“A Lot of Anger” in Newsroom; Fired Writer Contrite
The top editors of Georgia’s Macon Telegraph held newsroom meetings today, a day after the paper announced the firing of reporter Khalil Abdullah for plagiarism. There was “a lot of anger in the room,” reporter Travis Fain told Journal-isms.
“Anger at the fact that this has occurred. It’s damaged us all individually. Only time will tell what our response will be to restore the paper’s credibility,” said Fain, a county government reporter who was named to a committee to address the issue and help determine “how we go forward.”
“It’s so new now, people are very much shocked,” he added.
Abdullah, meanwhile, was contrite, telling Journal-isms that “my emotions have run the gamut, regretful and embarrassed and really ashamed.” He said he was going to “take time and reflect deeply on my actions and ponder my future,” and wanted to apologize to his colleagues, “particularly” to Executive Editor Sherrie Marshall, “who gave me an opportunity to pursue a career in journalism,” and to those whose work he plagiarized.
“I let her down — that was the toughest thing,” he said of Marshall. “I don’t want anyone to think this is a reflection on black journalists,” he added. He also said, “I’m not going to get rich off any book deal or be on CNN,” after being asked about the case of former New York Times reporter Jayson Blair. Abdullah said he still could not explain his actions: “I’ve asked myself that question now a thousand times and still don’t know.”
“People are very angry,” agreed copy editor Rashida Rawls, who succeeded Abudllah as president of the Middle Georgia Association of Black Journalists, which was founded only last year, and is only the second professional chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists in the state. “It was an immediate shock to everyone.” She said that at the hour-and-a-half dayside meeting of 20 people, some felt “we should have played it harder,” speaking of the story in the Sunday paper.
Some wanted to know why Abdullah wasn’t watched more closely, or why he got a second chance at the Macon paper after having left the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, also owned by Knight Ridder, after being accused of copying material from another publication.
Marshall said she replied that “I gave him a second chance because I believe that under certain circumstances, people deserve a second chance. I talked about it with people within this organization and at his previous paper, and we all thought that he had potential.”
The Macon paper reported on its front page Sunday that, “A Telegraph reporter was fired Friday after editors were notified of similarities between a story he wrote in October 2003 and one that previously appeared in the San Diego Union-Tribune.
“Khalil Abdullah’s story, about declining enrollment in high school automotive technology classes, contained several passages that were nearly identical to paragraphs from the Union-Tribune story, which was published July 14, 2003. . .
“By Saturday evening, they had found 20 stories written by Abdullah that contained passages and quotes that appeared to be copied from stories in the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times, Washington Post, Baltimore (Md.) Sun, New York Times and other newspapers,” referring to the paper’s editors.
Managing Editor Mike McQueen arrived at the paper only on Feb. 2. “I actually think that we as a paper are going to be OK. It’s good for us to go through this process of self-examination,” he told Journal-isms. “I hate that it happened, particularly to the local president of an NABJ chapter. He really let everybody down after being given a second chance.”
Rawls, who said it was her idea to start the NABJ chapter after arriving in Macon last year from Atlanta, said she expected that Abdullah would find sympathy in the community. He got around, covering education; “anyone who knows Khalil knows he’s a really nice guy who really cared. He’s a family man; people saw him out in the community.”
Abdullah, 31, has four boys ages 3 through 9. He said he would leave newspapering, but “I also have a responsibility to my family,” whom he said he had embarrassed. “I just have to humble myself and do what I have to do that’s honorable and dignified,” he said. “I would like to hope that people at least keep me in their prayers.”
Cincinnati TV Reporter Indicted Over Sex Crimes
A Hamilton County, Ohio, grand jury handed down a 12-count indictment Monday against Cincinnati reporter Stephen Hill for alleged sex crimes involving teenage boys, his station, WCPO, reports today.
“A grand jury began hearing evidence in the case on Friday.
“The indictment includes eight felony counts of sexual battery and four felony counts of of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor. Each charge is a felony of the third degree, punishable by up to five years in prison.
“If found guilty on all counts, Hill could be sentenced to up to 60 years in prison.
