Press Club Sticks by “Coloring the News”
The National Press Club is sticking by its decision to give its press criticism book award to William McGowan‘s “Coloring the News: How Crusading for Diversity Has Corrupted American Journalism,” despite criticisms of the book from the National Association of Black Journalists and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.
In a letter to the NABJ Media Monitoring Committee and to NAHJ President Juan Gonzalez, Press Club Board Chairman Jonathan D. Salant acknowledged that “some members found the level of scholarship and research severely lacking and the book seriously marred by factual errors,” but added that “Others have defended the book, and point to its strong argument against ‘political correctness’ as a governing principle in the newsroom. Still others find serious fault with the case the author makes, but believe the award has merit because Mr. McGowan has prompted a self-examination and reaffirmation by some news organizations historically committed to diversity,” he said.
The board passed a separate resolution reaffirming its commitment to diversity, and agreed to a challenge from NAHJ to host a debate on the book, with McGowan as one of the participants.
“This award in no way should be seen as an attack on what we share with you as a core value; that is, that increasing diversity in newsrooms and news management is a critical need,” Salant wrote. The NABJ Media Monitoring Committee, chaired by this columnist, had asked the board to reconsider its decision, and NAHJ followed with criticism of the book and a call for the debate, though not for the Press Club to reconsider the award. Text of the Press Club statement at the end of today’s column.
Columnist Jarrett to Lead Chicago’s Black Journalists
Vernon Jarrett , a founder of both the National Association of Black Journalists and the Chicago Association of Black Journalists, was elected Wednesday to head the Chicago organization, recently decertified by the national group after election irregularities were reported.
Jarrett, 81, who has been a columnist for the Chicago Defender, Chicago Tribune and the Sun-Times, vowed to restore integrity and vitality to CABJ. “This is the only organized body representing African-American journalists in Chicago,” said Jarrett, “and it needs to once again speak with a strong voice on behalf of the interests of black journalists and the African-American community.” Jarrett, an early NABJ president, is also founder of the NAACP’s ACT-SO (Afro-Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics) program. More than 1,000 students took part in the 25th Anniversary ACT-SO competitions this year.
Also elected were Brenda Butler (Chicago Tribune), vice-president/print; Art Norman (NBC5), vice-president/broadcast; Marsha Eaglin (CBS News), secretary; and Valarie West (Fox32), treasurer.
Ex-Essence Editor’s Advice Column to be Syndicated
Another advice feature will enter syndication two days after Ann Landers‘ last column runs. On July 29, United Media is launching Harriette Cole‘s “Sense and Sensitivity, ” a thrice-weekly feature that has appeared in the New York Daily News since 2001, Editor & Publisher reports.
Cole, a former editor of Essence magazine, has authored such best-selling books as “Jumping the Broom: The African-American Wedding Planner.” Her United Media feature discusses relationships, etiquette, problems such as depression and abuse, and other topics. “We had been looking at a number of advice columnists, and what immediately impressed us about Harriette is her ability to sympathize with her readers without coddling them,” said United Executive Editor Marianne Goldstein.
‘Report Card’ Scolds Networks on Diversity
For the second year in a row, ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox received lousy grades from a media watchdog group that monitors diversity on network television.
The second annual “report card” was issued in Los Angeles Wednesday by the Asian Pacific American Media Coalition, the National Latino Media Council and American Indians in Film and Television, members of the Multiethnic Media Coalition, the Washington Post reports.
NAHJ Dismayed by RTNDA Newsroom Survey Findings
The National Association of Hispanic Journalists says it is dismayed and alarmed by the apparent reversal in minority employment progress within TV and radio news departments reported in the latest Radio-Television News Directors Association annual survey of employment, released Monday.
“It’s deeply troubling to see this kind of backsliding after years of talk from industry leaders about the importance of diversity and the changing face of America,” said Juan Gonzalez, president of NAHJ and a columnist with New York’s Daily News. “I call on the television and radio industry executives . . . to demonstrate that the gains they made in minority hiring during the past decades were not merely a result of those EEO mandates that the Federal Communications Commission has now eliminated.”
Even these troubling results, Gonzalez said, do not convey the full picture of how far the broadcast industry must still go to achieve a diverse workforce, since the RTNDA survey includes employment data only from local television and radio stations, not from the news divisions of the national television networks. For years, the networks have refused to participate in the RTNDA survey.
“There are approximately 6,000 newsroom jobs at the networks and the cable news stations,” Gonzalez said. “They are among the most important and coveted jobs in television, yet we have no regular public survey similar to those from RTNDA or from the American Society of Newspaper Editors that monitors how well the networks are doing when it comes to diversity. I urge the network news chiefs to change their policies and adopt the same openness about their employment record that the majority of local television and radio stations have been practicing for years.”
