Don’t Ask Who’s “Politically Correct” Now
You won’t be able to count on it, but the people who bleat about the “liberal media” and “political correctness” should remember CBS’ cancellation of the miniseries “The Reagans” the next time they do.
It seems there is more than one kind of “political correctness.”
“There is absolutely no doubt that CBS capitulated to a stunning outpouring of anger from the various kindred elements of what, collectively, can be called the conservative media attack engine,” writes Brian Lambert in the St. Paul Pioneer Press, of CBS’ decision to shift the miniseries to the Showtime pay-cable network for viewing next year.
“Michael Reagan, one of the president’s sons and now a conservative radio talk show host, appeared on the Fox News Channel program ‘Hannity & Colmes’ and said, ‘This is all about the agenda of dismantling my father, dismantling the conservative movement and tearing down Ronald Reagan as we go into an election year,'” reported Bill Carter in the New York Times.
“Matt Drudge, whose Drudge Report is one of the more popular Web sites, soon obtained a copy of the script and regularly parsed out excerpts, which set the conservative talk radio, cable and other Internet sites back into motion,” the Times continued.
“On Oct. 28, the Media Research Center, a conservative group led by L. Brent Bozell that monitors the news and entertainment industries for what it sees as liberal bias, wrote a letter to a list of 100 top television sponsors urging them to ‘refuse to associate your products with this movie.’
“At around the same time Michael Paranzino, a former Republican Congressional staff member from Bethesda, Md., decided to start a Web site called BoycottCBS.com. He said he spent a mere $8.95 to establish the site, which called for a viewer boycott of CBS and all the sponsors of the mini-series.”
When the critics go on about how the media bend to the demands of “special interest groups,” let them contemplate as well how much of what we know of history and of other peoples comes from the media — from such faux historical pieces as “Gone With the Wind,” Charlie Chan or cowboys-and-Indians and Alamo flicks. But then, they must have known that.
Hampton Paper Publishes Again; Task Force Meets
Without incident, the Hampton University student newspaper today delivered a fresh edition for the first time since its now-infamous Homecoming issue was confiscated and republished. That came a day after the administration-created student newspaper task force, which members hope will prevent any such future development, met for the first time.
The Hampton Script included commentaries by two of its editors. Editor in chief Talia Buford wrote that:
“As future alumni, we love our ‘Home by the Sea.’ We want to see it prosper and grow. But that growth cannot occur if, in 2003, we are still operating by the same rules followed by students in 1868. Change has to occur and it has to be welcomed if we want to see Hampton elevated to the status it holds in our hearts.”
Copy editor Erin Hill wrote: “Being a part of the Hampton Script staff is extracurricular — but it’s my passion. The passion in me wants to do good journalism and do it effectively. The passion in me wants to help train the writers to run the Script when I’m gone. But if the administration pulls another stunt like it did with the Homecoming issue or with this so-called task force, the passion in me will have to walk away from the Script.
“The Script is not the only newspaper in the Hampton Roads area. There are larger venues in which we can display our journalistic talents, such as the Virginian-Pilot and the Daily Press, and that’s exactly what I’m doing.”
Task Force chair Earl Caldwell said he had imposed a gag order on himself and that the task force planned to meet again on Thursday. Only one of the 10 members — psychology professor Adolph Brown — did not attend.
There was more outside commentary.
In an editorial, the Colorado State Collegian noted that “Under Colorado’s free-expression law, faculty or administration cannot censor student publications. The Collegian has advisers and a professional staff, but at the end of the day, the editor in chief has the final say over editorial content as well as ad content.”
And in testimony last week before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, Greg Lukianoff, director of legal and public advocacy for the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, said:
“Make no mistake about it, the war for free speech is often not ideological at all. Campus censorship is quite often a simple, naked exercise of power. For example, at Hampton University in Virginia, the entire press run of last week’s Hampton Script was confiscated by administrators who were angry about the paper’s refusal to run a letter from the university’s acting president on the front page. College and university administrators too often view criticisms of their policies as tantamount to sedition.”
Hampton’s University Relations office has been unable to supply Journal-isms with a list of the board of trustees, or even to identify its chair.