“Hamilton County Prosecutor Mike Allen said that several years ago, Hill became a mentor for the victims, three brothers and their cousin, ages 13 through 15.
“The offenses are alleged to have occurred in 2003 and 2004.
“‘Beginning in early 2003, the defendant is alleged to have told the boys that he knew a woman named ‘Dawn’ who wanted to meet and have sex with them,’ Allen said.
“He told them that ‘Dawn’ insisted on remaining anonymous so that the boys would have to be blindfolded during the encounters and could not touch ‘Dawn’ but would have to simply submit to whatever ‘Dawn’ did to them,” Allen added.
“Allen said the two boys became suspicious that ‘Dawn’ was actually Hill and pulled off their blindfolds to catch him in the act.”
The Cincinnati Post reported over the weekend that “part of the criminal case against Hill, 45, is information that police gathered after WCPO managers turned over Hill’s work computer and hard drive to authorities.”
Meanwhile, Hill’s twin brother, Michael, has established a nonprofit “Steve’s Defense Fund” at Provident Bank in Cincinnati.
“There are a lot of people who have called and said,’what can we do to help?'” Michael Hill told Journal-isms today.
Contributions are tax deductible and will be used exclusively to defray his brother’s legal expenses, he said. Donations should be made out to “Steve’s Defense Fund” and mailed to: Provident Bank, Attn.: Melody Logan, 632 Vine Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202.
Tucker, Pitts Rumored to Be Pulitzer Finalists
Syndicated columnist Cynthia Tucker, editorial page editor of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and Leonard Pitts, syndicated columnist for the Miami Herald, are said to be on the list of Pulitzer finalists in the commentary category, along with Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times, Editor & Publisher reports today.
Winners and finalists are to be announced on April 5 at 3 p.m. Eastern time.
Other black journalists who have won in that category include Clarence Page of the Chicago Tribune in 1989; William Raspberry of the Washington Post in 1994, E.R. Shipp of the New York Daily News in 1996 and Colbert I. King of the Washington Post last year.
Jayson Blair Book Debuts to Mixed Reviews
Disgraced reporter Jayson Blair’s memoir, “Burning Down My Masters’ House,” debuted to mixed reviews over the weekend, with two African Americans who reviewed it for the mainstream press splitting on the book’s value.
In the New York Daily News, columnist E.R. Shipp, a former Times reporter, gave it a pan:
“He shows no sympathy for Howell Raines, the executive editor forced to leave The Times, nor for people at the paper who stuck by him at the end, like Lena Williams, his union rep. He shows no respect for the people of color, including Williams, who put their careers on the line by suing The Times for racial discrimination more than two decades ago, nor for the pioneers who preceded them, including Ida B. Wells-Barnett who had to deal with lynch mobs in the early 20th century,” Shipp wrote.
“He’d have you believe that the hell that black journalists went through since New Yorkers founded the first black-oriented newspaper in 1827 was the same as what he experienced during his Johnny Walker Black days of living large while not doing very well in the cutthroat world of corporate America, of which the newsroom of The Times is a prime example,” she added.
But in the Washington Post Book World, author Hugh Pearson, formerly of the Wall Street Journal editorial page and the Village Voice, wrote: “We shouldn’t dismiss his allegations just because the people currently running the New York Times tell us to (as they recently did in a news article on their own pages).
“Blair’s account of what happened to him at the New York Times, and the inside dope he provides to readers about what allegedly goes on there, are anything but a boring read. Nevertheless, the book still feels like fast food: a bit of just-in-time scandal-mongering from a young journalist affected by the sense of entitlement that too many young Americans feel today. They’re convinced that they should ‘have it all’ instantly (in Blair’s case, front page stories every day and a possible bestseller about Lee Malvo). After all, if Kobe can; and Mariah; and Eminem. . . . Why not a reporter at the New York Times?”
Meanwhile, Blair is on his publicity blitz.
The Post’s media writer Howard Kurtz interviewed Blair and wrote that, “He says that he had little contact with Executive Editor Howell Raines and that Managing Editor Gerald Boyd, then the paper’s highest-ranking African American, did little to nurture his career. ‘He didn’t want to be perceived as trying to protect minority reporters,’ Blair says.
