Former Consumer Reporter Wins Election in Birmingham
Sheila Smoot, who as a Birmingham, Ala., television reporter was a board member of the National Association of Black Journalists, won a seat on the Jefferson County, Ala., Commission after beating incumbent Steve Small in Tuesday’s runoff elections, according to unofficial results.
Smoot got 9,851 votes, or 58.3 percent, compared with 7,059 votes cast for Small, who got 41.7 percent, reports the Birmingham News.
Smoot, known for her reports championing disgruntled consumers, stood amid jubilant supporters in her headquarters, a west Birmingham car lot that closed after she reported on its business practices.
“This is a new changing of the guard, that started at the city level and now it’s started at the county level. And it’s not going to stop here,” she said. Smoot was replaced in her NABJ board position in April after she left WBRC-TV, then decided to run for political office.
Fox’s Karen Gibbs to Co-Host Revamped “Wall Street Week”
PBS finally unveils the revamped “Wall Street Week” Friday, reports the Los Angeles Times, introducing the new anchors and look that have been in the works since founding host Louis Rukeyser decamped for CNBC in April, after a much-publicized dispute over what was to be his diminished role led to his firing.
The hosts stepping into the 69-year-old Rukeyser’s role are Karen Gibbs, 50, most recently a business correspondent and substitute anchor for Fox News Channel; and Geoff Colvin, 48, editorial director for Fortune, who also has a daily report on CBS Radio. Before Fox, Gibbs was a CNBC anchor, and she also worked as a vice president and senior futures strategist at Dean Witter Reynolds.
Connie Chung Holds Her Own in Prime Time
Connie Chung made her much-anticipated CNN debut Monday night to ratings that matched the news network’s prime time average last week, reports Broadcasting and Cable.
The New York Post’s Adam Buckman had some words of advice:
“Goodnight, Maury and Matthew?
“When Connie Chung said those words at the conclusion of her first show on CNN last night, the sound of my groaning could be heard a block away.
“Rule No. 1: Anchorwomen should not use their national news programs to bid “night night” to their husbands and young children.
“Such asides are simply too self-referential. And for that matter, so are two-minute commentaries in which the anchorwoman makes meaningless promises to the viewers who have tuned in for her new show.”
In the New York Observer, Jason Gay said “‘Connie Chung Tonight’ doesn’t suit Ms. Chung’s own style. As a newsperson, she’s always been polite and approachable; Ms. Chung can be forceful, but she’s hardly what you’d call brash. The gimmickry of Connie Chung Tonight threatens to undercut Ms. Chung’s principal asset, which is the up-close, newsy, intimate interview.”
But in the Washington Post, Tom Shales wrote that “Connie Chung has earned the right to do pretty much whatever she wants, and ‘Connie Chung Tonight’ made a relatively smooth debut. . . . Television is better with her than without her.”
Ethnic Media Fill the Void, Especially After 9/11
The stories were disturbing even by Sept. 11 standards. A Bangladeshi woman mourning her husband at Ground Zero was taunted by a group of gawkers.
A Pakistani man boarding a commercial plane was asked to leave because his appearance made others uncomfortable.
Initially overlooked by mainstream media, these stories, among many others, found their way into the foreign-language media across New York City, suggestive of the key role that the ethnic media play in neighborhoods across New York City, writes Newsday.
Debate at FCC Hearing Over EEO Rules for Broadcasters
Broadcasting companies need to hire more minority and female employees, industry and government figures said Monday, even as differences arose on how to boost such hiring, the Associated Press reports.
Broadcasting and Cable notes that broadcasters continue to fight FCC proposals that would require stations to keep records of the demographic makeup of their job applicants. National Urban League president Hugh Price said his years as a station executive taught him that this is a word-of-mouth industry. Managers tend to hire “known quantities,” he said, and they are resistant to hiring through broad outreach programs. Joan Gerberding, president of American Women in Radio & Television, added that the “perpetual glass ceiling has had too few cracks.”
Soft Climate, Sharp Contrasts at NAJA Convention
For columnist Dorreen Yellow Bird of the Grand Forks (N.D.) Herald, the Native American Journalists Association convention in San Diego left impressions of “pigeons everywhere” and a sharp contrast between the people in the United States and those on the other side of the border in Mexico.
Columnists Group Gives Leonard Pitts a Consolation Prize
Unhappy that syndicated Miami Herald columnist Leonard Pitts, Jr. didn’t win the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for commentary, the National Society of Newspapers Columnists unanimously voted to start a “Columnist of the Year” award — and immediately made Pitts the first recipient, says Editor & Publisher.
The NSNC presented the honor to Pitts for “rallying the nation’s sentiment with your stunning post-Sept. 11 column.” After his piece ran, readers deluged Pitts with more than 26,000 e-mails, and posted the column on the Internet, chain-letter style.
Word by word, one outlet after another, Tavis Smiley is building an empire of talk, writes the Associated Press.
He’s talking on radio: “The Tavis Smiley Show” launched in January on National Public Radio and is heard on a growing number of stations. He’s a regular on “The Tom Joyner Morning Show” and has his own “The Smiley Report,” both nationally syndicated.
He’s talking on television: Smiley appears regularly on CNN’s “Inside Politics” and “TalkBack Live” and on ABC’s “Primetime Thursday” and “Good Morning America.” He has a deal with Disney for a syndicated talk show.
He’s talking to readers: He’s written and edited books, including “How to Make Black America Better,” and publishes “The Smiley Report,” a quarterly magazine.
Through his nonprofit Tavis Smiley Foundation, which includes a Web site, conferences and newsletter, he’s talking to young people.
Geraldo Rivera Returns to Network TV on Fox Magazine
Maverick journalist Geraldo Rivera will return to network TV next month as an investigative reporter for a nine-week news magazine series produced for the Fox Broadcasting Co., reports Reuters.
San Antonio Paper Reports World Cup Results in Spanish
It fills only one page in the sports section — and not even the front one. But a daily Spanish-language report about the World Cup series is kicking up a small fuss at the San Antonio Express-News, reports Editor & Publisher.
Coverage of Missing-Girls Stories Is News in Singapore
“Media critics say it is because [Elizabeth Smart] is a pretty white girl,” writes the Straits Times. “They contrast the coverage of her case with that of Alexis Patterson who disappeared while on her way to school. She has garnered hardly any TV coverage and only a fraction of newspaper stories.”
“Alexis’ case received about 50 stories in print compared to over 400 on Elizabeth, according to a Nexis newspaper keyword search.
“Alexis, from Wisconsin, is a seven-year-old black girl.
“Her family did not provide home videos of her, making it even less likely that television news would pick up the story.” Condace Pressley, president of the National Association of Black Journalists, defends coverage of the Smart case, calling it a gripping story that “touches a majority of our audience.”
“We Mustn’t Let Any Little Girls Get Lost”
Meanwhile, Detroit Free Press columnist Rochelle Riley writes that “I’m less interested in what pundits feel than how the different coverage makes little black girls feel, little girls like my daughter, little black girls like the one in me. . . . It was hard to hear about either case. As a mother, the thought of someone snatching anyone’s child causes my heart to skip.”
