This Time, Paper Runs Word-for-Word Story from AP
The lead story on the Web site of the New York Beacon, a black paper formerly known as Big Red, begins:
”Chemical Ali” believed killed in raid
“by Beacon News
“New York Beacon
“Originally posted 4/7/2003
“U.S. forces barreled into the heart of Baghdad with a dramatic show of force Monday and met pockets of fierce resistance. British officials said troops found a body in southern Iraq that they believed was the notorious Iraqi general known as ‘Chemical Ali.’ ”
Here is an Associated Press story also dated April 7, as Adam Clayton Powell III of the University of Southern California noticed:
“By Meg Richards
“Associated Press writer
U.S. forces barreled into the heart of Baghdad with a dramatic show of force today and met pockets of fierce resistance. British officials said troops found a body in southern Iraq that they believed was the notorious Iraqi general known as “Chemical Ali.”
The Web site has taken down a story that we reported Monday had the identical wording as one in the New York Times.
CEO Rodgers Is Sole Employee of New Network
“This is brand-new for me, starting from ground zero,” Johnathan Rodgers, CEO of the new Radio One-Comcast cable television venture, tells TV Week. “I have to hire every employee, find a building, look for office space in New York and Los Angeles and Chicago, talk to agents and look at programming. As we speak, I am the sole employee of this venture.” The project, tentatively called TV One, is scheduled to launch next fall, targeting black adults between ages 25 and 54, TV Week noted.
St. Louis’ “Take Five” to Fold
Take Five, a monthly magazine in St. Louis that has been the city’s “black independent voice” since 1987, will take its final bow about May 1, Lorraine Kee reports in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
“Take Five lasted longer than a 10-count and made its mark, championing causes . . . that weren’t seeing ink in more mainstream publications.” Publisher and editor Sylvester Brown Jr. “took after black and white politicians with equal zeal.”
“Year after year, Brown and Take Five walked away with armfuls of awards in the Greater St. Louis Association of Black Journalists’ Excellence in Communications Awards. Perhaps Brown is proudest of the people whose careers he boosted, including Jabari Asim, former St. Louisan and Post-Dispatch reporter who is now a senior book critic and columnist at the Washington Post,” Kee writes.
15 Senators Urge More FCC Openness
“Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, was moving to challenge the Federal Communications Commission,” writes Media Week. “As she began working the phones, other congressional offices called, volunteering to sign her letter urging more openness in the FCC’s review of media ownership rules. The result: By the time Snowe and co-correspondent Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., dispatched a letter taking the FCC to task, they had gained signatures from 15 senators — including a majority of the Commerce Committee, which oversees the FCC. The rush to sign the March 19 letter reflects some disquiet among both parties at the prospect of bigger media companies.”
Branham Has Work Cut Out at Texas J-School
Lorraine Branham, new director of the School of Journalism at the University of Texas, “must improve standards, raise money and address a yawning divide between the UT faculty who do extensive research and teaching professionals who are more focused on practical skills. She must deal with a discrimination lawsuit filed against UT last August by Paula Poindexter, an African American journalism professor who said she was denied a promotion because of her race,” says the Austin American-Statesman, which features a q-and-a with her.
“The school also has faced scrutiny from the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications, whose evaluation team recommended placing it on provisional status in 1997. Ultimately, the school was granted full reaccreditation and is expected to win renewal again next month.
“Privately . . . some express concern that she may not be able to overcome UT’s longstanding emphasis on academic research. Journalism faculty, like their colleagues in other departments, must publish scholarly work.
Branham, former executive editor of the Tallahassee Democrat and veteran of the Philadelphia Inquirer and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, “said she recognizes that such demands can interfere with teaching practical reporting skills, an issue among faculty and students.
” ‘It’s a major problem,’ she said. ‘My goal for this department is to have a real professional track, where people get equal credit for professional and creative work.'”
Pulitzer Winner King Says It’s About Justice
“I see myself as reacting to a set of conditions,” says Colbert King of the Washington Post, winner of this year’s Pulitzer Prize for commentary. “I don’t like to see the strong taking advantage of the weak. People deserve justice in their lives,” he tells Editor & Publisher.
Michele Norris Says NPR Made It Easy
Michele Norris, who joined National Public Radio in December as a co-host of “All Things Considered,” said that in her transitions from print to television to radio, NPR gave her the best “institutional support.”
In an interview with journalismjobs.com, Norris said:
“NPR was looking for a new host of ‘All Things Considered’ and they asked me if I would consider throwing my hat in the ring. The timing wasn’t great. I was under contract and I had a great job that I loved. But it was a special opportunity and they were fairly persistent. It was also a time when I had two small children. It was one of those rare opportunities, in which you could take a gigantic step forward in your career without taking a concomitant step away from your family. I was actually able to stay closer to home because I’m tied to the studio, which meant I would be traveling less. The job isn’t easier. In fact, it’s the hardest job I’ve ever had. But I’m working in a more predictable environment, at least with more predictable hours.