However, Cindy George, a reporter with the Raleigh (N.C.) News and Observer who is president of the Triangle Association of Black Journalists, found that the IRS Form 990 filed by the university lists the members as:
Frank W. Fountain, senior vice president for government affairs of the Daimler Chrysler Corp., Auburn Hills, Mich. (who is chairman); I. Emerson Bryan III, director of support services, Atlanta Regional Commission; Dr. Charles I. Bunting, vice president of education practice, A.T. Kearney Executive Search, Shelburne, Vt.; Judith G. Clabes, president and chief executive officer, Scripps Howard Foundation, Cincinnati; Comer J. Cottrell, president, FCC Investments, Plano, Texas; Dr. Elaine T. Eatman, faculty representative, Hampton University.
Also: Ambassador Edward Elson, former U.S. ambassador to Denmark, Palm Beach, Fla.; Gordon L. Gentry Jr., chairman of the board and chief executive officer, Harbor Bank, Newport News, Va.; Judge Vanessa D. Gilmore of U.S. District Court, Southern District of Texas, Houston; Dr. Mirian Graddick-Weir, executive vice president for human resources, AT&T Corp., Bedminster, N.J., Kim W. Green, senior vice president, Aon Risk Services, Inc., New York.
Also: Dr. William R. Harvey, president of Hampton U.,; Robert B. Hiden Jr., partner, Sullivan and Cromwell, New York; Dr. Wendell P. Holmes Jr., president, Wendell Holmes Funeral Home, Jacksonville, Fla.; Maria Johnson, student representative; Leslie D. Jones, national director, Ethnicity Diversity Initiative, Ernst & Young, LLP, Atlanta; Dr. Andrew M. Lewis, mathematics department chair, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Va.; Clarence E. Lockett, former vice president, corporate controller, Johnson and Johnson, New Brunswick, N.J.; Daniel H. Mudd, vice president and COO, Fannie Mae Corp., Washington, D.C.; Curtis E. Ransom, president and owner, Cerp Foods, Inc., Dallas; and Andrea M. Weiss, president of Delia’s Corp., New York.
When Caldwell was selected last May for the $1 million chair at Hampton, he said one reason he was excited about the prospect was the opportunity to continue the Robert C. Maynard Oral History Collection and have it housed at Hampton. The histories of 29 people are completed, and he hopes to have 60, he said.
Yesterday he told Journal-isms that veteran writer and editor Dorothy B. Gilliam, a former Maynard board chair, was scheduled to come to the campus Thursday to contribute an oral history, and that she would be followed on Nov. 17 by Joseph Boyce, formerly of the the Wall Street Journal, and on Nov. 18 by Jack E. White, formerly of Time magazine. He said seven oral history interviews were planned on campus this semester and 15 this year.
Rather to Interview Parents in Starvation Case
“Dan Rather has snared an exclusive ’60 Minutes II’ interview with one or both of the Camden, N.J., parents accused of starving four of their adopted children, sources say,” reports Michael Starr in the New York Post.
“CBS isn’t commenting, but it’s believed that Rather will interview either Raymond Jackson Sr. and/or his wife, Vanessa, who are accused of starving the boys — Bruce, Tyrone, Keith and Michael, ages 9 to 19 years old. ’60 Minutes II’ is off this week, so the interview could air next week. Raymond and Vanessa Jackson, who claim they are innocent, are currently out on bail.”
“Boondocks” Tweaks Washington Post
Last month, The Washington Post declined to run an entire week of Aaron McGruder’s comic strip “The Boondocks.” The story line had the characters in the strip deciding to fix up Condoleezza Rice with a man in hopes of leading the administration to a less warlike posture.
“The Boondocks strips in question commented on the private life of the national security adviser and its relationship to her official duties in ways that violated our standards for taste, fairness and invasion of privacy,'” said Executive Editor Leonard Downie Jr., wrote the Post’s ombudsman, Michael Getler, who disagreed.
McGruder’s strip for Tuesday had Huey and Jasmine composing a personals ad that, Huey says, makes “the national security adviser sound like Beyonce.”
“You think the Post will run this?” asks Jasmine, supposedly speaking of the ad.
The Post did run it — the strip, that is.
E&P Applauds Native Press Independence
An editorial in the trade magazine Editor & Publisher this week twins good news and bad news out of Indian Country to give a quick history of the fight for independence in the Native press.