“Blair says he feels responsible for the resignations of Times reporter Rick Bragg, who was found to have improperly used a stringer on one story, his friend Lynette Holloway, a reporter who wrote a story that required a 2,100-word correction, and [his girlfriend, Times clerk Zuza] Glowacka, who felt compelled to leave because of her relationship with him.
Blair was also interviewed by Gary Younge, American correspondent for England’s The Guardian, who is black.
Younge wrote, “One of the lessons he thinks should not be drawn from the scandal is that affirmative action does not work. ‘I have yet to see one example where racial preferences or affirmative action played any role in my rise or my fall,’ he says. ‘I think more than race, at the Times class plays a role. A lot of the power is consolidated with heiresses and Ivy League grads who were in secret societies together and socialise in the same circle. It’s very hard to break into those groups.'”
Blair took the same tack on NBC-TV’s “Dateline” Friday night, when Katie Couric said, “it seems as if from accounts from other people, that because you’re an African-American, you perhaps were pushed along and given more opportunities.?
Blair replied, “Right. Well then they made a mistake. Because if we really want to live in a meritocracy, we want to live in a world where people are judged based on their work, just judge them based on their work.”
In other reviews:
- Julie Finnin Day in the Christian Science Monitor: “Noticeably absent from his story is remorse toward the grieving families he wrote about but never interviewed. For a someone seeking a redemption, an apology would be a good place to start.”
- Tim Rutten, Los Angeles Times: “This is a vile book, as distasteful a thing as you’re likely to handle without gloves.
“Despite the dust jacket pretenses to candor, it’s clear that, however else he may have changed, Blair retains the con man’s talent for misdirection.”
- Teresa K. Weaver, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “What follows Blair’s initial mea culpa is 290 pages of self-delusional whining and ranting, sometimes simultaneously, in which Blair blames virtually everyone in the Times organization and in society at large for his downfall. It is difficult not only to fathom but to read.”
- Publishers Weekly: “As for the charges, in spite of Blair’s reputation for lying, the Times must respond to them; if true, then by acting upon them the newspaper will only increase the transparency committed to by its hiring of an ombudsman, a direct result of the Blair affair.
“It may be that what we read in this fierce, self-indulgent, self-aggrandizing volume is truth, albeit one man’s version; it may also be that once again the author is hiding out, as it were, weaving fairy tales that we buy at our own risk.”
The New York Times plans to pan the book in its review next Sunday, Editor & Publisher reports today.
“Teflon” Mike Barnicle Joins Boston Herald
Mike Barnicle, whose quick rebound after his ouster from the Boston Globe on plagiarism charges is often cited as an example of how the “old boys network” operates, is now going to write a twice-weekly column for the Boston Herald, the Globe reported today.
“After a 25-year career as a Globe columnist, Barnicle was asked to resign in 1998 amid questions about sourcing issues related to his columns,” write Mark Jurkowitz and Donovan Slack. “He went on to write columns for the New York Daily News and has hosted a talk-radio show in Boston for the past few years. As part of the Herald agreement, Barnicle, 60, is expected to continue his work as a talk host on WTKK-FM (96.9) and as a contributor to both MSNBC and ‘Chronicle’ on WCVB-TV (Channel 5). At least for now, he will also continue to write his Daily News column once a week.
“Pat Purcell [publisher of the Herald] has been a friend of mine for more than 20 years,” Barnicle said last night. “He’s made offers to me occasionally. I just felt this was the time to take him up on it.”
Newspaper Guild statement opposing Barnicle hiring
Denver Rocky Opens “Hispanic” Program to All
“You may recall our December announcement that we were going to establish a training program for Hispanic journalists here,” wrote John Temple, editor, publisher and president of the Denver Rocky Mountain News, on Saturday.
“The goal was to improve coverage of the nation’s fastest-growing community and to help increase the number of Hispanic journalists in our newsroom and the newsrooms of other newspapers owned by our parent company.
“We called it the Scripps Academy for Hispanic Journalists, or SAHJ, which echoed the name of the nation’s most influential Hispanic journalism organization, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, or NAHJ. . . .