“JournalismJobs.com: Was the transition from TV to radio easier than from newspapers to TV?
“Norris: They were both pretty tough. I would say that the transition to radio has been a little bit easier. Some of that is because I’m ten years wiser. But the biggest difference would be the way NPR has approached this transition. It’s not to say anything disparaging about ABC because they really had a well thought-out plan for that transition. But I don’t think I’ve ever received the kind of institutional support for anything I’ve done like I have at NPR. They have really thought this through and anticipated the training I would need to make a quick transition.”
Norris majored in electrical engineering and then studied journalism.
“I always tell the story that when I was in engineering, I would wind up rewriting the word problems, then maybe I would get to solving the problem,” she said. “Engineering was interesting, but it was a diversion. Although it did help me because it teaches you to think logically. So it wasn’t a waste of time.”
More Hispanic Internet Users in U.S. Than Anywhere
The United States has the largest number of Hispanic Internet users of anywhere in the world, including Spanish-speaking countries such as Spain, Mexico and Argentina, reports Media Life.
“Internet penetration in the U.S. is way higher than any of these countries. U.S. Hispanic surfers total about 11 percent more than Spain’s 11.1 million and more than Mexico, Argentina and Colombia combined.
“Hispanic internet surfers skew way younger than the online population as a whole, finds new data compiled by comScore Networks’ Media Metrix.
“Users ages 34 and under make up 60 percent of the Hispanic U.S. internet population, compared to just 50 percent of the U.S. internet population overall.”
Gossips Link Julie Chen, CBS Chairman
“The wife of CBS Chairman Les Moonves wants to cancel their 24-year marriage,” write Rush & Milloy, gossip columnists in the New York Daily News.
“Nancy Moonves filed for divorce in L.A. Superior Court late yesterday, citing irreconcilable differences, according to her lawyer Dennis Wasser.
“Network insiders have claimed for more than a year now that Moonves, 53, had a special rapport with Julie Chen, the 33-year-old anchor of CBS’ ‘Early Show.’ When some criticized Chen for tainting news with entertainment on the network’s reality show ‘Big Brother,’ Moonves leapt to her defense.
” ‘Julie Chen, I think, has had a very, very difficult job,” he told cynical TV critics in 2000.
“CBS spokesmen have brushed away suggestions that she owed her morning slot to Moonves or that there is anything but a professional relationship. Seemingly aware of such talk, Moonves declined to be photographed with Chen at a premiere last summer, though he did consent to join her in a group shot later in the evening. Nancy and Les Moonves have three teenage children.”
Network Sees Audience for 13 Weeks of O.J.
“O.J. Simpson is preparing for his debut as the star of his own ‘Osbournes’-esque reality show,” the Hollywood Reporter writes. “Fort Worth, Texas-based Urban America Television Network said it will distribute a 13-week series about the former football great — who was acquitted of the murders of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman in 1995 — to its 75 independent broadcast TV station affiliates starting in June. The series will chronicle Simpson’s daily life in Miami using footage collected over several months of filming in 2001 and 2002.”
Nielsen Delays Weighting Audiences by Language
Nielsen Media Research told clients it has put Spanish-language weighting of its national TV sample on hold until September 2004, one year later than planned, reports Media Week. The issue of weighting Latino audiences by language preference is one of whether the clout of the Latino market is being properly measured, as reported here last October.
A Moment of Prayer for Luther Vandross
Syndicated radio host Tom Joyner used his last two shows to urge that at noon today, listeners say a prayer for singer Luther Vandross, who is in critical condition after suffering a serious stroke. The idea came from Aretha Franklin, who appeared with the Rev. Jesse Jackson yesterday on Joyner’s show, which Joyner said airs on 120 stations. Jackson composed a prayer for Vandross on the air.
More information on Vandross is on Joyner’s Web site, along with information on hypertension, diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity.
It’s been a sad time for many African American entertainers, with the recent passings of Nina Simone, Motown choreographer Cholly Atkins, drummer Babatunde Olatunji and former Motown singer Edwin Starr.
Among Vandross’ contemporaries, Maurice White is suffering from MS, Barry White had a massive stroke and reportedly can’t speak, and Levi Stubbs of the Four Tops no longer performs with the group due to laser throat surgery. He too reportedly suffered a stroke, according to the syndicated Marilyn Beck column. Congrats to National Public Radio’s “Talk of the Nation” for devoting a good 20 minutes to Simone yesterday, and to USA Today for giving her the right-hand “ear” at the top of the page.