Haitian Reporter Freed After Kidnapping, Beating
A journalist known for his investigations of criminal gangs loyal to Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was found tied up, stripped to his underwear and thrown into a mudhole one day after he was kidnapped, the Associated Press reports.
Israel Jacky Cantave, 28, said Wednesday that his abduction – during which he was beaten and warned to stay away from the subject of gangland rivalries – would not deter him from his work. “The kidnapping was a message to all journalists,” Cantave said. “However, I will continue to do my job as before.” At one point, the kidnappers discussed the pros and cons of killing him and a friend, Frantz Ambroise, Cantave said. But hearing radio newscasts about the strong public reaction and rapid mobilization of government and police, the abductors decided to release them.
Prosecutors to Subpoena Sun-Times Reporters Over R. Kelly Tape
Prosecutors plan to subpoena the two Chicago Sun-Times reporters who gave police a 26 minute-39 second videotape allegedly showing R&B recording star R. Kelly having sex in his Chicago home with an underage girl, reports Editor & Publisher.
“They [the reporters] can count on it,” said Lt. Robert J. Hargesheimer, commander of the special investigations unit in the Chicago police department. “It’s important to know who sent the tape. It establishes a chain of evidence.”
New Yorker Promises to Publish More Women
After the MobyLives.com Web site reported that the New Yorker magazine runs a boy’s club that largely excludes women writers, editor David Remnick tells USA Today he’ll change course.
Said Remnick, a former Washington Post writer: “We are publishing a lot of women, some of the best journalists and fiction writers around, but it’s clearly not enough. It will change.”
Copy Editor-Columnist Apologizes for “Roasted Nuts”
Tony Persichilli, who is both a columnist and copy editor at the Trentonian newspaper in New Jersey, apologizes in his column for a headline he wrote on a story about a fire at the Trenton Psychiatric Hospital. The headline was “Roasted Nuts.”
“I was wrong.
“Because, as my management team and the many readers who called, faxed and e-mailed to express their outrage and displeasure pointed out, the headline was inaccurate (no one actually got burned) and insensitive (mental illness is nothing to be made fun of),” writes Persichilli.
Richard C. Birkel, executive director of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill said in a statement Tuesday that, “under the Americans with Disabilities Act and potentially other federal and state laws, the headline provides prima facie evidence of a hostile work environment for people with mental illnesses or their family members.”
Former Dallas TV Host Paula McClure Dies at 40
Paula McClure, an Emmy-winning television personality who founded a popular spa and products line for women, died Wednesday in Arlington, Texas, after battling brain cancer, the Dallas Morning News reports.
Known to Dallas-area residents as a co-host of “Good Morning Texas” on WFAA-TV for nearly three years in the late 1990s, Ms. McClure had a successful broadcasting career at stations across the country.
Ms. McClure, 40, possessed strong entrepreneurial instincts and a lifelong commitment to women’s issues, friends and family said, compelling her to leave the station in 1999 and found the Paula McClure Mood Spa, a popular retreat.
Hawaii TV Journalists Running for Office
In Hawaii, more than a half-dozen former television reporters are running for political office this year, the Honolulu Advertiser reports. Some have already established themselves in local politics, while others are just beginning to make the switch from reporting the news to making it.
Former KHON Channel 2 news executive producer and reporter Barbara Marshall is running for the Honolulu City Council. Former KHNL reporter Glenn Wakai is running for the state House, and former KGMB reporter Jerry Drelling is running for the state Senate. Former CNN and local TV and print journalist Dalton Tanonaka is running for lieutenant governor on the Republican ticket.
PBS Defends HIV-Positive Muppet
PBS, responding to several Republican lawmakers’ concerns, says that it had no intention of introducing an HIV-infected Muppet to American airwaves, the Washington Post reports.
The new Sesame Workshop character is intended for South African audiences only, PBS President Pat Mitchell wrote in a letter to Rep. W.J. “Billy” Tauzin, R-La., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and other members of the panel. “There are no plans to incorporate this character or curriculum into ‘Sesame Street’ on PBS,” Mitchell wrote.
Mitchell explained that Sesame Workshop, an independent organization, developed the new Muppet in concert with South African educators and the U.S. Agency for International Development. The female, HIV-positive Muppet will debut Sept. 30 on “Takalani Sesame,” as the South African version of the show is known.
Univision on the Move in N.Y., L.A., Fresno
Spanish-language UHF-TV station Univision 41 (WXTV, New York) has set yet another ratings record for Spanish-language TV. Shop Talk reports that Univision 41 has scored its highest 11 p.m. news ranking ever, finishing second in New York’s 11 p.m. news race for the first time ever, beating local news on not only WCBS-TV but also Disney-owned WABC-TV.
