Will N.Y. Times Seek Veteran Journalists of Color?
During the Jayson Blair fiasco, a number of veteran journalists of color noted that if The New York Times were interested in diversifying its newsroom, it didn’t have to seek out and promote green reporters like Blair; any number of experienced journalists of color would be glad to work there.
This week, the Times’ committee on how the paper should proceed in the wake of the scandal agreed.
It found that:
“While the paper has developed a pipeline for minority journalists through internship and intermediate reporter programs, we fall short in attracting and retaining experienced minority reporters and editors. The newsroom as a whole remains significantly less diverse than the nation, particularly at the management level and on the copy desk, with women and Latinos the least well represented.”
One of its recommendations:
“Expand the recruitment of experienced journalists from a diverse pool as a necessary complement to the apprenticeship programs already in place.
“This is a necessary objective not only in its own right but also to counteract damage done by the Blair scandal in stereotypically identifying minority journalists with apprentice-level programs. Mid-career hiring should be a primary goal not only of the Career Development Editor but of all masthead editors and department heads. Expanding upon the work already done by our News Administration group, we should develop a talent bank of resumes to track mid-career and more senior minority journalists at other publications.”
The recommendation comes after the panel, known as the Siegal Committee, urged the appointment of a senior editor, directly below the level of executive and managing editors, for career development. Bill Keller, the new executive editor, said in remarks accompanying the report that naming of such an editor was a “recommendation we gladly accept.”
The report also notes that, “Beginning in 1998, the executive editor was given the authority to reduce a senior manager’s bonus payout by as much as 25 percent if an editor is deemed derelict in meeting budgetary goals, demonstrating a commitment to diversity in hiring decisions (emphasis added), fostering a spirit of open communication or delivering annual employee evaluations.”
Meanwhile, Keller appointed Jill Abramson, the Washington bureau chief, and John M. Geddes, the newspaper’s deputy managing editor, as managing editors.
“Ms. Abramson, 49, will be managing editor for news gathering, serving as Mr. Keller’s deputy on matters related to the daily news report as well as on longer-range news planning. Mr. Geddes, 51, will be managing editor for news operations, with responsibilities including production, budgeting and staffing,” the Times reported, succeeding Gerald M. Boyd, the paper’s first African American in the job, who resigned after the events set in motion by Blair.
An excerpt from the committee report, on “Hiring and Promoting for Diversity,” appears at the end of today’s posting.
Dallas Paper’s Intern in Flap Over Jailhouse Interview
“A defense attorney for Carlton Dotson, charged with murder in the death of Baylor University basketball player Patrick Dennehy, accused a Dallas Morning News reporter Thursday of misrepresenting herself to gain a jailhouse interview with the suspect,” the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports. “The newspaper denies the accusation.”
In the Morning News story, the former Baylor player suggested he acted in self-defense in the deadly confrontation with his former teammate and roommate.
“Dotson’s attorney, Grady Irvin, told CNN that the News’ reporter, intern Shani George, did not say she was a journalist and, instead, identified herself as a member of a ‘prayer group’ to gain access to the jailed Dotson.
“Stuart Wilk, managing editor and a vice president of the News, disputed that, saying George clearly stated why she had gone to the jail in Chestertown, Md., where Dotson is being held without bail,” the Star-Telegram story continued.
The Associated Press added:
George, an intern in Washington, D.C., for the Morning News? parent company, Belo Corp., told CNN that Dotson agreed to meet with her and she identified herself to him as a reporter.
?He had been corresponding with another reporter before, so he was familiar with my organization and he was just, I think he just wanted someone to talk to,? George said.
She acknowledged no notes were taken, but didn?t say why.
Immediately after talking to Dotson, George called an editor in Dallas and related the brief conversation, including the direct quotes that were still fresh in her mind, Wilk said.
Visitors to the jail are not allowed to carry recording devices or cameras, though they are allowed to carry pencil and paper, [warden Ron] Howell said.”
George is a student at George Washington University in Washington.
Shani George interviewed on CNN
Jannette Dates to Head J-Educators Group
Dr. Jannette L. Dates, dean of the Howard University School of Communications, is preparing to become president of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication as the organization of more than 3,300 journalism and mass communication faculty, students and administrators holds its annual convention until Saturday in Kansas City.
Dates, who had been president-elect, serves a one-year term that begins Oct. 1. She is perhaps best-known as co-editor, with William Barlow, of the 1990 reference work “Split Image: African Americans in the Mass Media.”
Among the 1,986 registrants is Pam McAllister Johnson, a former publisher of the Ithaca (N.Y.) Journal, who two weeks ago was named director of the School of Journalism and Broadcasting at Western Kentucky University and its Center for 21st Century Media. When the Gannett Co. named her publisher of the 20,000-circulation paper in 1981, a position she held for 13 years, she became the first black woman publisher of a general-circulation daily.
Topics on the convention program include: “Race and Sex in Visual Communication Education,” “Plagiarism: The Deadly Sin of Journalism,” “In the Line of Fire: Lucile Bluford’s Fight to Desegregate the Missouri J-School and Its Long-Term Impact,” “Going Beyond Old, White, Middle-Class, Male Sources: Teaching Students How to Use Diverse Sources in News Stories,” and a last-minute addition on the Jayson Blair fiasco.
And though diversity-related topics were not predominant, papers presented included “Exhortation to Action: The Writings of Amy Jacques Garvey, Journalist and Black Nationalist,” by Jinx Coleman Broussard of Dillard and Louisiana State universities, and “The Fighting Whites Phenomenon: Toward an Understanding of the Media’s Coverage,” by Lynn Klyde-Silverstein of the University of Northern Colorado, about that university’s intramural basketball team, which in March 2002 used a caricature of a Caucasian man to shed light on what many considered a racist mascot in a nearby high school.
