Blacks Missing From “All-USA Academic Team”
“Is it just me,” wrote one member of the National Association of Black Journalists on NABJ’s e-mail list Thursday, or is USA Today saying with its 2004 All-USA college Academic Team “that America has no smart black kids. There were none on the first team. Am I missing something here? Check out the Life section.”
Another writer compared it with Editor & Publisher’s January cover story on parent-child journalists whose subjects were all white.
Turns out that the situations aren’t exactly comparable.
“It is true that there were no black students on the First Team in the four-year college program, which was announced today,” USA Today reporter Tracey Wong Briggs, who supervises the competition, told Journal-isms.
“But I don’t think you could say black students and teachers have been systematically excluded from the programs by any stretch. In fact, there are black members on all of our other current Academic Team and Teacher Team programs: the All-USA High School Academic First Team (Juliet Girard, who is now at Harvard and who was on our 1A cover when her team was announced), the All-USA Community and Junior College Academic Team (Jerry Huson, student body president of Miami-Dade Community College, who was on our 1D cover when that team was announced), and the All-USA Teacher Team (Judy Faye Peebles, a sensational teacher at Ida B. Wells Academy in Memphis),” said Briggs, a member of the Asian American Journalists Association who says she has two multiracial daughters.
Two African Americans were on the finalists’ judging panel of 12 people who are in the education field. And while there are no African Americans on the first team, there are other people of color.
“We do not necessarily know the race of nominees,” Briggs continued. “I did not know that Judy is black until the photos of her and her students came in. She was selected simply because she is a spectacular teacher.
“Today’s teams simply reflect how the scoring went this year. There are at least two black students and one Hispanic student on the Second Team, and if you read all the bios, you can see how accomplished all of the students on all the teams are, so I don’t think Second Team of Third Team is a small thing. I think it’s important for all of the students and educators of color who have been recognized by our programs in the past to know they weren’t selected only because of their race — they were selected because they have done some truly outstanding things. It is up to outstanding students and educators of color to make sure they complete the forms, since they cannot make the First Team if they are not in the nominee pool.
“Honestly, it is the nature of this sort of program that there will always be more outstanding candidates than we can possibly honor. But I do have faith that if we get more nominees of color in the future who are as strong as this year’s, some of them will make the First Team. Not because they are black, but because they are outstanding.
“Our 2004 teacher and high school forms are now available at http://allstars.usatoday.com
Left unclear, however, is whether the weight the judges give to certain criteria — community service vs. working on science projects, for example — might skew the results toward or away from a particular group.
House Panel Votes to Raise Indecency Fines
“The House telecommunications subcommittee voted unanimously today to approve legislation that would crack down on broadcast indecency by ratcheting up the fines for off-color programming,” Television Week reported yesterday.
“Under the legislation, the cap on a fine for a single instance of indecency would go up from $27,500 to $275,000, and the maximum levy for a continuing series of violations would rise from $300,000 to $3 million. But subcommittee members made clear they intend to beef up the measure in the next several weeks, before it reaches a vote on the House floor, and members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee unveiled several amendments that they intend to introduce to the legislation.”
James Hattori Signs as NBC Correspondent
James Hattori, freelancing for NBC after being let go in a shakeup at CNN a year ago, has been named a correspondent for NBC News, based in San Francisco.
“I have been freelancing for NBC since before the Iraq war,” Hattori told Journal-isms. “The whole time we were talking about possible staff employment. After I did a trip to Iraq last summer, NBC offered me a contract, which was finally signed last month. Since joining NBC they’ve kept me pretty busy covering the Laci Peterson case, the California fires, two trips to Iraq plus various earthquakes, crimes and other calamities. So, things worked out pretty well. I’m working with a news organization that I respect, with more viewers than all the cable nets added together — and I get to stay in San Francisco.”
Writing in the Asian American A. magazine in 1999, Hattori said: “Why aren’t there more of us on TV? The often cited reasons range from managers who fear that audiences won’t accept Asian males in lead roles to the reluctance of Asian males to enter this unstable business.
“I cling to the hope that news managers will eventually accept that audiences can embrace Asian males; that these same managers will defy their marketing consultants and take chances; that these mostly White males will look beyond their affinity for Asian women . . . and see that it isn’t what race or sex you are, it’s what you bring to the table. I cling to these hopes. But I’m sure as hell not holding my breath.”
Columnist: Natives Slighted in Campaign Coverage
“Journalists who cover politics can miss key angles, but there was a hole in the coverage of last week’s primaries and caucuses that was saddening,” reader advocate David House wrote Sunday in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
“Neither we nor the candidates examined political issues related to American Indians in the seven states’ elections. Four of those states — Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona and North Dakota — have large Indian populations.