“There’s been good news and bad news out of Indian country in recent days,” reads Mark Fitzgerald’s unsigned piece. “The good news — and history-making news, at that — is that the Navajo tribal council voted overwhelmingly Oct. 23 to free from tribal government control the weekly Navajo Times, already one of the most aggressive newspapers publishing on a Native American reservation.
“The bad news is that the very same week, the chairman of the Fort Hall (Idaho) Tribal Business Council of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes fired the respected editor of the Sho-Ban News — and even temporarily shut down the tribe-owned weekly while he whined about its coverage.”
The editorial goes on to note that the controversy “is a story as old as American Indian journalism itself. The editor of the very first Native American newspaper — the Cherokee Phoenix, founded 175 years ago in New Echota, Ga. — was assassinated by fellow Cherokee disgusted with his editorial support of the forced migration of the tribe that became known as the Trail of Tears.”
Sun Moves Gay Announcements Near Straight Ones
“The Nose hears there’s good news on Calvert Street for the Sun’s gay readership,” writes the Baltimore City Paper. “The paper has lifted its separate-and-unequal policy that kept same-sex union announcements relegated to its Classifieds pages. The announcements will now appear alongside the hetero-wedding notices in the paper’s Celebrations section.”
The writer unflatteringly quotes Mireille Grangenois, vice president of marketing for The Sun and a longtime member of the National Association of Black Journalists, to make the point that though “the Sun’s policies may change, its rhetoric is eternal.”
Roland Martin Starts News Web Site
“BlackAmericaToday.com, a news and information Web site targeting African Americans and setting out to provide comprehensive political coverage,” made its debut Tuesday.
The Web site was founded by Roland S. Martin, a syndicated columnist who formerly was news director of Savoy magazine and editor of the Black America Web site, created by radio host Tom Joyner.
“The lead story is The Sharpton (Non) Factor, which examines Rev. Al Sharpton’s presidential campaign through interviews with the top black political experts in the country,” says the announcement.
“Along with extensive original content that will be frequently updated, the site has nearly two dozen strategic content and marketing partners. Those partners include Vanguarde Media and its magazines, Honey, Heart & Soul and Savoy; American Urban Radio Network; America’s Black TV Forum; BlackPressUSA.com; BlackCommentator.com; BlackAthlete.com; Atlanta Tribune Magazine; Turning Point Magazine; Quarterly Book Review; TheNorthStarNetwork.com; and Our PC Magazine,” the announcement says.
Martin announced in May that his ROMAR Media Group acquired D/FW Heritage, a 28,000-circulation monthly publication targeting the Dallas-Fort Worth Christian community.
The Black World Today Site Back Online
The Black World Today, a news and opinion site with a strong black consciousness that launched in 1996 and suspended operations April 1, is back online under a new arrangement, the Web site announces.
“The new TBWT will operate as a non-profit user supported online publication modeled after community/listener sponsored radio stations like the affiliates of the Pacifica Broadcasting Network. As such we will sponsor periodic fund raising drives appealing to TBWT users to make tax deductible contributions to enable us to meet the budget and maintain operations,” says a note to readers signed by Don Rojas, founder and former president of The Black World Today, and Ron Daniels, convener of the Institute of the Black World World 21st Century.
“The Black World Today and The Institute of the Black World 21st Century, two entities with similar and complementary missions, are merging to present the ‘new’ TBWT online publication,” the note says.
“Herb Boyd, one of Black America?s most distinguished authors and journalists, has graciously agreed to continue to serve as managing editor of TBWT.”
The previous Web site was at www.tbwt.com; the new one is www.tbwt.org.
FCC to Hold Hearings Next Month in San Antonio
“Five months after it passed sweeping new media ownership rules, the Federal Communications Commission will hold a public hearing in San Antonio to gauge how local radio and TV broadcasters are doing,” reports L.A. Lorek in the San Antonio Express-News.
“The hearing is scheduled for December, but the FCC is still working out the time and place and a list of speakers, said spokeswoman Meribeth McCarrick. The FCC chose San Antonio as one of six hearing locations because it wanted to do them in different regions nationwide, she said.
“It’s not clear whether the fact that Clear Channel Communications ? the nation’s largest radio station owner ? is based here factored into the decision. Clear Channel executives could not be reached for comment.”
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