Did Baltimore Sun Cross Ethical Line?
A lawsuit filed on behalf of ailing former Rep. Parren J. Mitchell, D-Md., now 80, seeks $251 million in damages from the Baltimore Sun and two reporters who interviewed him in his nursing home for a story about the handling of his finances by a nephew. The lawsuit charges trespassing and invasion of privacy, and columnist Wiley A. Hall, III,, who is also executive editor of the Afro-American newspapers in Baltimore and Washington, says the family members have a point. The Sun disagrees.
The suit alleges that the reporters, Walter F. Roche and Ivan Penn, entered Mitchell’s nursing home room without permission and refused to leave when he asked them to do so.
“First, let’s dispose of the easy stuff,” Hall, a former columnist for the old Evening Sun, writes in the Afro-American: “Baltimore Sun reporters violated both the ethical canons of journalism and the dictates of common decency when they finagled their way into the nursing home room of ailing Parren J. Mitchell on May 29.”
“The reporters allegedly identified themselves to the extraordinarily gullible nursing home staff as ‘visitors’ instead of as journalists. Penn, who is African American, signed the guest register, which might easily create the impression that he was a relative or family friend. Roche, who is White, never signed in at all, leaving the impression, I suppose, that he was Penn’s chauffeur or traveling secretary.”
Mitchell, a former chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus and a member of a family Hall describes as “once regarded as the Black Kennedys,” was the University of Maryland’s first black graduate student, an honor he earned after suing the school to gain admission.
He served in Congress from 1971 to 1986, and his victory made him the first African American since 1898 to win election to Congress from a state below the Mason-Dixon line.
The Sun was investigating reports that Mitchell is teetering perilously on the brink of financial ruin at the hands of his nephew Michael Mitchell, who has power of attorney over Parren Mitchell’s estate. Michael Mitchell, the paper notes, was disbarred after his conviction in 1988 for stealing money from a client, the 3-year-old son of a murder victim.
William K. Marimow, editor of the Sun, said the stories “were accurate, thorough and fair.” “These two reporters, Wally Roche and Ivan Penn, in my opinion, are models of professionalism and integrity,” Marimow said.
Roche and Penn “were simply doing what every professional reporter ought to do, talking to every person who was involved in the story to make sure they had every side to the story,” Marimow said.
Knight Ridder, New York Times Co. on Fortune’s “Best for Minorities” List
“The firms on Fortune’s fifth annual Best Companies for Minorities list aren’t immune to problems currently plaguing corporate America. But despite adversity, these companies have not abandoned their commitment to hiring, promoting, and retaining talented employees of all races,” the magazine says in its July 8 issue. Knight Ridder ranks No. 42 on the magazine’s overall list; the New York Times Co. is the only news media company on its Top 10 lists for individual ethnic groups, ranking No. 9 on the list of best companies for blacks.
NAHJ Urges Networks to End “Glass Ceiling” for Latinos
Reacting to the announcement that Brian Williams would become NBC’s lead anchor after the 2004 presidential election, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists has told the presidents of ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox and PBS that “all of our efforts will be fruitless if the opportunities for Latinos disappear because of a glass ceiling at the highest levels of the profession.” It is a trend that “has to stop,” president Juan Gonzalez said.
The June 26 letter reads: “Recently, NBC announced that Brian Williams will eventually replace Tom Brokaw as the network’s lead anchor. We in the National Association of Hispanic Journalists congratulate Mr. Williams and wish him much success. NBC’s decision, together with the recent appointment of George Stephanopoulos by ABC to host its Sunday morning “This Week” program, however, highlights a persistent and disturbing reality in network news: white male journalists now hold the anchor spots on all evening news programs and on all the Sunday morning network news shows, including CNN, Fox News and PBS.
“We are deeply concerned about the continuing underrepresentation of Hispanics at the network news divisions. Many local television stations (WNBC in New York is just one example) have made considerable progress in diversifying their news staffs over the past few decades, so there are plenty of qualified Hispanic — as well as African-American, Asian-American, Native American and female — journalists to choose from. At the networks, however, the picture is dismal. Hispanics make up less than 1% of on-air talent, and the highest-profile promotions rarely seem to involve those few that are on the air. At NAHJ, we are dedicated to encouraging Latinos to pursue careers in journalism, but all of our efforts will be fruitless if the opportunities for Latinos disappear because of a glass ceiling at the highest levels of the profession.
