggling industry."

The good news is that "Christoph Pleitgen, a senior Reuters executive, says the big newswires have been staffing up in the past year," the Economist reported on Thursday.

"The Journal’s owner, News Corp, announced job cuts at the newspaper earlier this month, but said that the Dow Jones newswire was adding journalists at its bureaus, especially in India.

"Likewise, Bloomberg’s recent announcement of around 190 job cuts at a foreign-language television venture got more attention than its promise to create 1,000 jobs elsewhere, including in its news bureaus.

"And CNN, a television-news network, plans to set up a new international agency to rival AP and Reuters."

Meanwhile, at the Gannett Co., Tara Connell, vice president for communications, told employees on Monday, "We have completed a restructuring of the Gannett News Service and have moved it under the ContentOne umbrella, where it will help form the foundation of this new cross-divisional enterprise. This restructuring included a voluntary severance of 22 GNS staffers.

"As a result, some services currently offered by GNS will be phased out over the next few weeks. We believe the services that are going away are ones that have been made unnecessary by new technology or are no longer relevant to our customers."

Among those accepting the voluntary severance is Ellyn Ferguson, a black journalist who covers Washington for 10 Gannett newspapers in Wisconsin. Ferguson, 52, told Journal-isms she did not know what she’d like to do next. She has been with Gannett for 21 years and was at the Gannett News Service bureau since 1989.

Bloomberg LP announced last week it would cut about 100 jobs nationwide in its radio and television divisions, most based in New York, the NY1 cable network reported. "A spokeswoman says the cuts are not related to the recession and that the company plans to hire 1,000 new workers this year — many of them in New York," it said.

The MediaBistro site published Thursday what it called "The Complete Bloomberg Layoffs List."

In her story on couples, Melissa Nelson wrote, "It was a shared love of journalism that helped spark romance between Pam Podger and John Cramer.

"When the Roanoke Times in Virginia began cutting costs and offering early retirements last year, the couple jumped ship and thought they had found safe harbor at The Missoulian, a 40,000-circulation newspaper in Missoula, Mont.

"Less than 10 months later, the publisher laid them off, unsettling the new life they had begun with their two toddlers.

"’Do I wish one of us had a sudden yen to go into medicine, law, business? Sure, some days,’ Podger said.

"Podger now freelances and teaches part time, while her husband has a part-time job at a smaller paper owned by the same publisher.

"Such double layoffs would have been extremely rare just a couple of generations ago." 

Columns End for Rhonda Chriss Lokeman, David Roybal

Ex-columnists: Rhonda Chriss Lokeman, David RoybalThe columns of two more journalists of color — Rhonda Chriss Lokeman of Creators Syndicate, longtime staffer at the Kansas City Star, and David Roybal of the Albuquerque (N.M.) Journal — have ended.

The editor of Creators Syndicate said Lokeman decided to end the column on her own, while Roybal told Journal-isms his column, written under contract, was cut by the Albuquerque newspaper as 2008 became 2009.

"On Jan. 7, 2009, Rhonda Chriss Lokeman told Creators Syndicate that she decided to retire her column to pursue other interests," David Yontz, the syndicate editor, told Journal-isms via e-mail on Friday. "Her column was in more than a dozen papers. Creators was confident the list would grow over time. It takes much longer than it did in the past for a new syndicated column to break out. Rick Newcombe, president of Creators Syndicate, said he remembers that Molly Ivins was a tough sell initially, and ‘Peanuts’ had only six papers after its first year. Lokeman’s column is missed greatly by Creators Syndicate, and Creators wishes her the best of luck in her future endeavors."

Lokeman did not respond to a request for comment. She recalled for Journal-isms in December that, "After 28 years with The Star, I resigned in April after my husband," Mark Zieman, "was promoted from editor to publisher. I did so as a matter of ethics. The announcement of my resignation was posted on the board in the Star newsroom which I left without fanfare.

"I had been a nationally syndicated columnist with Creators and had been writing two columns weekly (locally for The Star and nationally for Creators).

"Leaving The Star left me to write exclusively for Creators which picked me up in 2006 for syndication and released my column in 2007 shortly after Molly Ivins died."

The Star continued to run Lokeman’s columns, however, because she was writing for Creators Syndicate, not the Kansas City paper.

Lokeman was responding then at Journal-isms’ request to allegations from Kevin Gregory, a former Sacramento Bee employee who writes a blog called "cancelthebee" or alternatively, McClatchy Watch, that she enjoyed "a sweetheart deal" with the Star because her husband was publisher.

Roybal wrote his Albuquerque column for four years after having been a speechwriter for New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson. Before that, he was bureau chief, editorial page editor, state Capitol bureau chief and columnist for the Santa Fe New Mexican. From 1983 to 1985, he was executive assistant to Gov. Toney Anaya.