“But once the program became public, we learned that good intentions aren’t everything. My own editorial board raised questions, and then an out-of-state public policy group pointed out that in their view the program should be open to all groups, not just Hispanics. (After all, even NAHJ is open to all races.)
“Upon reflection I realized that the way we had cast the program didn’t comport with the philosophical principles of the newspaper that I run.
“That’s not a comfortable feeling.
“So, with the help of the Virginia-based Center for Equal Opportunity and our local Hispanic community advisory committee, we’ve restructured the program.
“It’s now called the ‘Scripps Academy for Hispanic Journalism, a training program at the Rocky Mountain News.’ Admission will be made without regard to an applicant’s race, color, national origin, religion, etc.”
Boston’s Vicki Jones Went From Frying Pan to Fire
In October 2001, Boston media activists of color were in an uproar when WHDH-TV, the NBC affiliate, announced it was planning to cancel several shows that focus on news in the city’s communities of color: “Urban Update,” “Asian Focus,” “Revista,” “Higher Ground” and “Jewish Perspective.”
“There’s a joke that goes around Asian journalism circles that says that NBC stands for Nothing But Caucasians,” Mike Quan, a board member of the Asian American Journalists Association, said at the time.
WHDH-TV agreed to save “Urban Update,” instead canceling “Boston Common,” another Sunday news-public affairs show.
But “all former public affairs programs that served the Asian, Latino and Jewish communities — including ‘Common’ — will now be folded into “Update,” the Boston Herald reported then, adding that “the revamped show, however, is not getting a full-time photographer, producer or editor. According to sources, the annual salary for the part-time producer of ‘Update’ will be $15,000. Victoria Jones, the current executive producer of ‘Update’ and ‘Common,’is unsure whether she’ll stay on.”
Jones, a former board member of the National Association of Black Journalists, decided to move on. “The state of [black] folks today is really sad,” she told Journal-isms today, discussing Boston’s news media.
And she has jumped from the frying pan into the fire.
“Vicki Jones is doing the best she can with what most believe is a nearly impossible job,” the Herald’s Howard Manly wrote in his column last week. “The former television executive producer inherited a national embarrassment when she accepted a job to run the beleaguered Strand Theater.
“Neglected for at least a decade, the Strand was a wreck. The seats had not been cleaned for years. The alarm system was jittery and the computers were outdated. The accounting system was done by hand and the telephones were a joke.
“The forces were not with her. A general manager up and quit with little notice. Another executive failed to perform, then turned around and threatened a lawsuit and a complaint with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination. The problems weren’t just internal. The Bay State Banner unleashed a series of critical stories on Jones’ management style and included interviews with former employees.”
Jones said today she didn’t want to talk about these troubles.
Manly ended his column defending her:
“Jones is not perfect. But at least people are talking about the Strand again, and that’s more than can be said about the Strand’s past leadership,” he wrote.
Howard Stern Says He Expects to Be Forced Off Air
“Howard Stern, sounding grim and depressed, said Friday that he expected to be forced off the radio within three months, the victim of a political and financial campaign driven by religious conservatives. He urged listeners to vote against President George W. Bush in revenge.
“‘The plug is about to be pulled on me,” he told his audience, which he estimated at about 16 million listeners. ‘I’m saying my goodbyes now. There’s nothing you can do about it . . . Vote George Bush out of office. That’s all I ask. Remember me when you go to the voting booth.'”
Al Sharpton Looking at Multimedia Career
The Rev. Al Sharpton, “who retained the William Morris talent agency two weeks ago, said he wanted to be the host of his own cable news and radio programs, and his talent representatives said they were pursuing talks with all conceivable outlets,” Jim Rutenberg reports in the New York Times today.
“But, perhaps unsurprisingly for a man who is running for president, Mr. Sharpton’s media ambitions do not stop there. He has already had an informal discussion with Fox Television Studios about a possible reality television show, officials there said on Friday. And he recently met with Sid Ganis, the Hollywood producer who included Mr. Sharpton in the 2002 remake of ‘Mr. Deeds,’ to discuss future roles.”