“The lack of opportunity has a direct impact on the quality of news coverage, as we have documented in NAHJ’s annual ‘Brownout’ report on the portrayal of Latinos in network television news. We are enclosing a copy of our 2001 report with this letter and urge you to review its findings. At a time when network television audiences continue to erode, the U.S. Hispanic population is 35 million strong, disproportionately young, and exploding in size. By 2050, one of every four people in this country will be of Hispanic origin, yet Latinos remain an audience (and market) base poorly served by network news.
“This trend has to stop — for your sake, for our sake, for the viewers’ sake. We urge management at all the networks, including CNN and Fox News, to seriously address issues of diversity at the highest levels of their news divisions. We look forward to discussing any of these matters with you in person and are ready to cooperate with any effort aimed at meaningful change.”
Black British Journalist: “Of Course All White People Are Racist”
Joseph Harker, an editor in the Comment section of the Guardian newspaper in London, says he has been “inundated with e-mails” since his column Wednesday arguing that since “racism is a combination of prejudice and power,” and that since “sadly, prejudice is a deeply ingrained human trait,” all white people are racist.
He told Journal-isms: “90 percent of white respondents have been anti, claiming I’ve no right to describe them as racist, some even calling me a racist for raising the issue. Interestingly, though, almost every single black or Asian reply has been totally positive, saying it’s great that this viewpoint should make it into a national newspaper.”
Harker’s column cited the influence of the news media in making its argument:
“The actions of those in power create a constant drip of negative images which seep into the national consciousness. Why is it that every time a TV news report mentions unemployment, or school exclusions, or crime statistics you are virtually guaranteed to see a black face? Black and Asian people are seen far less often on reports on the health service, for example, where they make up a high proportion of nurses and doctors. Do you question it each time? Has this negative imagery become normalised in your own mind?
“Only last week, a train crash in Tanzania which killed 200 people received the tiniest of mentions in the media. The Times ran a paragraph in its “In Brief” column. What impression does this give about the value of black life?
“But the media is not entirely to blame. It is a chicken-and-egg situation in which editors know that their readers care less for non-white lives – they see the evidence in their sales – and hence devote less time and effort to covering them.”
James Campbell Named Houston Chronicle Reader’s Rep
Houston Chronicle readers “may have noticed a larger-than-usual number of corrections popping up on page A2 every day. Part of that is thanks to the new ombudsman of the paper, James Campbell,” reports the Houston Press.
Campbell, a former reporter who moved to the Chronicle’s editorial board ten years ago, has been named the so-called reader’s representative. It’s a new position and the first visible change to the paper since new editor Jeff Cohen took over in June. Campbell will handle complaints about factual errors, perceived slants in coverage or gripes about things that aren’t being covered.
A small number of journalists of color have held such a position, variously called ombudsman, public editor or reader’s representative. They include Don Wycliff at the Chicago Tribune, John X. Miller at the Detroit Free Press, Karen Hunter at the Hartford Courant and M.L. Lake at the Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk. Those who previously held the job include Shanika Sykes at the Salt Lake Tribune in Utah, Sheila Solomon at the Daily Press in Newport News, Va., and E.R. Shipp and Bob Maynard at the Washington Post.
Investigative Reporter to Edit Ms. Magazine
Ms. Magazine has a new editor-in-chief: Tracy Wood, a hard hitting investigative reporter who has carved a name for herself at several leading southern California newspapers, the New York Post reports. Wood cut her teeth at the Los Angeles Times in the late ’80s and early ’90s and then moved to the Orange County Register.
She’ll be charged with relaunching the 30-year-old magazine for the new ownership, the not-for-profit Feminist Majority Foundation.
Judge Orders Student Columnist Reinstated to Med School
A Lubbock, Texas, judge has ordered Texas Tech University to reinstate a medical school student who was expelled after he wrote a school newspaper column describing an autopsy, the Associated Press reports.
Sandeep Rao, 23, sued the school in May for violation of his First Amendment right of freedom of speech. He also will be able to make up exams he was not allowed to take in May, a month after his expulsion. Rao, a former opinions editor at the University Daily, said he wrote the Jan. 24 column to share his experience of the autopsy and to compare it to others he’s had as a medical student. Medical school officials said Rao violated a confidentiality agreement he signed before the autopsy, which barred him from divulging the person’s name, nature of diagnosis and other details.