Meanwhile, Univision Communications will acquire Paxson Communications’ KPXF-TV in Fresno, Calif., for $35 million, according to Paxson. If it passes regulatory approval, the sale is expected to close late this year, reports Broadcasting & Cable.
And in Los Angeles, Jorge Mettey has been promoted to news director of KMEX-TV, Univision’s owned and operated flagship affiliate in Los Angeles. He replaces Jairo Marin, who recently took another position within Univision, Media Week reports.
Broadcast Diversity Advocates to Be Honored
The Minority Media and Telecommunications Council, which advocates for diversity before the Federal Communications Commission in the mass media and telecommunications industries, plans to honor diversity advocates in Washington, D.C., reception next Thursday, July 25.
Former FCC Commissioner Gloria Tristani, who is a U.S. Senate candidate from her home state of New Mexico, will be one of the honorees inducted into the organization’s Hall of Fame.
Other inductees include: Leo Hindery, CEO and Chairman of YES Network; Andrew Schwartzman, CEO and Chairman of Media Access Project President and Sandra Dorsey Rice, Vice President (Eastern Division) of the Emma Bowen Foundation for Minority Interests in Media. Ms. Rice will receive the group”s highest honor – the Everett C. Parker Award.
N.Y. Post Gossips About Barbara, Oprah and Iyanla
The long-simmering feud between Barbara Walters and Oprah Winfrey will heat up this fall when Dr. Phil McGraw debuts his talk show, which Oprah created just to “show Barbara how to do it right,” says the New York Post’s Page Six.
According to the gossip column:
Sources say Walters has always resented Winfrey’s ranking in Forbes and other magazines as “the most powerful woman in media.” And Winfrey was infuriated when, in early 2001, Walters stole one of her self-help gurus, Iyanla Vanzant, and gave Vanzant her own show – which was a carbon copy of Winfrey’s.
“Barbara thought she could recreate Oprah’s talk show with Iyanla,” our insider says. Once Vanzant teamed up with Walters, Winfrey dropped her “like a hot potato.”
Text of June 18 National Press Club Letter
Richard L. Prince
Chairman, Media Monitoring Committee
National Association of Black Journalists
Juan Gonzalez
President
National Association of Hispanic Journalists
Gentlemen:
The National Press Club has given careful consideration to the objections you have raised to the NPC Press Criticism Book Award conferred on William McGowan‘s Coloring the News.” I would even say that collectively we have agonized over the issues involved. But I must tell you that at the end of the day there was no vote by the Board of Governors to rescind this award.
And yet we continue to support the principles of diversity in American newsrooms. We have reaffirmed our ongoing commitment to diversity in a separate resolution (attached). This award in no way should be seen as an attack on what we share with you as a core value; that is, that increasing diversity in newsrooms and news management is a critical need.
That said, our board last month affirmed the decision of the awards judges that the McGowan book made an important contribution to a debate within journalism on fundamental issues. That was a key judging criterion.
The careful, intensive review prompted by your letters led several board members to divergent conclusions about “Coloring the News.” Some members found the level of scholarship and research severely lacking and the book seriously marred by factual errors. Others have defended the book, and point to its strong argument against “political correctness” as a governing principle in the newsroom. Still others find serious fault with the case the author makes, but believe the award has merit because Mr. McGowan has prompted a self-examination and reaffirmation by some news organizations historically committed to diversity. In short, there is no unanimity of opinion on the Board of Governors on this book. Nor was there a consensus to take further action, and the decision of the judges stands.
Looking ahead, we embrace the National Association of Hispanic Journalists’ call to sponsor at debate at the Club on newsroom diversity and “Coloring the News,” and we already have received Mr. McGowan’s agreement to participate. We envision your organizations nominating a single representative to appear with Mr. McGowan, in an event to be moderated by someone of the stature of, say, Clarence Page or Terence Smith.
We also look forward to working with you and alongside you to help build newsrooms and media organizations that better reflect the society of which they are such an important part.
Yours truly,
Jonathan D. Salant
Chairman
Board of Governors
Board Resolution
The National Press Club is committed to diversity within journalism and within the NPC. This has been, is and will remain a core value of the NPC. We will be a voice for diversity. We urge news media employers to make every effort to assure that their newsrooms and management reflect their diverse communities. We will continue and expand existing efforts to form partnerships with organizations representing journalists of color. We will work earnestly for greater diversity within the National Press Club.
We believe that journalism is at its best when newsrooms reflect the faces of their communities. We believe that a lack of diversity in newsrooms and news management tends to create journalism that is at best incomplete — ignoring the views, priorities and events of minority communities. At worst, a newsroom lacking diversity will produce stories that can give a skewed or distorted view of the world around it. Only by bringing journalists of color and other minorities fully into our editorial process can we change the content of our newspapers and broadcasts to reflect accurately our communities.
Adopted July 16, 2002