“Our coverage shorted readers. They got an incomplete picture of notable trends and forces at work in today’s electorate. Readers didn’t get the breakthrough reporting that could have surprised them and defied stereotypes.
“I’ll disclose that I had personal interest in the information we missed. I’m descended from the Scots and Irish — and the Cherokees,” he continued.
“My heritage is dear to me. I’m a member of the Native American Journalists Association.”
3 Magazines Focus on Golfers of Color
“Since last March, three lifestyle magazines have been created that focus on black golfers, who number 1.3 million according to the National Golf Foundation,” writes Ron Thomas on Black America Web.
“In March 2003, Debert Cook published her first issue of the African American Golfer?s Digest. This spring, co-publishers James Oliver and Jahmal Pullen will debut Seven Under with a May/June issue. Rafael Martinez, the CEO of Vision Media and Communications, will launch a multicultural golf publication titled The Green Magazine this spring and hopes to debut a golf television program called “The Green TV” this fall. Martinez?s ventures will be geared toward black and Hispanic golfers, who number 965,000.”
“All three magazines are New York-based publications that offer a mix of articles about celebrity golfers, golf instruction, courses in exotic places, the sport?s history, business opportunities, professional and amateur events, and society news.
Oprah Magazine Circulation at 2.7 Million
“O: The Oprah Magazine saw a 38% increase in newsstand sales, to 1 million copies a month. Its total circulation went up to nearly 2.7 million,” reports Crain’s New York Business.
Dean Wakefield, Calif. Editor, Writer, Dies at 53
“Dean Wakefield of San Francisco, a 30-year journalist who worked for the San Francisco Chronicle and other dailies, died of a heart attack early Monday at his Potrero Hill home after a long battle with prostate cancer,” reports the San Francisco Chronicle. He was 53.
“Mr. Wakefield earned a reputation as an innovator in print journalism, developing ways to increase the racial and generational diversity of newspapers’ readership.
“He worked as a copy editor at the Long Beach Press-Telegram and later at The Chronicle.
“He then moved to the Los Angeles Times, where he became the Op-Ed page editor and helped develop ‘Voices,’ a weekly page of written opinions from the community.
“In mid-1990s, Mr. Wakefield returned to The Chronicle as the Opinion Page editor.
“For the next several years, Mr. Wakefield took on the issue of race primarily through his occasional book reviews. In 1998, he helped spearhead The Chronicle’s yearlong project ‘About Race.’
“Later, during a brief stint as the editorial page editor [the writer meant op-ed editor] at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Mr. Wakefield developed the ‘New Attitudes’ feature, which published opinion pieces from high school and college students.
“Mr. Wakefield mentored many young journalists, especially minorities, hoping to improve diversity in newsrooms. He also occasionally lectured at schools in low-income communities,” the story continued.
Wakefield appeared in this column last year after liberal-turned-conservative writer Jim Sleeper, writing about the Jayson Blair case, used Wakefield as an example of affirmative action gone amok.
In a book review Wakefield wrote while at the Chronicle, a white editor mistakenly pasted in copies of a previous review via computer. The editor ran a correction noting her error, but Sleeper said the mistake was still the black journalist’s fault.
Sleeper wrote, “If people like Jayson Blair and the Chronicle’s reviewer weren’t hired or kept on to assuage white managers’ moralistic enthusiasm and guilt, there would still be many fine black journalists in American newsrooms. But too many newspapers are driven by corporate policy to finesse the heavy lifting that should have been done for more black kids much earlier in life, at home and in school.”
Sleeper did not name Wakefield, but when contacted as he battled his illness, Wakefield denied having spoken with Sleeper and said, “for him compare two people just because they happen to be black is disgusting. What I did was not a mistake. As a matter of fact, I got a raise after that. . . . This is defamation.” In response, Sleeper then accused the editor of covering for Wakefield.
3 Among Grantees to Study Impact of HIV/AIDS
Sharon Egiebor, executive editor of the Dallas Examiner; Kai Wright, senior editor at City Limits in New York; and Ruby Yang, an independent documentary filmmaker based in New York, are among those awarded 12 Kaiser Media Mini-Fellowships from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation to research and report on HIV/AIDS.
[ Added Feb. 17: The program provides journalists “with travel and research support to complete a specific project of their choice for publication or broadcast. Typically, grants will be up to $10,000 for print and radio projects, and up to $20,000 for television projects,” a program announcement says.]
Egiebor is to study the impact of HIV/AIDS on African-Americans in Dallas County, with special focus on teenagers.
Wright’s project is HIV/AIDS inside New York state’s prison system, and Yang, along with independent documentary filmmaker Thomas Lennon, is studying HIV/AIDS in China.