Richardson’s run for the Democratic presidential nomination and his brief post-election status as Commerce secretary prospect provided additional grist for Roybal’s column. "Is the well-traveled and very capable Richardson scandal prone? Roybal asked days before Richardson withdrew because of investigations into his "lucrative awards to friends and contributors during his tenure as governor."

Now, Roybal said, he writes for Hispanic Business magazine and is promoting his first book, a biography, "Taking On Giants, Fabian Chavez Jr. and New Mexico Politics." "I used the life of a prominent state political figure to explore New Mexico politics of the past 50 years," he said. "I’m also in talks with Edward Romero, U.S. ambassador to Spain during the Clinton administration, for a possible new book."

Vibe Reducing Frequency but Avoiding Layoffs

"Vibe magazine is cutting its paid circulation 25%, reducing its frequency to 10 issues a year from 12, and merging its print and digital editorial operations, all in the magazine industry’s latest response to the twin attacks by recession and new media," Nat Ives reported¬†Wednesday for Advertising Age.

"In addition to internal restructuring, Vibe is avoiding layoffs by adopting a four-day workweek accompanied by 10% to 15% pay cuts for its employees.

"But Vibe is also departing from the standard playbook by introducing a twice-a-year newsstand-only celebrity tabloid. It plans to increase the subscription price for its flagship. And it is avoiding layoffs by adopting a four-day workweek accompanied by 10% to 15% pay cuts for its employees. The new day off, at least to start, will be Friday, though some staffing will be organized to keep the office open five days a week." 

Awards Help NAACP Launch Centennial Year

Michelle Obama and Roland Martin appeared in Image Award winner. (Credit: Parrish Lewis)A TV One interview by Roland Martin of Michelle Obama last August won¬†an NAACP Image Award in Los Angeles on Thursday as the nation’s oldest civil rights organization commemorates its centennial year.

The interview for the cable channel won in the "News/information — series or special" category.

The entertainment-oriented Image Awards honor achievements and performances of people of color in TV, film, music and literature. Former vice president Al Gore and Kenyan activist Wangari Maathai received the Chairman’s Award. Boxing legend Muhammad Ali won the President’s Award.
Hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons was given the Vanguard Award.

Native Writer Offers Alternative View of Lincoln

"Lincoln, in the spirit of empire and colonization, initiated a number of economic policies that ‘reduced’ Indian nations throughout the Great Plains to limited land bases, while simultaneously providing taxpayer subsidies and grants of millions of acres of Indian land for railroads, other corporate interests and homesteaders," Steven Newcomb, an author and indigenous law research coordinator, wrote in Indian Country Today as the nation prepared to commemorate this week’s bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln’s birth.

"Some 65 million buffalo were decimated within 20 years. They were hunted nearly to the point of extinction, partly for food, but primarily as an intentional means of destroying the economic base of the Indian nations of the Great Plains. It was a conscious military effort to starve Indian people into submission," the Jan. 29 piece said.

"The Lincoln presidency serves to emphasize the fact that the United States has been built on billions of acres of Indian land at the cost of lives, languages and cultures, all to the detriment of Indian nations. The Obama presidency presents an opportunity to tell the truth about the history of the United States, not for reasons of recrimination, but as a means of achieving conciliation and healing, and toward the full realization of our fundamental human rights, both individual and collective, including the right of self-determination."

Africans Said to Bear Psychological Scars of Slavery

As columnists continued to find different angles to discuss Black History Month, including debating whether the commemoration should continue, Gregory Rodriguez of the Los Angeles Times put forth perhaps the most unusual one:

"Slavery’s legacy in West Africa: Two scholars find a lasting distrust among people of the region, once the center of the slave trade," it was headlined.

Reporting on a study in West Africa by economists Nathan Nunn and Leonard Wantchekon, Rodriguez wrote:

"Using both contemporary household surveys and historical data on slave shipments, Nunn’s and Wantchekon’s study found that people whose ancestors were heavily threatened by the slave trade a century or more ago still exhibit less trust in neighbors, family members and local authorities today. Combating this low level of trust, the authors argue, is key to the region’s economic development.

"What’s intriguing about their findings is that the mistrust is directed not just at the outsiders who bought and exported slaves. That’s because, by the end of the slave trade, it was not uncommon for individuals to be sold into slavery by friends or family members. The authors suggest that the profound and insidious mistrust this engendered was passed on from generation to generation as a means of protection. Parents would incorporate a distrust of others into the set of values they sought to instill in their offspring. Over time, the response to the trauma of slavery became part of the local culture."