Kansas City Star coverage:
Panel defends media coverage of Catholic Church sex scandal
Anecdotes punctuate humorist Trillin’s speech in KC
Educators’ convention facilitates talks on media issues, ethics
One Black Male Anchor Left in Birmingham
Six years ago, each of the four news stations in Birmingham, Ala., had a black male anchor. Today, WVTM-13 anchorman Mike Moore is the last man standing from that group, as a weeknight anchor, reports the Birmingham Post-Herald.
Herald reporter Robin Clemow interviewed former African American anchors in the market in light of a new survey from the Radio-Television News Directors Association showing that the number of blacks in TV newsrooms has decreased nationally as well. In 2002, 9.3 percent of the TV broadcast work force was black, compared to 9.9 percent in 2001 and 10.4 percent in 1994.
“(Having black male anchors) is important because of the viewers that are watching,” said Jefferson County Commissioner Shelia Smoot, a former WBRC-6 anchorwoman and former president of the Birmingham Association of Black Journalists, in the story. “Black viewership has sustained many of these stations throughout the years.”
David Goodwin Named Editor in Middletown, Ohio
David Goodwin, 39-year-old city editor at the Star-Ledger in Newark, N.J., has been named editor of The Middletown Journal in Ohio, effective Aug. 18.
The announcement of Goodwin’s appointment was published in the Journal Sunday.
“At The Star-Ledger this year, Goodwin helped lead the coverage into the death of 7-year-old Faheem Williams, whose mummified remains were found hidden in a plastic bin stuffed into a basement closet. The boy?s body was found one day after his two brothers were found nearly starved to death in the locked basement,” the story said.
“The case generated international outcry, and the Star-Ledger?s coverage led to the governor overhauling and renaming the agency responsible for protecting children.
Goodwin, whose given name is Martin David Goodwin, spent 10 years as a reporter, bureau chief and editor at The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Ky., where “he managed the newspaper?s Indiana operation, was the Home and Garden editor and Sports editor for its Neighborhoods? section. At the Courier-Journal, he also founded the news department?s first staff development committee, serving two years as its elected chairman.
“Goodwin grew up in newspapers, getting his start at The Oklahoma Eagle, an 83-year-old weekly owned by his family in Tulsa, Okla. It is one of the country?s 10 oldest black-oriented newspapers. He is a fourth-generation journalist and is the seventh member of his family to be named editor of a newspaper,” the paper reported.
The Journal is a Cox newspaper, part of a company that also publishes the Dayton Daily News. Its daily circulation is about 22,000. Sunday circulation totals more than 23,000, according to the paper’s Web site.
Kobe Bryant Opposes Cameras in Courtroom
“Kobe Bryant’s defense attorneys, Pamela Mackey and Hal Haddon, have asked [Eagle] County [Colo.] Judge Frederick Gannett to reconsider an earlier order allowing cameras in the courtroom during Bryant’s Aug. 6 initial appearance,” the Associated Press reports.
“Attorneys for media organizations — including the Los Angeles Times, The Denver Post, and NBC — have argued that many details have been publicized already, some by Bryant and the district attorney. They also contend the public should have the opportunity to determine the veracity of statements made by those involved in the case.”
Meanwhile, “Bryant was ordered to appear in court next week after a judge denied defense attorneys’ arguments that skipping the appearance would reduce the need for security in the high-profile sex assault case,” the Associated Press reports.
Times Panel on “Hiring and Promoting for Diversity”
Despite top leadership’s often-stated commitment to diversifying the newsroom population, the representation of women and minorities, particularly among editors and in the upper ranks of management, falls short of percentages in the general population. The lag results in part from the attrition of minority staff members after three to five years, a problem recruiters call “a hole in the diversity bucket.”
Attempts at diversifying the staff have generated discomfort among employees of both genders and all ages and ethnic backgrounds. Current policies are variously viewed as tinged with favoritism, preferentialism, and discrimination. There must be greater assurance that all are being treated fairly and equally.
After the Blair scandal, two perceptions — in the newsroom and among the public — need to be addressed: first, that Jayson was advanced because of his race; and, second, that his departure and that of Gerald Boyd, the paper’s highest-ranking minority editor, will impede the advancement of young and minority journalists.
While our recommendations in their entirety are intended to help restore fairness throughout the operation, the following suggestions are specifically directed toward newsroom demographics:
— Expand the search for mid-level minority reporters and editors, with special attention to Latinos and to minority managers and copy editors. Some new strategies include:
- At minority journalism conventions, recruit among panelists and other papers’ managers, as well as at the job fair.
- Scrutinize winners of major journalism awards and fellowships.
- Involve minority staffers in the search more formally.
- Send experienced staffers to professional development programs at places like Poynter and the Maynard Institute, and urge them to scout their fellow students.
— Make the paper and New York City appealing by having candidates meet with minority journalists at The Times during interview days.
— Enforce company policy requiring managers to consider a diverse pool of candidates for every job, including medium-term assignments. On the business side, this process has helped create a staff that on the whole is more diverse than the newsroom. A job should not be filled until a department head has assured the Career Development Editor that a good-faith effort has been made to assemble a diverse pool.
— For the benefit of our journalistic insights, a special effort should be made to move more minority staffers into story-assigning and other editing positions. Consider a process, like the one in place on the business side, to include women and minorities among those actively groomed as successors for ranking editing and management positions.
— Take extra caution not to confine women and minority staffers to limited categories of jobs. No position, not even a short-term assignment like war coverage, should be off limits to anyone for demographic reasons.
— As a regular part of the annual performance review, hold department heads accountable for efforts to diversify their staffs, with the assessment affecting the salary.