Egiebor, a 1987 graduate of the Maynard Institute’s Editing Program for Minority Journalists said that last June, The Examiner published a 12-page supplement titled ?Battling AIDS in Our Community,? sponsored a town hall meeting with actor Danny Glover, and hosted a reception with actress Sheryl Lee Ralph for national and state black journalists. The Black AIDS Institute, a national HIV/AIDS awareness organization, is using the Dallas town hall meeting as a national model, she said.
BET to Undertake “Sweeping Research” on Blacks
Black Entertainment Television, in partnership with multicultural research specialists NSightsWorldwide, LLC, and global research giant TNS/NFO WorldGroup, is launching what it says “may well be the most sweeping consumer research initiative yet to focus on the African-American marketplace.
“The objectives of the study are to raise the level of understanding among advertisers about African-American consumers; and to motivate advertisers to take greater advantage of African-American media outlets as a platform for reaching this segment of the population.”
?As we stand in the year 2004, the advertising industry continues to display a lack of understanding of the African American consumer and its value to the overall marketplace,? Louis Carr, BET president of broadcast media sales, said in a news release. ?The resulting behavior is confusion and indifference about the relationship that outlets like BET have with this community.?
The initiative will involve a sampling of 2,500 African-American consumers between ages 12 and 49 spread regionally across the country, including a large percentage living in urban markets, the release said.
Astrid Garcia Moves from San Jose to Philly
“Astrid Garcia, a veteran newspaper executive with broad experience in business matters, has been appointed senior vice president of human resources, labor and operations for Philadelphia Newspapers Inc., publisher of the Daily News and the Inquirer,” the Daily News reports.
In 2002, Garcia was president of the National Association of Minority Media Executives and remains on the NAMME board.
In Philadelphia, where she starts Feb. 19, “Garcia, 53, will be responsible for handling matters affecting personnel, information technology, production and legal affairs,” the News said. She moves from the San Jose Mercury News, like the Philadelphia papers owned by Knight Ridder. At the Mercury, she is vice president/human resources, labor and production.
Chicago Tribune’s Series on Islam Called a Relief
“For the better part of the last two years, many members of the Chicago-area Muslim community have lived in dread of a series of stories they heard the Chicago Tribune was preparing on Islam and its place in the world,” writes Public Editor Don Wycliff in the Chicago Tribune.
“On Sunday, after a long gestation, the occasional series began, marked by a star-and-crescent logo and the label “Struggle for the soul of Islam.” And as is often the case, the dreaded unknown turned out to have been far worse than the black-and-white reality.
“Oussama Jammal, president of the Mosque Foundation of Bridgeview, a profile of which was the centerpiece of Sunday’s package, described his reaction as ‘obviously outrage,’ but said the story ‘could have been much worse.’
“For what it’s worth, my reactions were relief and embarrassment. Relief that the series finally was started and that the Bridgeview mosque story, which had been the cause of most of the Muslim community’s anguish, had turned out not just not bad, but quite good. Embarrassment that I had doubted my colleagues’ ability to strike the delicate balances necessary to bring that off.”
Vernon Jarrett to Undergo Surgery for Cancer
Legendary Chicago journalist Vernon Jarrett, an early president of the National Association of Black Journalists and president now of its official Chicago chapter, has been diagnosed with cancer of the esophagus and is scheduled to undergo surgery to remove part of the esophagus on Feb. 24, he said today.
In his more than 50 years in journalism, Jarrett recalled, he has interviewed such figures as W.E.B. DuBois, Paul Robeson and A. Phillip Randolph of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.
Asked what message to pass along, Jarrett, 82, replied with his traditional, “Keep the faith.”
Ex-Columnist Loses Bid for College President
William H. Turner, who left Winston-Salem, N.C., where he had been a regular freelance columnist for the Winston-Salem Journal, for Kentucky State University in Frankfort, where he took a job as interim college president, has lost a bid for the permanent job.
“In a surprise move to many, the Kentucky State University Board of Regents chose a University of Texas administrator last night as the new president over the considered favorite, interim President William Turner,” the Lexington Herald-Leader reported Thursday.
“Chairman Bill Wilson publicly thanked Turner for his yearlong service as interim president. Turner, a Kentucky native and Appalachian scholar served as dean of arts and sciences from 1984-1985. He left his consulting firm to soothe a campus fractured by the firing of President George Reid amid investigations over expenses.
“Turner was one of three other finalists for the permanent post.
“‘No one could have come in here in the manner in which he did and set this university on the right course,’ Wilson said.
“‘I still stand firm for students at Kentucky State and for Kentucky State University,’ Turner said last night. ‘My quick reaction is it’s OK,’ the story said.
Before he went to Kentucky State, Turner was a member of the William Monroe Trotter Group of African American columnists. Linda Brinson, editorial page editor of the Winston-Salem Journal, told Journal-isms that “I’d be glad to have him back,” though the money she was paying him is now going to local cartoons.
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