Short Takes

  • Dr. Roger House, a history professor in the journalism department at Emerson College, is one of two black professors who allege they were denied tenure in May because of their race. They are filing complaints against Emerson with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, the college’s Berkeley Beacon reported¬†on Thursday. The two "were the only black faculty members among five up for tenure, and they were the only ones denied, according to several school officials who were involved in the decision. They will be forced to leave the college at the end of the semester."
  • The Detroit Free Press has won the Worth Bingham Prize for Investigative Journalism for its stories last year on the text message scandal involving then-Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, the paper reported on Friday. "The prize, awarded to staff writers Jim Schaefer, M.L. Elrick and a team of reporters edited by David Zeman, assistant managing editor for investigations, was announced Friday by the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University." The $20,000 award is the fourth national honor the paper has won for its Kilpatrick coverage, the paper said.
  • RiseUp, a Kansas City-based magazine about race relations that briefly RiseUp still maintains a Web siteran as an insert in several major newspapers before suspending publication, is being sued by the Los Angeles Newspaper Group, owner of the Los Angeles Daily News and other West Coast newspapers, Dan Margolies reported Friday in the Kansas City Star. The suit "alleges that RiseUp owed Los Angeles Newspaper Group $93,306 for unspecified goods and services. RiseUp was founded by Kansas City businesswoman and former mayoral candidate Janice Ellis, who had said the magazine’s mission was to provide a sustained conversation about race, religion and ethnicity."¬†

  • "High-profile Democrats continue to stir the pot on the issue of re-imposing the fairness doctrine," John Eggerton reported¬†Friday in Broadcasting & Cable. "The latest was former President Bill Clinton, who said on The Mario Solis Marich radio show that something needed to be done to balance broadcasting. Clinton cited the ‘blatant drumbeat’ against the stimulus program from conservative talk radio, saying it doesn’t reflect economic reality. The doctrine required broadcasters to seek out opposing viewpoints on issues of public importance. The FCC scrapped it, concluding it was an unconstitutional infringement on speech."
  • Kevin Merida, the newly named assistant managing editor for national news at the Washington Post, says of his new responsibilities, "We’re witnessing the rebirth of the country. We have to ask ourselves, ‘What did we produce to help people understand the moment of great change?’ No one knows what the country is going to look like. Merida, a black journalist and 1979 graduate of the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education’s Summer Program for Minority Journalists, spoke with Harry Jaffe for an article in Washingtonian magazine’s February issue.
  • Chris Brown’s older sister and his wardrobe stylist are among a handful of people vouching for the singer’s character in the wake of allegations that he battered his girlfriend, Rihanna, following a pre-Grammy event, according¬†to EURWeb.com, which cited interviews Brown supporters gave to People.com, Extra and Vibe. Brown issued his own statement on Sunday. [Updated Feb. 15.]
  • The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation will receive the First Amendment Award for its ongoing support of Sunshine Week and open government initiatives, the Radio and Television News Directors Foundation announced on Thursday. Knight Foundation President and CEO Alberto Ibarg?ºen is to accept at the RTNDF First Amendment Awards Dinner on March 12 in Washington.
  • Exiled Cuban journalist Alejandro Gonzalez Raga spoke to reporters in Madrid on Monday as part of the Committee to Protect Journalists’ latest issue of "Attacks on the Press." "He talked about the brutality of life in a Cuban prison, the torture he and other journalists who were jailed for their writing endured," CPJ said, transmitting¬†his remarks in Spanish. Meanwhile, Carlos Lauria, CPJ’s Americas senior program coordinator, and board member Clarence Page, Chicago Tribune columnist, presented¬†the book to nearly 60 journalists in Tijuana, Mexico, on Tuesday.
  • Weathercaster Nilda Rosario of New York’s Univision station, WXTV-TV, was to undergo a mammogram Friday and share the experience with viewers as part of the station’s annual breast cancer screening drive, Richard Huff reported¬†Friday in the New York Daily News. "Rosario, 35, said she’s taking part to let viewers know that she, like many others, has had a breast-cancer scare and been through the medical system."
  • Rikki Cheese, "who for years has been a famous face among broadcast journalists in Las Vegas (Whoopi Goldberg helped make her famous by repeatedly cracking up at her name in a promo spot a few years ago) was cited for blowing higher than a .08, the legal blood-alcohol level for driving under the influence," John Katsilometes reported¬†Thursday in the Las Vegas Sun. "The weekend incident has not cost Cheese her job, though." Katsilometes contrasted that outcome with that of co-worker Ron Futrell, who was in a car accident last year. He "was let go by Channel 13 after 25 years as a sports reporter and news anchor for conduct unbecoming the station, or some similarly haughty explanation," though all charges against him were dropped, Katsilometes said.

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